Tsimshian
People | Ts’msyan |
---|---|
Language | Sm'álgyax Sgüüx̣s |
Country | La̱xyuubm Ts’msyen[3] |
The Tsimshian
The Tsimshian estimate there are 45,000 Tsimshian people and approximately 10,000 members are federally registered in eight First Nations communities (including the Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Gitxaala, Gitga'at at
Tsimshian society is
Early Euro-Canadian anthropologists and linguists had classified the Gitxsan and Nisga'a as Tsimshian, because of apparent linguistic affinities. The three were all referred to as "Coast Tsimshian", even though some communities were not coastal. These three groups, however, are separate nations.
History
Tsimshian translates to "Inside the Skeena River"[5] At one time the Tsimshian lived on the upper reaches of the Skeena River near present-day Hazelton, British Columbia.
According to southern Tsimshian oral history, after a series of disasters befell the people, a chief led a migration away from the cursed land to the coast, where they founded Kitkatla Village, the first of three Southern Tsimshian villages. Kitkatla is still considered to be the most conservative of the Tsimshian villages.[6] The Nisga'a and Gitxsan remained in the upper Skeena region (above the canyon) near the Nass River and forks of the Skeena respectively, but other Tsimshian chiefs moved down the river and occupied all the lands of the lower Skeena valley. Over time, these groups developed a new dialect of their ancestral language and came to regard themselves as a distinct population, the Tsimshian-proper. They continued to share the rights and customs of those who are known as the Gitxsan, their kin on the upper Skeena.
The Tsimshian maintained winter villages in and around the islands of Prince Rupert Harbour and Venn Pass (Metlakatla). They returned to their summer villages along the lower Skeena River when the salmon returned. Archaeological evidence shows 5,000 years of continuous habitation in the Prince Rupert region.[6]
Gitxaala might have been the first Tsimshian village contacted by Europeans when Captain
Throughout the second half of the 19th century, epidemics of
In 1835, the total population of the Tsimshian peoples was estimated at 8,500.[6] By 1885, the population had dropped to 4,500, 817 of whom moved to Alaska two years later following Missionary William Duncan.
In the 1880s the
In 1895, the BC Tsimshian population stood at 3,550, while the Alaska Tsimshian population had dropped to 465 by 1900. Some of the Tsimshian had returned south to their homelands on the Skeena. After this low-water point, the Tsimshian population began to grow again, eventually to reach modern numbers comparable to the 1835 population estimate. However, the numbers of the inland Tsimshian peoples are now higher than they were historically, while those of the Southern and Coastal Tsimshian are much lower.[6]
In the 1970s, the Metlakatla Indian Community voted to retain their rights to land and water, and opted out of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA); they have the only Native reservation in Alaska. The Metlakatla Tsimshian maintained their reservation status and holdings exclusive of the ANSCA. They do not have an associated Native Corporation, although Tsimshian in Alaska may be shareholders of the Sealaska Corporation. The Annette Islands Reserve was the only location in Alaska allowed to maintain fish traps according to traditional rights. The use of these were otherwise banned when Alaska became a state in 1959. The traps were used to gather fish for food for people living on the reservation. Legally the community was required to use the traps at least once every three years or lose the right permanently. They stopped the practice early in the 2000s and lost their right to this traditional way of fishing.
The majority of Tsimshian still live in the lower Skeena River watershed near
Culture
The Tsimshian have a
The marriage ceremony was an extremely formal affair, several prolonged and sequential ceremonies. Arranged marriages and births were common to protect rights of access to territories and resources. Some cultural
Like all Northwest Coastal peoples, the Tsimshian harvested the abundant sea life, especially
Tsimshian religion centered on the "Lord of Heaven", who aided people in times of need by sending supernatural servants to earth to aid them. The Tsimshian believed that
The Tsimshian engage in the feast system or potlatch, which they refer to as the yaawk (feast) for one specific event. Today in Tsimshian culture, the potlatch is held to honour deaths, burials, and succession to name-titles. The Tsimshian have four different types of feasts. The feast system is the agency for social reproduction, expression of law, the transmission of knowledge, and demonstration of the obligations for chiefs to provide stewardship for resources and attending to needs of communities.[7] The planning and delivery of feast events requires very specific protocols, including those required for the guests. It is untoward to hold out one's hand while payments (also known as 'gifts' by external observers) are being distributed.
