Haida is an adaptation from their self-designation. In the late eighteenth century, Haidas lived in a number of towns, politically unorganized but distinguishable as six groups by geography, tradition, and speech. These groups included the Kaigani people, the people of the north coast of Graham island, the Skidegate Inlet people, the people of the west coast of Moresby Island, the people of the east coast of Moresby Island, and the southern (Kunghit) people. The west coast Pitch-town people stood outside this classification system.
Location Haida territory included the Queen Charlotte Islands and Alexander Archipelago of British Columbia. This is a region of considerable environmental variation, including coastal lowlands, plateau, and mountains. The area is fairly wet, especially in the west.
In the 1990s, most Haida live in Masset and Skidegate on the Queen Charlottes and Hydaburg (established in 1911 as a specifically acculturated Haida town) on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Many also live in the cities of Ketchikan, Alaska, and Seattle, Washington.
Population The Haida population was roughly 9,000-10,000 in the late eighteenth century. This number dropped by almost 95 percent, to about 550, in 1915. In 1996 there were 1,076 members of the Skidegate band, of whom 478 were a resident population; 2,300 members of the Masset band; and 342 Indians at Hydaburg. The total U.S. Haida population was about 1,800.
Language Haidas spoke various dialects, including Skidegate and Masset, of the Haida Athapaskan language.
Historical Information
History Haida country was settled more than 9,000 years ago. The natives first saw a non-Indian when the Spanish explorer Juan Perez Hernandez arrived in 1774. Numerous trading ships followed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Haida traded sea otter pelts for European and U.S. manufactured goods. They also began cultivating potatoes at this time. By the late eighteenth century the Haida were rich and powerful.
Early trade was generally peaceful except for some hostilities in 1791, the probable year they first contracted smallpox. The sea otter trade ended about 1830. It was replaced by land-based fur operations and the Hudson’s Bay Company; its 1830s post at Fort Simpson (Coast Tsimshian country) became the central trading location for Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian traders for the next 40 years. The Haida also traded in Victoria beginning in 1858, drawn by the local gold rush. During this period, however, they fought with rival Kwakiutls and fell victim to drinking and prostitution. More disease, especially smallpox, hit hard in 1862 and led to widespread village abandonment and consolidation. By the mid-1870s, Haida culture was in full collapse.
A Haida brass band from Howkan, Alaska, circa 1905.
Christian (Methodist) missionaries arrived in Haida country in 1829. The Anglican church was active at Masset from the early 1880s on; shortly thereafter the Haida ceased erecting grave posts and memorial totem poles. Dancing and the power of shamans also declined. In 1883, Haida villages were divided between Methodists (central and southern) and Anglican (northern) missionaries.
Under government auspices, the Presbyterian Church established Hydaburg, Alaska, around the turn of the century. It was meant to facilitate the transition among Haidas from traditional to dominant culture. In 1936, the Haida became the first Indian group in Alaska to adopt a constitution under the Indian Reorganization Act. They succeeded in obtaining a large reservation in 1949, but under pressure from the salmon industry, a judge invalidated the reservation several years later.
Haidas in Canada were granted almost 3,500 acres of land in 1882 and another 360 in 1913. By the twentieth century, Haidas were migrating seasonally to work in the commercial mining, fishing, and canning industries. Acculturation proceeded rapidly. The potlatch was outlawed in 1884, although many Indians continued clandestinely to observe this central aspect of their culture. Government land allotments without regard to traditional lineages undercut the latter’s power, as did the growth of single-family housing.
Canada passed its first comprehensive Indian Act in 1884. Among other things, the act established numerous small reserves for Indian subsistence and other activities. In 1912, Presbyterian Tlingits formed the Alaska Native Brotherhood (the Alaska Native Sisterhood was founded 11 years later), which worked for the abandonment of tradition, the mitigation of racial prejudice, increased educational opportunities, and land rights. These organizations reversed their stand against traditional practices in the late 1960s. Severe overt economic and social discrimination against Indians continued, however, including a virtual apartheid system during the first half of the twentieth century.
