The Nisga'a , often formerly spelled Nishga and spelled in the Nisga'a language as Nisg?a'a (pronounced [nisqa?]), are an Indigenous people of Canada in British Columbia. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The name is a reduced form of [na:sqa?], which is a loan word from Tongass Tlingit, where it means "people of the Nass River".
The official languages of Nisg?a'a are the Nisg?a'a language and English.
Video Nisga'a
Nisga'a culture
Society
Nisga'a society is organized into four tribes:
- G?anada (Raven)
- Gis?'aast (Killer Whale)
- Lax?gibuu (Wolf)
- Lax?sgiik (Eagle)
Each tribe is further sub-divided into house groups - extended families with same origins. Some houses are grouped together into clans - grouping of Houses with same ancestors. Example:
- Lax?gibuu Tribe (Wolf Tribe)
- Gitwilnaak'il Clan (People Separated but of One)
- House of Duu?
- House of K'eex?kw
- House of Gwingyoo
- Gitwilnaak'il Clan (People Separated but of One)
Traditional cuisine
The Nisga'a traditionally harvest "beach food" all year round. This might include razor clams, mussels, oysters, limpets, scallops, abalone, fish, seaweed and other seafood that can be harvested from the shore. They also harvest salmon, cod, char, pike, trout and other fresh water fish from the streams, and hunt seals, fish and sea lion. Oolichan grease is sometimes traded with other tribes, though nowadays this is more usually in a ceremonial context. They hunt mountain goat, marmot, game birds and more in the forests. The family works together to cook and process the meat and fish, roasting or boiling the former. They eat fish and sea mammals in frozen, boiled, dried or roasted form. The heads of a type of cod, often gathered half eaten by sharks, are boiled into a soup that helped prevent colds. The Nisga?a also trade dried fish, seal oil, fish oil, blubber and cedar.
Traditional Houses
The traditional houses of the Nisga'a are shaped as large rectangles, made of cedar planks with cedar shake roofs, and oriented with the doors facing the water. The doors are usually decorated with the family crest. Inside, the floor is dug down to hold the hearth and conserve temperature. Beds and boxes of possessions are placed around the walls. Prior to the mid twentieth century, around three to four extended families might live in one house: this is nowadays an uncommon practice. Masks and blankets might decorate the walls.
Traditional clothing
Prior to European colonisation, men wore nothing in the summer, normally the best time to hunt and fish. Women wore skirts made of softened cedar bark and went topless. During the colder season, men wore cedar bark skirts (shaped more like a loincloth), a cape of cedar bark, and a basket hat outside in the rain, but wore nothing inside the house. Women wore a basket hat and cedar blankets indoors and outdoors. Both sexes made and wore shell and bone necklaces. They rubbed seal blubber into their hair, and men kept their hair long or in a top knot. During warfare, men wore red cedar armour, a cedar helmet, and cedar loincloths. They wielded spears, clubs, harpoons, bows and slings. Wicker shields were common.
Maps Nisga'a
Geography
Approximately 2,500 live in the Nass Valley (within the four villages). Another 3,500 Nisga'a live elsewhere in Canada, predominantly within the three urban societies noted in the section below.
Nisga'a villages
The Nisga'a people number about 6,000. In British Columbia, the Nisga'a Nation is represented by four villages:
- Gitlax?t'aamiks (New Aiyansh)
- Gitwinksihlkw (Canyon City)
- Lax?g?alts'ap (Greenville)
- Ging?olx (Kincolith)
Nisga'a urban societies
Many Nisga'a people have moved to cities for their opportunities. Concentrations are found in three urban areas outside traditional Nisga'a territory:
- Terrace, British Columbia
- Prince Rupert/Port Edward
- Vancouver - there are approximately 1,500 Nisga'a in Vancouver, and others elsewhere in the Lower Mainland.
Nisga'a calendar/life
The Nisga'a calendar revolves around harvesting of foods and goods used. The original year followed the various moons throughout the year.
- Hobiyee : Like a Spoon (February/March). This is the traditional time to celebrate the new year, also known as Hoobiyee. (Variations of spelling include: Hoobiyee, Hobiiyee, Hoobiiyee)
- X?saak : To Eat Oolichans (March). The oolichans return to the Nass River the end of February/beginning of March. The oolichans are the first food harvested after the winter, which marks the beginning of the harvesting year.
- Mmaal : To Use Canoes Again (April). The ice begins to break on the river, allowing for canoes to be used again
- Yansa'alt : Leaves Are Blooming (May). The leaves begin to flourish once again
- Miso'o : Sockeye Salmon (June). Sockeye salmon are harvested
- X?maay : To Eat Berries (July). various berries are harvested
- Wii Hoon : Great Salmon (August). Great amounts of salmon are harvested
- Genuugwiikw : Trail of the Marmot (September). Small game such as marmots are hunted
- X?laaxw : To Eat Trout (October). Trout are the main staple for this month
- Gwilatkw : To Blanket (November). The earth is "Blanketed" with snow
- Luut'aa : To Sit (December). The sun is sitting in one spot
- ?'aliiyee : To Walk North (January). This time of year, the sun begins to go north (K'alii) again
- Buxwlaks : To Blow Around (February). Blow around refers to the amount of wind during this time of year
Treaty
On August 4, 1998, a land-claim was settled between the Nisga'a, the government of British Columbia, and the Government of Canada. As part of the settlement in the Nass River valley, nearly 2,000 square kilometres of land was officially recognized as Nisga'a, and a 300,000-cubic-decameter water reservation was also created. The Bear Glacier Provincial Park was also created as a result of this agreement. The land-claim's settlement was the first formal treaty signed by a First Nation in British Columbia since the Douglas Treaties in 1854 (pertain to majority of British Columbia) and Treaty 8 (pertaining to northeastern British Columbia) . The land that is owned collectively is currently exposed to internal pressures from the Nisga'a people to turn it over into a system of individual ownership. This would have an effect on the rest of Canada in regards to native land.
