Opitsaht

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Opitsaht, spelled also as Opitsat and Opitsitah, is a community of the Tla-o-qui-aht people of the Nuu-chah-nulth nation, located on Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound. During the era of the marine fur trade, Opitsaht was the seat of Wickaninnish, chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht, and contained 200 ornately carved buildings typical of Nuu-chah-nulth villages. This original village was destroyed by cannon fire by Captain Robert Gray of the Columbia Rediviva as part of a falling-out with the Tla-o-qui-aht when Gray evacuated his erstwhile "fort" nearby on Meares Island, known as Fort Defiance. Today Opitsaht is one of the main villages governed by the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, the band government of the Tla-o-qui-aht people.