Identification

The various members of the Wakashan language family occupy the central mainland coast of British Columbia, along with northern and western Vancouver Island, extending as far south as the Olympic peninsula in Washington State. No common Wakashan identity exists; rather, the Wakashan label is a linguistic classification linking a number of related languages.

A major break separates the northern and southern branches of this language family. The northern Wakashans, once widely (although erroneously) referred to as the “Kwakiutl,” consist of a number of politically separate groups speaking three distinct languages. In the north are the Haisla, today concentrated around the city of Kitimat. South of the Haisla are the Heiltsuk (formerly also known as the Bella Bella), whose traditional territories encompass a large area of the central British Columbia coast. The Oweekeno of Rivers Inlet are a separate people, speaking a distinct dialect of the Heiltsuk language. To the south, on northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland, are the speakers of the Kwakwala language, today known as the Kwakwaka’wakw (literally “speakers of Kwakwala”). Although the term Kwagiulth (or “Kwakiutl”) is often applied to this group, it more correctly refers only to those who reside at the modern reserve community of Fort Rupert.

The southern Wakashans, once erroneously lumped together as the “Nootka,” also encompass three separate languages. The most northerly are the Nuu-chah-nulth, who occupy most of the west coast of Vancouver Island. The southern portion of Vancouver Island’s west coast is home to the Ditidaht. Across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in Washington State, are their close relatives, the Makah.

Wakashan reserve communities today are almost invariably on the coastal waters, many in locations occupied by their ancestors for millennia. Others represent nineteenth-or early-twentieth-century movements around trading posts or other centres. Such communities offer modern economic and social facilities while also fostering a sense of identity with the Wakashans’ cultural heritage. For many individuals, however, economic opportunities are greater in the outside world. Approximately 55 percent of Wakashan people now reside off-reserve, many in urban centres removed from their traditional lands.

The Wakashan population at the time of initial European contact is unknown. Conservative estimates suggest about 25,000 people in the northern branch and 10,000 in the southern; however, John Meares, an eighteenth-century European observer, calculated a population of 30,000 for the southern branch alone. Epidemic diseases following European contact greatly reduced Wakashan numbers. After a long period of recovery there are today about 9,500 northern Wakashans and 7,000 Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht in Canada.