From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Aboriginals: Wakashans/Alan Mcmillan
For most Wakashans, the basic political unit was the group of people who resided together at a winter village. This might comprise a number of local groups which were scattered at other times of the year. The northern Nuu-chah-nulth developed complex confederacies that brought together large numbers of people at shared summer villages on the outer coast. Historic epidemics, by causing population decline and the abandonment of many villages, greatly reduced the number of separate political units.
Wakashan communities surviving into modern times have been incorporated as Indian bands under the Canadian Indian Act. Elected band councils operate much like municipal councils, administering such services as housing, water, sewers, and sanitation; in some areas they also take responsibility for health, welfare, and education. While many Wakashan groups elect their chiefs, among the Nuu-chah-nulth the hereditary chiefs frequently head the band councils.
Alliances of related groups into tribal councils have provided greater political influence on issues of common concern. The Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht formed the West Coast Allied Tribes, later renamed the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, in 1958, one of the first such alliances in British Columbia. It now represents fourteen bands. The Kwakiutl District Council, today representing ten Kwakwaka’wakw bands, was established in 1974. Four bands around Kingcome Inlet, later joined by the people at Alert Bay, left in 1982 to form a separate alliance, the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council. The Oweekeno joined with their non-Wakashan neighbours to form the Oweekeno/Kitasoo Nuxalk Tribal Council. Wakashan First Nations that are not members of such political alliances are the Haisla, Heiltsuk, and Pacheedaht (the southernmost Ditidaht band).
Wakashan political struggles centre on demands for greater control of their own affairs and for settlement of long-standing grievances over ownership of lands and resources in their traditional territories. Most Wakashan First Nations, along with other aboriginal groups in British Columbia, have recently filed land claims with the British Columbia Treaty Commission and are actively negotiating with the federal and provincial governments. Settlements reached through this process will enhance Wakashan economic and political self-sufficiency.
