Kasaan, Alaska
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Kasaan, Alaska
Kasaan ( hai, Gasa'áan; tli, Kasa'aan) is a city in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 49 at the 2010 census, up from 39 in 2000. The name "Kasaan" comes from Tlingit , meaning "pretty town". History Kasaan is one of the main historical communities of the Kaigani Haida. It is the most northernly Haida settlement. It was established by the Haida in protohistoric times or earlier, as part of a migration across the Dixon Entrance, from Dadens and other villages of Langara Island, Haida Gwaii, to Dall Island and Prince of Wales Island. Beginning in the late 1700s, European and American ships began regularly visiting and trading with Kasaan and the rest of the Haida. Most early visiting ships were part of the maritime fur trade. The nearby trading site, " Kaigani", was one of the most popular on the Pacific Northwest coast. This trade brought wealth, but also disease; the first smallpox epidemic hit Kasaan in 1794. A rough censu ...
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City (Alaska)
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a U.S. state, state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A enclave and exclave, semi-exclave of the U.S., it borders the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia and the Yukon territory to the east; it also shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with the Russian Federation's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west, just across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi Sea, Chukchi and Beaufort Sea, Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is by far the list of U.S. states and territories by area, largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. It represents the list of country subdivisions by are ...
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Geographic Names Information System
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau. It is a type of gazetteer. It was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names. Data were collected in two phases. Although a third phase was considered, which would have handled name changes where local usages differed from maps, it was never begun. The database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited. Variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a per ...
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Kaigani (trading Site)
Kaigani was a major trading site for maritime fur traders and the Kaigani Haida during the maritime fur trade era of approximately 1790 to 1850. The term was used for a few nearby anchorages near several Haida settlements such as Kasaan. During this time Kaigani was one of the most popular sites for trading vessels on the Pacific Northwest coast. Hundreds of trading vessels, mostly American, visited during this time, mostly seeking sea otter skins to take to China, where they commanded a high price. The term "Kaigani" was used by these traders for several harbors on the eastern side of southern Dall Island near Cape Muzon, in southeast Alaska, just north of Haida Gwaii across Dixon Entrance. The word "Kaigani" also refers to the Haida who live in this area. The word continues to be used for the general locale, as well as various geographical features in the area, such as Kaigani Strait, between Dall Island and Long Island, Kaigani Harbors, North Kaigani Harbor, and South Kaigani Ha ...
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Maritime Fur Trade
The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia. The trade boomed around the beginning of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted, the maritime fur trade diversified and transformed, tapping new markets and commodities, while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century. Russians controlled most of the coast of present-da ...
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Prince Of Wales Island (Alaska)
Prince of Wales Island (Tlingit: ''Taan'') is one of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle. It is the fourth-largest island in the United States (after Hawaii, Kodiak Island, and Puerto Rico) and the 97th-largest island in the world. Geography and ecology The island is long, wide and has an area of , about one-tenth the size of Ireland and slightly larger than the state of Delaware. Approximately 6,000 people live on the island. Craig is the largest community; founded as a saltery in the early 20th century, it has a population of 1,500. Some 900 people live in Klawock, a long-established village that grew with the fishing industry. Hollis was a boom and bust mining town from 1900 to about 1915. Abandoned, it was re-established as a logging camp in the 1950s. It now has a population of 100 and is the location of the ferry terminal. Mountain peaks, all but the tallest of which were buried by Pleistocene glaciation, reach over . Fjords, steep-si ...
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Dall Island
Dall Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago off the southeast coast of Alaska, just west of Prince of Wales Island and north of Canadian waters. Its peak elevation is above sea level. Its land area is , making it the 28th largest island in the United States. Dall is used economically for fishing and limestone quarrying. Population and demographics The 2000 census recorded 20 persons living on the island. The Haida are known to have inhabited coastal caves on the island two to three thousand years ago. History Dall Island was first called "Quadra", after Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, until 1879, when it was renamed in honor of naturalist William H. Dall. The island also had been thought to be part of Prince of Wales Island as recently as 1903. During the maritime fur trade era several harbors on southeast Dall Island, collectively known as Kaigani, were among the most popular sites for trade between fur trading ships and the Kaigani Haida. Cape Muzon, t ...
