The Gits'iis are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian

Tsimshian

The Tsimshian are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Tsimshian translates to Inside the Skeena River. Their communities are in British Columbia and Alaska, around Terrace and Prince Rupert and the southernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. There are approximately 10,000...

 nation in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada, and one of the nine of those tribes making up the "Nine Tribes" of the lower Skeena River

Skeena River

The Skeena River is the second longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada . The Skeena is an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan - whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River" respectively, and also during the...

 resident at Lax Kw'alaams

Lax Kw'alaams

Lax-Kw'alaams , usually called Port Simpson, is an Indigenous village community in British Columbia, Canada, not far from the city of Prince Rupert. It is the home of the "Nine Tribes" of the lower Skeena River, which are nine of the fourteen tribes of the Tsimshian nation...

 (a.k.a. Port Simpson), B.C.

Overview

The name Gits'iis means literally "people of the seal trap." Their traditional territory includes the areas around the Khutzeymateen Inlet and Work Channel, between Lax Kw'alaams and Kincolith, B.C. Since 1834, they have been based at Lax Kw'alaams, when a Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 fort was established there.

The chieftainship of the Gits'iis resides with the Ganhada

Ganhada

The Ganhada is the name for the Raven "clan" in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. It is considered analogous or identical to the Ganada Tribe of the Nisga'a nation in British Columbia and the Frog clan among B.C.'s Gitxsan nation...

 (Raven-clan) hereditary name-title Niisyaganaat and the royal house-group (extended matrilineal family) of the same name. The current Niisyaganaat is Lawrence Helin, uncle to the author Calvin Helin

Calvin Helin

Calvin Helin is a Canadian businessman and writer on aboriginal topics who is a member of the Tsimshian First Nation in northwestern British Columbia....

. Both William Beynon and the anthropologist Viola Garfield

Viola Garfield

Viola E. Garfield was an American anthropologist best known for her work on the social organization and plastic arts of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia and Alaska.-Early life:...

 describe in their writings of a potlatch

Potlatch

A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...

 feast held circa 1930 for the death of Herbert Wallace, who had held Niisyaganaat. An earlier chief of the Gits'iis, according to Garfield, had been one Abraham Lincoln, named not for the U.S. president

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 but for an employer named Lincoln and for the biblical Abraham

Abraham

Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

.

The artist Bill Helin

Bill Helin

Bill Helen is a Canadian artist, teacher, and designer in the Northwest Coast style and a member of the Tsimshian First Nation of northwestern British Columbia. His ancestry is from the Gits'iis tribe in the village of Lax Kw'alaams, B.C. His father was Arthur Helen-.His accomplishments include...

 is described as a member of the Gits'iis tribe.

Houses of the Gits'iis

• House of Asagalyaan -- Laxgibuu
  Laxgibuu
  The Laxgibuu is the name for the Wolf "clan" in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. It is considered analogous or identical to identically named clans among the neighboring Gitksan and Nisga'a nations.The name Laxgibuu derives from gibuu, which...
  
   (Wolf clan)
• House of Dago'milsk—Ganhada (Raven)
• House of Łüüm—Ganhada (Raven)
• House of 'Wiilaxha—Gispwudwada (Killerwhale)

The House of Łüüm and the House of Dago'milsk are two other Ganhada house-groups of the Gits'iis tribe. A totem pole

Totem pole

Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America...

belonging to Dago'milsk, depicting a sea lion with gun in his mouth, was still standing (with the gun having fallen away) in Lax Kw'alaams in the 1930s.

Sources

• Barbeau, Marius (1950) Totem Poles. 2 vols. (Anthropology Series 30, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 119.) Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.

• Beynon, William (1992) "The Feast of Nisyaganaat, Chief of the Gitsiis." In Na Amwaaltga Tsmsiyeen: The Tsimshian, Trade, and the Northwest Coast Economy, ed. by Susan Marsden, pp. 45–54. (Suwilaay'msga Na Ga'niiyatgm, Teachings of Our Grandfathers, vol. 1.) Prince Rupert, B.C.: First Nations Advisory Council of School District #52.

• Garfield, Viola E. (1939) "Tsimshian Clan and Society." University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 167–340.

• Helin, Calvin (2006) Dances with Dependency: Indigenous Success through Self-Reliance. Vancouver: Orca Spirit Publishing and Communications.