NO PERMISSION REQUIRED:

TITLE AND RIGHTS

IN THE TRADITIONAL TERRITORY

OF THE

KITSUMKALUM INDIAN BAND

OCTOBER 22, 2014

by

Eric Wolfhard

---

A Paper Based on both

Original Research and Analysis

and

Existing Research Materials

Provided by

Members of the Kitsumkalum Indian Band and the Staff of the Kitsumkalum Social History Research Project

NB: This report provides an opinion based on ongoing research completed as of October 22, 2014. As additional relevant information may be located in the future, the report may be subject to revision.

“It is clear that Kitsumkalum have had a presence on the coast for close to 150 years, and that several generations of Kitsumkalum have lived, fished and harvested in the Prince Rupert Harbour area.” - Cory Waters, First Nations Lead for LNG Projects, BC Environmental Office January 30, 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction - 3 The Seasonal Round - 6 Persistence of the Kalum Lifeway - 7 Kalum Specific and Tsimshian Common: An Introduction - 8 Development, Exploitation and Costs of the Term “Coast Tsimshian” - 13 The “Coast Tsimshian” Study - 15 Conclusions With Respect to the Term “Coast Tsimshian” - 31 Origins of the Nation and the Development of the Crests - 32 Tsimshian Law - 37 Important Terms and Definitions - 38 Against a Frozen Interpretation of Indigenous Law - 40 Site-Specific and Other Evidence Supporting Kitsumkalum Title and Rights in its Traditional Territory - 43 Prince Rupert Harbor and its Attendant Legal Landscape - 44 Casey Point - 47 Introduction - 48 Oral History - 50 Drilling Down - 51 A Note on Reserve Creation - 52 Casey Point and its Connection to the Seasonal Round - 56 Written Information - 58 The HBC Fort Simpson Journals - 59 The Archaeological Record - 60 Oral History: Kalum Community Members – Summary - 66 Recent Interviews - 67 Results from a Kalum Traditional Use Study - 81 Lax Kw’alaams Elder Bob Sankey Interview - 81 The Marius Barbeau Fonds - 82 The William Beynon Materials -88 Beynon, Continued - 89 Kaien Island sites on Beynon’s Plate II - 91 Galts’ap Nist’ix, home of Robin Woman - 92 Robin Woman, Mrs. Marsden version - 93 Robin Woman, William Beynon version - 97 Henry Tate and Robin Woman - 98 Yagaoo luwi Galts’ap - 106 Further Response to BC’s July 2014 Opinion on Kalum Title to Casey Point - 112

PART 2: ADDITIONAL KALUM LOCATIONS ON THE COAST - 123 Inverness Passage - 123 Kitson Island - 125 Lelu and Stapeldon Islands - 127 Watson Island - 130 Dzagaedil’s Village - 131 Morse and Wainwright Basins and Galloway Rapids - 136 Kalum Sites on Offshore Islands - 140 Rachael Islands - 141

1 Gull Rocks - 144 Gibson (Hadanii) Island - 146 Edye Passage - 148 Porcher Island - 150 Kwel’maas (Island Point) - 156 Isabella Chuck - 159 Lax Spa Suunt (Arthur Island) - 179 Seagull Island - 199 Tux Lux Biins - 200 Additional Edye Passage Sites - 202 Creak Islands - 203 Hunts Inlet - 205 Refuge Bay - 207 Welcome Harbor - 209 Henry’s Island - 212 William Island - 213 Stephens Island Group - 214 Gweldzedzi'l (Stephen’s Island) - 214 Skiakl Bay - 217 Avery Island - 219 Butler’s Cove - 221 Warrior Rocks - 224 Seal Rocks - 225 Butterworth Rocks - 226 Hecate Strait and the Open Ocean - 227 Ts’uwaan Gyedmna’ax (Point Lambert) - 228 Mud Bay (Fleming Bay) - 230 Kennedy Island - 232 Grenville Channel Sites - 234 K’Bal (Pitt Island) - 236 Marrack Island - 238 Baker Inlet – ‘Ts’m Liyuu - 240 Klewnuggit Inlet - 244 Kxngeal Inlet - 246 Wright Sound - 250 The Coast North of Casey Point - 251 Lax Layoon (Birnie Island) - 252 Lak Hou (Big Bay/Georgetown Bay) - 254 Work Channel - 256 Ensheshese River - 257 Work Mountain - 259 Union Bay - 259 Portland Canal and Inlet - 260 Ts'msadaasx (Wales Island) - 260 Łguts'mat'iin (Khutzeymateen River) - 261 Kitsumkalum Sites on the Nass River - 262 Oolichan Grounds (General) - 262 Wil Maask Loop (Red Bluff) - 263 Kwaexl (Dundas Island(s)) - 265 Grassy Point - 268

2 …[W]e are put down as slaves and animals on this reservation business - On this account the reserve is no good to us - why not take the name away - take the reserve name away and let us be people- let us be free; that is what we want because God gave us this land to live on.

- Kitsumkalum Chief Charles Nelson to the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for BC, September 25, 1915 at Spa Xksuutks/Port Essington1

Introduction

Over the course of several decades the Kitsumkalum Indian Band (“Kalum”, KIB, or the First Nation), along with its members and staff, its outside consultants, and its legal counsel, have amassed considerable material that corroborates Kalum’s use and occupation of - and aboriginal title to - its traditional territory.2 I have reviewed this already-gathered material and have also sought additional information from other repositories of primary sources, including, for example:

- the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives; - Library and Archives Canada; - the National Archives (UK) - the UK Hydrographic Office - BC Archives; - active and archived files held by various federal and provincial government departments (for example: AANDC, BC MOF, etc.); and - the active work and archived records of various anthropologists, ethnohistorical informants, archaeologists, and missionaries working in the field now or held in various repositories across North America.3

Based on that additional research as well as my own review of the existing material held by Kalum, it is clear that the Kitsumkalum Indian Band enjoys sole exclusive occupation and title over much of its asserted traditional territory. Those areas that are not solely occupied by Kalum also feature exclusive occupation and title that is shared4 with other residential communities of the Tsimshian Nation, of which Kalum is an important component.

1 RCIA Transcript Collection, Nass Agency, SCB Resource Centre, Vancouver. 2 I am especially grateful to members of the Kitsumkalum Treaty Office and the Kitsumkalum Social History Research Project (KSHRP) for their patient support with respect to the provision of analysis and materials gathered over the course of their very committed history. The focused work of the KSHRP - and the community’s sponsorship of its staff over many years - is specifically acknowledged. Dr. James McDonald’s relationship with the First Nation and the KSHRP - not to mention his epic output over the course of nearly 35 years - should not just be acknowledged, but celebrated widely; very special thanks to Jim for his insight, his objectivity, his commitment and his dedication. 3 Much appreciation to the staff of Library and Archives Canada as well as BC Archives and the BC Ministry of Forests for the many days they spent tracking down and organizing sources and “lost” records that help support the points made below. Paul Harrison’s provision of archaeological data related to Kalum traditional territory also saved me countless days of work – much thanks to him and Triton Environmental Consultants, as well as Rina Gemeinhardt of Kalum’s Consultation and Referral Office, who put Paul and I in touch. 4 See Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 1010 at para. 158.

3 This paper is driven by the fact that considerable evidence that supports these claims does not appear to have ever been reviewed by either Canada or BC. For example, in a December 15, 1993 Statement of Intent, the Tsimshian Tribal Council (the TTC) stated that the Tsimshian Nation was:

…2. …made up of:

(a) the following Tribes of Tsimshian Peoples:

Gidzalaal, Ginaxangiik, Gisp’axlo’ots, Gitandoyks, Gitlan, Gilutsau, Gitwilgyots, Git’andoo, Git’tsiis, Gitga’ata, Kitasoo, Kitkatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Metlakatla.

and

(b) other groups, who have organized into collectives which reflect their understanding of Tsimshian law, custom, and social organization.

3. Tsimshian people are also organized in house groups which consist of the Eagle, Raven, Killer Whale, and Wolf clans.

4. The membership of the Tsimshian Nation is substantially coextensive with the membership of the following seven communities: Hartley Bay, Kitasoo, Kitkatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Lax Kw’alaams, Metlakatla. The First [N]ation, however, does not define its existence or its aboriginal title and rights by reference to the provisions of the Indian Act.5

A TTC special resolution passed in 1992 indicated that one of the purposes for which the TTC was formed in 1988 included assisting “…all Tsimshian People to advance the recognition of aboriginal title or rights to lands, waters and air which the Tsimshian have occupied and governed since the Tsimshian People were put here by the Creator.”6 The TTC itself was led at the time by Kalum member Ric Miller, currently the Sm’oogyet [Chief] of the Kalum House of Gitxon, while a senior TTC negotiator over the same time frame was Kalum member Gerald Wesley, then and still Sm’oogyet of the House of Xpilaxha, and currently one of Kalum’s senior Treaty negotiators; both signed the December 1993 TTC Statement on behalf of Kalum and thus the TTC – and, by clear extension, the Tsimshian Nation – saw significant leadership roles occupied by Kalum people at a time when shared Tsimshianic interests were pursued with great vigour. That of course should be no surprise because, as will be detailed below, Kalum is and has been an integral part of the Tsimshian Nation since time immemorial.

Equally interesting for the purposes of this paper is the fact that “Allied Tsimshian Tribes” (ATT, or “nine tribes”) leader James Bryant was among the signatories of that December 1993 Statement of Intent. Chief Bryant along with Lax Kw’alaams Chief Gary Reece also signed a September 18, 2002 letter to Stan Ashcroft, the

5 TTC to BC Treaty Commission, December 15, 1993 (copy from BC Supreme Court File L021279); emphasis added. 6 TTC Special Resolution, courtesy KTO Archive [emphasis added].

4 solicitor for the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum First Nations, stating that “We respect the fact the we share parts of our Tribal Territories with the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum Indian Bands, who stand with us together as members of the Tsimshian Nation, and with us at the Treaty Table with the Tsimshian Tribal Council.”7

In the same letter, Chiefs Bryant and Reece went on to confirm that, as authorized by Lax Kw’alaams and the ATT/nine tribes, “Kitsumkalum and Kitselas have claims of aboriginal title and rights within the areas that are the subject matter of the Petition and the supporting affidavits”.8 The Petition itself defined that “subject matter” as:

Aboriginal title over an area surrounding the lower reaches of the Skeena River, and extending to the ocean, on the North Coast of British Columbia in the vicinity of the municipalities of Prince Rupert and Terrace, and as specifically set out in the map attached hereto as Appendix A…9

Although the map referred to is missing from the Petition, it is likely the same ATT/nine tribes’ “Traditional Territories Provisional Draft Map” that appears as Appendix A to several affidavits found in the BCSC file containing the Petition itself (BCSC No. L0212179). These territories do indeed overlap with areas over which, as Chiefs Bryant and Reece confirmed, Kalum shares title and rights. However, recent actions by LKIB and MIB appear to be eliding Kalum interests despite the fact that, in addition to its interests in common areas characterized by shared title, Kalum (or its houses) also holds title and rights over specific locations within those shared areas.

In other words, Kitsumkalum’s shared exclusive title in the Tsimshianic context includes exclusive title and rights of use and occupation to specific sites on lands the remainder of which are held by the Tsimshian Nation. This will be explained in detail below, but for now note that shared exclusive title in the Tsimshianic context also includes rights of access and travel to and over those areas exclusively held by the Tsimshian Nation and regarded by its various galts’ap ((residential communities) including Kalum) as shared or held in common – marine, harvest and trading routes, for example, which are akin to highways connecting the Nation’s various galts’ap (like Kalum) and the exclusively held laxyuup (territories) of its various Wuwaap (traditional houses).

These routes allowed the various Tsimshian communities, including Kalum, to trade its resources with both fellow Tsimshian members as well as explorers and temporary traders – and eventually permanent settlers – from the outside world.

7 Letter from Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band and ATT to Stan Ashcroft, September 18, 2002 (copy from Stan Ashcroft); emphasis added. 8 Ibid.; emphasis added. 9 Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band, Metlakatla Indian Band and the ATT Assocation [nine tribes] v. The [BC] Minister of Forests, AGBC, and Skeena Cellulose, Petition to the Court (BCSC, No. L0212179); emphasis added.

5 In other words, the areas of shared exclusive title allowed Kalum people to travel freely and without permission to lands over which Kalum people exercised sole and exclusive title – an important feature for a community whose main residential areas were both inland and on the coast.

The Seasonal Round

During a December 16, 1915 interview with the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia (RCIA), Indian Agent Perry provided the following information in response to the Commission’s inquiry:

Q. Do all the Indians of the Kitsumkalum Band live on the Port Essington reserve? A. Now they come and go between Kitsumkalum and Port Essington. Q. Port Essington is their home village? A. Yes - the same might be said of Kitsumkalum.10

As part of its seasonal round, Kalum harvested (and still harvests) various resources from specific coastal and island lands that lie beyond those residential areas. In his December 16, 1915 RCIA interview, for example, Indian Agent Perry was asked about prospects for agriculture in the Indian Agency to which Kalum belonged (the Nass Agency), stating that agriculture was “very poor” for reasons including the seasonal round itself. As Perry explained: “..there is a cycle of seasons for the Indians; that is in the early spring they are taking herring, halibut and oolichans; that season is followed by putting in small gardens, then the salmon fishing, the picking berries, and they strip trees and things like that in different seasons of the year…”.11

Agriculture, it was suggested almost 100 years ago, was not going to fare well in the traditional territories of the Tsimshian Nation – and it still has not been a focus of its various galts’ap (including Kalum) because – climate aside - the seasonal round is still alive and well. Indeed, the catalogue of Kalum sites and attendant evidence below bears out the fact that the seasonal round has continued for Kalum people as it has since time immemorial; the title and rights attached to the locations that are detailed below are essentially co-terminous with that lifeway despite the interruptions at sites like Casey Point, where Railway and industrial development has made access and use exceedingly difficult.

But not impossible.

10 The same could have also been said of Casey Point, but the village there had been obliterated circa 1909 by railway construction – a fact corroborated by recent arcahological work undertaken by Millenia Research that is discussed in detail below. For the RCIA testimony, please see http://gsdl.ubcic.bc.ca/collect/royalcom/import/nassedithtmlsection.htm at 199. 11 Ibid., beginning at 186.

6 Persistence of the Kalum Lifeway

The Kalum lifeway has been described by Kalum people in various traditional use studies (TUS), the most of recent of which – the first by an outside firm - is still underway.12 Significant evidence from earlier TUS will be provided over the course of the discussion below, but the lifeway was also detailed in Kalum’s October 2013 Declaration,13 a document significant for its being signed by Kalum’s Elected and Hereditary Chiefs:

Numerous marine species are harvested during the seasonal round within our traditional areas and with techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation. Casey Point served as a home base that connected Kitsumkalum to our coastal sites and sea resource. In a 1999 Traditional Use Study, it was recorded that cedar bark, high bush cranberries, and other berries were harvested in and around Casey Point. From here, Kitsumkalum members would travel to their marine and coastal sites to winter and harvest seafood resources. Kwel'maas has always been an important site for the herring eggs season, starting the beginning of April. Edye Pass is where we harvest abalone, seaweed, yeans, china slipper, scallops, sea cucumber, sea urchins, clams, cockles, octopus, halibut, cod and crabs. Yeans are sea prunes which we consider a delicacy. We steam them, peel off the cells and spine, and dip them in oolichan grease. Lax Spa Suunt (Arthur Island) serves as a major food resource site for abalone and fish eggs beginning in the spring, clams in January and February, as well as seaweed and halibut. Elders recall staying at the cabins on Lax Spa Suunt for months while they harvested seafood resources. Today, it remains an important camping and resource-harvesting site for Kitsumkalum. Mud Bay traditionally served as an important resource site for deer, geese, ducks, sea lions, seals, shrimp, crabs, prawns, halibut, cod, and spring salmon. Today its seafood resources are still harvested, particularly crabs. Halibut is harvested on the coast in the Grenville Channel, Chatham Sound, Edye Pass and the Hecate Straits. Spa Xksuutks (Port Essington), at the mouth of the Ecstall River is an important commercial fishery site. Salmon berries and blueberries are harvested through the Skeena River, Ecstall River and Spa Xksuutks. Today, Spa Xksuutks is sacred ground, as many of our people, elders, and chiefs are buried there.

Other rights we exercise that are integral to our culture in the Prince Rupert Harbour area and surrounding coast include hunting, gathering foods and medicines, and engaging in spiritual activities. 14

Kalum Chief Roberts, Jr.’s January 12, 2012 testimony in front of the Joint Review Panel struck for the National Energy Board hearings driven by Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project went further into the seasonal round, giving examples of particular species taken in particular locations over which Kalum holds exclusive or shared

12 Rick Budwha of Crossroads Cultural Resource Management is leading that project. 13 Declaration of the Kitsumkalum Indian Band of the Tsimshian Nation of Aboriginal Title and Rights to Prince Rupert Harbour and Surrounding Coastal Areas, October 2013 (hereinafter “Kalum Declaration”). 14 Ibid., pp. 18-19.

7 title and rights. These comments will be detailed in relation to specific sites to be discussed below but, in general, Chief Roberts’ message to the JRP underpins Kalum’s relationship to the coast, and connects it to the core of its Tsimshian identity:

Several fundamental parts of Kitsumkalum Tsimshian First Nation traditional and culture are linked to all aspects of traditional marine foods, including harvesting, processing, preparation, distributing, personal consumption, sharing, trading, and feasting.

Numerous marine species are harvested during the appropriate seasons with our traditional areas and with techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation.15

As already mentioned, some of the areas recognized as held by the Tsimshian Nation in common also feature specific locations over which Kalum, in accordance with the ayaawx - the body of Tsimshian Law – exercises sole and exclusive site- specific aboriginal title and rights.

Kalum Specific and Tsimshian Common: An Introduction

Although Kalum’s Declaration takes issue with the work of Dr. Joan Lovisek, she does point out in an August 2009 report prepared in the context of litigation involving Lax Kw’alaams and Canada that anthropologist Wilson Duff:

…stated that Kennedy Island, Smith Island and De Horsey Island, based on information obtained from Wallace in 1926: “were the common property of all the Tsimshian tribes,” as presumably was the coastal area in the vicinity of Metlakatla farther north.16 [emphasis added]

Thus, on the issue of common areas of ownership, Dr. Lovisek, acting for Canada, agrees with long time Lax Kw’alaams consultant Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson, who also confirms that “Some areas of the coast were common shared territory 17 used by all the Tsimshian tribes…”. This latter comment would of course apply to the west side of Kaien Island, among other locations, with the added caveat that Casey Point was a specifically Kalum location. Evidence for that assertion will be provided below, but note, too, that Kennedy Island - one of the locations mentioned by Duff – is also an area where Kalum members exercise title and rights: the entire island is in fact covered by a Kalum trapline, and at least one handlogging licence was issued to a Kalum member there more than 100 years ago.

15 https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll- eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/384192/620327/628981/781781/12%2D01%2D12_%2D_Vol ume_10_%2D_A2K9R5.pdf?nodeid=781782&vernum=1 - paras. 5215-5216. 16 Dr. Joan Lovisek, Prince Rupert – Port Fairview: Aboriginal Occupation of Prince Rupert Harbour Area, August 20, 2009 (revised in 2010). 17 Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 13. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

8 Before detailing the vast scope of Kalum title and rights to these areas over the course of the several hundred pages that follow, readers should be aware that certain entities have made efforts to deny Kalum title and rights in areas of its traditional territory, most especially on sites located on Pacific islands and other Pacific coastal lands. While some of these efforts appear to have occurred as the result of a less than fulsome review of both Tsimshianic and Kalum-related sources, other efforts appear to have occurred as the result of willful blindness and/or bargaining postures that have been overzealously committed to as a result of the less than fulsome review itself.

Still more efforts to deny Kalum title and rights appear to have been undertaken as part of a conscious strategy to literally part Kalum from its title and rights, with certain individuals attempting to take advantage of a colonizing process driven by the imposition of the Indian Act and its virtual Balkanization of the larger Tsimshian Nation into smaller constituent parts centered on the Indian Reserves set aside for each residential community.

Now split into pieces, the residential communities of the Tsimshian Nation are far more easily manipulated by outside interests using – especially over the past thirty years - a sad but predictable strategy of “divide and conquer”. In Kalum’s case, as well, the First Nation has had to contend with an ahistorical aspect of that strategy - one that bluntly targets the core of its ocean-going Tsimshianic identity by excluding it from a group of residential communities recently self-described as “Coast Tsimshian”.

Proponents of that strategy apparently hope that excluding Kalum from that “Coast Tsimshian” group will lead to a denial of Kalum title on the coast itself – an idea that is so misguided and so easily dismissed – and yet so pervasive - that it must be dealt with before any details are offered with respect to both common and specifically Kalum title and rights in its traditional territory.

However, before the presentation of even that particular piece of work can be made, two notes of caution must be kept in mind regardless of where one’s heart and mind resides on the question of Kalum’s title and rights: the first is a reminder to readers that any project of this type is to some extent dependent upon the processes that governments and companies have instituted with respect to the recording and archiving of information over time.

Readers are therefore reminded that the process under which historical production has taken place in BC over the last 230 years has lain well outside the First Nation’s control. The result, of course, is an at times deafening array of silence when it comes to early written documentation of the Kalum lifeway. One notable exception: in 1845, two British spies (Warre and Vavasour) placed “two tribes” (calling them “Skeena Indians”) at the mouth of the Skeena, as well as “ten tribes” (calling them “Chymsyans”) at “Chatham Sound, Portland Canal, Port Essington, and the neighbouring Islands”.18 Warre and Vavasour appear to have obtained

18 Extract from Report by Lts. Warre and Vavasour dated October 1845, copied for the House of Commons in February 1847, retrieved on September 8, 2014 from: http://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/imageBrowser.htm?image=co_305_01_00189r.jpg

9 their information at Fort Victoria. On the other hand, their contemporary, artist Paul Kane, relying on data that he must have obtained from Governor James Douglas,19 had around the same time specifically placed Kalum at the mouth of the Skeena and referred to the community as part of the Tsimshian Nation.20

The evidence tendered by Warre and Vavasour was presented to the House of Commons in 1847; when read with Kane, who published in 1859, we have a conclusive indication that Kalum was located on the coast at the time of the assertion of sovereignty (and, of course, a clear understanding that it was a part of the Tsimshian Nation).21 The “two tribes” of “Skeena Indians” recorded by the spies in 1845 were Kane’s “Kee-chum-a-kai-lo” and “Kitse-lai-so”, who were also referred to by Kane as “Skeena Indians” but nevertheless “…reckoned as part of the Chymseyan tribe”.22 Sir James Douglas’ comment from around the same time confirms that “These [Kalum and Kitselas] are two tribes of the Chemsyan [sic] and trade at Fort Simpson.”23

Regarding the other ten tribes that Sir James identified as “”Chynsyans”, the HBC Chief Factor stated that they “Trade at Fort Simpson and generally reside about and at no great distance from the Fort.” 24 As we shall see, however, although HBC accounts and DIA reports provide additional clues, more specific details from that era tend to rely on oral tradition and oral history – a dilemma for many First Nations who have faced outside mistrust of its elders’ memories. Although the Supreme Court of Canada’s upholding of Mr. Justice Vickers’ decision in Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia25 should add more weight to the status of oral legend, tradition, and history, past practice suggests that some parties may still maintain a high bar with respect to the provision of corroborating historical evidence. In my opinion, however, the idea that oral tradition or oral history must be corroborated by a particular piece of written evidence should be met by every reader, in every instance, with a reflection on the impact of what I call the “silence of the archives” after an observation cited by historian Michel-Ralph Trujillo in his landmark Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History:

Silences enter the process of historical production at four crucial moments: the moment of fact creation (the making of sources); the moment of fact assembly (the making of archives); the moment of fact retrieval (the making of narratives); and the moment of retrospective significance (the making of history in the final instance).26

19 See census in Private Papers of James Douglas - Second Series (BCARS, B/20/1853), pp. 29- 30. 20 Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America (London, Longman, Brown, 1859 [see Appendix with Indian Census based on data for the year 1846]). 21 See center marginalia on extract from Report by Lts. Warre and Vavasour dated October 1845, copied for the House of Commons in February 1847, retrieved on September 8, 2014 from: http://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/imageBrowser.htm?image=co_305_01_00189r.jpg. 22 Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America (London, Longman, Brown, 1859 [see Appendix with Indian Census based on data for the year 1846]). 23 Private Papers of James Douglas - Second Series (BCARS, B/20/1853), pp. 29-30. 24 Ibid. 25 2014 SCC 44. 26 Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), pp. 26-27.

10

Most analysts of aboriginal issues in BC discover very quickly that the distribution of archival power has never favored First Nations – and it is precisely for that reason (very simply for that reason) that oral tradition and oral history have attained the legitimacy that they have in aboriginal title litigation today. As we shall see below, however, in many cases there may have actually been corroborating information extant at one time, but it has since been lost or physically destroyed through both accidents and fires as well as legislative fiat. During the course of research for this paper, for example, I relocated documents that were archived and then lost, located documents that indicated that other documents I had been searching for had been destroyed, and located other sets of documents that appeared - when viewed in total - to evince a mindset that viewed any evidence of aboriginal improvement outside surveyed Indian Reserve boundaries as the debris of mere squatters and thus not worth documenting at all – and so on.

While written documentation will be provided where available, the oral evidence presented below must always be viewed, as the Supreme Court of Canada put it in Van Der Peet, with a “…consciousness of the special nature of aboriginal claims, and of the evidentiary difficulties in proving a right which originates in times where there were no written records of the practices, customs and traditions engaged in.”27

As this is a realm where, as Rolph puts it, “…any historical narrative is a particular bundle of silences”,28 and where silencing is “…due to uneven power in the production of sources, archives, and narratives”29, the reader must also always remember Sir Martin Rees’ maxim that “…absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”30

Rees’ phrase is particularly compelling when viewing Kalum’s history from the mid- 19th Century forward, when the community’s destiny, like that of many other First Nations, was assumed by the Crown to have travelled irretrievably far down a road bounded by assimilation, poverty and disease - a road made bleaker still when residential school attendance was forced and egregious legal restrictions were placed on Kalum’s ability to raise funds or engage counsel for the defense of its titled lands.31

The Kalum are still here, however, and they still regularly use its coastal locations, just as they always have done. Indeed, at great odds they have overcome or faced down all of the challenges that are enumerated above. Thus, I believe strongly that

As Trouillot makes clear from his study:

…any historical narrative is a particular bundle of silences, the result of a unique process, and the operation required to deconstruct these silences will vary accordingly. …That silencing also is due to uneven power in the production of sources, archives, and narratives. 27 [1996] 2 S.C.R. 507 at para. 68. 28 Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), p. 27. 29 Ibid. 30 Quoted by Richard Berezden at page 10/112 at http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19730022075.pdf, retrieved on September 8, 2014. 31 Indian Act, SC 1927, s. 141.

11 to discount the oral traditions and history of those who have survived to share them here would be the most dishonourable act of the many they have been forced to endure. The fact that Kalum people are able to continue to share their oral traditions and history in the face of such catastrophic losses in population and culture should make us pay that much attention to the surviving members of a community that has prevailed and now re-asserts and proves aboriginal title and rights to the traditional territory and specific locations that are laid out below.

Before laying that evidence down, however, an initial but simple move must be taken to combat the largely semantic claims put forward by several parties in their recent but apparently calculated effort to deny Kalum’s traditional place on the coast.

12 Development, Exploitation and Costs of the Term “Coast Tsimshian”

Despite universal acceptance of Kitsumkalum membership within, and frequent leadership of, the Tsimshian Nation, a concerted effort appears to have been made to separate Kitsumkalum from its traditional territories on the coast. This same effort is simultaneously dividing the various residential communities of the Tsimshian Nation.

A very recent cornerstone of that effort has been LKIB and MIB appropriation of the phrase “Coast Tsimshian” – a term used to designate and claim an exclusive ethnic identity for the so-called “nine tribes” that LKIB and MIB identifies with in relation to a Protocol published in 2009.32 As defined by Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla, this “Coast Tsimshian” identity includes only Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla - and it excludes all other Tsimshian communities. In general, however, such use of the term “Coast Tsimshian” is misleading; in relation to the 2009 Protocol, it is also self- aggrandizing. Its use, particularly in relation to the Protocol, reverses - with no justification - the various statements made by LKIB/MIB/nine tribes officials just 12 years ago, statements that point to LKIB/MIB/nine tribes acceptance of Kalum title and rights on the coast, and to acceptance of Kalum’s specific locations within common areas owned by the Tsimshian Nation writ large.33

It is critically important that this issue not be seen as merely etymological in nature because Kalum has experienced profound anxiety caused by the apparent and virtually wholesale acceptance of the term “Coast Tsimshian” by both the Crown and industry.

No doubt other Tsimshian communities with interests in Prince Rupert Harbour may be similarly concerned.

Although the bulk of this paper provides various forms of evidence that support Kalum title and rights to its traditional territory in general, and to its coastal locations in particular, the recent manipulation of the term “Coast Tsimshian” requires some focused discussion. What follows is a brief and simple chronological review of how the Tsimshian have been represented by the most prominent anthropologists who have worked directly with the Tsimshian people.

To begin with some conclusions, however: an exclusive category of “Coast Tsimshian” people is wholly unsupported by the evidence, and is in fact contradictory, redundant, and ahistorical. Parties relying upon such a construct clearly do so at their peril, for they are almost certain to underestimate the appropriate level of consultation, accommodation – and, indeed, simple human respect – that is owed to the Kitsumkalum Indian Band and its members.

To be clear: Crown and industry should both be aware that acceptance of the term “Coast Tsimshian” as it is defined by LKIB and MIB alone – and Crown or industry acceptance of any social or geographic identification derived from that construction

32 http://www.laxkwalaams.ca/corporate/index.php# ; also at http://native-invest-trade.com/2009/Lax%20Kw'alaams/Protocol.pdf 33 See footnotes 7-9 above.

13 as defined in the 2009 Protocol - does not reflect indigenous or even modern Tsimshianic social structure. The review below proves that “Coast Tsimshian” is, at best, a linguistic categorization – one that includes Kitsumkalum itself. Above all, the review below proves that, because there is no “Coast Tsimshian”, there can be no “Coast Tsimshian Territory” – and it therefore follows, especially in light of the hundreds of pages of previously unseen material presented in the sections following this one - that Kitsumkalum, its members, and, its houses, all belong on the coast as much as any community that has been a part of what is referred to as the “Tsimshian Proper” – the Nation of Tsimshian communities.

14

The “Coast Tsimshian” Study

Many of the most prominent publications that have focussed on the Tsimshian Nation in light of the way they classify the various Tsimshian communities have been reviewed below in chronological order. Beginning with famed anthropologist Franz Boas, the sources show very clearly that, other than describing a category based on dialect, the literature does not support the notion of a particular subset, group or lifeway called “Coast Tsimshian” – certainly not one that could ever be used to separate any particular galts’ap like Kalum from its laxyuup – what Chief Roberts defined before the JRP as “…the food and economic sources. The hunting territories, the fishing localities, fruit bushes, medicines and so on...”.34

SOURCE MATERIALS

Franz Boas Tsimshian Mythology 1909-1910 (printed in 1916). Boas, Franz. Tsimshian Mythology, 31st Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, 1916),

This is the first major ethnographic work describing Tsimshian social organization. The stories in the book are primarily from Port Simpson, and collected by a Port Simpson resident. Nevertheless, based on those stories and Boas’ own research, Boas concludes that:

Page 482 The Tsimshian Proper embrace the following tribes: 1. Ts!Em-sia’n, on Skeena River 2. Gitsemgalon [Kitsumkalum], below the canyon of Skeena River 3. Gitsalaser, on the Canyon of Skeena River 4. Gitqxała, on the islands outside of Skeena River 5. Gitqada, on Grenville Channel 6.Gidesdzu, northwest of Millbank Sound. These are considered Half Bellabella.

Page 483 For a long time all the Tsimshian proper assembled in winter at Maxłe-qxała (Metlakatla) where each group inhabited its own village site. [ie, Casey Point]. During the fishing-season they lived in their separate towns on Skeena River and on the coast.

The notion of a single Tsimshian Nation - the “Tsimshian Proper” – is also recognized by Chief LEg- e'°x [Legaic], one of the senior-most Tsimshian Chiefs

34 https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll- eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/384192/620327/628981/781781/12%2D01%2D12_%2D_Vol ume_10_%2D_A2K9R5.pdf?nodeid=781782&vernum=1 - para. 5089.

15 alive in the 19th Century (though nevertheless second in rank to Kalum-based Eagle Chief Xhchaum Dueskt).35

In the passage below, Chief LEg- e'°x also refers to the notion of shared exclusive title and commonly-held lands within which title to certain parts, and for certain uses, is clearly recognized:

Page 389 Not many Tsimshian made their home in Port Simpson [circa 1830s]. They were still living in the old town Metlakahtla. Only the great chief LEg- e'°x himself was camping at the fort with all his people. They used to camp there on their way from Nass to Skeena River and from Metlakahtla to Nass River…

When the Hudson Bay Company first came, they built the fort at White Point (Ma/ksgum ts hiwa'nql) on Nass River, the point that we call Crabapple-Tree Point (K-lgu-sgan-ma'lks). In the same year when the fort was finished on Nass River, Mr. Kennedy was married to Chief L.Eg - e'°x's eldest daughter. They lived there nearly two years. It is very cold on that point in winter. Sometimes they lacked fresh water, and some of their workmen froze to death: therefore Mr. Kennedy asked his wife to speak to her father. When the season of olachen fishing came, and all the people had come up from Metlakahtla to Nass River, Mrs. Kennedy invited her father into the fort, and said to him, "Father, give a small piece of land to Mr. Kennedy, for I almost freeze to death here. Some men were frozen to death last winter." Then the great chief was speechless. He said, "I am afraid lest my child be frozen here next winter."

Then Chief LEg'e'°x said, "My dear child, I have no land. This land belongs to all the tribes of the Tsimshian. Only my camping place on Rose Island [Lax Kw’alaams], where there are a few houses besides my own large house—I can lend this to your husband for some time."

So she told her husband what her father had said; and the white man said, 'Yes; I do not want to take land, but we will trade on it for a short time." Thus spoke Mr. Kennedy.

They moved down the same summer, and in the fall of the year they moved all their property down. A year after they had finished the fort and the fences for the garden, they brought down the body of Simpson, who had died at Crabapple-Tree Point. This was in the spring or summer.

When all the Tsimshian moved down from Nass River for olachen fishing, they assembled at Rose Island Camp.

35 Walter Wright, Men of Medeek (Kitimat: Northern Sentinal Press, 1962), p. 197.

16 Marius Barbeau Totem Poles of the Gitksan, 1929 Barbeau, Marius. Totem Poles of the Gitksan, Upper Skeena River, British Columbia. 1929. National Museum of Man. Bulletin No. 61, Anthropological Series, No. 12. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada

An important report based on Barbeau’s research with William Beynon, in which Kitsumkalum is clearly viewed as one of the Skeena River tribes.

Page 129 “the Gitsemrælem tribe, among the Skeena River Tsimsyan…” “the Gitsemrælem tribe of the Tsimsyan…”

Page 184 “Gitsemrælem—a Tsimsyan village.”

This is also consistent with Barbeau’s 1917 review of Boas’ Tsimshian Mythology, in which Barbeau does not enumerate but nevertheless refers to fifteen tribes as comprising the “Tsimshian proper”.36

Viola Garfield Tsimshian Clan and Society 1939 Garfield, Viola Edmundson, Tsimshian Clan and Society. Seattle: University of Washington, 1939.

This is a published dissertation in anthropology and another major ethnography that is of great influence on Tsimshian studies. Garfield did her research in Port Simpson and, in her introduction, writes that she accepts Boas’ “formal structure of the social organization” – in other words, accepting that Kalum is part of the “Tsimshian proper”.

Garfield also mentions that a Kalum person was as a key participant in a highly sacred ritual in Port Simpson in 1860 – a fact that provides further support to the idea that Garfield does not consider Kalum to be any different from any other Tsimshian group.

Page 169 The “… formal structure of the social organization is known from earlier researches, notably those of Dr. Franz Boas.”

Garfield therefore accepts that the Kitsumkalum houses are part of the same Nation as the so-called nine Tribes. She also uses the Boas term “Tsimshian proper” at p. 175:

36 American Anthropology (N.S. 19, 1917), p. 552.

17

Page 175 “Most of the Tsimshian proper who now live at Port Simpson and Old Metlakatla, British Columbia, and New Metlakatla … are descendants of members of tribes who formerly lived on the Skeena River. When permanent residence was established on the coast some of the old tribal villages were abandoned, … Nine of these tribes now live at Port Simpson where each has its traditional location in a continuous village site. They are [lists the usual 9]…”

Notes: In this passage, Garfield uses “most” to qualify “Tsimshian proper”, which indicates that she is focused on the nine tribes without excluding the other groups that continued to maintain residence in those locations. This corresponds with Kalum’s claim that the Metlakatla and Port Simpson Indian Bands actually include many Kitsumkalum people, and, as we shall see below, there is in fact considerable missionary and genealogical evidence – dozens and dozens of pages – to support that claim. As well, DIA records also show that Kalum people petitioned along with their nine tribes brothers when advocating the protection of specific areas in commonly held territory.

Page 314, fn22 “…at Port Simpson, (fn about 1860) … a woman from Gitsem-ge’lon (fn Village of upper Skeena River Tsimshian) who owned the cannibal power…” was assisting an initiation into the Cannibal Society.

Clearly, people from Kitsumkalum were not only in Port Simpson at mid-19th century, but they were active participants in sacred Tsimshian rituals.

Page 338 Garfield refers to “Gitsem-ge’lon tribe of Skeena River Tsimshian”

Note that, to this point, no reference has been made to the term “Coast Tsimshian”; all records consistently illustrate that Kalum has been a key part of the Tsimshian lifeway on the coast at both Port Simpson and Metlakatla. There is no indication at all that any form of permission was required for Kalum people to be on the coast and, indeed, during research for this paper, only one instance – in the far southern reaches of its traditional territory - that Kalum people were obligated to seek permission for any kind of use at all. As we shall see, that case was for one particular resource in an area that Kalum is otherwise free to camp and harvest in. On a related point with respect to Tsimshian relations with settler society, note that UBC Law Prof. Doug Harris makes clear that:

The Native sense of ownership did not diminish with the arrival of a settler society, and on some parts of the coast Natives demanded recognition and payment for the use of prominent resource sites. Methodist Missionary A.E. Green, who arrived at Port Simpson at the mouth of the Nass in 1877, remarked on the Coast [sic] Tsimpsean claims to the land and sea, and on the arrangements made with white immigrants: ‘Every mountain, every valley, every stream was named, and every piece belong to some

18 particular family. This claim was recognized by all the white men, viz. Harvey Snow, James Grey, J.J. Robinson, who rented small sites from the Indians for fishing purposes, and paid the Indians regular rent for the same [Harris footnote 203: Statement of Rev. A.E. Green, 27 November 1888, Letters from the Methodist Missionary Society to the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs respecting British Columbia Troubles: with affidavits, declarations, etc. (Toronto 1889) appendix p. 14.]. This arrangement appears to have ended when the immigrants applied for and received land grants from the province in 1880.37

Rev. Green himself added weight to the idea that Tsimshian peoples defended their title and rights in the face of non-aboriginal waves of immigration by writing in 1888 that “…the Indians…. would not allow any one to use any land, without leave from them, and payment.”38 Indeed, as we shall see below, Kalum leaders have been active in Tsimshian efforts to defend title and rights in Tsimshian territory since the 1800s, including on the Tsimshian Peninsula in the 1880s.

Totem Poles 1950 Barbeau, Marius. Totem Poles (Two Volumes). National Museum of Canada, Bulletin No. 119, Anthropological Series, No. 30, Ottawa: Department of the Secretary of State. 1950

Another important report based on Barbeau’s research with William Beynon in which Tsimshian, Nisga’a, and Gitksan poles are described in significant detail. In volume two, the poles are listed according to their location; based on the table of contents, it is clear that Kitsumkalum is considered to be part of the “Tsimsyans proper”.

Ethnical and Geographical Study Circa 1950s Ethnical and Geographical Study of the T’simsiyaen Nation. Mss. Bureau of American Ethnology.

This unpublished study – notes, really - was prepared by Tsimshian ethnographer William Beynon based on his previous research with Barbeau. Although sometimes contradicting his other, earlier, work, Beynon’s classification of the communities nevertheless reveals the Tsimshian proper to include Kitsumkalum, which is consistent with previous ethnography. In fact, as a linguistic category, Beynon includes the Kalum people in “the t’s imsiyaen coastal group.”

Page 1 “The T’simsiyaen are divided into three dialectical groups [emphasis added]. 1.) T’simsiyaen, the Coastal and Lower Skeena groups extending from what

37 Doug Harris, Fish, Law, and Colonialism: The Legal Capture of Salmon in British Columbia (U of T Press, 2001), p. 61. 38 Statement of Rev. A.E. Green, 27 November 1888, Letters from the Methodist Missionary Society to the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs respecting British Columbia Troubles: with affidavits, declarations, etc. (Toronto 1889), appendix p. 15)

19 is now Port Simpson [#2 being Nisga’a and # 3 being Gitksan] … [Port Simpson, Metlakatla, Kitkatla, Hartley Bay listed as] … This was the coastal group, the lower Skeena River groups … [Kitselas] …The other group being gits mgel m … “People of the Pebbly shore.” This composed the t’s imsiyaen coastal group. Those at [Metlakatla] being composed of the following trives [sic]. .. [lists the usual 9]

This agrees with the view that the Tsimshian are a single social group, and that any reference to “Coast Tsimshian” is simply a linguistic descriptor, one that includes Kitsumkalum itself, with “Coast Tsimshian” of course spoken and taught to both children and adults to this day in Kitsumkalum.

Viola Garfield, Paul Wingert, and Marius Barbeau The Tsimshian: their arts and music. 1951 Garfield, Viola, Paul Wingert, and Marius Barbeau. The Tsimshian: their arts and music. New York: J.J. Augustin, 1951.

This book is a summary of previous research by the authors and was reprinted without Barbeau’s contribution in 1966.

Page 5 “The Tsimshian lived along the banks and tributaries of the Nass and Skeena Rivers in British Columbia. They ranged over the lakes and plateaus between the two streams and to Portland Canal northwest of the Nass.”

Garfield et al employ the broadest sense of Tsimshian to include all the “Tsimshianic” communities (Nisga’a, Gitksan, Kitwancool, Tsimshian). In a subsequent reprint, they add the coastal areas to this definition – see immediately below.

The Tsimshian Indians and Their Arts. 1966 Garfield, Viola and Paul Wingert. The Tsimshian Indians and Their Arts: The Tsimshian and their neighbors. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966.

Page 5 “The Tsimshian lived along the banks and tributaries of the Nass and Skeena Rivers in British Columbia.... The sea coast and coastal estuaries of the Nass and Skeena belonged to them and they also explored and settled on some of the islands, the most southerly of which was Swindle Island, south of Princess Royal Island.”

This accords with the data presented over the course of Kalum’s several hundred pages of evidence below.

20 George MacDonald, 1967 “Archaeological Reconnaissance in The Tsimshian Area, British Columbia”

Dr. MacDonald undertook an archaeological recon for the National Museum of Canada over five months in 1966-67:

Pages 3-4:

…I have referred to this area by the general linguistic group to which all of the tribes inhabiting the area belong,- -Tsimshian. To be more specific, the portion of the Skeena above the Kitselas canyon is inhabited by the Gitksan tribes who have major villages at Qaldo, Kisgegas, Kispiox, Kitenmaks, Kitwanga, Kitwankul and Gitsguekla. The Canyon area and the lower river, as well as the adjacent coast was held by various tribes of the Coast Tsimshian. On the Nass River, and with hunting territories adjoining those of the Gitksan were the Niskae tribes, speaking a dialect of Tsimshian very close to Gitskan.

On the Skeena, a block to coastal movement was provided in late prehistoric times by the Kitselas tribe who inhabited four villages at the canyon of the Skeena. Much of their livelihood was obtained by tolls on river trade. The Gitksans above them alternated between their fishing locations on the river amd their inland hunting territories, and below them the Coast Tsimshian tribes had fishing villages and hunting territories along the Skeena, but had their winter villages along the Venn pass [sic]. In the Spring they journeyed to their respective sites on the Nass for the olachen [sic] fishing. Consequently each Coast Tsimshian tribe (with a few exceptions) maintained sites in three locations:

(1) the lower Skeena, (2) the Venn Pass, (3) The Nass River.

MacDonald’s statement thus places Kalum in the “Coast Tsimshian” linguistic group and, further, includes it in the group of Tsimshian tribes with sites on the Nass River (eg. Red Bluff). “lower river [“the lower Skeena”, eg. Spa Xksuutks/Port Essington] and adjacent coast” (see the approximately 60 sites listed over approximately 250 pages below).

Note that Kalum is one of the unstated exceptions to those with winter villages in Venn Pass as its site was at Casey Point; however, Kalum’s oral history and the corroborating evidence below both bear out the fact that Kalum has title and rights at dozens of locations on the coast.

Note, too, that Dr. MacDonald presented the paper quoted above at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1967, he has recently adopted a perspective and a definition of “Coast Tsimshian” that not only contradicts the professional work that is presented above but effectively excludes Kitsumkalum title and rights in many coastal locations.

21 As we shall see, Dr. MacDonald’s recent reformulation – shared by at least one other Lax Kw’alaams consultant who has also undergone his own similar and contradictory reformulation – does not appear to have any support at all.

Marjorie Halpin and Margaret Seguin Handbook of North American Indians. 1990 Halpin, Marjorie, and Margaret Seguin. “Tsimshian Peoples: Southern Tsimshian, Coast Tsimshian, Nishga, and Gitksan.” In the Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7. 267-284. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1990.

As this chapter in the Handbook is a summary of previous research, the way it describes the social organization of the Tsimshian is important as a summary of the accepted perspective, one that includes Kalum as part of the Tsimshian Nation. Although the “Coast Tsimshian” term rears its head as a linguistic descriptor, take note that Kalum - as in Beynon’s work - is included with the nine tribes in that designation.

Page 267 “Linguistically, the major division is between the Coast and Southern Tsimshian on the one hand and the Nishga and Gitksan on the other. These are clearly two separate languages, though many Nishga and Gitksan people spoke Coast Tsimshian, which was more prestigious, especially for ceremonial purposes. Southern Tsimshian, nearly extinct by the 1970s, is close to Coast Tsimshian but the two may not have been mutually intelligible.”

Page 268 Any doubts about the “Coast Tsimshian” identity are dispelled here:

“Also classified as Coast Tsimshian are the Kitselas, who lived in two winter villages on either side of Kitselas Canyon on the Skeena River, and the Kitsumkalum, who lived below them near the mouth of the Kitsumkalem [sic] River.”

Note that Dr. Margaret Seguin, now Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson, a long time Lax Kw’alaams consultant, has also recently confirmed that “Some areas of the coast were common shared territory used by all the Tsimshian tribes…”39 – a critically important point that will be returned to below.

39 Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 13. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

22 December 15, 1993 Statement of Intent of the Tsimshian Nation

Though not the work of ethnographers but rather of the Tsimshian themselves, in December 1993 the TTC stated that the Tsimshian Nation – not the Coast Tsimshian Nation - was:

…2. …made up of:

(a) the following Tribes of Tsimshian Peoples:

Gidzalaal, Ginaxangiik, Gisp’axlo’ots, Gitandoyks, Gitlan, Gilutsau, Gitwilgvots, Git’andoo, Git’tsiis, Gitga’ata, Kitasoo, Kitkatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Metlakatla.

… The membership of the Tsimshian Nation is substantially coextensive with the membership of the following seven communities: Hartley Bay, Kitasoo, Kitkatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Lax Kw’alaams, Metlakatla. The First [N]ation, however, does not define its existence or its aboriginal title and rights by reference to the provisions of the Indian Act.40

Though the TTC may no longer exist, it does not change the fact that Kalum people are Tsimshian, and that a TTC special resolution passed in 1992 indicates that one of the purposes for which the TTC was formed in 1988 included assisting “…all Tsimshian People to advance the recognition of aboriginal title or rights to lands, waters and air which the Tsimshian have occupied and governed since the Tsimshian People were put here by the Creator.”41

Recall, too, that additional signatories of that December 1993 Statement of Intent included nine tribes leader James Bryant. Chief Bryant (along with Lax Kw’alaams Chief Gary Reece) also signed a September 18, 2002 letter to Stan Ashcroft, the solicitor for the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum First Nations, stating on behalf of the nine tribes and Lax Kw’alaams that “We respect the fact the we share parts of our Tribal Territories with the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum Indian Bands, who stand with us together as members of the Tsimshian Nation, and with us at the Treaty Table with the Tsimshian Tribal Council.”42 In the same letter, Chiefs Bryant and Reece went on to confirm that, as authorized by the nine tribes, “Kitsumkalum and Kitselas have claims of aboriginal title and rights within the areas that are the subject matter of the Petition and the supporting affidavits”43 – the Petition itself defining that “subject matter” as:

40 TTC to BC Treaty Commission, December 15, 1993 (copy from BC Supreme Court File L021279); emphasis added. 41 TTC Special Resolution, courtesy KTO Archive [emphasis added]. 42 Letter from Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band and ATT to Stan Ashcroft, September 18, 2002 (copy from Stan Ashcroft); emphasis added. 43 Ibid.; emphasis added.

23 Aboriginal title over an area surrounding the lower reaches of the Skeena River, and extending to the ocean, on the North Coast of British Columbia in the vicinity of the municipalities of Prince Rupert…44

This recognition and acknowledgement by nine tribes officials was later reversed with the 2009 Protocol discussed below. The reversal, however, appears to be neither defensible nor justifiable.

Jay Miller Tsimshian Culture 1997 Tsimshian Culture: A Light Through the Ages. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska University Press, 1997.

Miller is an anthropologist who has published several articles and books about the Tsimshian. In this book, an enquiry into Tsimshianic spiritualism and religion, Miller attempts to justify his analysis at a very general level with all the Tsimshianic peoples, and, as explained in his preface, Miller relies on the most general terminology. By definition, Kalum must be included in his “Coast” division, because he does not refer to the “Canyon”.

Preface “From the outset I must make it clear that, throughout this book, “Tsimshian” is used as an all-encompassing term for the four divisions: Coast, Southern, Gitksan, and Nishga. Currently, this is an unpopular conjoining in the very real political world of modern northern British Columbia. Nonetheless, shared region and culture, which is my goal, takes precedence over the emphasis on differences which characterize present relations among these First Nations. In addition to their common homeland at Temlaxham, the modalities of the culture, to be fully understood, must be examined in terms of the various expressions found among these four groupings.” 45

Page 15 Miller maintains the general term “Coast” for the Skeena communities but demonstrates confusion over the demographics. To be fair, he is not concerned with the subject and is probably simply reiterating what others outside the Academy have also done, ie, discussing what are believed to be “evident truths” without actually considering them in proper detail. One error is describing the Southern group as being along the Skeena. Another is to locate the winter towns along Venn Passage, calling it by the missionary name Metlakatla and forgetting that other locations in Prince Rupert Harbour, like Kalum’s villages at Casey Point and Barrett Rock, were also a part of this broader gathering place.

