1. The Haida

3. West Coast Native Groups
The Haida are part of a larger collection of West Coast First Nations peoples who occupy part of British Columbia. Since they lived close to each other, they were similar in many ways:
They all have permanent homes
They all have similar foods
They all share similar customs
They all built boats to travel on the water
They all traded with each other.
They often fought against each other
The Northwest Coast can be divided up into several main groups with many smaller groups. Some anthropologists believe that the number of different First Nations groups in British Columbia could be as high as 70.

4. West Coast Languages
Most of the West Coast Natives were similar, yet this mountainous area brought about one major difference in these groups and that was in their languages. Each Native group on the west coast had their own language. Some, like the Haida, had no similarities to any other language. Others had minor similarities.
The Northwest Coast people have the most variety of languages of any First Nations group in Canada. It is estimated that there are nineteen distinct languages spoken by the people. However, if all of the languages are grouped together then they can be divided into five main language groups.
The main groups are the Haida, the Tlingit, the Tsimshian, the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), and the Salishan.

5. Location:
Of all the Native groups in British Columbia, the Haida were the only ones to live only on an island. They lived on a small gathering of islands called the Queen Charlotte Islands, which belong to British Columbia. There are two main islands with many smaller islands. The Haida call their islands HAIDA GWAII. Historically, the Haida were located throughout the island. Today, the two largest communities are Skidegate and Masset.
A few other Haida communities were located on islands just north of Haida Gwaii which are a part of Alaska, USA today.

6. HAIDA FOOD
The west coast of British Columbia is mild for most of the year with plenty of rain. The waters are full of fish and other marine life. The forests are full of vegetation and animals. Because of this, the Natives who lived in this region were ‘hunters and gatherers’. They hunted the animals that lived in the area and they collected (gathered) the food that grew plentifully in the area, like grains, berries, mushrooms and roots.
The people of the Northwest Coast were skilled fishermen and learned to catch all of the fish they would ever need.

7. The Pacific Ocean was the main source of food for the Haida, and therefore, the men spent a lot of time fishing along the coast. Pacific Salmon was abundant in the waters and became the most important food for the Haida people.
In the fall, the salmon would travel from the ocean up the rivers to spawn (lay their eggs), making them easy to catch with nets, harpoons, and traps. The Haida would literally catch thousands of fish in one or two areas in just a few days, which was more than enough to feed a family for one year.

8. Haida Food:
The ocean also provided them with other fish like the halibut and smelt. They also caught crab and other shellfish like clams, oysters and mussels.
Seaweed from the ocean was also a part of their diet.
The Haida even caught whales! It was a dangerous process that could take days. It was dangerous because the Haida only had fairly small boats which could be tipped over by an aggressive whale. Once in the water, the Haida fisherman could easily drown or be killed by the whale.
On occasion, the Haida caught other sea animals like sea otters, seals and even sea turtles.

9. The Candlefish
Native women pressing Eulachon oil
The Haida used a lot of fish oil to add flavour to food and for lamp lights. The whale and the seal were the most common animal to get oil from.
One valuable and important fish to the Haida was the Eulachon (also called candlefish by the Europeans) The Eulachon is a small fish similar to a smelt.
During certain times of the year, the Eulachon has a very high percent of oil in its body. This oil can be harvested and used for food and as fuel for lamps.
Even when fully dried, the Eulachon will burn like a candle when lit. The Haida travelled to the mainland to trade for this fish and the oil.

10. Homes:
With everything they needed so close to them, the Haida had no need to move from place to place, so their homes were permanent. These permanent homes were very impressive!
The Haida lived in rectangular cedar-plank houses with bark roofs. Usually these houses were large (up to 100 feet long) and each one housed several families from the same clan (as many as 50 people.) This style of living is very different from our way which is usually one house for one family.
Perhaps the most famous part of the Haida culture can be seen behind and in front of each home, and that is their totem poles (more later).

11. Haida homes
Since it rained a lot along the coast, the trees grew very thick and tall. The huge red cedars were especially important to the people because they could make their large houses with them. They cut the trees with stone axes and floated them to their villages. Then they would build!
First, a frame was built out of cedar logs.
Then, cedar planks were attached to the logs. It was important to overlap the planks to keep the rain out.
They used wooden pegs as nails to hold the wood together.
They made their houses as huge rectangles, with many posts to hold up the roof and covered them with cedar planks.
There were no windows in the longhouses. There was only a hole in the roof to let smoke from the fires out and a single front door to keep the heat in.
The longhouses were built with low roofs because it was easier to heat the homes in the winter.

12. Inside a Haida longhouse
Screened off area for the chief
Inside a longhouse, there was only simple furniture. Each family had bunk beds lined up against the wall for sleeping. Above each bunk, there were storage areas and open shelves. Below the bottom bunks, they dug holes (around two feet deep) to store food and to keep it cool.
Each family would also have their own small fire pit for cooking.
Woven cedar mats were hung from the ceiling to separate the different family areas. The chief had the biggest area and the most private area which would be separated by a wooden wall.
When one family member got married, a new section of the longhouse would be sub-divided for the new family. When the Haida house got too full, a new one would be built and some of the families would move into it.

