The Gitando 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. The name Gitando means literally "people of the other side." Their traditional territory includes the watershed of the Exstew River, a tributary of the Skeena River. Since 1834, they have been based at Lax Kw'alaams, when a Hudson's Bay Company fort was established there. They are closely related to the Gispaxlo'ots, another of the Nine Tribes, who have an adjacent territory. 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) Official languages English de facto (none stated in law) Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 36 6 Area... The Skeena River is on the north coast of British Columbia, passing through Terrace. ... 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 Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...

The chieftainship of the Gitando resides with the hereditary name-title Sgagweet, the holder of which is chief of the House of Sgagweet, a Laxsgiik (Eagle clan) house-group (extended matrilineal family) of the Gitando. The anthropologist Viola Garfield reported in 1938 that the name was held by Paul Sgagweet, who died in 1887 and was commemorated by a 15-foot totem pole representing a Gnawing Beaver, which was still standing in the 1930s. Paul Sgagweet bequeathed the name to his sister's son; this person was almost certainly Alfred Dudoward, who was instrumental in establishing a Methodist mission at Lax Kw'alaams. Dudoward had no (matrilineal) heirs and so adopted his own son and a niece into the house. The son inherited the name Sgagweet after Dudoward's death in 1914 or 1915 and was holding it when Garfield was writing in 1938. He had designated the niece's son as his successor. Viola E. Garfield (1899-1983) 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. ... A Gitxsan pole (left) and Kwakwakawakw pole (right) at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, British Columbia. ... Alfred Dudoward ( 1850 - 1915) was an hereditary chief from the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada, who was instrumental in establishing a Methodist mission in his community of Port Simpson (a. ... Methodism or the Methodist movement is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity. ...

In 1935 William Beynon recorded that Gitando people in Lax Kw'alaams included 14 members of the Gispwudwada (Killerwhale clan) (1 house-group), 17 members of the Ganhada (Raven) (1 house-group), and 25 members of the Laxsgiik (Eagle) (2 house-groups, including the House of Sgagweet, with 5 members). 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. ... The Gispwudwada (variously spelled) is the name for the Killerwhale (or Blackfish) clan (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. ... The Ganhada (variously spelled, but often with an underlined initial G -- impossible here for technical reasons) is the name for the Raven clan (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. ...

George Kelly was a member of the House of Sgagweet who was adopted into the Gispaxlo'ots in order to perpetuate the House of Ligeex, a house closely related to Sgagweet. Ligeex (variously spelled: Legaic etc. ...

The anthropologist Marius Barbeau, in a survey of totem poles, described several poles belonging to various Gitando Laxsgiik houses which had stood in Lax Kw'alaams. One, a Sgagweet pole depicting a Standing Beaver, stood until at least 1947. Marius Barbeau Credit: J. Alex Castonguay/Library and Archives Canada/C-034447 Charles Marius Barbeau (March 5, 1883 – 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. ... Totem poles are carved from great trees, most often Western Redcedar, along the Pacific coast of North America. ...

In addition to the House of Sgagweet, other Gitando houses include:

• House of Gilasgamgan -- Laxsgiik (Eagle clan)
• House of Gistaaku -- Laxsgiik (Eagle)
• House of Gamayaam -- Gispwudwada (Killerwhale)
• House of Niisxłoo -- Laxsgiik (Eagle)
• House of Niisyagayunaat -- Ganhada (Raven)
• House of 'Nluulax -- Laxsgiik (Eagle)

Sources

• Barbeau, Marius (1950) Totem Poles. 2 vols. (Anthropology Series 30, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 119.) Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.

• Garfield, Viola E. (1939) "Tsimshian Clan and Society." University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 167-340.

• Neylan, Susan (2003) The Heavens Are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.