44 Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band, Metlakatla Indian Band and the ATT Assocation [nine tribes] v. The [BC] Minister of Forests, AGBC, and Skeena Cellulose, Petition to the Court (BCSC, No. L0212179); emphasis added. 45 Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 33. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

24 Miller’s tip to Temlaxham is important and refers to an ancestral site on the Skeena above Kitselas – what Boas described as the “….original home of the Tsimshian.”46 Its descendants, including Kalum members, consider themselves related by kinship, a bond that creates specific rights in specific areas for specific uses. As Lax Kw’alaams specialist Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson puts it:

Housegroups that did not share any common episodes of their adaawx might nonetheless be recognized as "brothers and sisters" in the same pdeex because the two houses shared crests. For example, Gisbutwada wuwaap, whose adaawx recounts their migration from Temlaxam in the interior to the coast, were recognized as pdeex-mates by the Gisbutwada already living on the coast, whose Lax Nagunaks adaawx describes their coastal origins, because both groups shared crests such as the blackfish and grizzly bear. 47

This point will be returned to below, but note that Miller also writes that:

Of the four Tsimshian groups (Nishga, Gitksan, Coast, and Southern), the last three were along the Skeena, while the first was located along the Nass (See appendix).”

The Skeena is about 150 miles long, and enters the Pacific through offshore islands (Large 1981). The Coast Tsimshian located their winter towns near each other along Metlakatla (“calm narrows”) in the vicinity of modern Prince Rupert Harbor. During the summer each town scattered to camps at ancestral territories along the tributaries of the Skeena.

The Southern Tsimshian had their towns and territories on islands and bays along the coast below the mouth of the Skeena.

Above the Canyon of the Skeena (near Terrace, British Columbia) were the Gitksan, linguistic and cultural relatives of the Tsimshian, who shared this eastern cultural interface with interior Athapaskans who had adapted to some coastal traditions.

Page 16 “Nine “tribes” along the lower Skeena River composed the Coast Tsimshian. Indeed, the term Tsimshian comes from ts’m- “those inside” + ksiaan “the Skeena”, and refers particularly to the estuary below the canyon of the river (Dorsey 1897; Duff 1964b; Dunn 1979a; Boas 1911; Niblack 1890).

Here Miller suffers from both the nine tribes pseudo-orthodoxy and a less than complete view of Tsimshian social organization. He leaves out the already- mentioned fact that Lts. Warre and Vavasour placed “two tribes” at the mouth of the

46 Franz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology, 31st Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, 1916), p. 394. 47 Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 33. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

25 Skeena in 184548 - “two tribes” that were obviously Kalum and Kitselas – Kane referring to them further as part of the Tsimshian Nation.49

Susan Marsden, Margaret Seguin, and Deana Nyce. 1999

Marsden, Susan, Margaret Seguin, and Deana Nyce. Tsimshian Speaking Groups Gitksan, Nisga’a, Tsimshian. In “Aboriginal Peoples of Canada: A Short Introduction.” Paul R. Magocsi 2002, page 265. Originally in “The Peoples of Canada: An Encyclopedia for the Country.” June 1999. Page 3

This is a review article by specialists who include Kitsumkalum in the same social group as the nine tribes. (Note that Seguin (now Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson) is an anthropologist married to a Gitga’at member, Marsden a museum director, and Nyce a Tsimshian (and CEO of the Nisga’a university college)).

Page 265 The term Tsimshian is also used for two communities located further up the Skeena River near the Kitselas Canyon, as well as for three communities south of the Skeena mouth. The two upriver communities are sometimes referred to as Canyon Tsimshian to distinguish them from the Coast groups. Three communities south of the Skeena mouth were probably originally populated by speakers of the Southern Tsimshian Language Skuuxs, a fourth member of the Tsimshian family which is almost extinct, having been largely replaced by the language of the Coast Tsimshian during the last hundred years.

Andrew Martindale and Associates. 2004 Northern Tsimshian Elderberry Use Martindale, Andrew, and Irena Jurakic. Northern Tsimshian Elderberry Use in the Late Pre-contact to Post-contact Era. In “Canadian Journal of Archaeology. No. 28, 2004. 254-280.

This article is primarily based on archaeology and the economic organization of elderberry resources. However, it also presents a map describing the “Northern Tsimshian” territories. On page 255 (Figure 1) the Northern Tsimshian tribes are illustrated as: the Gitwilgyoots, Gitsiis, Gitzaxhłaał, Ginax’angiik, Gitando, Ginadoiks, Gitlaan, Gispxlo’ots, and Giluts’aaw. Martindale switches terminology here (“Northern Tsimshian”) which is odd, because in defining it he is referring only to the nine tribes, thus excluding Kalum which, as we shall see, has title and rights in several northern coastal locations. On the

48 Extract from Report by Lts. Warre and Vavasour dated October 1845, copied for the House of Commons in February 1847, retrieved on September 8, 2014 from: http://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/imageBrowser.htm?image=co_305_01_00189r.jpg 49 Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America (London, Longman, Brown, 1859 [with Indian Census based on data for the year 1846]).

26 other hand, Martindale maintains here the linguistic focus on the “Coast Tsimshian” label:

Page 276 “The Northern Tsimshian are defined by Martindale and Marsden (2003) as the local groups who formed a defensive alliance after 1500 BP in response to invasion and warfare primarily from northern groups. We prefer this term to the more common synonym, Coast Tsimshian, which properly defines a linguistic rather than cultural or political division. The Northern Tsimshian include the following local groups (known among the Northern Tsimshian as “tribes”): Gitwilgyoots, Ginax’angiik, Gitxaxłaał, Gitsiis, Gitnadoiks, Gitando, Gispaxlo’ots, Gitlaan, and Gilutsaw. There was a tenth tribe, the Gitwilkseba, but the became extinct. The interior Tsimshian tribes are the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum. The southern Tsimshian tribes are the Kitkatla, Gitk’a’ata, and Kitasoo.”

Chris Roth Becoming Tsimshian. 2008 Roth, Chris. Becoming Tsimshian: the social life of names. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008.

Roth’s published dissertation in anthropology focuses on social organization and argues that it is a mistake to separate Kitsumkalum from the other Tsimshian communities and states that – in agreement with Beynon, Halpin, Seguin, Martindale (above), etc. - “Coast Tsimshian” is a linguistic term only.

Page 16 The Tsimshian are several thousand people who own and occupy roughly the northern third of British Columbia’s coast, much of the lower Skeena watershed, and associated islands and inland areas-as well as owning and using a significant portion of the lower Nass water-shed (see Marsden 1997, 2002:118-119).

Pages 17-18 Linguists use “Coast Tsimshian,” a term that makes sense only if Gitksans and Nisga’as are classed as Tsimshian (see above) and otherwise misleads by suggesting an opposition with the noncoastal “Canyon” (or “Interior,” “Inland,” or “Freshwater”) Tsimshian, the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum, [who] after all speak the same language as coastal Tsimshians but are included under the academic coast label (see McDonald and Kitsumkalum Education Committee 2003:7-8, 11-12, 14). By “Coast Tsimshian” linguists (and it is mostly linguists who still use the term) tend to mean Sm’algyax as distinct from what linguists sometimes group together as the “Nass-Gitksan” Dialect or Language of Tsimshianic (now with separate Gitksan and Nisga’a language- policy institutions and orthographic traditions).

27 Page 18 “The “Port Essington” or “Canyon” Dialect used at Kitsumkalum and Kitselas is different too, I am told, but is comparatively closer to Lax Kw’alaams speech.”50

Subsurface Shell Midden from Dundas Islands 2009

Martindale, Andrew, Bryn Letham, Duncan McLaren, David Archer, Meghan Burchell and Bernd R. Schone. 2009. “Mapping of Subsurface Shell Midden Components Through Percussion Coring: Examples From the Dundas Islands.” Journal of Archaeological Science 36(9):1565–1575.

There is no real information that pertains to the nomenclature of the Tsimshian but as the study was done on Dundas Island, and the authors appear to have been engaged in some sort of relationship with Lax Kw’alaams, the most relevant piece of information regarding the argument regarding the eventual abuse of the “Coast Tsimshian” label is found in the acknowledgments:

“The authors would like to acknowledge the permission and support of the Tsimshian people, their elected and hereditary leaders, and the Lax Kw’alaams Band Council and Allied Tsimshian Tribes Association.”

While it is only briefly mentioned that the work was done in Tsimshian territory, note that the term “Coast Tsimshian” is not employed in association with the Lax Kw’alaams Band Council and Allied Tsimshian Tribes Association because, as Martindale himself used the term above in Northern Tsimshian Elderberry Use in the Late Pre-contact to Post-contact Era, “Coast Tsimshian” is simply a linguistic descriptor. As we shall see, however, Martindale switches terminology in the aftermath of the 2009 Protocol which follows right here:

Lax Kw'alaams Lax Kw'alaams Corporate Division. 2009

2009 http://www.laxkwalaams.ca/corporate/index.php# ; also at http://native-invest-trade.com/2009/Lax%20Kw'alaams/Protocol.pdf

This is a consultation protocol that lays down the conditions for economic development on what Lax Kw’alaams defines as its traditional territory: “Government and business seeking opportunities with our traditional territories will be expected to consult with Lax Kw’alaams on the terms of the Consultation protocol”. The web site alludes to a larger social group with the phrase: “Doing Business on the Traditional Territory of the Tsimshian of Lax Kw’alaams”. Although the protocol is referenced on the Lax Kw’alaams web site with a hot button that is no longer operating, the protocol is still available on other sites. It serves to

50 Kalum member Mildred Roberts, who taught Sm’algyax, says the speech is identical. Per Pers Comm. with Chief Don Roberts, Jr.

28 exclude other Tsimshian groups from not just the coast, but inland areas as well, including the heart of Kalum territory around Terrace:

This Protocol Agreement is dated the 11th day of June, 2009 by and between: Lax Kw'alaams First Nation having its address Lax Kw'alaams Band Office 206 Shashaak Street, Port Simpson, BC VOV 1HO, OF THE FIRST PART

Metlakatla First Nation having its address at P.O. Box 459, Prince Rupert, B.C. V8J 3R2, OF THE SECOND PART And

Allied Tsimshian Tribes of Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla, having its address at General Delivery, Port Simpson, B.C. VOV 1HO,

(collectively, the "COAST TSIMSHIAN")

WHEREAS: A. The COAST TSIMSHIAN have enjoyed and assert unextinguished Aboriginal rights and title from time immemorial and continuing into the present within their Traditional Territories (the "Traditional Territory") according to the map attached a Appendix 1;

B. The COAST TSIMSHIAN community members are the present-day descendants of nine tribes referred to as the Gispaxlo'ots, Gitsaxlaal, Gitlaan, Gits'iis, Gitnaxangiik, Gitando, Gitutsa'aw, Gitnadoiks, and the Gitwilgyots. The nine tribes are represented by the Allied Tsimshian Tribes of Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla ("Allied Tribes").

C. The Traditional Territory of the COAST TSIMSHIAN were occupied by the Allied Tribes to the exclusion of other Aboriginal groups and includes the land areas of the present day cities of Terrace and Prince Rupert;

D. Though the COAST TSIMSHIAN historically established their permanent winter villages around Prince Rupert harbour, the Traditional Territories extend to and envelope much of the transportation corridor key to the import and exports of goods and services in northwest British Columbia known as the Pacific Gateway.

E. The Parties acknowledge that the law in Canada relating to Aboriginal rights as protected by Section 35 of the Constitution Act 1982 is paramount, and that the Crown has a duty to consult and accommodate First Nations where Aboriginal rights or title exist and have been harmfully impacted, as has been set out in various decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada;

F. The purpose of the Supreme Court of Canada in developing the law of consultation and accommodation is to protect Aboriginal rights such as those unextinguished Aboriginal rights that continue to exist for the COAST TSIMSHIAN in the Traditional Territory;

G. The COAST TSIMSHIAN are declaring this Protocol to promote cooperation and good will amongst the Allied Tribes and their respective communities for purpose of rebuilding their relationships, their economy, and their culture.

29 H. The purpose in the COAST TSIMSHIAN declaring this Protocol is so that government, industry, proponents, and interested parties seeking to undertake Projects in the Traditional Territory of the COAST TSIMSHIAN are clearly apprised of the process of consultation expected to be followed.

In consideration of the above mentioned the Coast Tsimshian, where there is agreement between Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla to participate jointly and collectively in the pursuit of Aboriginal Rights and Title, and/or Business Interests, the following shall apply:

ARTICLE 1 STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

1.4 Consultation Lead. Where a Project is planned within the Traditional Territory of the COAST TSIMSHIAN it is acknowledged that the Allied Tribes occupied the Traditional Territory to the exclusion of other Aboriginal groups. Where other Aboriginal groups were allowed into the Traditional Territory with the express permission of the COAST TSIMSHIAN it is acknowledged further that they have no or extremely diminished Aboriginal claims within the Traditional Territory which should be reflected in any accommodation provided. In such circumstances the COAST TSIMSHIAN are the lead group that expect to be consulted. The COAST TSIMSHIAN may, at their exclusive option, invite other Aboriginal groups to be involved in the consultation process on the terms that they see appropriate.

As indicated in the works above, “Coast Tsimshian” is nothing more than a linguistic descriptor – and yet it has been conceptually hijacked by LKIB/MIB/nine tribes to exclude other Tsimshian people, including Kalum, from their own lands and resources inside what the Protocol self-defines as “the Traditional Territory of the Coast Tsimshian”.

But clearly there can be no such “Traditional Territory”, because there is no “Coast Tsimshian” in any sense other than language.

Despite that conclusion, we can see that the exclusionary Protocol is having an influence on those working in areas that Kalum holds both exclusive and shared title and rights:

Relict Shorelines and Shell Middens of Dundas Island 2011

McLaren, Duncan, Andrew Martindale, Daryl W. Fedje and Quentin Mackie. 2011. Relict Shorelines and Shell Middens of the Dundas Island Archipelago. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 35(2):86–116.

Two years after the publication of the Consultation Protocol, archaeologists begin using the term “Coast Tsimshian” to identify an ethnic group.

Thus Martindale writes:

30 Page 2 “Located within the territory of the Coast Tsimshian, the Dundas Island group is a small archipelago of islands on the outer mainland coast of British Columbia.”

To retrace Martindale’s progression here: in 2004 he stated that “Coast Tsimshian” was a linguistic term (a move that is consistent with all prevailing work done on the Tsimshian Nation). In 2009 Martindale thanks “the Tsimshian” but then, after the LKIB/MIB “Protocol” was put out the same year, he begins to use “Coast Tsimshian” as a territorial descriptor.

In December 2013, however, both Martindale and George MacDonald (see above with respect to his position in 1967) together admitted that “The term Coast Tsimshian is indeed founded on a linguistic definition.”51

As we saw above, that definition includes Kitsumkalum.

CONCLUSIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE TERM “COAST TSIMSHIAN”

The evidence reviewed above – including from Dr. Martindale and MacDonald - shows that “Coast Tsimshian” is no more than an academic/linguistic term that describes a dialect of the Tsimshian language. MacDonald himself – who even included Kalum under the “Coast Tsimshian” territorial rubric in 1967 - now, with Martindale, appears to define “Coast Tsimshian” in a way that excludes Kalum from the coast.

That would be and is incorrect.

The KIB is, as DIA’s Indian Agent stated before the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia on December 16, 1915, “…a distinct Band of the Tsimpsean Nation.”52

Furthermore, using “Coast Tsimshian” to describe territory, title or rights is incorrect because the “Coast Tsimshian” construct may be used to illegitimately exclude other aboriginal groups and communities within the Tsimshian Nation that, like Kitsumkalum itself, exercise title and rights inside the area self-defined by LKIB and Metlakatla (a fact that the LKIB and Metlakatla themselves recognized until sometime after 2002).

Failing to acknowledge the intellectual poverty of the “Coast Tsimshian” construct will expand the risk of failing to adequately consult Kitsumkalum with respect to its title and rights, most particularly on the coast, but also close to the heart of its territory in Terrace.

51 Andrew Martindale and George MacDonald, “Response to Letter of August 20, 2013 from Kitsumkalum Indian Band to Jack Smith, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency”, December 20, 2013. 52 See Indian Agent Perry, December 16, 1915, http://gsdl.ubcic.bc.ca/collect/royalcom/import/nassedithtmlsection.htm at 198.

31 As was made clear above, a simple chronological review of the term shows that there is no “Coast Tsimshian Territory”. Any failure to acknowledge this fact will only serve to heighten conflict inside the Tsimshian Nation; between its residential communities; and, between those communities and the Crown.

As already suggested, the following several hundred pages illustrate the long standing title and rights that have been exercised within the traditional territory held by the KIB, but we move first to a presentation of what in personal communications current Kalum Chief Don Roberts, Jr. regards as critical to any understanding Kalum’s place within the Tsimshian Nation.

Origins of the Nation and the Development of the Crests

Chief Roberts frequently emphasizes the importance of knowledge of the distant past in order to understand the present. In doing so, he advocates reflection on specific eras that point to the historical development of the Kalum community and its houses within the Tsimshian Nation.

The first era involves the establishment of the ancient village of Temlaxham, Temlaxham being an ancestral site on the Skeena located above Kitselas, whose descendants consider themselves related by kinship. In this era, which took place in the distant past, only two crests existed: the Gispwudwada/Black Fish/Grizzly and the Ganhada/Raven. Connections between Kalum Gispudwada and the coast were established in the earliest eras because, as Lax Kw’alaams specialist Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson put it:

Housegroups that did not share any common episodes of their adaawx [true tellings of history] might nonetheless be recognized as "brothers and sisters" in the same pdeex [clan] because the two houses shared crests. For example, Gisbutwada wuwaap [houses], whose adaawx recounts their migration from Temlaxam in the interior to the coast, were recognized as pdeex-mates by the Gisbutwada already living on the coast, whose Lax Nagunaks adaawx describes their coastal origins, because both groups shared crests such as the blackfish and grizzly bear.53

Thus this first and earliest era established connections between Kalum and the coast that continued and that persist to this day.

The second era ensued after an epic flood that destroyed the ancient village, after which some of the survivors moved to Kitselas Canyon. At the time, the Kitsumkalum and Kitselas communities were unified in a single group.

The third era involved the arrival of the Eagle clan by way of Haida Gwaii with Diiks, who was captured by Haida raiders, was then released, and then returned to

53 Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 33. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

32 her home at Kitsumkalum.54 The Diiks story is important for the fact that, through a continuous line from the “legendary” past to the contemporaneous present, the community is linked firmly to the ocean and particular locations on the coast.55 As Vickers J put it in Tsilhqot’in:

This points to the conclusion that it is not details that need close examination. If the legend is to establish “what in the past, believed to be real [is] relevant to the present”, I must be sensitive to the fact that I am listening to “a communal and continuous communication” and it is the underlying theme or lesson that provides consistency to the legend. Thus, as a listener, I must gather up the fragments of this collective story and seek to determine what, if anything, it tells me about the presence and activities of Tsilhqot’in people in the Claim Area pre-contact and at the time of sovereignty assertion.56

Additional adaawx give further credence to the coastal/inland linkage and will be presented below in relation to specific locations, particularly at Casey Point. Note, too that Barbara Krause, the sister of Ric Miller, the current Sm’oogyet of the Eagle House of Gitxon resident in Kalum, currently wears the name Diiks; the siblings obtained their names at a feast that attracted witness-members of First Nations from all over the central and northern coast. Barbara’s older sister Bertha wore the name before her - and they, too, connect Kalum to Diiks’ offshore journey and return: to Kalum rights and title to specific sites for specific purposes connected to the ongoing seasonal round. As we shall see, the Robin Woman stories that connect Kalum to its residential site at Casey Point should be viewed in the same light shone by Vickers J: “…it is not details that need close examination. …[I]t is the underlying theme or lesson that provides consistency to the legend.”57 Indeed, in Tsilhqot’in itself, Vickers J. found that:

The central theme and lessons of the legends remained consistent. I propose to take this entire body of evidence into account and to the extent that I am able, consider it from the Aboriginal perspective. If the oral history or oral tradition evidence is sufficient standing on its own to reach a conclusion of fact, I will not hesitate to make that finding. If it cannot be made in that manner, I will seek corroboration from the anthropological, archeological and

54 There are many versions of the story recognized in several different communities; Nisga’a versions, for example, are in Barbeau Fonds at BF 289.4 and 289.5. See also Marius Barbeau Collection, William Beynon Fieldnotes, The Four Adawax Binders, Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, National Museum of Man, Ottawa Laxsgiik Binder. No. 57: “The Origin of the Gitrhawn Group at Gitsemraelem”. 55 See the discussion below regarding Dundas Island, for example, wherein the “Cormorant Head Dress of Sen’arhaet” - a legend that Beynon heard from two elders in Hartley Bay (the Tsimshian community of Gitga’at) and which provides the origin of the Eagle clan – provides a link between Kalum and a camp site on Dundas Island as well as provides a link between Kalum and Gitwilgyoots through Diiks’ son Iuy’ens. 56 2007 BCSC 1700 at para. 178. Note that my reference to this and other case law is only made to link and compare types of evidence and points of ethnohistoric analysis with decisions that have dealt with similar evidence and analysis – it is definitely not to be construed as a legal opinion. 57 Ibid.

33 historical records. I understand my task is to be fair and to try to avoid an 58 ethnocentric view of the evidence.

Similarly, the consistent thematic underpinnings of Kalum’s coastal linkages as expressed in the legends discussed here must also be viewed from a non- ethnocentric point of view. Note, too, that, in applying that perspective, Vickers J. was able to conclude that:

For Chief William, the legends reveal how one is to become a “Tsilhqot’in person”; they are “what we live by” and provide an understanding of Tsilhqot’in land. For Minnie Charleyboy, “the legends were told to you is so you learned how our ancestors live and you also survive by the stories and 59 that’s how you – we survived”.

The legends in the present case have a similar import. Thus:

In the fourth era, the Wolf crest arrived from the east – from interior and Athabaskan territory, and at this point the four crests established the basis of the Tsimshian Nation as it has been known for the last few hundred years:60

Gispwudwada - Black Fish/Killer Whale Ganhada - Raven Laksgiik – Eagle Laxgibuu – Wolf

All four crests are present in Kalum, as they are in other Tsimshian galts’ap.

In the fifth era, Chief Roberts notes that the unified body of Kalum and Kitselas separated into two groups. There may have been a war that caused the split, or perhaps the Houses simply became too big, and a split was rendered necessary by dint of population growth. In either case, Kalum became a separate community. On this point, while the ethnohistorical significance of Walter Wright’s Men of Medeek will be highlighted below, for now it can be pointed out that it may be elucidated from his work – written by one of the few traditionally-trained Tsimshian historians alive in the twentieth century – that Kalum was a unique tribe within the Tsimshian Nation well before the assertion of sovereignty, which BC takes to be 1846. Wright also points out that, around the time of sovereignty itself, the most senior Eagle Sm’oogyet in the entire Tsimshian Nation resided in Kitsumkalum.61

58 Ibid., para. 196. At para. 651, note that Vickers J. also adds that:

I acknowledge that many of the legends that form the oral traditions of Tsilhqot’in people are not unique. Many legends are found in the oral traditions of other Aboriginal people. The names of the geographic locations are adapted to their particular circumstances. The fact that others have similar oral traditions does not reduce the cultural significance of Tsilhqot’in oral traditions to Tsilhqot’in people. I conclude that the references to lakes, rivers and other landmarks formed a part of these legends for Tsilhqot’in people at the time of sovereignty assertion.

59 Ibid., para. 668. 60 Pers. Comm., Chief Don Roberts, Jr. 61 Walter Wright, Men of Medeek (Kitimat: Northern Sentinal Press, 1962).

34

According to Wright, Chief Legaic, who as we saw above invited the HBC to occupy his own specific location on commonly-held Tsimshian land at Port Simpson, was only the:

…second ranking chief of the Eagle people. And the family of Legaic waxed very rich. And the Legaic at the time of this history coveted the crown that he might “Have the power” and become head chief of all the Alaskan Eagle people.

The Head Eagle chief at Kalum was name [sic], “Xhchaum Dueskt”, which mean [sic], “The man who is ahead at daylight.” And this chief was the ranking chief of the Alaskan Eagles, and his was the power of the supreme crown.62

Thus, Kalum Sm’oogyet have held compelling and powerful leading roles throughout the history of the Tsimshian Nation, a history that, as will be made clear below, puts Kalum in coastal locations where its members require no permission to be – precisely because Kalum has, as acknowledged by the nine tribes/LKIB/MIB, aboriginal title and rights in those locations.

As current Kalum Chief Don Roberts, Jr. informed the BC Treaty Commission in November 2007, these eras and the development of the original Tsimshian crests and tribal structures, as well as climactic events like floods and the recession of glaciers following the ice age, are all key to understanding Kalum title and rights on the coast:

Within the Tsimshian Nation’s territories, at various seasonal harvesting areas, we owned land sites side by side with other Tsimshian tribes. History books show these historical events and our place in the Tsimshian Society. These seasonal village sites were maintained for food harvesting activities following the seasons from food harvest site to site, its place at the treaty table is called common territory that we all shared and all tribes owned site- specific seasonal village harvest sites within these common territories.

…During the ice age, through the thaw and flood, as indicated in history books, extreme ice age winters in the Skeena Valley are some reasons why we all had winter villages on the coast in and around Prince Rupert BC.

One of Kitsumkalum’s winter sites was in the Casey Point vicinity with other neighbors and many harvesting sites. To have harvesting sites you had to have homes nearby. Kitsumkalum had village sites in the Kitsumkalum Valley, Lakelse River front section, Salvus, Port Essington, Casey Point and a big village food site at Isabellachuck also known as Island Point.

According to Tsimshian and northern nation’s history, after the ice age there were severe cold winters in the Skeena River valley during the Tsimshian

62 Ibid., p. 197.

35 migration from the river to the ocean. Over time a chain of events happened- white men came; trading posts were established; one of them was Fort Simpson which was the Hudson Bay Company for trading. Over time and even to our present day many tribes in the valley didn’t return to the core tribal territory except for visits. They have place names as Lax Kw’ Alaams and Metlakatla recognized as Indian Bands. Again, these two Indian Bands are an amalgamation of nine Tsimshian tribes as previously mentioned.

As winters got less extreme Kitsumkalum was able to live year around in Kitsumkalum Valley and along the Skeena River and at Port Essington (Spokeshute)…

There is no reason, other than a lack of knowledge and understanding of the Tsimshian history, for any other Tsimshian Tribe to tell us where we belong or who we are and actively promote Kitsumkalum Tribal exclusion from our lower Skeena River and coastal land sites.

At the beginning of Tsimshian time we had two Crest[s] (Gispwudwada – Black Fish – Grizzly) and (Ganhada-Raven). These two crests originally owned the coast, the crest was a significant symbol animal species of that area and tribes absolutely had to be the owner of the coast to wear the symbol crest. Later is said to be the Eagle Clan derived from the Haida and Wolf from interior Athapaskans, these were arranged by the higher chief’s to have the four crests in the Tsimshian Nation…

…The River and Ocean is part of the core to our very survival.63

Further connecting Kalum to the coast is the ayaawx itself – the sacred body of Tsimshian Law.

63 Kalum Chief Don Roberts, Jr., to the BC Treaty Commission, November 8, 2007.

36

Tsimshian Law

As with all Tsimshian peoples, Kalum’s traditional society is matrilineal. The father’s side of the family is important during the lifetime of a child, but that connection is not passed through the generations; the result is that the father belongs to a different matriline than his children. Accordingly, individuals inherit titles and property as well as social status through their mother - an arrangement that is fundamental to Tsimshian legal and social relationships.

Chris Roth’s Becoming Tsimshian also explains why adoption may also be important:

Tsimshians regard wealth such as names and territories as ideally associated only with specific matrilineal bloodlines and assume that those associations are, if necessary, restorable, even after a house has been subdivided. Of course, over a period, two houses might repeatedly exchange adoptees to replenish each other’s populations. Each time, this reinforces the blood tie for the next time it needs to be invoked. Such a relationship stabilizes the house’s population over the centuries: the back- and-forth feastings and individual migrations reinforce the geographical and political distinctness if the two houses, while their collective migratory histories, which tell the same story up the their split, invoke common origins.64

Hatxg Lii Mideek (Alex Bolton), Sm’oogyet of the House of Wiididal, a Kalum member, and a long time negotiator on the First Nation’s Treaty team, explains that Kalum is:

…one of 14 tribes of the Tsimshian Nation, and within the Kitsumkalum tribe we have 4 major clans. They call them clans now because that’s the English term we know them by. They are the Gisbutwada, which is the Killerwhale, the Ganhada is the Raven, the Laxgiik is the Eagle, and the Laxgibuu which is the Wolf. These clans have their separate Houses within their territory. Each of the clans have their own territories...

Each of these clans has their hereditary system – that’s another part of the culture we’re trying to regain. Each clan has their hereditary chief or chiefs; so there would be several chiefs, one for each of the Houses of the clan. Each of the clans are trying to get back their heritage, and hold their clan meetings, and hand down their names, trying to get the feast system going again. That’s their form of Parliament. That’s where we all get our instructions.

The clans will hold their feast or their separate Houses will hold their feast. Now, if I call a feast for Gisbutwada, we’ll have all the Gisbutwada of Kitsumkalum come in. And if there’s any kind of decision that’s required for Kitsumkalum, or for the Gisbutwada lands, the Gisbutwada people will be

64 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008), at page 78.

37 informed of what it is and then they will give permission to go ahead and give their approvals and everything like that. 65

A significant aspect of Alex Bolton’s description of Kalum social organization in the context of the ayaawx and Tsimshian legal practice is recognition of the fact that Kitsumkalum has experienced a disruption in its house systems. Regardless of whether one blames that on colonialism, infectious disease, the banning of the potlatch, or residential school, the community has dealt with a profound set of challenges in the struggle to maintain its hereditary system. However, these challenges have in no way extinguished the Tsimshian legal system in Kalum; indeed, the authority of both Kalum houses and Tsimshian legal practices in general are experiencing a renaissance thanks to the dedicated work of many community members supported by funding and policies laid out by the elected Chief and Council of the KIB.

Important Terms and Definitions

The Waap (pl.: Wuwaap) refers to the house of a hereditary chief. It is directly attached to the land and resources over which it bears responsibility and ownership. The Waap is the primary social organizational unit of the Tsimshian Nation, with individual leaders known as Sm’oogyet (chief), Sigidimnak (matriarchs), Galdm’agyax (speaker), and Lguwaalksis (next in line chief). Sm’oogyet hold the ultimate responsibilities for managing the resources and property of the Waap - stewards who are bound to manage and protect the property and its resources. Laxyuup refers specifically to territory – the village sites, hunting, fishing and other harvesting and picking sites that provide life’s necessities and comforts. Waap resources also include non-material property such as names, titles, dances, songs, and traditional stories (adaawx) that carry status within the ayaawx - the body of Tsimshian Law - as a “true telling” of history.

As Kalum specialist Dr. Jim McDonald explains:

The laxyuup are the landed properties of the Waap. The concept of laxyuup is important to understand as a foundation of Tsimshian society. Economically, the laxyuup is the main source of the many resources that are needed to sustain the people and their industries, and to make them wealthy. Socially, the laxyuup is the home of the family, the place where the children learn how to behave, where they are taught the culture and learn the histories of their ancestors. Spiritually, the laxyuup bear the history of the Waaps and the Galts’ap. It grounds the people connecting them to their past and the future generations.66

Although Canadian legal analysis views aboriginal title through both a common law and an indigenous legal lens, Waap territories and responsibilities – and the way those territories and responsibilities are passed down – are based on a

65 Alex Bolton, quoted in Jim McDonald, People of the Robin: the Tsimshian of Kitsumkalum (2003: Canadian Circumpolar Press, Edmonton: University of Alberta). 66 McDonald, Ibid.

38 fundamentally different way of understanding property rights than we are used to in the common law context.

One critical difference is based on the fact that, while the ayaawx allows the Waap to claim exclusive use and occupation of specific residential and resource areas, it also recognizes shared exclusive title to common areas over which all Tsimshian members may, for example, camp or harvest. Thus, as Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson writes, “Some areas of the coast were common shared territory used by all the Tsimshian tribes…”.67

Hypothetically, a unilateral attempt by Lax Kw’alaams or Metlakatla to use the 2009 Protocol to define “Coast Tsimshian” territory might capture both the laxyuup of specific Waap resident in the Kalum galts’ap as well as common areas held by all Tsimshian; if so, it would be manifestly illegal as a matter of Tsimshian ayaawx.

Note, too, that just as the ayaawx covers ownership and the right to control and manage access to specific sites in common areas, a strict law around trespass also exists, with Viola Garfield, an anthropologist working in Port Simpson in the 1920s, offering several important insights. Garfield wrote, for example, that “The protection of property rights…both tangible and intangible” was:

…the responsibility of the house heads of a lineage. If others trespassed on their hunting or fishing territories or were caught raiding their traps or berry grounds it was the duty of the house head to punish the offenders. This was done in several ways. One was to spread gossip that certain people were ‘eating off another’s’ property’. If the offended lineage was about to give a potlatch, derisive songs were composed to humiliate the offenders (Viola Garfield Papers, U of Wash:1.1.30).

…Another approach was to formally request compensation for what had been taken with a promise that the trespass would not be repeated (Viola Garfield Papers, U of Wash:1.1.30).

…If the trespass continued the only recourse was to raid the offenders’ property or the house where they lived. This was a drastic step as it might set off a chain of raids, especially if some innocent person was injured or his property damaged (Viola Garfield Papers, U of Wash:1.1.30).

Relatives were duty bound to avenge a wrong against one of their numbers and to help protect all property right of the lineage (Garfield, 1939:327)

The right to the site could only be lost by abandoning it, in which case it become the common property of the tribe and any group could build on it, regardless of clan. (Garfield, 1939:276)

67 Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 13. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

39 While the ayaaxw in general and Kalum’s house system in particular have been profoundly disrupted, both are steadily being revived, with all Kalum houses on the verge of “standing up” over the course of the next two years. This has been a monumental effort, with Sm’oogyet Hatxg Lii Mideek putting it this way very early in the process (1992):

Now that Kitsumkalum is pointing towards a hereditary system, it’s time for all of us to get our houses in order. We call upon all the other tribes to start handing down our names, putting forward their chiefs – and all four tribes of Kitsumkalum to work together to start assessing everything within their tribal territories and start planning how to reassert our aboriginal rights and title to those territories... We have lots of work ahead of us.68

Again, that work has been supported by policies developed by the elected Chief and Council of the KIB and the hard work of numerous House members and House historians.

Against a Frozen Interpretation of Indigenous Law

Case law has upheld the proposition that disruptions in the practice of rights (caused by, for example, the banning of potlatches, or industrial development), cannot in themselves extinguish those rights.69 Thus, the failure to have a potlatch renew long-held rights of access cannot extinguish those rights of access, and such disruptions should not be considered fatal to Kalum’s claims - most especially because the renaissance of Tsimshianic indigenous legal order related to getting Kalum “houses in order” is not yet complete.

As Section 35 requires that the Crown recognize and affirm aboriginal rights including both title and self-governance, and as Kitsumkalum works toward overcoming the disruption to the ayaawx, its houses, its titles, and its rights, outsiders should respect and support this rejuvenating process.

Most especially, outsiders must not be swayed by the frozen interpretation of the ayaawx that has been put forward by analysts like Martindale and MacDonald,70 and which appears to be driving provincial analysis.71 Indeed, as Chief Justice Lamer stated for the majority in R. v. Van der Peet:

64. The concept of continuity is also the primary means through which the definition and identification of aboriginal rights will be consistent with the admonition in Sparrow, supra, at p. 1093, that "the phrase 'existing aboriginal rights' must be interpreted flexibly so as to permit their evolution over time". The concept of continuity is, in other words, the means by which a "frozen rights" approach to s. 35(1) will be avoided.

68 Quoted in Becoming Tsimshian (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008). 69 R. v. Van der Peet, [1996] 2 S.C.R. 507. 70 Andrew Martindale and George MacDonald, “Response to Letter of August 20, 2013 from Kitsumkalum Indian Band to Jack Smith, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency”, December 20, 2013. 71 See Kecia Dusseault, July 22, 2014, “Narratives of Robin Woman and her Residence on Kaien Island”, provided to KIB on October 1, 2014.

40 Because the practices, customs and traditions protected by s. 35(1) are ones that exist today, subject only to the requirement that they be demonstrated to have continuity with the practices, customs and traditions which existed pre-contact, the definition of aboriginal rights will be one that, on its own terms, prevents those rights from being frozen in pre-contact times. The evolution of practices, customs and traditions into modern forms will not, provided that continuity with pre- contact practices, customs and traditions is demonstrated, prevent their protection as aboriginal rights. 72

Note, too, the Court’s holding in para. 65:

65. I would note that the concept of continuity does not require aboriginal groups to provide evidence of an unbroken chain of continuity between their current practices, customs and traditions, and those which existed prior to contact. It may be that for a period of time an aboriginal group, for some reason, ceased to engage in a practice, custom or tradition which existed prior to contact, but then resumed the practice, custom or tradition at a later date. Such an interruption will not preclude the establishment of an aboriginal right. Trial judges should adopt the same flexibility regarding the establishment of continuity that, as is discussed, infra, they are to adopt with regards to the evidence presented to establish the prior-to-contact practices, customs and traditions of the aboriginal group making the claim to an aboriginal right.73

In the case of the Tsimshian - and, as we shall see below, of the Kitsumkalum in particular – traditional use of exclusive sites continued steadily despite the challenges of colonization. As J.D. Darling wrote in a 1963 M.A. thesis:

The economy of Tsimshian society was tied in with land tenure in that the household groups acted as an economic unit in exploiting its resource areas. Individuals within the group claimed rights in land according to the part they played in gathering food and materials. Should culture contact have brought about a situation wherein the household group no longer acted as an economic unit, these rights would have disappeared. Thus if members of the group went off to work as labourers in factories or on farms, their hunting, gathering and fishing rights would become become invalid through disuse. Moreover, if the absence of members from the household led to the neglect of kin ties and obligations, the social unity of the group would break down and its control over land would be lost. It has been shown, however, that the Tsimshian adhered to their traditional economy. The efforts of missionaries and government agents to stop the annual round of migration and to foster individualization of enterprise failed. The presence of canning factories also had little effect on the work habits of the Indians who looked upon the brief periods of wage earning as but an interlude in the regular economic occupations of hunting, gathering, and fishing. Moreover, the money that was earned was used to buy goods that were distributed and

72 R. v. Van der Peet, [1996] 2 S.C.R. 507. 73 R. v. Van der Peet, [1996] 2 S.C.R. 507.

41 consumed according to native practice.74

To return to the points carried in Van der Peet, all legal orders – all “native practice”, as Darling called it - must evolve. As Tsimshian law and Kitsumkalum practices will similarly evolve over time, a requirement that – for example - only traditionally named spokespeople can speak on behalf of their house would unfairly “freeze” and deny Kalum title and rights.

Indeed, elders with extensive knowledge and experience must be relied upon to protect house rights until their houses are properly stood up and all the traditional names worn, but other leaders of the Kalum Galts’ap, such as those elected pursuant to procedures governed by Canada’s Indian Act, must also be heard on Kalum title and rights issues, most especially when analysts like Martindale and MacDonald who, despite their frozen interpretation of the law, nevertheless acknowledge that “Tribes are constellations of house groups and thus tribal chiefs can also present a representation for the rights and titles owned both by their own house group and the other house groups within the tribe.”75

Thus, as the process of standing up houses is ongoing in Kalum, any refusal to hear Kalum elders and other leaders like current the Kalum Chief or Council members as they assert title and rights on behalf of Kalum houses that have not yet been rejuvenated, or to force them to adhere to transmission protocols rendered near impossible by deaths caused by small pox and other diseases, the banning of potlatches, the introduction of a stern and rigid brand of Christianity tantamount to the forced assimilation of several Kalum families, not to mention the attack on their traditional way of life led by industrial development and residential schools – all of this would unfairly deny Kalum the ability to re-establish its traditional forms of governance over sites on which either it or its houses have traditionally exercised title and rights.

These sites, beginning with Casey Point, are now catalogued in the pages below.

74 John Darling, The Effects of Culture Contact on the Tsimshian System of Land Tenure During the Nineteenth Century (MA Thesis (Sociology), UBC, 1956) (hereinafter cited as “Darling”). 75 Andrew Martindale and George MacDonald, “Response to Letter of August 20, 2013 from Kitsumkalum Indian Band to Jack Smith, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency”, December 20, 2013, p. 5 (emphasis added).

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SITE-SPECIFIC AND OTHER EVIDENCE SUPPORTING KITSUMKALUM TITLE AND RIGHTS IN ITS TRADITIONAL TERRITORY

The following evidence regarding Kalum title and rights has been collected from: - the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives; - Library and Archives Canada; - the archived records of various government departments, officials and settlers held by BC Archives; - active and archived files of various federal and provincial government departments held by those departments (for example: AANDC trapline records, handlogging data held by BC’s Minister of Forests, etc.); and - the archived records of various anthropologists, ethnohistorical informants, archaeologists, and missionaries held in various repositories across North America. Oral history has also been gathered from several elderly community members still alive today as well as from recently deceased community members interviewed in the 1970s and 1980s. Oral history left by elders from other communities, including Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla, have also contributed to the understanding of Kitsumkalum’s title and rights related to many of the sites below. The discussion begins with Casey Point, and then proceeds to other coastal sites, Skeena and other River sites, and inland areas.

43 Prince Rupert Harbor and its Attendant Legal Landscape

With regard to the Prince Rupert Harbor area, of which Casey Point forms a part, note that the Kitsumkalum First Nation declared in October 2013 that:

Kitsumkalum has, since time immemorial, been an integral part of the Tsimshian Nation. The Tsimshian Nation exclusively occupied the Prince Rupert Harbour area and surrounding coast prior to and at the time of contact and as of 1846. Not only was Kitsumkalum essential to the collective that occupied the coast, but in accordance with Tsimshian law, ownership of certain sites and the responsibility for their care and control rests with Kitsumkalum. Kitsumkalum remains an important part of the Tsimshian Nation and continues to maintain a connection to the coast through our presence in the Prince Rupert Harbour area and surrounding coast, and our heavy reliance on the resources in the area.76

It is also worth reiterating that Tsimshian law, ayaawx, provides for both the recognition of common areas and the legal space for social groups to claim exclusive use and occupation of specific residential areas along the shore. In Viola Garfield’s published work, for example, she describes the ayaawx that governed how each galts’ap owned residential sites like the kind occupied by Kalum at Casey Point:

Each of the tribes had its traditional stretch of beach upon which it camped. Gradually the members of each house or group of related houses laid claim to particular locations where they had camped for successive years and where they built their plank and brush camp structures.77

As will be set out in more detail below, there is clear support for describing the Prince Rupert Harbour and associated shores as a traditional common area, with Garfield's archived notes also describing an ayaawx with respect to the ownership of stretches of beach that in turn supports the proposition that Tsimshian houses, including houses led by individuals resident in Kalum, held exclusive use of beach areas in common locations like Casey Point:

Beach lines: Owned by clans for shellfish and other material of the beach. 78 House group.

Garfield’s statements thus reinforce the argument that Tsimshian galts’ap and individual houses held title to beach areas and specific residential sites on the common lands illustrated below. It must be noted, however, that Martindale and MacDonald refer frequently to a paper by Martindale and Marsden (2011)79 when attempting to establish that, as they state on page 10 of their paper, “…the concept of common territory did not exist in Tsimshian law.”

76 Kalum Declaration, October 2013, p. 9. 77 Garfield, 1939:275 78 Viola Garfield Papers, U of Wash: 5.2.1 79 Note that neither the author, Kalum’s legal counsel, nor Kalum itself have been able to obtain a copy of the paper by Martindale and Marsden (2011).

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But this appears to fly in the face of the evidence above – see, for example, Chief Legaic’s statements, Dr Seguin Anderson’s statements, Prof. Garfield’s statements, and even Dr. Joan Lovisek’s reference to Beynon, Duff and her own speculation noted in Kalum’s Declaration in which Dr. Lovisek notes that:

Duff stated that based on information obtained from an informant named Wallace in 1926, that Kennedy Island, Smith Island and De Horsey Island: "were the common property of all the Tsimshian tribes,” as presumably was the coastal area in the vicinity of Metlakatla farther north.”80

Indeed, as several Kalum Sm’oogyet stated in response to Dr. Lovisek’s statement:

This quote is notable for the fact that it is entirely contradictory to her central thesis and rather supports Kitsumkalum's understanding of the common interest that the Tsimshian hold in areas on the coast. Furthermore, Dr. Lovisek relies upon William Beynon’s description of these islands as “common property for the Coast [sic] Tsimshian”.81

As we shall see, Beynon’s other work contradicts the map that BC relies on to deny Kalum interests at Casey Point, but note, too, that Susan Marsden herself also drew a 1993 map based on approximately one hundred years of Sm’oogyet statements that directly contradicts what she argued in 2011, and which Martindale and MacDonald - in the face of Legaic, Garfield, Beynon, Duff and Dr. Seguin Anderson (“Some areas of the coast were common shared territory used by all the Tsimshian tribes…”) - apparently still assert today.

In any case, the west side of Kaien Island – home to Kalum’s Casey Point village - is one of several areas that Marsden illustrated as “common ground” on the 1993 TTC map. In Kalum this is not controversial – nor was it when the map was first undertaken. It has become so, it is suggested, for reasons that are not defensible in either the Tsimshian ethnography or in the ayaawx; indeed, as the Elected and Hereditary Chiefs of Kitsumkalum state in their 2013 Declaration:

Our ayaawx provides a profound understanding of land rights and land protection. It allows all Tsimshian people to use and occupy our traditional areas, but it vests unique rights and responsibilities with Houses for the care and control of specific sites. These two concepts are not contradictory – rather they work together and are essential to what it means to be Tsimshian.82

Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson also provides a useful summary for these connected ideas:

Each of the original Tsimshian tribes consisted of a number of housegroups (groups of matrilineal relatives). Each housegroup owned under Tsimshian

80 Quoted in Kalum Declaration, p. 4. 81 Quoted in Kalum Declaration, p. 4. 82 Kalum Declaration, p. 15.

45 law distinct bounded territories, and the livelihood of resident housegroup members and their dependents was drawn from the resources that they controlled and harvested from those territories, and which they processed, stored, and consumed or traded. Tribes occupied permanent winter villages, comprised of the large cedar plank houses of a number of housegroups whose territories were in the vicinity. Each housegroup also had seasonal villages and camps at various locations in their territories, in which they resided when harvesting seasonal resources. Each tribe also had camping places on travel routes used regularly during their annual round, such as the route to the oolachen fishery at the mouth of the Nass River, and territories shared by the entire village, such as shellfish beds.83

Numerous settlements of tribal groups/galts'ap and house groups/wuwaap are known to have existed around the Prince Rupert Harbour area throughout Tsimshian history. More germane for our purposes here, though, is that the oral history and documents that are discussed below confirm that Kitsumkalum people traditionally came to the coast to live at their settlements in order to gather their marine resources.

Indeed they still do – and until Kalum’s houses have all been stood up, it would appear to make practical and adaptive (“non-frozen”) sense to recognize the proper title holder of these various sites and settlements as the elected or appointed leaders of KIB itself, in particular for those areas where house leaders have not yet been selected.

In the meantime, Kalum’s coastal sites and resources have been and are integral to its survival; both exclusive and shared title to coastal resources are part of the essence of its Tsimshian identity. Access to its sites was made secure under the ayaawx because, as John Darling noted, "Water routes by sea and river …were open to all, gave access to food gathering areas and thus obviated problems of easement."84 Features on maps labeled “canoe passage” were understood to be, as one Kalum elder told me, the nineteenth century equivalent of modern highways – routes linking a wide network of coastal and inland sites used over the course of the seasonal round as the people lived and harvested in accordance with their title and rights. Thus the Prince Rupert Harbour continues its ages old history as a harvesting area, a network of residential communities, a cross roads, a terminus – and a beginning.

The following several hundred pages list the sites over which Kitsumkalum asserts aboriginal title, beginning with its village at Casey Point in Prince Rupert Harbour, where archaeological evidence indicates about 3,000 years of use interrupted by the village’s obliteration in the early 20th century by construction related to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad.85

83 Ibid., page 21. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf. 84 Darling, p. 11. 85 AIA of Fairview Container Terminal Report for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Millenia Research Limited, 2008, Permit 2007-230. Archaeologist Frank Craig of Archer CRM Partnership is set to further investigate Casey Point under the terms of Permit 2014-0152.

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CASEY POINT

Figure 1. Map showing location of Casey Point in Prince Rupert Harbour.

The Kitsumkalum First Nation possesses the clear understanding that Casey Point is a heritage site with great importance as an annual winter residence and resource area for all four of its crests (pteex/clans). In accordance with the ayaawx, Kalum views the site as a critically important and exclusive connection to not only Prince Rupert Harbour and the Tsimshian Peninsula but also to Kalum’s other Pacific island and oceanic sites and the related harvesting of various marine resources in those locations.

Information that supports that perspective is discussed below and includes:

1. oral history gathered through interviews; 2. archival information consisting of old interview materials and field notes as well as other types of archival sources that can be characterized as primary sources; 3. archaeological information; and, 4. published “legendary” information.

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Introduction

As anyone visiting Casey Point can tell you, the site has been severely damaged by industrial development for more than 100 years. Most recently, the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) has been developing a container terminal project on Kaien Island - the Fairview Terminal Phase II Facility Expansion. This covers an estimated area of 50 hectares of land plus an extension of the railroad that obliterated Casey Point around 1909-1910. Like the railway itself, the PRPA project directly impacts the title and rights associated with Kalum interests on Kaien Island, and at Casey Point in particular, but other areas associated with Kalum title and rights on Kaien Island, such as the nearby Barrett Rock and the site of Kalum Sm’oogyet Wiidildal’s cabin, are also threatened.

Ironically, as we shall see in detail below, an archaeological investigation generated by the Phase II Expansion has added considerable physical corroboration to Kalum claims at Casey Point, with additional evidence below also providing very strong support for the assertion of Kalum title and rights to the areas in question.

Note also that no evidence was seen to suggest that permission was required for Kalum to access Casey Point or any other coastal location north of the southern end of Pitt Island.

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Figure 2. Port site location (source: PRPA)

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Figure 3. Terminal Development Lands (source: PRPA)

Oral history

Oral history is available from several Kalum members living in the community. It has also been gathered from interviews that were conducted with community members who have since passed away. Oral history left by elders from other communities, including Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla, also contributes to the strength of Kalum’s assertions to title to Casey Point and other locations in the surrounding area.

The recorded oral histories provide evidence that Casey Point was an area of exclusive use for people of Kalum as a residential and camping site, with the older, archived information being of special value and significance because it was recorded without the influence of the present PRPA or LNG issues, not to mention the egregious misuse of the term “Coast Tsimshian”.

