Tsimshian Totally Explained

Everything about The Tsimshian totally explained

The Tsimshian, usually pronounced in English as /'sɪm.ʃi.æn/ (from Sm'algyax ts’msyan, "inside the Skeena River"), are Indigenous, or 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. Currently there are about 10,000 Tsimshians, of whom about 1,300 live in Alaska.
   Canadian Tsimshian live along the Skeena and Nass rivers, as well as the many inlets and islands on the coast. The Tsimshian obtained food through fishing (halibut and salmon) and hunting for seal, sea lion and sea otter.
   The Tsimshian nation consists of fourteen bands: the Kitasoo (who live at Klemtu, B.C.), the Gitga'ata (Hartley Bay, B.C.), the Kitkatla (Kitkatla, B.C.), the Kitsumkalum (Kitsumkalum, B.C.), the Kitselas or Gits'ilaasü (Kitselas, B.C.), and nine tribes resident at Lax Kw'alaams (a.k.a. Port Simpson), B.C.: Giluts'aaw, Ginadoiks, Ginaxangiik, Gispaxlo'ots, Gitando, Gitlaan, Gits'iis, Gitwilgyoots, and Gitzaxłaał. An additional Tsimshian village community in Canada, Metlakatla, B.C. ("Old Metlakatla"), isn't associated with any one particular tribe or group of tribes. The one Tsimshian community in Alaska, "New" Metlakatla, is an offshoot of the original Metlakatla, B.C., population (see below).
   Like all North Coast peoples, the Tsimshian were fearsome warriors with a deeply hierarchical society. Succession was matrilineal, and one's place in society was determined by one's clan or phratry (known as pteex). The Tsimshian clans are the Laxsgiik (Eagle Clan), Gispwudwada (Killerwhale Clan), Ganhada (Raven Clan) and Laxgibuu (Wolf Clan). Marriage in Tsimshian society must take place between members of different clans. The lord of a village was the head of the strongest clan, with the less powerful clan heads forming his council of the nobility.
   The Tlingit claim that their art of weaving Chilkat blankets is derived from Tsimshian sources, although this hasn't been historically corroborated. The Tlingit also trace a number of other arts to Tsimshian sources. Intermarriage, name exchange, trade, and slaving were very common between the Tlingit, the Tsimshian, and the Haida.

Alaskan Tsimshian

The Tsimshian in Alaska were refugees from religious and racial persecution in Canada during the 1880s. Led by the Anglican lay missionary William Duncan, a group of Tsimshian requested settlement on Annette Island from the U.S. government. There Duncan and 823 Tsimshian followers established the village of Metlakatla. The island was founded as a reservation for the Tsimshian people and is the only Indian reservation in Alaska.
They maintained their reservation status and holdings exclusive of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and thus don't have an associated Native Corporation, although Tsimshian in Alaska may be shareholders of the Sealaska Corporation. The Annette Island reservation is the only location in Alaska allowed to maintain fish traps, which were otherwise banned when Alaska became a state in 1959. The traps are used to provide food for people living on the reservation.

