Editing Haida people (section)

==History==
[[File:Haida Houses.jpg|thumb|Houses and totem poles, 1878]]

=== Pre-contact ===
Haida history begins with the arrival of the primordial ancestresses of the Haida matrilineages in Haida Gwaii. These include SGuuluu Jaad (Foam Woman), Jiila Kuns (Creek Woman), and KalGa Jaad (Ice woman).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Swanton |first=John R. |author-link=John R. Swanton |year=1905 |title=Contributions to the ethnology of the Haida |url=https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/items/e9f6bc84-6d1e-4129-a30c-f2112d8c0b54 |journal=Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=76–78 |access-date=2024-12-19}}</ref> The Haida canon of oral histories and archaeological findings agree that Haida ancestors lived alongside glaciers and were present at the time of the arrival of the first tree, a lodgepole pine, on Haida Gwaii.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fedje |first1=Daryl |title=Haida Gwaii Human History and Environment |date=2005 |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press|UBC Press]] |isbn=978-0-7748-0921-4 |location=Vancouver |pages=126–129}}</ref> Recent archaeological evidence suggests habitation as early as 13,100 BP.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fedje |first1=Daryl |last2=Mackie |first2=Quentin |last3=McLaren |first3=Duncan |last4=Wigen |first4=Becky |last5=Southon |first5=John |date=2021-11-15 |title=Karst caves in Haida Gwaii: Archaeology and paleontology at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379121004285 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=272 |pages= |bibcode=2021QSRv..27207221F |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107221 |issn=0277-3791 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

For thousands of years since Haida have participated in a rigorous coast-wide legal system called [[Potlatch]]. After the Island's wide arrival of red cedar some 7,500 years ago Haida society transformed to centre around the coastal "tree of life". Massive carved cedar monuments and cedar big houses became widespread throughout Haida Gwaii.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In the early 18th century, Haida from [[Langara Island|K'iis Gwaii]] in the Duu Guusd region of Haida Gwaii migrated north, settling at the southern half of [[Prince of Wales Island (Alaska)|Prince of Wales Island]] in [[Alaska]], next to [[Tlingit]] territory. This group would become known as the Kaigani Haida<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moss |first=M. L. |date=2008-01-01 |title=Outer Coast Maritime Adaptations in Southern Southeast Alaska: Tlingit or Haida? |url=http://aa.uwpress.org/cgi/doi/10.1353/arc.0.0002 |journal=[[Arctic Anthropology]] |language=en |volume=45 |issue=1 |page=44 |doi=10.1353/arc.0.0002 |issn=0066-6939 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

=== 18th century ===
[[File:Voyage autour du monde - planche XIII - Jeune Femme des Isles de la Reine Charlotte.jpg|thumb|upright|Young Haida woman with [[lip plate]], portrayed in [[George Dixon (Royal Navy officer)|George Dixon's]] (1789): ''Voyage autour du monde'']]

The first recorded contact between the Haida and Europeans was in July 1774 with Spanish explorer [[Juan José Pérez Hernández|Juan Pérez]], who was sailing north on an expedition to find and claim new territory for [[Spain]]. For two days in a row, the Santiago sat off the shore of [[Haida Gwaii]] waiting for the currents to settle down enough to allow them to dock and set foot on land. While they waited, several canoes of Haida sailed out to greet them, and ultimately to trade with Pérez and his men. After two days of poor conditions, however, the Santiago was ultimately unable to dock and they were forced to depart without having set foot on Haida Gwaii.<ref>{{Cite book|last=White|first=Fredericke|title=Emerging from out of the Margins: Essays on Haida Language, Culture, and History|publisher=Peter Lang AG International Academic Publishers|year=2014|location=New York|pages=25–45}}</ref>

The Haida conducted regular trade with Russian, Spanish, British, and American [[maritime fur trade]]rs and whalers. According to sailing records, they diligently maintained strong trade relationships with Westerners, coastal people, and among themselves.<ref>{{cite web |last=MacDonald |first=George F. |title=Canoes and Trade |url=https://www.warmuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/haida/havct01e.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712014458/https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/haida/havct01e.html |archive-date=2024-07-12 |access-date=2024-12-16 |website=The Haida: Children of the Eagle and Raven |publisher=[[Canadian Museum of History]]}}</ref> Trade for sea-otter pelts was initiated by British Captain [[George Dixon (Royal Navy officer)|George Dixon]] with the Haida in 1787. The Haida did well for themselves in this industry and until the mid-1800s they were at the centre of the profitable China sea-otter trade.