Rather, it was simply offered as part of the general history and heritage of the Kitsumkalum community.

To give a brief overview of the history that emerges: Kitsumkalum Elders circa 2010 remember their own Elders (their grandparents’ generation) describing residential sites on the west side of Kaien Island in the area of Casey Point from the present boundary of Prince Rupert to Barrett Rock. This was a place where several families

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stayed during particular times each year. The Kitsumkalum families included the families of the Gisbutwada Sm’oogyet1 Mark Bolton and his wife, the Ganhada matriarch Rebecca Bolton, the family of Ganhada historian Don Roberts Sr., and the family of the Laxsgiik Sm’oogyet Louis Starr, among others.

The use of the site by these and other Kalum members – associated with all four Tsimshian crests – points again to the idea that the entire galts’ap holds title and rights here. The fact that Kalum people continue to live in the nearby communities of, for example, Port Edward and Prince Rupert, is further indication that Kalum ties to the area continue to be tight.

Drilling Down

As indicated below, one Elder in particular described the Prince Rupert Harbour area in general as a common area where people from all Tsimshian communities gathered; the west side of Kaien Island was a place where each community had its well known site for its own use. These specific sites belonged to the particular community that occupied them. In some cases, the “community” was a simple family or house group centered on a particular Waap. In other cases, as with Kalum at Casey Point, it was a “tribal” or galts’ap location.

To reiterate, Casey Point was the primary village in the Harbour for the entire Kitsumkalum galts’ap; it was used before and after the assertion of sovereignty (which BC takes to be 1846), and well into the twentieth century – at least until industrial development and wartime defence made it extremely difficult to use the site for the purposes for which Kalum had traditionally used it.

Community members describe Casey Point as strategic for its traditional economic pattern, serving as a gathering site, a base for resource harvesting, a residential site, and a sheltered stopover for Kalum people in the midst of travel to the other major ocean resource sites owned by Kalum and/or its Houses (eg., Kwel’mass (Island Point) on Porcher Island and Lax Xbisuunt on Arthur Island, among many others that are detailed below). This Kalum-specific experience is matched by general comments to the effect that, as confirmed by archaeologist Gary Coupland: “Logistical hunter- gatherers make a limited number of settlement moves annually but make frequent task group forays from residential bases to procure specific resources.”86

Over and above its logistical and economic importance, Casey Point also facilitated Kalum’s participation in the greater Tsimshian society and culture that gathered and developed on Kaien Island and other locations in the area of Prince Rupert Harbour. The economic and social pattern was a traditional one that was well-established and that was followed prior to the development of Prince Rupert. Indeed, based on the combined oral, archival, published, and archaeological evidence, some of which was already discussed above, it is clear that this pattern existed throughout the 19th

86 Gary Coupland, “Prehistoric Economic and Social Change in the Tsimshian Area”, in B. Isaac (ed.), Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Greenwich: Jai Press, 1988).

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century. It can also be inferred from the archaeological evidence that the pattern goes much further back in time; indeed, that aspect of the site is of intense interest to Kalum’s current leadership, who have recently obtained an archaeological permit to continue the work that has already established use and occupation at Casey Point to a point some 3500 years BP.87

Residential use of the area was put to a forced halt in the early part of the 20th century, when construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad (GTPR, now the CNR) obliterated the site. The railroad went through the residential area, cut off the beach from the land areas that would have been suitable for residences, isolated its canoe runs, and adversely impacted the streams that would have been useful to residents. The railroad had an extremely discouraging effect on the use of the shore by the community - the grooves dug by centuries of canoe use now just a sad but permanent reminder of the community’s use and occupation of the site.88

Although the railroad had a similarly disruptive effect on the Kitsumkalum community at their residence on Kitsumkalum IR No. 1 near Terrace when it went through that community in 1909, destroying homes, gardens, graveyards, and access to the river,89 the amount and location of the land appropriated by the railroad and its right of way along the very narrow coastal strip on Kaien Island was more catastrophic than was the case on the relatively flat lands on Kitsumkalum IR No. 1.

Despite the fact that people simply no longer had sufficient or safe land left for them to stay at Casey Point, the site continues to hold great cultural importance to the Kitsumkalum people, who have likewise continued to utilize the Harbour and other ocean and island sites to the north, west and south. Members of the community demonstrated how much they valued their participation in the greater Tsimshian society that gathered in the Harbour commons by staying in the area even after the railroad destroyed the Casey Point residential area, living at various times in Prince Rupert, Port Edward, Lax Kw’alaams, and Metlakatla. Indeed, genealogical information indicates many births, marriages, and deaths of Kalum people in Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla - a reflection of ties among the members of houses like Niiskiimas, the Ganhada Gilluts’aaw house led from Kalum.

A Note on Reserve Creation

Further evidence of Kalum ties to the nearby coast lies in land claim petitions like the one signed at Port Simpson on August 18, 1882 regarding Indian Reserve Commissioner Peter O’Reilly’s perceived failure to include:

87 AIA of Fairview Container Terminal Report for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Millenia Research Limited, 2008, Permit 2007-230, p. 63. Archaeologist Frank Craig of Archer CRM Partnership is set to further investigate Casey Point under the terms of a recently-issued (July 2014) permit. 88 Ibid. 89 GTPR survey evidence depicts that destruction on Kitsumkalum IR No. 1; see Library and Archives Canada (Winnipeg), RG30M, 890624.

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Lah-Coo and the adjoining small island which we have had as gardens for many years in our reserve. We cannot give them up, for if we do where are we to get our food? We have no good land any where else. How will our children do in a few years as we have no good land? God gave it to us and we do not know why it should be taken from us.90

Among the petition’s signatories were Abel and Albert Wesley – both Kalum people apparently living in Port Simpson at that time.91 Note that Lah-Coo (Lak Hou) - Big Bay near Georgetown Mills south of Port Simpson – is an area that, like Casey Point, lies in the common area illustrated on the various maps that are presented below; obviously unbeknownst to the signatories, however, the area was already part of Tsimpsean IR No. 2 in both its original and amended forms.92

Indeed, the Reserve set aside for the benefit of the “Tsimpsean Indians” pursuant to both the original October 29, 1881 and the amended February 26, 1884 Minutes of Decision extended south to include the west side of Kaien Island where Casey Point itself was located.93 That area was still inside Reserve boundaries when Tsimspean IR No. 2 was divided in 1888, the northern portion going to Fort Simpson (now LKIB), and the southern portion going to MIB.

In an MIB action before the Specific Claims Tribunal alleging that the surrender was invalid,94 Canada admits that, “In a Minute of Decision dated October 29, 1881, O’Reilly recommended the allotment of eleven reserves [including Tsimpsean IR No. 2] for the Tsimpsean Indians.” 95 Canada adds that O’Reilly also “…treated the Indians at Metlakatla and Fort Simpson as “one tribe””.96 Since Kalum people were in Fort Simpson at that time and adding their names to land claims petitions as Tsimshian Nation members, the fact that Casey Point was inside the Tsimpsean IR No. 2

90 Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 7, page 109; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. 91 Abel drowned off Port Essington in 1888: United Church of Canada, BC Conference Archives, Port Essington Deaths Register, 1888. 92 Original Minute of Decision dated October 29, 1881 at Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 9, page 43; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. Amended Minute of Decision dated February 26, 1884 at Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 11, page 305; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. 93 Original Minute of Decision dated October 29, 1881 at Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 9, page 43; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. Amended Minute of Decision dated February 26, 1884 at Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 11, page 305; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. 94 See MIB v. Can., SCT7002-13 at: http://www.sct-trp.ca/curre/details_e.asp?ClaimID=20137002. In the interests of full disclosure, note that the author was contracted by Canada’s Specific Claim’s Branch to undertake objective confirmation research of the original specific claim filed by the MIB but that he has had no involvement in the claim since completing that contract several years before MIB filed its Declaration of Claim on July 11, 2013. 95 Response to Declaration of Claim in MIB v. Can., SCT7002-13 at: http://205.193.184.246/apption/cms/UploadedDocuments/20137002/006-SCT-7002-13-Doc5.pdf 96 Ibid.

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boundaries would appear to add strength to both Kalum’s claim to shared title to Kaien Island and its exclusive title to its site at Casey Point.

On the other hand, the idea that Kalum people must not have had title and rights in coastal and other parts of its traditional territory because – the argument goes – they would have asked for those sites during the reserve creation process but did not, is completely unfounded. It appears, for example, that the reserve creation process was set up for the convenience of the Indian Reserve Commissioner’s own personal schedule and rarely if ever resulted in a fulsome review of any particular community’s needs.97 Thus, in the wake of Indian Reserve Commissioner O’Reilly’s initial arrival and departure, a petition was signed by various Tsimshian people, including Kalum people, for certain lands on the Tsimshian Peninsula that they were concerned had not been reserved for their use.98 As noted above, those lands had been set aside for the Tsimshian Nation, and Kalum’s interest in coastal lands was made clear in its members’ signatures on the petition regarding Lah Coo on the Tsimspean Peninsula.

A more general defense of nearby Tsimshian land claims was also made by Kalum men John Weedildalhdo and Harry Weedildahl, who protested in an 1883 letter to Indian Superintendent I.W. Powell against the transfer of land in the Metlakatla area to the Church Missionary Society.99 Wiidildal is a name with very strong ties to Kalum and, as we shall see below, was a House leader known to have maintained a residence around Casey Point.

To return to the point above, however, the fact that specific requests for Reserves lands were not made to government Commissions by Kalum people circa 1881-1916 should not discount the force of those claims today. For one thing, Kalum Chiefs Charles Nelson and Benjamin Bennett complained bitterly to the RCIA as to how reserve creation had failed the First Nation in the first place and,100 as its current Elected and Hereditary Chiefs have recently made clear:

…Kitsumkalum resisted the reserve process. It is reasonable that having already lost lands, and been placed on small pieces of lands as a result of the reserve process, we were wary to request further sites in fear that we would end up losing more of our territory. Secondly, we were not adequately prepared, as one Chief stated he didn’t know that the meaning of the word “Reserve”. Further, the Indian reserve system redefined ownership and shifted the corporate group from the Waap/House as recognized by Tsimshian ayaawx to the Indian Act Bands that exist today. Therefore, Chiefs would not necessarily speak for areas for which they or their family did not have a direct interest in. Between this shift and being

97 See, eg., Cole Harris, Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance and Reserves in British Columbia (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2002), and Kenneth Brealey, “Travels From Point Ellice: Peter O’Reilly and the Indian Reserve System in British Columbia,” BC Studies 115-6 (1997-1999): 181-236. 98 See, eg., Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 7, page 109; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. 99 100 RCIA Transcript Collection, Nass Agency, SCB Resource Centre, Vancouver.

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ill-prepared, Kitsumkalum did not have the opportunity to request their coastal sites to be set aside as reserve lands.101

The latter point is borne out by the nearly contemporaneous ethnography of C.M. Barbeau, who wrote in his 1917 review of Boas’ Tsimshian Mythology – a collection of oral traditions collected by Boas’ chief informant Henry Tate, whom Barbeau describes as an “educated half breed”:

Why did Tate collect general myths and tales rather local or special ones? The reasons for this are fairly clear. The narratives of the first type are the property of all; any informant may know and repeat them. Quite on the contrary, the second belong restrictively to a clan, a house or a chief. Not even the breakdown of the old order of things has yet abolished the deeply seated jealousy of the natives as to what formerly was their exclusive privilege. No native, especially in the presence of another, will relate the tradition that concerns another; it would be, to say the least, a breach of etiquette. We have noticed, moreover, that these are little known, except by hearsay, to outsiders. Tate, who shared in his compatriots’ corrosive diffidence, does not seem to have overcome these barriers.102

And if Tate had difficulty teasing the myths, tales and traditions from his fellow Tsimshian, Indian Reserve Commissioners on fly-by visits to lay out Reserves were not likely to fair much better. The KIB was inadequately prepared for the reserve creation process such as it was, as was the Tsimshian Nation writ large - a fact that was exceedingly well-documented in the heart of reserve creation era itself.103 Indeed, in applying Sir Martin Rees maxim here - “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” – it is clear that any alleged failure of Kalum people to ask Indian Reserve Commissions for any particular location does not mean that Kalum lacks title or rights to those particular locations. In addition to the reasons already identified by Barbeau above, First Nations in BC were often loathe to point out their titled areas precisely because they had lost access or rights to their treasured residential areas, camping spots and fishing stations soon after they were identified – thus, at Wuikinuxv, in Rivers Inlet, a cannery was constructed on top of the First Nation’s primary village site after the Methodist Reverend Thomas Crosby alerted the Victoria business community to the existence of the incredible fishery that was located there.104

The First Nation was not successful in protecting the locations of its other traditional sites and the result was the establishment of nearly twenty canneries in the space of just a few miles from its primary village. Likewise, as we shall see below, it is no coincidence that Port Essington was located on a camp (Spa Xksuutks) about which at

101 Kalum Declaration, p. 17. 102 American Anthropology (N.S. 19, 1917), p. 553. 103 See Letters from the Methodist Missionary Society to the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs respecting British Columbia Troubles: with affidavits, declarations, etc. (Toronto 1889). 104 See Reverend R. Geddes Large, Drum and Scalpel (Vancouver: Mitchell Press, circa 1967).

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least one Kalum Chief informed the RCIA that it had been in existence since long before the arrival of capital.

The point is that it is patently understandable why some First Nations, including the KIB, would push for title rather than postage stamp-sized Reserves at specific locations when asked by the various Commissions about their various land requirements. As Kalum Chief Charles Nelson complained to the RCIA in the quotation that appears at the outset of this report:

…we are put down as slaves and animals on this reservation business - On this account the reserve is no good to us - why not take the name away - take the reserve name away and let us be people- let us be free; that is what we want because God gave us this land to live on.

Of course, neither the RCIA nor any earlier Reserve Commissions would entertain any talk of title but, in the present case at least, specific evidence illustrating Kalum’s shared title and rights to Kaien Island and its specific title and rights to Casey Point is quite plainly illustrated below. To add to the point made above: it would be disingenuous to argue today that if Kalum was so interested in sites like Casey Point then it should have asked for it in front of the various Commissions.

Kalum is asking for it now - and the protest letters and petitions noted above reinforce the connection that Kalum had to the coast, and to the Tsimshian community writ large - particularly as it faced dire challenges to its territories and lifeways.

Casey Point and its Connection to the Seasonal Round

Indeed, despite those challenges, traditional land use patterns continued throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - the seasonal round documented in the fact that some families were captured twice in the same year in censuses taken in different locations – the family of David Seymour, for example, the great-grandfather of current Chief Don Roberts, Jr., appearing in both the Port Essington and the Port Simpson censuses for 1891,105 a testament to his Kalum and coastal connections and to the fact that Kalum people moved around on a seasonal basis, residing in several coastal and island locations.

This pattern of maintaining several residences in key locations including Casey Point was an important strategy when the means of transportation was by canoe, requiring stopping off points or staging areas along the route. Later mechanization of transportation made it easier to go from – for example - Kalum to the mouth of the Skeena, or from Spa Ksuut/Port Essington directly to Kalum’s other coastal sites like Casey Point, and thus the Kalum lifeway of gathering both maritime and inland resources continued.

Many community members still follow this way of life in various guises – and Prince

105 Census of Canada, 1891, Port Essington and Port Simpson.

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Rupert Harbour has also continued to be a part of that economic and social pattern even if Casey Point is now just a shadow of the land that was available to support Kalum members until the construction of the GTPR. As we shall see, however, both elders and the younger generations speak of fishing in the Harbour and of using it to the extent that the industrially-altered environment permits or enables, with their traditional uses including the harvest of land-based resources like cedar bark, high bush cranberries, and other berries that survive along the shore at Casey Point and in the common areas of Prince Rupert Harbour in general.

Contemporary visits to the Casey Point area still invoke the memories of stories told and the displacement remembered, while recent archaeological work backs up the community’s assertions and provides a focused source of conversation as the people learn of the archaeologists’ most recent findings.

While all of that evidence will be discussed in detail below, the oral history that was gathered in the past and has since been retained in various archives further supplements and supports Kitsumkalum’s claim to aboriginal title and rights to Casey Point, with details recorded in interviews conducted in the early 20th century preserved in collections left by Tsimshian scholars and informants like Marius Barbeau, William Beynon, Henry Tate, Franz Boas, and Viola Garfield.

Additional support comes from the 19th century journals of Hudson Bay traders who recorded canoes of Kitsumkalum people arriving at Lax Kw’alaams and trading at Fort Simpson as early as 1842; use of their site at Casey Point is easily inferred in light of the information above as well the more detailed evidence below.

Specifically, two types of archival evidence support Kalum claims to Casey Point, and both are presented below. One lies in a set of narratives recorded by Henry Tate and William Beynon that contain information from a time before the assertion of sovereignty. An example is the set of stories of Robin Woman who was/is a supernatural woman living on Kaien Island and who came from Kitsumkalum. Married to a chief with a village around Casey Point, Robin Woman provides a legendary aspect to the survival strategy inherent in the seasonal round undertaken by Kalum people since time immemorial. It is a story that is no less weighty for the fact that, as Vickers J. would have put it in his Tsilhqot’in decision, it is possessed of a “legendary” aspect.

As we shall see, another version concerns the integration of all the Skeena River Tsimshian at a feast on the coast, with both stories indicating great antiquity for Kalum claims to coastal use and occupation, most especially in the Harbour itself.

A second type of evidence is information on the indigenous, pre-Confederation ownership of properties at and around Kaien Island – information that is both textual and cartographic. Largely obtained from the archived material of Marius Barbeau and William Beynon, the information contains important sketch maps that were drawn to accompany the textual descriptions of the traditional territories of the individual

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Tsimshian “tribes‟. These maps are valuable sources of information from a period relatively early in the era of colonial assimilation and depict numerous residential sites throughout Prince Rupert Harbour and Venn Passage. As with Casey Point, each site was associated with a particular social group (in this case Kalum), but the surrounding area itself was common ground, a fact put forward in the 1993 TTC map by Susan Marsden that is based on nearly 100 years of statements made by the Sm’gyigyet of several houses (see below).

Again, an important feature of this and other maps is that, even though they were intended to record the territories of each of the Tsimshian “tribes” (or galts’ap) – and in fact do so in considerable detail – they do not show any specific territorial ownership on the west side of Kaien Island. While there is, as we shall see, one unpublished exception – from Beynon, which is contradicted by the bulk of his other work but nevertheless appears to have led the Province to conclude (erroneously) that the area is the property of the Gitwilgyots106 - the maps must be taken to represent Kaien Island in the way that it is literally marked on the Marsden TTC map of 1993: “Common Ground”.

This fact supports the Kitsumkalum claim that the west side of Kaien Island was a commonly-held area where Kalum, like other galts’ap, had its own recognized and long-standing settlements – most specifically at Casey Point, where – as we shall see - Kalum interests are backed by ayaawx and adaawx – the indigenous law and true tellings delivered orally that, as such, are given significant weight and conceptual power by Vickers J in his Tsilhqot’in (BCSC) decision, where aboriginal title and rights based on oral history and indigenous law of the type presented here was found to be proven, and where the BC Supreme Court Justice stated that, with respect to legends, “…it is not details that need close examination. …[I]t is the underlying theme or lesson that provides consistency to the legend.”107

Written information

As indicated in the section concerning the abuse of the term “Coast Tsimshian”, the Tsimshian Nation includes more than the set of tribes put forward by Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla in their various legal actions and “protocols”. Of particular concern to Kalum is how such an inaccurate view has inhibited a fair and appropriate consideration by the Crown of Kitsumkalum’s place in the larger Tsimshian society. In some quarters it is felt that this bias stems from an uncritical reflection of the work of William Beynon, with many archaeologists and ethnohistorians simply assuming that Beynon’s interpretation is correct.108 This Beynon or “nine tribes orthodoxy” is, like the recent abuse of the term “Coast Tsimshian”, rarely questioned: it has led in turn to

106 Kecia Dusseault, July 22, 2014, “Narratives of Robin Woman and her Residence on Kaien Island”, provided to KIB on October 1, 2014. 107 2007 BCSC 1700 at para. 178. 108CASCA/AES Panel: “North Coast Tsimshian and their neighbours”. Annual Meeting, Canadian Anthropological Society, BC, 2009.

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considerable neglect of Kitsumkalum’s identity; an undermining of its role in the Tsimshian Nation; and, a failure to consult with Kalum on the matter of, for example, its coastal sites. Thus researchers working with Kitsumkalum have located considerable material to correct the inaccurate and incomplete view derived from the Beynon/nine tribes orthodoxy.

Although Beynon admitted that “Dr. C. M. Barbeau in his Totem Poles, Volumes I and II, covers much of about the only data that was gotten from this [Kalum] group, [and he] worked this field in 1927 and 1934 with Dr. Barbeau”,109 those in Kalum who have been interviewed on this subject have significant concerns with the manner in which Beynon operated. This will be discussed in more detail below, but note for now that the fact that Kalum was on the coast before and after the assertion of sovereignty (1846 in the opinion of BC) can be derived from numerous sources. The Warre/Vavasour and Kane information was presented above, but note also, for example:

The HBC Fort Simpson Journals

The Hudson Bay Company established Fort (later Port) Simpson at Lax Kw’alaams in 1834. Company traders kept a business journal with notes that sometimes identified which First Nations were trading (senior HBC officials John Work and Donald Manson also travelled to the Skeena in this timeframe but the records do not name the villages or people they encountered). Kalum itself makes appearances in the HBC Fort Simpson journals,110 and given the mode of transport of the day – canoe – it is reasonable to infer that Kalum people would have made use of their coastal sites, including Casey Point and Barrett Rock, as they travelled between their inland and other coastal territories and the Fort.

In 1841, for example, the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) trader noted that a canoe of Kitsumkalum people had appeared at Lax Kw’alaams and that they had entered into trade at the fort on August 9 of that year. HBC traders also frequently recorded canoes from the “Skinar” (Skeena River) but, in this instance, and a few others, they made specific mention of the Skeena River community of “Kitsimchalean”.111 The journal’s information was as follows:

- canoe of Kitsimchalean [Kitsumkalum], last night, with about 40 beaver, a few martin, fisher & lynx skins - traded 5 beaver, 3 martin, 4 lynx, 5 fisher, 3 bear skins from them - traded chiefly from the Kitsimchalean [Kitsumkalum] people: 37 beaver, 3 land otter, 1 martin, 1 lynx, 4 bear skins [no mention of their departure]

109 110 See also, eg., HBCA, B.201/a/7 fo.40d and HBCA PAM B-201/a/9. 111 Hudson Bay Company Archives (HBCA), B.201/a/6.

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June 27, 1852 also featured an entry recording: “Kitchlemkalum [Kitsumkalum] canoe, from River, chief traded 2 large salmon”,112 while September 2, 1857 recorded the following: “trade 3 fox from Kitchlemcalum [Kitsumkalum] People.” 113

The significance of these entries is that they corroborate the Kitsumkalum’s traditional presence on the coast, and with dates that are not only early in the European written record but dated both before and after the assertion of sovereignty. Additional information that both pre-dates and post-dates 1846 is derived from:

The Archaeological Record

Archaeological information is located in the provincial Heritage Branch and in reports commissioned by the Prince Rupert Port Authority in 2007 and over the years by the communities of Lax Kw’alaams, Metlakatla, Gitxaała, and Kitsumkalum, with the Casey Point area most recently investigated as part of the Fairview Container Terminal project.114

To read that material and conclude that the archaeological evidence represents the lifeway of one specific community often requires a leap of faith because the archaeological record is inherently limited in reconstructing the precise identity of particular people who lived on the specific sites. However, considering Kalum’s place at Casey Point in light of the entire body of evidence below leads to a much more than inferential understanding that the land there was used by Kalum before, during, and after the assertion of sovereignty in this part of British Columbia.

The recent archaeological evidence in particular is powerful, but work is ongoing. Although site GbTo-13 appears to be tied to Kalum most particularly, and will be returned to below, Millenia Research’s “Management Summary” for its 2007 Fairview project puts forward the following:

Over 250 artifacts were found, mostly lithic and mostly on the beach. Bone artifacts were more common than stone in test units in midden. An unusually high proportion of formed tools and ornaments were present compared to previous excavated archaeological assemblages. Very rare types included stone bark- shredders, bipointed stones, chipped bifaces, and labrets. A discussion of artifact movement on the beach concludes that part of the assemblage composition can be attributed to wave sorting and longshore drift, and partly to age-related characteristics of manufacturing. Erosion of supra-tidal shell middens onto the beach combined with deposition of artifacts from use of the beach as a special activity area is considered responsible for the presence of so many artifacts on the

112 HBCA, PAM B.201a/8. 113 HBCA, PAM B.201a/8. 114 AIA of Fairview Container Terminal Report for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Millenia Research Limited, 2008, Permit 2007-230. Archaeologist Frank Craig of Archer CRM Partnership is set to further investigate Casey Point under the terms of a recently-issued (July 2014) permit.

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beach, rather than the erosion of drowned terrestrial sites. The finding of a notable number of artifacts in the intertidal compared to previous regional archaeological projects is attributed to the intensive search methods used.

The shell middens were found to date to about 3,000 years ago for the older component of GbTo-37, which may include wet site with preserved wooden artifacts. The other significant site with intact shell midden is GbTo-13. Radiocarbon dates from shell samples collected at one of the site components dates to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site has an inland/creek bank and shoreline areas now separated by CN tracks. Differences in faunal remains between the two sites, and internally within GbTo-13, suggest substantial information can be gained regarding the antiquity and emphasis of fishing, transportation or trade, and storage of salmon eulachon, and herring. Differences in the frequency of sea mammal remains support the marked differences between sites seen in other parts of the harbour.115

In addition to a more in-depth investigation of Casey Point itself (site GbTo-13), Millenia also discovered a previously unknown but disturbed midden up Casey Creek, as well as CMTs of recent vintage.116 As Millenia puts it:

Squatters [sic] appear to have lived in small cabins near Casey Creek throughout most of the 20th Century. Possibly, this was the midden noted by earlier researchers. Extensive modern shell midden and shack remains were found upstream of the railway along the north bank of Casey Creek.

…The artifacts found suggest a very long period of use of the site.117

Millenia’s intensive study also found that:

[Site] GbTo-13 [at Casey Point] was found to be much more extensive than previously recorded. Midden deposits were exposed along nearly 50 m of shoreline (Figure 51). In addition, another 35 m of midden is exposed on the bank of Casey Creek inland of the tracks. Deep but limited deposits are exposed along the shoreline, with relatively deep deposits (possibly a midden back-ridge) lying immediately behind. The midden on the shoreline side of the tracks appears to have been truncated by the railway construction and the tracks appear to have split a single small village in two.118 [emphasis added]

115 Ibid., p. 2. 116 Ibid., p. 23. 117 Ibid., p. 50-51. Additional detail from pages 71-72 is as follows: “Shack remains and refuse dumps dating from throughout the 20th century were found along the bench on the northern side of the creek. Some had old cast iron stoves, ceramic storage crocks, and depression-era glassware. … Viberg caulk boots and old painted signs for fresh halibut sales suggested that the inhabitants were fishers and loggers” – occupations that were synonymous with Kalum people from the early 20th century. Oral history discussed below will help put all of these statements in context. 118 Ibid., p. 54.

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On this latter point, note that over 500 pieces of GTPR survey material – sketches, plans, fieldbooks, etc – were reviewed in the course of research for this paper at Library and Archives Canada in Winnipeg. Based on that review, it is my strong opinion that GTPR survey staff almost always recorded aboriginal dwellings and improvements where they were located inside the surveyed boundaries of Indian Reserves. To reiterate, and put another way, based on a review of over 500 pieces of GTPR survey material, GTPR survey staff do not appear to have recorded any aboriginal presence outside the surveyed boundaries of Indian Reserves. Indeed, if the authors of the otherwise helpful Millenia report are themselves any indication on this point, GTPR survey staff likely regarded the occupants of villages in locations like Casey Point or Salvus, site of another Kalum village that was obliterated by GTPR construction, as “squatters”,119 with no legal rights to improvements - or any claims worth recording. Despite that mindset, which of course turns us back to the silence of the archives, the evidence described in the Millenia report with respect to this Casey Point site is very powerful – just imagine a small village of Kalum “squatters” split in two - and it is corroborated by the oral history presented below.

± [_ [_ [_ [_ [_ [_[_ [_ [_ [_[_[_ [_[_ [_[_[_ [_ [_ [_[_ GbTo-107 [_ [_[_[_ [_ [_ [_[_[_ [_ [_[_ [_[_[_[_ [_ [_ [_[_[_ [_[_ [_[_[_[_ [_ [_ [_ [_[_ [_ [_ [_ [_[_ [_ [_ [_ GbTo-100 Canoe Runs [_ [_ [_

GbTo-13

0 25 50 Meters [_

Legend Casey Point battery Subsurface tests )"X Exposure, Negative [_ Artifacts (! Auger, Negative "X Exposure, Positive Archaeological site (! Auger, Positive )"X Exposure, Positive disturbed Trench (! Auger, Positive disturbed )" Shovel, Negative )" EU, Positive )" Shovel, Positive )" EU, Positive disturbed )" Shovel, Positive disturbed )" EU, Negative

120 Figure 4. Casey FigurePoint 50 .Site GbTo-13. Source: site map. Millenia. Canoe runs depicted on the site map above give further AIA of Fairview Container Terminal 55 Millennia Research Limited credence to Kalum’sReport assertionfor the Prince Rupert that Port it Authorityhad a village here, one that Millenia,January based 2008 on its review of the artifacts discovered, dates to 3500 years BP.121

119 See Ibid., p. 50. 120 Ibid., p. 55; see also page 69 for a map illustrating artifact distribution. 121 Ibid., p. 63.

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Additional oral historical information and data presented below adds significant weight to Kalum’s claim to a village here and at Barrett Rock, located just south of Casey Point, with the Millenia Report indicating further that the “Remaining site will be totally impacted by Phase 2 development” and that additional work would likely show the following:

3 The inland side of GbTo-13 has about 60 m of intact midden and the shoreline 3 3 side may have a little over 200 m . There is a total of about 50 m of disturbed midden at this site. Tests showed moderate faunal remains with well-preserved bone and a fairly high density of bone artifacts in the midden. Nine stone and three bone artifacts were found in the evaluative tests. This translates to about 8 artifacts per cubic metre of intact midden; therefore, about 2100 artifacts can be expected in the intact midden.

No human remains were recovered in this site. However, the volume of intact midden remaining suggests that human remains are very likely to be encountered. We conclude that between 6 and 20 burials are likely in the inland portion of the site, while 4 to 20 are likely in the shore-side portion. However, if the midden is restricted to the late Period 1, then there may be no human burials at all, since midden burials throughout the Northwest Coast ceased at the end of Period 2, replaced with different burial treatments that leave little or no archaeological trace in the midden sites (Cybulski, et al. 1992). An exception to this pattern may be found at the Greenville burial ground which dates to the early part of Period 1. Another often neglected source is Drucker (Drucker 1943: Plate 8) who illustrates historic or late precontact aged subsurface box burials, suggesting that late period burials on the north coast may not be as unlikely as the current literature suggests. It would be prudent to assume that some burials may be present.

The depth of impact along the current beach surface is not currently known, and it is possible that the canoe runs will not be removed or disturbed during development, but buried with fill.122

Note, too, that one of the artifacts discovered at GbTo-54, a midden/canoe run located about 200 metres south of GbTo-13, is a red mudstone core. The Millenia report states that “The GbTo-54 intertidal lithics represent the southern-most extent of an almost continuous distribution of artifacts from the current Fairview Container Terminal”,123 suggesting that all the village areas on the west side of Kaien Island may have been connected to one another, with Kalum resident at Casey Point. More importantly, the aforementioned core is the only item described as being made from red mudstone - the same material mined at the quarry on Kitsumkalum IR No. 1,124 suggesting an even tighter connection between Kalum and the Casey Point area. As well, the presence of Stellar sea lion remains at GbTo-13 also suggests a connection between Casey Point

122 Ibid., p. 91. See also pp. 123-5 with respect to burials and the discovery of rare, associated labrets. 123 Ibid., p. 74. 124 Pers. Comm., Don Roberts, Jr.

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and Kalum’s harvesting sites in the Hecate Strait.125

Paternalistic life under the Indian Act and the negative impacts of development and industrialization may have distorted the history of the Tsimshian presence on the coast and made it more difficult to understand traditional social relationships and to identify precise residential locations, but the aim of this report is to provide information that will clarify how and where Kalum holds title and rights.

Casey Point is one such area but, to begin with some other conclusions, based on evidence presented both above and below, it can be stated that:

Figure 5. Casey Point. Photograph by Don Roberts.

1. Kitsumkalum is a Tsimshian community and one of the original Tsimshian Tribes. 2. As a Tsimshian community and Tribe, Kitsumkalum shares an interest in the common heritage of the Tsimshian, including common territory. 3. As a Tsimshian community and Tribe, Kitsumkalum has participated fully in the Tsimshian way of life. 4. Kitsumkalum relied on and continues to rely on coastal resources as well as interior resources, using a complex seasonal economic and settlement pattern that was integrated in the Tsimshian way of life. 5. Members of the Kitsumkalum community accessed and continue to access coastal resources by living on and using and occupying sites upon the coast. 6. The oral history of Kitsumkalum identifies Casey Point on Kaien Island as a key residential location on the coast that was an integral and key component

125 Ibid., p. 116, and at p. 114: “The presence of Stellar sea lion … is suggestive of use of the Hecate Strait region as these species are not commonly found in the protected harbour waters.”

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of the community’s seasonal economic pattern and lifeway. 7. The oral history of Kitsumkalum describes Prince Rupert Harbour as a gathering place for many Tsimshian communities/tribes, each of which had specific residential locations. 8. The oral history indicates that Kalum was, exclusively, the occupying community that used the specific residential location at Casey Point, and that it did so both before and after the assertion of sovereignty in this part of British Columbia, a date the Crown argues is 1846. 9. The archaeological and ethnohistorical information supports Kalum’s oral history and dates use back to approximately 3500 BP and forward to the 20th century. 10. In accordance with the ayaawx, Kitsumkalum had and continues to have a general interest in the Prince Rupert Harbour as a common gathering area for the Tsimshian. 11. In accordance with the ayaawx, Kitsumkalum has exclusive title to the specific residential area of Casey Point. 12. This title includes aboriginal rights. 13. The construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad circa 1909 precluded Kalum’s exercise of aboriginal rights and interfered with its aboriginal title when the village at Casey Point was obliterated by the railway construction.

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Oral History: Kalum Community Members

Summary

Community Elders do not currently live on the west shore of Kaien Island but possess a definite oral history of a Kalum settlement there and of its importance to their “grandparent generation” well into the 20th century. The Kitsumkalum Gisbutwada Sm’oogyet ’Wiidildal had a house in the area, and Whii Nea ach, of the Laxsgiik Waaps Gitxon living in Kitsumkalum, also argues that Kaien Island is the traditional territory of the Kalum Waap Gitxon.126 As indicated, the specific area used by Kalum involved Casey Point and Barrett Rock, as well as other areas further along the coast from Kaien Island to Galloway Rapids (discussed in the second coastal section below). The Casey Point settlement was especially important to Kalum in the winter, when other Tsimshian communities gathered in the common use area. Ice conditions on the Skeena River and estuary made winter travel difficult; it was a problem even for travel from Spa Ksuut (Port Essington), the fall residence at the mouth of the Skeena River.

In addition to the GTPR, the decline in the use of the Casey Point area may be associated with a number of other factors, including the rise of the cannery town of Port Essington on Kalum’s traditional site at Spa Xksuuts, as well as its emergence as a focal point for Kitsumkalum wage labour during the late 19th Century. As we shall see in more detail below, when an Indian Reserve for Kitsumkalum and Kitselas was established at Port Essington in the 1890s, facilitating the communities’ access to the economic benefits of employment in the canneries, this caused at least some change of traditional seasonal movements on the coast.

Of course, the event with the largest impact on the lifeways of the Kitsumkalum people with respect to Casey Point was the construction of the GTPR itself. This cut directly through the residential settlement and destroyed the village at Casey Point. The GTPR, as the original port development, radically changed the relationship of the people to the resource areas such that people found it necessary to relocate their winter residences to Kalum, Port Essington, Prince Rupert, Metlakatla, and Port Simpson, among other places. The impact continues to this very day as Canadian National Railways (CNR), the successor to the GTPR, is able to deny and dictate terms of access to archaeological crews currently attempting to further the archaeological record of Kalum life at Casey Point and Barrett Rock.127

126 Janice P. Robinson comment at http://www.terracedaily.ca/go8684a/DELGAMUUKW_DEFEATED_BASIS_TO_CONSULT_ON_ENVIRON MENT_IS_GONE: “Kaien Island is undisputed territory of the Esteemed Tsimshian Eagle House of Gitxon.....and, the centre of the Tsimshian Nation!” 127 Pers. Comm., Rina Gemeinhardt, Kalum Environment, Lands and Referrals Officer.

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Recent Interviews

Several members of the community provided oral history on Kitsumkalum’s title and rights in Casey Point and the surrounding area, including:

- Don Roberts (Chief Councilor, Gisbutwada), who was interviewed, and undertook a site visit - Bill Bolton (Elder, Gisbutwada), who was interviewed, and undertook a site visit - The late Addie Turner (Elder and matriarch, Ganhada), who was interviewed and whose previous interviews were incorporated - Mildred Roberts (Elder, Gisbutwada), who was interviewed and whose previous interviews were incorporated. - Winnie Wesley (Elder, Gisbutwada), who was interviewed and whose previous interviews were incorporated - Wally Miller (Elder, Laxsgiik), who was interviewed - Stewart Bolton (Sm’oogyet, Gisbutwada), who was interviewed - Cliff Bolton (Elder, Gisbutwada), who was interviewed informally and whose previous interviews were incorporated. - Marge Adams (Elder, Laxsgiik), whose archived interview material was incorporated - Lloyd Nelson (Elder, Ganhada), whose archived interview material was incorporated - The late Rebecca Bolton (Ganhada Matriarch of the Giluts’aaw), who’s archived interview material was incorporated. - The late Eddie Feak (Gisbutwada Elder and an historian of Kitsumkalum and Metlakatla, Alaska) who’s archived interview material was incorporated.

a. Don Roberts

Don Roberts is a fisherman by trade and the current elected Chief Councilor of the Kitsumkalum Band Council. He was born on a boat while on the coast off the mouth of the Skeena to his father, Don Roberts Sr., a fisherman in Port Essington, and his mother, Mildred Roberts, the fdaughter o James and Selina Bolton, who also lived in Port Essington. James was in the fishing industry, and had a trapline and also logging licences on the coast. They moved back to Kitsumkalum in the 1960s.

In June 2007, Chief Roberts described Casey Point as one the key sites for Kitsumkalum, with heightened significance as the primary link to all other Kalum sites on the coast - a base that connected all the other coastal sites that Kalum used for sea resources - all the “food veins” that fed the community. When the mouth of the Skeena was plugged with ice, for example, people could not move in the river, and were forced to stay on the coast until the river opened up. Interestingly, as we shall see below, one of the stories about the legendary Robin Woman concerns this very situation: Robin Woman lived with her husband at Kaien Island and was anxious to return to her people at Robin Town in the Kitsumkalum Valley. The story tells how she

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entered the Skeena in her canoe and sang to break up the ice on the Skeena. The ice broke, and her party was able to paddle up the river to the Kalum River.

Chief Roberts acknowledges Lax Kw’alaams interests in the general area of Casey Point but asserts that all four of Kalum’s crests hold title and rights to Casey Point itself. On May 20, 2007, Chief Roberts visited Casey Point, accompanied by Kalum resident Larry Derrick, and examined the shore line at low tide. They located heritage features that matched Chief Roberts’ oral history: middens, trails, beach formations, and a territorial marker system described by Chief Roberts.

These features are also corroborated by the archaeological record that was noted above.

Chief Roberts reported that the specific site at Casey Point has a very well delineated traditional location: for modern convenience the boundary of the site was taken at the lowest tide from the “red light marker” originally installed by the GTPR circa 1907-1909 and that is now located at the point of the gravel bar, then proceeding along a straight line on each side to the mountain at the back. He drew it in relation to the railroad tracks as follows:

Figure 6. Hand sketch of cultural feature at Casey Point site

In subsequent interviews, Chief Roberts provided information that is more detailed. In his own words, he related a time when he and his father, Don Roberts, Sr., were off shore from Casey Point while fishing:

He (Don Roberts, Sr.) said stop right here and then he got out and he checked and he was standing on the [deck of the boat pointing to the] bank, he said you see the way that the shore goes in on… the point, its kinda a round point. But it goes, the shore line kinda goes in an angle, he said you follow that angle in... that was the boundary that was understood by the tribes. There was Kalum then there.

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Then, these sites we own them. Over there is common use … it’s a mountain valley back here he said that might be a tribe owns that over there but, he said, right here - he says no, he says we own that. Port Simpson was just over there, he said. They are over there. Yes they are still there right there. They’re heading into an Island Point but that’s why they are there. That’s healed over time. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we are standing right here now.

That between them, that’s who they were [long pause]. Ya. Then he said, don’t let anybody ever tell you, you guys never had it. And ah he says don’t let anybody pointing fingers on the ground, he says you never asked permission those days. [Interview at site with Dr. James McDonald, June 2007]

During the same interview, Chief Roberts also described Casey Point as Kalum’s main coastal village site:

It was used for migration down [to the coastal resources] in the wintertime. Well, when he got on the deck [of my fishing boat] he said that’s our winter site, Kalum’s winter site; and, he said it just as important as the site in Kalum I told her I think it’s down there. That’s a really important, just as important as up here.

[All four clans], he said all Kalum. We will all have a house. The whole Kalum he said.

b. Cliff Bolton

Cliff Bolton is a former elected Chief Councilor of the Kitsumkalum Band Council who was born in Port Essington to James and Selina Bolton, mentioned above in connection with oral evidence about Casey Point. Cliff Bolton’s grandparents include Mark and Rebecca Bolton who lived in Kitsumkalum but made the move to Port Essington in the early part of the 20th century.

In 2009, in communication with Dr. James McDonald, Cliff remembered how Ed and James Bolton used to speak about Kalum people at the gun towers on Kaien Island but could not say if it was at Casey Point or at Barrett Rock. He said he did not know much more about it although he did state that the whole of Kaien Island is and was a common area, and explained how the Tsimshian all settled in different areas in the winter. This is why his father, James Bolton, was born on the coast. [Interview with Dr. Jim McDonald in 2009]

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c. Mildred Roberts

Mildred Roberts, a Kitsumkalum Elder, was married to Don Roberts, Sr. They both lived and worked in Port Essington. Don had a trapline and logging licences in the Skeena River near tidewater, and Mildred was born in Port Essington to James and Selina Bolton. James was in the fishing industry, and had a trapline and logging licences on the coast. They moved back to Kitsumkalum in the 1960s. Cliff Bolton is her brother and their grandparents include Mark and Rebecca Bolton.

In 2007, Mildred Roberts remembered Kalum’s connection to Casey Point before World War II, when she was young. She referenced a narrative about the Casey Point area as well as community historian Eddie Feak, a Kalum person who lived in Metlakatla, Alaska but who returned frequently to Kalum territory before his death circa 1980. In Mildred’s words:

That is where our Ts’ak is. It starts [in-audible]. This is not just Kalum I don’t think.

I think a lot of people knows about Ts’ak. Ts’ak [chuckles] Ts’ak Ts’ak is the Chinese Slipper. He keeps asking Giits for dried fish to soak in the creek. And Giits keeps saying [Mildred speaks Sm'álgyax] just wait, wait till there’s no one outside the creek. So Ts’ak every morning when he got up he said, since there were no windows he had to open the door [chuckles] and then one morning he did see snow on one side of the tree. So he got excited and asked Giits for the fish.

She gave it to him and he ran down the creek and soaked it in the creek, piled some rocks on it so it won’t float away. In the morning he went to look for his fish and it was gone. And he followed, he found the tracks of Mediik in the snow, so he followed it. He found Mediik and he got so mad he hucked that one down called him all kinds of names and one of the names he called him was [Sm’algyax name] tear off his nostril. So Mediik got mad and he [Sm’algyax] that’s snuffing him up. When in, up his nose and Ts’ak went down. And he got one of those little, the bark we call [Sm’algyax] like, he lit it somehow and the ….. [loud background noise] turn it off.

Then the fat melted in Mediik’s gut and flushed out inside, Ts’ak flushed out like that and that happened there, by that creek. And Eddie Feak told me, I don’t know what, how he got the [in-audible] but and then he said that happened at Kaien…, by where Kaien Co-op is. And that’s part of you people’s land. He said, your people camped there, and lived there.

So they had a claim there, according to him. We had rights there. Ah I don’t know if we own it but we had rights there too. Because it’s that common use or … and I was just wondering if that was connected with the Ridley Island. Why the, the Indian Agent then tried to relocate the people there. From Port Essington? So it

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would be easier for them to get around, because it was pretty isolated in the winter time. But the old people didn’t want to leave because they had graves there and [pause] and homes. I forgot the name of the, that Indian Agent there. I know my dad talked about it and Howard [Starr] talked about it. So it must be on record in Treaty [the Kitsumkalum Treaty Office]. It was years ago. That was in [her grandfather] Mark Bolton’s time [late 19th century to early twentieth century]. So I don’t know what year that was, but I heard them talk about it.

... Eddie told me. Ts’ak …he said that’s down by Kaien Co-op where he said. I don’t know if it’s right there, a little bit past it or, … people say “it’s just over there”. By that, by that creek… That’s where that um, what’s over there now McMillan’s? Or Oceans? Oceans Fish? [Interview with Dr. Jim McDonald in 2007]

d. Bill Bolton

Bill Bolton is a Kitsumkalum Elder born in Port Essington to James and Selina Bolton. Bill Bolton’s grandparents include Mark and Rebecca Bolton. His siblings include Cliff Bolton and Mildred Roberts.

In July 2007, Bill Bolton remembered his Grandmother Rebecca Bolton [born in the early 1880s] pointing out the location of a residence at Barrett Rock. In his words:

[the army camp was at] Barrett Rock, where the army had their big guns during the war… next to Ridley Island… It was a pretty big camp so it’s probably all along there. That’s where all the Kalum used to stop off and camp there. On the…, either on their way out or where ever they go they used to go. Dundas, Eddy Pass, Arthur Island - in there. Get sea food and that… It’s a big spot. By the sounds of it, there was a lot of people there. [Interview with Dr. Jim McDonald in 2007]

Assuming the CNR will grant permission to crews to cross over its tracks, an archaeological investigation of Barrett Rock will take place in the fall of 2014.

e. Stewart Bolton

Stewart Bolton was born in Port Essington to Edward and Charlotte Bolton. His father Edward was a high ranking leader in Kalum and was the brother of James Bolton. He worked in the fishing industry, and had a trapline and logging licences on the coast. Edward and Charlotte lived their lives on the coast but Stewart moved back to Kitsumkalum in the 1990s. Stewart’s grandparents include Mark and Rebecca Bolton and his cousins include Cliff and Bill Bolton, and Mildred Roberts.

In July 2008 Stewart Bolton remembered his father talking about Kaien Island outside of the port area. In his own words, there was a residential area used by Kalum:

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Well he did say that there was [a camp] beside Barrett Rock. There was something there but he’s never really pointed that out. You know, he’s talked about it. Beside Barrett Rock there was a location there where Kalum there spend a lot more time there. [Like a campsite] … he would fish outside of town or something like that.

I don’t ever remember my dad mentioning anything [specifically] about Casey Point... He did mention that Barrett Rock there but not [Casey Point]. [At Barrett Rock, it was] just a camp. Just camping there was never anything….he never mentioned anything about food. There’s nothing really there [now]. I don’t think it was meant for a long period of time. It was very open, open area, you know … [Interview with Dr. Jim McDonald in 2008]

f. Wally Miller

Wally Miller is a Kitsumkalum Elder of the Laxsgiik crest. He never lived at Casey Point but extensively fished in the area.

We fished all outside of Prince Rupert harbour... That’s from [?] inside up to Tugwell [Island] all the way to Kinahan [Island], up by Genn Island19 and down, I forget the name of the pass that’s down there. The Channel on the opposite side of opposite side of Granville Channel

He was born and raised in Port Essington and moved to Kitsumkalum in approximately 1996. He learned about Kitsumkalum’s coastal heritage from his uncle, Louis Starr, a Laxsgiik Sm’oogyet. Louis told him they used to live at Casey Point and that it belonged to Kitsumkalum. Wally’s memory was that Louis resided at Casey Point when he (Louis) was young, so around 1900, because Louis was born in 1889 and died in 1948.

Well, when I was a little kid with my uncle on his boat he told me where Casey Point was ... we used to – they used to live off there – that’s where they lived. All in that area of Casey Point. That land belongs to us. Of course when I was a young fellow I didn’t pay a lot of attention to what I should of. Otherwise I would have known a lot more history.

He does remember, however, that his Uncle Louis described Casey Point as a place of gathering.

He [Louis Starr] told me that’s where they had the gathering.

J. McDonald: What do you mean a gathering?

W. Miller: Well, the people all got together there.

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J. McDonald: During the wintertime or during the fishing season?

W. Miller: No, they – during the fishing season they go in there, hey? That’s all I can remember but I can’t remember anymore. Like I said he was telling me everything but then I was trying to remember what he said.

J. McDonald: Don has a pretty strong sense that there was a boundary [marking the Casey Point property]. He drew me a map. I’ll show it to you. I’m just wondering if, um, see? That’s his map. There’s the railroad tracks, here’s the water, the mountain; and he said that there was a boundary that goes like that, and sort of a V shape from the lighthouse that’s at Kaien Point, or at Casey Point. I’ve not heard of such strict boundaries before.

W. Miller: No, everybody knew where that boundary was where they each... All the natives knew their district, eh? They don’t use it anymore. But now that they’re gonna settle everything like that they all of a sudden got all these boundaries. They say it’s theirs.

J. McDonald: Would there have been a boundary like that in the old days, before?

W. Miller: I couldn’t say.

J. McDonald: I mean the idea, have you-

W. Miller: I know the, the gathering. They used to come around - all in Prince Rupert Harbour and they’d all – everybody was living there. Different tribes, hey? Port Simpson was there too but they didn’t own that part.

J. McDonald: It was common-

W. Miller: Common – it belonged to everybody – that’s where they’d meet. At the gathering.

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J. McDonald: So that would be the whole coast there? Along Kaien Island? That would be common there for people to come?

W. Miller: Well, from ah, this is Casey Point, eh?

J. McDonald: Yeah, and here’s the ferry terminal.

W. Miller: They all lived up this way, and they all gathered around because it was kind of flat, hey?

J. McDonald: And this is where all the Metlakatla settlements were.

W. Miller: They were just part of Port Simpson. They moved there – they actually moved from Simpson to there- to Metlakatla. I don’t know when they got in, or when they moved there

J. McDonald: Well, that’s interesting. It’s the first time I’ve heard of this being a place where people gathered - the gathering spot.

