Gitsʼiis
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Gitsʼiis
The Gits'iis 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. Overview The name ''Gits'iis'' means literally "people of the seal trap." Their traditional territory includes the areas around the Khutzeymateen Inlet and Work Channel, between Lax Kw'alaams and Kincolith, B.C. Since 1834, they have been based at Lax Kw'alaams, when a Hudson's Bay Company fort was established there. The chieftainship of the Gits'iis resides with the Ganhada (Raven-clan) hereditary name-title Niisyaganaat and the royal house-group (extended matrilineal family) of the same name. The current Niisyaganaat is Lawrence Helin, uncle to the author Calvin Helin. Both William Beynon and the anthropologist Viola Garfield describe in their writings of a potlatch feast held ''circa'' 1930 for the death of Herbert Wallace, who had held Niisyag ...
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Tsimshian
The Tsimshian (; ) are an Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace, British Columbia, Terrace and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only reservation in Alaska. The Tsimshian estimate there are 45,000 Tsimshian people and approximately 10,000 members are federally registered in eight First Nations communities: Kitselas First Nation, Kitselas'','' Kitsumkalum First Nation, Kitsumkalum'','' Gitxaala Nation, Gitxaala'','' Gitga'at First Nation, Gitga'at, Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation, Kitasoo, Lax-kw'alaams First Nation, Lax Kw'Alaams'','' and Metlakatla First Nation, Metlakatla. The latter two communities resulted in the colonial intersections of early settlers and consist of Tsimshian people belonging to the 'nine tribes.' The Tsimshian are one of the largest First Nations peop ...
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British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, inland deserts and grassy plains. British Columbia borders the province of Alberta to the east; the territories of Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north; the U.S. states of Washington (state), Washington, Idaho and Montana to the south, and Alaska to the northwest. With an estimated population of over 5.7million as of 2025, it is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, while the province's largest city is Vancouver. Vancouver and its suburbs together make up List of census metropolitan areas and agglomerations in Canada, the third-largest metropolit ...
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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 names mean "inside the River of Mist", and "people of the River of Mist," respectively. The river and its basin sustain a wide variety of fish, wildlife, and vegetation, and communities native to the area depend on the health of the river. The Tsimshian migrated to the Lower Skeena River, and the Gitxsan occupy territory of the Upper Skeena. During the Omineca Gold Rush, Steamboats of the Skeena River, steamboat services ran from the sea to Hazelton, British Columbia, Hazelton, which was the jumping-off point for the trails to the goldfields. The Hudson's Bay Company established a major trading post on the Skeena at what became called Port Simpson, British Columbia (''Lax Kw'alaams''), where nine tribes of the Tsimshian nation settled about ...
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Lax Kw'alaams
A lax is a salmon. LAX as an acronym most commonly refers to Los Angeles International Airport in Southern California, United States. LAX or Lax may also refer to: Places Within Los Angeles * Union Station (Los Angeles), Los Angeles' main train depot, whose Amtrak station code is "LAX" * The Port of Los Angeles, whose port identifier code is "LAX" Other * Lax, Switzerland, a municipality of the canton of Valais * Lax Lake (other) * La Crosse, Wisconsin, a city on the Mississippi River Sports * Los Angeles Xtreme, a former American football team * Lacrosse, a sport * The Latin American Xchange, a professional wrestling stable Media and entertainment * LAX (album), ''LAX'' (album), the third studio album from rapper The Game * LAX (TV series), ''LAX'' (TV series), a 2004–05 television series set in Los Angeles International Airport * "LA X", the two-part sixth season 2010 premiere of the television show ''Lost'' * LAX, a night club at Luxor Las Vegas * "LAX", ...
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Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the namesake Hudson's Bay (department store), Hudson's Bay department stores (colloquially The Bay), and also owns or manages approximately of gross leasable real estate through its HBC Properties and Investments business unit. HBC previously owned the full-line Saks Fifth Avenue and off-price Saks Off 5th in the United States, which were spun-off into the Saks Global holding company in 2024. After incorporation by royal charter issued in 1670 by Charles II of England, King Charles II, the company was granted a right of "sole trade and commerce" over an expansive area of land known as Rupert's Land, comprising much of the Hudson Bay drainage basin. This right gave the company a monopoly, commercial monopoly over that area. The HBC functioned ...