Although they had gone on expeditions as far as [[Washington (state)|Washington State]], at first they had minimal confrontations with Europeans. Between 1780 and 1830, the Haida came into conflict with European and American traders. Among the [[Colonial police action against the people of Haida Gwaii|dozens of ships the tribe captured]] were the ''Eleanor'' and the ''Susan Sturgis''. The tribe made use of European weapons they acquired, using cannons and canoe-mounted [[swivel gun]]s.<ref name=":2" />

=== 19th century ===
In 1850, [[gold]] was discovered on southern [[Haida Gwaii]]. The Haida had been instructed to look for the mineral by the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. A Haida man, possibly Albert Edenshaw, was shown where to find gold by an elderly woman in [[Skidegate]], which he subsequently brought to officers at [[Fort Simpson (Columbia Department)|Fort Simpson]]. This discovery instigated a brief [[Queen Charlottes Gold Rush|gold rush]] in 1851, drawing American prospectors to the area. The Haida themselves took an active role in the mining of gold, seeing it as a new material for trade.{{sfn|Galois|2018|pp=23–23}} In response to the gold rush, British colonial authorities formally annexed Haida Gwaii in 1853, establishing the [[Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands]]. It was later integrated into the [[Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866)|Colony of British Columbia]] in 1858. Colonial authorities backed their claims using [[gunboat diplomacy]], both in Haida Gwaii and more broadly throughout northeastern Pacific coastal Indigenous title territories.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Also in 1857, the {{USS|Massachusetts|1845|6}} was sent from Seattle to nearby Port Gamble, where indigenous raiding parties made up of Haida (from territory claimed by the British) and Tongass (from territory claimed by the Russians) had been attacking and enslaving the [[Coast Salish people]] there. When the Haida and Tongass (sea lion tribe [[Tlingit]]) warriors refused to acknowledge American jurisdiction and to hand over those among them who had attacked the [[Puget Sound]] communities, a battle ensued in which 26 natives and one government soldier were killed. In the aftermath of this, [[Colonel Isaac Ebey]], a U.S. military officer and the first settler on [[Whidbey Island]], was shot and beheaded on August 11, 1857, by a small Tlingit group from [[Kake, Alaska]], in retaliation for the killing of a respected Kake chief in the raid the year before. Ebey's scalp was purchased from the Kake by an American trader in 1860.<ref>[http://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/newspapers/SL_dir_steilacoompugesounhera/pdf/SL_dir_steilacoompugesounhera_11191858.pdf#page=2 Puget Sound Herald Nov 19, 1858]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://juneauempire.com/stories/022908/nei_252437545.shtml |title=''Juneau Empire'', February 29, 2008 |access-date=August 25, 2014 |archive-date=August 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826113352/http://juneauempire.com/stories/022908/nei_252437545.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://members.aol.com/Gibson0817/ebey.htm Beth Gibson, ''Beheaded Pioneer'', Laura Arksey, Columbia, Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Spring, 1988.]</ref><ref>Bancroft says they were Stikines and makes no mention of the Haida. [[iarchive:washidahomont00bancrich|''History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845–1889'', p.137]] [[Hubert Howe Bancroft]] (1890) This enormous source, photocopied, including p. 137, is more easily accessible online at [https://archive.org/stream/washidahomont00bancrich#page/2/mode/2up], if desired. Retrieved February 21, 2012.</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=December 2024}}

==== Smallpox epidemic of 1862 ====
{{Main|1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic}}
The [[1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic]] began on March 26 when a steamship called ''Brother Jonathan'' arrived in [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] from [[San Francisco]] containing a passenger infected with [[smallpox]].<ref>{{cite news |date=1862-03-26 |title=Quarantine |url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist18620326uvic |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=[[Times Colonist|Daily British Colonist]] |page=2 |language=en |publication-place=Victoria, BC |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> At the time thousands of Indigenous people lived in villages outside the walls of Fort Victoria. The disease broke out amongst [[Tsimshian]] people in their community near Fort Victoria. This quickly spread into a pandemic. European public health standards at the time were well practiced and adhered-to official health standards, including vaccinations and victims isolation. Instead, as the disease spread, Victoria Police burned some one dozen homes, deliberately displacing 200 Haida on May 13. They went on to burn some 40–50 more indigenous villages the following day.<ref>{{cite news |date=1862-05-14 |title=The Small Pox |url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist18620514uvic |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=[[Times Colonist|British Colonist]] |location=Victoria, BC |page=3 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