W. Miller: All different tribes gathered there. Kitkatla, Port Essington, that was Kitselas Kalum – Kitsumkalum – Port Simpson, Metlakatla. I forget what other tribes there was. I don’t know if the Nass River people were there or not. I don’t think so. [Now,] Port Simpson’s taking over the whole thing. [emphasis added]

Wally did not remember anyone living at Barrett Rock: “No, I don’t remember that part. Just Casey Point”. [Interview with Dr. Jim McDonald in 2007]

g. Addie Turner

The late Addie Turner was a Kitsumkalum Elder and matriarch. She was born in Port Essington but her primary residence throughout life was in the Terrace area. Her family kept their permanent residence in the Kitsumkalum Valley throughout the 20th century, and only lived in Port Essington during temporary periods for work.

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In July 2007, in connection with her youth in the early 20th century, Addie remembered Kalum’s connection to Kaien Island, especially Casey Point and Galloway Rapids. In her words:

Probably all [Tsimshian, including Kalum] went down there [Casey Point area]. My grandfather was Kalum but he lived in Metlakatla… Peter Nelson. That was my Grandfather’s brother but we called him Grandpa he actually he was our great Uncle, but with our own standard [the Tsimshian culture] he’s Grandpa.

… I don’t know if they owned land but they it seems like they [did], they got along so good. Because it would [seem like we did own property there]…, we were both Metlakatla, Port Simpson and Kalum and ah, well I think, Kitselas was pretty close with us too. You know, but these three [communities] were really close. We would all use the same language. And, we shared the resources there.

Because when we went into Port Simpson, they ah, I didn’t, I never ever went into Port Simpson but mom and dad always went, they were going to pick something. And they just went in Port Simpson and stayed a few days there with their families and then they went out and pick stuff you know out there… Out in the ocean. Ya, and I used to go out, Grandpa use to take us to Metlakatla and we’d stay with him and grandma there. His wife, you know. Lydia Nelson.

I wish now that house hadn’t burnt down in Kalum ‘cause I, well when I real small I wanted to be a writer and my mother help me and I wrote histories and stories that were told to us by our grandparents. And all the history of around Port Simpson, Metlakatla and around Rupert there. [emphasis added] [Interview with Dr. Jim McDonald in 2007]

Another community member recalls Addie reminiscing about her childhood – Addie rowing across Galloway Rapids to Barrett Rock in order to visit relatives there.128 This would suggest the Barrett Rock habitation was still in use by Kalum people in the early 20th century despite the various developments – railway, military – and logging in the area.

h. Eddie Feak

A respected Tsimshian historian who grew up in Metlakatla, Alaska, Eddie Feak was closely related to families in Kitsumkalum. One piece of information that came out of his discussions with Dr. Jim McDonald concerned the Sm’oogyet Wiidildal, an important Kitsumkalum leader.129 This name appears in archival records from the beginning of the 20th century as Alfred Wiidildal, but more recent research has revealed a “David” Wiidildal who was baptized in Metlakatla in 1882 by William Duncan.130 Since David does not

128 Pers. Comm., August 13, 2014. 129 Kalum member Troy Sam who, among other things, works on the depiction of Kalum sites and territory in Google Earth, is currently holding this name until a successor is chosen. Note that Wiidildal is the contemporary spelling of this Sm’oogyet name, not the archival spelling that varies in different sources and has not been standardized in the text. 130 William Duncan, Papers, p. 17625.

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appear in other records, it is possible that Alfred and David may have been two names for the same person. During a 1980 interview,131 Eddie Feak added that Alfred Wiidildal lived on the flats a mile and a half from Prince Rupert, which is approximately where Casey Point lies. Although the transcript of the interview sounds ambiguous as to whether the Wiidildal house was on Kaien or across from Rupert, the reference to the mountain and to a slide appears to be a reference to Mount Hayes, thus firmly placing the location on Kaien Island.

Eddie Feak also talked about residences around Metlakatla in the context of the epidemics th of the 19 century - comments that add further strength to Kalum’s claims with respect to its coastal habitations:

See, and they all went down south, to pick apples and hops, American side. All written down, so they would die there, when that small pox epidemic break out. Some ride from, sailors from the ship, in Victoria, you know had it. See, and a bunch of people, they usually stop in Victoria, in the canoe. Now, there was no power, nothing, big canoe. Paddling down to Vancouver, they went all the way to Seattle. That’s where there used to be work. And this small pox spread so fast, it’s just like fire. See, and these people try to get away from that. Start coming home, they get people all along the shore, from Victoria, all the way to the Skeena River. Just so far apart, all the way, see, that almost clean up the Indians. And what Duncan does, he told them people that was living in Metlakatla and Port Simpson, you folks stay out of town. Live out some camp, don’t come back for over a year. Because it is, these people, old people, you know. They don’t get along with these others, you know. Even their neighbour, they murder them, kidnap him, everything, see. That’s why this epidemic of small pox spread so fast. See, they take the scab and put it in water, or put it in your room, someplace in the house. That’s why there’s a lot of sick people.

I was about fourteen, fifteen years old, when this old guy here, told me about it. He come up from Victoria, in a canoe, too. But he use Indian medicine, some kind of a herb, grind it up, you know, and take a bath right after, you put it in the bath, you know, and hide it here. See, that’s how he survived. See, there’s a lot of old Indian medicine that old people used to have. That really cures up everything. And, see, that’s what killed off a lot of people [the small pox], at the time. It’s more than half, Indians survived.

Jim McDonald: Did that clean out a lot of the Kitsumkalum, too?

Oh yeah, yeah.

Eddie went on to mention Kitsumkalum people at the residences, including Wiidildal:

But Kitsumkalum is not that, that’s where they clean out, you know. And, so, they’re all out in the camps, way out on all these islands outside Rupert. That’s how Duncan save some people. See. And they use, they told them to use that herb, or anything. We call it Hoo-bies.24 It almost like a turnip. But it’s got a lot of things underneath. And leaf almost like a corn. That’s strong stuff. Really powerful. I use

131 Eddie Feak, KKSHRP Interview. November 29, 1980.

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it too, once in awhile. These people survive, see. And there’s some left, and there’s another, another kind of sickness come around. It’s some kind of itchy. It’s some kind of itch-like. Almost like airstrip, you know.

It’s, what the heck they call this. You know those sores, about that big, they got pus all over them. Your legs and your body. It’s a lot of pus there. And our doctor don’t know how to cure. It last about five or six months. Then it’s all gone. Then it’s all gone. That’s the second one that claims most of the people. See, that’s how there’s so few Indians left. See, and that’s when they get together [around Metlakatla] live as ... [a group], there’s eight thousand [people there].

There’s [the] Kitsumkalum [people], our grandfather, Wiidildal, he had a place too, at Metlakatla, BC. He had a place in Alfred Wiidildal. … He’s really smart guy, and he’s nice to everybody. They real like him. … He was a Kalum. He’s a chief of the Kalum.

Later in the interview, Eddie explained why Alfred changed his name, which demonstrates how colonization affected an important aspect of the connection between names and the land:

Oh, nobody wants to get the name. After these people had this big revival, you know. These people have this big revival, and they don’t ..., Duncan don’t like them having names. That’s all he [Alfred] could do, is make a chief [name] his last name. He used his name for last name. Like Alfred Wiidildal, see. And that’s what break up everything. He was baptized in church, his name was Alfred Wiidildal. And lots of them [were] like that. And these people, now, that have a chief’s name in Port Simpson, and around this place, they got no business with that name.

Eddie described the house at Casey Point:

… they [meaning Kalum member Louis Starr (d. 1948)] show me a place. Almost right across Rupert. On that flat, where he had it. Where he had his home. Alfred Wiidildal. … There was a place about a mile and half from that ferry landing, Rupert. On the side that, see that hill coming down, that mountain. Right below it. There’s two foundations, the older village. One village. They claim that, they dig it out, they look at it, and it’s six thousand years old. Yeah, it’s four feet on top of that clam shell that foundation. It’s about two years back there’s a slide on the hillside and the rock tip. You can go up there and see it. There’s Wolf, it’s some kind of a rock, they put it in a, in there, they just discovered it a few years ago. That’s about five, six thousand years ago.

Jim McDonald: That’s where Alfred Wiidildal’s house was?

Eddie Feak: I really don’t know. I tried to look into that, but nobody knows. See, that’s all them places, see, that’s from Rupert, that’s the one that name Kaien [Island]. Kaien, that’s Kaien, Kaien, see. And all along from there, up along to Skeena River people live along there. And that Island, outside, outside of the mouth of the Skeena River, by the end of Nass Canyon. Kitson Island, used to be an old village. See

77 this fuel. Whenever I want to go up there, I got no time to go Indian village, you know. I told my grandfather, I want to see that old place. That’s were they used to live.

Note that surveyors S.F. Tuck’s and W.S. Jemmett’s 1886 survey of the original boundaries for Tsimpsean Indian Reserve No. 2 in 1886, illustrate a potato garden and cabin in the area:

Figure 7. Sketch map of Kaien Island by SF Tuck. The cabin and garden are lightly visible in the top left quadrant. Copy from G. MacDonald, 2009.

In response to receiving the sketch of what was considered to be Wiidildal’s cabin on the 1886 BC228 Reserve Survey Plan, Kecia Dusseault of BC’s Ministry of Justice pointed out that:

For some reason, the map in Jemmett’s 1886 fieldbook (BC393) documents Tuck’s survey of Kaien Island from the following year (BC390).132 The image shows an area bounded by dashed lines, labelled ‘garden,’ and situated between survey posts 31 and 32. The plot appears to have spanned a stream.

132 The map on the last page makes reference to a duplicate set of field books. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 78

!

In the fieldbook upon which this map was based (BC390), Tuck made the following note at post 31: “Clearing – Potato Garden – ‘Joshua’.” Slightly beyond that post, but south of the creek, the surveyor sketched a “cabin.” Immediately north of the creek, at post 32, Tuck wrote, “Cleared Potato Garden ends.”

Though unlabeled in Tuck’s 1888 tracing (BC177)133, there is an area bounded by dashed lines which seems to be commensurate with the ‘garden’ recorded in the earlier survey materials, and which also corresponds with the ‘BC228 – village detail’ provided by Wolfhard. The 1892 Vernon plan (10153) is said to be a “colour version” of ‘BC228,’ but depicts no garden or dashed border at all.

Collectively, these reserve creation records suggest that an individual known to the surveyor as ‘Joshua’ had a potato garden and cabin near a stream on the west side of Kaien Island circa 1887. The same materials do not serve to support the claim that Alfred Wiidildal in particular, or Kitsumkalum in general, lived within the area highlighted by Wolfhard at Figure 1.134

In response, note that the fieldbook (BC390) depicts the potato garden/cabin at the 16th of 19 streams illustrated but that the survey plans (BC228 and the last page of BC393) illustrate 17 streams, placing the potato garden/cabin at the 14th stream (all of these streams are counted from south to north); clearly, there are ambiguities here, but Kalum Chief Don Roberts’ grandfather was named Jonah, which is relatively close to the name Joshua.

Furthermore, these survey materials also depict only a traverse of the shoreline, meaning that any dwellings, potato gardens, etc., that were located higher than the shoreline would not have been captured. As we saw above, GTPR surveyors appear to have had their own set of limitations with respect to the recording of aboriginal habitation; they would not have recorded any habitation in the right of way. Recall, too, that the archaeological section above indicated that, in 2007, a previously unrecorded midden was located further up Casey Creek. That represented a significant amount of material and artifacts and, as Millenia also noted, “The midden on the shoreline side of the tracks appears to have been truncated by the railway construction and the tracks appear to have split a single small village in two.”135

No doubt additional information will arise pursuant to the archaeological investigation to be led by current permit holder, archaeologist Frank Craig, hopefully including more precise corroboration of Wiidildal’s cabin and other Kalum-related structures.

The bottom line for our purposes here, however, is that the survey materials do not disprove the information from Eddie Feak that Kalum’s Wiidildal had a dwelling in the area, or that Kalum had an entire village at Casey Point. Indeed, these claims are entirely consistent with both the archaeological record and the oral history, and further supported by both the ayaawx and specific adaawx that connect Kalum to the area in question.

133 This number appears to be incorrect – it refers to other Reserves not located in the area. 134 BC Memo of May 9, 2014. 135 Ibid., p. 54.

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i. Howard Starr

Howard Starr was a Kitsumkalum Elder of the Laxsgiik crest who lived in Port Essington, later moving to Port Edward. During a June 1980 interview on the subject of Kitsumkalum history, Howard spoke about how Port Essington was a difficult location during the winter. In contrast, Don Roberts described Casey Point as a more protected shelter, which would have made it a more valuable base, a fact that lends further credence to the idea that Kalum’s interests at Casey are very strong. Spa Xksuutks, the aboriginal name for Port Essington, was primarily a fall camp before it became a cannery town because, as Howard Starr said:

In the winter time, it’s hard to get in and out [of Port Essington]. Ice there. Oh, the last two, three years, there hasn’t been too much ice, but before, there used to be long winters, you know. The weather changed quite a bit in the last twenty years.

His wife, Selina Starr said, “I often wonder how we made it… Oh, well, we often put up a lot of meat, in the fall, deer, mountain goat, otter, or canned it.”

Howard replied:

But there’s only a month anyway, that’s it hard to get in and out. When that cold spell it over, it’s alright... [It was] mostly, half of January, half of February, something like that. After that, it’s pretty well over. Oh, there’s ice there, for a couple of months, but it start to break. You can watch your chance to get in or out, high water. Changing of the tides, you know. [Interview with Dr. Jim McDonald in 1980]

This description of the difficulty of travel on the outflow waters of the Skeena in the winter corresponds to the dangers that Robin Woman faced on the Skeena when trying to leave the coast for her Kitsumkalum home in the spring time; use of Casey Point can again be inferred, with both the archaeological evidence and the oral history adding further support to the climatological inference grounded in Howard Starr’s comments and the “legendary” evidence of Robin Woman which will be presented below (and which, per Vickers J in Tsilhqot’in, is no less weighty for the fact that it may be oral or “legendary” in nature; indeed, on the appeal of that decision, evidence of precisely that type was found by the Supreme Court of Canada to support the establishment of aboriginal title and rights.).

j. Rebecca Bolton

Elder and matriarch Rebecca Bolton was interviewed by her family in the early 1970’s. Her descendants specifically recall her pointing out settlements at Casey Point and Barrett Rock and talking about their importance. It is hoped that additional interviews with her descendents will yield more specific information.

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Results from a Kalum Traditional Use Study

Kitsumkalum’s 1999 traditional use study identified a heritage site on Kaien Island but did not specify any details. However, Marge Adams recorded harvesting cedar bark, high bush cranberries, and other berries in the Prince Rupert area (TUS 1999), while Lloyd Nelson also recorded picking berries near Prince Rupert (TUS 1999). A new TUS, undertaken by Crossroads Cultural Resources Management, is currently underway.

Lax Kw’alaams Elder Bob Sankey Interview

In an interview with Dr. James McDonald, Lax Kw’alaams elder Bob Sankey talked about how people of the same crest would help each other. He also discussed Kalum’s association with Kaien Island (as well as Dundas Island, and the Ecstall), and stated further that Lax Kw’alaams people only went to Kalum’s coastal areas for commercial harvesting:

Bob Sankey Yeah. James Lawson was always out smoking hey? And he would always treat people with respect, especially the people we live with on Kaien Island. And then he’d name a whole bunch, hey? And I used to take him up to visit with [Kitsumkalum elder] James Bolton, hey? He was the last of the Sm’algyax speaking Kalum people, the elders. It was the 70s I think. There was another man I heard a story from too. He was at Dundas. He was about 90 years old when I met him in 1987. He had a lot of stories. He was a Gisbutwada, hey? And they used to come down through the Ecstall. They’d walk over from Monty Bay over to the Ecstall to get down here to go out seal hunting or whatever you wanted to do. He named all the places they camped. Yeah that’s the way it was from the stories I heard. Whatever clan it was that came down to Kaien Island, if they’re, you know, whatever tribe they belong to they brought other people along with them, hey? And that’s the people that married into their families I guess. And that’s what James said, you know, like, “Don’t you ever forget that Gisbutwadas all our crests”, he said, “They’re brothers and sisters.” And more closely he said, with the Tsimshian people. Tsimshian villages.136

As noted above, practices related to the ayaawx and the transmission and reception of the adaawx were disrupted by contact, disease, Diaspora, and, among other life- changing experiences, residential school. The surviving record must be viewed with flexibility because, as mentioned, a frozen approach will not take into account the waves of challenges that the transmission of law and culture have faced over time. This is especially important when looking at adaawx - the true tellings of the histories of the house groups (wuwaap) and collectively of the Tsimshian Nation. Ideally established and maintained in the feast hall where other titleholders (Sm’gyigyet and Sigyidm hana’a) listen to the telling as knowledgeable peers, and where other members may witness the proceedings, it is important that a flexible approach be taken in light of the challenges brought by such pervasive disruptions to the culture, one that is

136 Bob Sankey interview, February 15, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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consistent with the holding in Van der Peet.

Only rare and certain individuals, such as Sm’oogyet Nistaxo’ox (Walter Wright), received the training to preserve and to accurately communicate the adaawx; Nistaxo’ox, was trained specifically to tell the history of the Gisbutwada sky clan families.

Individuals like William Beynon or Henry Tate, on the other hand, did not receive such indigenous training. This is not to say that their materials are false or unreliable, but that the information should be read as if they are the type of history that is called maalsk - an historical narrative.137

The Marius Barbeau Fonds

The Marius Barbeau collection contains much information on the territories of the Tsimshian, including oral evidence from Sm’gyigyet, Sigyidm hana’a (matriarchs), and other knowledgeable people. The information was recorded by government anthropologist Marius Barbeau and Tsimshian ethnographer William Beynon in a series of notebooks and a series of maps showing heritage sites and laxyuup. They contained information relevant to Casey Point in the form of geographic information on resource use and property ownership, with associated maps. Five of these maps were found to have information relevant to traditional territories on the Skeena and coast, and, in keeping with the fact that Kaien Island was common ground (but featuring exclusively- held village sites like Kalum’s Casey Point), the Island is not referred to as the territory of any particular group.

In 1927, for example, Barbeau recorded the village sites and properties of the “all tribes” on a blueprint map of the coast, with corresponding text in manuscript number B.F. 418.2. Note that William Beynon took part in that research, and that the west side of Kaien Island is not connected to Gitwilgyots but is rather unattributed. This is consistent with all but one of the examples of visual evidence that follows:

137 Some of the story tellers in Beynon’s work acknowledged this when they prefaced their narratives by saying they were not authorized to tell the history or when they said they do not know all of the history.

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Figure 8. Detail of Map B2 showing settlements at the north end of Digby Island, with the west coast of Kaien Island unattributed.

The site of Prince Rupert is described by Barbeau as property acquired by the Gitwilgyoots when they chased away the Tlingits, but the “adjacent coast up to the Nass and down to Skeena was used in common by all the tribes, with the exception of Japan Point; which was the property of the Gitwilgyoots.”138 The Gitwilgyoots properties would correspond to the two village sites identified in the Prince Rupert area on the Winter Villages map. Again, both the blueprint and the text above are further evidence that the coast on the west side of Kaien Island was regarded as common ground (upon which were located specific sites like Casey Point, which featured exclusive ownership by specific galts’ap (in this case Kalum)).

138 B.F. 418.2.4; emphasis added.

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k. Map of the Lax Kw’alaams Laxyuup

Figure 9. Detail of Map B-6, showing Casey Point area and territories along Skeena.

Map B-6 Port Simpson AA Map139 sketches the territories associated with Lax Kw’alaams, and is coded to the Barbeau notebooks with alphanumeric notations. Note again that there are no territories indicated on Kaien Island, once more indicating that it is common ground.

139 B-6. PORT SIMPSON AA MAP - (111 cm. x 80.5 cm., B.C. Dept. of Lands Pre- Emptor's Map, Prince Rupert Sheet, 1916), coloured pencil markings and ink notes. (Transparency no. S-92-2594 (8" X10") digital copy only shows the back) (Transparency no. S-92-2589 [this is a picture of B-6 labelled as a picture of B-5b] (8" X10")).

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l. Map of the Gitxaała Laxyuup

Figure 10. Detail of Map B-4 showing there are no laxyuup/territories Kaien Island

Although the Gitxaała have also claimed an interest on Kaien Island, and Map B-4 Gitxa'ta sketches the territories associated with Gitxaała140 (again coded to the Barbeau notebooks with alphanumeric notations), there continue to be no territories indicated on Kaien Island - suggesting, again, that it was viewed as common ground.

140 B-4. GITXA'TA - (no source reference of map) - Beynon 1916 - "For notes see Beynon Notebooks, Gitxaxta, VI & V, 1916", multicoloured notations. (Transparencies nos. S-92-2586 [this seems to be a close up of the territorial sketches]; S-92-2587 [this is a wider shot] (8" X10")).

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m. Map of the Gitxaała and Gitg’a’at Laxyuup

Figure 11. Detail of Map B-9 showing Kaien Island. There are no laxyuup described there.

Barbeau’s map of Gitxaała and Gitg’a’at laxyuup sketches their hunting grounds and is coded to the Barbeau notebooks with alphanumeric notations. This map, B-9 Hunting Grounds of the Gitsata and the Gitga'nta Tribes of the Tsimsyan Proper, 1939,36 once more describes no specific territories on Kaien Island, suggesting again that it is common ground.

36 B-6. HUNTING GROUNDS OF THE GITSATA AND THE GITGA'NTA TRIBES OF THE TSIMSYAN PROPER, 1939 - (132 cm. x 84 cm., Map 278A, Prince Rupert Sheet, B.C. Pub. #2286, Geological Survey, Dept. of Mines, 1933), multicoloured alphanumeric notations. (Transparency no. S-92-2590 (8" X10")).

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n. Tsimshian maps

Figure 12 Detail of Map B-16 showing Kaien Island. There are no laxyuup described there.

“Map B-16 Tsimpshian Maps”141 sketches territories on the Skeena and coast, and are coded to the Barbeau notebooks with alphanumeric notations. This shows several tribal territories and large non-specified areas that correspond to the common areas of the TTC map but, again, there are no tribal territories indicated on Kaien Island, once more suggesting it is common ground.

Additional visual evidence consistent with the maps above will be presented below but, at this point, we turn to the record left by William Beynon.

141 B-16. TSIMPSHIAN MAPS - (95 cm. x 61 cm., Northern Interior, B.C. Dept. of Lands 1912), multicoloured alphanumeric notations. (Transparency no. S-92-2584 (8"X10")).

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The William Beynon materials

While the archival material collected by William Beynon, the Tsimshian ethnographer from Lax Kw’alaams who worked with Marius Barbeau, is both extensive and very useful, it is also problematic. Beynon once noted that there was very little information collected from Kitsumkalum – and he appears satisfied to have left it that way. Despite research in Kitsumkalum in 1924, as well as subsequent visits to the Terrace area, he did not expand on the ethnographic record for the Kalum community. Furthermore, he sometimes expressed the view that Kitsumkalum and Kitselas were the only two tribes of Tsimshian who never came to the coast when the others did, going so far as to state that Kitsumkalum had no coastal locations other than that allotted to them by the industrialist Robert Cunningham at Port Essington.

This understanding has become accepted in some of the academic literature as well as among some local amateur historians but, in light of the evidence above, the view is obviously both misleading and incorrect. The evidence above indicates that Prince Rupert Harbour and the shorelines enclosing it were common areas for passage and habitation. Tsimshian law, ayaawx, provides for the recognition of shared title to common areas and allows social groups to claim exclusive use of specific residential areas along the shore (see Garfield and Seguin Anderson, above). Kalum holds specific title and rights to Casey Point and Barrett Rock, about which numerous elders and the archaeological record – along with the specific written evidence of Kalum people in the Port Simpson and Metlakatla area – support the fact of Kalum use and ownership of the sites before and after the assertion of sovereignty.

Adding further strength to this claim is the fact that archival maps presented above illustrate the indigenous property holdings (laxyuup/territories) under the ayaawx. They correlate property with specific communities but do not identify the west side of Kaien Island with any particular group. As we also saw above, 20thcentury political organizations and land claims statements also described the area as common for all Tsimshian people. This is important because the community of Kitsumkalum, as part of the Tsimshian Nation, enjoyed equal access to the common areas. Although settlements of other tribal groups/galts’ap and house groups/wuwaap may have existed around the Harbour area, oral history and archival documents from before and after the assertion of sovereignty confirms that Kitsumkalum people traditionally came to the coast to gather marine resources. Their connections to the coast are embedded in adaawx that go as far back as time immemorial.

Objectively, enough evidence has already been offered to illustrate how wrong Beynon was with respect to Kalum’s connections to the coast; indeed, as we shall see, Beynon himself is inconsistent on this point - no surprise in Kalum of course, where – to paraphrase current Band Manager Steve Rogers: “Of course Kalum has

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land on the coast – we would not be Tsimshian without it!”142

Beynon, Continued

At this point, however, it is worth noting a little of William Beynon’s personal history in order to better understand his apparent bias and the archive he left us. Beynon was the son of a Nisga’a mother and a Welsh immigrant father; his mother was raised in Port Simpson, her Tsimshian father’s community. William Beynon himself was raised and educated in Victoria and went north to Port Simpson in 1913 as a young man in his mid-twenties. He decided to stay in Port Simpson, developed an interest in his Tsimshian heritage, found employment assisting with anthropological research on Tsimshian culture, and eventually acquired a Sm’oogyet title from the Nass and, later, from the Tsimshian community of Gitlaan.

The latter title creates a conflict with Kalum because of an asserted overlap in Kalum territory and adds to the caution with which he must be approached here.

Given Beynon’s late arrival into Tsimshian culture, it is not surprising that Marius Barbeau described him in 1914 as “not well versed in Indian matters”.143 It may be for the same reason that Elders who remember Beynon’s presence in the Terrace area have reported to Dr. Jim McDonald that there were serious flaws in Beynon’s work, especially in the way he interpreted the heritage information about Kitsumkalum;144 Beynon’s inaccuracy with respect to Kalum title and rights on the coast is particularly glaring. Nevertheless, over the years, Beynon collected important ethnographic information for several professional anthropologists. His research on the coastal communities resulted in a monumental record that, if used carefully, provides an important glimpse into Tsimshian culture, including laws and property relations.

As already indicated, however, William Beynon held the opinion that Kitsumkalum was strictly an inland community with no coastal connections – a truly egregious mistake that he unfortunately compounded as follows:

The two tribes Kitselas and Kitsumkalum were two groups of Tsimshian who never came to the coast when the others went and formed the winter village at Metlakatla Passage. They had no coast locations, but confined themselves to their own locality, then when the trading post was established at Port Essington, the Kitselas moved down in a few number at first, then in as a whole tribe and there was no territory, this was gidzax» [Gitzaxłaał] country and then when the Government had set aside reserves for Bands, there was reserve at Port Essington.

R. G. Cunningham, the trader and cannery owner at Port Essington who had

142 Pers. Comm. 143 Margaret Anderson and Marjorie Halpin, 2000, page 5. 144 Pers. Comm.

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acquired the whole of Port Essington as a town site and had pre-empted the entire area of land which now is Port Essington. He allotted for the use of the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum about ten acres, he did not give it to the Indians, but kept the control of it. Finally to enable the Department of Indian Affairs to legally carry on their responsibilities for the natives, they purchased it and it is now an Indian Reserve belonging to the Kitselas tribe.145 This makes the only coastal territory of either of these two inland Tsimshian.146

Elsewhere, however, Beynon contradicted his statement that Kitselas and Kitsumkalum had no coastal locations, recording, for example, that “Kain [sic] Island …was really the route of the ancient people’s canoes, of all tribes”147 – a statement that once again lends support to the notion of the Island as a common area for all Tsimshian. Given all of the above, however, his record with respect to Kalum itself is somewhat troubling; at one point he wrote that “Dr. C. M. Barbeau in his Totem Poles, Volumes I and II, covers much of about the only data that was gotten from this [Kalum] group”,148 and yet he felt confident enough to declare that Kalum “never” came to the coast and “had no coast locations”.

The evidence presented above and below more than suggests otherwise.

145 Beynon is wrong in saying that the Reserve was only owned by Kitselas; the 1902 deed of title included both Kitselas and Kitsumkalum. 146 147 Beynon notebooks Reel 4, story 252, page 39 - a conversation between Henry Collinson of Gitxaała and Matthew Johnson of Port Simpson. 148

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Kaien Island sites on Beynon’s Plate II

Beynon’s sketch map on Plate II shows three villages sites on west side of Kaien: # 1, 6, and 7, all of which are located immediately south of the City boundary. It is this piece of visual evidence, combined with its interpretation of the Robin Woman stories, that BC has seized on as evidence that Kalum has no place at Casey Point.149 However, this position is, as already indicated above, contradicted by Beynon’s own statements. Additional contradictory statements are included below. The conclusions that BC has drawn in light of the adaawx that connect to this map are also challenged below – but the map itself is as follows:

Figure 13. Beynon sketch of Kaien Island, Plate II150

149 Kecia Dusseault, July 22, 2014, “Narratives of Robin Woman and her Residence on Kaien Island”, provided to KIB on October 1, 2014. 150 Beynon Notebooks, Vol. II, p. 56ff., and Plate II # 6. Original spelling in the text: Galts’aps Ni.st’ix.

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o. Galts’ap Nist’ix, home of Robin Woman

William Beynon reported a Gitwilgyoots Gisbutwada village on Kaien Island, Galts’ap Nist’ix (No. 6), which was formed south of Łpuun'm Galts’ap (No. 1). This group is associated with territory inside the Skeena River, but this Kaien Island location has a special significance to Kitsumkalum because it was the matrimonial home of Robin Woman, the legendary woman from Kitsumkalum who was one of the wives of the Gisbutwada Sm’oogyet Ni.sti’ix of the Gitwilgyoots:

Figure 14. Detail of Plate II showing location of Galts’ap Nist’ix, matrimonial home of Robin Woman

All of the Robin Woman narratives provide an important, indigenous understanding of the connection that Kitsumkalum – “the Robin tribe” - had to the coast, revealing the underlying principles of how Tsimshian communities related to each other and to their diverse resources. The focus on those underlying principles as expressed in several different versions of the Robin Woman legend is supported by Vickers J. in Tsilhqot’in, who concluded that when presented with multiple versions of a legend:

… it is not details that need close examination. If the legend is to establish “what in the past, believed to be real [is] relevant to the present”, I must be sensitive to the fact that I am listening to “a communal and continuous communication” and it is the underlying

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theme or lesson that provides consistency to the legend. Thus, as a listener, I must gather up the fragments of this collective story and seek to determine what, if anything, it tells me about the presence and activities of [the aboriginal] people in the Claim Area pre-contact and at the time of sovereignty assertion.151

All three versions of the story presented here illustrate the dichotomy between the coastal resources and the interior resources, both of which are important for the physical and social existence of all Tsimshian, here represented as one Sm’oogyet and his community. The relationship between the two environments is portrayed as a marriage to both areas, one that reinforces the fact that Kitsumkalum is an inland Tsimshian community linked intimately to the coastal communities in general, and to its own coastal sites in particular.

This theme not only recurs in the oral history but has also been described in Professor Louis Allaire’s discussion of the “Native Mental Map of Coast [sic] Tsimshian Villages”,152 wherein he discusses the role of interior settlements in providing important and prestigious inland foods on the coast. His symbolic analysis of the role of each Tsimshian community at a feast maps the interrelatedness of all the communities from the coast up to Kitselas Canyon, and how that relatedness functions to maintain the Tsimshian as a Nation.

Kitsumkalum also had a special obligation to the other Tsimshian communities as provider of spring salmon and silver salmon,153 and in the story of Robin Woman, her residence on the coast as a result of her marriage represents related obligations between the coast and the interior. The moral of the story (the consistent message of the legend, per Vickers J.) is that the coast/interior obligations must be respected lest dissent occur - and the traditional Tsimshian unity suffer breakdown.

As has indeed happened.

p. Robin Woman, Mrs. Marsden version154

The following is the adaawx of the Robin Woman and the Blue Bill Duck Woman as told by an Elder called Mrs. Marsden and recorded by William Beynon.155 The narrative is in a collection sent by William Beynon to Professor Franz Boas while

151 2007 BCSC 1700 at para. 178. 152 Louis Allaire, “A Native Mental Map of Coast Tsimshian Villages” in M. Seguin, Images of the Tsimshian (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1985). 153 HBC records note Kalum trading in salmon circa 1852. 154 There are several versions of the Robin Woman story– two from the Barbeau/Beynon archives recorded by Beynon and one from the Franz Boas archives recorded by another Tsimshian, Henry Tait, are presented here. 155 Beynon Manuscripts Reel 1, Adaawx 72. NWCC Library.

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he was at Columbia University in New York City. The collection is an important 156 archival source commonly known as Beynon’s Tsimshian Manuscripts.

The Adaawx Of The Robin Woman And The Blue Bill Duck Woman

Away ages ago, that were many places that the Tsimshians used to live and in Kaien have lived the Gitwilgyoots [Gitwalg-yats] tribe and here also lived one of the Gitwilgyoots [Gitwalg-yats] chiefs whose name was Niaslas. He had as his wives two supernatural women and he was really the wealthiest among his fellow chiefs, because of his industrious wives who were always gathering food. And the names of his wives were Robin Woman and Blue Bill Duck woman.

Well, just as soon as winter started then one of the wives of Niaslas who was Blue Bill Duck Woman, started to gather all the different foods of the sea. One day she would go and bring in a seal, leaving it below the house of her husband.

Then in the morning the husband took the seal and would invite his tribe, serving the seal as their food. And then again the Blue Bill duck Woman would gather together the tribe of her husband and then take them out to sea and then Blue Bill Duck Woman would fill the canoes with sea lions and they came with this to her husband and then Niaslas would invite all of the Tsimshian Tribes. And then Blue Bill Duck woman would set out again and would fill the canoes with halibut, which she brought to her husband. And Niaslas again gave a feast, serving the food, which had been gathered by his wife, Blue Bill Duck Woman. Well it was not winter and it was then that there was a shortage of food among all the people but Niaslas kept on giving his feast and his powers was increasing as his standing as a chief. Sometimes the Blue Bill Duck Woman would bring in a whale, going out alone and then afterwards calling upon the tribe of her husband to come and tow the whale to shore. And every day this chief woman Blue Bill Duck Woman went out gathering food. Sometimes she brought in shellfish, mussels, cockles or clam or horse clams and really all different shellfish. And the house of the chief was full of all the different kinds of seafoods. And the chief Niaslas kept on giving his feasts to the Tsimshian tribes.

And he now was getting wealthy because now the people of foreign tribes were now coming to him to buy food, as all of the food of the people was now finished. And the Blue Bill Duck Woman kept right on gathering food.

156 The manuscripts are housed in Rare Books and Manuscript Collection, Butler Library, Columbia University. That library refers to the collection as Tsimshean manuscripts; Indian tales, recorded by William Beynon. The copy at North West Community College is on four reels of microfilm and referenced as the Beynon Manuscript: The Literature, Myths and Traditions of the Tsimshian People. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1980.

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Now the other wife of Niaslas done nothing but it about the house of her husband, making herself beautiful everyday. And other wife of Niaslas would always taunt her.

But the Robin Woman paid no heed to the taunts of the Blue Bill Duck Woman And the chief never said anything to the Robin Woman.

Well it was now the moon of the Spring Salmon and then Robin Woman, the wife of Niaslas said, “Well I shall take your large canoe and I will ask51 your strong men to accompany me. I am going to my own country and we shall leave next morning while it still dark.” And Niaslas done as his wife asked; he put down his large canoe and summoned strong young men to accompany his wife. And before it was day, they set out going up the Skeena River. There was still ice on the river and it was still cold up the river and then the companions of Niaslas wife had to cut their route through the ice. And this they done until they came to a large river, which was the Kitsumgelam River. And when they came to this river they saw drifting down, salmon bladders and there were very many of them. And they kept right on going up and they were very happy at heart now they saw the salmon bladders floating down, as they knew they would soon taste fresh salmon. It was not yet near the time when the people of the coast ate of fresh salmon. Although the older people saw the salmon jumping in the sea, but they were unable to catch. (And so eager were they to catch the salmon) They pretended to reach and take the salmons. But were unable to do anything more.

Now the companions of the Robin Woman were surprised. Well they had now seen long going up in their canoe when suddenly they came below a big village and it was very beautiful village. And were very spry when they moved about.

Then the Robin Woman jumped out the canoe and went in one of the houses, the house of the Chief of Kitsumgelam and this was the relative of the Robin Woman. This chief then took as his guests all of the companions of the wife of Niaslas. Well after they had finished eating then the wife of Niaslas said to the chief, “Well uncle I have come to gather gifts for these I left behind me this is why I have come.” “Well my dear woman it is good, my tribe will help your companions.” Said the chief of the Kitsumgelam. And the tribe of the chief accompanied the companions to gather salmon and this they done every day. Until the salmon house were filled with dried salmon.

And after the tribe had finished gathering salmon, then they went to gather berries and others went to the mountain to kill mountain goat. And they dried the meat of the mountain goat making a food which was dried smoked meat. And they done the same. Now after the companions of Robin Woman, had finished piling this big amount of food and then the wife of Niaslas said, “When it is again day and we will return to our homes

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and that is why this night we will pack all our belongings.”

It was then that the companions of Robin Woman wondered what she would do about the great load. They knew there was too much of a load for the big canoe as there was much salmon, also dried meat, and all the different berries. The woman said, “I will store away the load in the canoe.” Now this woman was a supernatural being, and as she put the things in the canoe these disappeared in the canoe until all of the load was brought down. And then they set off down the river to return to the village of her husband at Kaien [K-xen]. When the arrived below the house of the Niaslas and the tribe of the chief came down and packed up the load of the Robin Woman. Well now all of the load of (woman) was taken up and the house of the chief was too full when his wife had again increased the load. And the wealth of Niaslas increased and he gave a great feast to all of the Tsimshians. And the Tsimshian was marveled of the chief of Gitwilgyoots [Gitwalg-yats], because it was not near the time when the Tsimshians ate of fresh salmon and now the chief’s house was full of salmon.

Now the other wife of Niaslas saw what the Robin Woman had done and was very jealous and they quarrelled. The Blue Bill Duck Woman and the Robin Woman as to who were the most industrious. And as they were always quarrelling it angered Niaslas and he rebuked his two wives. Now it was then the two women became saddened in heart so they again returned where they had come from and the Robin Woman became a Robin and the Blue Bill Duck Woman a Blue Bill duck.

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q. Robin Woman, William Beynon version

The William Beynon version of the Story of Nist’ix marrying Blue Duck Woman and Robin Woman was part of his uncompleted and unpublished manuscript entitled Ethnical and Geographical Study of the Tsimsiyaen Nation, held in the archives of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. It holds that:

Nist’ix one of the Gisp’wudwada [Gisbutwada] chiefs of the Git’w lgiy t’s [Gitwilgyoots] had two wives. One was Ks m’amgik - Blue bill duck woman, the other was Ks mgilakiy - Robin woman. Each of these wives had supernatural powers and each tried to outdo each other to gain their husband’s favor. During the winter months when food was so hard to gather K’s m’amgik would call upon her husband’s young nephews and they would take a canoe and in a very little while she would fill it with all different sea foods, crabs, clams and mussels and halibut and even at times she would chase a seal or sea lion to the canoe, so those in the canoe would have no difficulty in killing it. So this brought on the jealousy of the chief’s other wife who was Robin Woman. She would ask the nephews to come with her and they would go up the Skeena to her country at Gits mgelam [Kitsumkalum]. There she would fill the canoe with fresh salmon and t m’it - a cluster-berry which grows on muskeg. Then this would arouse the jealousy of the Blue Bill Duck Woman. In this manner Nist’ix grew to be very wealthy as he now had a plentiful supply of all foods at a time when other tribes were on the verge of want. They would come to Nist’ix to trade. Then Ks m’amgik took her husband’s nephews out to gather herring spawn, she knew where these would first, so long before any of the other tribes saw herring spawn, Nist’ix would have many canoe loads. The place that she went to was Guldz dxit; gul - about, dz dzit - spout? Place of continual spouting. This was at the end of Steven’s Island... Here the herring always came first into a cove here. This became the property of Nist’ix. As soon as the herring spawn was brought in, Nist’ix gave a herring spawn feast to all the other T’s msiyaen [Tsimshian] at the same time announcing that these were the gatherings of his wife, Ks m’amgik.

Then the Robin woman was very jealous. She called together her husband’s nephews and the ice was still on the Skeena River, but she managed to guide them till they got to the mouth of the Gits mgelam [Kitsumkalum] River. She then travelled up this river until she came to her uncle’s village.157 It was not near time that the people of the coast would get spring salmon, but she filled the canoes she brought up with her and then returned to her husband’s village (6) Plan II [see above]). When the

157 The Gits mgelam people were called Robin People: gitgil’akiy - git - people, gil’akiy - Robin.

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chief saw of the canoe loads of spring salmon, he was astounded as it was unheard of that they should eat spring salmon, while there was ice on the Skeena River. The chief, Nist’ix, sent his messengers at once to invite all the Ts’msiyaen [Tsimshian] and their headmen to a spring salmon feast. This was even considered greater than having had herring spawn, as the people were unable to get spring salmon until the ice had come away from the Skeena, then they could travel to all the salmon streams. Nist’ix announced that this salmon came from his wife’s (Robin Woman) country and was just brought by her. When the other wife of Nist’ix heard the pleased expressions of her husband’s guests, she was very sad and she went down to the beach and became a Blue Bill Duck and flew away never to return. Nist’ix, when he learned of what his wife K’s m’amgik had done, became very sad and would hardly eat and refused to be pacified as he had lost one of his main source of wealth. Robin Woman, his other wife, seeing him so sad, became more jealous then ever before so she in anger went outside of the chief’s house, became a robin and she flew away never to return. Thus Nist’ix lost all sources of revenue as he was no longer supplied the huge quantities of food his two wives brought him.

r. Henry Tate and Robin Woman158

Henry Tate, a Tsimshian of Port Simpson, also recorded a version of Robin Woman living on Kaien Island, also identifying her as one of the wives of a chief that had a village near Casey Point. The story is similar to the ones Beynon recorded, and it is thus included here for comparison, but note that in Barbeau’s 1917 review of Boas’ Tsimshian Mythology, he notes that Tate was “…loth to divulge to other natives that he was really writing [the stories] down at all.” Barbeau adds that Tate’s practice was to record the story not during but rather after it had been told it, thus leading him to comment that “…Tate is liable to have forgotten or slightly altered many accessories or even supplied some out of his own stock of familiar motions.”159

Anthropologist Brian Thom has also indicated that the process by which the stories made their way into print was quite tortuous and that the “long path of translation makes it more difficult to be satisfied with this material as representing the narratives of a living community.” As Thom says:

For Tate’s Tsimshian texts, the path to publication took a more complicated route. Tate took down versions of the stories he knew or heard in English, and then proceeded to translate them into Tsimshian, which he sent to Boas… Boas was never satisfied with Tate’s transcriptions of Tsimshian, so he had Archie Dundas, a Tsimshian-speaker who was studying on the East coast, read Tate’s Tsimshian out loud, which Boas then re-transcribed. Not

158 Boas, Tsimshian Mythology: story 24. The Chief who Married the Robin and the Sawbill Duck (pp.179-185). 159 See Barbeau’s review in American Anthropology (N.S. 19, 1917), pp. 561-562.

98 wanting to be biased by Tate’s English, Boas drew on his own limited knowledge of Tsimshian to retranslate the Dundas transcriptions…160

However, as Vickers J. has indicated: “…it is not details that need close examination. …[I]t is the underlying theme or lesson that provides consistency to the legend.”161 To that end, here is a third version of the legend tying Kalum to the coast at Casey Point:

24. The Chief who Married the Robin and the Sawbill Duck

In olden time, long ago, the people of this coast used to marry animals, bids, frogs, snails, mice, and so on. So it happened with one great chief. His village was at the northwest side of X en [Kaien] Island, and his tribe consisted of many people. He had no wife. His people assembled several times, and tried to find a woman to be his wife. Then the chief said to them, “If you bring me a woman of the Robin tribe, I will marry her; and if you will bring me a woman of the Sawbill Ducks, I will marry her.”

Then the people of his tribe had a great meeting to talk over these matters. Some of his wise men took counsel, and choose hunters to search for the two women whom the chief wanted to marry. Therefore the hunters fasted; and after their fasting, some went up the mountains, and others went out to sea.

Those who went up the mountains reached a large plain, where they saw a large village, and they went toward it. When they came near, they saw young people walking up and down on the street. They seemed very happy, and they were good to look at. They were young men and young women. When they saw the hunters coming to their village, some young men ran in and told the people and also their chief, who invited the strangers into his house. They spread mats at the side of the chief’s large fire, and immediately they sat down.

Then someone touched the side of one of the hunters. It was the Mouse Woman. She said, “Do you know whose village this is?” He said, “No.” Then the Mouse Woman said, “This is the village of Robin, and this is the house of their chief. He has a beautiful daughter, whom her father will let you have to be your chief’s wife if you promise him to take good care of her.” After Mouse Woman had spoken, she went away.

Now, the chief said to his attendants, “Get ready for these men who have come to visit us. Prepare good food for them.” Then his men roasted a good dried spring salmon, put it into a dish, and placed it before the hunters, who

160 Brian Thom, “The Anthropology of Northwest Coast Oral Traditions”, Arctic Anthropology (Vol. 40, 2003), p. 4. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 161 2007 BCSC 1700 at para. 178.

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ate of it. After that they gave them fat meat of mountain goats and all kinds of fresh berries. Late in the evening, after they had eaten, the head men of the hunters said to the chief, “You are a great chief, and we are glad to see the riches in your great house. We have come from very far to visit you; for we had heard of the fame of your wealth, which we see now, and part of which we have tasted. Our poor chief has sent us to you, for he wants to have your daughter to marry her. We will honor her, and she shall be the greatest chieftainess in our village and among all the Tsimshian tribes. We shall do all we can for her.”

After he had spoken, the chief of Robin’s attendants spoke: “Indeed, chief, my chief heard what you said to him. Tomorrow he will invite his tribe, and will tell his people what you ask for, and the day after tomorrow they will decide.” Two days passed, and then the people of the village assembled. Their chief said to the visitors, “Friends, I am glad that you have come here, and that you want to take my daughter to be your chief’s wife. My wise men and all my people have decided that you shall take her to your chief. I understand that you promise to take good care of her, which I hope you will do. I wish that my daughter and the young chief might come to visit me in the winter to get provisions. At present I send her with you empty- handed. That is what my people desire and what they have decided in this matter. At present I just give her two small root baskets – one filled with fresh meat and fat, and the other filled with various kinds of fresh berries.

The hunters started homeward. They did not know the way, but the young Robin Woman led them. They walked down, and passed many mountains and many valleys and rivers. They traveled on many days; and they reached home late in the fall, bringing with them a beautiful young woman.

The young chief was very glad to see the beautiful young woman. The hunters gave the girl to him to be his wife. So the chief received her. He loved her very much.

The head man of the hunters opened one of the small root baskets and took out the fresh meat and fat. He put it on the mats which were spread in front of the chief and his new wife, and the meat and fat filled one end of the house. Then the head hunter took the other root basket and took out the various ripe berries, which he put into a cedar box. When the chief saw these things, he was very glad, and invited his whole tribe in. After the people had eaten, they said to their chief, “O chief! you ought to invite in all the tribes to show them your new wife, and they shall be happy with you.”

The chief consented, and sent his messengers to all the different tribes around his village, asking the chiefs of the different tribes to assemble in his village two days later to take part in the wedding feast.

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All the chiefs had a very happy time, at the end of which they went to their own homes in their canoes, which were loaded with meat and fat and all kinds of berries. They were all talking about the young princess who was now the wife of the young chief.

Now we will turn to the other woman, the Sawbill-Duck Woman. I said before that some hunters went in their canoes; and as they went along the seashore, when they came around the point, they saw a young woman walking along the sandy beach. Her braided hair was hanging down her back, and was ornamented with beautiful white shells.

The head man of the hunters wanted to go and take her for their chief to be his wife. So they went ashore. The head man went toward her and sat down with her on the beach. The man told her that his chief wanted her to marry him. Then the Sawbill-Duck Woman consented. He took her to the canoe, and they went home, where they arrived a few days before the other hunters came.

The chief was still waiting until the others came home. He waited for a long while, and finally those who had taken Princess Robin came home. Then the young chief loved the Robin Woman more, for she was more beautiful than the Sawbill-Duck Woman.

After the chief had given his great feast, he kept the two women as his wives, but he loved the Princess Robin most. Now, winter-time came, and food began to be scarce. Then the young Robin Woman remembered her father’s words which he had spoken to the hunters when they took her away.

One night she said to her husband, “My dear, I remember my father’s words which he said before your messengers took me from his house. He said that he wanted you to send two large canoes to him in midwinter to bring down winter provisions, and I will go with these men if you should send them.”

The chief acceded to her request. On the following day he called the young men of his tribe and sent them to go with his wife. In the morning they started in two large canoes. They went to the Skeena River. The ice was very hard on the river. The young woman guided them on their way. Soon they came to the end of the ice on Skeena River; and the hearts of the young men failed them when they saw the hard ice on the river. Then the princess stood up in the bow of the canoe, and sang her spring song. At once the ice began to melt in front of the canoe as far as they could see.

Then the young men took courage and went on. Soon they reached the end of the opening in the ice; and the Robin Woman stood again in the bow of the first canoe and sang with her beautiful voice as the robin sings in the

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springtime, and the ice melted away in front of the two large canoes. They went on, and the Robin Woman continued to sing.

Therefore the people say nowadays that as soon as the robin sings the first time in spring, the ice begins to melt. They say that the bird’s singing over the ice causes it to melt. They went on many days, and finally reached a beautiful town. There were four rows of houses there, and every row was full of houses, and the chief’s house was in the middle of the first row. It was a very large house. The village was very beautiful, and all the people in the village looked very fine.

As soon as they reached there, the Robin chief invited the strangers who came to the town with his young daughter, and the chief was much pleased to see her come; and when all the young men were seated on one side of his large house, the chief first gave them cooked fresh spring salmon to eat, and then fresh salmonberries and all other kinds of fresh berries.

After the meal the princess called the young men who came with her from her husband’s town, and led them to one side of her father’s house. There she opened the door of a large room and showed them snow and ice, which filled the inside of the large room. Then she took them to the other side of the house, opened the door of a large room, went in, and all her companions followed her. There she showed them a large hill full of salmonberry bushes and all kinds of berries around that beautiful hill. There were all kinds of wild flowers budding on the green grass, and all kinds of birds were singing on the flowers. Then the princess to them to the rear of the house and showed them a large beautiful river. The river was full of all kinds of salmon. So the people said that the house of Chief Robin had winter on one side, and summer on the other.

On the following day the chief invited all his people into his large house. After the feast he began to speak, and said to his people, “My dear people, you all know that my daughter has come up to me from her husband’s, for their provisions are gone, for they used them in the winter. Therefore my beloved daughter took her husband’s people to come with her for food. Therefore I want you, my great tribe, to bring her fresh spring salmon, fresh ripe berries – salmonberries, blueberries, and all other kinds of berries – also mountain- goat meat and fat and the soft fat of grizzly bears.”