The Tsimshian have maintained their fishing and hunting lifestyle (although constrained by colonialism and declining fish and animal population abundances), art and culture, and are working to revitalize the common use of their language. Artists have excelled in traditional mediums and contemporary forms with pieces spread around the world. These artisans practice the tradition of story telling with their chosen mediums.
Ethnobotany
Like other coastal peoples, the Tsimshian fashioned most of their goods out of western red cedar, especially its bark. It could be fashioned into tools, clothing, roofing, armour, building materials, and canoe skins. They used cedar in their Chilkat weaving, which they are credited with inventing.[8] They use the berries of Vaccinium Vitis-idaea ssp. minus as food.[9]
Tribes
The Tsimshian people of British Columbia encompass fifteen tribes:
- Gitasts'uu, Gidisdzu or Xai'xais, a Heiltsuk group from Kynoch Inlet they are part of the Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation at Klemtu (Klemdulxk / Xłmduulxk), British Columbia)
- Gitḵ'a'ata, Gitga'ata or Gitga'at ("People of the Cane", as Hartley Bay Indian Band at Hartley Bay (Txałgiu / Txałgiiw), British Columbia)
- Gitxaała, Gitxaala or Kitkatla (″People of the Open Sea″, also known as Git lax m’oon (″People of the saltwater″), as Gitxaala Nation they live in the village of Kitkatla (La̱x Klan), British Columbia)
- Gitsumkalum, Kitsumkalum, Terrace, BC)
- Gits'ilaasü, Kitselas (Terrace, BC)
Some of the Chiefs of these nine tribes happened to be located at Fort Simpson (later Port Simpson, later
Other Chiefs were located at the mission created community of Metlakatla, with some subsequently migrating to Metlakatla, Alaska, newest tribe, with lineages from all Tsimshian tribes.
Clans
The Tsimshian clans are the
- Gispwudwada (Killer Whale Clan)
- Ganhada (Raven Clan)
- Laxgibuu (Wolf Clan)
- Laxsgiik (Eagle Clan)
Treaty process
The Tsimshian wanted to preserve their villages and fishing sites on the
Language
The Tsimshian speak a language, called
Some linguists classify Tsimshian languages as a member of the theoretical
Notable Tsimshian people
- Frederick Alexcee, artist, culture bearer
- Morgan Asoyuf, artist, culture bearer
- William Beynon, Gitlaan and ethnographer
- David A. Boxley, Laxsgiik, carver and culture bearer. First to host a potlatch and raise a totem pole in modern times in Metlakatla, Alaska
- Arthur Wellington Clah, from the House of Tamks of the Gispaxlo'ots. Translator at Fort Simpson, the first to teach Father Duncan the Sm`algyax language, diarist
- Marcia Crosby, art historian
- Alfred Dudoward, hereditary chief of the Gitando, and leader of the Port Simpson Methodist Movement. co-founder of the Native Brotherhood
- Phil Gray, artist[13]
- Benjamin Haldane, pioneering photographer from Metlakatla village
- Calvin Helin – lawyer, author, entrepreneur
- William Jeffrey, Gitwilgyoats, hereditary chief, activist, carver
- Rudy Kelly, author and journalist[14]
- Paul Legaic, hereditary chief of the Gispaxlo'ots and trader.
- Charles Menzies, Gitxaała, House of Ts'ibasaa, author and anthropologist.
