Leaving Skidegate Inlet aboard BC Ferries M/V Queen of Prince Rupert

The Queen Charlotte Islands or Haida Gwaii ("Land of the Haida") 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 islands with a total landmass of 10,180 km² (3,932 sq mi). The islands are separated from the British Columbia mainland to the east by the Hecate Strait. Vancouver Island lies to the south, across Queen Charlotte Sound, while the U.S. state of Alaska is to the north, across the Dixon Entrance. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (519x711, 7 KB)Map of Queen Charlottes, from OMC From Online Map Creation File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1840x1232, 771 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Queen Charlotte Islands Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1840x1232, 771 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Queen Charlotte Islands Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used... The M/V Queen of the North was a RORO ferry built by AG Weser of Germany and operated by BC Ferries, which ran along a scenic 18-hour route off the Canadian Pacific coast between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, also known as the Inside Passage. ... The Mergui Archipelago An archipelago is a landform which consists of a chain or cluster of islands. ... 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... Graham Island is the largest of the Queen Charlotte Islands (aka Haida Gwaii, (land of the Haida) lying off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. ... Moresby Island is a large island (2,608 km²), part of Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, Canada, located at . ... Islands and major straits of the northern Pacific Northwest Coast The Hecate Strait or Strait of Hecate (Haida: Seegaay) is a wide but relatively shallow body of water separating the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) from the mainland of British Columbia in Canada. ... Vancouver Island is separated from mainland British Columbia by the Strait of Georgia and the Queen Charlotte Strait, and from Washington by the Juan De Fuca Strait. ... Queen Charlotte Sound is a bay of the Pacific Ocean in British Columbia, Canada, between Vancouver Island in the south and the Queen Charlotte Islands in the north. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... Official language(s) none Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ... The Dixon Entrance is a strait about 80 km (50 miles) long and wide in the Pacific Ocean at the International Boundary between the United States ( Alaska) and Canada. ...

Some of the land, including the homelands of the Haida people, is jointly protected under federal and Haida legislation as Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. The islands are home to an abundance of wildlife, including the largest subspecies of black bear (Ursus americana carlottae) and the subspecies of stoat Mustela erminea haidarum. The black-tailed deer and raccoon are introduced species which have become abundant. The Haida are an Indigenous nation of the west coast of North America. ... The Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site is a combination of a national park reserve and a heritage site located in British Columbia, Canada. ... Image:FRANKIE COBB.jpg Various species of deer are commonly seen wildlife across the Americas and Eurasia. ... Binomial name Ursus americanus Pallas, 1780 For the Eurasian Black Bear, see Asiatic Black Bear. ... Binomial name Mustela erminea Linnaeus, 1758 Range map The stoat (Mustela erminea) is a small mammal of the family Mustelidae. ... Trinomial name Odocoileus hemionus columbianus Richardson, 1829 Like all deer, black-tailed deer are herbivores. ... Type species Procyon lotor Linnaeus, 1758 Species Procyon cancrivorus Procyon insularis Procyon lotor Skull of a raccoon, showing dentition. ...

Economy

The cash economy is resource-based, primarily logging and commercial fishing. After that, service industries and government jobs provide about one-third of the jobs, and tourism has become a more prominent part of the economy in recent years, especially for fishing and tour guides, cycling, camping, and adventure tourism. Logging is the process in which trees are felled (cut down) usually as part of a timber harvest. ... Fishing industry is the commercial activity of fishing and producing fish and other seafood products. ... Tourists on Oahu, Hawaii Tourism is travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes or the provision of services to support this leisure travel. ... Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering. ... Tour may mean: Concert tour, series of performances in different markets Tourism, travel for pleasure James Tour, nanoscientist Le Tour de France, the worlds biggest bicycle race This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For the concept of a guide, see guide. ... Police officer on a bicycle Cycling is a recreation, a sport and a means of transport across land. ... Car camping is camping in a tent, but nearby the car for easier access and for supply storage. ... Adventure tourism is a type of niche tourism involving exploration or travel to remote areas, where the traveler should expect the unexpected. ...

