The Gitlaan 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 Gitlaan means literally "people of the canoe stern." Their traditional territory includes the watershed of the Zimacord River, a tributary of the Skeena River. An area of the riverbank there resembled from the distance a canoe-stern, hence the name of the tribe. (The Zimacord watershed is also claimed by the Kitsumkalum Tsimshians.) Since 1834, the Gitlaan have been based at Lax Kw'alaams, when a Hudson's Bay Company fort was established there. 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. ... 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. ... The Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. ...

In 1887, the great majority of the Gitlaan tribe moved from Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla, B.C., with the Anglican lay minister William Duncan to found the new community of "New" Metlakatla, Alaska. However, a small Gitlaan contingent remained behind in B.C. Metlakatla, British Columbia, is a small community that is one of the seven Tsimshian village communities in British Columbia, Canada. ... Metlakatla (pronounced ) is a census-designated place (CDP) on Annette Island in Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan Census Area, Alaska, United States. ...

In the absence, though, of surviving members in Lax Kw'alaams of the House of Niisłaganuus, the royal line that traditionally had provided successors to the chieftainship of the Gitlaan tribe, a Nisga'a family from a related Laxgibuu (Wolf clan) house-group (extended matrilineal family) moved to Lax Kw'alaams to become the new royal house of the Gitlaan (this occurring, then, some time between 1887 and 1913). This matriline included or came to include sons of the Gispaxlo'ots house-chief and Hudson's Bay Company employee Arthur Wellington Clah, including Albert Wellington, who served as chief of the Gitlaan with the name Gwisk'aayn until his death in 1913. Wellington's sister's son, William Beynon, who was to become the renowned ethnologist, moved from Victoria, B.C., to Lax Kw'alaams at that time to preside over Wellington's funerary rites and assume the title Gwisk'aayn and with it the chieftainship of the Gitlaan, in accordance with Tsimshian rules of matrilineal succession, though there was initial opposition based on the fact that Beynon had become "enfranchised" as a Canadian citizen (and was thus no longer, in the law's eyes, "Indian"). Beynon was chief of the Gitlaan until his death in 1958. Nisgaa flag Mask with open eyes, worn during winter halait ceremonies, 18th–early 19th century The Nisaa (pronounced Nis-gah) are of the First Nations of Canada. ... The Laxgibuu (variously spelled) is the name for the Wolf clan (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... The Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. ... Arthur Wellington Clah, (1831 – 1916), was a Canadian First Nations employee of the Hudsons Bay Company at Lax Kwalaams (Port Simpson), B.C., who was also a hereditary chief in the Tsimshian nation, an anthropological informant, and an extensive diarist. ... 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. ... Victoria is a Canadian city, and it is the provincial capital of British Columbia. ...

The name Niisłaganuus has since this time been restored to use.

In 1935 William Beynon recorded that Gitlaan people in Lax Kw'alaams included 4 members of the Gispwudwada (Killerwhale clan), 8 member of the Ganhada (Raven), and 9 members of the Laxgibuu (Wolf), each clan being represented by only one house-group. 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. ... The Laxgibuu (variously spelled) is the name for the Wolf clan (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. ...

Bibliography

• Anderson, Margaret, and Marjorie Halpin (2000) "Introduction" to Potlatch at Gitsegukla: William Beynon's 1945 Field Notebooks, ed. by Margaret Anderson and Marjorie Halpin, pp. 3-52. Vancouver: UBC Press.

• Beynon, William (1941) "The Tsimshians of Metlakatla, Alaska." American Anthropologist (new series), vol. 43, pp. 83-88

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

• Halpin, Marjorie M. (1978) "William Beynon, Ethnographer, Tsimshian, 1888-1958." In American Indian Intellectuals: 1976 Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society, ed. by Margot Liberty, pp. 140-156. St. Paul: West Publishing Company.

• McDonald, James A. (1983) "An Historic Event in the Political Economy of the Tsimshian: Information on the Ownership of the Zimacord District." B.C. Studies, no. 57, pp. 24-37.