Nisg̱a’a

Selected features from the Northwest Coast Hall

The ancestral lands of the Nisg̲a’a are in and around the Nass River on the northern coast of British Columbia. The Nisg̲a’a, Tsimshian, and Gitxsan are neighbors along the Skeena and Nass Rivers. These Nations share many traditions, and their languages are closely related.

Nisg̲a’a history tells of more than 60 Huwilp, or Houses, making up the Nation across four Pdeeḵ, or Tribes—the Eagle, Wolf, Raven, and Killer Whale crests.

Nisg̱a’a Language

Wilp Wilxo’oskwhl Nisg̱a’a Language Instructor Irene Squires, Wilps Baxk’ap (a Nisg̱a’a Wolf House), prepares materials for an advanced Nisg̱a’a language composition class.
WWN Executive Secretary Katherine Kervel, Wilps Gitxun (a Nisg̱a’a Eagle House)

Language learning is a lifelong journey in Nisg̲a’a communities, taught to babies and preschoolers in Head Start Programs, children in local schools, and adults at the Nisg̲a’a university-college, Wilp Wilxo'oskwhl Nisg̲a’a Institute. While endangered, the language still has an impressive number of fluent speakers—60 alone in the village of Gitwinksihlkw, a center of Nisg̲a’a teaching and learning.

Credit: First Voices, a program of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council. Recordings produced by Nisg̲a’a teens Garth Munroe, Wilps Ksdiyaawaḵ (a Nisg̲a’a Wolf House) and Sterling Tait, Wilps Ksim Xsaan (a Nisg̲a’a Raven House). Posted here with permission of Wilp Wilxo'oskwhl Nisg̲a’a Institute.

Chiefly Wisdom

Nisg̱a’a Chiefs, Elders, Matriarchs, youth, and guests celebrate the raising of a Pts’aan (pole) in Gitwinksihlkw.
Gary Fiegehen/Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government

In Nisg̲a’a, Gitxsan, and Tsimshian society, both women and men can become Chiefs. To prepare for this and other leadership roles, young people from high-ranking families spend years in rigorous training. They must learn the spiritual history and beliefs of their cultures and how these are expressed and affirmed in both formal ceremonies and daily life. When ready, an apprentice attains halayt, a form of supernatural power, through an initiation ceremony. Today, no one of Nisg̲a'a descent has currently attained halayt status.

Halayt training is lifelong and includes extensive and detailed recollections of Nisg̲a’a history and Wilp, or House, history, particularly for those in the line of succession for Sigidim-haanaḵ' | House Matriarchs and Simgigat | House Head Chiefs. 

Maaksgum-k’utk’unukws Amhalayt | White Owl Frontlet 

Click on the 3D model below for a closer look.

Only people of high social rank could wear these elaborate head pieces, which rest on the forehead and are sometimes trimmed with ermine pelts. Frontlets represent family crests, and tell the history of family lineage.

Display of Status

Nisg̱a’a Chief W̓ahlin Sim’oogit Ksdiyaawaḵ | James Percival of Gitlaxt'aamiks, Head Chief of a Nisg̱a’a Wolf House, stands on a G̱al'inḵ, a carved bentwood box, surrounded by masks and other House regalia, in 1903. He holds a carved Raven rattle in each hand. The most elaborate G̱al'inḵ were reserved only for Sigidim-haanaḵ', Nisg̱a’a House Matriarchs and Simgigat, Nisg̱a’a House Head Chiefs. G̱al'inḵ each had stories and history attached. 
B.A. Haldane, Image PN04329/Royal BC Museum, BC Archives