The Gits'iis 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 Gits'iis means literally "people of the seal trap." Their traditional territory includes the areas around the Khutzeymateen Inlet and Work Channel, between Lax Kw'alaams and Kincolith, B.C. Since 1834, they 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. ... The Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. ...

The chieftainship of the Gits'iis resides with the Ganhada (Raven-clan) hereditary name-title Niisyaganaat and the royal house-group (extended matrilineal family) of the same name. 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. ...

Both William Beynon and the anthropologist Viola Garfield describe in their writings a potlatch feast held circa 1930 for the death of Herbert Wallace, who had held Niisyaganaat. 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 potlatch was a ceremony among certain American Indian tribes, including tribes on the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia. ...

An earlier chief of the Gits'iis, according to Garfield, had been one Abraham Lincoln, named not for the U.S. president but for an employer named Lincoln and for the biblical Abraham. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was an American politician who served as the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... It has been suggested that Abraham (Hebrew Bible) be merged into this article or section. ...

The House of Łüüm and the House of Dago'milsk are two other Ganhada house-groups of the Gits'iis tribe. A totem pole belonging to Dago'milsk, depicting a sea lion with gun in his mouth, was still standing (with the gun having fallen away) in Lax Kw'alaams in the 1930s. A Gitxsan pole (left) and Kwakwakawakw pole (right) at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, British Columbia. ...

In 1935 William Beynon recorded that Gits'iis people in Lax Kw'alaams included 2 members of the Gispwudwada (Killerwhale clan), 30 members of the Ganhada (Raven), 29 members of the Laxgibuu (Wolf), and 2 members of the Laxsgiik (Eagle). 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. ...

Houses of the Gits'iis include:

• House of Asagalyaan -- Laxgibuu (Wolf clan)
• House of Dago'milsk -- Ganhada (Raven)
• House of Łüüm -- Ganhada (Raven)
• House of 'Wiilaxha -- Gispwudwada (Killerwhale)

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. ...

Sources

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

• Beynon, William (1992) "The Feast of Nisyaganaat, Chief of the Gitsiis." In Na Amwaaltga Tsmsiyeen: The Tsimshian, Trade, and the Northwest Coast Economy, ed. by Susan Marsden, pp. 45-54. (Suwilaay'msga Na Ga'niiyatgm, Teachings of Our Grandfathers, vol. 1.) Prince Rupert, B.C.: First Nations Advisory Council of School District #52.

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

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