Lax Kw'alaams, usually called Port Simpson, is an Indigenous village community in British Columbia, Canada, not far from the city of Prince Rupert. It is the home of the so-called "Nine Tribes" of the lower Skeena River, which are nine of the fourteen tribes of the Tsimshian nation. The Nine Tribes are: Giluts'aaw, Ginadoiks, Ginaxangiik, Gispaxlo'ots, Gitando, Gitlaan, Gits'iis, Gitwilgyoots, and Gitzaxłaał. A Hupa man, 1923 The scope of this indigenous peoples of the Americas article encompasses the definitions of indigenous peoples and the Americas as established in their respective articles. ... 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... Orthographic projection centred over Prince Rupert BC Coast, showing Prince Rupert and Vancouver Prince Rupert is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. ... The Skeena River is on the north coast of British Columbia, passing through Terrace. ... 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. ... The Gilutsaaẅ (properly spelled with an umlaut over the w) 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 Kwalaams (a. ... The Ginadoiks (sometimes called Gitnadoiks) 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 Kwalaams (a. ... The Ginaxangiik 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 Kwalaams (a. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... 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 Kwalaams (a. ... 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 Kwalaams (a. ... The Gitsiis 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 Kwalaams (a. ... The Gitwilgyoots 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 Kwalaams (a. ... The GitzaxÅ‚aaÅ‚ 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 Kwalaams (a. ...

Lax Kw'alaams derives from Laxłgu'alaams, which means "place of the wild roses." It is an ancient camping spot of the Gispaxlo'ots tribe and in 1834 became the site of a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading post called Fort Simpson, then Port Simpson. The name Fort Simpson derived from Capt. Aemilius Simpson, superintendent of the HBC's Marine Department, who had established the first, short lived, Fort Simpson, on the nearby Nass River, in 1830 with Peter Skene Ogden. The first HBC factor at the new Fort Simpson was Dr. John Frederick Kennedy, who married the daughter of the Gispaxlo'ots chief Ligeex as part of the diplomacy which established the fort on Gispaxlo'ots territory. Kennedy served at Fort Simpson until 1856. The Hudsons Bay Company (HBC; Compagnie de la Baie dHudson in French) is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. ... The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. ... Peter Skene Ogden, alternately Skeene, Skein or Skeen (baptised 12 February 1790 – September 27, 1854) was a Canadian explorer of the American West. ... Ligeex (variously spelled: Legaic etc. ...

In 1857 an Anglican lay missionary named William Duncan brought Christianity to Lax Kw'alaams, but, feeling that he was competing in vain with the dissipated fort atmosphere for Tsimshian souls, he relocated about 350 of his flock to Metlakatla, at Metlakatla Pass just to the south. There was no further missionary presence at Lax Kw'alaams until the arrival of the Rev. Thomas Crosby of the Methodist church in 1874. The community is still predominantly Methodist (i.e. United Church of Canada). Crosby's wife, Emma Crosby, founded the Crosby Girls' Home in the community in the 1880s. It became part of B.C.'s residential school system in 1893 and was closed in 1948. William Baines (1832-1918) was an English-born Anglican missionary who founded the Tsimshian communities of Metlakatla, British Columbia, in Canada, and Metlakatla, Alaska, in the United States. ... Metlakatla, British Columbia, is a small community that is one of the seven Tsimshian village communities in British Columbia, Canada. ... The Rev. ... For the Methodist school of ancient Greek medicine, see Methodism (history of medicine) Methodism or the Methodist movement is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity. ... The United Church of Canada (French: lÉglise Unie du Canada) is Canadas second largest church (after the Roman Catholic Church), and its largest Protestant denomination. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

It was in Port Simpson in 1931 that the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia was founded as the province's first Native-run rights organization. Its four founders included the Tsimshian ethnologist William Beynon. 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. ...

Duncan estimated the population of Lax Kw'alaams in 1857 as 2,300, living in 140 houses. Approximately 500 died in a smallpox epidemic shortly after Duncan's departure. Today Lax Kw'alaams is the largest of the seven Tsimshian village communities in Canada. Its population in 1983 was 882.

The legal and political interests of the people of Lax Kw'alaams vis à vis the provincial and federal governments are represented by the Allied Tsimshian Tribes Association, which represents the hereditary chiefs of the Nine Tribes.

Prominent people of Lax Kw'alaams descent

• Frederick Alexcee, artist
• William Beynon, hereditary chief and ethnologist
• Edward E. Bryant, artist and carver
• Alfred Dudoward, hereditary chief
• Charles Dudoward, artist
• Valerie Dudoward, playwright
• Bill Helin, artist
• Rudy Kelly, journalist, humorist, and playwright
• Paul Legaic, hereditary chief and trader
• Odille Morison, linguist and artifact collector
• Rev. William Henry Pierce, missionary and memoirist
• Terry Starr, artist
• Henry W. Tate, oral historian
• Arthur Wellington Clah, hereditary chief and diarist
• William White, weaver

Frederick Alexcee (1853-1940s )was a Tsimshian carver and painter from the community of Lax Kwalaams (Port Simpson), British Columbia, Canada. ... 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. ... 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. ... Ligeex (variously spelled: Legaic etc. ... William Henry Pierce (1856-1948), also known as W. H. Pierce, was a Canadian First Nations missionary for the Methodist church and a member of the Tsimshian nation in northwestern British Columbia. ... Henry Wellington Tate (circa 1860 - 1914) was an oral historian from the Tsimshian First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, best known for his work with the anthropologist Franz Boas. ... 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. ...

Bibliography

• Bolt, Clarence (1992) Thomas Crosby and the Tsimshian: Small Shoes for Feet Too Large. Vancouver: UBC Press.

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

• Hare, Jan, and Jean Barman (2006) Good Intentions Gone Awry: Emma Crosby and the Methodist Mission on the Northwest Coast. Afterword by Caroline Dudoward. Vancouver: UBC Press.

• Inglis, Gordon B., et al. (1990) "Tsimshians of British Columbia since 1900." In Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, pp. 285-293. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

• Large, R. Geddes (1957; reprinted, 1981) The Skeena: River of Destiny. Sidney, B.C.: Gray's Publishing.

• Meilleur, Helen (2001) A Pour of Rain: Stories from a West Coast Fort. Vancouver: Raincoast Books.

• Neylan, Susan (2001) The Heavens Are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.