13. Haida villages
Houses were always grouped together forming small villages.
Some villages had as many as 1,000 people, all living in only 30 houses!
All the houses in a village were lined up side-by-side facing the same direction- towards the water.
House fronts were commonly painted as were the totem poles, which were carved with the family crest. (we’ll learn more about totem poles later on)
If an individual built a longhouse for his family, then he lived there with his wife and children, and then their children.
When the children got older, they were assigned (by the head of the family) a new space inside the longhouse.
On the other hand, if the village built the longhouse together, then it would be the Chief's responsibility to assign living spaces to each family.
When the owner of a longhouse died, the family gave the longhouse away or burnt it to the ground. It was believed that if the family stayed in the longhouse after the death, then the spirit of the dead person would worry too much about the family.

14. Haida men wore a breech cloth and long cloaks
Haida men wore a breech cloth and long cloaks. A breechcloth is a long rectangular piece of tanned deerskin, cloth, or animal fur. It is worn between the legs and tucked over a belt in the front and the back so that the flaps fall down in front and behind. Sometimes it is also called a loincloth. Women wore knee-length skirts and poncho-like capes.
Haida clothing was usually woven out of fiber made from cedar bark, but some garments were made of deerskin and otter fur. In cold weather, Haida people wore moccasins and heavy caribou robes, but most of the time, they preferred to go barefoot.

15. For formal occasions, Haida people wore more elaborate outfits with tunics, leggings and cloaks painted with tribal designs. Some important and wealthy Haidas wore the spectacular Chilkat blankets, which were woven from cedar bark and mountain goat hair.
Chilkat blankets

16. The Haida Canoe
The Haida tribe was well-known for their large dugout canoes, which they made by hollowing out cedar logs. A Haida canoe could be more than sixty feet long and was built to withstand stormy waves and could carry pounds of cargo (like fish). Even other Northwest Coast Indian tribes, who all made impressive canoes themselves, admired the canoes of the Haida carvers. The Haida tribe used these canoes to travel up and down the sea coast for trading, fishing and hunting, and war.

17. Modern Canoes
The tradition of large quality canoes continues today. Modern Haida carvers still spend hundreds of hours hollowing out cedar logs and carving and painting highly detailed and highly prized canoes.
The art of making the Haida canoes was almost lost by the beginning of the 1900s. It may have been lost completely if not for the work of one man named Bill Reid.
Bill Reid was born in Victoria BC and was half Haida, but his Haida mother kept this from him. When he did find out, he explored his culture and learned that it had almost disappeared. Over time, he became an expert in Haida art. He decided to build canoes using traditional Haida techniques. His most famous canoe was the 15-metre war canoe called Lootaas (Wave Eater), which was carved from a single cedar tree from Haida Gwaii.

18. Bill Reid was asked to build this canoe for Expo ’86, the World’s Fair that was held in Vancouver in The massive canoe was the first of its kind carved in the 20th century and ‘wowed’ Expo ‘86 spectators. It began a rebirth in traditional canoe building across the province of British Columbia, as well as the restart of traditional tribal canoe journeys and festivals among first nations peoples.

19. Bill Reid’s canoe
The Lootaas canoe enjoyed a long and famous life. It was paddled all the way from the Haida Gawii islands to Alaska, and it even made an honorary journey up the Seine River in France to be displayed in Paris’ Museum of Man. When Bill Reid died in 1998 at age 78, the canoe was used to transport his ashes back to his adopted home on Haida Gwaii. The canoe remains in the Haida museum in Haida Gwaii,
An exact replica was made for the Museum of Natural History located in Ottawa.

20. Haida Society
The Northwest Coast people never developed a democracy government. Instead, their society was ruled by wealth. The wealthiest clan had the most power.
Their society included different classes: nobles, commoners, and slaves (acquired through War or purchase).
The Haida were divided into basic social units. In the family groups, the oldest and highest ranking person was named the Chief of the family. Then within each family, a person's rank was determined by their relationship with the Chief. For example, if the chief was your father, you had great social standing. If the chief was a cousin, you would have a lower social rank.
Chiefs were responsible for distributing wealth among the people. Those who had a higher social status received more, all the way down to the lowest ranked individual.

21. Groups of families lived together, forming villages
Groups of families lived together, forming villages. Within each village, each family was ranked. The Chief of the most powerful family became the Chief of the village.
The village Chief displayed his family's crest on the village totem poles. The Haida were divided into two or more family 'clans‘: the Raven and the Eagle clans. Clan membership was always passed down through the mother's side of the family. So if your mother belonged to the Raven clan, then her children belonged to the Raven clan.
Each person always married someone from the other clan.

22. One thing that set the Haida people (and other West Coast Native Groups) apart from other First Nations people groups in Canada was how they recognized ownership of land and property. Haida families claimed good spots for fishing or hunting or gathering food. The amount of property that a family claimed (owned) contributed to their wealth within their community.