NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Eagle Clan

The Laxsgiik (variously spelled) is the name for the Eagle "clan" (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. It is considered analogous or identical to identically named groups among the neighboring Gitksan and Nisga'a nations and also to lineages in the Haida nation. The Tsimshian (usually pronounced in English SIM-shee-an), translated as People Inside the Skeena River, are a Native American and First Nation people who live around Terrace and Prince Rupert, on the north coast of British Columbia and the southernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo - Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 36 - Senate seats 6 Confederation July 20, 1871 (6th province) Area Ranked 4th - Total 944,735 km... Official language(s) none Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area Ranked 1st - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 kmÂ²) - Width 808 miles (1,300 km) - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km) - % water 13. ... (pronounced GIT-san) also spelled as Gitxsan pronounced the same. ... Nisgaa flag Mask with open eyes, worn during winter halait ceremonies, 18thâ€“early 19th century The Nisaa (pronounced Nis-gah) are of the First Nations of Canada. ... The Haida are an Indigenous nation of the west coast of North America. ...

The name Laxsgiik derives from xsgiik, the word for eagle in the Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a languages.

The chief crest of the Laxsgiik is the Eagle. Beaver and Halibut are also common Laxsgiik crests.

Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a matrilineal houses belonging to the Laxsgiik tend to belong to one of two groups, the Gwinhuut and the Gitxon.

Gwinhuut

The Gwinhuut (meaning literally "refugees") are according to tradition descended from migrations from the Eagle-clan peoples of the Tlingit nation in what is now Alaska. Gwinhuut houses are more numerous than Gitxon ones, and they are related to various Tlingit Eagle groups. All Gitksan Laxsgiik are Gwinhuut, as are most Tsimshian and Nisga'a Laxsgiik houses. A Tlingit totem pole in Ketchikan ca. ...

Ligeex (variously spelled: Legaic etc. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Lax Kwalaams, usually called Port Simpson, is a First Nations village community in British Columbia, Canada, not far from the city of Prince Rupert. ... The Kitkatla are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and inhabit a village, also called Kitkatla (sometimes called Laxklan), on Dolphin Island, a small island just by Porcher Island off the coast of northern B.C. Because of this they have sometimes been... Kitkatla is a small West Coast Native village situated approximately 45km S.W. of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada, on Dolphin Island. ...

Gitxon

The Gitxon (also spelled Gitxhoon) group mostly claim descent from ancient migrations from the Queen Charlotte Islands, homeland of the Haida nation. Gitxon is popularly etymologized as git (people of) + x (to eat) + hoon (salmon), yielding the meaning "salmon eaters." The anthropologist Marius Barbeau, whose writings are the best introduction to Laxsgiik histories, calls this group's ancestral histories "the Salmon-Eater tradition." Members of the Gitxon group can be found among the Nisga'a, among the Tsimshian tribes of Kitselas and Gitga'ata, among the Haisla nation at Kitamaat, and at Skidegate on the Queen Charlottes. Gitxon houses frequently are headed by chiefs named Gitxon. At Hartley Bay, where the Gitga'ata live, the group is known as the House of Sinaxeet. Leaving Skidegate Inlet aboard BC Ferries M/V Queen of Prince Rupert The Queen Charlotte Islands or Haida Gwaii are an archipelago off the northwest coast of British Columbia, Canada, consisting of two main islands, Graham Island in the North, and Moresby Island in the south, and approximately 150 smaller... The Haida are an Indigenous nation of the west coast of North America. ... Marius Barbeau Credit: J. Alex Castonguay/Library and Archives Canada/C-034447 Charles Marius Barbeau (March 5, 1883 â€“ February 27, 1969), also known as C. Marius Barbeau, or more commonly simply Marius Barbeau, was a Canadian ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology. ... Nisgaa flag Mask with open eyes, worn during winter halait ceremonies, 18thâ€“early 19th century The Nisaa (pronounced Nis-gah) are of the First Nations of Canada. ... Kitselas (or GitsilaasÃ¼) is one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada. ... The Gitgaata (sometimes also spelled Gitgaat or Gitkaata) are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, and inhabit the village of Hartley Bay, British Columbia. ... The Haisla (also Xa’islak’ala, X̄a’islak̕ala, X̌àʔislak̕ala, X̄a’islak’ala, X̣aʔislak’ala, Xaislakala) are a First Nation people living at Kitamaat in British Columbia. ... Skidegate [skÉªd É˜ ËŒgÉ˜t] is a town in the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. ... Hartley Bay, B.C. 2003 Hartley Bay, B.C. ca 1980 Hartley Bay is a small First Nations community on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia. ... The Gitgaata (sometimes also spelled Gitgaat or Gitkaata) are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, and inhabit the village of Hartley Bay, British Columbia. ...

