Kitselas Canyon

Kitselas Canyon, often Gitselas Canyon, a portion of the Skeena River northeast of Terrace, British Columbia. He was declared on 19 October 1975 by the Government of Canada National Historic Site of Canada.

The Tsimshian lived for over 10,000 years in the coastal region, and probably since at least 5000 years in Kitselas Canyon. Here the Gitselasu lived (also called Kitselas, the people of the canyon), one of the seven First Nations of the Tsimshian in northwest British Columbia, and established settlements that controlled access to the Pacific through the valley of the river.

In Canyon five villages are known. The oldest sites are Tsunyow, Gitaus and the Paul Mason site. The latter site was named after Paul Mason, one of the elders ( Elders ) of the tribe, who took part in 1981 at the archaeological dig. The village dates back to the period 1200-600 BC, but the oldest finds are 5000 years old. These early artifacts are tiny blades of obsidian a site 350 km south-east, the area around Anahim on the Chilcotin Plateau come. The Paul Mason site was probably occupied a seasonal camp until there was a village. The site was a phase of cultural development, the Paul Mason phase (ca. 1200-700 BC ) the name originated in the permanently inhabited houses. The residents of dried salmon. However, while the other villages in the canyon clear signs of a hierarchical society, as have very different sized houses, has at the Paul Mason site going up an egalitarian society. All three sites were abandoned centuries ago that, that it has left no traces in the memory of the tribe Paul Mason site already so long ago.

The villages Gitlaxdzawk and Gitsaex are the youngest, the former originally was on an island. However, this was by a landslide during the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 1910-1913 to a peninsula. The village with about 300 inhabitants was secured and served the defense against invaders who came up the river. It consisted of ten longhouses, whose greatest chief Sim'oogit Gaum from the Ganhada clan belonged ( Raven Clan ). The great smallpox epidemic of 1862 forced the inhabitants to abandon the village.

Diagonally opposite was the village Gitsaex, which consisted of 17 longhouses. Also this village of about 600 inhabitants in 1862 had to be abandoned.

While living on the neighboring islands Dry Iceland and Iceland Ringbolt not people, but there were four or five petroglyphs.

In this section, the Skeena River is divided into three narrow, confined by rocky banks of watercourses, which represented the biggest obstacle to the steamship in the early 20th century, between Port Edward and Hazelton. The ships went not through the rapids, but were drawn with the aid of ropes through the bottleneck. Some boats - such as the Mount Royal, who transported a considerable load of gold - fell. Today, a trail to Ringbolt Iceland leads ( about an hour ) where anchored in the rock or metal rings that served the towing of vessels that can be seen.

In October, lived from 537 to 246 Gitselas recognized mainly in two of the ten reserves, one is Kulspai or Queensway reserve ( New Town ), diagonally across from Terrace. On a rock above the canyon, reserve in the Gitaus ( Git'aws people mean by the sand ), a second settlement was established, which is becoming the cultural center of the tribe.

Until its dissolution in 2005, the overarching Tsimshian Tribal Council took the Gitselasu in the contract negotiations with the governments in Ottawa and Victoria. The Gitselasu build the Gitselas Canyon gradually from an important site for tourism.