The Haida
The Haida are widely considered to have the most highly developed culture and sophisticated art tradition of British Columbia's aboriginal peoples. Extending from the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) to south Alaska, their lands included major stands of red cedar, the raw material for their huge dugout canoes , intricate carvings and refined architecture . Haida trade links were built on the reputation of their skill - other BC peoples considering the ownership of a Haida canoe, for example, as a major status symbol. Renowned as traders and artists, the Haida were also feared warriors , paddling into rival villages and returning with canoes laden with goods, slaves and the severed heads of anyone who had tried to resist. Their skill on the open sea has seen them labelled the "Vikings" of northern America. This success at warfare was due, in part, to their use of wooden slat armour, which included a protective face visor and helmets topped with terrifying images. Socially the Haida divided themselves into two main groups, the Eagles and the Ravens , which were further divided into hereditary kin groups named after their original village location. Marriage within each major group - or moiety - was considered incestuous, so Eagles would always seek Raven mates and vice versa. Furthermore, descent was traced through the female line , which meant that a chief could not pass his property onto his sons because they would belong to a different moiety - instead his inheritance passed to his sister's sons. Equally, young men might have to leave their childhood village to claim their inheritance from their maternal uncles. Haida villages were an impressive sight, their vast cedar-plank houses dominated by fifteen-metre totem poles displaying the kin group's unique animal crest or other mythical creatures, all carved in elegantly fluid lines. Entrance to each house was through the gaping mouth of a massive carved figure; inside, supporting posts were carved into the forms of the crest animals and most household objects were similarly decorative. Equal elaboration attended the many Haida ceremonies, one of the most important of which was the mortuary potlatch , serving as a memorial service to a dead chief and the validation of the heir's right to succession. The dead individual was laid out at the top of a carved pole near the village entrance, past which the visiting chiefs would walk wearing robes of finely woven and patterned mountain-goat wool and immense headdresses fringed with long sea-lion whiskers and ermine skins. A hollow at the top of each headdress was filled with eagle feathers, which floated down onto the witnesses as the chiefs sedately danced. After European contact the Haida population was devastated by smallpox and other epidemics. In 1787, there were around 8000 Haida scattered across the archipelago. Their numbers were then reduced from around 6000 in 1835 to 588 by 1915. Consequently they were forced to abandon their traditional villages and today gather largely at two sites, Old Masset (pop. 650) and Skidegate (Haida pop. 550). At other locations the homes and totems fell into disrepair, and only at Sgan Gwaii , a remote village at the southern tip of the Queen Charlottes, has an attempt been made to preserve an original Haida settlement; it has now been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. These days the Haida number around 2000, and are highly regarded in the North American art world; Bill Reid, Freda Diesing and Robert Davidson are amongst the best-known figures, and scores of other Haida craftspeople produce a mass of carvings and jewellery for the tourist market. They also play a powerful role in the islands' social, political and cultural life, having been vocal in the formation of sites such as the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve , South Moresby's Haida Heritage Site and Duu Guusd Tribal Park , the last established to protect old aboriginal villages on Graham Island's northwest coast.
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