Bella Bella
Waglisla | |
|---|---|
 Bella Bella from the water | |
| Nickname: The Rock | |
  Bella Bella Location of Bella Bella in British Columbia | |
| Coordinates: 52°09′43″N 128°08′42″W / 52.16194°N 128.14500°W | |
| Country |  Canada |
| Province |  British Columbia |
| Regional district | Central Coast |
| First settled | 7800–7000 BCE |
| Area | |
• Total | 5.83 km2 (2.25 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 21 m (69 ft) |
| Population | |
• Total | 1,193 |
| • Density | 204.5/km2 (530/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC–8:00 |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC–7:00 (Pacific Daylight Time) |
| Postal code | V0T 1Z0 |
| Area codes | 250, 778 236 |
| Website | heiltsuknation |
Bella Bella, also known as Waglisla, is the home of the Heiltsuk and is an unincorporated community and Indian reserve community located within Bella Bella Indian Reserve No. 1 on the east coast of Campbell Island in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. Bella Bella is located 98 nautical miles (181 km) north of Port Hardy, on Vancouver Island, and 78 nautical miles (144 km) west of Bella Coola. The community is on Lama Passage, part of the Inside Passage – a transportation route linking the area, and northern British Columbia as well as Alaska for marine vessels carrying cargo, passengers and recreational boaters from the south coast. The settlement "forms a national capital of sorts" to the Heiltsuk.[2]
Founded between 1897 and 1903, Bella Bella is located on Campbell Island.[3]
Originally styled New Bella Bella to distinguish it from "Bella Bella", the community's official post office name for some time was Waglisla, meaning "river on the beach" in the Heiltsuk language. Old Bella Bella, the Heiltsuk village site that is located south of the current village was known as Bella Bella. As it grew, a post office was located in the store. When the Heiltsuk relocated their settlement to the north, the post office, and the name Bella Bella, moved – first to the store in the BC Packers Cannery, then to the village of Shearwater. The post office name was retained while moving location several times. This is a source of confusion and the reason 'Bella Bella' sometimes appears on Denny Island rather than Campbell Island on some Provincial maps.
The Hudson's Bay Company's Fort McLoughlin was near the same location, which is on McLoughlin Bay.[4]
With a population of 1,400, Bella Bella is the largest community to be found on the Central Coast north of Queen Charlotte Strait. It is home to the Heiltsuk First Nation. Like many small communities on the coast, such as nearby Ocean Falls, Bella Bella has had a precarious and isolated existence. The closing of coastal cannery towns and decreased need for coastal shipping reduced the importance of Bella Bella's port.
However, the resumption of ferry services by BC Ferries and the introduction of an air link from Vancouver via Port Hardy by Pacific Coastal Airlines have revived Bella Bella. There are scheduled flights from Bella Bella (Campbell Island) Airport onward to Klemtu and Ocean Falls. Services in Bella Bella include a large general store, the Bella Bella Community School, Alexa's restaurant, the Koeye Cafe, the Thistalalh Memorial Library, an RCMP police station (with a circuit court every 1.5 months), the Bella Bella Medical Clinic, staffed by 3 physicians and a nurse practitioner, and ƛ̓uxválásu̓ilas (pronounced kwil-valas-iwaylas) Heiltsuk Hospital (formerly R.W. Large Memorial Hospital) and its pharmacy. The CIBC bank branch closed in 2007.
The village of Bella Bella was previously known as Waglisla to the Canadian Postal Service; the postal address changed to Bella Bella (V0T 1Z0) in October 2007.
- ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (February 8, 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census – Bella Bella 1, Aboriginal reserve [Census subdivision], British Columbia and British Columbia [Province]". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
- ^ Wood, Chris. "Coastal People's Past Powers Their Political Future". The Tyee. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
- ^ Black, Martha (1997). Bella Bella: A Season of Heiltsuk Art. Toronto/Vancouver/Seattle: Royal Ontario Museum/Douglas & McIntyre/University of Washington Press. pp. 8–12. ISBN 1-55054-556-6.
- ^ "Bella Bella (community)". BC Geographical Names.