Wickaninnish (; meaning "Nobody sits or stands before him in the canoe") was a chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht people of

Clayoquot Sound , image = Clayoquot Sound - Near Tofino - Vancouver Island BC - Canada - 08.jpg , image_size = 260px , alt = , caption = , image_bathymetry = Vancouver clayoquot sound de.png , alt_bathyme ...

, on what is now

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, in the 1780s and 1790s, during the opening period of European contact with the Pacific Northwest Coast cultures. His main name is also

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

as Wickaninish, Wickananish, Wikinanish, Huiquinanichi, and Quiquinanis, and he was also known as Hiyoua. Wickaninnish was a rival of the

Mowachaht The Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations are a First Nations government on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations are a member nation of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Counci ...

chief

Maquinna Maquinna (also transliterated Muquinna, Macuina, Maquilla) was the chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound, during the heyday of the maritime fur trade in the 1780s and 1790s on the Pacific Northwest Coast. The name means "possessor of ...

Nootka Sound , image = Morning on Nootka Sound.jpg , image_size = 250px , alt = , caption = Clouds over Nootka Sound , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = Map of Nootka So ...

, although the two were related both affinally and consanguineally. In one account he was blamed for the death of Maquinna's brother, Callicum, an event which spurred a war by the Mowachaht against the Tla-o-qui-aht. Maquinna's captive

John R. Jewitt John Rodgers Jewitt (21 May 1783 – 7 January 1821) was an English armourer who entered the historical record with his memoirs about the 28 months he spent as a captive of Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) people on what is now the Britis ...

wrote of Wickaninnish. In June 1811, Wickaninnish took umbrage at behaviour by the American merchant captain

Jonathan Thorn Jonathan Thorn (8 January 1779 – 15 June 1811) was a career officer of the United States Navy in the early 19th century. Early life and Naval career Born on 8 January 1779 at Schenectady, New York, during the Revolutionary War, Thorn was ...

, who was leading a voyage on the

Pacific Fur Company The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades between the United Kingdom o ...

's frigate '' Tonquin'' and had made overtures for trading. This resulted in the

Battle of Woody Point The Battle of Woody Point was an incident in western Canada in June 1811 involving the Tla-o-qui-aht natives of the Pacific Northwest and the '' Tonquin'', an American merchant ship of the Astor Expedition. The vessel had traveled to Clayoquot ...

, during which Tla-o-qui-aht warriors massacred Thorn and most of his crew. As the Tla-o-qui-aht plundered the ''Tonquin'', a surviving crew member blew it up. Places named for Wickaninnish include Wickaninnish Beach in

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is a national park located in British Columbia, Canada, which comprises three separate regions: Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail. Its the Pacific Coast Mountains, are characterized ...

, Wickaninnish Island, Wickaninnish Bay, and the

Wickaninnish Inn Wickaninnish (; meaning "Nobody sits or stands before him in the canoe") was a tribal chief, chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht people of Clayoquot Sound, on what is now Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, in the 1780s and 1790s, during the opening ...

,Wickaninnish Inn website
/ref> a surfside hotel, restaurant, and spa on Chesterman Beach, close to

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

References

External links

"Wikinanish"
''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
"Wickananish"
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' Indigenous leaders in British Columbia Clayoquot Sound region History of Vancouver Island Nuu-chah-nulth people Pre-Confederation British Columbia people 18th-century indigenous people of the Americas {{FirstNations-stub