First Nations from further north had been camping periodically outside the city limits of Victoria to take advantage of trade, and at the time of the epidemic numbered almost 2000, many of whom were Haida. The colonial government made no effort to [[Smallpox vaccine|vaccinate]] the First Nations in the region nor to [[quarantine]] anyone infected. In June, the encampments were forcibly cleared by police, and 20 canoes of Haidas, many of whom were likely already infected with smallpox, were forced back to Haida Gwaii, escorted by gunboats HMS ''Grappler'' and ''Forward''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lange |first=Greg |date=2003-02-04 |title=Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/5171 |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=[[HistoryLink]]}}</ref> Those infected did not make it home, according to the plans of the colonial governments, and passed on at [[Bones Bay]] near Alert Bay.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weir |first=Candace |date=March 2009 |title=For those of us at Bones Bay |url=https://www.haidanation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/jl_mar.09.pdf |journal=Haida Laas |publisher=[[Council of the Haida Nation]] |pages=23–27 |access-date=2024-12-16}}</ref>

Later on a group of copper miners travelled from [[Bella Coola, British Columbia|Bella Coola]] aboard the ''Leonede'' under command of Captain McAlmond.<ref>{{cite news |date=October 20, 1862 |title=Indian Troubles |url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist18621020uvic |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=[[Times Colonist|British Colonist]] |location=Victoria, BC |pages=3 |language=en |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> The boat took 12 passengers in December. One of these passengers carried smallpox to Haida Gwaii. This might not have been a disaster should the infected miner have stayed in isolation at the mining site on {{langr|hai|Sḵʼin G̱aadll}}, or Skincuttle Island. Instead the disease was spread throughout Haida Gwaii.

The disease quickly spread throughout Haida Gwaii, devastating entire villages and families, and creating an influx of refugees. The pre-epidemic population of Haida Gwaii was estimated to be 6,607, but was reduced to 829 in 1881.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ostroff |first=Joshua |date=2017-08-01 |title=How a smallpox epidemic forged modern British Columbia |url=https://macleans.ca/news/canada/how-a-smallpox-epidemic-forged-modern-british-columbia/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=[[Maclean's]]}}</ref> The only two remaining villages were [[Masset]]t and [[Skidegate]]. The population collapse caused by the epidemic weakened Haida sovereignty and power, ultimately paving the way for colonization.

==== Arrival of missionaries ====
From the mid-19th century onwards, both [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] and [[Methodism|Methodist]] missions were established on Haida Gwaii, endeavouring to convert the Haida people. The first known missionary to spend time with the Haida was Jonathan Green, a missionary for the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]]. Green spent a few weeks on Haida Gwaii in the summer of 1829, though his later suggestions for the establishment of a mission on the coast were ignored.{{sfn|Tomalin|2011|pp=42–43}}

In 1854 and 1868, two different Anglican missionaries tried garner support for the establishment of a mission on Haida Gwaii, to no avail.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Henderson |first=John R. |year=1974 |title=Missionary Influences on the Haida Settlement and Subsistence Patterns, 1876–1920 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/481146 |journal=[[Ethnohistory (journal)|Ethnohistory]] |volume=21 |issue=4 |page=304 |doi=10.2307/481146 |jstor=481146 |access-date=2024-12-16}}</ref> In the 1860s, several Northern Haida visited the newly founded [[Tsimshian]] community of [[Metlakatla, British Columbia|Metlakatla]], by Anglican missionary [[William Duncan (missionary)|William Duncan]], prompting them to request a missionary of their own.{{sfn|Blackman|1977|p=46}} It wouldn't be until November 1876, Anglican missionary William Collison, acting on behalf of the [[Church Mission Society]], established the first permanent mission on Haida Gwaii, located in Masset.{{sfn|Tomalin|2011|p=44}} In response to the Anglican mission established in Masset, the Haida in Skidegate petitioned for their own mission. Consequently, a Methodist mission was established there in 1883.{{sfn|Tomalin|2011|p=49}}

==== Potlatch ban ====
{{Main|Potlatch ban}}
The [[potlatch]] ({{Langx|hai|gyáa isáaw}}) began to decline with the arrival of the missionaries, who believed it to be antithetical to their mission of converting the Haida to Christianity.{{sfn|Blackman|1977|p=47}} Missionaries like Collison sought to replace the with Christian ceremonies, such as the singing of hymns.{{sfn|Davidson|Davidson|2018|p=26}} Others, like Methodist Charles Harrison, dissuaded potlatching through public chastisement.{{Sfn|Blackman|1977|p=47}} By the 1880s, potlatches were often conducted in secrecy, primarily as a result of pressure exerted by missionaries.{{Sfn|Blackman|1977|p=48}}