Barbeau's now discredited theories about the peopling of the Americas -- he claimed a far more recent Siberian ancestry for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshianic-speakers (Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a) than is now known to be possible for any Amerindian group -- included an assertion that the Gitxon people migrated from Siberia, via the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak Island in Alaska, "only a few centuries ago" (as he phrased it in the Preface to his Totem Poles). (Barbeau also, controversially and by today's standards erroneously, attributed their adoption of the Eagle crest to the influence of Russian traders' heraldic emblems during the fur trade.) Tsimshianic is a family of languages spoken in northern British Columbia and southern Alaska. ... It has been suggested that Western Siberia be merged into this article or section. ... Aleutians seen from space The Aleutian Islands (possibly from Chukchi aliat, island) are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming an island arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi (17,666 kmÂ²) and extending about 1,200 mi (1,900... Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. ...

In 1927 in Kincolith, B.C., Barbeau recorded from the Nisga'a "Chief Mountain" (Sga'niism Sim'oogit, a.k.a. Saga'wan), a story (adaawak in Nisga'a) of the origin of the Gitxon people which records their arrival on the Queen Charlotte Islands, homeland of the Haida, where the Gitxon Eagles came to form one moiety of a village while the people of Qoona formed another. This story tells of Gitxon's niece Dzilakons (variously spelled) and her engagement with a prince of the opposite moiety which led to a war between the two sides, spurring the Gitxon people's migration to the Nisga'a homeland on the Nass River, to the Tsimshian villages of Kitkatla and Kitsumkalum, and to the Cape Fox (in Nisga'a Laxsee'le) tribe of Tlingits in what is now Alaska. Visit their site: http://www. ... Leaving Skidegate Inlet aboard BC Ferries M/V Queen of Prince Rupert The Queen Charlotte Islands or Haida Gwaii are an archipelago off the northwest coast of British Columbia, Canada, consisting of two main islands, Graham Island in the North, and Moresby Island in the south, and approximately 150 smaller... The Haida are an Indigenous nation of the west coast of North America. ... The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. ... The Kitkatla are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and inhabit a village, also called Kitkatla (sometimes called Laxklan), on Dolphin Island, a small island just by Porcher Island off the coast of northern B.C. Because of this they have sometimes been... Kitsumkalum is one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and is also the name of their Indian Reserve just west of the city of Terrace, British Columbia, where the Kitsumkalum River flows into the Skeena River. ... A Tlingit totem pole in Ketchikan ca. ...

Other versions of Gitxon migrations tell of movements from the Charlottes to the Nass, from the Nass to the Charlottes and back again, from Kitsumkalum to the Charlottes and back again, or from Kitselas to Kitamaat to the Charlottes and back again. The Charlottes and Alaska both arise as possible originary points for this group.

In 1947, Edmund Patalas ("belonging to the Kitamat tribe at Hartley Bay") described to the Tsimshian ethnologist William Beynon the origins of the people of the "Gitxon" group who migrated from the land of the Queen Charlottes first to Kitamaat and then to the Gitga'ata people, where a branch of this group, the House of Sinaxeet, is now considered "the royal Eagle house of Kitkata." In 1952, Barbeau recorded a Nass elder's statement that the Gitxons at the Tsimshian village of Hartley Bay were the most numerous, while the Gitxon populations at the Tsimshian villages of Kitsumkalum and Lax Kw'alaams were nearly extinct. William Beynon (1888-1958) was a hereditary chief from the Tsimshian nation (British Columbia, Canada) and an oral historian who served as ethnographer, translator, and linguistic consultant to many anthropologists. ... Lax Kwalaams, usually called Port Simpson, is a First Nations village community in British Columbia, Canada, not far from the city of Prince Rupert. ...

The Gitxon people at Kitsumkalum, who are referred to in stories, were not part of the Kitsumkalum tribe by the time Barbeau interviewed Kitsumkalum elders on the subject in the 1920s. The anthropologist James McDonald speculates that the Kitsumkalum Gitxons may have become extinct during the fur trade and that the Kitselas Gitxons borrowed members from the Gispaxlo'ots Laxsgiik to perpetuate their lineage during the 20th century. The Kitselas House of Gitxon and Niisgitloop today is a Kitselas house closely associated with the Kitsumkalum community. Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...

In 1924, the Gitxon of the Kitselas tribe was Samuel Wise. Barbeau interviewed him at Port Essington, B.C., in 1924. His version of the migration tells of a journey of Gitxon people from the Charlottes, to Kitamaat, and then up to Kitselas. Port Essington was a cannery town on the south bank of the Skeena River estuary in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, between Prince Rupert and Terrace, and at the confluence of the Skeena and Ecstall Rivers. ...

Bibliography

Categories: Ethnic groups in the United States | Tsimshian | Gitxsan | Nisga'a The Skeena River is on the north coast of British Columbia, passing through Terrace. ... Kitsumkalum is one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and is also the name of their Indian Reserve just west of the city of Terrace, British Columbia, where the Kitsumkalum River flows into the Skeena River. ... William Beynon (1888-1958) was a hereditary chief from the Tsimshian nation (British Columbia, Canada) and an oral historian who served as ethnographer, translator, and linguistic consultant to many anthropologists. ... Louis Shotridge ( 1882 - 1937) was an American art collector and ethnological assistant who was an expert on the traditions of his people, the Tlingit nation of southeastern Alaska. ...

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Gitxon

Bibliography

Gwinhuut