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The Tsimshian (Sm'algyax: Ts’msyan)/'sɪm.ʃi.æn/ are an indigenouspeople of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Tsimshian translates toInside the SkeenaRiver.[1] Theircommunities are in British Columbia and Alaska, around Terrace and Prince Rupert and thesouthernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. There are approximately10,000 Tsimshian. Their culture is matrilineal with asocietal structure based on a clan system. Early anthropologistsand linguistics grouped Gitxsan and Nisga'a as Tsimshian because oflinguistic affinities. Under this terminology they were referred toas Coast Tsimshian, even though some communities were notcoastal. The three peoples identify as separate nations. There aremany other ways to spell the name, like Tsimpshean, Tsimshean,Tsimpshian, and others, but this article will use the spelling'Tsimshian'.
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History
In 1862 smallpoxannihilated 80% of Tsimshian population over three years' time.Further epidemics ravaged their communities for many years.
In the 1880s the Anglican missionary William Duncan, with agroup of Tsimshian, requested settlement on Annette Islandfrom the U.S. government. After being approved, thegroup founded New Metlakatla in Alaska. WilliamDuncan later requested the community gain reservation status, which afterapproved, makes this the only Nativereservation in the state. They maintained their reservationstatus and holdings exclusive of the Alaska Native ClaimsSettlement Act and thus do not have an associated NativeCorporation, although Tsimshian in Alaska may be shareholders ofthe Sealaska Corporation. The AnnetteIsland reservation is the only location in Alaska allowed tomaintain fish traps, which were otherwise banned when Alaska becamea state in 1959. Thetraps are used to provide food for people living on thereservation.
In British Columbia, the governments of Canada started engagingin the British Columbia TreatyProcess with First Nation bands in the province.Originally the Tsimshian First Nations pursued negotiations untillate 2005 when the Tsimshian Tribal Council, the organization forrepresenting each of the First Nations in treaty negotiations,dissolved amid legal and political turmoil.
Culture
Like all Northwest Coastal peoples, they thrived on the abundantsea life, especially salmon.It was a staple for many years and continues to be, despitelarge-scale commercial fishing. This abundant food source enabledthe Tsimshian to live in permanent towns. They lived in largelonghouses, made from cedar house posts and panels. These were verylarge, and usually housed an entire extended family. Cultural tabooscentered around women and men eating improper foods during andafter childbirth. Marriage was an extremely formal affair,involving several prolonged and sequential ceremonies.
Tsimshian religion centered around the 'Lord of Heaven', whoaided people in times of need by sending supernatural servants toearth to aid them. The Tsimshian believed that charity andpurification ofthe body (either by cleanliness or fasting) was the route to the afterlife.
As with all Northwest Coastal peoples, the Tsimshian engage inthe potlatch, which theyrefer to as the yaawk or 'feast.' In Tsimshian culturetoday, the potlatch centers primarily around death, burial, andsuccession to name-titles.
The Tsimshian were a seafaring people, like the Haida.
The Tsimshian live on in their art, their culture and theirlanguage, which is making a comeback. In a highly controversialagreement, the Nisga'apeople recently gained autonomy from Canada by the government of BritishColumbia.
Like other coastal peoples, the Tsimshian fashioned most oftheir goods out of Western redcedar,particularly from its bark, whichcould be fashioned into tools, clothing, roofing, armor, buildingmaterials and canoe skins. They used cedar in their Chilkatweaving, which they are credited with inventing.[2] TheTsimshian had the misfortune of being the nearest and most favoredvictims of Haida depredations,though particular Tsimshian chiefs were close allies of certainHaida chiefs.
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The Tsimshian were attacked by the Tlingit, Haida, the Athapaskan groups in thenorth, the Dunne-Za in the east, and the Kwakiutl groups in thesouth.
Tribes
The Tsimshian nation (meaning the Coast Tsimshian) in BritishColumbia consists of fourteen bands:
- the Kitasoo (who live atKlemtu,B.C.)
- the Gitga'at (HartleyBay, B.C.)
- the GitxaalaNation (Kitkatla, B.C.)
- the Kitsumkalum(Kitsumkalum, B.C.)
- the Kitselas orGits'ilaasü (Kitselas, B.C.)