In 1884, the potlatch was outlawed throughout the coast, under an amendment to the [[Indian Act]], known as the [[potlatch ban]].{{sfn|Davidson|Davidson|2018|p=27}} The elimination of the potlatch system destroyed financial relationships and seriously interrupted the cultural heritage of coastal people. As the islands were christianized, many cultural works such as totem posts were destroyed or taken to museums around the world. This significantly undermined Haida's self-knowledge and further diminished morale.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

=== 20th century ===
{{Expand section|date=December 2024}}
The government began forcibly sending some Haida children to [[Canadian Indian residential school system|residential schools]] as early as 1911. Haida children were sent as far away as Alberta to live among English-speaking families where they were to be assimilated into the dominant culture.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In 1911, Canada and British Columbia rejected a Haida offer whereby in exchange for full rights of British citizenship Haidas would formally join the [[Dominion of canada|Dominion of Canada]].

==== Lyell Island protests ====
{{Main|Lyell Island|Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site}}

In November 1985, members of the Haida nation protested the ongoing logging of old-growth forests on Haida Gwaii, establishing a blockade to prevent the logging of [[Lyell Island]] by [[Western Forest Products]]. A standoff between protesters, police and loggers lasted two weeks, during which 72 Haidas were arrested. Images of elders being arrested gained media traction, which raised awareness and support for the Haida across Canada. In 1987, the governments of Canada and British Columbia signed the ''South Moresby Agreement,'' establishing the [[Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site|Gwaii Haanas National Park]], which is cooperatively managed by the Canadian government and the Haida Nation.

The blockade was profiled in [[Christopher Auchter]]'s 2024 documentary film ''[[The Stand (2024 film)|The Stand]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Agarwal |first=Radha |date=2024-10-02 |title=Haida film on historic old growth logging roadblock to premiere at VIFF |url=https://www.terracestandard.com/news/haida-film-on-historic-clearcut-logging-roadblock-to-premiere-at-viff-7565261 |access-date=2025-03-10 |work=Terrace Standard}}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
[[File: Welcoming Party.jpg|thumb|Haida drummers and singers greet guests on the shores of Ḵay Linagaay, a millennia-old village in Haida Gwaii.]]In December 2009, the government of British Columbia officially renamed the archipelago from Queen Charlotte Islands to [[Haida Gwaii]]. The Haida Nation asserts Haida title over all of Haida Gwaii and is pursuing negotiations with the provincial and federal governments. Haida authorities continue to pass legislation and manage human activities in Haida Gwaii, which includes making formal agreements with the Canadian communities established on the islands. Haida efforts are largely directed at the protection of land and water and functioning ecosystems and this is expressed in the protected status for nearly 70% of the million-hectare archipelago. The protected status applies to the landscape and water as well as smaller culturally significant areas. They have also forced a reduction of large-scale industrial activity and the careful regulation of access to resources.

In British Columbia, the term "Haida Nation" often refers to the Haida people as a whole however, it also refers to their government, the [[Council of the Haida Nation]]. All people of Haida ancestry are entitled to Haida citizenship, including the Kaigani, who as Alaskans are also part of the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska government.<ref>{{cite web|title=Constitution of the Haida Nation|url=http://www.haidanation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/HN-Constitution-Revised-Oct-2014_official-unsigned-copy.pdf|access-date=June 26, 2018|publisher=[[Council of the Haida Nation]]|archive-date=June 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606045638/http://www.haidanation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/HN-Constitution-Revised-Oct-2014_official-unsigned-copy.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":4" />

In a deal negotiated between the government and the Haida nation over the preceding decades, British Columbia in 2024 transferred the title of more than 200 islands off Canada's west coast to the Haida people, recognizing the nation's aboriginal land title across all of Haida Gwaii.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |last=Cecco |first=Leyland |date=2024-04-15 |title=Canada hands 'long-overdue' title over more than 200 islands to Haida Nation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/15/haida-first-nation-land-canada |access-date=2024-07-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Onishi |first1=Norimitsu |last2=Bracken |first2=Amber |date=2024-07-04 |title=On Small Islands Off Canada's Coast, a Big Shift in Power |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/world/canada/canada-indigenous-rights-haida.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-07-05 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>