On the following morning the birds were ready before day-dawn. Very early in the morning Chief Robin stood on the roof of his large house and began to sing to call his people. Then they all flew out to gather food; and before noon they came home one by one, bringing meat and fat of mountain goats, grizzly-bear meat and fat, salmonberries and blueberries, and all kinds of food. At dusk all the Robins had come back into the house of their chief.

102 Then the chief said to his tribe that he would send his daughter back to her husband the following morning, with all the provisions that had been brought to his house. When the morning came, he stood on the top of his house to call the people, and sang as robins sing. So his people assembled, loaded the two canoes with all kinds of food, so that the two canoes were full of all kinds of provisions. Then the two canoes started down the river. The young princess was in the first canoe, and she did as before. She was standing in the bow, and sang her song, and the ice of the river melted away before them.

Early the following morning they reached X en [Kaien] village. Then the whole tribe of the chief, the husband of Robin, came down to unload the two canoes which were full of all kinds of meat and fresh ripe berries, of fat, and of fresh fish of all kinds. They unloaded the two canoes; and the chief invited all his people into his house, and gave them food until they were satisfied.

Then the chief said to his people, “My dear people, I want to invite all the Tsimshian tribes, and give them some of this food; for they are starving, and famine is on the river.” His tribe consented, and on the following morning a canoe manned by many young men and one prince, a nephew of the chief, went out as messengers to every tribe to invite the chiefs and their people.

When they had visited each tribe, they came back to their chief with happy hearts. On the following day all the guests entered, and the tribes sat down by themselves with their chiefs. When they were all in, the chief said, “Bring your boiled fresh spring-salmon, put it into a wooden dish, and place it before the chiefs.” So his attendants did what he had said. They passed wooden spoons and horn spoons about to all the chiefs and their people, and they placed in front of the guests wooden dishes filled with fresh boiled salmon. Then all the guests wondered to see the fresh spring salmon, and they ate it all.162

After they had eaten fresh spring salmon, the chief said, “Bring the fresh ripe salmonberries,” and his attendants brought in many new boxes filled with fresh ripe salmonberries mixed with fat of the grizzly bear. Again the guests were much astonished. They put their food into the wooden dishes, and passed about mountain-sheep horn spoons. Soon the guests tasted the nice fresh ripe salmonberries, and the young men told the story about Chief Robin’s house and village. They said that the house was a marvellous one; that there was winter on one side, and midsummer on the other side. They continued, “We saw all varieties of birds and of flowers.”

Soon after they had told their story, the guests went home, and all their canoes loaded with some of the food. They were all merry. On the following

162 “The reason why they were astonished was because it was winter. – F. B. [Franz Boas]” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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day they chief invited the chiefs of the tribes with their wives and people, as he had done before. When all the guests were in, he repeated the same words that he had said a few days before. He spoke to his attendants, and said, “Bring in the fresh meat and fat.” They did so. They brought in a box. They poured water into the box, and put red-hot stones into it until the water began to boil. Then they put the meat over the hot stones and covered the boxes to keep the steam in.

After the chiefs and their wives had eaten the meat and the soup, they gave them blueberries and many different kinds of berries.

Before they finished eating, the young men outside the chief’s house shouted, and said, “There are two canoes coming around the point!”

Now, we must remember the Sawbill-Duck Woman. As soon as the Robin Woman came back from her father with provisions, and the Sawbill-Duck Woman saw how many different kinds of food the Robin Woman had brought to her husband, she went all alone to her father for food. She arrived at her father’s house, and told her father what the father of Robin had done for his daughter – how many different kinds of food she had brought down to her husband.

Therefore the father of Sawbill-Duck Woman assembled his whole tribe and informed them of what his daughter had said about her husband, and how the Robin Woman had given to her husband, the chief, many kind kinds of food. Then the wise men of his people said, “Let us also go and bring to our chief’s daughter many kinds of food!”

They all agreed, and on the following morning they went, and front moon on until the evening they came home one by one. Some brought whales; other, sea lions, seals, halibut, and all kinds of fish. They carved the whale blubber, the sea-lion blubber, and the seal blubber.

On the following day they took down two large canoes and loaded them with all kinds of blubber – blubber of whales, sea lions, seals – and with all kinds of fishes. After they had filled the two canoes, they tied them together and put a wide plank across them. The Sawbill-Duck Woman sat down on it. Then the two large canoes went on fast. They took a little rest on one of the islands, and the Sawbill-Duck Woman looked at the beach. Behold! a large pile of mussels was hanging on a rock yonder. She went ashore and took off a large pile of mussels, and placed it by her side on the plank.

Now, these two canoes went on toward the chief’s town. They came there about the time when the great feast given by the chief to all the tribes of the Tsimshian was ended. The chiefs and the people were all happy.

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While they were still feasting, some one came in and said that two canoes were coming up around the point, and all the guests were silent. Then another man came in and said that the other wife of the chief was coming from her father’s house with two large canoes full of something. So the chief ordered his attendants to go down and see what the woman brought home with her.

Quickly they went down to the beach and saw the large cluster of mussels by the side of the Sawbill-Duck Woman on the plank where she was sitting. When the men saw the large cluster of mussels by her side, they went back quickly to the chief’s house before all the guests had gone out. The chief of the feast asked, “What did she bring home with her?” The men who had gone down told him that she had brought home a large pile of mussels.

Then the chief became very angry; and he was ashamed, for in his house were all the chiefs and head men of the Tsimshian tribes. They were all silent. At last the chief of the feast said to his attendants, “Go down to the canoes and capsize them!” So a number of his young men went down and turned over the two canoes, which were filled with all kinds of fish and animals.

Then the Sawbill-Duck Woman flew out to sea, and the young men who had capsized the two large canoes saw the blubber of whales floating on the water, and also blubber of sea lion, of seals, and of all kinds of fishes. They ran back to the chief quickly and told him of what had happened. They said, “These two canoes are full of the richest food – blubber of whales, sea lions, and seals, and of all kinds of fish.”

Therefore the chief said, “Gather the whale blubber and the blubber of sea lions and seals, and bring it in! We will give it to all the chiefs here. And also take up all the fishes, and we will give them to the head men of all the tribes, that they may take them home for their wives and their children.”

Therefore the young men went down again quickly to bring in the blubber; but, behold! It had been transformed into rocks and large round boulders. These are still on the beach at the end of Prince Rupert Town.

The young men went back to the chief and told him that the canoes and their load had been transformed into rocks and boulders on the beach; and now the chief was still more ashamed, and he was very angry. All the chiefs went out from the feast. They were amazed to see the rocks and boulders on the beach, and every one went home full of joy.

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Yagaoo luwi Galts’ap

William Beynon also reported another village on Kaien Island that is also relevant to the claims made with respect to Kalum title and rights that are derived from this research (see map Plate II No. 7). Called Yagaoo luwi (original spelling in text: Ya – asqalu’I,(“Place of alder slide”)) in reference to a hill slide through a stand of alder trees, this area is located on the sketch map immediately south of Robin Woman’s area on Casey Point. As we shall see, it also features a very tight connection to Kalum.

Figure 15. Detail of Plate II showing location of Yagaoo luwi (Ya - asqalu‟i ).

The Sm’oogyet involved was the title holder T’gu-laxa. Beynon, in his handwritten field notes for the myth that tells of the “Dog Origin of the Gispaxloots Tribe”, spells the name as T’gu-laxe (William Beynon Manuscripts Reel 2, Adaawx 134). However, in the typescript of the Beynon Notebooks, the spelling is given as Spilaxhe and Xpilaxa - which raises a connection to Sm’oogyet Xpilaxha of the Kitsumkalum Ganhada, a title and house led by Gerald Wesley, currently one of the senior negotiators on Kalum’s Treaty team.

Although that connection is discussed below, note that T’gu-laxa was also a Gisbutwada related to the Sm’oogyet in the village associated with Robin Woman

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(No. 6, discussed above); he was, like the Gisbutwada of Kitsumkalum, of Temlaxham origin - Temlaxham being an ancestral site on the Skeena located above Kitselas, and whose descendants consider themselves related by kinship, providing each other with support in many ways. As Lax Kw’alaams specialist Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson puts it:

Housegroups that did not share any common episodes of their adaawx might nonetheless be recognized as "brothers and sisters" in the same pdeex because the two houses shared crests. For example, Gisbutwada wuwaap, whose adaawx recounts their migration from Temlaxam in the interior to the coast, were recognized as pdeex-mates by the Gisbutwada already living on the coast, whose Lax Nagunaks adaawx describes their coastal origins, because both groups shared crests such as the blackfish and grizzly bear.163

The following story regarding Yagaoo luwi and the origin of the Gitspaxlo’ots thus illustrates the connection between Kalum Gisbutwada (like current Chief Don Roberts) and the coast, and to this location on Casey Point in particular:

The next Ts msiyaen [Tsimshian] that seems to have followed in the steps of the Gitw lgiy t’s [Gitwilgyoots] and made the coast their permanent winter or head village, was the Gispaxl’t’s [Gispaxlo’ots] -gispa - amongst, l’t’s - elderberry. “People of the elderberry”, so called as at their village on the Skeena there was a great abundance of elderberry and derived their name from this fact. At the time when this tribe established their first village ((7) Plan II), it was called Ya – asqalu’I - ya a - down from, sqa - across, lu’i - alder - “Place of alder slide.” So called because of a slide that happened there upon which was now grown a growth of alder trees. It was before the coming of the Eagle Clan into this tribe as their tribal chief was Spilaxe [Xpilaxha] - Part of the Heavens. Spi - half of, laxe - heavens - “Part of the Heavens, and was of the Gisp wudwada [Gisbutwada] Clan the same as the chief of the Gitw lgiy ts [Gitwilgyoots] and for that fact they became neighbors in order to better aide each other in event of an invasion. It has been said of these Gispaxl’t’s [Gispaxlo’ots] that they were of dog origin…

Xpilaxe [Xpilaxha], the chief of the Gispaxl’t’s [Gispaxlo’ots] tribe had a very beautiful daughter. Her beauty became known to all the other tribes and suitors came seeking to marry her, but the father did not want to part with his beautiful daughter. The daughter was kept in seclusion. Her companions being chosen for her by her parents and at no time was she alone. Her sleeping place was made above her parents so that no one could come there without waking the parents.

163 Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 33. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

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Sudael - su - new, dael - woman. “New woman,” was well guarded. Everywhere she went her chosen companions went with her. Soon the suitors began to come less often and the young woman felt very lonesome. She was longing for a male companion. Everyday she hoped that some young Prince would come and take her away from this very lonesome life she was now leading. Even at night where she slept she longed for a male companion.

One night she was thinking thus and dropped off to sleep, then she awoke and felt that someone was sleeping with her. In the darkness, she felt it was the body of a man and she was very happy. Who he was she did not know, as they were sleeping above her parents, they dare not make a noise. Just before daybreak the man would go away. Every night the man came and though she enquired as to who he was he would not disclose his identity. This only made the young woman the more eager to know who her lover was. So she suddenly thought of a plan.

She took her red ochre facial paint to bed with her; during the night when her lover was embracing her she smeared the red ochre on one side of his forehead.

Next day she arose early and with her companions she sat outside the house and watched all the people as they went about the village trying to see who would carry a red smear on one side of his forehead. The next night she smeared more red on her lover, this time on the back of his neck where he would not ever think of rubbing it off. Then next day she went to the water hole where she sat all day with her companions, watching everybody as they came to the only waterhold of this village. But no one came that was marked. Every night the woman applied the red ochre to different parts of the body of her lover, then next day would be on the lookout to see if these marks were on any of the men as they went about the village, but she was not able to find these marks on anyone.

One day she came into the house and sleeping by the fire was her pet dog and on its head were the red ochre marks she had made upon her lover and now she knew that her dog was taking human form at night and came and slept with her.

The young woman now became pregnant and her father was very happy now that his daughter was with child. He said, “It has been impossible for any human being to meet my daughter, so she has come with child by a supernatural being, so we will be more powerful than other tribes.” When it came time for the Sudael to go into confinement her mother and paternal aunt attended her and they were startled when she gave birth to three puppy dogs. The chief was in great anger. “Tomorrow we shall leave this village and return to the Skeena where we came from. My daughter shall be abandoned here and no one must leave any food or help her in any way

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as she has brought disgrace to our people.” Everybody began to make preparations to move, the houses were torn down, roofboards and the walls. Early in the morning the tribe were ready to move. Before she set out one of the girl’s aunts had been sent by her husband to cache some food also a fireball was hidden so she could find it, then she went to where Sudael lay with her puppy children and told her, “I have hidden some food under some boards which your uncle has hid for your use, also a fire ball with which you can start your fire with. The food will keep you alive until you can get about. Your father has been too severe with you and he is only being punished for refusing all of the chiefs who came to marry you.” So the tribe left deserting the young woman and her puppy dog children. Sudael was now very sad and she made a hut from the planks her uncle had left her and also found the cached food and the fire ball with which she started the fire. When she had eaten, she began to look about her and she suddenly felt very helpless. She gathered her puppy children about her and comforted them the best she could. She made a shelter and gathered much fuel as she had to keep the fire burning all the time or they would surely perish.

Everyday she would go down to the beach gathering shellfish and other food returning she prepared this for her puppy children. One night while she was down at the beach she heard the voices of children playing. So she extinguished her light, she had a pitch torch, and went up to the small house she had built and looking through a crack in the wall of the house she saw three children playing about the house. Two boys and one girl and she saw hanging by the fire the puppy garments of these children, so she went quietly by the doorway to their house and when the children were some distance away from their garments, the mother rushed in and was able to grasp two garments of the male puppies and the little female was able to get hers and put it on and was a female puppy dog again. The woman then burned the two puppy garments of the boys and they remained human. The mother begged the female to take off her puppy garments but she would not. She laid by the fire paying no heed to the pleadings of her mother.

The two boys grew very rapidly and the mother then made bows and arrows for them and taught them the use of these. First they were able to shoot birds such as grouse and ducks and soon they became expert in the use of their weapons. The female who remained a puppy now went into the woods and one morning they heard her barking close to the house so they went out and behold she had chased a deer close by which the two boys were able to kill with their bow and arrows.

Everyday the female dog sister or the two boys brought down game close to the house and soon their house was too small to house all the smoked meats they were preparing so the woman and her two sons made a larger house but soon this became full of smoked meats of deer, moose and

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bear, also they were able to make a canoe and they went to a salmon creek which they knew to be the property of her father. The place was known as Walgiyets Wiget, “Where Wiigiyet was born”, here they gathered their salmon and smoked these, then took them in their canoe to their village. The boys were now grown and they now had so much food they had to build more houses in which to store these. They now had a great quantity of food.

Now the chief Xpilaxe [Xpilaxha] who had deserted his daughter wanted to return to his former village as there was a famine and many people were perishing and he began to wonder what had happened to his daughter whom he had deserted.

He told his tribesmen whom he sent with his younger brother, who had befriended the young woman when they deserted her, “Go and see if you can find the remains of her and her who had dogs as children, bury them and then prepare the place as we may return there.” The young chief and his tribesmen left their village on the Skeena and near night they came to the village Ya asqalu‟i. They were astounded to see that there were many houses there and smoke coming from a large house and they were afraid to land. The woman looking down to the beach saw her uncle and was happy that it was he who had helped her when she was left to perish with her puppy children, so she herself went down to the beach and called, “Come land and partake of food.” The young chief landed at the invitation of the young woman whom they all thought to have perished. He saw the two youths, whom the young woman, his niece said, “These are two of my children whom my father had left to perish, the other is in the hills hunting and it is she, that fetches all our game. My sons but kill it and then we preserve it.” She then prepared food for all of them. When they had finished the young woman said, “You will rest a while when you return you shall fill your canoes with all the different foods you shall take to my father and his people.” The man was astounded at all he had seen and the woman told him, “My children became human beings and the girl she changed back to her puppy status as I could not get her puppy garment in time to destroy it. But now she serves us by fetching all the game to our door and we want for nothing. We have more food than we can eat [text not clear] now stored many house full. You will tell my father that I bear him no bad feelings and he was only punished by not letting me marry one of the many chiefs who wanted to marry me. Tell him to come back to his own village again.” The young chief returned next day and his two canoes loaded with much food. When he landed at his Skeena village he told the chief, Xpilaxe [Xpilaxha], “A wonderful thing has happened, your village at Ya asqalu‟i. There is many new houses which all belong to your daughter whom you left to perish together with her puppy children. These have now become human beings and now have many houses full of all different kinds of food. They have filled my two canoes with all that I could hold to bring to you and your people and they want you to return as you have been

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punished enough so they want you to return.” The great chief was greatly humiliated and regretted what he had done, but when he saw the two canoe loads of food, he said, “We will move back to our village tomorrow we will make ready to move back to our village on the coast. I must see my new grandchildren.”

Next day all of the house boards and roof boards were taken down and they took all of these to their old village where they were going to live. When Xpilaxe [Xpilaxha] landed at his coast village where he had deserted his daughter and her puppy children, his daughter and her children greeted him. Then a great feast was prepared. They now had plenty. And it was from this that the Gispaxl’t’s [Gispaxlo’ots ] were called people of dog origin.

Similar to the import of the Robin Woman legends, which are more exclusively Kalum (precisely because Robin Woman was from Kalum, and Kalum people contributed to Tsimshian survival), the dog origins of Gispaxl’t’s nevertheless reinforces the consistent thematic connection between inland and coastal villages.

In addition to the Gitsputwada link to Temlexham that was noted above, here the connection to Kalum also rests on the idea that, when the story was first told, there appears to have been only one Sm’oogyet named Xpilaxha in the Tsimshian Nation, and it was at a time when Gisbutwada and Ganhada were under a single crest. Thus current Smoogy’et Gerald Wesley may descend from the Xpilaxha referred to in “Dog Origin of the Gispaxloots Tribe”, a connection that more firmly reiterates Kalum’s ties to the coast, and to Casey Point in particular.

Again, as Vickers J. put it in Tsilhqot’in, these legends are important and have weight but “…it is not details that need close examination”; rather, “..it is the underlying theme or lesson that provides consistency to the legend.”164

164 2007 BCSC 1700 at para. 178.

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Further Response to BC’s Opinion on Kalum Title to Casey Point

Kecia Dusseault’s July 2014 memorandum entitled “Narratives of Robin Woman and her Residence on Kaien Island” appears to raise the connection between Xpilaxha and Casey Point but dismisses it based on the fact that Barbeau and Beynon did not include any coastal sites in its list of sites associated with Xpilaxha.165 However, based on Xpilaxha’s interest in other coastal sites discussed below, the list that Dusseault refers to must be incomplete insofar as it fails to list a number of coastal sites that are connected with Xpilaxha and that are detailed below.

The Dusseault memo also concludes from the various versions of the Robin Woman story that, among other things, “Kaien Island was used by the Gitwilgyots” - and KIB would of course not dispute this because Kaien Island was used by all Tsimshian Tribes – a characteristic befitting an area held in common by the Nation writ large.

However, Dusseault’s July 2014 memorandum not only appears to apply a frozen approach to the ayaawx, it also appears to be too rigidly attached to the idea that Tsimshian principles of land tenure excluded non-Gitwilgyots tribes from the west side of Kaien Island. While that argument would have currency if the land covering Casey Point was indeed Gitwilgyots territory, on this point Beynon clearly contradicts himself, as an annotation on a Barbeau map compiled from information provided by Beynon himself quite plainly states that the “Adjacent coast up to Nass and down to Skeena was used in common by all the tribes; with the exception of Japan Point which was the property of the Gitwilgyoots” (BF 418.2).

Furthermore, numerous other pieces of evidence that have been presented here but have not been considered in Dusseault’s July 2014 memorandum also point to the west side of Kaien Island as a common area: see the maps at figures 8 through 12, for example, some of which are based on information provided by Beynon (which of course contradicts the map BC relies on and that was produced in the unpublished notebook that Beynon was working on at the end of his life).

When the consistent evidence is read with the ayaawx concerning exclusive title to specific areas within the common ground – when it is read with the archaeology and the oral history going to Kalum residence and use of Casey Point, and the archival records that place Kalum on the coast in general - Kalum title and rights are rendered transparent.

In further support of this idea with respect to Casey Point itself, recall that Prof. Garfield’s statements underpin the proposition that each Tsimshian clan had

165 Kecia Dusseault, July 22, 2014, “Narratives of Robin Woman and her Residence on Kaien Island”, provided to KIB on October 1, 2014.

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exclusive use of beach areas in otherwise commonly-held areas:

Each of the tribes had its traditional stretch of beach upon which it camped. Gradually the members of each house or group of related houses laid claim to particular locations where they had camped for successive years and where they built their plank and brush camp structures.166

As well, as we saw above, several Tsimshianic maps support the fact that most of the Prince Rupert Harbour and associated shores were a common area, with Garfield's own archived notes describing an ayaawx with respect to the ownership of stretches of beach that, in turn, adds force to the proposition that Tsimshian houses, including houses led by individuals resident in Kalum, held exclusive use of beach areas in common locations like the west side of Kaien Island:

Beach lines: Owned by clans for shellfish and other material of the beach. 167 House group.

Garfield’s work – some of which was facilitated by Beynon - reinforces the argument that Tsimshian galts’ap and individual houses held title to beach areas and specific residential sites on Tsimshian common lands – most especially the west side of Kaien Island. As Kalum stated in its October 2013 Declaration:

We own these areas collectively as Tsimshian, and specific sites are owned by Kitsumkalum. We are responsible for the protection of these areas. In all instances, we rely upon these areas for food, social, ceremonial and economic purposes. These areas are sacred and we have the responsibility as Kitsumkalum Chiefs to protect them for future generations.168

Dusseault’s reliance on the idea that Gitwilgyots has claims to the area in question is also less tenable for the fact that the CTN and TTC indicated in various fora that the west side of Kaien Island is common, and not Gitwilgyots. On behalf of the Gitwilgyots, in fact, we saw above that James Bryant, the nine tribes’ leader, acknowledged that Kalum shares title in this area. Again, to quote from Kalum’s Elected and Hereditary Chiefs in their 2013 Declaration:

In 1909, the Tsimshian chiefs and Principle Men sent a letter to the government of British Columbia to assert our claims. The collective complaint involved the land question: “... the Government of the Province of British Columbia have disposed of timber on our Hunting grounds from the Canyon on the Skeena River, to Kiteaks [sic] on the Naas River. This land is gone from us to a great extent, the timber has been disposed of

166 Garfield, 1939:275 167 Viola Garfield Papers, U of Wash: 5.2.1 168 Kalum Declaration, p. 37.

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by the government, our game is getting scarce our hunting grounds have been taken away”. It was signed “On behalf of the Tsimpsean People”. This letter is relevant in that it clearly describes the territory of the Tsimshian as being “from the Canyon on the Skeena River, to Kiteaks [sic] on the Naas River.” The “Canyon” is a reference to Kitselas Canyon, which is above the downstream Kalum territories. According to the Tsimshian chiefs and principal men, Kitsumkalum is one of the Tsimshian peoples, therefore sharing fully in the title and rights that exist throughout Tsimshian territory.

Kalum adds further in its 2013 Declaration that:

…The Council of the Tsimshian Nation (CTN) formed in 1980 (approximately) to include all the Tsimshian communities... Kitsumkalum was an important member of the CTN. The CTN officially selected the name to be an accurate categorization of all the Tsimshian communities.169

Recall that the CTN’s October 16-18, 1981 meeting in Kitkatla also discussed galts’ap boundaries within Tsimshian territory, and this eventually led to two different actions being taken: a motion to pursue only the external Tsimshian boundary in land claims negotiations, thus leaving the galts’ap boundaries for internal discussion; and,170 the production of a map showing external boundaries.

Referred to as the 1981 External Boundaries Map, it illustrates certain common areas identified by Lax Kw’alaams - the Indian Act community that also represents Gitwilgyots. Here, consistent with the maps above, including those produced with information provided by William Beynon, Kaien Island is recognized as one of the common Tsimshian areas:171

169 Kalum Declaration, p. 13. 170 Council of the Tsimshian Nation (CTN). Land Claims Meeting. October 17, 1981. (KTO archive) 171 CTN. Land Claims Meeting. November 5, 1981. (KTO archive)

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Figures 16 (above) and 17 (detail, below): CTN External Boundary Map from 1981 Kitkatla meeting. (KKSHRP archives)

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A related interview with Lax Kw’alaams Elder Bob Sankey makes it clear that the intent of the CTN was to produce a map that reflected the common territory of the Tsimshian Nation:

Jim McDonald When we were doing the CTN, the Council Tsimshian Nation, remember the map, this was all common territory.

Bob Sankey Yeah.

Jim McDonald And now I see the Allied Tribes, or James [Bryant], have um, written underneath that, “common territory of Metlakatla tribe, Lax Kw’alaams tribe.” So they’ve taken it over. But when we, back in 1980 that was all common--

Bob Sankey Yeah it was all common to the Tsimshian.

Jim McDonald All of it? Kitsumkalum, Kalum.

Bob Sankey Yeah. Kitkatla always say there were different from uh, hey. Like they wouldn’t, I remember I tried to call them in and talk about the, the common areas. They didn’t wanna be part of it. They said “No, we’re Kitkatlas.” Oh. Fine.172

Thus Kalum’s Elected and Hereditary Chiefs state in their 2013 Declaration that:

In 1982, the hereditary chiefs of nine tribes of Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla submitted to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development a statement specifying their claim for their “aboriginal use and occupation of certain lands and adjacent waters”. The nine tribes referred to by the signatures on this statement are the nine groups in Port Simpson as represented by the Allied Tsimshian Tribes. The statement identified specific territories for each tribe and also territories held in common by all the tribes. Significantly, Kaien Island is identified as a common territory, as distinct from a territory exclusive to one tribe/galts’ap. The 1982 statement intends the expression “all tribes” to refer to the nine represented by the signatures on the document; however, the claim for common territory also aligns with Kitsumkalum’s claim that Kaien Island was a common gathering place for all Tsimshian, including the Kitsumkalum. Furthermore, some of the lineages of those “tribes” live at Kitsumkalum Reserve, [and] are considered to be part of the Kitsumkalum community/galts’ap, and are

172 Bob Sankey, KKSHRP interview, February 15, 2011.

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represented in political matters and social affairs by Kitsumkalum leadership. There is a clear overlap in galts’ap membership and linkage to the common territories of the Tsimshian. 173

There is therefore a very clear overlap in galts’ap membership and a linkage to the common territories of the Tsimshian - of which Kalum is a joint owner. Based on the evidence above, Kalum is also an exclusive owner of particular sites like Casey Point.

In addition, when the CTN was re-formed and became the Tsimshian Tribal Council (TTC) in 1988,174 “…the TTC chose a name that would accurately categorize the relationship of the member communities, and Kitsumkalum was an active member.”175

The TTC also passed a resolution in 1992 that amended its Constitution as follows:

"2. (1) The purposes of the Society are:

LAND AND SEA CLAIMS

(a) to assist all Tsimshian People to advance the recognition of aboriginal title or rights to lands, waters and air which the Tsimshian have occupied and governed since the Tsimshian People were put here by the Creator, [emphasis added]

(b) to affirm the concomitant responsibility of the Tsimshian People to govern, protect and enhance their territories, and all of the resources within, according to traditional laws and customs.

RESOURCES

(c) to coordinate affirmations of entitlement of the Tsimshian People to all of the resources within their territories, including (but not restricted to) fisheries, forestry and wildlife,

(d) to promote the mapping of, inventory of, protection of, management of, access to and harvest of such resources,

CULTURE

(e) to research, facilitate and promote the sustenance and strengthening of all aspects of the indigenous cultures including (for greater certainty) the language, art, customs, ceremonies and laws of the Tsimshian

173 Kalum Declaration, p. 13. 174 TTC Certificate of Incorporation, October 27, 1988. 175 Kalum Declaration, p. 13.

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People,

COMMUNICATIONS

(f) to act as a forum for Tsimshian Bands on all matters respecting aboriginal title, rights, and governance…176

The same year - 1992 - the TTC (then led by Executive Director Ric Miller – a Kalum member and now Sm’oogyet of the Kalum House of Gitxon) commissioned Susan Marsden to prepare a map showing tribal areas. Though labeled a provisional draft, the “provisional” aspect should be taken to refer to the galts’ap boundaries because, for our purposes, the point to be made is that Marsden’s map is entirely consistent with the common area illustrated in the visual information presented above (eg, figures 8 through 12, 16 and 17): her TTC map continues the identification of Kaien Island and surrounding lands as a Tsimshian area of common use (see figure 18, below). Moreover, text on that TTC map states that it is “based on statements made by Tsimshian Sm’oogit in 1915, 1926, 1982 and 1992”.

It is also consistent with the work of long-time Lax Kw’alaams consultant Dr. Margaret Seguin Anderson, who writes that “Some areas of the coast were common shared territory used by all the Tsimshian tribes…”.177

Note, too, the difference between the Allied Tsimshian Tribes map of 1982 and Marsden’s 1993 TTC map (figure 18, below): the designation on the latter refers to ‘common ground M.T.’ - “M.T.” being an apparent reference to the Metlakatla Tribe but, as an appellation added to “common ground”, this appears to be self- aggrandizing, most especially because there was no “Metlakatla Tribe” at the time of the assertion of sovereignty. Even if there was such a tribe, its members abandoned the area when they moved to Alaska with Rev. Duncan, its ostensible leader. Furthermore, as a “Tribe”, the community of “Metlakatla” was only recognized by Canada after Indian Reserve Commissioner O’Reilly visited in the 1880s and set Indian Reserve land aside for the Tsimshian – including Kalum people who enjoyed, for a time at least, an additional measure of protection by dint of the fact that the west side of Kaien Island was reserved for their use.

To continue the comment with respect to the conclusions drawn in the July 2014 Dusseault memo, however, note that the TTC map illustrates Gitwilgyoots lands on the eastern side of Kaien Island - well away from the west side common area which is, of course, the side of the Island where Kalum’s Village at Casey Point is located:

176 TTC Special Resolution, November 6, 1992; copy from KTO Archives. 177 Margaret Seguin Anderson, “The Allied Tribes Tsimshian of North Coastal British Columbia: Social Organization, Economy and Trade”, page 13. Retrieved on September 6, 2014 at http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/menzies/documents/anderson.pdf.

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Figure 18. TTC map 1992, detail. Note again that the west side of Kaien Island is common.

Recall, too, that although Kalum’s Declaration takes issue with the work of Dr. Joan Lovisek, she does point out in an August 2009 report prepared in the context of litigation involving Lax Kw’alaams and Canada that anthropologist Wilson Duff:

…stated that Kennedy Island, Smith Island and De Horsey Island, based on information obtained from Wallace in 1926: “were the common property of all the Tsimshian tribes,” as presumably was the coastal area in the vicinity of Metlakatla farther north.178

It should also be recalled that, among the signatories of the December 1993 ATT Statement of Intent was TTC President James Bryant, who also served as leader of the ATT, or “nine tribes”, thus including representation of the Gitwilgyots tribe itself. Chief Bryant (along with Lax Kw’alaams Chief Gary Reece) also signed a September 18, 2002 letter to Stan Ashcroft, the solicitor for the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum First Nations, stating that “We respect the fact the we share parts of our Tribal Territories with the Kitselas and Kitsumkalum Indian Bands, who stand with us together as members

178 Dr. Joan Lovisek, Prince Rupert – Port Fairview: Aboriginal Occupation of Prince Rupert Harbour Area, August 20, 2009 (revised in 2010).

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of the Tsimshian Nation, and with us at the Treaty Table with the Tsimshian Tribal Council.”179

In the same letter, Chiefs Bryant and Reece went on to confirm that, as authorized by Lax Kw’alaams and the ATT/nine tribes, including Gitwilgyots, “Kitsumkalum and Kitselas have claims of aboriginal title and rights within the areas that are the subject matter of the Petition and the supporting affidavits”180 – the Petition itself defining that “subject matter” as:

Aboriginal title over an area surrounding the lower reaches of the Skeena River, and extending to the ocean, on the North Coast of British Columbia in the vicinity of the municipalities of Prince Rupert and Terrace, and as specifically set out in the map attached hereto as Appendix A…181

Although the map referred to is missing from the Petition, it is likely the same ATT/nine tribes’ “Traditional Territories Provisional Draft Map” that appears as Appendix A to several affidavits found in the BCSC file containing the Petition itself (BCSC No. L0212179). These territories do indeed overlap with areas over which, as Chiefs Bryant and Reece confirmed, Kalum shares title and rights as a member of the Tsimshian Nation, and which also feature – as at Casey Point – title and rights that are attributed to Kalum exclusively.

Thus, the idea conveyed in Dusseault’s July 2014 memorandum - that the Robin Woman stories do not support Kalum claims in part because of alleged Gitwilgyots’ interests on the west side of Kaien Island – does not hold weight in light of the fact that, as numerous Tsimshianic maps and statements have made clear, the west side of Kaien Island is in fact common ground. Furthermore, Beynon’s map purporting to illustrate the area as Gitwilgyots territory is not only contradicted by all of the aforementioned maps and information, but also by several statements made by William Beynon himself, including his conveyance of two of the Robin Woman legends, “The central theme and lessons of which…” to paraphrase Vickers J. in Tsilhqot’in, remain “consistent.”182

In addition, the oral history above corroborates the consistent oral tradition, while the archaeological evidence corroborates the record of destruction of the village by the GTPR.

And yet, despite the material presented in support of this conclusion, and despite the weak nature of attempts to separate Kalum from its coastal locations featuring exclusive title and rights, and, in other areas, even shared title and rights, Kalum leaders have

179 Letter from Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band and ATT to Stan Ashcroft, September 18, 2002 (copy from Stan Ashcroft); emphasis added. 180 Ibid.; emphasis added. 181 Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band, Metlakatla Indian Band and the ATT Assocation [nine tribes] v. The [BC] Minister of Forests, AGBC, and Skeena Cellulose, Petition to the Court (BCSC, No. L0212179); emphasis added. 182 2007 BCSC 1700, para. 196.

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been forced to battle with minds set by conventional views on the Tsimshian Nation which have excluded and/or elided Kalum’s place within the Tsimshian Nation, not to mention the coastal lands it has held title and rights to since time immemorial.

Thus, the Elected and Hereditary Chiefs of Kitsumkalum have been forced to remind people that:

Kitsumkalum people are not marginal to Tsimshian society; we are central in many ways. Throughout history, written and oral, we have proven our community th to be a key player in Tsimshian society. We were part of the 19 century land disputes, a source of cultural information for the early ethnographers, active in early land claims conferences throughout the province and delegations to government, influential in the founding of the Native Brotherhood, major contributor to the success of Port Essington, and instrumental in the founding of recent Tsimshian political bodies and land claims movement. Kitsumkalum’s leadership has been exceptional within the Tsimshian Nation. Our remarkable history and heritage as Tsimshian is documented in a variety of formats, including books, chapters in books, journal articles, children’s books, reports, and web sites.183

Of course, when the archived records and published information marginalizes or fails to include Kitsumkalum at all, we must contend with a situation that leads us back to a point made at the outset of this paper by historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot - that the KIB suffers with the consequences that stem from the silence of the archives.184 As suggested above, however, the weight of the evidence presented here – the consistent legends, the adaawx, Tsimshian and common law legal principles (ayaawx and material produced pursuant to common law proceedings), oral historical, written, visual, and archaeological evidence – all of this allows for far more than an inference in support of Kalum’s claim to specific title and rights over certain coastal locations, most specifically at Casey Point.

Though the precise details of the exact geographic location of one residence – say, for example, Wiidildal’s cabin – in relation to the Casey Point site may be clouded by the

183 Kalum Declaration, p. 13. 184 The citations presented above at footnotes 3 and 4 bear repeating again here:

Silences enter the process of historical production at four crucial moments: the moment of fact creation (the making of sources); the moment of fact assembly (the making of archives); the moment of fact retrieval (the making of narratives); and the moment of retrospective significance (the making of history in the final instance).

As Rolph makes clear from his study:

…any historical narrative is a particular bundle of silences, the result of a unique process, and the operation required to deconstruct these silences will vary accordingly. …That silencing also is due to uneven power in the production of sources, archives, and narratives.

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distorting effects of early colonization and the negative impacts of economic development, the conclusion here is obvious: consistent information of both quantity and quality exists to support the inference and the assertion of Kalum’s specific title to Casey Point.

The letter from BC EAO’s LNG lead Cory Waters that is quoted on the cover page of this report provides additional confirmation – but its further assertion that permission was required by Kalum to access its many sites is, with a single minor exception going to one particular use in the far southern reaches of Kalum’s coastal territory, completely unfounded.

What follows over the course of the several hundred pages that follow below is additional specific evidence going to dozens of additional and specifically Kalum sites on the coast, on the Skeena and other Rivers, and at inland locations.

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PART 2: ADDITIONAL KALUM LOCATIONS ON THE COAST

The sites listed below include those in which Kalum holds exclusive title and rights as well as those held in common by the Tsimshian Nation, of which Kalum is a part and, as such, holds shared exclusive title and rights to the areas in question.

INVERNESS PASSAGE Map location Inverness Passage extends from the Skeena River, and lies between the mainland and Smith Island and between Lelu Island and Smith Island.

Figure 19. Inverness Passage Origin of the name Inverness is the name of a railroad station on the north side of Inverness Passage.185 It is also the location of at least one old village. The people of Wilnonesaagyet had their village at Wilkx łootks186 [Willarhlawl] (now Inverness) (Barbeau, Ganhada Adaawx

185 http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/50007.html 186 Mildred Roberts August 2010, spelling łootks = slide. A slide there killed a lot of people.

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Binder R33.3), and members of Kalum Ganhada houses would have visited the village187 on their way to and from Kalum; to and from other river and nearby coastal sites held by Kalum; and, to and from other coastal sites located further north, such as the Kalum settlements at Casey Point and Lelu and Watson Islands, and the Kalum harvesting sites in the Wainwright and Morse Basins, and at Galloway Rapids, and offshore at Porcher and Rachael Islands, to give just a few examples. Inverness Passage itself was a common marine transportation route bounded on either side by Tsimshian common ground,188 and therefore Kalum holds shared exclusive title in this area. Inverness Passage was also specifically used by Kalum people during the 20th century for fishing, including food fish, and also for berries and medicines (Marge Nelson, TUS 1999). CMTs that likely predate the assertion of sovereignty in the area were located both near and about 850 metres southeast of Cassiar Cannery (see map above) as well as above the North Pacific Cannery Museum, thus attesting to long-standing use of Inverness Passage.189

187 “…[W]e are ganhado [sic] and all are related…” (see Barbeau, BF 13.2). 188 TTC Map, 1993. 189 See site reports for GBTn-45, GbTm-5 and GbTm-11; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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INVERNESS PASSAGE Kitson Island Map location Kitson Island is related to Kaien Island resource use area but is actually south of Port Edward, just off the west entrance to Inverness Passage.

Figure 20. Kitson Island Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name The name sounds like it could be a word from the Sm’algyax language, but it is actually an English name. The island was named in 1867 by Captain Pender after George Andrew Noble Kitson, Royal Marines, who served on the HMS Malacca under Captain Oldfield.190 Kalum (traditional) uses of the place In a 1980 interview, Eddie Feak mentioned a Kitsumkalum interest at Kitson Island:

Kitson Island, used to be an old village. See this fuel. Whenever I want to go up there, I got no time to go Indian village, you know. I told my grandfather, I want to see that old place. That’s were they used to live.191 Kitson Island is also illustrated on the 1993 TTC map as Tsimshian common ground meaning that, as a vital component of the Tsimshian Nation, Kalum shares exclusive

190 See the BCGNIS entry for Kitson Island. 191 Eddie Feak, KKSHRP Interview. November 29, 1980.

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title and rights to the Island itself.192

Kitson Island Marine Provincial Park

The park, established in 1993, contains 44.7 hectares. The BC government provides some insight into the range of possible traditional uses of the island:

Kitson Island and Kitson Islet, at the mouth of the Skeena River, are both included in this Marine Park. The small sandy island is popular with kayakers and other small craft users for wilderness camping… The water around the island can be rough, particularly when wind opposes the current…. There is no fresh water source on the island…. Large herds of seals and sea lions following salmon heading for the Skeena River rest on the sandbanks.193

192 TTC Map, 1992. 193 (BC, Kitson Island Marine Provincial Park n.d.)

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Lelu and Stapeldon Islands Map location Lelu and Stapeldon Islands are located to the north of Inverness Passage and Smith Island, and northeast of Kitson Island.

Figure 21. Lelu Island and area. Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) The origin of the names is unknown. Kalum ownership of the place The 1993 TTC Map illustrates both Islands as part of Tsimshian common ground.194 As well, at least two Allied Tsimshian Tribes (ATT) maps also illustrate Lelu Island as part of Tsimshian Common Ground of the ATT, without any specific tribal reference.195 Though ATT – like “Coast Tsimshian” – was defined without Kitsumkalum’s input or participation (or rather, was established or used to, in part, exclude Kalum’s participation), Kalum is clearly part of the “Tsimshian tribe”. Furthermore, Kalum claims a settlement on the Islands and was active in the general area.

Kalum members Bill Bolton and Chief Don Roberts, Jr. reported that Kitsumkalum had a settlement on the north side of Lelu Island, for example,196 with the information came from their fathers (Kalum Ganhada leaders James Bolton and Don Roberts, Sr.).

194 TTC Map, 1993. 195 Traditional Lands of the Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1994 submitted to the ICC Inquiry into the claim of the Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band. Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1999 maps by John Latimer. Provisional Draft Map of Tsimshian Territories. 196 Interviewed at Lelu Island on August 17, 2007.

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Bill Bolton also reported that Charles Alexcee, an elderly non-Kalum aboriginal man, once told him that, when Kitsumkalum was having difficulties with the winter, they should move to their village between Lelu Island and the mainland.197

In a 1984 heritage site and impact assessment, archaeologists from Millennia Research recorded 11 sites on Ridley and Lelu Island, all of them culturally modified trees (CMTs).198 However, their work did not cover all of Lelu Island, not any part of Stapeldon. The location of the residential area is shown on the map in the assessment report, and the colour coding on the map indicates significant data gaps where the Kitsumkalum site was reported by the elders. This obviously places Kitsumkalum at a disadvantage in proving title and rights in this area, but the location of the CMTs themselves on the edge of the gaps provides some support for the location of Kitsumkalum’s settlement on Lelu and Stapeldon Islands (see the area bounded in red, below):

Figure 22. Map showing general area of Kalum residence on Lelu and Stapeldon Islands. Archaeological work “on the north coast of the island, about 140 meters east of the islands northwest tip… at the head of the most westerly bay on the north side of the island” revealed an undated CMT in 1982,199 and further work is now specifically planned at Stapeldon Island, which Chief Don Roberts Jr. described as dividing “…Lelu Island at rising tide at low water they are connected with a mud beach a narrow passage and at the passage on the north end it’s all in the circle location where once

197 Email from Rina Gemeinhardt, Kitsumkalum Consultation Referral Specialist, to Dr. James McDonald, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!dated 2/26/2013. ! 198 Archer, David J.W. (Museum of Northern British Columbia) 1984. Prince Rupert Harbour project heritage site evaluation and impact assessment. Permit 1983-35. 199 See site report for site GbTn-41; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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! !

Kitsumkalum lived”200 and which is illustrated in Figure 22, above. Other Kalum interests in the area Both Islands are associated with Watson Island, which had a known Ganhada village featuring social associations with Kitsumkalum.201

200 Email from Chief Don Roberts Jr., dated 9/30/2014. 201 “…[W]e are ganhado [sic] and all are related…” (see Barbeau, BF 13.2).

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Watson Island Map location Watson Island is on the north side of Port Edward, separated from Kaien Island by the Zanardi Rapids, a constricted channel featuring very strong tidal currents.

Figure 23. Watson Island Origin of the name The name was first identified in 1905, adopted on the 3rd of April 1952, and confirmed on July 8 1954,202 but the origin of Watson is unknown. Tsimshian ownership of the place Allied Tsimshian Tribes maps show Watson Island as part of the Common Ground of the Allied Tribes, without any specific tribal reference.203 This is confirmed by the 1993 TTC map. Kitsumkalum is of course part of the “Tsimshian tribe” and, as discussed below, claims that the wil’naat’ał ties of some Kitsumkalum families make them a part of the traditional Ganhada settlement of Waaps Nisho’ot, as described in the discussion of Dzagaedil’s village, below. Kitsumkalum members also claim to have been active in the general area.

202 http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/35557.html 203 Traditional Lands of the Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1994 submitted to the ICC Inquiry into the claim of the Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band. Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1999 maps by John Latimer. Provisional Draft Map of Tsimshian Territories.

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Dzagaedil’s Village Map location Dzagaedil’s village on Watson Island, immediately south of Kaien Island, is represented as No 9 on Beynon’s Plan III, but it is described differently in Beynon’s text than it is on his sketch map. Beynon’s description of the village in the text is that it is on “Watson Island at the edge of Zenardi Narrows or rapids [sic], separating Watson Island and Kain [sic] Island”,204 but his sketch does not illustrate Watson Island as a distinct land form. It is therefore not clear if he intended to draw Dzagaedil’s village site (#9) on southern Kaien Island or on the mainland south of Kaien Island:

Figure 24. Dzagaedil's Village The two options presented by his sketch are also illustrated below:

204 William Beynon, Notebooks, Vol. III p. 117-118.

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Figure 25. Dzagaedil's Village Origin of the name Dzagaedil was “a man supposedly of supernatural origin”, and the name – from the house of Nisho’ot [Ni.sh’t] - translates as “moved across the water”.205

Kalum ownership of the place As indicated, ATT maps show the location of the village in the Common Ground of the Allied Tribes, without any specific tribal reference of ownership, a point confirmed by Marsden’s 1993 TTC Map. 206 On behalf of its members, Kitsumkalum claims kinship connections of the wil’naat’ał type to Waaps Nisho’ot of Dzagaedil’s village.

Wil’naat’ał translates loosely as “clan”. Conceptually, it ties members of various houses together across the Tsimshian Nation’s residential galts’ap. As a component of Tsimshian social organization, it is fundamentally important in a world where, as Dr. James McDonald writes:

205 From the intransitive verb: dza̱g̱a̱ yaa (Lingalinks). 206 Traditional Lands of the Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1994 submitted to the ICC Inquiry into the claim of the Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band. Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1999 maps by John Latimer. Provisional Draft Map of Tsimshian Territories.

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…the perceived centrality of [the contemporary Indian Reserve villages like Kitsumkalum, Metlakatla and Lax Kw’alaams] and their associated tribes in Tsimshian social structure has become a historical canon accepted by missionaries, politicians, civil servants, historians, geographers, archaeologists, and many “armchair” anthropologists. This assumption is a convention that loosens the aboriginal ties to the land and resources and is attractive for the colonial society. It is a belief that has been normalized within the colonized worldview as the basis for relationships in civil society.207

As noted above, it is clear that the entire process of reserve establishment – continuously resisted by Tsimshian and Kalum people from the time of O’Reilly’s initial visit in 1881 to the departure of the Royal Commission in 1915 - created a fundamental shift in, and a partial disintegration of, Tsimshian social organization and relationships. This was compounded by both Tsimshianic suspicion and the Crown’s failure to recognize claims to village and resource sites as the ayaawx was overcome by a legal system driven by fee simple ownership. In time, as the Indian Act became more entrenched, the altered landscape would be considered de rigeur by both government and business – and yet, to this day, it bears very little connection to the way in which the Tsimshian themselves viewed each other or the lands they held title to as of 1846.

Indeed, the establishment of Indian Reserves reinforced the people’s separation from the lands and rights they exercised, with the imposition of various pieces of hunting and fishing legislation leading to ever greater alienation and destruction of the Tsimshianic identity. At Kitselas and Kalum itself, local police official Tom Parsons, later the senior most policeman in BC, recalled that around 1912:

…there were Indians who didn’t take kindly to this invasion of their ancient lands and holdings and the automatic infringement on an hereditary freedom of movement. Incidentally it says a great deal for the Indians who, although they sensed and saw the ultimate end of these unwelcome encroachments, for the most part obeyed laws, new and often not understandable imposed by these hungry and voracious aliens.208

Parsons himself, knowing that Kalum people were, for example, engaged in hunting and trapping out of season, and that Chief Solomon engaged in direct action with respect to the WWI-era “moored canoes and trapping paraphernalia belonging to the “trespassing” whites”, was sympathetic and did not make arrests on the occasions that he wrote about.209 Indeed, Parson’s memoir evinces an empathy for the Kalum seasonal round that seems incredibly rare for the era:

207 See James McDonald, “Tsimshian Wil’naat’ał and Society”, in Of One Heart: Reflections on Gitxaała and Neighbours; Indigenous Peoples in the Contemporary World (forthcoming), p. 2. 208 T.W.S. Parsons, “The Brief Beginnings of an Autobiographical Narrative as Dictated by T.W.S. Parsons to his Wife Lucile During the Spring of 1958” (BCARS, E/E/25), p. 23. 209 Ibid., pp. 24-25.

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In precisely the same way as your business man leaves his home each morning for the work of the day and returns to that home at night, that week, or that month as the case maybe, so in the course of his seasonal persuits [sic] the tribesman and his family would vacate his basic residence for the business of hunting, trapping, fishing and gathering. Each of which(these?) several occupations or ventures called for a different local of operation and were regarded as part of the family patrimonial holding. Naturally this involved a wide area of territory. In this light the collective domain of any particular culture represented many thousands of square miles.

... Entirely without benefit of anthropology the bearded white interlopers invariably took the attitude that land which so far as he could see was vacant ( uninhabited?) was something he might take for his own. This was an approach fortified by Government when it would allocate reservations on the basis or immediate residence with absolutely no thought at all for the areas of provenance from which the occupants derived their seasonal food and clothing - supplies.210

Parsons’ memoir and the wil’naat’ał concept are linked because, as Professor McDonald puts it:

The clearing of the land through the Indian reserve system cut off the corporate groups, the wuwaap, from their estates and other landed property. The resource legislation appropriated resources into the capitalist economy and redefined both the technology that could be used on those resources and the way labour could be applied.211

The wil’naat’ał itself - “…a social group consisting of relatives and related wuwaap/Houses, linked matrilineally back to a common ancestor”,212 a concept further elucidated by Garfield as “…a sub-clan or branch of a pteex that shared an origin ‘myth meaning an adaawx (1939:174-76)” 213 - reduced the conflicts and bare cupboards that the different Tsimshian galts’ap have experienced in light of the suppression of the ayaawx and the imposition of, for example, Canadian and BC natural resource laws that has sometimes made it impossible for Kalum people to follow their traditional lifeway in the territories and sites over which they have struggled to defend their title and exercise their rights.

