Keywords Native Tribes

Unlike those of other Wakashan-speaking tribes, the Kitamaat and Kitlope social system was based on the matrilineal CLAN. This principle was also followed by the Tsimshian tribes, with whom the Haisla enjoyed close economic and social relations. Aboriginally, there were 8 clans (Eagle, Beaver, Raven, Crow, Killer Whale, Salmon, Wolf and Frog), each composed of a number of family units or lineages, occupying one or more communal dwellings housing up to 30 individuals (see HOUSE). The highest-ranking members of each house or lineage formed a council of nobles for the clan chief, who himself acted as counsellor to the tribal chief. Each clan controlled its own resource sites within the general tribal territory, and each occupied an independent winter village.

With the population decline, the Wolf and Frog clans disappeared entirely. The survivors of other clans formed linkages in which they united to occupy a common winter village and co-operated economically and socially, as in the planning and amassing of wealth for the POTLATCH. Eventually the whole tribe began to occupy the same village, although clan distinctions and linkages remain.

The remoteness of their villages, situated far up northern inlets, enforced isolation on the Kitamaat and Kitlope until the 1890s, when a mission and RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL were established at Kitamat. Missionaries and government agents believed that the flamboyant, theatrical aspects of traditional native culture were impediments to "civilization" and should be eradicated. They exerted pressure to abandon feasts, dancing and potlatches; the traditional communal houses were pulled down, and the children were forbidden to speak the native language. During the same period, the decline in population shattered the clans and lineages and disrupted orderly lines of succession to titles and property in the traditional social order. After several decades of strain and dislocation, a culture has emerged that combines elements of both their traditional heritage and Euro-Canadian culture.

See also NATIVE PEOPLE, NORTHWEST COAST and general articles under NATIVE PEOPLE.

Author JOHN PRITCHARD

Suggested Reading
R. Olson, "The Social Organization of the Haisla of BC," Anthropological Records 2, no 5 (1940).

Links to Other Sites
Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples
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