GITXSAN

'Gitxsan' (also spelled 'Gitksan') are a people whose home territory is the upper Skeena River from about Kitselas Canyon to the Skeena Headwaters and its surrounding tributaries. The area is now considered part of west central British Columbia, Canada. Gitksan territory encompasses approximately 30,000 square kilometers of land.^[1]

Contents

Society and Culture

Title and Treaties

Communities

Prominent Gitxsan (and people of Gitxsan descent)

Bibliography

See Also

References

External links

Society and Culture

Gitxsan are a matrilineal society that consists of Frog, Eagle, Wolf, and Fireweed Clans. There are approximately 10,000 worldwide with many living in traditional Gitxsan territory. Many also live elsewhere in British Columbia, in places like nearby Terrace, Smithers, and down in Vancouver, as well as around the world.

Eighty per cent of the people living on the lands surrounding Kitselas Canyon to the Skeena headwaters are Gitxsan ('People of the River Mist') and archeological evidence supports a continuous habitation of at least 10,000 years. Their traditional language is called Gitxsanimaax.

Title and Treaties

The aboriginal title rights of the Gitxsan and their neighbours, the Wet'suwet'en, were affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in its 1997 Delgamuukw decision.

To date, a treaty agreement between the Gitxsan Nation and the Federal Government of Canada and Provincial Government of British Columbia has not been reached.

Communities

Some of the Gitxsan villages are:

★ Gitanmaax

★ Gitanyow

★ Gitsegukla

★ Gitwangak

★ Glen Vowell

★ Hagwilget

★ Hazelton

★ Kispiox

Prominent Gitxsan (and people of Gitxsan descent)

★ Gordon Sebastian, "Luutkudziiwus" ~ Hereditary Chief/Lawyer.

★ Simon Gunanoot, long sought-after fugitive later cleared of wrongdoing

★ Walter Harris, Hereditary chief and artist/carver

★ Nathaniel P. Wilkerson, Artist/carver

★ Earl Muldoe (Delgamuukw), Hereditary Chief (Delgamuukw v. British Columbia)

Bibliography

★ Adams, John W. (1973) ''The Gitksan Potlatch: Population Flux, Resource Ownership and Reciprocity.'' Toronto: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston of Canada.

★ Barbeau, Marius (1928) ''The Downfall of Temlaham.'' Toronto: MacMillan.

★ Barbeau, Marius (1929) ''Totem Poles of the Gitksan, Upper Skeena River, British Columbia.'' Ottawa: Canada, Department of Mines.

★ Beynon, William (2000) ''Potlatch at Gitsegukla: William Beynon’s 1945 Field Notebooks.'' Ed. by Margaret Anderson and Marjorie Halpin. Vancouver: U.B.C. Press.

★ Bookbuildes of 'Ksan (1977) ''We-Gyet Wanders On: Legends of the Northwest.'' Saanichton, B.C.: Hancock House Publishers.

★ Cove, John J. (1982) "The Gitksan Traditional Concept of Land Ownership." ''Anthropologica,'' vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 3-17.

★ Daly, Richard (2005) ''Our Box Was Full: An Ethnography for the Delgamuukw Plaintiffs.'' Vancouver: UBC Press.

★ Duff, Wilson (ed.) (1959) ''Histories, Territories and Laws of the Kitwancool.'' Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum.

★ Gibson, John Frederic (1972) ''A Small and Charming World.'' Toronto: Collins Publishers.

★ Glavin, Terry (1990) ''A Death Feast in Dimlahamid.'' Vancouver: New Star Books.

★ Harris, Christie (1975) ''Sky Man on the Totem Pole?'' New York: Atheneum.

★ Harris, Kenneth B. (1974) ''Visitors Who Never Left: The Origin of the People of Damelahamid.'' Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

★ Monet, Don, and Ardythe Wilson (1992) ''Colonialism on Trial: Indigenous Land Rights and the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en Sovereignty Case.'' Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.

★ Sterritt, Neil J., ''et al.'' (1998) ''Tribal Boundaries in the Nass Watershed.'' Vancouver: U.B.C. Press.

See Also

★ Gitxsan Nation

★ Gitxsan Language

References

1. Gitxsan Chiefs - Who We Are - Recent History

External links

★ Gitxsan Nation website