Canadian Tsimshian

The Tsimshian in Canada are in negotiations with Canada and British Columbia for a treaty settlement. These negotiations were pursued through the Tsimshian Tribal Council until that organization dissolved in late 2005 amid legal and political turmoil. It is still unclear whether there will be a new treaty negotiating umbrella organization.
   Some earlier anthropological and linguistic sources also group the Gitxsan and Nisga'a people together as "Tsimshian," because of linguistic affinities. Under this terminology Tsimshians were referred to as the "Coast Tsimshian," even though the Kitsumkalum and Kitselas Tsimshians were not coastal. But all this usage is now outmoded and was never the Native usage. The Gitxsan, Nisga'a, and Tsimshian today are referred to as separate nations.
   A people of North America's northwest coast, inhabiting the southern Alaskan panhandle and the north coast of British Columbia. Like other coastal peoples, the Tsimshian fashioned most of their goods out of Western Redcedar, particularly from its bark, which could be fashioned into tools, clothing, roofing, armor, building materials and canoe skins. The Tsimshian had the misfortune of being the nearest and most favored victims of Haida depredations. The Tsimshian and Tlingit shared a common way of life, and while this allowed for a great deal of trade, it also led to the two peoples ferociously battling for the best lands, the best fishing grounds, for slaves and plunder, or revenge.
   The Tsimshian were a seafaring people, as were the Haida.
   Tsimshian thrived on salmon, which were especially plentiful prior to modern large-scale commercial fishing. This abundant food source enabled the Tsimshian to live in permanent towns. Tsimshian longhouses were very large, and usually housed an entire extended family. Cultural taboos centered around women and men eating improper foods during and after childbirth. Marriage was an extremely formal affair, involving several prolonged and sequential ceremonies.
   Tsimshian religion centered around the "Lord of Heaven", who aided people in times of need by sending supernatural servants to earth to aid them. The Tsimshian believed that charity and purification of the body (either by cleanliness or fasting) was the route to the afterlife.
   As with all north coastal peoples, the Tsimshian engage in the Potlatch, which they refer to as the yaawk or, in English, "feast." In Tsimshian culture today, the potlatch centers primarily around death, burial, and succession to name-titles.
   The end of the Tsimshian as a force to be reckoned with in the north came in 1860, when smallpox annihilated 80% of the entire Tsimshian population in only three years. Further epidemics would ravage the coast for many years, and a century of poverty and hopelessness reduced these numbers even further. About 10,000 Tsimshian are alive today.
   The Tsimshian live on in their art, their culture and their language, which is making a comeback. In a highly controversial agreement, the Nisga'a people recently gained autonomy from Canada by the government of British Columbia. It appears the history of the Tsimshian isn't over quite yet, and a new chapter is unfurling.

Treaty Process

The Tsimshian expressed an interest in preserving their villages and fishing sites on the Skeena and Nass rivers as early as 1879, but were not able to begin negotiating a treaty until July 1983. A decade later, fourteen bands united to negotiate under the collective name of the Tsimshian Tribal Council. A framework agreement was signed in 1997, and the Tsimshian nation continue to negotiate with the BC Treaty Commission to reach an Agreement-in-Principle.

Language

The Tsimshian speak a Tsimshianic language, referred to by linguists as "Coast Tsimshian" and by Tsimshians as Sm'algyax, which means "real or true language." It has a northern and southern variety, of which the southern variety, often called Southern Tsimshian by linguists and spoken only at Klemtu, is very close to extinct. Approximately 30 speakers reside in Alaska, with another 300 in Canada. Tsimshian is a Penutian language related to Gitxsan and Nisga'a.

Prominent Tsimshians (and people of Tsimshian descent)

Frederick Alexcee, artist
William Beynon, hereditary chief and ethnographer
Heber Clifton, hereditary chief and community leader
Alfred Dudoward, hereditary chief
Bill Helin, artist
Calvin Helin, businessman and author
Paul Legaic, hereditary chief and trader
Rev. Edward Marsden, clergyman
Charles Menzies (anthropologist)
Odille Morison, translator and art collector
Rev. William Henry Pierce, missionary and memoirist
Peter Simpson, Indian rights activist
Henry W. Tate, oral historian
Roy Henry Vickers, artist
Arthur Wellington Clah, hereditary chief and diarist
Walter Wright, hereditary chief and oral historian
Shannon Thunderbird, singer, songwriter, storyteller, speaker, educator, recording artist

Anthropologists and other scholars who have worked with the Tsimshian

Franz Boas

Wilson Duff

James McDonald

Missionaries who have worked among the Tsimshian

Rev. William Henry Collison

Rev. Thomas Crosby, Methodist

William Duncan, Anglican/independent

Rev. Edward Marsden, Presbyterian

Bishop William Ridley, Anglican

Robert Tomlinson, Anglican

Joseph Burton

Doc. David H. PieplowFurther Information

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