- Odille Morison, translator and art collector
- William Henry Pierce, missionary and memoirist
- Bilham 'neex Loa Ryan, Gitlan, House of Xpe Hanaax, Ganhada, artist and traditional cedar weaver[15]
- Peter Simpson, Native American rights activist
- Henry W. Tate, Gispakloats, oral historian, tribal headman
- Roy Henry Vickers, artist
- Walter Wright; hereditary chief of the Gits'ilaasü (Kitselas) and oral historian
Anthropologists and other scholars who have worked with the Tsimshian
Missionaries who proselytized the Tsimshian
- William Henry Collison
- Thomas Crosby, Methodist
- William Duncan Anglican/independent
- Edward Marsden, Presbyterian
- Bishop William Ridley Anglican
- Robert Tomlinson, Anglican
See also
- Tsimshian mythology
- Gitksan language
- Nisga'a language
- Coast Tsimshian
Notes
- ^ "Aboriginal Ancestry Responses (73), Single and Multiple Aboriginal Responses (4), Residence on or off reserve (3), Residence inside or outside Inuit Nunangat (7), Age (8A) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2016 Census – 25% Sample Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Government of Canada. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
- ^ Bureau, U.S. Census. "American FactFinder – Results". factfinder.census.gov. Archived from the original on 2020-02-14. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
- . Retrieved 7 November 2023.
- ^ Note: There are many other ways to spell the name, such as: Tsimpshean, Tsimshean, Tsimpshian, and others; this article will use the most common spelling, "Tsimshian".
- ^ Campbell, Lyle (1997), river of mists or fog. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 396 n. 29
- ^ a b c d e Marjorie M., Halpin; Seguin, Margaret. "Tsimshian Peoples: Southern Tsimshian, Coast Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitksan" (PDF).
- .
- ISBN 0-295-97973-9
- ^ Compton, Brian Douglas, 1993, Upper North Wakashan and Southern Tsimshian Ethnobotany: The Knowledge and Usage of Plants..., Ph.D. Dissertation, University of British Columbia, page 101
- ^ Kitsumkalum and the Tsimshian Treaty Process Archived 2006-09-02 at the Wayback Machine Kitsumkalum Treaty Office
- ^ Tsimshian First Nations Archived 2006-06-24 at the Wayback Machine – BC Treaty Commission
- ^ "L'Immigration transforme le portrait linguistique du Canada. Voici comment".
- ^ "VIDEO and story: Totem pole raised on Lelu after LNG project falls". Prince Rupert Northern View. 2017-10-21. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
- ^ "Action at All Native Basketball tournament creates backdrop for new novel from B.C. author | CBC News".
- ^ https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/objects/NMAI_278728 Doulk
References
- Barbeau, Marius (1950) Totem Poles. 2 vols. (Anthropology Series 30, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 119.) Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.
- Boas, Franz, "Tsimshian Mythology", in Thirty-First Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1909–1910, pp. 29–1037. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1916.
- Garfield, Viola, "Tsimshian Clan and Society", University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, vol. 7, no. 3 (1939), pp. 167–340.
- Garfield, Viola E., and Paul S. Wingert, The Tsimshian Indians and Their Arts, Seattle: Washington, University of Washington Press, 1951, 1966.
- Halpin, Marjorie M., and Margaret Seguin, "Tsimshian Peoples: Southern Tsimshian, Coast Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitksan", In: Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, edited by Wayne Suttles. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1990, pp. 267–284.
- McDonald, James A. (2003) People of the Robin: The Tsimshian of Kitsumkalum, CCI Press.
- Miller, Jay, Tsimshian Culture: A Light through the Ages, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
- Miller, Jay, and Carol Eastman, eds., The Tsimshian and Their Neighbors of the North Pacific Coast, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1984.
- Neylan, Susan, The Heavens Are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.
- Roth, Christopher. 2008. Becoming Tsimshian: The Social Life of Names. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
- Seguin, Margaret, Interpretive Contexts for Traditional and Current Coast Tsimshian Feasts. Ottawa, ON: National Museums of Canada, 1985.
- Seguin, Marget, ed., The Tsimshian: Images of the Past, Views for the Present. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1984.
External links
- The Canadian Museum of Civilization – Tsimshian Prehistory
- Map of Northwest Coast First Nations (including Tsimshian)
- Tsimshian Text List of Tsimshian Text by Boaz, F.
- Alaskan Tlingit and Tsimshian Essay by Jay Miller – From the University of Washington Library
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 165. .