Haina, also called Xayna, which in the Haida language means "Sunshine", [1] was a Haida village located on the east side of Maude Island (Haida: Xaayna Gwaay [2] ) in Skidegate Inlet, Haida Gwaii. [3] Today the village site is in the Indian Reserve known as Khrana 4. [4]
Haina was founded around 1875 by refugees from Kaisun (also spelled Qaysun), during the Haida village abandonment and consolidation that occurred in the wake of multiple epidemics, especially the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic, which alone killed over 50%, in some areas up to 90%, of the Haida people. Although the village of Haina was new, it was built on an old site known as Xayna or Haina. The village was sometimes called "New Gold Harbour", since Kaisun was sometimes called "Gold Harbour" or "Old Gold Harbour" after a small gold rush occurred nearby in 1852. In the 1890s, after suffering further epidemics of smallpox, measles, and other diseases, the survivors in Haina moved to the new mission town of Skidegate, which had displaced the old Haida village of HlG̲aagilda. [1]
Haida are an Indigenous group who have traditionally occupied Haida Gwaii, an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years.
Kasaan is a city in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 49 at the 2010 census, up from 39 in 2000. The name "Kasaan" comes from Tlingit Kasa'aan, meaning "pretty town".
Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between 55–125 km (34–78 mi) off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecate Strait. Queen Charlotte Sound lies to the south, with Vancouver Island beyond. To the north, the disputed Dixon Entrance separates Haida Gwaii from the Alexander Archipelago in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Haida is the language of the Haida people, spoken in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of Canada and on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. An endangered language, Haida currently has 24 native speakers, though revitalization efforts are underway. At the time of the European arrival at Haida Gwaii in 1774, it is estimated that Haida speakers numbered about 15,000. Epidemics soon led to a drastic reduction in the Haida population, which became limited to three villages: Masset, Skidegate, and Hydaburg. Positive attitudes towards assimilation combined with the ban on speaking Haida in residential schools led to a sharp decline in the use of the Haida language among the Haida people, and today almost all ethnic Haida use English to communicate.
Cadboro Bay is a bay near the southern tip of Vancouver Island and its adjacent neighbourhood in the municipalities of Saanich and Oak Bay in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
The Yakoun River is the largest river of Haida Gwaii, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Located on Graham Island it flows about 58 km (36 mi) from Yakoun Lake north to Masset Inlet, a large saltwater bay located in the heart of the Graham Island and connected to the Pacific Ocean at Dixon Entrance via a long narrow inlet called Masset Sound.
Masset Inlet is a large saltwater bay located in the heart of the lowland of northern Graham Island, the northernmost and largest island of the Haida Gwaii islands on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is fed by several rivers, the largest of which is the Yakoun River, and is connected to the open sea of the Dixon Entrance by the narrow Masset Sound and Masset Harbour, which opens onto McIntyre Bay. The communities of Port Clements and Sewall are located on the shores of Masset Inlet. The community of Juskatla is located on Juus Ḵáahlii, the largest of Masset Inlet's arms. There are several islands in the inlet, the largest of which is Kumdis Island, at the inlet's egress to Masset Sound and just north of Port Clements. Masset Inlet helps form the isthmus of the Naikoon Peninsula.
New Clew, also Clue, Kloo, Kliew, Klue, Clew Indian Reserve, is a locality and First Nations reserve of the Haida people, located on the north shore of Louise Island, which is located in Cumshewa Inlet on Haida Gwaii, formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, of the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Gold Harbour was a historic gold and silver mine in Haida Gwaii, on the north coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is notable as the location of the first lode mine worked in what is now British Columbia.
SG̱ang Gwaay Llnagaay, commonly known by its English name Ninstints, is a village site of the Haida people and part of the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site on Haida Gwaii on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Ḵung is a Haida village, located on the west side of Alexandra Narrows on Graham Island, the largest and northernmost island of Haida Gwaii alongside British Columbia, Canada. Alexandra Narrows, known on some old maps as Mazzaredo Sound, connects Naden Harbour and Virago Sound. An earlier village located at the current village site was named ‘Nightasis’ by the fur trader John Work, and records that in 1840 there were 15 houses with 280 residents.