History
The Tseax Cone situated in a valley above and east of the Tseax River was the source for an eruption during the 18th century that killed approximately 2,000 Nisga'a people from poisonous volcanic gases.
Government
The government bodies of the Nisga'a include the Nisga'a Lisims government, the government of the Nisga'a Nation, and the Nisga'a village governments, one for each of the four Nisga'a villages. The Nisga'a Lisims government is embodied in the Wilp Si'Ayuukhl Nisga'a and located in the Nisga's Lisims Government Building in Gitlax?t'aamiks.
Museum
In 2011 the Nisga'a Museum, a project of the Nisga'a Lisims government, opened in Laxgalts'ap. It contains many historical artifacts of the Nisga'a people returned after many decades in major museums beyond the Nass Valley.
Prominent Nisga'a
- Jordan Abel, poet.
- Frank Arthur Calder, Sim'oogit Wii Lisims hereditary chief, rights activist, legislator, President emeritus Nisga'a Lisims Government
- Joseph Gosnell, hereditary chief Sim'oogit Hleek, treaty negotiator, Former President Nisga'a Lisims Government
- Norman Tait, Hereditary Chief - Sim'oogit G?awaa? of wilps Luuya'as, Master carver
- Alver Tait, Hereditary Chief - Sim'oogit Luuya'as, Master carver
- Ron Joseph Telek, of wilps Luuya'as, carver
- Alvin A. McKay, hereditary chief, past Daax?heet of wilps Ax?dii Wil Luug?ooda, treaty negotiator, educator
- William W.D. McKay, hereditary chief, treaty negotiator
- Dr. Bertram McKay, hereditary chief, Past Ax?dii wil luu gooda, treaty negotiator, educator
- Larry McNeil, Tlingit-Nisga'a photographer
- Da-ka-xeen Mehner, Tlingit-Nisga'a photographer and installation artist, director of the Native Art Center at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks
- Rodrick Robinson hereditary chief, past Minee'eskw, Treaty Negotiator, ambassador for nisga'a Nation
- Nelson Leeson Hereditary Chief, Past Ax?hlawaals, Treaty Negotiator, Former President Nisga'a Lisims Government
See also
- Nisga'a Highway
- Nisga'a Memorial Lava Beds Provincial Park
- School District 92 Nisga'a
- Nisga'a Museum
- "O God, Our Help in Ages Past"
- Nisga'a and Haida Crest Poles of the Royal Ontario Museum
References
Further reading
- Barbeau, Marius (1950) Totem Poles. 2 vols. (Anthropology Series 30, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 119.) Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.
- Boas, Franz, Tsimshian Texts (Nass River Dialect), 1902
- Boas, Franz, Tsimshian Texts (New Series), [1912]
- Morven, Shirley(ed.) (1996) From Time before Memory. New Aiyansh, B.C.: School District No. 92 (Nisga'a).
- Bryant, Elvira C. (1996) Up Your Nass. Church of Religious Research.
- Collison, W. H. (1915) In the Wake of the War Canoe: A Stirring Record of Forty Years' Successful Labour, Peril and Adventure amongst the Savage Indian Tribes of the Pacific Coast, and the Piratical Head-Hunting Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Toronto: Musson Book Company. Reprinted by Sono Nis Press, Victoria, B.C. (ed. by Charles Lillard), 1981.
- Dean, Jonathan R. (1993) "The 1811 Nass River Incident: Images of First Conflict on the Intercultural Frontier." Canadian Journal of Native Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 83-103.
- "Fur Trader, A" (Peter Skene Ogden) (1933) Traits of American Indian Life and Character. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press. Reprinted, Dover Publications, 1995. (Ch. 4 is the earliest known description of a Nisga'a feast.)
- McNeary, Stephen A. (1976) Where Fire Came Down: Social and Economic Life of the Niska. Ph.D. dissertation, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Penn.
- Patterson, E. Palmer, II (1982) Mission on the Nass: The Evangelization of the Nishga (1860-1890). Waterloo, Ontario: Eulachon Press.
- Raunet, Daniel (1996) Without Surrender, without Consent: A History of the Nisga'a Land Claims. Revised ed. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre.
- Rose, Alex (2000) Spirit Dance at Meziadin: Chief Joseph Gosnell and the Nisga'a Treaty. Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing.
- Roth, Christopher F. (2002) "Without Treaty, without Conquest: Indigenous Sovereignty in Post-Delgamuukw British Columbia." Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 143-165.
- Sapir, Edward (1915) "A Sketch of the Social Organization of the Nass River Indians." Anthropological Series, no. 7. Geological Survey, Museum Bulletin, no. 19. Ottawa: Government Printing Office. ([https://archive.org/details/sketchofsocialor00sapiiala Online version] at the Internet Archive)
- Sterritt, Neil J., et al. (1998) Tribal Boundaries in the Nass Watershed. Vancouver: U.B.C. Press.
External links
- Nisg?a'a Lisims Government
- School District 92 (Nisga'a)
- Gitmax?mak'ay Nisga'a Prince Rupert/Port Edward Society
- Ging?olx website
- Nisga'a People of the Rainbow
- Nisga'a Museum
- Nass River Indians Movie, Canadianfilm
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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