The wil’naat’ał is thus an important structure in the relationship between people and the land they have traditionally used - and over which they share or hold sole exclusive title to. Here, in the case of Watson Island, the key wil’naat’ał linkage is between the Waaps Nisho’ot - a matriline of the Gitzaxłaał - and Waaps Xpilaxha, the Kalum Ganhada house in which the matriarch, the late Addie Turner, and her matrilineal family, including her brother Roy Nelson, are associated. Their mother was adopted from Waaps Nisho’ot,

210 Ibid., p. 34. 211 Supra, note 207, p. 12. 212 Supra, note 207, p. 21. 213 Ibid.

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from which Dzagaedil came, into Waaps Xpilaxha, whose current Sm’oogyet is Gerald Wesley, the Kalum member who was mentioned in relation to the village at Casey Point.

Herring eggs also used to be harvested in this area until the supply and the attendant environment was overwhelmed by a pulp mill in the area.214

The wil’naat’ał linkage here is a close one that traditionally supports Kitsumkalum activity claims in the general area, and thus another informant related how Addie Turner, as a young girl, would row furiously through Zanardi Rapids at the north end of Watson Island in order to see relatives living at Barrett Rock215 where, as we saw above in the section on Casey Point, oral history also puts another nearby Kalum settlement.

As Addie rowed toward it in the early morning, her view to the east would have captured the sunrise over the Morse and Wainwright Basins.

214 Pers. Comm., Don Roberts, October 2014. 215 Pers. Comm., Steve Roberts, August 2014.

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MORSE AND WAINWRIGHT BASINS AND GALLOWAY RAPIDS Map location This area near Galloway Rapids is identified as a traditional use area by Kitsumkalum. The rapids are located in the southeast part of Kaien Island where the Highway 16 bridge links the island to the mainland, and connects the Morse and Wainwright Basins.

Figure 26. Morse Basin

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Figure 27. Wainwright Basin Origin of the name The Morse Basin connects with the Butze Rapids, which were named after Mr. A. Butze, a purchasing agent for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1907. In Sm’algyax, the rapids are called “Kaien”.216

Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Addie Turner reported that her family collected clams and sea food in this area (Addie TUS 1999, pers. comm. With Jim McDonald, 2008). Stewart Bolton also reported Kitsumkalum use of the area (2009). Although the reference is to Galloway Rapids, or sometimes to the highway bridge, the gathering areas are the Wainwright and Morse Basins. ATT maps also show the area from Wainwright Basin to the highway Bridge as part of the Common Ground of the Allied Tribes, without any specific tribal reference,217 a fact confirmed by the 1993 TTC map.218 Butze Rapids also features culturally modified trees protected under the BC Heritage Conservation Act.219

216 ftp://ftp.for.gov.bc.ca/DCO/external/!publish/SIGN_MAKER_RESOURCES/Brouchure_Examples/Butze _Rapids_Brochure_final.pdf 217 Traditional Lands of the Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1994 submitted to the ICC Inquiry into the claim of the Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band. Allied Tsimshian Tribes 1999 maps by John Latimer. Provisional Draft Map of Tsimshian Territories. 218 TTC Map, 1993. 219 ftp://ftp.for.gov.bc.ca/DCO/external/!publish/SIGN_MAKER_RESOURCES/Brouchure_Examples/Butze _Rapids_Brochure_final.pdf

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Kitsumkalum claims a small settlement in the vicinity of the bridge. As indicated above, there is a significant wil’naat’ał linkage between this area as recorded in Kitsumkalum TUS projects and the site of Dzagaedil’s village. Both are part of the heritage of one of the prominent Ganhada families in Kitsumkalum - Addie Turner and her brother Roy Nelson, and the current Sm’oogyet Xpilaxha, Gerald Wesley of Kitsumkalum.

Figure 28. Galloway Rapids on a calm morning (photo by Dr. James McDonald)

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Figure 29 Galloway Rapids area (image from Google Earth) With respect to archaeological finds, surface lithics were recovered in 1983 from the west side of Wainwright Basin on the south shore of Kaien Island.220 The site report states verbatim: “THE LAND IN THIS AREA IS VERY BOGGY AND HIGHLY UNSUITABLE FOR FINDING A PREHISTORIC SITE. NO CULTURAL SEDIMENTS NOTICED IN DETAILED SOIL PROBING OF AREA. HOWEVER, THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW GOOD BEACHES ALONG THE SOUTH SHORE OF KAIEN ISLAND, SO 221 MAY REPRESENT A FOCUS OF ACTIVITY IN THE AREA.”

220 See site report for site GbTn-28; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 221 Ibid.

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KALUM SITES ON OFFSHORE ISLANDS

Figure 30. This map shows the geographic relationship between the many off shore islands that feature strongly in Kalum’s seasonal round. On August 2, 2002, Kalum Treaty official Alex Bolton informed James Bryant of Lax Kw’alaams that he was seeking his help in documenting several areas over which Kalum asserted (and still asserts) title and rights, including:

Baker's Inlet for cabins and a variety of activities by Alex Bolton's family (including his father James), Arthur Island for cabins and a variety of activities by the Bolton family (including his [father] the late James and Edward Bolton), Dundas Island for sea food by Elizabeth Spalding's family, including the Remy's, Feak Creek by Don Robert's family (including the late Eddie Feak)…

Alex Bolton added that:

Our use of these areas have been publicly acknowledged since the date of the original land claims map drawn up in Kitkatla in 1980, and more recently in various AGM's of the TTC in Prince Rupert. We would like to document this acknowledgement according to protocols, and record the details of our access rights to these areas.222 The following section covers the areas referred to in Mr. Bolton’s August 2002 letter, and several more as well.

222 August 2, 2002, Letter from Kalum Treaty Office to James Bryant, KTO Archives.

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Rachael Islands Map location The Rachael Islands are located between Digby and Stephens Islands, in Chatham Sound.

Figure 31. Rachael Islands Kalum (traditional) uses of the place The Rachael Islands are, among other things, a sea resource gathering area for Kalum members. Gord Roberts and Don Roberts, for example, picked abalone there (TUS 1999): “We get abalone on this Rachel Island, but it’d be very few, you’ll get a little bit abalone on Gull Rock, but a few” (per Don Roberts, Jr.). Alex Bolton also noted that this is a high use area for cods, crabs, halibut, and sea weed.223

Although handlogging records are incomplete and partially destroyed, it is not clear when Mark Bolton obtained his first licence for Rachel Island, but evidence is clear that Mr. Bolton held a handlogging licence for Rachael Island that ran until it was deleted in 1935.224

The fact that a record to document Mark Bolton’s licence was even found represents a minor miracle of archival retrieval, because, as Haisla specialist John Pritchard noted in

223 KTO memo, dated July 8, 2003. 224 See entry for Mark Bolton, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913-1927 [sic]”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-8.

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his 1977 Ph.D thesis, most of the related documentation was destroyed before 1930 (pursuant to the Public Documents Disposal Act permitting the destruction of “valueless” paper). As Dr. Pritchard writes, with “..only the fragments of evidence remaining in the files”, 225 it is difficult to draw many conclusions, but one can certainly state that, based on the oral history collected by the KIB, Kalum members held many more licences than have been found in BC MOF Archives – and those that have been found cover many coastal areas, and not just Rachael Island.

For example, Mark Bolton himself also held a licence for Gibson Island that was deleted in 1935;226 between 1913 and 1916 he also appears to have held six other licences in other (unspecified) areas, perhaps also including both Rachel and Gibson Islands, among other potential locations.227

Many more Kalum people were also active as handloggers in the same era (circa 1912- 1935),228 with some of the remaining evidence – for example, the triplicate copies of the actual licences that have been preserved – also tying Kalum to locations in Portland Canal, Union Bay (northeast of Lax Kw’alaams), Marrack Island, Gibson Island, the north shore of Bakers Inlet, Selwa Island, and the Ecstall and Skeena Rivers.

Benjamin Bennett also held a handlogging licence on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii.

While the latter may be a literal outlier in that it covers land outside Kalum traditional territory, the remainder of the licences cover areas where Kalum members had - and still have - traditional ties to the land that include both title and rights. What was referred to above as the silence of the archives – or, in this case, the physical destruction of the archives – should therefore add weight to the oral tradition and history in areas of the coast where records were either not made or were physically destroyed by the provincial government because – clearly - absence of evidence with respect to handlogging licences should definitely not be considered evidence of absence of Kalum people in these specific coastal areas,229 particularly when other forms of evidence place the people there.

At Rachael Island, where there is of course one record extant, the Bolton and Kalum ties go back almost a century, and specifically for a resource that lends itself “…to clear, unequivocal, transmissible control.”230

225 John Pritchard, Economic development and the disintegration of traditional culture among the Haisla (UBC: PH.D Thesis, Anthropology, 1977), p. 145. 226 See entry for Mark Bolton, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913-1927 [sic]”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-8. 227 See entry for Mark Bolton, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913 [sic] -1916”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2- 7. In 1923-1926 he also held licences on the Ecstall River: see entry for Mark Bolton, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913-1927 [sic]”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-8. 228 See entries for, eg., Moses Feak (seven licences), William Brooks (two licences), “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913 [sic]-1916”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-7. 229 See BC MOF destruction sheet per the Public Documents Disposal Act in “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913-1927 [sic]”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-8. 230 John Pritchard, Economic development and the disintegration of traditional culture among the Haisla (UBC: PH.D Thesis, Anthropology, 1977), p. 255.

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On that issue, Dr. Pritchard was not able to conclude for the Haisla that “aboriginal concepts of control” outweighed economic expediency with respect to the location of the licenced areas because the Haisla licences seemed to have been taken out in relative proximity to the mills that would buy their logs – and these were often not located in Haisla territory.

In the case of the Kitsumkalum, however, with the exception of the Bennett licence on Graham Island, all of the handloggers that can be tied to specific locations did indeed work near, on or in areas that currently feature other evidence of Kalum title and rights. In other words, the licences are in areas of either exclusive or shared title and control. Thus Mark Bolton’s tie to Rachael Island is not unique: like other coastal locations, Rachael Island is both a Kalum sea resource use area as well as a licenced location for a Kalum handloggers that can fairly assumed to date back almost one hundred years.

The fact that a Kalum person took out the licence in the first place also speaks volumes about the community’s ties to the location in question. Note, too, that beachcombing and salvage licences were also taken out by Kalum people in areas where it holds title and rights, but, after speaking with MOF records people in Victoria, Prince George, Nanaimo and Terrace, it is clear that MOF policy dictated that beachcombing and salvage licence files be destroyed only ten years after the file’s creation date, or following the death of the licence holder – whichever came first.

This obviously makes it impossible to locate any related historical documents at all – silence of the archives, indeed…

However, the remainder of the licences that are extant – as well as other forms of corroborating evidence - will be presented in the course of the discussion below.

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Gull Rocks Map location Gull Rocks are a sea resource area located east of Stephens Island, in Chatham Sound.

Figure 32. Gull Rocks Kalum (traditional) uses of the place

During Kalum’s 1999 TUS, Gord Roberts recalled picking sea gull eggs at Gull Rocks.231 Similarly, Mildred Roberts remembered that Gull Rocks was, “where we used to pick, ah, clam shells to take home for the graves and Seagull Rock is over here. When I was about 7, 8, I rowed across with my grandparents… We’d get seagull eggs there.”232

Don Roberts Jr. also told the TUS interviewers that:

Then crabs is in Hunts Inlet. All year around, real good crab fishing there. That’s pretty good, unless they fished it out now. And, you get a lot of, I get a lot of, this is...oh, you’re missing one rock right here. Out here, ’cause Gull Rock is around here somewhere, there’s a lot of halibut right around there, and, lots of halibut there, and octopus, and red snappers and all. We do our fishing from there all the way into Island Point. We run our gear in there. There’s halibut, octopus and

231 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential). 232 Mildred Roberts, 2009 Interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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red, and cods here. It’s a pretty good area there. We get abalone on this Rachel Island, but it’d be very few, you’ll get a little bit abalone on Gull Rock, but a few.233

Don Roberts, Sr. and Harvey Wing also used Gull Rocks, and were interviewed by Dr. Jim McDonald:

Jim McDonald But Gull Rocks is, is--

Don Roberts Where we used to get the seagull--

Harvey Wing Seagull eggs.

Don Roberts Seagull eggs.

Harvey Wing There and Green Top and Hall Rock [inaudible].

Jim McDonald What was the last one? Hall?

Harvey Wing Hall Rock?

Jim McDonald Holland Rock.

Harvey Wing Right outside of Port Ed.

Don Roberts I think Gus told me June 17th around the last time you can eat them. It’s almost to the day…234

233 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential). 234 Interview with Jim McDonald, circa 1980.

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GIBSON (HADANII) ISLAND Map location Gibson (Hadanii) Island is at the head of Grenville Channel.

Figure 33. Gibson (Hadanii) Island Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Gibson (Hadanii) Island is an area identified in the Kalum TUS 1999, wherein Don Roberts, Jr. told the interviewer that he trolled for “winter springs all around Merrick Island, Gibsons, around Baker’s, down Kumealon, down Stewart Anchorage and then down…”.235 Mildred Roberts indicates that Gibson Island was known as Hadanii - Sm’algyax for black cod – on account of the rich black cod fishing grounds in the area.236

235 Don Roberts Jr., 1999 TUS interview, KKSHRP Archives 236 Pers. Comm., Don Roberts Jr., October 2014.

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Other Kalum interests in the area There was some traditional logging on the island: Paula Langdon of the Kitsumkalum band remembers hand logging with her father in the 1940s and 1950s. As with all Kalum people in the past, and as many still do today, Paula’s family followed a seasonal pattern of migration through the territory harvesting foods and other resources: “My Dad had logging claims. He had three islands that I knew he could log… His claim was in Baker’s Inlet and there were two other islands, Mary Island and Gibson Island.”237 Note, too, that, as he did on Rachael Island, Mark Bolton also had a handlogging licence for Gibson Island circa 1913-1925.238

237 Menzies, C.R. and Caroline F., “Working in the Woods: Tsimshian Resource Workers and the Forest Industry”. American Indian Quarterly. Vol. 25 No. 3 pp 409-430. 238 See entry for Mark Bolton, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913-1927 [sic]”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-8.

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EDYE PASSAGE: KITSUMKALUM’S TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS AND SITES Map location Edye Passage is a marine area located south of Prince Rupert in Range 5, Coast Land District. This passage is bordered to the north by Arthur and Prescott Islands, to the south and southeast by Porcher Island, and to the west and southwest by Henry and William Islands.

Figure 34. Edye Passage Origin of the name Edye Passage was named in 1870 by Captain Pender, after Captain William Henry Edye, HMS Satellite, in the station in 1869, having arrived from China.239

Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Many of the sites that are important to Kitsumkalum are located in and around Edye Passage - an important travel corridor utilized extensively to connect people to some of the larger sites at Island Point (Porcher Island), Arthur Island, Stephens Island, as well as to numerous other sites in-between.

239 http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/36578.html

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Figure 35: Edye Passage In short, this is a key ocean area for the Kitsumkalum, and a heavy use area for the harvest of herring and herring roe, kelp, sea weed, and clam beds.240

Edye Passage can be considered both an important transportation route between coastal resource procurement sites and a resource procurement area unto itself. For example, Kalum’s Wally Miller describes how the people would utilize Edye Passage: “…we’d travel all through that pass anywhere at all. Do our fishing and everything from there. We used to halibut fish too. Just like the Port Simpson does on, on Dundas Island. They got a place out there where they do everything and that’s the way we were over here.” 241

Evidence presented below indicates that Island Point (or Kwel’maas), Arthur Island (or Lax Spisoon/Spa Suunt), Stephens Island, and numerous other specific sites located in and along the Edye Passage area continue to be important social and cultural places for people at Kitsumkalum.

240 KTO memo, dated July 8, 2003 241 Wallace Miller, 2009 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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PORCHER ISLAND TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS AND SITES Map location Porcher Island lies off the mouth of the Skeena River, south of Prince Rupert, in Range 5, Coast Land District. Several land use studies conducted by Kitsumkalum have consistently recorded that members of the community used the area throughout the 20th century (eg., KK TLOS 1980, KK TUS 1999), but archaeological work has noted the existence of hundreds of CMTs in the area that date from the 1740s (and possibly earlier, eg., circa 1530).242 Kalum’s Mildred Roberts remembered that, during her childhood, there were many houses from many villages on Porcher Island (KKHRP notes 1980.04.01).

Figure 36. Porcher Island

242 See, eg., detailed site report for sites FIT o-17 and FIT 0-18, and FIT 0-34 and FIT-35; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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Figure 37: Porcher Island Origin of the name Porcher Island is named after Edwin Augustus Porcher, who served as Commander of HMS Sparrowhawk at the Esquimalt Naval Base from the spring of 1865 until he returned to England in the fall of 1868. While serving with the North Pacific Squadron, Commander Porcher made four summertime voyages to the North Coast of BC in 1866, 1867, and twice in 1868.243 Kalum ownership and (traditional) uses of the place In 2011, Lax Kw’alaams elder Bob Sankey explained that Porcher Island was an area used by all the Tsimshian - not just the Gitwilgyoots or Metlakatla:244 Bob Sankey Our guys don’t know the area anyway. ‘Cause we used to always go out with Kitsumkalum. Port Essington ones. [emphasis added]

Jim McDonald You know Lax Kw’alaams claims the island is territory of the Gitwilgyoots and uh, when we were doing the CTN, the Council Tsimshian Nation, remember the map, this was all common territory.

243 http://www.porcherislandcannery.ca/about.php 244 Bob Sankey, KKSHRP interview, February 15, 2011

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Bob Sankey Yeah.

Jim McDonald And now I see the Allied Tribes, or James, have um, written underneath that, “common territory of Metlakatla tribe, Lax Kw’alaams tribe.” So they’ve taken it over. But when we, back in 1980 that was all common--

Bob Sankey Yeah it was all common to the Tsimshian.

Jim McDonald All of it?, Kitsumkalum, Kalum.

Bob Sankey Mmm, yeah. Kitkatla always say there were different from uh, hey. Like they wouldn’t, I remember I tried to call them in and talk about the, the common areas. They didn’t wanna be part of it. They said “No, we’re Kitkatlas.” Oh. Fine.

You know, when I was working out there, I worked out there for three and a half years and every time they came to the north tip of Porcher Island the, David Moody was always come in to meeting. He says, “We can’t talk about this territory.” He said, “That belongs to the Allied Tribes.” And I let him know that those Allied Tribes uh, not all of the Allied Tribes, I said. It’s uh, mostly Ganhadas, I said, from the Gitwilgyoots tribe and the Kitsumkalum.

And I reminded him that we go abalone picking out there and we don’t go out on our own. We go out with [Kalum member] Lloyd Nelson and them. And then [Kalum member (probably Sam] Lockerby. You know they’re the guys that have to go out there and we just hop on board on their boats. We don’t go on our own boats. And that’s, that’s the way we were taught by our, our parents, you know. (*40:10 inaudible) belongs to that house group and you respect that and you go along with them and all.

Jim McDonald So that’s the key. I’m starting to finally understand. It’s, it, may be Gitwilgyoots area here but Island Point, top end of Porcher, it’s Ganhada territory. That’s why Don Roberts was there.

Bob Sankey It’s common, yeah.

Jim McDonald It’s common to the Ganhada and other houses of the Ganhada, doesn’t matter if they’re from Kalum, Kitselas, uh, Gitando, can go there.

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Bob Sankey In all the years we lived in Port Edward, ten years and every year they go for abalone. My brother Don would go out with uh, Sam Lockerby and Lloyd and them hey. Darren McLain. We never went out. He won’t, my dad he won’t let him take his boat out there. He says, “No you go out with them. It’s not our place.”

Jim McDonald So taking it one step further, um, Don’s children are Gisbutwada. They would just-- after Don Sr., Don Roberts Sr., after he’s gone, they would go to someplace that’s Gisbutwada territory.

Bob Sankey Yeah they could do that.

Jim McDonald Or would they be able to stay?

Bob Sankey They could be able to stay there if they’re, yeah. In the Ganhada area.

Jim McDonald Because their dad was Ganhada?

Bob Sankey But that’s a relationship that, that our people in Lax Kw’alaams don’t understand. You know, you don’t kick your kids out because you’re gone, you know. No, you gotta respect that. I remember that’s a thing that Terry Lawson always said. You’ve gotta respect one another. You know, just because the grandparents are gone don’t mean you kick them out. (*41:51 inaudible), he said, they handed down. It’s, not through the house group but through their children. You know they have their right. But you gotta still respect the Ganhadas, you know.

Jim McDonald And that’s why you were talking about Kwinitsa being Eagle.

Bob Sankey Yeah.

Jim McDonald So I have to look at this as the crest, the Ganhada or the Eagles and the houses that come there. It’s not the house that owns it but the crest that owns it. It’s common territory for them all.245

245 As Barbeau recorded: “…we are ganhado and all are related…” (BF 13.2).

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Bob Sankey Yeah. That’s the way it was up to Nass, Nass River. That’s why Lax Kw’alaams had a problem there. They claim it’s Lax Kw’alaams but the history we got they were, they lived by Ganhada, Laxgibuu, Gisbutwada and Laxsgiik. You know and then the, that’s how uh, when we submitted our comprehensive land claim, or we’re preparing it, we wrote to all the villages and asked if any, anybody has any interest around the Red Bluff area, hey?

And when Kitasoo responded, they said, “No, Kitasoo has no interest.” But the Ganhadas of the Kitasoo have an interest. They live there with the Ganhada. That was Tom Brawn. I’ll never forget that. He says, “It’s not Kitasoo”, he says, “It’s the Ganhada.” He said the Kitasoo wasn’t even in existence when the people first started the, making grease, you know.

Jim McDonald Yeah. So here, let’s see. Um, help me understand this. Here’s an old map and it shows Porcher Island. And the yellow part here is Gitwilgyoots territory. Island Point is, I think, up here. Um, I’m trying to understand what that means. If this is Ganhada territory but the top end of the island is Gitwilgyoots territory, what’s the connection there? Like Kitsumkalum valley is Kitsumkalum territory.

Bob Sankey It’s a, the Ganhadas that lived there were uh, I remember one family, Vera Spence. And uh, in all the years that I remember that was like uh, Island Point area there, all around there, right down to Eddy Pass. It’s all shared with Kalum. Spa Xksuutks246, that’s how we knew them, yeah.

Jim McDonald All this area, Arthur Island.

Bob Sankey Yeah, Arthur Island right through there. Our people, they never went there until there was commercial fishing, you know. Through Eddy Pass. But uh, the people who lived in Porcher Island Cannery are the ones, the Ganhadas that really harvested there hey? From, from the Gitwilgyoots. That is Vera Spence. Did I say Vera Spence? Yeah, that’d be Harvey Russell and them now hey? But nobody goes there anymore from there—[emphasis added]

At the end of the interview, Bob Sankey added that the Lax Kw’alaams group did not traditionally use Island Point:

Jim McDonald Well what you’ve told me really helps for me to understand this and, and uh, be able to explain on paper why Kalum was at uh, Island Point and the Ecstall and,

246 Port Essington, spelling by Mildred Roberts

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yeah. So I just wanna keep try digging in and then getting more and more details about it.

Bob Sankey I don’t know what, what Lax Kw’alaams problem is that they don’t ever go that way anyway, you know - Not until they start harvesting their roe and kelp [laughs], you know for commercial use. [emphasis added]

Note that, in a May 14, 1982 Aboriginal Claim submitted to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development signed by the hereditary chiefs of the Tsimshian tribes,247 the Gitwilgyoots are said to own “territories on Pitt Island, Porcher Island, and Smith Island”. Note that the wording clearly suggests that the Gitwilgyoots owned specific territories (laxyuup) rather than the entire area, thus leaving space for the territories and use of groups like Kalum.

Indeed, Dr. Joan Lovisek, in a February 7, 2007 report prepared in the context of litigation involving Lax Kw’alaams and Canada, pointed out that “…the Lax Kw’alaams Fisheries Resource Site Map shows all of the marine area around Smith Island, De Horsey Island and Kennedy island, Telegraph Passage, including the east shore of Porcher Island to Ogden Passage as used by the Gitwilgyoots for fishing resources.” Dr. Lovisek points out, however,that “This extent is … unsupported by Duff’s findings.”248

Note, too, that much of the north end of Porcher Island, including Kalum’s site at Kwel’maas (Island Point), is covered by a Kalum trapline currently held by Myrtle Laidlaw (TR0611T067). The northwestern area of Porcher Island is said by current Kalum Cief Don Roberts, Jr. to kave been a McLean (Kalum) family trapline.249 Again, as with Kalum handlogging licences, there appears to be a very tight correlation between Kalum traplines and Kalum lands over which it holds title and rights.

247 Manuscript copy in Kitsumkalum Treaty Office (KTO) archive. 248 Unpublished report prepared for James M. Mackenzie, Department of Justice, British Columbia Regional Office Vancouver, British Columbia. 249 Pers. Comm., Don Roberts, Jr., October 2014.

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Kwel’maas (Island Point) Map location Island Point is described in the BCGNIS as “On North coast of Porcher Island, Range 5 Coast Land District”. More informally; it is described as ‘near Humpback Bay’.

Figure 38. Kwel'maas (Island Point)

Figure 39. Island Point

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Origin of the name Although Island Point is the official name recorded by the BCGNIS, Mildred Roberts of Kitsumkalum states that the area was called “Kul-mass”, which she translated as mass = bark of tree. 250 This matches the archival name Kwel’maes, which William Beynon translates as: ‘where bark’: where = wil; bark = maas:251

The place was abundant in large hemlock trees from which bark was gotten and the inner sap bark was gathered together and beaten as a pulp, then made into plugs and was considered a great delicacy mixed with wild rice and oolichan oil.252 Kalum ownership and (traditional) uses of the place Kalum’s use of the area was discussed in the 1999 TUS,253 with Lax Kw’alaams Elder Bob Sankey also acknowledging Kalum territory at Island Point as follows:254

You know, when I was working out there, I worked out there for three and a half years and every time they came to the north tip of Porcher Island, David Moody was always come in to meeting. He says, “We can’t talk about this territory.” He said, “That belongs to the allied tribes.” And I let him know not all of the allied tribes, I said. It’s mostly Ganhadas, I said, from the Gitwilgyoots tribe and the Kitsumkalum.

And I reminded him that we go abalone picking out there and we don’t go out on our own. We go out with [Kalum man] Lloyd Nelson and them. And then [Kalum member] Lockerby. You know they’re the guys that have to go out there and we just hop on board on their boats. We don’t go on our own boats. And that’s the way we were taught by our parents, you know. (*40:10 inaudible) belongs to that house group and you respect that and you go along with them and all.

Jim McDonald So that’s the key. I’m starting to finally understand. It may be Gitwilgyoots area here but Island Point, top end of Porcher, it’s Ganhada territory. That’s why Don Roberts was there.

Bob Sankey It’s common, yeah.

Jim McDonald It’s common to the Ganhada and other houses of the Ganhada, doesn’t matter if they’re from Kalum, Kitselas, Gitando, can go there.255

250 Mildred Roberts, KKSHRP Notes 1980.04.01. 251 From Beynon, using spelling standards derived from Lingualinks (http://smalgyax.unbc.ca/). 252 Beynon Notebooks, Volume V, p. 11. 253 Kitsumkalum Traditional Use Study 1999 (Confidential) 254 Bob Sankey interview, February 15, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 255 As Barbeau recorded: “…we are ganhado and all are related…” (BF 13.2).

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Bob Sankey In all the years we lived in Port Edward, ten years and every year they go for abalone. My brother Don would go out with Sam Lockerby and Lloyd and them hey. [Kalum member] Darren McLean. We never went out. My dad he won’t let him [my brother] take his boat out there. He says, “No you go out with them. It’s not our place.”

Jim McDonald So taking it one step further, Don’s children are Gisbutwada. They would just-- after Don Sr., Don Roberts Sr., after he’s gone, they would go to someplace that’s Gisbutwada territory.

Bob Sankey Yeah they could do that.

Jim McDonald Or would they be able to stay?

Bob Sankey They could be able to stay there if they’re in the Ganhada area.

Jim McDonald Because their dad was Ganhada?

Bob Sankey But that’s a relationship that our people in Lax Kw’alaams don’t understand. You know, you don’t kick your kids out because you’re gone, you know. No, you gotta respect that. I remember that’s a thing that Terry Lawson always said. You’ve gotta respect one another. You know, just because the grandparents are gone don’t mean you kick them out. (*41:51 inaudible), he said, they handed down. It’s not through the house group but through their children. You know they have their right. But you gotta still respect the Ganhadas, you know.

Bob also talked about the connection between Kwel’maas and the Ganhada and Gitwilgyoots territory:

Jim McDonald Island Point is up here. I’m trying to understand what that means. If this is Ganhada territory but the top end of the island is Gitwilgyoots territory, what’s the connection there? Like Kitsumkalum valley is Kitsumkalum territory.

Bob Sankey It’s the Ganhadas that lived there, I remember one family, Vera Spence. And in all the years that I remember that was like, Island Point area there, all around there, right down

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to Eddy Pass. It’s all shared with Kalum. Spa Xksuutks256, that’s how we knew them, yeah.257

Another area on Porcher Island known as Isabella Chuck (spelling per DFO), a location for herring spawn, also featured a tight Kalum connection.

Figure 40. Spawn on Kelp

Current Chief Don Roberts Jr., reported bringing up Isabella Chuck at a fisheries meeting and, contrary to a story from James Bryant, having Bob Sankey recognize Kalum’s rights there:

One time when we were talking about Isabella Chuck there, and we were gonna do this herring, herring forecast fish, [the] time when Diane was the chief, but my portfolio was fisheries... And the nation was going to challenge the votes that they were having for a chief meeting to really say yes or no. And at that time they turned around, and I was just sitting there, and they said, “We should be asking Kalum permission if we should put the nation in jeopardy.”

But anyways, meeting went on and I brought up this Isabella Chuck. That’s what dad, ‘cause dad already told me the story already. I said, “We have rights there too at Isabella Chuck.” And James was sitting there beside me and he said, “No way we have to ask permission.” And I always, I could have, “No.” But anyways, he was getting furious but Bob Sankey was the chair that time. But Bob Sankey got up, called James out, took him to the back room ‘cause Bob was working for the Tsimshian Tribal Council then too. Bob came back to the meeting but James didn’t, but he was telling, but Bob talked to me after on the phone. He didn’t wanna talk there. ‘Cause he was trying to get James to apologize to Kalum because they do have rights in there. And James won’t apologize but he elected not to come back to the meeting. He

256 Port Essington, spelling by Mildred Roberts. 257 Bob Sankey interview, February 15, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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left or I don’t know what happened. But I know he told James to stand up and [inaudible] never heard what happened. Pretty good dispute in there, but… So I left but the phone rang, must have figured out how long ‘cause I just got into this parking lot and the phone [rang] and was, “Bob.” But he explained to me what happened. That he was supposed to apologize but he said, “Doing their records way back, the history showed that Lax Kw’alaams didn’t have any jurisdiction over that”.

But he apologized and he told us that we do have rights in there. But that’s about where that one went but at least Bob knew that in that area we did, we had some [rights], all around-- and that’s where McClean came up. Leonard’s trap line in there.258

Harvey Wing also confirmed the location as Kalum:

J. McDonald Was that a Port Essington territory?

Harvey Wing I’m not too really sure whether it was or not but quite a few people from Port Essington used to go out and stay here and there also, there was Port Simpson people, out a little bit more, and then Metlakatla. They had a small little place out there but if you knew the trails in the bush you could walk it all, eh? Walk and go and see these people from Port Simpson or Metlakatla.

J. McDonald Mmhmm. So you each had a, your own spots.

Harvey Wing Yeah.

J. McDonald Port Essington spot.

Harvey Wing Yeah, they just called it summer homes I guess. Summer places where they can put up a tent. And spend two or three days there and pick whatever they went there for it and go back home.259 Boundaries and Ownership Don Roberts, Jr. also reported what his father said about the ownership of territory at Island Point:

258 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 259 Interview with Jim McDonald, circa 1970.

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Then he was standing here on a rock and said this is what you call common area, out here. And then he said, we own this side, don’t ever let anyone tell you {inaudible} Isabella-chuck. I don’t know what the Indian name is or maybe that is it. But he said the valley behind there, he said that could have been owned by another tribe, but he said right where we were we owned that he said them were the days when you never asked, can I go live here … we owned it. But ah, we went in there, we looked at the herring eggs and saw Port Simpson in there then he took us back over here. Then we went in and that’s when he told me this other thing… he said that in there, we were looking up in there and he said that’s Kalum there, that little lagoon there. It’s called Isabella-chuck now. 260

Don Roberts, Jr. described his father’s interpretation of the boundary between the Kalum/Essington area and the Metlakatla/Lax Kw’alaams area when he was at the actual location, with his words recorded verbatim as he walked around the area (see also figure 52):

And he said that’s where his sister lived, but all along in here, and went through there, back where the Kalum houses were up along here and then on this side, down in this way, this didn’t look like a prime area but he said from that side of [inaudible] Island was Metlakatla. And he said ours, [inaudible] Isabella Chuck and they’re standing on that rock right here and there’s that island where you come in but there’s a little island around over here, sticking out-- and at that point, but you can’t see it, but it’s a little island there, little bit of trees, he said that’s the boundary. And then he said, “Lax Kw’alaams”, he said, “that’s why I’m here.” ‘Cause Uncle Bill, went over there, that’s what he said. He said this is where we used to [be], when we were right there. Not just, and then he said from there, that little island onwards where Lax Kw’alaams is, but one time Lax Kw’alaams [sic; probably refers to Metlakatla] and Port Simpson, they had a battle and they split. So it must have been that time where Metlakatla had this chunk in here, this bay, [inaudible] then it’s not a number one spot for picking herring eggs ‘cause it dried away. And then the other one’s been a prime spot, means the other guys had a prime spot. So I was wondering, maybe that was how come they were in there. Now they’re not using this one now. No they’re all together. But, we’re still in the same spot yet. I think that’s Island Point right there. This is probably all linked up. But at higher water it looks like a little island there with a little bit of grease sticking on it. So that’s the boundary.

Yeah and then he says ours is through it, probably right through there, we’re standing right there and he said right here was our boundary, so wherever goes in this way. But when we were in there we found a water hole right there. This is when we were there with Daryl and Matt. Comes from in here and water hole-- it’s the only water hole and then over here is where they did the

260 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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mill, where cutting the shakes and everything and all along this cabin is. Then right there is where the old canoe is still laying there. And it’s modern, just looks like when lumber started coming in they made a canoe out of the lumber. It’s still there.

You might be able to see that island. I’m not sure if this is it right there. See it, this is it right there. See that little rock behind there. At high water, right there, that’s the island. ‘Cause you can see, dad was standing right over here. And so that island there is where our boundary was. Down over here was Lax Kw’alaams but, and then over through here, we walked around and then this corner, but his sister lives like right there. And you can still see the old room she had, if you look hard and the little canoe. And you can see the canoe around somewhere. But dad said that the reason why he knows is that we were right across from them and then he said, then we see the old rooms. But he said down in here is where our cabins were. Over here. They were right here, where he was right across from his sister. And then he said there was three houses going along inside the bay here but it was somewhere around in here. And then so where he was there was other houses nearby, where old ruins. Then the water hole was-- where did we go up? It was right over here hey? 261

According to Mildred Roberts, although families owned cabins at Kwel’maas, she remembers that the land and resources were being shared:

I never heard anything about boundaries. People just lived there. People from here used to go out there to get their seafood and they could live there until they could come back up the river. 262

Bob Sankey explained this in more detail.

And they’re, right down to Porcher Island. The McLeans [Kalum], uh, Linda McLeans’ mother, they had, they had a camp out there. They’d uh, they lived down there in the spring and the fall. Because I remember Leonard, when he married my aunt Fern, my mother’s sister, these always go out there and, right after Easter and do preparation work for harvesting of salmon and, and uh, and spawn on kelp. Then they cleaned up the, you know the beaver traps and stuff like that, put them away and get ready for the salmon season. Then in the fall, they, they do, they get ready again for the trapping season. You know the martin and mink, I guess whatever they trap in the winter. Where they, that’s it’s, it’s known that’s their trapping area, that that’s their, their camping grounds. That’s been acknowledged [by] our elders.

261 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

262 Mildred Roberts, 2009 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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I remember when uh, the Ganhadas of Gitwilgyoots, they had a place out there at uh, Island Point that they shared with uh, Kitsumkalum. And so intermarriages, then you have Gisbutwadas there and Laxsgiiks and Laxgibuus, eh?263 And so they all end up there and we’ve always acknowledged that’s, Kitsumkalum always comes down there. And then so our tribal system and the intermarriages, and people acknowledge that. They include them and whatever they do and they share.

You know, a lot of things. Salmon, spawn on kelp.

Jim McDonald So that, that’s uh one of the spots that’s important for us to understand. When you say that uh, Island Point was Ganhada territory, they shared it with Kitsumkalum?

Bob Sankey Yeah there’s Ganhada’s and then through intermarriages Gisbutwadas come down there too right? The same with us, uh, you know there’s intermarriages with Kalum and uh, doesn’t matter what crest it is they always go along, you know. They take them along with them. Uh, Winter Harbor is where the McLeans had a, a place.

And he did that for years, you know right to the time he, he quit fishing, he stopped going out there. They always had videos of their, everybody pitching in to help out clean up out there.

Jim McDonald What kinds of rights, when you say it was shared, what kinds of rights would Kalum have at a place like Island Point? Are they just uh, visitors there?

Bob Sankey No they, they, they’re were just like us, I mean I think they spend more time there than we do. You know.

When, when our people moved to Lax Kw’alaams, they left Metlakatla, moved to Lax Kw’alaams. It was more, more Kalum down there than us, you know. They were quite consistent in their harvesting down there. They do a lot of things there, you know they fish halibut wherever they can there and lot of the salmon, they’re harvesting spawn on kelp.

263 As with the Ganhada, Barbeau also wrote that “Eagle are all connected” and “Laxskiks all connected” (BF289.7).

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Jim McDonald Mmm, so I think that James [Bryant] has said that Kalum shouldn’t be there, doesn’t have any rights. They were just there temporarily.

Bob Sankey No they have, they have the same rights as Metlakatla and us, you know.264

With respect to spawn on kelp, mentioned by Sankey above, Ric Miller, the current Sm’oogyet of the House of Gitxon and a former executive director of the TTC, informed former Kalum Chief Clifford Bolton on September 13, 1989 in the context of Kalum’s application for a roe on kelp licence that the application should reflect the community’s historical trade with “Kitwanga and the Hazelton tribes”, adding that he viewed it “as giving us historical rights to the roe.” The Sm’oogyet also stated that “Our tribe members used to go to the closest place for Roe: “Island Point”, and “Hunts Inlet” on the Northeast corner of Porcher Island.”265

Bob Sankey also reiterated that Kitsumkalum/Port Essington people had rights to Kwel’mass even though the north end of Porcher Island was generally Gitwilgyoots territory: “It is Ganhada territory that was common to all Ganhada. It is not the house that owns common territory, but the crest that owns it. It’s common territory for all crest members”, an idea that is consistent with Barbeau’s findings (BF13.2, 289.7). To reiterate:

Bob Sankey You know, when I was working out there, I worked out there for three and a half years and every time they came to the north tip of Porcher Island the, David Moody was always come in to meeting. He says, “We can’t talk about this territory.” He said, “That belongs to the Allied Tribes.” And I let him know that those allied tribes uh, not all of the allied tribes, I said. It’s uh, mostly Ganhadas, I said, from the Gitwilgyoots tribe and the Kitsumkalum.

And I reminded him that we go abalone picking out there and we don’t go out on our own. We go out with Lloyd Nelson and them. And then Lockerby. You know they’re the guys that have to go out there and we just hop on board on their boats. We don’t go on our own boats. And that’s, that’s the way we were taught by our, our parents, you know. (*40:10 inaudible) belongs to that house group and you respect that and you go along with them and all.

Jim McDonald So that’s the key. I’m starting to finally understand. It may be Gitwilgyoots area here but Island Point, top end of Porcher, it’s Ganhada territory. That’s why Don Roberts was there.

264 Bob Sankey, KKSHRP interview, February 15, 2011 265 KTO Archive.

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Bob Sankey It’s common, yeah.

Jim McDonald It’s common to the Ganhada and other houses of the Ganhada, doesn’t matter if they’re from Kalum, Kitselas, uh, Gitando, can go there

Bob Sankey In all the years we lived in Port Edward, ten years and every year they go for abalone. My brother Don would go out with uh, Sam Lockerby and Lloyd and them hey. Darren McLain. We never went out. He won’t, my dad he won’t let him take his boat out there. He says, “No you go out with them. It’s not our place.”

When he was young, Kalum member Wally Miller also spent time on Porcher Island with his uncle Louis Starr. He confirmed that there was a clear boundary between Kalum/Port Essington and Port Simpson. His comments also provide additional information with respect to how the area was shared:

W. Miller: Well, it was all Port Essington [Kalum] people. Whoever got there first took the house. [The people] from Port Essington .

J. McDonald: So one year you might use your house, then another year somebody like the Robert’s or the Bolton’s might use your house?

W. Miller: Yeah. There was a whole bunch of houses there.

J. McDonald: Was that just Port Essington [Kalum]?

W. Miller: Yeah.266

This corresponds information obtained from Lax Kw’alaams people in Port Simpson in the early 1930’s by anthropologist and adopted community member Viola Garfield of the University of Washington:

“every person had a right to live in any dwelling that belonged to his group, since he had helped to build it” (Reported in Port Simpson, Garfield, 1939:275) “House site: Building lots were allocated in the village to the different clans. Even if the house were vacated the house site could not be occupied except by the

266 Wallace Miller, 2009 Interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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permission of the previous [in this case Kalum] owning group”. (Viola Garfield Papers, U of Wash: 5.2.1).

Wally Miller also elaborated further on Kalum title and rights in this location:

Jim McDonald: Do you know why Kalum was there – was it just because it was convenient to go to Island Point – from Port Essington? Why were Port Essington people using that area – was it just convenience? Close by?

Wally Miller: No! No- that’s where we get all our seaweed and herring eggs and our abalone. Every year we only took what we –just to eat. We never sent divers in there. Never had divers that time so you got lots of abalone until the divers come and when they come they cleaned it out! They’re coming back slowly though…Every year people from Essington used to go out there.

Jim McDonald: Do you know if they owned it? Was it Essington territory?

Wally Miller: It was Essington territory. Yeah [Aboriginal rights.] Simpson’s got theirs. I don’t know where Simpson was or where they were at, but , if they got any say, they’d taken everything!

J. McDonald: Where would the territory be – was it just where the houses were or was it more?

W. Miller: No – we’d travel all through that pass anywhere at all. Do our fishing and everything from there. We used to halibut fish too. Just like the Port Simpson does on, on Dundas Island. They got a place out there where they do everything and that’s the way we were over here.267

Additional Evidence: The Early 20th Century While she was growing up, Mildred Roberts of Kitsumkalum spent time at Kwel’maas with her family. She talks about the many other coastal and inland sites where her family lived on their ‘annual round’, procuring and preserving resources from each site to sustain the family throughout the year. She notes that families travelled between Island Point and Arthur Island to access different types of resources and that these were not simply campsites; rather, they were considered ‘home’.268

267 KKSHRP Interview Archive. 268 KKSHRP Interview Archive.

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Kalum’s Home at Island Point Kitsumkalum kept several houses at Island Point but the structures fell into disuse in the mid-20th century and have since fallen down. Little evidence of the houses remains, but there is enough of the old timbers and planks to show where the houses once stood. Mildred Robert’s handdrawn location maps are provided below:

Figure 41 Mildred Roberts map of houses. Circa 2009.

Figure 42 Map of Island Point in the 1930s (Mildred Roberts 2009) Figures 41 and 42 are sketch maps showing the locations and owners of cabins at Kwel’maas during the 1930s, two of which Mildred Roberts lived in during her time there.

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The two cabins in the lower left corner of her drawing are located on Arthur Island, or Lax Spa Suunt, another important coastal use area for her family. Her location of Lax Spa Suunt is representative of the direction she remembers Lax Spa Suunt to be from the cabins and Island Point. Figure 43 collates her information with GPS points collected in 2009.

The identification of the houses here provides the relative location of each family but the locations on the map are approximate due to the imprecision of the GPS equipment and the nature of Garmin map imagery:

Figure 43. GPS sketch map of Kwel'mass

Mildred recalled nine cabins in particular at Kwel’maas and, in a recent interview, explained the placement of the cabins, the owners, and their connections to Kitsumkalum:

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Mildred: We lived with my grandparents, Sam and Cecilia Lockerby. That’s my mom’s mother. They had a cabin there, a rustic cabin and it had a porch. I remember that and it had a roof over the porch and then that’s where they hung their herring eggs. But then they had [inaudible] with just a roof and low sidings they weren’t closed in and they hang herring eggs in there. But before that and I knew, Billy wasn’t born then, and we lived in the big cabin that belonged to the Wesley’s. There were two cabins together. They were really well built and ah, one belonged to Robert Wesley and one belonged to David Starr and we lived in one and it was on the other side of where the cabins were with the Lockerby’s.

The cabin was over there that belonged to the Innes’s. That’s where Don’s sister, Doreen [nee Roberts], that’s where she lived with her husband James Innes….Edward McLean [writing his name on the map she is drawing] and then next to them was, ah, Gladys Gray [writing the name on the map], that’s Ben Bennett’s daughter.

B: Oh ok. And are these Kitsumkalum people or are they people from…was this an area that was shared?

Mildred: Ah… An area that was shared, like he’s Gitksan, McLean, this one - he’s from Glen Vowell I think [Edward McLean is the paternal grandfather of Olive Lockerby (nee Wesley) of Kitsumkalum], and Gladys Grey her mother was from Kitselas and her father was Kitsumkalum, Ben Bennett, and then next to them was Robert Reese from Hartley Bay. It seems like all the people that were living there were the ones that lived in Port Essington. See, they lived in Port Essington and, then Cecilia …she’ll be more recognized….Nelson, Lockerby [her married name]…they are Kitsumkalum and then there were two other cabins there. I know one was in that sort of a little hollow. I think that was John Wesley - another house was in a little hollow-like. He’s Kitsumkalum. And then this one was Paul Starr, he’s Kitsumkalum. And then over here was, ah, Doreen and James Innes [drawing on map]. This was Robert’s [Doreen Roberts and Husband James Innes] was Kitsumkalum and his mother was living there too, Rebecca [Innes]. And then behind their place someplace was sort of a little spring and a well and that was the only drinking water. There was two real nice little [cabins]. That was, one was Robert Wesley [drawing on map] and we lived in one of them. Um, David Starr [drawing cabin and writing name on map] I don’t know who owns which one.

We stayed there, ah, during herring egg season. I remember that because there were herring eggs hanging and drying. They just put poles along in the porch of my grandmother’s place and they would just hang the big kelps over, or the lagii - you know the stringy kind? Or the branches, they’d just hang them on…let them dry. They were getting herring eggs and seaweed. I think [they would get seaweed] around this area, around there someplace... They’d get halibut [at

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Island Point] too. There’s some that lives there and, ah, from herring eggs time to seaweed, like Paul Starr and John Wesley and them and these people (pointing at map she made). But once in a while my grandparents would come across to Lax Spa Suunt at seaweed time and that’s when Sam was halibut fishing and he had all his gear there. 269

Land and Resource Use A quote from Wally Miller270 indicates that some of the key resources used by Kitsumkalum people at the north end of Porcher Island are seaweed, abalone and herring eggs. Mildred Roberts also spoke of the resources gathered for preserving (see quote immediately above), the resources used to help preserve seafoods, and she also shares a story which demonstrates that people were utilizing plant foods available on the Island:

I remember, I know it was just during herring egg season. The thing, maybe the time we lived there then when my other Grandparents came out – my parent’s parents – and we went out with them and we actually went to the, ah, spawning ground. That was only the one time I went out I remember seeing the water all milky, all milky. That was them spawning.

There’d be lots [of culturally modified trees] there because people used it for hanging up things. There was no strings so they used it to string up the things they dry. I remember my mom used to tell me …she used this for a string rather than rope and she makes a bundle of herring eggs and kelp and she’d make a bundle. I don’t know how many in a bundle then tie it with the cedar and then when we string up sea prunes, abalone or things like that.

Mom and my grandmother [Cecilia Nelson] were just laughing about. It used to be so funny, like Gladys Gray had lost her teeth and so did my Grandmother. Their teeth had just rotted out, and they had octopus and it’s pretty muscle’y. So they were having a devils club eating contest [laughing] thinking they were so funny! They were toothless. 271

Mildred’s son, current Kitsumkalum Chief Don Roberts Jr., also recalls gathering herring roe and kelp at Island Point and describes the life way as involving a mix of resource sites:

Don Roberts Jr.: Basically Essington’s whole life with fishermen is right here and right on Arthur Island here. This area from Island Point all to that’s the fishermen’s whole life most of it and right here on the Skeena. All the way down to, God all the way down to here. [JT: All the way down to Grenville Channel, Telegraph Passage.] Mmhm. Heavily impacted by Kalum here all their life. Right from way back from my dad’s grandfather’s days. It use to be right here where

269 Mildred Roberts, 2009 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 270 Wallace Miller, 2009 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection 271 Mildred Roberts, 2009 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection

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they made the most money. Right in this area here. Commercial use is all in here. [LCH: Okay, so that’s cod, and crab.] Just basically the same thing all the way right through here. And salmon. Salmon’s all over this whole thing here.

JT: So, so what, do you go there in April and then you’d stay for quite awhile, I guess, ‘cause you, there were all those different resources that you collected there at Island Point or…?

Don Roberts Jr.: Well the herring eggs, I’ll go there the first week or second week of April and get them and that’s its own season. But when you try and do herring eggs, you try not to do too many things at once there, because it, fish slime mixed with different fish slime is not too good and healthy. Try to do one thing first, and you get something small beside it and, but then we usually do that. Get home, then usually go out get the halibut on a different trip.

LCH: How many days would you go out at one time?

Don Roberts Jr.: Well, herring eggs I usually spend about a four-day trip. The halibut I’ll spend, I don’t know, geez, one or two days whatever.

LCH: Do you camp on your boat or do you go along there? Don Roberts Jr.: No I live right on my boat.

LCH: Oh, oh yeah. So you don’t camp around there?

Don Roberts Jr.: No not, not, now. Sometimes I camp around that and Arthur Island. All the history we can get you can put it in a vault and it’ll stay in a vault unless it’s taken and put on a map. You guys are on the right track, but when you guys do take this stuff here, you should be taking it and compiling it with the Port Simpson people. Port Simpson people are the ones we’re entangled with here, and if they don’t know where we’re at on the table, we’re going to be an absolute mess here.

Like for instance, I was down Prince Rupert there at a meeting there about approximately a month ago, in January. No, this was just before Christmas about the 20th of December, 17th, somewhere in there. But we have a herring egg spot down at Island Point. It’s called Isabella Chuck. I don’t know what the Indian name is, it, where it is. But when I went down there, I bought my boat in 1988. It was 1989, I brought my Dad down there for the first boat ride, we went herring egg picking. He brought us into Island Point there and he said, “Don’t let anybody ever tell you, you don’t belong here.” He said, “Right in this one section is Kalum.” and he said, “There’s other sections over here, Metlakatla is way over there, Port Simpson is way over here, but this is Kalum.”

