Klemtu is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Swindle Island Swindle Island is an island on the North Coast of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located south of Princess Royal Island on the Inside Passage shipping route. The small First Nations community of Klemtu is located on its eastern ...

in the coastal

fjords In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the no ...

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 ...

, Canada. It is located on Kitasoo Indian Reserve No. 1. Klemtu is the home of the

Kitasoo The Kitasoo are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian people in Canada, who inhabit, along with the Xai'xais, the village of Klemtu, British Columbia. The name ''Kitasoo'' derives from the Tsimshian name ''Gidestsu'', from ''git-'' (people of) an ...

tribe of

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 ...

s, originally from Kitasu Bay, and the Xai'xais of Kynoch Inlet, extends eastward from Queen Charlotte Sound, approximately at . It is adjacent to the

Fiordland Conservancy The Fiordland Conservancy, also known as the Fiordland Recreation Area formerly, and since also as the Fiordland Conservation Area, is a conservancy in British Columbia, Canada. It preserves a portion of the province's coast containing glacial f ...

. These two tribes live together as, and are jointly governed by, the Kitasoo/Xai'xais Nation. Traditional languages spoken at Klemtu are the southern dialect of the Tsimshian language, called

Southern Tsimshian Southern Tsimshian, (pronounced: ) or , is the southern dialect of the Tsimshian language, spoken by the Gitga'ata and Kitasoo Tsimshians in Klemtu, B.C. It became extinct with the death of the last remaining speaker, Violet Neasloss. is c ...

, and Xaixais, a dialect of the

Heiltsuk language Heiltsuk , ''Híɫzaqv'', also known as Bella Bella and Haihais, is a dialect of the North Wakashan (Kwakiutlan) language Heiltsuk-Oowekyala that is spoken by the Haihai ( Xai'xais) and Bella Bella First Nations peoples of the Central Coast reg ...

. In religious affiliation, the community is dominated by the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (UCC; ) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada. The United Chu ...

. The government of the Kitasoo/Xai'xais Nation is a member government of the Wuikinuxv-Kitasoo Xai’xais-Nuxalk Tribal Council. The population of Klemtu in 1983 was 269. the population of Klemtu was 505.

Name origin

An alternate older name for Klemtu is Kitasoo. it was also known as China Hat due to the shape of

Cone Island In geometry, a cone is a three-dimensional figure that tapers smoothly from a flat base (typically a circle) to a point not contained in the base, called the ''apex'' or '' vertex''. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, o ...

, which protects it from the open water. The name Klemtu is from the

Coast Tsimshian language Tsimshian, known by its speakers as Sm'algya̱x, is a dialect of the Tsimshian language spoken in northwestern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. means literally 'real or true language'. The linguist Tonya Stebbins estimated the number ...

"Klemdoo-oolk," meaning "impassable".

Climate

Notes

References

External links

The Kitasoo/Xai'Xais Nation

An Introduction to Klemtu

Bibliography

*Inglis, Gordon B., ''et al.'' (1990) "Tsimshians of British Columbia since 1900." In ''Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast,'' pp. 285–293. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. *Miller, Jay (1981) "Moieties and Cultural Amnesia: Manipulation of Knowledge in a Pacific Northwest Coast Native Community," ''Arctic Anthropology,'' vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 23–32. *Miller, Jay (1982) "Tsimshian Moieties and Other Clarifications," ''Northwest Anthropological Research Notes,'' vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 148–164. {{coord, 52, 35, N, 128, 32, W, region:CA_type:city, display=title Populated places on the British Columbia Coast Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Tsimshian Heiltsuk North Coast of British Columbia Central Coast of British Columbia

Name origin

Climate

See also

Notes

References

External links

Bibliography