Christian funeral of Chief Sonihat in 1912. Christian (Methodist) missionaries arrived in Haida country in 1829. By 1883, Haida villages were divided between Methodists (central and southern) and Anglican (northern) missionaries.
After World War II, Masset experienced a brief boom in carpentry and boatbuilding. Most villagers in the 1960s worked in the canning and processing industries for half the year and were otherwise unemployed. In general, Alaska Indians campaigned for self-government and full citizenship. Canadian Indian policy favored integration into mainstream society after World War II. In the 1960s, the government granted Indians a measure of self-determination, which sparked a period of cultural renewal. Tlingits and Haidas received a $7.5 million land claims settlement in 1970. Under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (1971), the Haidas set up several corporations, although one, the Haida Corporation, declared bankruptcy in 1986.
Religion Haidas believed that animals possessed intelligence and humanlike souls, had a hierarchical ranking, lived in villages, and could change their form at will. Haidas offered prayers, grease, tobacco, and flicker feathers to the spirits of game animals. They also conceived of three worlds: sky, sea, and land. Their ceremonies were directly related to the system of social stratification. Potlatches, feasts, and dance performances, given by high-ranking people, were the main ceremonial events. Shamans, with multiple supernatural powers, were considered to be more powerful than chiefs.
Government People lived in autonomous villages, some consisting of a single lineage. The basic social and political unit was the lineage, or clan; each contained up to 12 households and was presided over by a hereditary chief. He gave permission for others to access the lineage’s subsistence area and could declare war. Household chiefs (owners of plank houses) exercised control over their households, deciding when members left for fishing or hunting camps. In multilineage towns, the wealthiest, highest-ranking house chief was the town master, or town mother.
Customs The Haida divided most labor along sex and class lines. Women gathered, processed, and preserved all foods; prepared animal skins; and made clothing and baskets. Men fished, hunted, built houses and canoes, carved, and painted. Canoe making and carving, as well as sea otter hunting, were high-prestige occupations. Economically important slaves, captured during war, did much of the fishing.
Ambition, success in hunting and fishing, and industry were highly valued qualities. Haida society was divided into two matrilineal divisions, Raven and Eagle, each composed of lineages, or clans. Lineages had mythological origins and controlled property such as subsistence areas and names, dances, songs, and crest figures. Crests were the identifying symbols of lineages and an indication of personal rank within the lineage. They were carved on totem poles and other wooden items and tattooed on the body.
At feasts and potlatches, guests were seated according to their rank. Feasts, although always part of potlatches, were also held separately to name a child, at a marriage or death, to honor a visitor, or to enhance prestige. In addition to personal rank, there was a class system. Upper-class people bore many potlatch names, because when they were children their parents had given potlatches in their honor; they owned houses and were heirs to high-ranking names and chieftainships.
The Haida observed a number of life-cycle rituals and taboos. Children were regarded as reincarnated ancestors. Uncles toughened boys by, for example, making them take winter sea swims. There was no boys’ puberty ceremony, but girls were secluded for a month or longer and followed many behavioral restrictions. Marriages were arranged in childhood or infancy. Property exchange and gift giving marked the marriage. Death among high-status people was a major ceremonial occasion. After bodies were washed, costumed, and painted, they lay in state for several days. Then they were placed in bent-corner coffins constructed by men of the father’s lineage and removed through a hole in the wall. Burial was either in a lineage grave or in a mortuary column, followed by a potlatch and the raising of a memorial pole. Commoners had no poles erected in their honor. Slaves were thrown into the sea.