It’s a specific spot, very specific. It’s this bay right in here. Right here. But if I can get my camera developed there, I snapped a picture of all the little

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ruins in there. The old man and them use to have cabins all along in here, on this side here. Right where these dots are, they use to be all in there and dots over here and the old ruins are still there, and the old rusty stoves are still there. But there’s nothing else there, but their existence is there.

But then down in, over here, I’ve got to go out there in March and April with my Dad and Joe Brooks there, and they’re gonna want me to bring them all around, all around here, they’re going to tell us wherever Kalum has interest, with my boat, it’ll be a two, three day journey.

Let’s see, there’s one thing they might not have on here and I don’t see it on here. On the fish, ling cod, well there calling two different kind of cods here. They’re looking at regular cods, and black cod. Black cod they’re calling it a not a traditional Indian food fish...but there’s an Indian name for it. I had it written on my hand for awhile. I got it written on a book somewhere.

We’re talking about Island Point here. And Gordy has a cabin right there too. I stood right in his living room the last time we went out. Got a little old wooden, little old stove there, still. Moss is about three inches thick now.

But my dad said, that Kalum shared this here with whoever the Kalum people married. Like if they married, if they married a non-Kalum. Well they didn’t marry Kalum. Them days, they were more stricter then they are now. You didn’t do that. But if they married somebody else they, they were more flexible seems like than they are now. Right now we’re walk over someone’s line here you’ll lose your foot. And, but anyway, he said they, the marriage thing there they, the husband, husband married somebody from the other village they just moved in if they felt, I guess welcome there, they just moved on with everybody else, and nobody said nothing. But they knew where they were at, they were on Kalum area.

Bob Sankey was talking to me from the Tsimshian Tribal Council, ‘cause he was sitting at the table there when, when another fellow from Port Simpson said we have to make arrangements with them. And I looked at him, bullets. But he took him into the other room after we left and bawled him out and told him, “Don’t you ever talk to Kalum in this area again, about that. Kalum not only has common territory.” And this is coming from an old Port Simpson man, he said, “Kalum doesn’t only have common territorial use here, they own land here.” Yeah, and he- and Bob Sankey told me, this is about a week later after that, maybe two weeks later- and he told me on the, he told me that he was sorry what happened and don’t.. I said, I knew that, I didn’t want to say nothing cause it could start trouble there.

At it [inaudible] now. Anyhow the cabin was right here. Well everybody knows that one. My mom’s use to be right here. She lived there in 19, what did she say.. 30 [1930]. With Howard Starr and them. Howard Starr and them, and I

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don’t know, I think it was Wesley’s. But right below there is a clam bed. That’s a prime clam bed area.

And we get crabs in this little cove here, some not very many though.

Figure 44. The remains of Gord Robert’s stove at one of the house sites

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Figure 45. Kalum's Beach frontage

Figure 46. Gord Roberts House (house site 1)

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Figure 47. Remains of toilet associated with Kalum house No. 2

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Figure 48. Logs at corner of Kalum House No. 3

Figure 49. Square nail protruding from wall logs at House No. 4

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Trapline history Trapline TR0611T067 was purchased by Kalum Member Richard Bohn, who has since transferred it to his mother, Kalum member Myrtle Laidlaw. The fact that the trapline is in Kalum hands – especially when that fact is seen in light of the other facts above – establishes an additional and strong inference for Kalum title and rights in this location.

Figure 50. Bohn/Laidlaw trapline on Porcher Island.

Other relevant historical information about the place

The Ayaawx Beynon! recorded the location of the Kwel’maas site as number 33 on his sketch map below, with a later notation describing it as ‘common land’ (see Figure 51).

Figure 51. Plan III, Beynon 1954. Detail showing Kwel'maas with notation

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! !

The presence of an exclusive coastal camp for Kalum within a common territory is, as we saw with Casey Point, justified under the ayaawx, with Viola Garfield recording information in Port Simpson in 1939 to the effect that:

Each of the tribes [galts’ap] had its traditional stretch of beach upon which it camped. Gradually the members of each house or group of related houses laid claim to particular locations where they had camped for successive years and where they built their plank and brush camp structures.272

Figure 52. At the Kalum/Metlakatla Boundary

272 Garfield 1939 p. 275

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ARTHUR ISLAND TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS AND SITES Lax Spa Suunt (Arthur Island) Map location Arthur Island is located south of Prince Rupert in Range 5, Coast Land District. The Island is buffered between the south eastern end of Stephens Island and the north western side of Porcher Island. The narrow Prescott Pass runs between Stephens Island and Arthur Island, and the larger Edye Passage separates Arthur Island from Porcher Island.

Figure 53. Arthur Island

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Figure 54. Lax Spa Suunt / Arthur Island

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Origin of the name Arthur Island is the official name recorded in the BCGNIS for the traditional site called Lax Spa Suunt (aka Laxs'poon, or Lock-sp-soon). The Sm’algyax name is often translated as “Place of Summer”273 but the more literal translation provides for the more poetic “On the home of summer” (lax = on; spa = home, place of, den of; suunt= summer.)274

The island was named for His Excellency Arthur E. Kennedy, third governor of Vancouver Island, 1864-66, and was first published on British Admiralty Chart A2453 in 1872, from surveys made during 1869.275 Kalum member Simon Lockerby also stated in 2011 that the island was named for Kalum elder Arthur Stevens.276

Boundaries and Ownership Lax Spa Suunt was a frequently used resource site for Kalum’s Bolton family residing in Port Essington. Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla claim the island as part of a common territory shared by the galts’ap of Gitwilgyoots and the Indian Band of the Metlakatla missionary community, but when Dr. Jim McDonald interviewed Lax Kw’alaams’ Bob Sankey and Percy and Herb Green with respect to the question of what type of ownership existed, they acknowledged that it was a summer camp for sea foods. They also provided information to the effect that Kalum people were not squatters at Lax Spa Suunt but held specific rights there:277

J McDonald So how would you describe the places that Kalum lived? At Arthur island and Island Point? Would it be a laxyuup? Or would it be just a camp? Tribal territory? What?

Herb Green Like a summer time camp?

J McDonald Did they own it or were they just squatters?

Bob Sankey They shared because of their crests, eh? That’s the way I understood it, [from] my dad.

The crest connections have been mentioned above (BF 13.2 and 289.7) but note, too, that, in a separate interview, Bob Sankey was more explicit that Kalum people owned

273 Mildred Roberts July, 2010 274 Sm’algyax Living Legacy Talking Dictionary http://web.unbc.ca/~smalgyax/ 275 BC Geographical Names Office 276 Simon Lockerby, interview May 2011, KKSHRP Archives. 277 Bob Sankey and the Greens interview, September 1, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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Lax Spa Suunt: he stated, for example, that Lax Spa Suunt was “Port Essington territory” used by Sam Lockerby (Sr.), Jimmy Bolton, and Ed Bolton.278

Bob Sankey Yeah Arthur Island and Williams Island. They [Kitsumkalum people] went there a lot.

Jim McDonald Yeah. So who’s territory is that?

Bob Sankey Well we, we went out, we used to call it Port Essington territory. ‘Cause there were the people who always go out from Port Edwards, Lee Wing and his guy hey? From Port Essington. Yeah, yeah my buddies used to go out with him. And there was, that was their spot for, for harvesting hey? … Yeah I remember that Lloyd Nelson used to go out there for abalone. All Kalum people and my buddy used to jump on board with them. He was friends with them hey? Our guys don’t know the area anyway. ‘Cause we used to always go out with Kitsumkalum. Port Essington ones. 279

He was clear that Kalum belonged there:

Jim McDonald You know Lax Kw’alaams claims the island is territory of the Gitwilgyoots and when we were doing the CTN, the Council Tsimshian Nation, remember the map, this was all common territory. And now I see the allied tribes, or James, have written underneath that, “common territory of Metlakatla tribe, Lax Kw’alaams tribe.” So they’ve taken it over. But when we, back in 1980 that was all common--

Bob Sankey Yeah it was all common to the Tsimshian.

Jim McDonald All of it, Kitsumkalum, Kalum.

Bob Sankey Mmm, yeah. Kitkatla always say they were different from, hey. I remember I tried to call them in and talk about the common areas. They didn’t wanna be part of it. They said “No, we’re Kitkatlas.” Oh. Fine. …

Bob Sankey It’s the Ganhadas that lived there, I remember one family, Vera Spence. And in all the years that I remember that was like, Island Point area there, all around

278 Bob Sankey, KKSHRP interview, February 15, 2011 279 Bob Sankey interview, February 15, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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there, right down to Eddy Pass. It’s all shared with Kalum. Spa Xksuutks280, that’s how we knew them, yeah.

Jim McDonald All this area, Arthur Island.

Bob Sankey Yeah, Arthur Island right through there. Our people, they never went there until there was commercial fishing, you know. Through Eddy Pass. But the people who lived in Porcher Island Cannery are the ones, the Ganhadas that really harvested there hey? From the Gitwilgyoots. That is Vera Spence. Did I say Vera Spence? Yeah, that’d be Harvey Russell and them now hey? But nobody goes there anymore from there—281

Matrilineally, the Boltons are part of the Giluts’aaw galts’ap through the heritage of their Ganhada mother who was the matriarch of Kalum’s Waaps Niiskiimas. Many of the Giluts’aaw houses are represented by Metlakatla or the commercial community of Lax Kw’alaams, but Niiskiimas – including all of its leadership - is firmly rooted in the Kalum galts’ap.

As we shall see, Waaps Niiskiimas is of special importance in the Lakelse Lake and River area. At Lax Spa Suunt, however, the information suggests that the Bolton connection rests on the authority of rights derived from the connection that their maternal side had to the rest of the Metlakatla/Lax Kw’alaams groups;282 the rights of the subsequent generation is through the paternal side.283

280 Port Essington, spelling by Mildred Roberts. 281 Bob Sankey, KKSHRP interview, February 15, 2011. 282 This group would include Bolton brothers Ed, James, and Ben and their sisters, notably Elizabeth Spalding. 283 This group would include the children of James Bolton Cliff, Harold, Alex, Mildred, Laura, and so on; and, the children of Ed Bolton, including Charlotte Guno.

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Figure 55. Sam Lockerby’s Lax Spa Suunt camp sign “SPL April 15, 1945”

Mildred Roberts has also indicated that other crests also resided at Lax Spa Suunt: “…there was mostly Killer Whales [inaudible]. The Ravens moved in and they stayed in the camp in a tent [inaudible] right up [inaudible] [laughs].” She has also confirmed that other residents at Lax Spa Suunt were Kalum or Kitselas families residing in Port Essington:

Mildred: … that’s Arthur Island. I’d have to see that, I can’t look at the map. Um, they have on this end of Lax Spa Suunt there is, ah, a little island here and you go through here and that’s where our cabin was. But on this end there was two cabins again and it looks just like those [the two at Island Point] and they belonged to the same people. Brenda: There’s the two cabins that [Kalum members] Robert Wesley and David Starr had cabins here on, at Island Point. Mildred: Yeah here and Lax Spa Suunt. Brenda: Oh ok, and what would they get when they were at Lax Spa Suunt?

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Mildred: Seaweed and if they moved out there in the wintertime, January, then they would get clams. They would go down, right down the beach from where they…get clams…They lived there for clams and then herring eggs and seaweed and then go back to Port Essington for gillnetting and ah, Winnie’s ah, it was when I was a baby so it 1932. January, February 1932. We lived there in one of those cabins. 284

Mildred sketched the arrangement of cabins as follows:

Figure 56. Lax Spa Suunt sketch, Mildred Roberts 2012 [KKB=Kitsumkalum]285 In 2007, Mildred also described where each family’s dwelling was located:

284 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 285 Don Roberts, Jr. believes that the cabin linked by a horizontal line to the “K” in KKB” was also Robert Wesley’s. Pers. Comm, October 2014.

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On Arthur Island on this end, this side not where our, our camp was. There were two houses there. One was David Star, William Star I think, and one was Robert Wesley’s. They stood side by side there identical real well built houses. Real, real houses {chuckling} you know it had a roof and it had big thick planks. I remember that because we used to go over. But it’s all open and they’re high, maybe I was just little but it looked high. It didn’t have floors but it had gravel. And there are two of the same kind in that porch there.

I keep forgetting the, {in-audible} that’s where the peopled lived, getting, drying their herring eggs, they eat herring eggs.

[There was bay and] when it dries we could walk across at one point. Their houses were across from ours.

John Wesley. I can’t remember whose house came first, it was, I know John Wesley’s was in a hollow. And ah we used to go down to get him and Paul Star and Cecelia Lockerby. And then Robert Wesley, Robert Reece, and James Gray and Edward MacLean. And that is at that point there.

That’s where the Royal was. And it’s mostly people that lived in Port Essington that lived there.

And then you go around this point and in the bay, Gravel Bay I remember that and there’s two houses just like one in Arthur Island. Belonged to the same people, William Star and Robert Wesley. I don’t know if they build it or someone else build it and they inherited, but they say that was their home.

(Jim McDonald: Those names are not all Kitsumkalum then) No Port Essington. I didn’t see anybody from Lax Kw’alaams. There’s… Hartley Bay. James Gray was Lax Kw’alaams. But he always lived in Port Essington. And Edward McKay we always knew him as (Sm’algyax) from Glenvale I guess.

Eagle from Spokechute ah, my Grandmother and them had a house there and I remember one, one spring we stayed with them just during herring eggs time. And after the herring eggs and then we moved across to Arthur Island and then they moved across too. I guess it wasn’t that easy to get seaweed there. I don’t know why they [Sam and Cecilia Lockerby] moved, they moved across…

{pause} And at that point that’s where Doreen and James Innes lived, that’s Doreen Roberts. That’s where, that’s what Don’s talking about, where his dad’s sister lived.286

286 KKSHRP Archive.

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Figure 57. GPS sketch map of Lax Spa Suunt. This figure provides the relative location of each family, but the locations on the map are approximate due to imprecision of GPS equipment and the nature of Garmin map imagery. Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Some information was given above by Bob Sankey and Mildred Roberts, with another example from May 1980 finding Gus and Irene Collins camped at Arthur Island picking seaweed and abalone, with Irene’s brother Ed Bolton. They wanted Sam Lockerby Jr., to join them, too, while Frank Miller was going on the weekend if he did not go commercial fishing.287 The same year – 1980 - Ben Bolton added further detail with respect to the spring harvest at Lax Spa Suunt:

Ben Bolton: during the time we camped at the Skeena and Ecstall - That’s around the 30's anyway. Cause the last time my dad and I camped there, at Arthur Island, was ‘37. That’s the year William Olsen from Kitselas died, there. Because my brother Eddy, Eddy and somebody took us out there and left us, my dad and I, my dad and I were with a skiff and we were just gathering seafood, there. Jim McDonald: When would you be gathering the seafood, what month?

287 James McDonald, field note, May 15, 1980. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! 187

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Figure 58. Seaweed drying (2013) Photo by G. Wesley. Ben Bolton: Oh, fish eggs, you would gather it, you’d probably have to move out to camp from Easter time, start paddling over, or get ready for your fish eggs. You’d have to set up your ..., even though you lived at the camp last summer you’d still have to do a little work to change the wood that you used to dry the fish on, your fish eggs on. Then, you see, you’re not there strictly [for harvesting] fish eggs, you’re there gathering all these different types of seafood. Depending on the weather, if it’s good weather on the time you’re there, well, you’re lucky. You’re able to spend more days gathering seafood. And if the weather happens to be bum for the whole week, well, you’re just wasting your time. Jim McDonald: So, it would be mainly in the spring time. That you would be on Arthur Island. Ben Bolton: Oh, no, you can go there anytime. But those are the times to gather fish eggs. 288

In 2005, Mildred Roberts was interviewed by heritage researcher Brenda Guernsey and reflected on her youth at the Lax Spa Suunt residences:

Mildred: August 1931 and then 1932. January, February we lived there. That’s on this end where the big tree is. It’s where the cabins, and we lived there for two months. Ah, cleaning – clam digging- and canning them and drying them…and

288 Ben Bolton, 1980 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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then after she [Mildred’s mother] married Sam and then they started coming out to. Wherever we went they always came along and lived with us but the only cabin that I knew they had was here and here, but the rest of the places they always lived with us. And then in Lax Spa Suunt they put walls on that little shack and that was the only one that was left there now. I don’t know if it’s still standing. We stayed in there when we went out in ’81 or ’82 I forget what year – Myrtle, Sam, Gary - it was starting to cave in and we fixed it up [laughs]. Brenda: And that was out at Arthur Island? Mildred: Yeah. We were picking seaweed… And [when we were younger] we walked around – we used to go around a nice sandy beach there. We took [?] one time and we buried in the sand. We thought it was a great big sandy beach, but when we went over with Myrtle. It wasn’t that big, but we did play hopscotch there with dii Simon Lockerby. Wherever we went, dii came along. This little Island, Myrtle and I walked. I was wondering why it didn’t take us long to walk around there but in my diary that Sam dropped us off at the point and we walked. Brenda: And that’s that little Island off the tip of Arthur Island Mildred: Mmmhmm. That’s where all the [?] are – the Salal Berries. When we were there it just got real stormy. Sam and Gary were out here they were jigging for halibut and they just barely made it in. They couldn’t get in. The wind almost pushed them right out but they made it this far there and then up to shore and I was standing out the door and I saw a boat coming around by this rock and it disappeared. I told Gary to run down by this rock and see where it went. It was Don and Jeffrey the wind blew them way out here and they finally made it in. They made it in there and their engine stopped. It cost them a good thousand dollars to have it running again. Lloyd had to come and tow them in. So we were left out there until [?] and they came out. Brenda: That’s an ok place to be stuck though – its beautiful! Mildred: We had lots of food. Over there there’s clams. The first day we were there Myrtle and Sam went over and Myrtle came over with clams - nice big clams. It was in May and I said people don’t eat clams in May. She said ‘cook it, make fritters’ so I did and I told them ‘I won’t eat any until I see if you guys don’t drop dead’. [all laugh]. They finished it all! Brenda: …It sounds like it was fun times. Mildred: When the Wesley’s lived there and the Bolton’s lived there. Brenda: At Arthur Island? Mildred: Yeah – um – 24th of May Mom said the Wesley women would walk over and they would have a sports day. The [?] mother and Olives mother and everybody else- younger people that were there. The ones in Lax Spa Suunt , I remember we used to go there. Nice sandy beach – real sand and then there’s great big ah, what are those big things that come from the tree…the cone? Brenda: Oh Pine Cones? Mildred: Pine Cones. Great big ones that will just cover the ground and someplace beside one of the cabins there was a tree, a great big tree and when we went out in 1981? Or 1982? I forgot what year Myrtle and Sam and I went out and Myrtle and I walked around there. The cabins were gone they have flattened

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down, I guess people used them or else they got covered and that big tree had fallen over – it got uprooted. We looked down and it was 6 ft deep and we could see clam shells way down. Cause ah, Winnie said that people just dump clam shells around by the tree and they sink down in the ground. You could look right down in that hole but we didn’t climb down. Myrtle and I walked just around this way and across from there is Presby [Prescott] Pass and I remember one day my dad took us in there one time and the Indian name is [?], can hear us coming they say when you go in there you hear some drumming sound. We had a picnic in there and we had a fire. We had crabs … I don’t know where he got the crabs from. I don’t know if he got them in that bay or someplace else.289

Sam Lockerby lived at Lax Spa Suunt and remembered life there, too: Camping on Arthur Island Sam Lockerby Just before Arthur Island, another hour run to Arthur Island from Island Point, hey. And Hunt’s Inlet was there close by to Island Point. Just side by side.

Shalane Pauls What did you do there?

Sam Lockerby Uh, it, there was quite a few people from all over, from Hartley Bay, people were camping there, harvesting-- Spawned herring eggs, hey. They sundry it.

Shalane Pauls Would you go there for um, herring egg--season or?

Sam Lockerby No, no I, in my time I, we didn’t dry any but there was a lot of other people around. Hanging around there from Hartley Bay. And all over.

Shalane Pauls So um, is that the other place? That’s the only other place?

Sam Lockerby Um, no. There’s Arthur island, then, yeah.

Shalane Pauls Yeah. Then you’d go back to Port Essington?

Sam Lockerby Yeah.290

289 KKSHRP Archive. 290 February 18, 2013. Spokechute Traditional & Historical Land Management & Use Research Project.

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Harvesting on Arthur Island Sam Lockerby Mm, like seaweed yeah, abalone, and clams, cockles. Lots of deer on that island years ago. We have no problem to shoot one ‘cause there’s just loaded. The whole island. Yeah.

Shalane Pauls Which island was it?

Sam Lockerby Arthur Island. And then after, the wolves clean it up.

Shalane Pauls Wolves?

Sam Lockerby Yeah, clean up the deer on that island. And I used to, when we anchored there, I holler like a wolf, “Aroooo.” bunch come in, worry, heard the sound of wolf (inaudible). [Laughs] And they’re all running around the beach, they’re all-- Yeah, used to be lot of people, [Kalum member] James Bolton and them, and they were all out camping same spot where we were at on the island. Nice little beach there. Anchor our boat there, rowing in on a skiff. I used to lick a lot of boards there to try the seaweed, hey. All kinds of seaweed. And my mom used to make a lot of those strip halibut. And they go through the canners, stop every cannery. My mom would sell some. Seaweed or halibut head. Halibut, hey. That’s how she earned her money, hey. We earned our money commercial halibut fishing here, my dad and my uncle Simon, they were always together fishing, hey. And I was with them, handle the boat. Used to have a little shoot there when, you know when you coil your halibut. You’ve seen it eh, halibut. You see the coil. Bait it up, that’s what I was doing after a while when I know what to do. And my uncle always have problem with his coil there. You know we have a shoot they called the shoot the (inaudible) can all put together and just-- Top there the halibut and hook or (inaudible). One at a time, so far apart. And uncle there, his would all tangle up and a whole bunch [Laughs] Bait go overboard [Laughs]

Shalane Pauls [Laughs] But yours wouldn’t?

Sam Lockerby Oh, no, I knew how to do it. [Laughs] Right off the bat. Yeah. No matter what kind of weather we were having. And they had camp there, hey. Butler’s cove they call it now. Not far from Arthur Island, Butler’s Cove. And there was a little shortcut to go there when you, when you go behind it if the weather was rough outside of the island. We’d go behind it. And we’d deliver, and there was a lot of boats there

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waiting around for the weather to be calm, they go out on the flats, hey. And there’s a rock there, they call Warrior rock. You fish around that area. 291

As indicated above, Bob Sankey of Lax Kw’alaams understood Lax Spa Suunt to be part of Kitsumkalum territory. In 2011, he also informed Dr. Jim McDonald that he, along with others from Port Essington, went to Lax Spa Suunt with Kitsumkalum families:

Jim McDonald Here’s Arthur Island [referring to map in the draft report] and I guess that’s Prescott just north of it right?

Bob Sankey Yeah.

Jim McDonald And the Bolton’s and Lockerby’s were all in there?

Bob Sankey Yeah.

Jim McDonald Around here. I think they still go out there with their camps.

Bob Sankey Yeah.

Jim McDonald Lax Spa Suunt.

Bob Sankey Yeah I remember that Lloyd Nelson used to go out there for abalone. All, all Kalum people and uh, my buddy used to jump on board with them. He was friends with them hey?

[discussion of Porcher Island] … Yeah, Arthur Island right through there [the Edye Passage area]. Our people, they never went there until there was commercial fishing, you know. Through Eddy Pass. But uh, the people who lived in Porcher Island Cannery are the ones, the Ganhadas that really harvested there hey? From, from the Gitwilgyoots. That is Vera Spence. Did I say Vera Spence? Yeah, that’d be Harvey Russell and them now hey? But nobody goes there anymore from there—292

At another point in the interview, he elaborated:

291 February 18, 2013. Spokechute Traditional & Historical Land Management & Use Research Project. 292 Bob Sankey, KKSHRP interview, February 15, 2011.

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Jim McDonald Kalum’s out at, um, Arthur Island, Lax Spa Suunt ?

Bob Sankey Yeah, that’s uh Lee Wing used to always go out there hey?

Jim McDonald Yeah, Jimmy Bolton.

Bob Sankey Yeah I remember those people. Yeah they used to go out there for abalone. That’s how we learned to harvest abalone their way. Lee Wing’s way hey? Like we’d go out there on a real calm and uh, there’s a tide, a really low tide. He’d put the net on the rocks, by the rocks there and let one side float, like a scoop hey? And they’d (*23:56 inaudible). When the tide comes up a little bit and then we’ll just park there and be silent, hey? And keep your oar in the water. We had big uh, big oars, Sainskiff oars, hey?

And uh, they showed us what to do. Anyway on the, got so, the tide comes up so far and hit the, everybody hit the rock the same time hey? And the abalone just dropped off, right into the net [laughs]. It was Lee Wing’s trick. Ah that is easy.

Jim McDonald And how did you do?

Bob Sankey That’s well, we used to pick them off with a--

Jim McDonald With a knife?

Bob Sankey It’s hard, yeah.

Oh he wouldn’t let us get off the boat. Two skiffs and about six oars, hey? Everybody hit all the same time and-- The whole …rolled right into there. We had about, we had about ten sacks one time we did that hey? (Both) - [Laughs] Yeah Arthur Island and Williams Island. That’s, that’s, they went there a lot.

Jim McDonald Yeah. So who’s territory is that?

Bob Sankey Well we, we went out, we used to call it the, Port Essington territory. ‘Cause there were the people who always go out from Port Edwards, Lee

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Wing and his guy hey? From Port Essington. Yeah, yeah my buddies used to go out with him. And there was, that was their spot for, for harvesting hey?

Jim McDonald Sam Lockerby was there and…?

Bob Sankey Yeah. 293

On another occasion in 2011, Bob Sankey and Percy and Herb Green spoke again about Kalum’s continued use of Lax Spa Suunt and the Edye Passage area:

J McDonald But Kalum still uses places like Lax Spa Suunt on Arthur Island. They go there and get their seaweed and pick some seafood there and they still go to several of the islands along there but from what I’ve learned, Edye Passage was heavily used by Kitsumkalum and Port Essington.

Percy Green Mmmm.

Bob Sankey Yeah. I remember when we used to live in Port Ed around there in the fifties. My brothers used to go out with them to get abalone, eh? And herring spawn. Yeah, I think it was Harold Bolton and them and Lockerby, Sam Lockerby. Yeah, there was quite a lot of them.

Herb Green Is Sam still going?

Bob Sankey Yeah. 294

Kalum member Simon Lockerby also spoke about Lax Spa Suunt in 1979:

Jim McDonald: Did you have a camp on the Salt chuck? Simon Lockerby: Yeah, we had a camp at Arthur Island.

Jim McDonald: Oh, with the Boltons.

Simon Lockerby: Yeah, that's my mother's husband's name, Art. She always camp there. And that's how they call it Arthur Island.

293 Bob Sankey, KKSHRP interview, February 15, 2011 294 Bob Sankey and the Greens interview, September 1, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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Jim McDonald: Oh, really, Oh, that's Arthur Stevens. And you had a house there, a cabin?

Simon Lockerby: And there's another island, William's Island. That's Howard Starr's dad.

Jim McDonald: Just south of it.

Simon Lockerby: They call it William's Island.

Alex Bolton: That's after Starr. We call Arthur Island Lax Spa Suunt, Lax Spa Suunt . What does Lax Spa Suunt mean?

Simon Lockerby: Well, there's a man that used to call that Lax Spa Suunt . Spa Suunt. Winter here, winter in Port Edward, not Port Simpson. Over there, Spa Suunt, Spa Suunt, half summer there. Everybody starvation. No winter, Spa Suunt. It's Lax Spa Suunt .

Alex Bolton: Oh yeah, so sort of places with hardly no winter, then hey?

Simon Lockerby: Spa Suunt. That's bare, bare ground.295

In 2011, Sam Lockerby shared additional memories of going to Lax Spa Suunt every year:

And there’s a little pass in through there, right? [on the south side of Arthur Island and the house was on the point inside the little bay.] Used to be great an, and eagle tree there and all of a sudden they logged that little part there hey? Boy it looked like horrible, it looked like bombed that beach… And then, we’re halibut fishing then too hey? After we’ve set our halibut fish just alongside that beach, hey? We fished up and down. And a marker we got there, from that little island to Rupert Mountain. My dad always have the land marked hey? Everywhere we go fishing he’s land marking. And when there’s a lot of halibut we sat side by side, one skate, one skate, hey? Side by side and we’re the only ones that fish every day and sixty mile, gale wind, we still go out, my dad still go out. And we’d fish halibut. And then my dad would hock this beach there to, to get away from the waves hey? You know how the big waves are here. Right around here, swift tides and big, like big tidal waves. And the trollers come in, fishing. You have the, just see the mast hey? That’s all. And there’s a mine across from my, that island here. Nickel mine there. You can see it, mhmm. And that’s where we harvest our abalone, on that beach and, and seaweed. Right from that point down here. [JM: The whole West side.]Yeah. And on a certain area go fishing.

295 Simon Lockerby, 1979 interview. KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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Jim McDonald - So, I gotta ask you the big question. Why were people there at Arthur Island? Was there any ownership of the territory?

Sam Lockerby - Well there was a lot of us from Kalum. There was more people lived there before. Same place, we’re, we’re the last ones to live there. There was Celina Bolton, James Bolton and other families hey? There was quite a big crew there.

Jim McDonald - Mhmm. What do you mean you were the last ones? Nobody afterwards?

Sam Lockerby - Give up, or old, or died or--

Jim McDonald - Oh, okay. Who was there before?

Sam Lockerby - Like I said, uh it’s Emma Bolton, James Bolton, Celina, my sister.

Jim McDonald - Yeah. And do you know who was there before them?

Sam Lockerby - Mmm, no that’s just, used to be people live in this. I forget what they call that. I know you call this one Lux Biins hey. Lux Biins. But over here people used to, nice little sand bar there just gravel….

Jim McDonald - Hmm let me see. The main thing is I’m trying to find out why Kitsumkalum people or Essington people went to Arthur Island.

Sam Lockerby - Hmm. It’s just to harvest food. That’s all I know. We used to get ten sacks of abalone there.296

By the 1950s, the Boltons had re-established themselves at Arthur Island.297 James Bolton had a cabin there with his wife Selina, his wife’s Father, his brother Ed Bolton and wife, his sister and wife’s mother’s husband and family, and Rebecca Bolton. Other cabins were kept by Selina’s parents, his stepfather’s family, and various other individuals. There was also Arthur Bolton, and sometimes Stan Brown.

296 Sam Lockerby, interview May 2011. In the KKSHRP archives. 297 McDonald 1985, p. 97.

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As mentioned previously, beaches at residential sites were owned by those who had houses at the site and, as part of the ayaawx recorded in Lax Kw’alaams by Viola Garfield in the 1930s, it is worth repeating here:

Each of the tribes had its traditional stretch of beach upon which it camped. Gradually the members of each house or group of related houses laid claim to particular locations where they had camped for successive years and where they built their plank and brush camp structures. (Reported in Port Simpson, Garfield 1939:275)

The evidence indicates that the Kitsumkalum people who had houses on Arthur Island looked upon the area as much more than a stretch of beach – indeed, it was seen as titled property, a point also reported by Garfield in Lax Kw’alaams during the 1930s:

Under native law territorial rights were traditional lineage possessions acquired mainly by ancestors through long generations of occupation. In many instances use ownership rights were acquired, as were crests, from Supernatural Beings who gave the ancestors exclusive possession. Sometimes land or water (fishing) rights were obtained by gift or as indemnity, the territory being seized by the injured lineage if the offenders refused to meet the demands for restitution. (Garfield 1939:280-281)

Gitga’at elder Heber Clifton confirmed this in a comment to William Beynon: “It was custom of the older people in claiming ownership to wherever they gathered wealth they moved about and lived upon whatever territory they claimed.”298 In the case of the Arthur Island area, the wealth was sea resources. Current Kalum Chief Don Roberts, for example, discussed the important camps at and around Lax Spa Suunt with TUS interviewers in 1999:

Don Roberts: Every, everybody, my grandfather, James Bolton there, he’s the one that always showed it, we got a rock over in Arthur Island here. And that octopus, you can go and get octopus in low tide. They’re under there all the time. Refuge Bay, there’s crabs in there and the odd halibut in there. There’s Refuge Bay right here. LCH: Mmm. Oh yeah. So did you ever camp in the cabins that were there? Or did you just go on the beach? Don Roberts: No, the one on Arthur Island, I camped there. LCH: Oh, oh yeah. Did you ever go with anyone? Don Roberts: Pretty near, yes lots, almost half of Kalum I imagine. All old people, I went there with my grandfather, James Bolton, Vickie, my grandmother Mah, Verna, Myrtle, Sam Lockerby, Gary Bolton, Ricky Wesley, Jeffrey Spalding, my brother Richard... LCH: Did you guys ever go seaweed picking out there? Don Roberts: Mmhm. [yes]

298 Beynon, 32; The information is archived in: Beynon Manuscripts Reel 2, Adaawx 156, TTC Binder 1, 3, 4, 5, and 8, Adaawx 156, Tsimshian Manuscripts.

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LCH: Did you dry it out there too, or just take it home? Don Roberts: I dry it out there if you bring some old granny’s out there, and they do that. JT: But it’s not just seaweed that you get around there is it? Around Arthur Island. Don Roberts: No. Not the island, you get everything. JT: The works. Don Roberts: Mmhm. [yes] Don Roberts: Most of it’s all on the front here. JT: So what’s everything? Don Roberts: Sea prunes, sea cucumbers, abalone, scallop, rock scallops, JT: Rock scallops? Don Roberts: Clams, seaweed, Chinese slippers, and sea urchins, octopus, cod and halibut all around there. JT: What, like when people were staying at Arthur Island, did they, do like any hunting or anything, on the land, or was it just a for a seafood gathering or any berry picking or…? Or was it just a, mostly a place where you gathered the seafoods and processed it? Don Roberts: A place where you gathered seafood. I went there after blue grouses. Blue grouse hunting. …There’s wolves on the island…But, I shot a wolf on that island one time and I had bad luck, right after that, so I don’t bother them no more. Yeah, there was Sam Lockerby and Stan Wesley with me. Everything went real good, we were just having a great time, and we were gone for about three and a half days when we were collecting food for this Hall opening here. It was on the fourth day there, then we saw the wolf and okay, bang. Then the boat started overheating after that, it overheated and we ended up drifting around and everything, monkey wrenching. LCH: Yeah. Blue grouse, are they bigger than the grouse that hang around here, or… Don Roberts: The ones on Arthur Island are small. There are some big ones I guess. I heard on Hunts Inlet, I mean Porcher. But I imagine there’s a big one over there, they all go just fly across it, the Bay there. …JT: So you’re pointing to Arthur Island as an abalone area. Don Roberts: Abalone’s, abalone all along in here, this whole areas full of abalone-use to be, all the way, right around[while pointing out areas] all around here, all around Williams Island, all around here, all this heavy abalone, all down in here, all heavy in abalone. Don Roberts: Basically Essington’s whole life with fishermen is right here and right on Arthur Island here. This area from Island Point all to that’s the fishermen’s whole life most of it and right here on the Skeena. All the way down to, God all the way down to here.299

No archaeological work has yet been undertaken at this location.

299 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential).

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Seagull Island Map location, origin of the name and Kalum ownership of the place Possibly Gull Rocks, off Stephens Island (see the map under “Other Edye Passage Sites”, below). Although the Galts'ap is not specified in the sources, the site is linked to Lax Spa Suunt, and would thus lie under Kalum jurisdiction. Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Kalum member Irene Collins described it as a tiny island close to Arthur Island, with other Kalum members describing it as follows:

Mildred Roberts And there’s a rock across from Lax Spa Suunt, that we go to. And we call it Seagull Rock. [Inaudible] and I don’t know if that’s the right name but that’s what we call it. Use to go across there. [inaudible]

Don Roberts There’s abalone on there too and everything else.

Harvey Wing Yeah.

Don Roberts Lots of halibut. Everything around that rock.

Mildred Roberts [Inaudible] [laughs]

Jim McDonald Okay so. You, Don, and Gord Roberts were talking about Gull Rocks, which is the one North of Island Point. And Seagull Rock is at Arthur Island?

Mildred Roberts I don’t know if that’s the proper name but-- …We called it that because we [inaudible] seagull eggs there…

Harvey Wing Seagull eggs? Oh my kids love it. Yeah I used to pick, I went over there and go to the beach and pick, I don’t know three dozen, four dozen. Took it in and I didn’t think the kids would eat it. But holy man they just gobbled everything right up.300

300 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential).

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Tux Lux Biins Map location Tux lux biins is a heritage site on Arthur Island that is located as follows:

Figure 59. Tux Lux Biins, approximate and unconfirmed location area Sam Lockerby sketched Tux Lux Biins, which he spelled as “chookspeens”, on the side of a paper place map at the Galaxie Restaurant in Prince Rupert in 2012. The square shapes in the lower central part of the kidney bean shape are in the approximate location of the flag on the map above, while the shapes above and to the left represent Robert Wesley’s camp (per Don Roberts, Jr.):

Figure 60. Tux Lux Biins sketch by Sam Lockerby 2012

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Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) According to Mildred Roberts, the area is named after the Sm’algyax word for “cow parsnips”, a green similar to celery and which Sam has drawn on the ketch above (below the horizontal line under the printed word “Gal…”).301 Kalum (traditional) uses of the place This was is a food harvesting camp for seaweed, cockles, clams, etc.302 Kalum member Sam Lockerby identified it as an important site:

Sam Lockerby - I know you call this one Lux Biins hey. Lux Biins. But over here people used to, nice little sand bar there just gravel. And it’s a hot spot for cockles and clams there. Big butter clams.

Jim McDonald - Mhmm. And who were those people?

Sam Lockerby - I wouldn’t know. Probably the same, maybe--

Jim McDonald - Port Essington, okay.

Sam Lockerby - Yeah, Kalum people.

Jim McDonald - And this point here, what did you call it?

Sam Lockerby - Lux Biins. Lux Biins.

Ron Bartlett - What would that mean, Sam?

Sam Lockerby - I don’t know. Maybe it was tall, like a grass there….303

301 Pers. Comm., Don Roberts, Jr., October 2014. 302 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential). 303 Sam Lockerby, interview May 2011, KKSHRP Archives.

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ADDITIONAL EDYE PASSAGE SITES

Figure 61: Edye Passage. This map shows the geographic relationship between the interests in the Edye Passage area west of Island Point

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Creak Islands Map location The Creak Islands are off the north side of Porcher Island, just outside of Hunts inlet, in Chatham Sound, south of Prince Rupert.

Figure 62. Creak Islands Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Creak Islands were named in 1870 by Staff Commander Daniel Pender, after Lieutenant Ettrick William Creak of the Royal Navy, appointed to hydrographic duties at the Admiralty in 1868, and who was for many years the Superintendent of Compasses.304 Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Alex Bolton described these islands as a high use area for the harvest of herring, herring roe, and clams.305 Trapline history There was also a Kalum registered trap line associated with this area: “This whole trap line, this whole Hunts Inlet here all belonged to Leonard McLean, and that’s all, that goes all the way up here to Edye Pass. He’s a Kalum, so that puts a little bit more power to this trap line area.”306 That “power” continues, as the trapline (TR0611T067) formerly registered to Richard Bohn is now registered in the name of Kalum member Myrtle

304 http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/37115.html 305 KTO memo, dated July 8, 2003. 306 Ibid.

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Laidlaw; the map of the trapline territory covers the northern part of Porcher Island, all of the islands off the north shore of Porcher Island, as well as Hunts Inlet.307

307 Kalum Trapline Map.

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Hunts Inlet Map location To the immediate north east of Kalum’s Island Point settlement on Porcher Island.

Figure 63. Hunts Inlet Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Hunts Inlet was a very good crab fishing locale used for herring eggs in season308 and crabs year round: “Then crabs is in Hunts Inlet. All year around, real good crab fishing there. That’s pretty good, unless they fished it out now.”309 Trapline history There was also a Kalum registered trap line associated with this area: “This whole trap line, this whole Hunts Inlet here all belonged to Leonard McLean, and that’s all, that goes all the way up here to Edye Pass. He’s a Kalum, so that puts a little bit more power to this trap line area.”310 That “power” continues, as the trapline (TR0611T067), formerly registered to Richard Bohn, is now registered in the name of Kalum member Myrtle Laidlaw:

308 Following DFO’s 1988 denial of herring licences to Kalum in this area (assumed to be Hunts Inlet, Island Point, Porcher Island per black and white copies of September 21, 1988 letter from Kalum Chief Cliff Bolton to DFO, read together with letter faxed from Ric Miller to Chief Cliff Bolton on September 14, 1988), Kalum was able to extract additional halibut quota in compensation (pers. com. with current Kalum Band Manager Steve Roberts, August 13, 1014). 309 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999, (confidential), per Don Roberts Jr. 310 Ibid.

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Figure 64: Trapline of Kalum Member Richard Bohn (now held by Myrtle Laidlaw)

Archaeological work at Hunts Inlet also reveals a village site and precontact middens and burials, thus further attesting to the longstanding use of this area.311

311 See site report for site GaTo-1; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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Refuge Bay Map location Refuge Bay is included here because it is located on the northwest side of Porcher Island but it is closer to Kalum’s sites on Arthur Island than to Porcher’s Island Point.

Figure 65. Refuge Bay Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Gord Roberts reported that: “We dig clams and stuff like that... All our traditional in here, seaweed. All around in there Refuge Bay and all that.”312

Don Roberts Jr. also described Kitsumkalum’s use of this area:

Every, everybody, my grandfather, James Bolton there, he’s the one that always showed it, we got a rock over in Arthur Island here. And that octopus, you can go and get octopus in low tide. They’re under there all the time. Refuge Bay, there’s crabs in there and the odd halibut in there. There’s Refuge Bay right here. That’s a sheltered anchorage.313

In 1980, Ben Bolton also reported using the area for clams, herring eggs, logging, and camps:

312 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential). 313 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential)! .

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Ben Bolton: Oh, it’s all logged here, it varies different year. You get it in there and you get it inside Refuge Bay (Porcher Island), around here, sometimes they get it all along here. Jim McDonald: This point here, bay between Useless Point and Edward Point (Porcher Island). Ben Bolton: Yeah. It varies from year to year. Jim McDonald: What kind of eggs, herring eggs? Ben Bolton: Those would be herring eggs, yeah. Jim McDonald: Along the northeast part of Prescott Island. Right down into Useless point area. Ben Bolton: Right in the Refuge Bay, on along, because there was varies camps right at the port. All the way, right here. I guess that would be Hunt Point where people from Port Essington used to camp there, too. And the Innis’ used to have their camp there, too. Jim McDonald: Innis’. Would you go over to that area where the Innis’ used to camp and collect clams or eggs, or anything like that? Or was it, did you try stay away from other people’s place. Ben Bolton: That was just a camping spot. It’s not a particular good for digging clams, or anything like hat. It’s just strictly a camping spot. Just a place for, it’s an ideal spot for people that have rowboats. And gas boats, because there’s a place in between the little islands, you can’t see it on this size map. You can see it on a regular chart. It will show you the depth of the water and everything. Well, that’s getting pretty thick. As far as this coast is. See, some old guys used to row out from here. Port Essington, on a fuller tide, on a nice calm day. And then, they camp right there [Porcher Island]. Jim McDonald: They could row that distance in a day? Ben Bolton: Well, the tide, these fellows, you know when the tides start ebbing well, they leave it first, he takes his time. It’s holding tide. Go out, no trouble. You know, just to row across this distance, that’s about three and a half, four miles. Oh about 3/4 an hour I guess.314

Gitxaala Nii Luutiksm/Kitkatla Conservancy The northern reaches of the Gitxaala Nii Luutiksm/Kitkatla Conservancy also includes some of the areas Kitsumkalum uses: William Island, Henry Island, Refuge Bay, and the common areas around those locations. Relevant information is recorded in the section on Porcher Island, above.

314 Ben Bolton, 1980 Interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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Welcome Harbour Map location Welcome Harbour is located on the north west side of Porcher Island and was part of the seasonal round.!

Figure 66. Welcome Harbour Kalum (traditional) uses of the place This area was used by Gord Roberts for clams315, and by Simon Lockerby’s group for abalone. Simon also referred to part of the harbour as a Port Simpson area: “Well, some say you know about, some story about that rock [in the harbour]. That bay, that, Port Simpson used to live in there. Everywhere you look all of Simpson.”316

A conversation with Harvey Wing, Sam Lockerby, and Don Roberts identified Welcome Harbour as a gathering place, a common area, and a Kalum camp:

Jim McDonald Welcome Harbour is another area but more of a use area with Gord Roberts son, Simon Lockerby’s group, clams, abalone, but refers to it as a Port—Simon, [a.k.a] Dee, referred to it as a Port Simpson area, Welcome Harbour. And Don, you talked about getting clams and cod around that area, herring eggs. And a common used territory is George Point?

315 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential). 316 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Simon Lockerby, 1980 interview,! KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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Don Roberts That’s where he’s talking about where the [inaudible] trap line goes right through there. But Welcome Harbour’s right in the middle of it.

Harvey Wing Yeah, yeah. It’s got a little shack out there with a stove and everything in it. Six people could stay there for a week [inaudible] and everything. It’s got a stove in there that will heat the whole place up and [inaudible].317

During the 1999 TUS, Don Roberts Jr. also described Kalum’s use of this area:

Then, all around Welcome Harbour here, we get all the clams and cods around the entrance here, the mouth. Suppose to be herring eggs in there too. Our common use territory is up in ah, I think it’s this on or this one, one of these two. George Point anyway. Taken in the middle there somewhere. (JT: How do you mean common use?) Well Kitkatla owns this, quite a bit of this territory here. But we use this territory too also. And they know that. But there’s a line here, we could use this territory, they could use this some. But they can’t turn around say we got no rights there. ‘Cause that’s ancient history that Kalum is entitled to here. And we go down to Skykle Point. And I think it’ll be this bay, Skykle Point’s right here but I think the whole bay, Skykle Bay… And that’s what I know. But I know there’s a rock out here, Buttersworth. But this is shore rights here. This one’s common, we usually share the shore common rights around here.

Then but then out on the flat here, Hecate Strait’s here, there’s some fingers out here. We call it the fingers here, it’s right where the deep water comes up. It’s quite a ways off-shore. Around out there, but there’s a lot of halibut up in these flats here. Kalum is, the old timers fished… I haven’t fished over there but I know this was George Point is, and then there’s another one out here, Buttersworth Rock somewhere around out here. But there’s big halibut fishing out there. And our fishermen had a lot of tradition time work in between Warrior Rock and all the way out here… (JT: Sorry, so this isn’t land, this is where the deep, deep water starts? Is that what this is?) No, this would be about maybe twenty, twenty-four fathom or something. And then down here would probably be sixty fathom, and then the fish hang around in these things here. And all the crab, and I set the gear in here.318

Wally Miller also spoke of Welcome Harbour:

Jim McDonald: And Arthur Island – Lax Spa Suunt – and places down in this area – ah, Winter [sic] Harbour. Wally Miller: We used to go there too Jim McDonald: Mmhmm – Winter [sic] Harbour isn’t it?

317 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 318 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential).

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Wally Miller: We called it Welcome Harbour Jim McDonald: Welcome Harbour –yeah. So this was all your territory Wally Miller: Yeah – that’s where we been to – all those places. And I’ve never heard anybody else ever coming in and claiming it. 319 Archaeological work at Welcome Harbour confirms the longstanding use of the area, with site reports confirming the existence of precontact middens.320

Gitxaala Nii Luutiksm/Kitkatla Conservancy The northern reaches of the Gitxaala Nii Luutiksm/Kitkatla Conservancy includes some of the areas that Kitsumkalum uses: William Island, Henry Island, Refuge Bay, and the common areas around those locations. Information is recorded in the section on Porcher Island, above.

319 Wally Miller, 2009 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 320 See, eg., detailed site reports for sites GaTp-1 and GaTp-6; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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Henry's Island Map location Henrys Island is in Edye Passage.

Figure 67. Henry Island Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Simon Lockerby321 and Don Roberts, Jr.,322 both mentioned fishing at Henry’s Island but did not elaborate. However, Sam Lockerby stated that “…we used to fish halibut along this bank here [just South of Henry Island]. They call it ‘Overbanks’. A lot of good halibut spots there. Sometimes we run two hours there, out, like you call flat fishing hey? From the flats hey?”323 Kalum members Harold Bolton and Lloyd Nelson also liked to come here for fishing.324

321 Simon Lockerby, 1980 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 322 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential). 323 Sam Lockerby, interview May 2011, KKSHRP Archives. 324 Pers. Comm., Don Roberts, Jr., October 2014.

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William Island Map location William Island is located on the North West side of Henry Island.

Figure 68. William Island Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Simon Lockerby said William Island was a camp and resource use area for Howard Starr’s father. In his words, “And there's another island, William's Island. That's Howard Starr's dad. They call it William's Island.”325

William Island is an area where Irene Collins harvested seaweed, abalone, clams.326 Don Roberts Jr. also told the 1999 TUS interviewer that “there’s a lot of stuff inside this William Island here too. Herring, cods and everything all over in here.”327

325 Simon Lockerby, 1979 interview, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 326 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (confidential). 327 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (confidential).

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STEPHENS ISLAND GROUP: KITSUMKALULM SITES Gweldzedzi'l (Stephen’s Island) Map location

Figure 69. Gweldzedzi’l (Stephens Island) Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable)

The origin of the sm’algyax name, Gweldzedzi’l is documented as meaning “Place of continual spouting,”328 or “always spouting”329 by William Beynon, and as “continually- spouting” 330 by Marius Barbeau. Barbeau also applied this name to Porcher Island and called Stephens Island ksg.exł.331

The English name of Stephens Island was given in 1793 by Captain George Vancouver after Sir Philip Stephens, who was the Secretary to the Admiralty.332

328 Beynon Notebooks, Vol II p 58. 329 Beynon Notebooks, Vol V p 9 Barbeau Files, see map B-6. 330 Barbeau, Laxsgiik Adaawx Binder L119.7. 331 Beynon Notebooks, Vol V p 9 Barbeau Files, see map B-6. 332 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc_placenames.htm

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Kalum ownership of the place Although Herbert Wallace told William Beynon around 1927 that Stephens Island was a hunting site and fishing area for the Gitwilgyoots Laxsgiik,333 and Marius Barbeau also recorded Gweldzedzi'l /Stephens Island, as the property of the Gitwilgyoots - 334 (see his sketch map encircling apparently associated islands, including Arthur Island –

Figure 70. Detail of Barbeau map

- the archival materials in fact present contradictory information and conflict with the very specific statements giving ownership of Stephen’s Island to the Gitwilgyoots alone.

