Kin groups sharing a name and a descendency from a common ancestor held the rights to important hunting and fishing sites, and other resource areas like cammas root sites and clam beds. People in kin groups traced theirĭescendency to a common ancestor, usually a supernatural being from when the world began. Southern Wakashans allowed inheritance and membership in the kin group to come from either the mother's or father's side, with an emphasis on the father's side. Soap berries would be whipped into a froth for a kind of 'ice cream'. Salmonīerries, salal berries and huckleberries would be enjoyed fresh, as well as pressed into cakes and dried for winter use. Clover, fern roots, edible bulbs and tubers were important sources of nourishment, along with the inner bark of the hemlock, which created a starchy cake. Salmon berry greens and fireweed shoots were among the first spring greens to Of the land-based resources, deer, elk and bear were the most important meats, and water fowl were caught on occasion. (The Pacheedaht are related to the Makah on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, who are also historically renowned for open-sea canoe whaling.) The Nuu-chah-nulth were the only open-ocean canoe whalers on Vancouver Island and much prestige was conferred on the Preferred in the Nuu-chah-nulth diet, and the oil-rich blubber had many uses. The always available inter tidal bounty of clams, mussels, abalone and other shell fish, as well as sea urchins, sea cucumbers, octopus, crabs and seaweed provided moreīeing a rugged maritime peoples, seals, sea lions, porpoise and especially whales, (particularly the California gray and the humpback) were much desired, and most often hunted. Herring and herring spawn rounded out the fish which Eulachon oil, rendered from a small spring smelt, and a highly prized condiment, was valuable in trade as well. The natives would time seasonal movements to coincide with each of the salmon The outer coast Nuu-chah-nulth relied extensively on halibut, although all 5 salmon species were a fundamental resource.

Speak separate but closely related languages. The northern and central Nuu-chah-nulth groups speak dialects of one language, while the southern group (Ditidaht and Makah) Nuu-chah-nulth itself is divided into three languages. Wakashan has two main branches, Kwakiutl and Nootka The Wakashan language family is one of the six found in British Columbia alone. Wakashan is one of the eleven native language families in Canada. Point-No-Point, up the west coast (including Pacheenah Bay) to Bonilla Point and from the mouth of the San Juan River to Todd Mountain, 26 miles inland (according to Chief Charlie Queesto Jones, in The Pacheedaht traditional lands extended from The southeastern-most peoples of these three are the Pacheedaht, who are located on the Gordon River Reservation in Port Renfrew, on the San Juan Bay. Nuu-chah-nulth as the Ditidaht, which has three branches of its own. The Nootka people now prefer to be known as the Nuu-chah-nulth collectively, and the southern-most Today all these groups have taken names which better reflect their own concepts of their identity. These sub-groups have been known by inappropriate or erroneous names throughout recorded history, and these names have largely been rejected by the people to whom they There are territorial sub-groups of each regional native group, and most of these sub-groups are divided into several distinct branches, within which each village has its own identity, and sometimes Nootka are one of many groups of natives that have inhabited Vancouver Island, and particularly its west coast, for thousands of years. The southern Wakashans, along the west coast of Vancouver Island, were part of the Nootka (both names suggested by Captain James Cook during his first encounters with those peoples in 1778). (It is interesting to note that for an unknown period of time beforeĬontact with Europeans, the Nootka acquired iron and other metals through native trade networks and shipwrecks.) Relatively unspecialized groups finally formed large complex societies that became associated with certain areas over time. The first arrivals along the west coast of British Columbia occurred around 10,000 years ago, after the last great glacial melt, although it wasn't until around 5,500 years ago that these small and Quu'as (meaning 'being, as in human being) Pacheedaht (meaning 'people of the sea foam') Nuu-chah-nulth (meaning 'all along the shining mountains')ĭitidaht (meaning 'people along the way/coast') Southern Wakashan ('Wakash!' meaning 'Bravo!') Port Renfrew, Port San Juan, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada Home -Į-mail Pacheedaht History West Coast Vancouver Island, Pacheedaht History - Port Renfrew, BC, Canada.

Nootka indian tribe facts