Old Massett, named G̱aw in X̱aad kíl, is an Indigenous Canadian village on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. It lies on the east side of Masset Sound close to the town of Masset; the area of land it is on is legally designated Masset Indian Reserve No. 1, or Masset 1. The original name of the settlement was Uttewas, meaning "white-slope village" in the Haida language. It is populated by Haida people of both Ḵuustak, the Eagle matrilineage, and Ḵayx̱al, the Raven matrilineage. The town is administered by the Old Massett Village Council. Its population has fluctuated over the last one hundred and fifty years; smallpox, especially the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic, drastically reduced its numbers in the late 1800s, but in 1968, it had over 1,000 people and was the largest village in Haida Gwaii. In 2009, the Village Council counted 2,698 band members in the area; the 2016 census counted 555 living at the Old Massett townsite.
Hiellen, anglicized from the Haida name Tlielang, and also spelled in various ways such as Hliiyalang (Bringhurst) and Łi'elᴀñ (Swanton), was a historic Haida village located on the northern shore of Graham Island, at the mouth of the Hiellen River, across the river from Taaw Tldáaw, in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada.
Maude Island is an island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago of the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located within Skidegate Inlet, a large saltwater inlet within Graham Island. It is the larger of two islands in British Columbia by that name, the other being a small islet offshore from Nanoose Bay and Lantzville on southeastern Vancouver Island.
Tanu is a traditional Haida village site located on Tanu Island, Haida Gwaii, opposite of Kung'a Island in Laskeek Bay, within the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.
Kiusta located on Haida Gwaii is the oldest Northern Haida village: and the site of first recorded contact between the Haida and Europeans in 1774. Haida lived in this village for thousands of years, due to the sheltered nature of its location it was used for boats offloading, especially in rough waters. Kiusta is one of the oldest archeological sites of human use in British Columbia, and continues to be a site for cultural revitalisation.
The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic was a smallpox outbreak that started in Victoria on Vancouver Island and spread among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and into the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, killing a large portion of natives from the Puget Sound region to Southeast Alaska. Two-thirds of British Columbia natives died—around 20,000 people. The death rate was highest in southeast Alaska and Haida Gwaii—over 70% among the Haida and 60% among the Tlingit. Almost all native nations along the coast, and many in the interior, were devastated, with a death rate of over 50% for the entire coast from Puget Sound to Sitka, Alaska, part of Russian America at the time. In some areas the native population fell by as much as 90%. The disease was controlled among colonists in 1862 but it continued to spread among natives through 1863.
Kaisun, also Ḵaysuun, Qaysun, Qaysun Llanagaay, or Sealion Town, is a former village of the Haida people located on the west side of Moresby Island in Haida Gwaii of the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. The Haida of Kaisun were Qayahl Llaanas, the Sealion People, of the Eagle moiety. It was normal for members of both Haida moieties to live in a village. In Kaisun, houses of the Raven moiety were on the west side of the village, while Eagle houses were on the east side. There were close connections between Kaisun and the nearby village of Chaatl, about 10 km (6.2 mi) to the north in a straight line, or about 20 km (12 mi) by water.
Chaatl, also spelled Cha'atl, Tsaa'ahl, Tts’aa’ahl, and other variations, was a historic Haida village located on the shore of Chaatl Island, facing south across Buck Channel to the western side of northern Moresby Island, near the western end of Skidegate Channel, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. Across Buck Channel from Chaatl was the long-abandoned village site of Niisii. There were close connections between Chaatl and the nearby village of Kaisun, about 10 km (6.2 mi) to the south in a straight line, or about 20 km (12 mi) by water.