Population

At the time of colonial contact, the population was roughly 10000-12000 people residing in several dozen towns. Ninety percent of the population died during 1800s from smallpox; other diseases arrived as well, including typhoid, measles, and syphilis, affecting more. By 1900, 700 people were left. Towns were abandoned as people left their homes for the mission towns of Skidegate and Masset, cannery towns on the mainland, or for Vancouver Island. Some 3500 people live on the islands today. Indigenous people (Haida) live throughout the islands, and maintain two exclusive communities in Skidegate and Old Masset, each with a population of about 1000. Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) is a highly contagious disease unique to humans. ... This is about the disease typhoid fever. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Skidegate () is a Haida community in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) in British Columbia, Canada. ... , Masset [mæ sɘt] is a village in Haida Gwaii also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of the Province of British Columbia in Canada. ...

European exploration

The archipelago was visited in 1774 by Juan Pérez (at Langara Island) and in 1778 by Capt. James Cook. In 1787 the islands were surveyed by Capt. George Dixon. The islands were named by Capt. Dixon after one of his ships, the Queen Charlotte, which was named after Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of the United Kingdom. Chesma Column in Tsarskoe Selo, commemorating the end of the Russo-Turkish War. ... Juan José Pérez Hernández (ca. ... Langara Island, one of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, is the northernmost of that group. ... 1778 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. ... Year 1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... George Dixon (1755?-1800) was an English sea captain and explorer. ... The Queen Charlotte was a British merchant ship in the late 18th century. ... Queen Charlotte, (née Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was the queen consort of George III of the United Kingdom (1738–20). ... George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ...

The name Haida Gwaii was more recently introduced as an alternative to the colonial name "Queen Charlotte Islands", in order to recognize the history of the Haida Nation. "Haida Gwaii" means "our land", while "Haida" on its own means not only "us" but also "people".

No longer in common usage is the more ancient name of 'Xaadala gwayee' or, in alternative orthography, 'Xhaaydla Gwaayaay', meaning Islands on the Xhaaydla, that is to say, Islands on the Boundary between Worlds, 'Worlds' referring here to the forest, sea, and sky; indeed, the coastal villages of the Haida occur along the meeting of forest, sea, and sky. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ...

Natural setting

The archipelago seems to have escaped much of the glaciation of the last ice age. That, and its subsequent isolation from the mainland, has produced what some call the "Galápagos of the North," a unique biological zone with many endemic animals and plants. Its climate, like that of the rest of the British Columbia and Alaskan coast in the area, is moderated by the Kuroshio Current and features considerable precipitation and relatively mild temperatures year round. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... Orthographic projection centred over the Galápagos. ... The Kuroshio Current is an ocean current found in the western Pacific Ocean off the east coast of Taiwan and flowing northeastward past Japan, where it merges with the easterly drift of the North Pacific Current. ...

Haida Gwaii was the site of Kiidk'yaas (meaning "ancient tree"), the only naturally occurring golden Sitka Spruce in the world. The Golden Spruce was sacred to the Haida people as well as a popular tourist attraction. The 300-year-old tree was illegally cut down by Grant Hadwin on January 22, 1997 as an apparent political protest against Canadian government sanctioned logging companies.^[1] While Botanists from the University of British Columbia took cuttings from the fallen tree explaining that they did so to prevent this unique form of tree would not be lost forever, one Haida citizen is aware of the existence of another golden spruce.^{[citation needed]} Kiidkyaas or Kiid Kiyaas (ancient tree) was a Sitka Spruce tree, Picea sitchensis Aurea, that grew on the banks of the Yakoun River in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia. ... Binomial name Picea sitchensis (Bong. ... The Haida are an Indigenous nation of the west coast of North America. ... January 22 is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Canadian public university with its main campus located at Point Grey in the unincorporated Electoral Area A, immediately west of Vancouver, British Columbia. ... Plant cuttings are a technique for vegetatively (asexually) propagating plants in which a piece of the source plant containing at least one stem cell is placed in a suitable medium such as moist soil, potting mix, coir or rock wool. ...

