Gitlaan

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The Gitlan are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian Nation in British Columbia, Canada, and referred to as one of the 'nine tribes of the lower Skeena River. The name Gitlan means literally "people of the Stern Canoe." Their traditional territory includes the watershed of the , a tributary of the Skeena River. An area of the riverbank there resembled from the distance a canoe-stern, hence the name of the tribe. The villages at Venn Pass were partitioned to include exclusive areas for Gitlan.

In 1887, some of the Gitlan tribe moved from Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla, B.C. with the Anglican lay missionary William Duncan to found the community of "New" Metlakatla, Alaska. A contingent of Gitlan chiefs and people remained behind in B.C.

The Gitlan consists of 17 House groups with two royal houses, one Ganhada (Raven), House of Xpe Hanaax and one Laxiboo (Wolf), House of Gwiskyaan. These two lineages are related through time and interwoven through their history, each provided lineage for Gitlan chiefs. A Nisga'a family from a related Laxgibuu (Wolf clan) House group was married into the Gitlan. This matriline included or came to include sons of the Gispaxlo'ots House chief and Hudson's Bay Company employee Arthur Wellington Clah, and Albert Wellington, who served as chief of the Gitlan Laxibou with the name Gwisk'aayn until his death in 1913. Wellington's sister's son, William Beynon, who was to become the renowned ethnologist, moved from Victoria, B.C., to Lax Kw'alaams at that time to preside over Wellington's funerary rites and assume the title Gwisk'aayn and with it the Laxibou chieftainship, in accordance with Tsimshian rules of matrilineal succession, though there was initial opposition because Beynon had become "enfranchised" as a Canadian citizen. Beynon was chief of the Laxibou Gitlan until his death in 1958.

Chief Niisłaganuus (Simeon Gitlan) had moved to Metlakatla, AK following the lay missionary William Duncan in 1887. Since there was no heir for Simeon, his name was 'put on the shelf' with the Gitlan Ganhada since it originated with Xpe Hanaax. A Ganhada matriline daughter, Emily Venn, was asked to 'hold' the name but refused because of the heavy obligations for a 'big name.' It sat on the shelf until the royal wolf lineage, Henry Helin, asked for permission to use it for one generation to bolster the House of Gwiskyaan and this was granted. This is a practice typically approved by the tribe for the dual purpose of elevating the origin House group and the attending House group. The move was intended to elevate Gwiskyaan (attending), a House that had experienced loss through the colonial intersections and disease epidemics. Henry Helin was known as Chief Niisłaganuus until his passing but confusion with the imposed patronymic system has infiltrated the inter-generational transfer of this name. Many of these colonial intersections were intended to dismantle this Hereditary system, but the dignity of the matrilineal Tsimshian Hereditary system remains in tact and keeps track of these essential elements.

In 1935 William Beynon recorded that Gitlan people in Lax Kw'alaams included 4 members of the Gispwudwada (Killerwhale clan), 8 member of the Ganhada (Raven), and 9 members of the Laxgibuu (Wolf), each clan being represented by only one house-group. Other House groups were located in Metlakatla, BC, Metlakatla, AK, and other areas in Tsimshian territory.

Prominent Gitlans[]

  • William Beynon, chief and ethnologist
  • Odille Morison, linguist and artifact collector
  • Bilham 'neex Loa Ryan, Gitlan, House of Xpe Hanaax, Ganhada - artist - traditional cedar weaver[18]
  • Sm'hayetsk Teresa Ryan, PhD., Gitlan, House of Xpe Hanaax, Ganhada - scientist, author, artist - traditional cedar weaver
  • Rev. William Soloman White, the first Sm'algyax speaking reverend. House of Gwiskyaan

Bibliography[]

  • Anderson, Margaret, and Marjorie Halpin (2000) "Introduction" to Potlatch at Gitsegukla: William Beynon's 1945 Field Notebooks, ed. by Margaret Anderson and Marjorie Halpin, pp. 3–52. Vancouver: UBC Press.
  • Beynon, William (1941) "The Tsimshians of Metlakatla, Alaska." American Anthropologist (new series), vol. 43, pp. 83–88
  • Garfield, Viola E. (1939) "Tsimshian Clan and Society." University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 167–340.
  • Halpin, Marjorie M. (1978) "William Beynon, Ethnographer, Tsimshian, 1888-1958." In American Indian Intellectuals: 1976 Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society, ed. by Margot Liberty, pp. 140–156. St. Paul: West Publishing Company.
  • McDonald, James A. (1983) "An Historic Event in the Political Economy of the Tsimshian: Information on the Ownership of the Zimacord District." B.C. Studies, no. 57, pp. 24–37.
  • Roth, Christopher. 2008. Becoming Tsimshian: The Social Life of Names. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
  • Ryan, Teresa. 2014. Territorial Jurisdiction: The cultural and economic significance of eulachon Thaleichthys pacificus in the north-central coast region of British Columbia. PhD Dissertation, UBC.
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