Haida Gwaii

Posted by Carol Cedarholm June 11, 2019

Haida Gwaii

Haida Gwaii – “Islands of the People” or “Islands at the Boundary of the World” – has been the home for the Haida people for 12,500 years. Named Queen Charlotte Islands by European settler colonialists, today it comprises a 100-mile long swirl of islands, inlets, mountains, forests, rivers, bays, channels and lakes 30-40 miles off the coast of mainland British Columbia and close to Alaska (where Haida also live). The name ‘Queen Charlotte Islands’, was literally returned to the British Columbia premier in an official Giving Back the Name Ceremony in 2010, when it was written on a piece of paper, placed in a traditional cedar bentwood box, and handed over.

Haida Gwaii is a special place. Sometimes called the Galapagos of North America for its biological diversity, over half the land and three quarters of the shoreline is protected. The people are special too. Historically a fierce seafaring warrior people with cedar canoes considered the largest and most beautiful in the world, they would take trading fleets of 60 foot long canoes 1,000 miles south to the city of Victoria in southern Vancouver Island. They developed a rich culture, and became a powerful presence among the First Nations of the northwest.

According to one scholar, Haida became “the apogee of the northwest coast; unequivocally the most advanced of any hunter-gatherers.” They “hunted” black cod, halibut, salmon and more, and benefited from a moderate climate and their rich forest resources, including cedar which was used in multiple ways. But less than 100 years after the first white men made contact in 1787 and established a flourishing sea otter trade, the Haida culture and economy were in ruins: sea otter and caribou had been hunted to extinction; whales badly over-hunted; salmon and cod overfished; old growth forests disappeared to the logging industry; population down to a mere 600 (from 15,000-30,000) due to disease, mostly smallpox brought by European intruders; Haida language practically lost; cultural practices like potlatch outlawed; missionaries and residential schools wreaking cultural havoc, and only two major villages inhabited, from hundreds in earlier years.

But we found and learned that the Haida have rebounded in all respects and today are world renowned for their artistic output and cultural revitalization.