Heiltsuk

Heiltsuk

Detail of a 19th-century bentwood chest by Heiltsuk artist Captain Richard Carpenter (Du'klwayella)
Total population
1,874 (1995)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Canada ( British Columbia)
Languages
English, Hailhzaqvla[2]
Religion
traditional tribal religion

The Heiltsuk /ˈheɪltsək/,^[3] also Bella Bella,^[1] are an Indigenous people of the Central Coast region in British Columbia, centred on the island communities of Bella Bella and Klemtu. The government of the Heiltsuk people is the Heiltsuk Nation. Its largest community is Bella Bella.

History

Ancestors of the Heiltsuk have been in the Central Coast region of British Columbia since at least 7190 BCE.^[4] The Heiltsuk are the descendants of a number of tribal groups who came together in Bella Bella in the 19th century. Their first contact with Europeans was most likely in 1793, and the name "Bella Bella" dates back to 1834.^[5] They generally refer to themselves as Heiltsuk. As with many other indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast they were subject to drastic population loss as a result of introduced diseases and heightened military conflicts with neighbouring peoples during the fur trade era.^[6]

As the fur trade began they also became known as skilled traders. Highly skilled in canoe making and later shipbuilding, a number of trading schooners were made in Bella Bella by the canoe makers who had learned to make western style vessels. For a time they acted as middlemen in the fur trade, benefiting from early access to guns. The traders complain in some of their records of the Heiltsuk being hard to trade with, passing off land otter skins for sea otter, demanding extra large blankets, then cutting them to standards size for retrade and sewing the extra pieces together to make more blankets.

Heiltsuk (Bella Bella) (Native American). House Post, from a Set of Four, 19th century. Cedar wood, Brooklyn Museum

"A significant feature of Bella Bella society was the development of a cadre of highly skilled artisans noted for their construction and decoration of bentwood boxes, chests, canoes, and horn spoons and ladles. After White contact the skills of these artisans were turned to the market demand for canoes and boxes."^[7]

Like other First Nations on the coast, the Heiltsuk were subject to repeated epidemics, primarily of smallpox, that killed the majority of the population. This population collapse caused the Heiltsuk to coalesce into fewer communities, and reduced the population to just under 225 by 1919. Like other First Nations, the expected demise of the Heiltsuk did not occur. Instead, the population rebounded and is now well over 2,500.

When the McKenna-McBride Royal Commission visited Bella Bella in 1913, they were told:

"We are the natives of this Country and we want all the land we can get. We feel that we own the whole of this Country, every bit of it, and ought to have something to say about it. The Government have not bought any land from us so far as we know and we are simply lending this land to the Government. We own it all. We will never change our minds in that respect, and after we are dead our children will still hold on to the same ideas. It does not matter how long the Government take to determine this question, we will remain the same in our ideas about this matter... We consider that the Government is stealing that land from us, and we also understand that it is unlawful for the Government to take this land." ~ Bob Anderson^[8]

Culture

Heiltsuk, Ladle with Skull, 19th century, Brooklyn Museum

Traditionally, the Heiltsuk divided the year into a secular summer harvesting season and a winter sacred season, when most ceremonies were conducted.^[9]

The Heiltsuk were (and are) renowned for their ceremonies, arts, and spiritual power. The two dimensional style of design - called Formline art - or Northwest Coast Style - extends along the north coast, the central coast and down to Vancouver Island. The Heiltsuk are part of this tradition - with several painters from the historic period being recorded. Among these Captain Carpenter, a canoe-maker and painter is perhaps the most well-known.^[10]

"Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, Heiltsuk-speaking tribes occupied numerous independent villages throughout their territory; the names of twenty-four permanent villages and established temporary camps have been recorded. It appears that diverse styles of painting were practised by Heiltsuk painters of this period and perhaps later. These styles most likely originated within individual villages or social groups."^[11]

Skull imagery is usually associated with the Tánis (Hamatsa) ceremony practiced by the Heiltsuk and Kwakwawa’wakw people. Hamatsa is a secret society that is based upon cannibalism. Young males are initiated into the community during a four-part ritual in which they are symbolically transformed from flesh-eating cannibals, a state equated with death, into well-behaved members of society. The skull thus symbolizes the rebirth of initiates as they come back from the dead. Skull items are used during the final stages of the ceremony: ritual feeding of the skull, possibly using special ceremonial spoons, precedes a ceremonial meal for the initiates, and the officiating medicine man might wear a skull headdress.^[12]

Heiltsuk culture has been and is known for its ceremonial, military, and artistic skills. The Heiltsuk were early participants in the revival of the ocean-going cedar canoes during the 1980s, attending Expo '86, participating in the 1989 Paddle to Seattle.^[13] The Heiltsuk canoe "Gilwa" has made many trips since being carved in the 1980s.

In 1993 the Heiltsuk hosted a gathering of ocean-going canoes, known as 'Qatuwas. First Nations from as far away as Washington State and all along the BC Coast paddled to Bella Bella.^[14] A second canoe gathering occurred in July 2014 - also known as 'Qatuwas - and featured more canoes (close to 60) than the original festival in 1993. Both events (1993 and 2014 'Qatuwas Festivals) featured ocean-going canoes from many other First Nations, cultural sharing including dancing, singing,sharing stories, and of course food. The 1993 event more than doubled the population of the community for the ten days it ran.

The Heiltsuk have always based their food gathering significantly on the sea. The 1997 Gladstone decision (R. v. Gladstone ) recognized a commercial aboriginal right to herring - particularly herring eggs - based on the pre-contact history of harvest and trade.

The Heiltsuk are preparing to travel to Massett, Haida Gwaii for a renewal of a peace treaty on September 20, 2014 that dates to the end of the Heiltsuk-Haida wars of the 19th Century.

Language

The Heiltsuk language is part of what is called the Wakashan language family.^[2] Related to other languages in the group as French is to Spanish, the Heiltsuk language is similar to Wuikyala (the language of the Rivers Inlet people). Heiltsuk, Wuikyala, Haisla and Kwak'wala languages form the Northern Wakashan language group. Heiltsuk and Wuikyala are both tonal languages, which Kwak'wala is not, and both are considered dialects of the Heiltsuk-Oowekyala language.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heiltsuk.

• Potlatch
• Northwest Coast art
• Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
• R. v. Gladstone
• The Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples
• First Nations

Notes

References

• Barry Pritzker (2000). A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513897-9. 
• McLennan, Bill and Karen Duffek. The Transforming Image: Painted Arts of the Northwest Coast First Nations. UBC Press. 2000. ISBN 0-7748-0427-0
• Neel, David. The Great Canoes: Reviving a Northwest Coast Tradition. Douglas & McIntyre. 1995. ISBN 1-55054-185-4
• Black, Martha. Bella Bella: A Season of Heiltsuk Art. Royal Ontario Museum. 1997. ISBN 1-55054-556-6

External links

• Heiltsuk Tribal Council
• Tribal Journeys
• R. v. Gladstone