Dwellings There were two basic types of red cedar-plank houses, one with seven roof beams, a central smoke hole, and corner posts, and the other with four beams and four internal posts. Both types were roofed with cedar bark. Larger houses (houses could be as large as 60 by 100 feet) featured a centrally excavated pit and terraced tiers leading down to the base. Sleeping places were arranged by tier according to rank. Corner and interior posts were carved and painted. They were set along the tree line and facing the beach.
House names were considered personal property and might be attributes of the owner or related to the construction or physical features of the house. At one time, towns were probably composed of one lineage only. Many Haida towns had a "forest" of totem poles along the beachfront. Entry into the house was either through a hole in the bottom of a pole or through elliptical doorways cut into the front facade.
This Haida chief stands before a typical dwelling called the House Where the People Want to Go (1888). House names might reflect an attribute of the owner or relate to the construction or physical features of the house. Entry into the house was either through a hole in the bottom of a totem pole or through elliptical doorways cut into the front facade.
Diet Fish, especially halibut and salmon, and shellfish (gathered by men and women) were the staples. They were sliced and sun dried or smoked. Other important foods included sea mammals (seals, porpoises, sea otters, sea lions, and stranded whales), wild foods (seaweed, berries, and shoots), and land mammals (deer and beaver [Alaska], caribou [the Queen Charlottes], and bear). Meat was also preserved by smoking and drying. Some groups also ate birds (hunted by men and women) and their eggs. The Haida also grew tobacco.
Key Technology The Haida were a seafaring people. Fishing technology included hook and line (of gut), traps, and harpoons. Hunting equipment included snares, bows and arrows, and clubs. Women made twined basketry (for quivers and other items) of split spruce roots and cedar-bark mats and bags. Building tools included wooden wedges, stone adzes, and basalt or jade hammers. Dugout cedar canoes were up to 70 feet long and 8 feet wide, carved and painted. The Haida had a fire bow drill and began working their own iron in the late eighteenth century.
Trade At least in the early historic period, the Haida gained wealth from their skill as traders. They traded canoes, slaves, and shell to the Tlingit for copper, Chilkat blankets, and moose and caribou hides. Canoes, seaweed, chewing tobacco, and dried halibut went to the Tsimshian for eulachon grease, dried eulachons, and soapberries. They acquired slaves from the Kwakiutl. There was some intravillage trade. In the mid-1830s they traded furs, dried halibut, potatoes, and dried herring spawn to the Hudson’s Bay Company for blankets, rice, flour, and other staples.
Notable Arts The Haida were outstanding wood-carvers. Their masterpieces included canoes, totem (mortuary) poles, house fronts, walls, screens, weapons, bentwood boxes, ceremonial masks, tools, and implements. Totem pole carving burgeoned during the nineteenth century with the acquisition of metal tools; the Haida built some of the best such poles in world history.
Designs included zoomorphic crest figures as well as mythological beings and events. Black, red, and blue-green were traditional colors. Other arts included basketry, especially hats, and other excellent woven items, such as robes, capes, and blankets. They may have carved argillite in prehistoric times, but certainly for the curio trade from the nineteenth century on, at which time they also took up silver engraving.
The Haida were outstanding wood-carvers. Their masterpieces included weapons such as these carved clubs, canoes, totem (mortuary) poles, house fronts, walls, screens, bentwood boxes, ceremonial masks, tools, and implements. Designs included zoomorphic crest figures as well as mythological beings and events.
Transportation The Haida built several forms of red cedar dugout canoes.
Dress Clothing came from otter and other furs, cedar bark, and other fibers. Upper-class people wore tattoos. Wooden labrets were placed in the lips of upper-class girls at puberty; the size depended on rank and age.
War and Weapons The Haida enjoyed fighting. Their enemies included the Coast Tsimshian, Bella Bella, and Southern Tlingit as well as the Kwakiutl, Coast Salish, and Nootkans. There were also internal conflicts. Plunder and revenge were the main reasons for fighting. Weapons included the bow and arrow, bone-tipped spears, clubs, wooden helmets, and armor.