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Ganhada
The Ganhada (variously spelled, but often as G̱anhada) is the name for the Raven "clan" (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. It is considered analogous or identical to the G̱anada (Raven/Frog) Tribe of the Nisga'a nation in British Columbia and the Frog clan among B.C.'s Gitxsan nation. The Gitxsan also sometimes use the term Laxsee'le to describe the Frog clan. Nisg̱a'a - G̱anada The house groups of the G̱anada among the Nisga’a include: * ''(People-Where-Water-Runs-Black)'' Clan: ** House of - Wallace Clark ** House of - Earl Munroe (Previously Oscar Mercer) ** House of - Wayne Nisyok * House of - (previously Sidney Alexander) ''(not to be confused with eagle chieftain name Tx̱aalax̱hatkw)'' * House of - Earl Stephens (previously Horace Stephens) * House of - (previously Richard Leeson) * House of - Chester Moore * House of - Leonard Watts * House of - Bert Adams, Sr * House of - Larry Derrick S ...
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Calvin Helin
Calvin Helin is a Canadian businessman and writer on aboriginal topics who is a member of the Tsimshian First Nation in northwestern British Columbia. He is from the Tsimshian village community of Lax Kw'alaams, B.C., son of Barry Helin (Niisłaganuus, a hereditary chief of the Gitlaan tribe) and Verna Helin (of the royal House of 'Wiiseeks of the Ginaxangiik tribe). In the Tsimshian matrilineal system, he follows his mother as a Ginaxangiik Tsimshian of the Gispwudwada {{Inline citations, date=December 2024 The Gispwudwada or Gisbutwada (variously spelled) is the name for the Killerwhale "clan" ( phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. It is considered a ... (Killerwhale) clan. He is the author of the 2006 book ''Dances with Dependency: Indigenous Success through Self-Reliance,'' which is illustrated by his cousin Bill Helin. As of 2018, Helin was the president of Eagle Spirit Energy Holding Ltd. Helin has taken a ...
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Viola Garfield
Viola E. Garfield (December 5, 1899 – November 25, 1983) was an American anthropologist best known for her work on the social organization and plastic arts of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia and Alaska. Early life Viola Edmundson was born in Des Moines, Iowa. Her family moved a few years later to Coupeville, Washington, on Whidbey Island, where she attended local schools. She enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle beginning in 1919, transferring for financial reasons to what is now Western Washington University in Bellingham, where she became certified as a teacher. She started a position in the 1920s teaching Tsimshian children in Metlakatla, Alaska, on Annette Island. This experience sparked her interest in Pacific Northwest Coast ethnology. While working at the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, she became the typist for Charles Garfield, an Alaskan former miner and fur trader. They married in 1924. Career In 1927 Garfield re-enrolled at the Univers ...
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Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, eds., vol 17, pp. 11885-11889. Oxford: Pergamon Press. among whom it is traditionally the primary governmental institution, legislative body, and gift economy, economic system.Aldona Jonaitis. ''Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch''. University of Washington Press 1991. . This includes the Heiltsuk Nation, Heiltsuk, Haida people, Haida, Nuxalk Nation, Nuxalk, Tlingit people, Tlingit, Makah people, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth people, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish peoples, Coast Salish cultures. Potlatches are also a common feature of the peoples of the Interior and of the Subarctic adjoining the Northwest Coast, although mostly without the elaborate ritual and gift-giv ...
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Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States of America and playing a major role in the End of slavery in the United States, abolition of slavery. Lincoln was born into poverty in Kentucky and raised on the American frontier, frontier. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Illinois state Illinois House of Representatives, legislator, and U.S. representative. Angered by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which opened the territories to slavery, he became a leader of the new History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the Lincoln–Douglas debates, 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln won the 1860 United States presidential election, 1860 presidential election, wh ...
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Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenantal relationship between the Jewish people and God in Judaism, God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or gentile, non-Jewish; and Abraham in Islam, in Islam, he is a link in the Prophets and messengers in Islam, chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam in Islam, Adam and culminates in Muhammad. Abraham is also revered in other Abrahamic religions such as the Baháʼí Faith and the Druze, Druze faith. The story of the life of Abraham, as told in the narrative of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, revolves around the themes of posterity and land. He is said to have been called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land of Canaan, which God now promises to Ab ...
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