Description
The Tsimshian are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace and Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only reservation in Alaska. According to southern Tsimshian oral history, after a series of disasters befell the people, a chief led a migration away from the cursed land to the coast, where they founded Kitkatla Village, the first of three Southern Tsimshian villages. n 1835, the total population of the Tsimshian peoples was estimated at 8,500. By 1885, the population had dropped to 4,500, 817 of whom moved to Alaska two years later following Missionary William Duncan.
Language
Sm’algyax
Culture
The economy of the Tsimshian was based on fishing. They passed the summer months trapping migrating salmon and eulachon (candlefish), a species of smelt. Eulachon were particularly valuable for their oil, which was made into a food highly regarded by many peoples of the area. Large permanent winter houses, made of wood and often carved and painted, symbolized the wealth of Tsimshian families; during the winter months, some land animals were also hunted.