Relations with Non-natives Early trade relationships were positive, except for one violent incident directed against them in 1791 and subsequent revenge attacks. Non-native "culture" rather than weapons "triumphed" over the Haida as they fell to social vices as well as disease. Missionaries had success among the Haida, although the latter secretly retained many elements of their culture. Thorough acculturation took place during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The centers of contemporary Haida culture are Masset and Skidegate on the Queen Charlottes, British Columbia, and Hydaburg (established in 1911 as a specifically acculturated Haida town), Alaska. A 101,000-acre reservation there was invalidated in 1952. The city of Hydaburg remains, at least for now, under the general control of Haida Indians.
In Canada, bands (an administrative entity created by the Indian Act) manage most resources. Although not self-governing, they elect councils every two years. Since the 1980s the Council of the Haida Nations, from Masset and Skidegate, has pursued common goals and interests.
The Old Masset Village Council Band, formerly known as the Masset Band and located seven kilometers west of the village of Masset, British Columbia, is commonly known as Haida Village. The band controls 26 reserves on 907 hectares. Their population in 1995 was 2,201, of which 600 people lived in 260 houses on the reserves. They are affiliated with the North Coast Tribal Council in addition to the Council of the Haida Nation. Officials are elected by custom.
The Skidegate Band is located in southeast Graham Island, British Columbia. Eleven reserves are located on 670 hectares of land. The band is affiliated with the North Coast Tribal Council as well as the Council of the Haida Nation. The 1996 population was 1,076, of which 478 people lived in 239 houses.
Economy The Sealaska Corporation, which includes Haidas since they were a party to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, owns large timber, fishery, and other interests. The Haida Corporation also owns timber and oil and seafood interests. Residents of Hydaburg are engaged in subsistence economies as well as some commercial fishing and timber jobs. Most skilled jobs are held by outsiders. Unemployment among the Haida is a major problem.
Economic activities and resources of the Old Masset Village Council Band include a pizza parlor, a taxi service, a bed-and-breakfast, a jewelry casting company, stores, a boat charter, seasonal logging, and commercial fishing. Economic activities and resources of the Skidegate band include the Gwaalagaa Naay Cooperative grocery and a number of small businesses as well as seasonal logging and commercial fishing.
Hydaburg features a municipal government and a small urban economy, in addition to a reliance on the logging industry.
Legal Status The Hydaburg Cooperative Association is a federally recognized tribal entity. With the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (1971), hundreds of native corporations formed, including Sealaska (the Tlingit-Haida Central Council), which is a federally recognized tribal entity.
The Old Masset Village Council Band and the Skidegate Band are federally and provincially recognized entities. Tlingit and Haida native villages include Angoon, Craig, Hoonah, Hydaburg, Juneau (Juneau Fishing Village), Kake, Klawok, Klukwan, Saxman, Sitka Village, and Yakutat. The government of British Columbia and Native Canadians continue to struggle over the issue of aboriginal rights.
Daily Life In Canada, native towns have regular and constant interaction with other nearby towns, yet life in the communities still centers around kinship, rank, and traditional ceremonial activities. The major church denominations are Anglican, Pentecostal, and United Church of Canada. The cultural renaissance of the 1970s was based in part on the emergence of several major artists.
Facilities at Masset include offices, a community hall, a counseling center, a warehouse, a longhouse, an elders’ center, and a group home. Those at Skidegate include a community hall, a recreation hall, offices, a senior citizens center, and a gift shop. Children of both bands attend both and provincial schools.
Among the Alaska Haida, the elders and clan heads are churchgoers and serve as city officials and corporate directors. Extended families are still important, as are Christian churches, especially Presbyterian and the Assembly of God. Schools include classes in native language, drawing, and carving.
Mortuary potlatches and feasting are still part of Haida culture. In the 1980s, Canadian Indians began an initiative to enshrine native rights in the new constitution.