The islands are home to a wide variety of other large native trees, including the beautiful Western Redcedar, Yellow Cedar(Nootka Cypress), Shore Pine, Western Hemlock, Mountain Hemlock, and Red alder. Species Thuja plicata Western Redcedar, Thuja plicata, a species of thuja, is an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to the northwestern US and southwestern Canada, from southern Alaska and British Columbia south to northwest California and inland to western Montana. ... Binomial name Callitropsis nootkatensis (D. Don) Örsted Nootka Cypress (Callitropsis nootkatensis), formerly Cupressus nootkatensis, Xanthocyparis nootkatensis or Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, is a cypress (Cupressaceae) with a chequered taxonomic and nomenclatural history. ... Binomial name Callitropsis nootkatensis (D. Don) Örsted Nootka Cypress (Callitropsis nootkatensis), formerly Cupressus nootkatensis, Xanthocyparis nootkatensis or Chamaecyparis nootkatensis, is a cypress (Cupressaceae) with a chequered taxonomic and nomenclatural history. ... Binomial name Pinus contorta Douglas Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) is a common tree in western North America. ... Binomial name Tsuga heterophylla (Raf. ... Binomial name Tsuga mertensiana (Bong. ... Binomial name Alnus rubra Bong. ...

Another rare natural occurrence that was popular amongst tourists to Haida Gwaii was the White Raven. This was an albino raven that was often mistaken for an eagle or seagull owing to its unusual colouring. The White Raven lived around Port Clements and would commonly be seen taking food handouts from locals and visitors alike. It died after making contact with an electrical transformer, temporarily knocking out power to the town and surrounding area. Albinism is a genetic condition resulting in a lack of pigmentation in the eyes, skin and hair. ... Species See text. ... Genera Several, see below. ... Seagull or Seagulls may refer to: Gull, a family of seabird, members of which are often called seagulls. ...

Culture

Visual arts

The artwork known as Haida Gwaii, by Bill Reid, is featured on the reverse of the Canadian $20 bill.^[2] The piece depicts the Spirit of Haida Gwaii in a canoe, accompanied by the mythic messengers. Haida art is also frequently seen on large monumental sized cedar totem poles and even as cartoons in the form of Haida Manga. Bill Reids sculpture The Raven and The New Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. ... The Spirit of Haida Gwaii is a sculpture by British Columbia Haida artist Bill Reid (1920-1998). ... Totem poles are carved from great trees, most often Western Redcedar, along the Pacific coast of North America. ... Haida Manga is a blend of north EAST Pacific and north WEST Pacific design sensibilities. ...

Haida language

The Haida language has been classified as part of the Nadene family of languages, though most linguists acknowledge a deep resistance to classification and accept Haidi may best be classed as an language isolate. All 50 remaining speakers of Haida are over 70. Telus and the Haida Gwaii elders recently completed a project to bring broadband internet to the island via a 150 kilometre microwave relay. This enables interactive research to be carried out on the more than 80 CDs of language, story and spoken history of the people. Pre-contact distribution of Haida The Haida language is the language of the Haida people. ... Na-Dené (also Na-Dene, Nadene) is a Native American language family which includes the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit. ... A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ...

Notes

• A military intelligence gathering station that was key in monitoring communications in the northern portions of the former Soviet Union during the Cold War is located just outside Masset, near the northern tip of Graham island.

• There are no fast-food restaurants on the Queen Charlotte Islands

For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]

External links

• Hello BC - official tourism site
• Queen Charlotte Island Visitor Information Centre
• Sandspit Chamber Of Commerce
• Village of Masset
• Village of Port Clements
• Council of the Haida Nation
• Information on the forestry dispute
• The QCI Observer - Local Newspaper
• Photographs