The Laxsgiik (variously spelled) is the name for the Eagle "clan" (phratry) in the

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

of the

Tsimshian The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace, British Columbia, Terr ...

nation of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada, and southeast

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. It is considered analogous or identical to identically named groups among the neighboring

Gitksan Gitxsan (also spelled Gitksan) are an Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous people in Canada whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English (: means "people of" and : means "the River of Mist"). Gitksan ...

and

Nisga'a The Nisga’a , often formerly spelled Nishga and spelled in the Nisga'a language as (pronounced ), are an Indigenous people of Canada in British Columbia. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The name is a r ...

nations and also to lineages in the

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a 1 ...

nation. The name ''Laxsgiik'' derives from ''xsgiik,'' the word for eagle in the Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a languages. The chief crest of the Laxsgiik is the Eagle. Beaver and Halibut are also common Laxsgiik crests. Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a matrilineal houses belonging to the Laxsgiik tend to belong to one of two groups, the Gwinhuut and the Gitxon.

Gwinhuut

The ''Gwinhuut'' (meaning literally "refugees") are according to tradition descended from migrations from the Eagle-clan peoples of the

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

nation in what is now Alaska. Gwinhuut houses are more numerous than Gitxon ones, and they are related to various Tlingit Eagle groups. All Gitksan Laxsgiik are Gwinhuut, as are most Tsimshian and Nisga'a Laxsgiik houses. Gwinhuut houses include: * House of

Ligeex Ligeex (variously spelled: "Legaic" etc.) is an hereditary name-title belonging to the Gispaxlo'ots tribe of the Tsimshian First Nation from the village of Lax Kw'alaams (a.k.a. Port Simpson), British Columbia, Canada. The name, and the chieftainsh ...

Gispaxlo'ots The Gispaxlo'ots are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada, and one of the nine of those tribes making up the "Nine Tribes" of the lower Skeena River resident at Lax Kw'alaams (a.k.a. Port Simpson), B.C. The name ...

tribe,

Lax Kw'alaams Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

(Port Simpson) * House of Lutguts'amti, Gitkxaała tribe,

Kitkatla The Kitkatla or Gitxaala are one of the 14 bands of the Tsimshian nation of the Canadian province of British Columbia, and inhabit a village, also called Kitkatla (sometimes called Laxklan), on Dolphin Island, a small island just by Porcher Isla ...

Gitxon

The ''Gitxon'' (also spelled Gitxhoon) group mostly claim descent from ancient migrations from the

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecat ...

, homeland of the

nation. ''Gitxon'' is popularly etymologized as ''git'' (people of) + ''x'' (to eat) + ''hoon'' (salmon), yielding the meaning "salmon eaters." The anthropologist

Marius Barbeau Charles Marius Barbeau, (March 5, 1883 – February 27, 1969), also known as C. Marius Barbeau, or more commonly simply Marius Barbeau, was a Canadian ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology. A ...

, whose writings are the best introduction to Laxsgiik histories, calls this group's ancestral histories "the Salmon-Eater tradition." Members of the Gitxon group can be found among the

, among the Tsimshian tribes of

Kitselas {{about, the people, the location, Kitselas, British Columbia, their band government, Kitselas First Nation Kitselas, Kitsalas or Gits'ilaasü are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, in northwestern Canada. The origi ...

and

Gitga'ata The Gitga'ata (sometimes also spelled Gitga'at or Gitk'a'ata) are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada, and inhabit the village of Hartley Bay, British Columbia, the name of which in the Tsimshian language is Txa� ...

, among the

Haisla Haisla may refer to: * Haisla people, an indigenous people living in Kitamaat, British Columbia, Canada. * Haisla language, their northern Wakashan language. * Haisla Nation The Haisla Nation is the Indian Act-mandated band government which nominall ...

nation at

Kitamaat Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban distric ...

, and at

Skidegate Skidegate ( hai, Hlg̱aagilda) is a Haida community in in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the southeast coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately west of mainland British Columbia across He ...

on the Queen Charlottes. Gitxon houses frequently are headed by chiefs named Gitxon. At

Hartley Bay Hartley Bay is a First Nations community on the coast of British Columbia. The village is located at the mouth of Douglas Channel, about north of Vancouver and south of Prince Rupert. It is an isolated village accessible only by air and wate ...

, where the

live, the group is known as the House of Sinaxeet. Barbeau's now discredited theories about the peopling of the Americas—he claimed a far more recent Siberian ancestry for the Tlingit, Haida, and

Tsimshianic The Tsimshianic languages are a family of languages spoken in northwestern British Columbia and in Southeast Alaska on Annette Island and Ketchikan. All Tsimshianic languages are endangered, some with only around 400 speakers. Only around 2,170 ...

-speakers (Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a) than is now known to be possible for any Amerindian group—included an assertion that the Gitxon people migrated from

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, via the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

and

Kodiak Island Kodiak Island (Alutiiq: ''Qikertaq''), is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second larges ...

in Alaska, "only a few centuries ago" (as he phrased it in the Preface to his ''Totem Poles''). (Barbeau also, controversially and by today's standards erroneously, attributed their adoption of the Eagle crest to the influence of Russian traders' heraldic emblems during the fur trade.) In 1927 in Kincolith, B.C., Barbeau recorded from the Nisga'a "Chief Mountain" (Sga'niism Sim'oogit, a.k.a. Saga'wan), a story (''adaawak'' in Nisga'a) of the origin of the Gitxon people which records their arrival on

, homeland of the

, where the Gitxon Eagles came to form one moiety of a village while the people of Qoona formed another. This story tells of Gitxon's niece Dzilakons (variously spelled) and her engagement with a prince of the opposite moiety which led to a war between the two sides, spurring the Gitxon people's migration to the Nisga'a homeland on the

Nass River The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance. Nass Bay joins Portland In ...