- the Maaxłakxaała ([Metlakatla]), B.C.) Takwan ([Metlaktala]),Alaska)
- and nine tribes resident at Lax Kw'alaams (a.k.a.Port Simpson), B.C.:
Clans
The Tsimshian clans are the
- Laxsgiik (EagleClan),
- Gispwudwada(Killerwhale Clan)
- Ganhada (RavenClan)
- Laxgibuu (WolfClan)
Treatyprocess
The Tsimshian expressed an interest in preserving their villagesand fishing sites on the Skeena and Nass Rivers as early as1879, but were not able to begin negotiating a treaty until July1983.[3]A decade later, fourteen bands united to negotiate under thecollective name of the Tsimshian Tribal Council. Aframework agreement was signed in 1997, and the Tsimshian nationcontinues to negotiate with the BC TreatyCommission to reach an Agreement-in-Principle.[4]
Language
The Tsimshian speak a Tsimshianic language, referred to bylinguists as 'Coast Tsimshian' and by Tsimshians asSm'algyax, which means 'real or true language.' It has a northernand southern variety, of which the southern variety, often calledSouthern Tsimshian by linguists and spoken only at Klemtu, is veryclose to extinct. Approximately 300 speakers reside in Alaska, withanother 3000 in Canada. Tsimshianic languages are classified as amember of the theoretical Penutian language group by that theory'sproponents.
ProminentTsimshians (and people of Tsimshian descent)
- Frederick Alexcee, artist
- WilliamBeynon, hereditary chief of the Gitlaan and ethnographer
- George William Jeffrey activist
- HeberClifton, hereditary chief of the Gitga'ata and community leader
- AlfredDudoward, hereditary chief of the Gitando
- BenjaminHaldane, pioneering photographer from Metlakatla village
- Bill Helin,artist
- Leanne Helin, artist
- Calvin Helin,businessman and author
- William Jeffrey, hereditarychief, activist, carver
- Paul Legaic, hereditarychief of the Gispaxlo'ots and trader
- Rev. EdwardMarsden, clergyman
- OdilleMorison, translator and art collector
- Rev. William Henry Pierce, missionaryand memoirist
- Peter Simpson,Indian rights activist
- Henry W.Tate, oral historian
- RoyHenry Vickers, artist
- Arthur Wellington Clah,hereditary chief of the Gitlaan and diarist
- Walter Wright,hereditary chief of the Gits'ilaasü (Kitselas) and oral historian
- Shannon Thunderbird, singer,songwriter, storyteller, speaker, educator, recording artist
- Edward E. Bryant, artist
- Eric G. Cook, hereditary chief, descendant of Eli Gordon
Anthropologists and other scholars who have worked with theTsimshian
Missionarieswho have worked among the Tsimshian
- ThomasCrosby, Methodist
- William Duncan,Anglican/independent
- EdwardMarsden, Presbyterian
- Bishop William Ridley, Anglican
- RobertTomlinson, Anglican
- Joseph Burton
- David H. Pieplow
See also
Notes
- ^Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: TheHistorical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, pg. 396 n. 29
- ^Shearer, Cheryl. Understanding Northwest Coast Art.Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2000: 28 ISBN:0-295-97973-9.
- ^Kitsumkalum and the TsimshianTreaty Process Kitsumkalum Treaty Office
- ^Tsimshian First Nations -BC Treaty Commission
References
- Barbeau, Marius (1950) Totem Poles. 2 vols.(Anthropology Series 30, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 119.)Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.
- Boas, Franz,'Tsimshian Mythology.' in Thirty-First Annual Report of theBureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the SmithsonianInstitution, 1909-1910, pp. 29-1037. Washington: GovernmentPrinting Office, 1916.
- Garfield,Viola, 'Tsimshian Clan and Society.' University ofWashington Publications in Anthropology, vol. 7, no. 3 (1939),pp. 167-340.
- Garfield, Viola E., and Paul S. Wingert, The TsimshianIndians and Their Arts. University of Washington Press,Seattle, 1951, 1966.
- Halpin,Marjorie M., and Margaret Seguin, 'Tsimshian Peoples: SouthernTsimshian, Coast Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitksan.' In: Handbookof North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, editedby Wayne Suttles. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1990, pp.267-284.
- McDonald, James A. (2003) People of the Robin: The Tsimshian ofKitsumkalum. CCI Press.
- Miller, Jay, Tsimshian Culture: A Light through theAges. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
- Miller, Jay, and Carol Eastman, eds., The Tsimshian andTheir Neighbors of the North Pacific Coast. Seattle:University of Washington Press, 1984.
- Neylan, Susan, The Heavens Are Changing: Nineteenth-CenturyProtestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity. Montreal:McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003.
- Seguin, Margaret, Interpretive Contexts for Traditional andCurrent Coast Tsimshian Feasts. Ottawa: National Museums ofCanada, 1985.
- Seguin, Marget, ed., The Tsimshian: Images of the Past,Views for the Present. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1984.
Externallinks
- The Canadian Museum ofCivilization - Tsimshian Prehistory
- map of Northwest Coast FirstNations (including Tsimshian)