The Kitkatla or Gitxaala[1][2] are one of the oldest First Nations whose unceded territories are now occupied by the Canadian province of British Columbia, and inhabit a village, also called Kitkatla (Lax Klan), on Dolphin Island, a small island just by Porcher Island off the coast of northern B.C. Because of their location, the Gitxaała have sometimes been called Porcher Island Indians. They were also, in the early contact period, called the Sebassa tribe, for their paramount chief at the time, Ts'ibasaa. The name Kitkatla derives from the name Gitxaała, from git- (people of) and kxaała (open sea, or channel), since they are the farthest from the mainland. Another name that inland-based neighbors use in reference to the Gitxaała is, 'Gitlaxmoon ("people of the saltwater") in recognition of their coastal presence on the islands and inlets of this rugged piece of coastline. Gitxaała don’t refer to themselves as Gitlaxmoon or as Ts’msyen (meaning ‘Inside the Skeena River’).
The Gitxaała are reputed to be the first Indigenous people of the northwest coast to encounter (formally anyway) Europeans and the first to use guns. Stories recording this encounter tell of the acquisition of the hereditary name He'l by the Gispwudwada (Blackfish or Killerwhale clan) House (extended matrilineal family) of Ts'ibasaa, from an English ship's captain.
In the more recent period, one holder of the name He'l also assumed rights over the Gispwudwada chief name Seeks, which represents another Gitxaała Gispwudwada (Blackfish Clan) house-group.
One holder of the title Ts'ibasaa was Joshua Ts'ibasaa, who died in 1936. The anthropologist Viola Garfield has published a detailed description of his mortuary potlatch.
Garfield also describes the House of Ts'ibasaa's genealogical merging with another Gispwudwada (Blackfish or Killerwhale clan) house-group, the house of Nisweexs (Ts’ibasaa’s nephew) in the Ginadoiks tribe of Ts’msyens at Lax Kw'alaams (Port Simpson), B.C.
A large amount of information on the hereditary names, territories, and oral traditions of the Gitxaała people was collected in 1916 by William Beynon, a Ts’msyen chief and translator in the employ of the ethnologist Marius Barbeau.
The Gitxaała people primarily live in Lax Klan, their main winter (and now permanent) village, and is a large and thriving community. Its population in 1983 was 493. It has temporarily suspended treaty negotiations with the British Columbia government.
Other Gitxaała house-groups include:
- House of Ayaamax - Ganhada (Raven Clan)
- House of Dzagmgishaaytks – Ganhada (Raven clan)
- House of La'ooy – Ganhada (Raven clan)
- House of Ts'ibasaa – Gispwudwada (Blackfish or Killerwhale clan)
- ^ "Gitxaala Nation | BC Assembly of First Nations". bcafn.ca. British Columbia Assembly of First Nations. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- ^ "Gitxaala Nation homepage". Gitxaala Nation. Retrieved January 6, 2019.