, to the Tsimshian villages of

and

Kitsumkalum Kitsumkalum is an original tribe/ galts'ap (community) of the Tsimshian Nation. Kitsumkalum is one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada. Kitsumkalum and is also the name of one of their Indian Reserve just west of th ...

, and to the

Cape Fox The Cape fox (''Vulpes chama''), also called the asse, cama fox or the silver-backed fox, is a small species of fox, native to southern Africa. It is also called a South African version of a fennec fox due to its similarly big ears. It is the ...

(in Nisga'a ''Laxsee'le'') tribe of

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

s in what is now Alaska. Other versions of Gitxon migrations tell of movements from the Charlottes to the Nass, from the Nass to the Charlottes and back again, from Kitsumkalum to the Charlottes and back again, or from Kitselas to Kitamaat to the Charlottes and back again. The Charlottes and Alaska both arise as possible originary points for this group. In 1947, Edmund Patalas ("belonging to the Kitamat tribe at Hartley Bay") described to the Tsimshian ethnologist

William Beynon William Beynon (1888–1958) was a Canadian hereditary chief of the Tsimshian Nation and an oral historian; he served as ethnographer, translator, and linguistic consultant to many anthropologists who studied his people. Early life and educatio ...

the origins of the people of the "Gitxon" group who migrated from the land of the Queen Charlottes first to Kitamaat and then to the Gitga'ata people, where a branch of this group, the House of Sinaxeet, is now considered "the royal Eagle house of Kitkata." In 1952, Barbeau recorded a Nass elder's statement that the Gitxons at the Tsimshian village of Hartley Bay were the most numerous, while the Gitxon populations at the Tsimshian villages of Kitsumkalum and

were nearly extinct. The Gitxon people at Kitsumkalum, who are referred to in stories, were not part of the Kitsumkalum tribe by the time Barbeau interviewed Kitsumkalum elders on the subject in the 1920s. The anthropologist James McDonald speculates that the Kitsumkalum Gitxons may have become extinct during the fur trade and that the Kitselas Gitxons borrowed members from the

Laxsgiik to perpetuate their lineage during the 20th century. The Kitselas House of Gitxon and Niisgitloop today is a Kitselas house closely associated with the Kitsumkalum community. In 1924, the Gitxon of the Kitselas tribe was Samuel Wise. Barbeau interviewed him at Port Essington, B.C., in 1924. His version of the migration tells of a journey of Gitxon people from the Charlottes, to Kitamaat, and then up to Kitselas.

Nisg̱a'a - Lax̱sgiik

Some

House Groups Among the Laxsgiik Tribe include: *Lax̱-Ts'imilx Clan **House of Hleeḵ - Joseph Gosnell Sr. **House of Bayt 'Neeḵhl - Moses McKay *Lax̱-luuks Clan **House of Gwiix Maa'w - John Robinson *Lax̱-luuks - Sim-Lax̱sgiik Clan **House of Minee'eskw - Victor Robinson ***W̓ii Gilax̱namḵ’ap - Rev. Clyde Gary Davis ***Saxgum Hii G̱ooḵ - Gary Patsy *Lax̱-luuks - Gisk'abinaak Clan **House of Laa'y - Hubert Haldane *Lax̱-luuks - Gwinhuut clan **House of Gitx̱hoon - Russell Morven (previously Ernie Morven) **House of Tx̱aalax̱hatkw - Charles Stewart ''(not to be confused with Txaatk'anlaxhatkw, a Ganada house)'' **House of Luuya'as - Alver Tait **House of Sg̱a'nisim Sim'oogit - James Robinson **House of Gwakaans - Claude N. Barton

Bibliography

* Barbeau, Marius (1929) ''Totem Poles of the Gitksan, Upper

Skeena River The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose n ...

, British Columbia.'' (Anthropological Series 12, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 61.) Ottawa: Canada, Department of Mines. * Barbeau, Marius (1950) ''Totem Poles.'' (2 vols.) (Anthropology Series 30, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 119.) Ottawa: National Museum of Canada. Reprinted, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec, 1990. * Barbeau, Marius (1961) ''Tsimsyan Myths.'' (Anthropological Series 51, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 174.) Ottawa: Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. * Marsden, Susan (2001) "Defending the Mouth of the Skeena: Perspectives on Tsimshian Tlingit Relations." In: ''Perspectives in Northern Northwest Coast Prehistory,'' ed. by Jerome S. Cybulski, pp. 61–106. (Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper 160.) Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization * McDonald, James A. (2003) ''People of the Robin: The Tsimshian of

.'' CCI Press. *Morvin, John (1997) "The Origin of the Gitxawn Group at Kitsemkalem." Recorded by

, 1953. In ''Tsimshian Narratives 2: Trade and Warfare,'' ed. by George F. MacDonald and John J. Cove, pp. 1–4. Ottawa: Directorate, Canadian Museum of Civilization. * Shotridge, Louis (1919) "A Visit to the Tsimshian Indians (continued)." ''Museum Journal,'' vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 117–148. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania *Council of Elders, Ayuuḵhl Nisg̱a'a Department & Nisg̱a'a Lisims Government (2008) ''Anhluut'ukwsim Saẁinskhl Nisg̱a'a: Nisg̱a'a Feast Procedures & Protocols'' Gitlax̱t'aamiks, British Columbia Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Tsimshian Gitxsan Nisga'a