William Beynon facts for kids
William Beynon (1888–1958) was a respected leader and historian from the Tsimshian Nation in Canada. He was a hereditary chief and a skilled oral historian. He worked as an ethnographer, which means he studied people and cultures. He also helped many anthropologists as a translator and language expert when they learned about his people.
Early Life and Family Roots
William Beynon was born in 1888 in Victoria, British Columbia. His mother was a Tsimshian woman with Nisga'a family roots. His father, "Captain Billy" Beynon, was a steamboat captain from Wales.
William's mother's family came from the Laxgibuu (Wolf clan) of the Nisga'a nation. Some of his family moved from the Nass River to Port Simpson, British Columbia. This happened around the time many people from the Metlakatla mission village moved to Metlakatla, Alaska.
William's grandfather on his mother's side was Arthur Wellington Clah. He was a hereditary Tsimshian chief and worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. His family belonged to the Gitlaan tribe. The Gitlaan tribe is one of the "Nine Tribes" whose chiefs were in Port Simpson when it became an Indian reserve community.
William was the only one of his six brothers who grew up speaking the Tsimshian language fluently. In 1913, when he was 25, his mother's only surviving brother, Albert Wellington, passed away. William then moved from Victoria to Port Simpson to take on his uncle's hereditary title, Gwisk'aayn. This was done according to Tsimshian rules, where leadership passes through the mother's side of the family. He served as the hereditary chief of the Gitlaan tribe until he died.
His Work and Contributions
In 1914, William Beynon started working as a translator for Marius Barbeau. Barbeau was an anthropologist working for the Geological Survey of Canada. Together, Barbeau and Beynon interviewed many chiefs and elders in Lax Kw'alaams in 1914-15. Another anthropologist, Wilson Duff, called this time "one of the most productive field seasons" in the study of North American Indigenous cultures.
In 1916, Beynon continued this important work on his own. He visited the Tsimshian people of Kitkatla, B.C. This trip was difficult because a measles epidemic caused many deaths among the people. Also, Beynon and Chief Seeks of the Kitkatla tribe were shipwrecked for ten days on an uninhabited island.
As Beynon learned more about recording sounds and his own people's traditions, he started working more independently. In the 1920s, he worked with Barbeau again. They met with elders from the Kitsumkalum and Kitselas Tsimshian and the Gitksan Nation, near Terrace, British Columbia.
From 1918 to 1924, Beynon traveled along the coast. He collected artifacts for Sir Henry Wellcome, who was in charge of the estate of William Duncan. Duncan was the missionary who founded Metlakatla, Alaska. Beynon spent a lot of time there as Wellcome's local helper.
From 1929 until 1956, when he became ill, Beynon kept sending his own notes to Barbeau. These notes covered many parts of the culture and traditions of the Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a peoples. He carefully wrote down their oral stories. One of his most amazing works was a 200-page description of a four-day potlatch and totem-pole-raising ceremony. This event happened in 1945 in the Gitksan village of Gitsegukla. This detailed account has recently been published as a book.
Wilson Duff said that the thousands of pages of notes from Barbeau and Beynon are "the most complete body of information on the social organization of any Indian nation." These notes are now kept at the Canadian Museum of History.
In 1931, Beynon was one of the four people who started the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia. This group was formed in Port Simpson to fight for the rights of Indigenous people. The Native Brotherhood played a big role in helping Indigenous people get the right to vote, among many other important efforts.
From 1932 to 1939, Beynon sent about 250 transcribed stories to the anthropologist Franz Boas. These stories are now called the "Beynon Manuscripts." They are kept at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
In the early 1930s, Beynon also helped Viola Garfield with her research in Port Simpson. Garfield was a student of Boas. Many pages of Garfield's detailed notebooks are in Beynon's own handwriting. Their work together formed the basis of Garfield's PhD paper and her first book.
In 1953, Beynon worked with Philip Drucker, an anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution. For Drucker, Beynon wrote his own summary of the complex family histories of the Tsimshianic-speaking peoples. This work has not yet been published.
William Beynon passed away in 1958 in Prince Rupert, B.C. Like many people from his community, he spent most of his life working in the canning and fishing industries. However, he made a huge and valuable contribution to understanding the cultures of the Northwest Coast. His published and unpublished works are still a very important resource for the Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a peoples today.