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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 Hecate Strait. Queen Charlotte Sound lies to the south, with Vancouver Island beyond. To the north, the disputed Dixon Entrance separates Haida Gwaii from the Alexander Archipelago in the U.S. state of Alaska. Haida Gwaii consists of two main islands: Graham Island () in the north and Moresby Island (, literally: south people island half, or "Islands of Beauty") in the south, along with approximately 400 smaller islands with a total landmass of . Other major islands include Anthony Island ( / ), Burnaby Island (), Lyell Island, Louise Island, Alder Island ( / ), and Kunghit Island. (For a fuller, but still incomplete, list see List of islands of British Columbia.) Part of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the islands were known f ...
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Langara Island
Langara Island, known as Kiis Gwaii to the Haida ( Haida: ''Ḵ'íis Gwáayaay''), is the northernmost island of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada. The island is approximately in size. It is located approximately south of Alaska. History Little is known about its history. It is named after Spanish naval commander Juan de Lángara. During Lángara's period at the head of the Spanish navy, Spanish explorers were charting the coast of what is now British Columbia, and, in their charts, named some land formations after him. Juan José Pérez Hernández was the first European to sight, examine, name, and record these islands. His frigate was the ''Santiago'', which was crewed mostly by Mexicans. In July 1774, he briefly met a group of Haida off the northwestern tip of Langara Island. In 1913 the Langara Light was lit at the northwest corner of the island. It is one of the largest islands from which Norway rats have been eradicated. The eradication campaign for ''R. norv ...
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Dadens
Dadens (''daa.adans''), also referred to as Tartenee and Tatense by some early European settlers and Tatense Reserve 16 under the Indian Act is village on the southern coast of Langara Island (Xaad Kil: K'íis Gwáayaay) belonging to the Haida Nation on the archipelago Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. Dadens was once a popular trading post for the North Pacific fur trade among European traders in the late 18th century, due to its size and accessibility. Dadens no longer continues to be used by families year round, but it was used as a fishing village during the summer months by many Haida up until the 1950s and 1960s, and is still used to a limited extent today. There have been multiple migrations of families from Dadens to South East Alaska and these people are now known as the Kiagani Haida. People Haida families broadly belong to one of two matrilineal moieties or clans; those being the Eagle and the Raven clans, however, each family group has their own unique lineages a ...
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Dixon Entrance
The Dixon Entrance (french: Entrée Dixon) is a strait about long and wide in the Pacific Ocean at the Canada–United States border, between the U.S. state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia in Canada. The Dixon Entrance is part of the Inside Passage shipping route. It forms part of the maritime boundary between the U.S. and Canada, although the location of that boundary here is disputed. Etymology The strait was named by Joseph Banks for Captain George Dixon, a Royal Navy officer, fur trader, and explorer, who surveyed the area in 1787. Geography The Dixon Entrance lies between Clarence Strait in the Alexander Archipelago in Alaska to the north, and Hecate Strait and the islands known as Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia, to the south. Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, is the largest of the Alaskan islands on the north side of the entrance; the Kaigani Haida occupy this island. Members of the Haida nation maintain free access across the St ...
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Protohistoric
Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in Europe, the Celts and the Germanic tribes are considered to have been protohistoric when they began appearing in Greek and Roman sources. Protohistoric may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians. The preservation of oral traditions may complicate matters, as they can provide a secondary historical source for even earlier events. Colonial sites involving a literate group and a nonliterate group are also studied as protohistoric situations. The term can also refer to a period in which fragmentary or external historical documents, not necessarily including a developed writing system, have been found. For instance, the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, the Yayoi ...
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Kaigani Haida
Haida (, hai, X̱aayda, , , ) are an indigenous group who have traditionally occupied , an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years. The Haida are known for their craftsmanship, trading skills, and seamanship. They are thought to have frequently carried out raids and to have practised slavery. The Haida have been compared to the Vikings by Diamond Jenness, an early anthropologist at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. In Haida Gwaii, the Haida government consists of a matrix of national and regional hereditary, legislative, and executive bodies including the Hereditary Chiefs Council, the Council of the Haida Nation (CHN), Old Massett Village Council, Skidegate Band Council, and the Secretariat of the Haida Nation. The Kaigani Haida live north of the Canadian and US border which cuts through Dixon Entrance south of Prince of Wales Island ( tli, Taan) in Southeast Alaska, United States; Haida from K'iis Gwaii in the Duu Guusd regi ...
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