Giluts'aaw facts for kids
The Giluts'aaẅ are one of the 14 tribes that make up the Tsimshian Nation. This nation lives in British Columbia, Canada. The Giluts'aaẅ are also one of the nine tribes that live along the lower Skeena River at a place called Lax Kw'alaams.
The name Giluts'aaẅ means "people of the inside." This name comes from their old village, which was located behind a small island on a river channel along the Skeena River. Their traditional home area is around Lakelse Lake, which is close to the city of Terrace today.
Since 1834, the Giluts'aaẅ have lived at Lax Kw'alaams. This was when the Hudson's Bay Company built a trading fort there. When the village was planned, each tribe was given its own area. The Giluts'aaẅ were given the area on the east side of the fort. Most other tribes were on the west side.
One family group, called the House of Niskiimas, is part of the Giluts'aaẅ. This family belongs to the Ganhada (Raven) clan. Today, some members of this family are also connected to the Kitsumkalum community.
Leaders of the Giluts'aaẅ
In the late 1800s, a woman named Victoria Young became a very important leader, or "chieftainess," of the Giluts'aaẅ. She was a key follower of the Methodist missionary Thomas Crosby in Lax Kw'alaams.
Victoria Young took on the important name-title Niisłgümiik. This title belonged to the leading royal family of the Giluts'aaẅ, the House of Niisłgümiik, which was part of the Gispwudwada (Killerwhale) clan. She became the leader because there were no male heirs available to take the title.
She married another important chief named Ligeex from the Gispaxlo'ots tribe. However, she did not have any children. After she passed away in 1898, the Niisłgümiik title was given to her adopted nephew, Herbert Swanson. He was from a different clan but was adopted into the Gispwudwada clan. In 1950, an expert named Marius Barbeau said that Herbert Swanson held the Niisłgümiik title in 1915 and lived in Metlakatla.
Totem Poles and History
In 1915, Marius Barbeau also took a photo of a totem pole in Lax Kw'alaams. This pole was called the "Prince of the Grizzlies" and belonged to the Giluts'aaẅ Gispwudwada House of Niisnawaa.
In 1938, another expert named Viola Garfield wrote that the Giluts'aaẅ had two main chiefs at that time. One was named Niisnawa. She thought his family line might end with him because he had no children. The second chief was Niisłgümiik, who was Victoria Young's nephew. Garfield saw him as a "subchief" to Niisnawa.
In 1935, William Beynon recorded how many Giluts'aaẅ people belonged to different clans in Lax Kw'alaams. He found 29 members of the Gispwudwada (Killerwhale clan) and 2 members of the Ganhada (Raven clan). There was also another family group, the House of Laa'is, from the Laxgibuu (Wolf) clan, but they had no members living there at that time.
Prominent Giluts'aaws
- Frederick Alexcee, artist
- Victoria Young, chieftainess
- Shannon Thunderbird, Artist/Educator