For example, despite the statement above, Herbert Wallace also identified the island as a common ground (Herbert Wallace, 1915 & 1926 (Beynon; see also Duff; Allied Tribes, 1982; and, Tsimshian Territorial Data), with Lax Kw’alaams’ Bob Sankey also describing Stephens Island as common territory. This point was also confirmed by the Greens of Lax Kw’alaams, who appear to have also made a similar reference to Zayas Island:

Zayas Island the same way, Stephen’s Island is Kalum, Kitselas, Lax Kw’alaams, Metlakatla people. Well that’s what they ended up to be, eh? But they used to live up there, as Ganhadas, Gisbutwadas mostly and some Laxsgiik but uh, northeast tip of Stephens. I remember when we talked about these, it was external boundaries only. And that’s because of the Haisla, the Gitxsan and the Nisga'a. And we’re supposed to live the way we used to, sharing.335

Bob Sankey added that the Island was shared on the basis of crest:336

Just like Stephens Island is [shared because of their crests], people up in Metlakatla, I mean that’s where we migrated from too, and they all lived together and there are intermarriages with Kitsumkalum and Kitselas. They all lived up there, eh?

333 Herbert Wallace, in Beynon, ca. 1927) 334 Barbeau Files 418.2, p. 3 335 Bob Sankey and the Greens interview, September 1, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 336 Bob Sankey and the Greens interview, September 1, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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Figure 71. Plan III Beynon 1954. Detail of Stephens Island

William Beynon simply specified a site on the north end of the island, which is the location of Metlakatla’s Avery Island IR No. 92 (but, as we shall see, Kalum people also used Avery Island for collecting seaweed). Traditional uses of the place A nearby traditional use site in Stephens Passage between Stephens and Prescott Islands is called Kg axki'n, meaning "give to all". This was a fishing and gathering village and was also a trade location, but the Tree Nob group of Islands [northeast of Stephens Island] and Ksgaxi/Stephens Island were traditionally the main harvesting area for many sea resources throughout the year. I n Traditional Ecological Knowledge interviews, all of Metlakatla members who were interviewed indicated that they regularly harvested various marine species from waters surrounding Stephens and Triple Islands and the Tree Nob group during various points in the year. These species include shellfish, seaweed, chitons and salmon. There are also a number of cultural sites on the islands, including camp sites and middens that point to continuous use of the Islands by Metlakatla and other Tsimshian people;337 based on the evidence presented in this paper, this would include the Tsimshian community of Kitsumkalum.

Corroborating the above, archaeological work at Stephens Passage has identified a site on the southeast shore of Stephens Island featuring pre and post-contact CMTs, precontact surface lithics and cultural depressions, and a midden.338

Additional and related information is provided below, in the context of Kalum interests at Skiakl Bay.

337 Metlakatla Governing Council, 2011. 338 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See detailed site reports for GaTp! -10; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. See also site reports for the nearby middens at GaTP-11, GaTp-12, GaTp-13.

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! !

Skiakl Bay Location

Figure 72. Skiakl Bay (located at red dot).

Indian Reserves in the area

Squadaree IR No. 91.

No. 70, Land Applied for: Five (5) acres for Indian Peter Robinson [Metlakatla Band] on the W. coast of Stephens Island, near the northern entrance to Skiakl Bay, marked “a” on blueprint. Purpose: Fishing Station. Status of Land Desired: Vacant and Available. Decision of Commission: Allowed. References: Material on R.C. File 506C; Evidence P. 264

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Kalum (traditional) uses of the place

Kitsumkalum holds documented interests here, including fishing.339 Sam Lockerby fished in the Squaderee area with his father and they camped in the anchorage and fished for halibut on the flats.340 Alex Bolton indicated that the east side of Stevens Island was a use area for herring roe, kelp, and clam beds. The west side was a heavy use area for sea weed camps, herring and herring roe, salmon, halibut, and sea urchins.341 Kalum Smoogy’et Ric Miller is so fond of Squaderee that he uses the name in his email address.342 See also comments in the evidence pertaining to Butler’s Cove, below, and note the additional information describing Kalum’s interests at Stephens Island, which was described above:

Jim McDonald Well this is Gitwilgyoots area but Kalum has had fishing there and the East side of Stephens Island for herring roe, kelp, clam beds. West side for seaweed, camps, herring and herring roe, salmon, halibut, sea urchins. So the West side of Stephens Island seemed to be an area. And you’ve mentioned this area here, what is [Skiakl]?

Don Roberts [Skiakl] Bay?

Jim McDonald You said that there was some Kalum interests there.

Don Roberts Yeah Bill took me in there, my Uncle Bill took me in there and we anchored in there when I was halibut fishing with him. And he said he said um, that’s where Kalum used to have their camp. But he’ll, hump, there’s-- behind that little hump, it’s on the right hand side going in at the back.343

339 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (confidential); Tsimshian Territorial Data; Lax Kw’alaams Aboriginal Claim. 340 Sam Lockerby, interview May 2011, KKSHRP Archives. 341 KTO memo, dated July 8, 2003. 342 Pers. Comm., August 11, 2014. 343 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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Avery Island Map location

Avery Island is located off the northeast end of Stephens Island.

Figure 73. Avery Island Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) The name was presumably given by Captain Pender, RN, but the significance is not known.344

Indian Reserves in the area Metlakatla has a 20.4 hectare reserve located there, called Avery Island IR No. 92. This was granted following an application to the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs that was made by Peter Robinson, Solomon Auriol and Stephen Ryan, who described the place as a fishing station and residence:

No. 72 Land Applied for: Avery Island, N. E. of Stephens Island, or such portion thereof as may be available, including land on which are the fish-drying houses of Indians Peter Robinson, Solomon Auriol and Stephen Ryan. Purpose: Fishing Station. Status of Land Desired: Vacant and Available. Decision of Commission: Allowed: Avery Island in its entirety, subject to survey, containing an

344 BCGNIS.

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area of fifteen (15) acres, more or less, subject to survey. References: Material on R. C. File 506C; Evidence P. 265.345

Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Kalum member Frank Miller used Avery Island for harvesting seaweed until he passed away.346

345 The evidence for Additional Lands Application Nos. 70, 71, and 72 can also be found in the Blue Folder no. 6 of 7, page 264-265 in the Examination of Agent Perry: Q.Application No. 4 - the N.E. portion-of Stevens Island - Avery Is- land applied for. Is the whole of the island wanted or only that portion which includes that piece of land on which they now have their fishing houses and drying racks located? A.They want the whole island. Q.(Examining map) Can you point it out on the map? A.No, I cannot.

See also Report on the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia, Vol. III, page 572. Additional Lands Application No. 72, Metlakatla Band. 346 Pers. Comm., Ric Miller, August 11, 2014.

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Butler’s Cove Map location

Figure 74. Butler’s Cove

Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) The cove is on the Southeast side of Stephens Island and was named:

After John William Butler, a native of Newfoundland, in command of the steamer Thistle, engaged in the halibut fisheries of Hecate Strait 1896-1897, and in the service of the New England Halibut Company, which had at that date an establishment in the cove for the cleaning and packing of halibut. Named by [Captain Walbran] on making a survey of the cove, 1897.347 Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Butler’s Cove is used by Don Roberts Jr.: “And then I do some herring egg fishing down in Butler’s Cove here, and halibuts and cod. And then there’s another rock out here.”348 Sam Lockerby also fished in the area with his father,349 with Don Roberts Jr. and others adding that:

347 BCGNIS 348 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (confidential); per Don Roberts Jr.

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Don Roberts There was herring eggs, herring in there. Everything was in there too.

Harvey Wing Yup.

Don Roberts Herring egg but it’s a shelter. It’s a real good shelter to blow over whatever kind of wind blows in. Seems to me everybody goes in there. I’ve seen everybody running in there.

Harvey Wing We used to have about four or five can [inaudible] in there.

Don Roberts Yeah.

Harvey Wing Tugboats used to go there and anchor up.

Sam Lockerby Used to be a lot of camp there in halibut season, hey?

Harvey Wing And we had--

Sam Lockerby Two, yeah, two or three camps there. Where we deliver our halibut fish [inaudible].

Don Roberts And then Bill said the herring eggs spawn much later than Kwel’mass area. If you want big herring eggs, you can go there and you’ll get them. And that’s what it seemed to be ‘cause you used to throw big nets out and the main, just full of herring.

Harvey Wing I did it there. We used to [inaudible] early. But when we went there [inaudible] they wouldn’t spawn. It was just thick enough on my [inaudible] just for drying. Gary Alexcee, he used to go in there and he used to have a bait license and he used to have his pond there. And he used to get the kelp and put it in there and he said he was like, the pretty big, thick [inaudible] like you said it was later in the year hey?

349 Sam Lockerby, interview May 2011, KKSHRP Archives.

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Sam Lockerby also remembered Butlers Cove from when he lived at Lax Spa Suunt:350

Sam Lockerby Butler’s cove they call it now. Not far from Arthur Island, Butler’s Cove. And there was a little shortcut to go there when you, when you go behind it if the weather was rough outside of the island. We’d go behind it. And we’d deliver, and there was a lot of boats there waiting around for the weather to be calm, they go out on the flats, hey. … Shalane Pauls Um, was that the only area that you fished in or was there other areas?

Sam Lockerby No, no that’s uh, yeah, there’s quite a few areas around. They call Squadaree Part of that, what do you call that? Now I forget what you call that island, around Butler’s cove anyhow. Squadaree they call it.

Shalane Pauls Squadaree?

Sam Lockerby Yeah, Squadaree. And they, that’s where most of the fishermen were anchored there too, to go out in the flats, out in the open. 351

Archaeological site reports from digs at Butler’s Cove have revealed handlogging, a traditional Kalum pursuit of the early twentieth century, as well as precontact cultural depressions and middens.352 No Kalum handlogging documentation has been found but, as mentioned above, the province destroyed related evidence in or about 1930.

350 February 18, 2013. Spokechute Traditional & Historical Land Management & Use Research Project. 351 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 352 See, eg., detailed site reports for sites GaTp-7 and GaTp-9; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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Warrior Rocks Map location Southwest of Stephens Island.

Figure 75. Warrior Rocks

Kalum (traditional) uses of the place This is a resource use and fishing area for Don Roberts, Jr.: “And then I do some herring egg fishing down in Butler’s Cove here, and halibuts and cod. And then there’s another rock out here you haven’t got. Oh maybe you got it. Warrior Rock. Another rock down here. Seal rocks.”353

Sam Lockerby also fished in the area with his father.354

Don Roberts, Jr. adds that the location has high spiritual values related to its past use as a warrior preparation site and Tsimshian-Haida battlefield.355

353 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (confidential). 354 Sam Lockerby, interview May 2011, KKSHRP Archives. 355 Pers. Comm., Don Roberts, Jr., October 2014.

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Seal Rocks Map location Southwest of Stephens Island.

Figure 76. Seal Rocks Kalum (traditional) uses of the place This is a resource use and fishing area for Don Roberts, Jr.: “And then I do some herring egg fishing down in Butler’s Cove here, and halibuts and cod. And then there’s another rock out here you haven’t got. Oh maybe you got it. Warrior Rock. Another rock down here. Seal rocks.”356

356 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (confidential).

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Butterworth Rocks Map location Northwest of Stephens Island.

Figure 77. Butterworth Rocks Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Named in 1870 by Captain Pender after the British trading ship, Butterworth, formerly a French frigate of 30 guns that was captured in the war of 1793. Captain William Brown of the Butterworth sent one of his officers from Qlawdzeet Anchorage to meet Vancouver and pilot him in when his vessels were seen in the offing one stormy afternoon on July 20, 1793.357 Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Per Don Roberts Jr.: “These are halibut areas. They’re prime going way out there, but its all halibut area all the way, but these are the prime. Halibut area all over in here. We want some highline catches, then we gotta come up here. 358

357 See BCGNIS and http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc_placenames.htm 358 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (confidential); per Don Roberts Jr.

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Hecate Strait, Open Ocean areas (see the two maps above) Kalum use of the place

Don Roberts, Jr.:

Then but then out on the flat here, Hecate Strait’s here, there’s some fingers out here. We call it the fingers here, it’s right where the deep water comes up. It’s quite a ways off-shore. Around out there, but there’s a lot of halibut up in these flats here. Kalum is, the old timers fished… I haven’t fished over there but I know this was George Point359 is, and then there’s another one out here, Buttersworth Rock somewhere around out here. But there’s big halibut fishing out there. And our fishermen had a lot of tradition time work in between Warrior Rock and all the way out here…

JT:

Sorry, so this isn’t land, this is where the deep, deep water starts? Is that what this is?

Don Roberts, Jr.:

No, this would be about maybe twenty, twenty-four fathom or something. And then down here would probably be sixty fathom ... and then the fish hang around in these things here. And all the crab, and I set the gear in here. 360

359 East side of Alexandra Narrows, Queen Charlotte Land District. 360 Kitsumkalum TUS 1999 (Confidential), Don Roberts, Jr.

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TS’UWAAN GYEDMNA’AX (Point Lambert) Map location

Figure 78. Ts'uwaan Gyedmana'ax (Point Lambert) Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Ts’uwaan Gyedmna’ax is now called Point Lambert. Ts’uwaan means “Point” and Gyedmna’ax means “dual being” or “part man part woman.”361

Port Lambert was the home of a naxnox (supernatural being) mentioned in the Laxgibuu adaawx. Barbeau recorded the story of one from Port Lambert called Gyedmna’ax [Gyćdem'nćrh] or Ts’uwaan Gyedmna’ax362 (Barbeau, Laxgibuu Adaawx Binder W24.9). Matriarch Rebecca Bolton told her granddaughter Mildred Roberts the story of the supernatural being living at Point Lambert that may be the same naxnox, and Mildred told the following story (a copy of the original fax is on the next page):

The legend goes that there was a super natural woman living in the bottom of the river at Point Lambert. The old people in Wil xksuutks [(walkswtks)] Port Essington use to always talk about the (naxnoxm hana’ax) supernatural woman in (Ts’uwaan gyedmna’ax) Point Lambert. The Supernatural being would surface every so often, I don’t know how often. The legend goes that it resembled a woman. Rebecca Bolton told of how a group of woman canoed to Port Essington from Claxton Cannery to pick berries…. When they got to Point Lambert, their canoe seemed to have ran aground on a sandbar, they knew that there was no

361 Marsden, S. “Adawx, Spanaxnox, and the Geopolitics of the Tsimshian”, BC Studies, No. 35, 2002. 362 Ts’uwaan Gyedmna’ax – Mildred Roberts.

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sandbar where they were. They stuck the paddles down the sides of the canoe, but there was nothing there. They started paddling a hard as they could, but the canoe did not move, all of a sudden the canoe went skidding on the water as if they were given a great big shove. They went paddling home as fast as they could go. That was the last time they went canoeing up that way.363

Figure 78. Original Fax from Mildred to Kalum

As with Casey Point, Ts’uwaan Gyedmna’ax is of high value to the entire Kalum galts’ap.

363 Fax from Mildred Roberts to KKB, November 28, 2009.

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MUD BAY (Fleming Bay) Map location Fleming/Mud Bay is located at the SE end of Telegraph Passage, S of mouth of Skeena River, S of Prince Rupert, Range 4 Coast Land District.

Figure 79. Mud Bay (Fleming Bay) Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Originally named "Port Fleming" in 1879 by Captain J.C. Brundige, after Sandford Fleming (1827 - 1915) [later Sir Sandford Fleming, KCMG], an eminent civil engineer, and Engineer-in-Chief of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 1871-1880. Tsimshian ownership of the place No Tsimshian name is specified, nor is any ownership by a Pteex or Waap asserted, thus supporting the idea that Mud Bay is a common use area. The 1993 TTC map reinforces this idea by illustrating the area as common ground.364 Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Kitsumkalum’s 1999 TUS recorded the significance of Mud Bay for several Kitsumkalum families. For example, Lloyd Nelson, a Ganhada man, reported going there for deer, geese, ducks, sea lion, seals, shrimp, and prawns.365 The area is also surrounded by Kalum traplines held by George Brown, Mark Bolton, and Gus Collins.366

364 1993 TTC Map. 365 Kitsumkalum, 1999 TUS (confidential), Gord Roberts. 366 Kalum Trapline Map.

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The Gisbutwada also use the area, both in the past and today. David Bohn, a Gisbutwada, reported camping there for deer hunting, halibut, and collecting sea foods. His brother Gerald Wesley (Ganhada) said he used the area for deer, trolling, and jigging cod. Annette Bolton also spoke to the TUS about gathering crabs there. Annette is from another First Nation but uses the area with her Kitsumkalum Gisbutwada husband Alex Bolton, whose father was a Ganhada. 367 Don Roberts, Jr., another Gisbutwada whose father was a Ganhada, reported gathering crabs, deer hunting, and spring fishing. In his words,

I guess the main thing we got to protect here is the crabs, ‘cause that’s what they’re targeting and they’re just on a little area, the crabs. ... if we had one thing protected it’d be the boundary sign I guess, and somewhere around here, there should this would be a protection and Digby there, boundary sign. And maybe from up here, should be a crab protection area that, at Mud Bay and all along Merrick Island and Gibson for our own use and probably that use would be used with this other tribe here, Kitkatla. 368

Gord Roberts’ wife, Rena Roberts, captured the affection the people have for Mud Bay with a simple comment: “I think after, I'm going to build another cabin out there.” 369

367 Kitsumkalum, 1999 TUS (confidential), David Bohn et al.. 368 Kitsumkalum, 1999 TUS (confidential), Don Roberts, Jr. 369 Kitsumkalum, 1999 TUS (confidential), Gord Roberts.

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KENNEDY ISLAND Map location Kennedy Island is located at the mouth of the Skeena River.

Figure 80. Kennedy Island Kalum (traditional) uses of the place At the south end of Kennedy Island, Cardina Bay was a hunting area for moose and deer (Alex Bolton TUS 1999). The entire island is illustrated as common ground on the 1993 TTC map370 and, in a February 7, 2007 report prepared by Dr. Joan Lovisek in the context of litigation involving Lax Kw’alaams and Canada, the author pointed out that:

…the Lax Kw’alaams Fisheries Resource Site Map shows all of the marine area around Smith Island, De Horsey Island and Kennedy Island, Telegraph Passage, including the east shore of Porcher Island to Ogden Passage as used by the Gitwilgyoots for fishing resources. This extent is …unsupported by Duff’s findings. Duff stated that Kennedy Island, Smith Island and De Horsey Island, based on information obtained from Wallace in 1926: “were the common property of all the Tsimshian tribes,” as presumably was the coastal area in the vicinity of Metlakatla farther north. [emphasis added]371

370 1993 TTC Map. 371 Report prepared for James M. Mackenzie, Department of Justice, British Columbia Regional Office Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Note that the latter comment would of course apply to Casey Point, thus reinforcing Kalum claims to the village site in that location. Trapline history All of Kennedy Island is under trapline registration TR0611T062 held by the late Gus Collins of Kitsumkalum.372 “Louis Locker” – perhaps referring to Kalum member Louis Lockerby – also held a handlogging licence for the “northeast shore Kennedy Island” in 1911.373

Archaeological work on Kennedy Island also shows significant usage, with hundreds of CMTs deemed likely to be precontact; the stand in which most of the CMTs are located is at least 250 years old.374 The author of a 1999 review of a “very large and significant CMT site at Kennedy Island” failed to submit the review to Kalum375 – an unfortunate oversight as Kalum’s claims to this location appear to be exceedingly strong in light of the information above. Similarly, a 1996 review that described the island as falling within “…the traditional territory of the Tsimshian peoples, specifically the Coast [sic] Tsimshian” – cited Dr. James McDonald’s Kalum-focussed 1985 Ph.D in order to discuss the Tsimshian seasonal round (incorrectly spelling Dr. McDonald’s name in the process). Despite use of the Kalum-focussed source, the review resulted in consultation with only the Metlakatla Band.376

372 Kalum Trapline Map. 373 See entry for Louis “Locker”, Hand Logging Licence Ledger 1913 [sic]-1916, MOF, F. 10000-90/1-2-7. 374 See detailed site reports for sites GaTn-3, GaTn-5, GaTn-6, GaTn-8, GaTn-9, GaTn-10, GaTn-11, GaTn-12, GaTn-13, GaTn-14, GaTn-15, GaTn-16, GaTm-5, GbTk-7, FITn-3 and FITm-12; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 375 Report 1999-191 covering an archaeological overview of Kennedy Island; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 376 Report 1996-039 covering an archaeological overview of Kennedy Island; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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GRENVILLE CHANNEL TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS AND SITES Map location

Figure 81. The map shows the relationship between the Kalum interests in the Grenville Channel area south of the Gibson Group at the head of the channel. Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Greenville Channel was named by Captain Vancouver in 1793 after Baron Grenville.377 Tsimshian ownership of the place Grenville Channel is a common area but the Gitwilgyoots claim territories on Pitt Island. However, Bob Sankey and the Greens described it and other coastal areas as being common territory:378

J McDonald And the other decision was, I just want you to confirm this or deny it, that

377 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc_placenames.htm 378 Bob Sankey and the Greens interview, September 1, 2011, KKSHRP Interview Collection.

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the Skeena river was common territory and that areas down Grenville channel and some of the coastal areas were common territory and--

Bob Sankey Right down to Klewnuggit. Cause they lived there as groups of Gisbutwada, Laxsgiik, Ganhada, and some Laxgibuu, there wasn’t many. Especially in Kum mealia [*Name 0:16:43]. Cause Kitkatla claimed that eh?

Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Specific information will be provided below in relation to specific locations featuring Kalum title and rights. Trapline history The Boltons (sons of the Kalum Gilutsa’aaw Ganhada matriarch Rebecca Bolton) had a commercial trapline on Grenville Channel (McDonald 1985: 97).

At the moment, nearly the entire length of the west side of the channel (running the length of Pitt Island) is within the traplines of Kalum members Gord Roberts and Reynold Lockerby.

A large section of the east side of the channel also falls within the trapline of Alex Bolton and Brothers.379

Numerous archaeological sites also dot the surrounding area.

Details with respect to this evidence will be provided below.

379 Kalum Trapline Map.

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K’BAL (Pitt Island) Map location

Figure 82. Pitt Island

Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Pitt Island was named in 1793 by Vancouver after William Pitt, the younger, P.M. of Great Britain.380 Tsimshian (traditional) uses of the place Although the Gitwilgyoots claim territories on Pitt Island, Pitt Island is also partially in Gitxaała territory. Barbeau noted that the Gitxaała “…claimed Pitt and Banks and neighbouring islands for hunting and fishing ground. The Gitxaała [gitka’ła] never went to the Skeena, but they went to the Nass and had territory (fishing there).381

During the 20th century, however, Kitsumkalum people also kept camps and traplines on Pitt Island. Mildred Roberts reported using the area (TUS 1999), and Eddie Feak also talked about Port Essington use of Pitt Island in an interview dated November 29, 1980:

380 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc_placenames.htm 381 Barbeau, BF 418.3.

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Eddie Feak: Well, they go out there, some things, went out there, just, the people used to go out there and dry some clams. In January, February. And then get some halibut, dry some halibut. And then, in about April, they get some fish eggs. That’s how they, they used to live them. And there’s one point, I forgot the name of the point. There used to be a lot of halibut there. Where they get a lot of fish eggs. There used to be a lot of housed there. Where they get a lot of fish eggs.

Jim McDonald: On Arthur Island?

Eddie Feak: On Pitt Island. Not too far from Humpback Bay. Used to be a lot of houses there, a lot of people there. Dry fish eggs there. Used to be a lot of fish eggs.

Kalum Trapline history

Figure 83. Gord Roberts trapline TR0611T094. The north end of Pitt Island is registered (TR0611T094) to the Kitsumkalum Ganhada Gordon J. Roberts.

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MARRACK ISLAND Map location Marrack Island is at the head of Grenville Channel. Gibson (Hadanii) Island, discussed above, lies just beneath it.

Figure 84. Marrack Island and Gibson (Hadanii) Island Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Mildred Roberts reported that the Kalum name for Marrack was actually Felix Island because Felix and Ruby Brown lived there. 382 Kalum ownership and use of the place The Galts'ap, Pteex and Waap ownership are not specified but this is an area used by Kalum people and which falls within the area illustrated as common ground on the 1993 TTC map.383 Mildred Robert’s family had a cabin on Marrack Island, which they called Felix’s Island, and, in 1980, Mrs. Roberts described the social groups on Marrack Island as “the same bunch: Paul Mason and Cecilia and Father’s sister, Ed Bolton or James Bolton’s helper, Mother’s mother and Husband [Cecilia and Sam Lockerby], [and] Father’s mother [Rebecca Bolton], Bennie and Lloyd.”384 Sam Lockerby also remembered Kalum people living on the island:

382 Mildred Roberts, July 15, 2010. 383 1993 TTC Map. 384 Jim McDonald’s notes on a personal communication dated 1980.04.01.

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Sam Lockerby - Well all I can remember is Ruby and that Felix. They were raising fox on that island... That’s my memory about that island.

Ron Bartlett - George was telling me that the, they had um, I think that Billy Bolton and a couple others had a, had a cabin there and when they were building the wooden gill net boats that they would take the cedar off that island and make the keels out of them.

Sam Lockerby - Oh yeah… They logged there. Eddie Bolton. And my dad helped. They’re quite a bit of logging and they--

Ron Bartlett - Maybe it was Eddie Bolton he was talking about, yeah.

Sam Lockerby - Yeah. Eddie Bolton ‘cause they, ‘cause they were logging there.385

Mildred Roberts and Harvey Wing recalled the people hunting deer and seal, and harvesting herring eggs. 386 James W. Bolton held a handlogging licence on Marrack Island before 1927,387 and Mark Bolton had a handlogging licence on Gibsons [sic] Island before 1925.388

Clearly, the Kalum connection to these islands is tight – and the area is still very much in use. For example, Don Roberts, Jr. told the 1999 TUS interviewer that he trolled for winter springs all around Marrack Island, Gibson Island, Baker’s Inlet, Kumealon, Stewart Anchorage and further south.389 The Gisbutwada of Kalum still frequent the area for sea food and as an ocean camp.390

385 Sam Lockerby, 2011 interview, KKSHRP. 386 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 387 See entry for J.W. Bolton, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913-1927 [sic]”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-8. 388 See entry for Mark Bolton, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913-1927 [sic]”, BC MOF 1000-90/1-2-8. 389 Kitsumkalum, 1999 TUS (confidential), Don Roberts, Jr.. 390 Pers. Comm.

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BAKER INLET - ’TS’M LIYŰŰ Map location

Figure 85. Baker Inlet/’Ts’m Liyűű Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) William Beynon recorded a story in 1953 that related the history of the warrior leader Hai’maes, who often fought with Tsimshian Sm’gyigyet. Beynon described two names for this Inlet:

35. Tsamlu’iyu = tsam = in [=ts’m] lu’iyu = in hiding [= liyűű] = Place of hiding Geographical name. Baker’s Inlet. This was a place of hiding for hai’mae’s when he became an outlaw and it was here that he attacked a Haida [háida] war party who were [unclear hand writing] from a wutstae raiding. The narrative:

Hai’mae’s was gathering salmon at the entrance of this ??? in which there was a small salmon where they got their salmon supply. They had completed getting their catch and now were resting on the shore when hai’mae’s who was sitting on a rock suddenly was shot by an arrow. In the training of the hai’?? warriors, they were trained never to show any emotion of surprise or pain. Hai’mae’s very quietly pulled the arrow from his thigh and said to his followers, “Do not look now, there are Haida [háida]raiders near us, I have just been shot by a Haida [háida] arrow. Appear as if nothing has happened, but we will retaliate and search out

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these raiders.” Hai’mae’s although wounded arose and looking about saw where the raiders were hiding. So they pretended to go away and hid around the point and as soon as the raiders started to follow them, Hai’mae’s attacked them and almost killed all of them. Some escaped and it was those that escaped that told of what had happened them. [(Continued in Vol. 4 Beynon, 1953) Page 1. / 35. No. 35 Ctd. From Vol. 3 Beynon, 1953. Page 50. ] So the hai’mae’s group of wudzan’ae’ak warriors were again victors, taking many Haida [háida]warriors captives. 391 Kalum (traditional) uses of the place The area near Baker Inlet was used and is still used by Kitsumkalum people as a part of their general use of the Grenville Channel area. Don Roberts Jr. told the 1999 TUS interviewer that he trolled for:

…winter springs, and winter springs all around Merrick Island, Gibsons, around Baker’s, down Kumealon, down Stewart Anchorage and then down… Kumealon Inlet we do springs in here and clams and cockle beds there. …

Baker’s I mostly do spring fishing there. But I get an odd bucket of cockles there. That’s my grandfather’s trap line [see map below]. 392

Sam Lockerby lived across from Baker Inlet and remembers the Boltons there:

Yeah, and James Bolton, uh, owned a trap line right just across from us, my dad’s trap line. And Bakers inlet there. Where James and them had nice, nice little place. You could fish spring in there. Get cockles, clams, and the spring are good there. Catching, troll it or put a net out. Near that rock. Oh, near that rock where spring-- Swim, swimming around, high water. My dad decided troll way down deep, he caught a great big spring. Not winter spring, winter spring are little ones, hey. But he caught great, big one there. 393

391 Marius Barbeau Collection. William Beynon Fieldnotes. Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, National Museum of Man, Ottawa. Vol. 3 1953, story 35, page 50. 392 Kitsumkalum, TUS 1999 (confidential), KKSHRP Archives. 393 February 18, 2013. Spokechute Traditional & Historical Land Management & Use Research Project.

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Trapline history (for Ts’m Liyűű [Bakers Inlet] to Klewnuggit Inlet)

Figure 86. Bolton trapline at Bakers Inlet. This trapline originally stretched from a point north of Bakers Inlet to a point at the southern end of Klewnuggit Inlet. James W. Bolton, residing in Port Essington, was added to the line around 1936 and, in 1945, the line was transferred to the names of Fred Auckland, Sam Cecil, and James Bolton. Three years later, the line was split.394 The Bolton portion (currently TR0611T030), which included Bakers Inlet and environs, was registered with James and his sons: Harold (age 21), William (age 14), Clifford (age 14), and Alexander (age 9). In 1951, it was transferred from James to his son Harold as headman. The other registered trappers were William, Wilfred (Cliff), Lawrence A. (Alex), and Robert B. (who was listed as having died in 1978/79).

Social groups In 1980, Mildred Roberts described the social groups at ‘Ts’m Liyüü as Port Essington residents who included:395 • Mark Bolton (her Father’s Father), his wife Rebecca Bolton (her Father’s mother) and Lloyd (his son) • Mark and Rebecca’s son Ben Bolton • Mark and Rebecca’s son Ed Bolton and Ed’s wife Charlotte and daughter Josie • Paul Mason and his wife Cecilia of the Kitselas Band • Sam Lockerby [check] (her Mother’s Father), his wife Cecilia (her Mother’s mother), their son Sam (who has contributed information to this report), and their granddaughter Laura • Dan Brown • Art Bolton

These were a group of people closely related to the central married couple of Mark and Rebecca Bolton.

394 Jim McDonald, 1982 Trapline Report, KKSHRP Archives. 395 Mildred Roberts, pers. comm. with Jim McDonald, April 1, 1980.

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With respect to handlogging activity by Kalum people, note a triplicate copy of a March 18, 1916 licence issued to Andrew Spalding for the north shore of Baker Inlet.396

Archaeological work at the head of Baker Inlet has revealed a fish trap,397 19 different 398 399 CMT sites - the majority of which likely predate 1846 - and two middens.

In February 1986, the KIB also protested against the establishment of a fish from in Baker’s Inlet based on its traditional occupation of the area.400

396 Hand Loggers Licences, No. 886, 1913-1916, MOF File 1-2-9. 397 See site report for FkTl-1; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 398 See site reports for FkTl-6, FkTl-7, FkTl-8, FkTl-10, FkTl-11, FkTl-12, FKTl-13, FkTl-14, FkTl-15, FkTl- 16, FkTl-17, FkTl-18, FkTl-19, FkTl-20, FkTl-21, FkTl-22, FkTl-23, FkTl-24, FkTl-25; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 399 See site reports for FkTl-7 and FkTl-11; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 400 February 3, 1986, Chief Clifford Bolton, KIB, to Bob Brody, BC Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing (KTO Archive).

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KLEWNUGGIT INLET Map location

Figure 87. Klewnuggit Inlet

Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Klewnuggit is located towards the end of the common ground of the Grenville Channel that was used and is still used by Kitsumkalum people as a part of a resource harvesting and commercial fishing area. In an Elders gathering, Mildred Roberts indicated that her family had a cabin at Klewnuggit and that, as children, they carved the date of February 9th, 1937 on the tree that was still there a few years ago.401

Don Roberts Jr. also told the 1999 TUS interviewer that “…we do deer hunting in this Klewnugget.”402 Trapline history The Ganhada sm’oogyet Peter Nelson had a trapline there in the early 20th century,403 while the Bolton trapline illustrated above (see figure 86, above) covers Klewnuggit and the area north past Bakers Inlet.

With respect to archaeology, numerous CMT sites have been identified at the south 404 end of the Inlet.

401 Elders Workshop on Coast and Rivers Heritage Interview, September 20, 2010, KKSHRP Interview Collection. 402 Kitsumkalum, 1999 TUS, Don Roberts Jr. 403 Mildred Roberts, July 15, 2010.

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Klewnuggit Inlet Marine Provincial Park BC Parks established this marine park in 1993 with 1,773 hectares. According to the government web site:

The remains of ancient stone fish traps can be found at the outlet of the falls in Nettle Basin. To the north are the remains of a cannery wharf from a large operation in the area from 1890 to 1934. 405

404 See site reports for FjTk-3, FjTk-4, FjTk-5, FjTk-35, FjTk-36, FjTk-37, FjTk-38, FjTk-39, FjTk-40, FjTk- 41, FjTk-42, FjTk-43, FjTk-44, FjTk-45, FjTk-46, FjTk-47, FjTk-48, FjTk-49, FjTk-50, FjTk-51, FjTk-52, FjTk-53, FkTk-10, FkTk-6, FkTk-9; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 405 http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/klewnuggit_inlet/

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KXNGEAL INLET

Map location This inlet is located south of Baker Inlet and includes Kxngeal Bay.

Figure 88. Kxngeal Inlet Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Alex Bolton reported gathering clams, cockles, and berries here ( KK TUS 1999).

Both Klwenuggit and Kxngeal are also referenced in Kalum discussions of nearby Pa- aat [Salmon] River, where – in the only exception to the title of this paper that I am aware of - Kalum people had to ask for permission to trap, but did not need permission to undertake any other uses or other types of harvesting:

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Figure 89. Lockerby Trapline on Greenville Channel. Sam Lockerby, Sr., registered this trapline in 1938 with the comment that he had spent all his life there. It was transferred from him when he died. David Douglas, deceased, was also listed on the transfer papers and must have been in partnership or assisting Sam. Other assistants who were listed on the line were the Kitsumkalum men David Nelson (a Ganhada) in 1946, Joe Wesley (a Laxsgiik) in 1949, and Sam Lockerby, Jr. (a Gisbutwada), in 1951. All of these young men became elders in Kitsumkalum, and the current registration (TR0611T040) is still held in the family by Reynold M. Lockerby of Kitsumkalum. Additional evidence is as follows:

Sam Lockerby Jr. After we come from trap, my dad would trap with my help and get trapped beaver. There’s several lakes there, through Grenville Channel. Right from-- what do you call it? River, anyway, river and all the way down to Lowe Inlet. That’s sixty miles long, our trap line and quite nice, hey?

And then we would get a permission from the Hartley Bay and build a shack and uh, Klewnuggit Lake… It’s uh, where it narrows off right here. Then you come out in the Hartley Bay.

Sam Lockerby - All I know is we, we lived on the boat when we were trapping there and there would be time, so that we don’t have to run back and forth, there was a cabin there, a little log cabin. Klewnuggit Lake.

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And all the good clams there, cockles. You go in the Klewnuggit Inlet, boy there’s three ways to go and there was just all kinds of cockles. After all Kitkatla people would load up people to go digging and it wiped them out after.

Yeah. Yeah it’s all I remember about it.

Jim McDonald - It’s really useful to know that you asked permission from, from Hartley Bay or Kitkatla. It helps to tie off a loose end about why people were there. 406

Ron Bartlett - So is that Hartley Bay territory down there then?

Sam Lockerby - Yeah their trap line. That’s our, I get, ask for permission.

Ron Bartlett - Okay. On your own trap line would that be, would that have been … on Pitt Island? … Was that considered Kalum at all or?

Sam Lockerby - No just through, up that trap line. They were trapping.

Jim McDonald - You got the trap line through the game, game warden?

Sam Lockerby - Yeah

Jim McDonald - So it wasn’t a Kalum territory. It was just a trap line?

Sam Lockerby - No. Yeah.

Jim McDonald - And that was from uh, Salmon River or?

Sam Lockerby - Yeah, yeah that’s right. Yeah Salmon River… I don’t know what it means, but Pa-aat, they call it.

Jim McDonald - That’s the same as Salmon River? Oh, okay.

406 Sam Lockerby 2011 interview, KKSHRP.

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Sam Lockerby - Yeah. Pa-aat. I don’t know why, I never found out why they call it Pa-aat. But that’s where my dad had logged too. And my uncle Simon, Simon Lockerby. And Laura Brown and I were brought up hey? My mom brought up Laura and he’s had his little smoke house there. And our skiff is way up on the beach. Good thing it was a slope. It sloped down so you can kind of slide the skiff easy and my dad heard the wolf howl. So he knew what’s happening. He knew that wolves smell food, hey? The thing was starving. So he came running and my dad just rowed to the boat and rowed, hollered at my mom and said, “You better get on the boat.” We didn’t know what was going on. Laura and I were happy playing where we are on the beach. And then we got the skiff there, go to the boat. And my dad was waiting up in the back, in the bush, waiting for-- I think he shot three or four times. Every time he fired it went down hey?407

Sam Lockerby also explained the more general use of the area for multiple economic activities:

Sam Lockerby – My dad was, they were hand logging then. And then they boomed up and then he go up Brown’s Mill… Jim McDonald - He’d go all the way around, up Granville Channel and down the Ecstall with the boom? Sam Lockerby - Down the bay and-- Jim McDonald - And um, hmm. You got permission from Hartley Bay, did you? To be in-- Sam Lockerby - When we were trapping, yeah... Right through Klewnuggit Lake. Jim McDonald - Um, but okay I see. Yeah. But all I have right now is that um, there’s clams, cockles and berries down there. That people, that it, the Boltons gathered clams, cockles and berries down at uh, Kah-- how do you say it? Kxngeal? Ron Bartlett - Klewnuggit... There’s also Kxngeal though.408

407 Sam Lockerby, 2011 interview, KKSHRP. 408 Sam Lockerby, 2011 interview, KKSHRP.

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WRIGHT SOUND Map location Wright Sound is located between Gil, Gribbell and Pitt Islands at south end of Grenville Channel.

Figure 90. Wright Sound Kalum (traditional) uses of the place The south end of Grenville Channel is a salmon fishing area for many Kalum members (KK TUS 1999).

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THE COAST NORTH OF CASEY POINT

This map shows the geographic relationship between Kalum interests north of Casey Point, in the vicinity of Port Simpson, Work Canal, and Portland Canal and Inlet.

Figure 91.

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LAX LAYOON (Birnie Island) Map location

Figure 92. Lax Layoon (Birnie Island) Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) The name means “Place of Wild Celery”.

Ownership and use of the place In the 19th Century, Birney Island was the property of Hai’mas, a Gits’iis Ganhada. H. Wallace told William Beynon in (approximately) 1927 that this island:

…was the property of Haimas, Gits’iis, Ganhada. He used it when his village moved to the Klo’sems and was more of his permanent village than (No 3). They a fight with the gispacko’ots and moved to tsemksedesx (no.20) after being conquered by the gispacklo’ots.409

However, a Kalum connection lies with the Giluts’aaw, 410 who used it as a temporary encampment for shelter purposes en route to and from the Nass River and during the herring spawn season. This territory is represented as 'B' on Plate III. The connection would be to Rebecca Bolton and her house – the house of Niiskiimas. They camped at

409 B.F. 418.2.

410 Beynon Notebooks Vol. IV p 21

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Laxk'ae'y on the island when they were en route to the Nass River; this was also the camping place of the Gitzaxłaał, who fished halibut and also harvested cedar bark to make strings upon which oolichans were sun dried; this site is referenced as No 4 on Plan III.411

General Tsimshian and specific Kalum usage is further corroborated by Beynon, who wrote that “The tsimsiyan people were all encamped at Birnie Island, being held there by the strong North wind from the Nass. They were enroute to the Nass for their oolichan fishing.”412 The camp reference is further corroborated by the 1974 work of archaeologist Richard Inglis, who noted a burial shelter dating from circa 1850 as well as a habitation and midden site at the northeast corner of the island - “…the largest site in the area…” and used both precontact and “…as a campsite through historic times.”413

411 Beynon Notebooks, Vol III, p 109. 412 Beynon Notebooks, Vol III, p 10. 413 See Report 1974-33 and site forms for GdTo-2 and GdTo-3; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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LAK HOU (BIG BAY/ GEORGETOWN BAY)

Map location Located southwest of Georgetown Mills, and North of Prince Rupert on the mainland.

Figure 93. Lak Hou (Big Bay/Georgetown Bay)

Tsimshian people used to hunt sea-otter at Big Bay, a location that was considered the hunting ground of all the Tsimshians (Beynon, 1). As such, we should not be surprised to find petitions like the one signed at Port Simpson on August 18, 1882 regarding Indian Reserve Commissioner Peter O’Reilly’s failure to include:

Lah-Coo [sic] and the adjoining small island which we have had as gardens for many years in our reserve. We cannot give them up, for if we do where are we to get our food? We have no good land anywhere else. How will our children do in a few years as we have no good land? God gave it to us and we do not know why it should be taken from us.414

“Lah-Coo” (Lak Hou) – aka Big Bay near Georgetown Mills south of Port Simpson – is an area that, like Casey Point, lies in the common area illustrated on the various maps that were presented above.

414 Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 7, page 109; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca.

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Among the petition’s signatories were Kalum members Abel and Albert Wesley.415 Note that Lah-Coo (Lak Hou) - Big Bay near Georgetown Mills south of Port Simpson – is an area that, like Casey Point, lies in the common area illustrated on the various maps that were presented above; it was also part of Tsimpsean IR No. 2, which extended south to include both Digby Island and the west side of Kaien Island where Casey Point itself was located.

A fish trap on the southern shore of the bay at Monkey Creek was noted during a 1974 archaeological survey of the area, 416 and a CMT and camp site were found along the northwest shore of Georgetown Lake, located inland from Big Bay.417

415 Abel drowned off Port Essington in 1888: United Church of Canada, BC Conference Archives, Port Essington Deaths Register, 1888. 416 See site report GcTo-24, courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. 417 See site report GcTo-42; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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WORK CHANNEL Map location

Figure 94. Work Channel Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Tsimshian ownership of the place Gits’iis, concentrated in Lax Kw’alaams, is the galts’ap that claims the watersheds of Work Channel and Khutzeymateen Inlet, but note a Kalum attachment to the area through Rebecca Bolton, Herb Spalding and Elizabeth Spalding, whose children have names from this area and who appear to be specifically connected to the Ensheshese River.

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ENSHESHESE RIVER Map location

Figure 95. Ensheshese River Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable) Place name: 'ensesis - "place where seal traps were made".

!!!!Figure 96. Beynon Plan III showing “Wark’s” Canal

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! !

The community consisted of the Raven and the Wolf groups, with the Eagles being Tlingit migrants. In an interview dated March 15, 1970, Rebecca Bolton (Raven) said the pteex at the Ensheshese were the Wolf and Raven crests:

Rebecca Bolton These two clans, they own Ensheshese. They own Ensheshese. The Wolf clan and the Raven clan. The white people took it, now. Mr. Duncan wrote it on paper for my father, before my grandfather died. Wrote on paper, for my father to own it. As he always donate quite a bit when some of the clan dies. That’s why they did it. That’s why my father has authority to take the creek, it was passed when the people had a meeting. When what’s-his-name, I forgot the Indian agent’s name, that came to renew the paper it was written on, for my father to own it. The Raven clan, [Niskitlob] said not to keep the fish to himself, whoever wants fish at Ensheshese, to go ahead and kill it. There’s mountain goats there and all different kinds of animals are there. They can kill deer there. And they can kill mountain goat there, and for my grandfather not to put a stop to it. That’s what the Indian agent wrote, and that’s what the people do. Eliga Pollard’s children are the Killer Whale clan. They’re the ones that took it. Nobody else. They wouldn’t let anybody hunt there anymore.418

Archaeological work in the area has revealed a canoe run and middens at the mouth of the River on IR No. 53.419

418 KKSHRP Archive. 419 See site reports GdTn-1 and GdTn-2; courtesy of BC Archaeology Branch, Ministry Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

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OTHER SITES IN WORK CANAL AND ENVIRONS Work Mountain

1. Work Mountain was known as the abode of the great sea monster Qe k (wide forehead). There is a cavern just below sea level and the force of the sea into the cavern throws a spray of water much the same as the spouting of a whale. The titleholder is Gunax'nis mget, and the story could relate to the name worn by Lori Marion, who is of the Giluts’aaw Ganhadas who live in Kitsumkalum.420

2. North of Work Canal, on the south east shore of Union Bay, Kalum Chief Moses Wesley held a hand logging licence beginning in July 1910. 421

420 Beynon Notebooks Vol. III p 121. 421 See entry for Moses Wesley, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913 [sic]-1916”, BC MOF 1000-90/1- 2-7.

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PORTLAND CANAL AND INLET

TS'MSADAASX (Wales Island) Map location

Figure 97. Ts'msadaasx (Wales Island) Although this island (Wales Island) in Portland Inlet has several Lax Kw’alaams Indian Reserves, it is also identified as common ground on the 1993 TTC map,422 with two specifically Kalum references made in the 1999 TUS.423

Moses Wesley, Kalum chief in the World War I era, also held a handlogging licence in Portland Canal circa 1911.424

422 TTC, “Provisional Draft Map of Tsimshian Territories”, 1993. 423 Kitsumkalum, 1999 TUS (confidential). 424 See entry for Moses Wesley, “Hand Loggers Licence Ledger – 1913 [sic]-1916”, BC MOF 1000-90/1- 2-7.

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ŁGUTS'MAT'IIN (Khutzeymateen River) Map location

Figure 98. Khutzeymateen River

The galts'ap of the Gits'iis claim this area but Kalum interests are recorded in Kalum’s 1999 TUS. Specifically, clams and crabs are taken here.

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KITSUMKALULM SITES ON THE NASS RIVER OOLICHAN GROUNDS (general) Map location

Figure 99. Nass River mouth oolichan grounds. Tsimshian and Kalum (traditional) uses of the place The Tsimshian Territorial project recorded oolichan grounds on the Nass for each of the Tsimshian galts’ap, including Kalum and Kitselas, but the pteex and waap were not identified. Boas wrote in 1916, however, that:

The oolichan is sought for eagerly, and early in spring all the subdivisions of the Tsimshian tribe assemble on Nass River, which is the principal oolichan river of the northern part of the coast. This fish is caught particularly on account of its oil, which is tried [sic] out and kept in boxes. [Boas 1916: 44]

Garfield adds that:

Each tribe also had its own site on the Nass where the members assembled. Many lineages had permanent dwellings on these tribal lands, though some had only frames, carrying planks from the winter homes to the spring ones when they moved. The camp was often the spring and early summer headquarters for salmon fishing also, so was occupied from late February or early March until June. [Garfield 1939: 277]

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WIL MAASK LOOP (Red Bluff) Map location

Figure 100. Red Bluff In 1898, following Indian Reserve Commissioner Vowell’s recommendation that “…such Indians as have been in the habit of camping on the bank of the Nass River while taking “small fish” [oolachan] etc., should still have the privilege of doing so”,425 DIA Secretary McLean referred to three Nass River Reserves - Stony Point IR No. 10, Lachtesk IR No. 12 and Red Bluff IR No. 13 – and stated that the reserves belonged “…to them [the Nass River Indians] for all agricultural purposes, but for the entire lengths of their frontage on the River, and for one chain in depth all Indians who had been in the habit of encamping thereon at certain times of the year, for fishing purposes, should continue to have that privilege.”426

In his 1985 Ph.D thesis, James McDonald noted that “Kitsumkalum, along with other Tsimshian, had the right to live opposite Red Cliffs for the purpose of making grease in the spring.”427 Dr. McDonald adds that Kalum members such as Bill Bolton and others were on the Nass for oolichan on a March weekend in 1980, continuing their ages long tradition on land to which they hold title and rights (pers. comm.). He also indicates that “A reserve in that area is held by Kitsumkalum in common with other Tsimshians for the

425 Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 15, pages 164-166; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. 426 Indian Reserve Commission Correspondence, Federal Collection, Vol. 15, pages 162-163; copy obtained online from www.ubcic.ca. 427 McDonald, 1985: 53.

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purposes of the oolachan fishery”; 428 the rights that DIA Secretary McLean discussed in 1898 would indeed appear to fall to Kalum with respect to a 66 foot depth (the length of one chain) along the lengths of the three Reserves noted above.

Kalum clearly has important rights on the Nass River, most especially at Kw Amp’aal (translation: Among the cotton wood), which is at Red Bluff itself. This is a site for the Galts'ap of Kitsumkalum, in particular for the Laxsgiik, and it is related to the return of Diiks and her sons following captivity on Haida Gwaii. According to the version of the story told by the Nisga’a, Diiks and her sons carried the lineage of Gitxon to Kalum by way of the Nass as Diiks returned to her family residing at Kalum.429

At the time of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs (RCIA) interviews, the situation on the Nass itself was contentious, as the following exchange between a Nisga’a chief and an apparently confused RCIA makes clear:

Q.Would it in your opinion be satisfactory to the Tsimpseans and the Metlakatlas to have a joint Reserve established near the Fishery grounds near Red Cliff No. 13 or Stoney Point No. 10? A.I could not say that it would and I could not say that it would not because the Indians might look at it from a different standpoint. Q. Do you think it would be better to have a Reserve established for the Tsimpseans and Metlakatlas where they could go without interference by the Nishgas? A.Yes, provided a suitable place could be found. Q.Are you in a position today to designate a piece of land at this point for the Tsimpseans and the Metlakatlas? A.No. Q.How soon could you do that and let us have it after your return? A.I could not go up there for a fortnight or three weeks after I get back. Q.I would suggest that Mr. Perry see if a suitable piece of land could be located for the Tsimpseans and Metlakatla Indians near the fisheries on the Naas River for Red Cliff No. 13 or Stoney Point No. 10. MR. COMMISSIONER MACDOWALL: If possible you could have the piece of land in such a shape that it could be made into two pieces - one for the Tsimpseans and one for the Metlakatlas? A.Yes…430

428 McDonald, 1985: 128-129. 429 See “The Origin of the Gitxawn Group at Kitsemkalem”, recorded by William Beynon and published in Tsimshian Narratives 2: Trade and Warfare, ed. by George F. MacDonald and John J. Cove, pp. 1-4. Ottawa: Directorate, Canadian Museum of Civilization. 430 LAC, RG10, File 506C.

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KWAEXŁ [Dundas Island(s)] Map location

Figure 101. Dundas Island(s) Origin of the name(s) and the translation of the Sm’algyax name (if applicable)

The island and its archipelago were named in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver in honour of the Rt. Hon. Henry Dundas (1742-1811), Treasurer of the Navy, 1783-1801, who was created Viscount Melville in 1802 and also Baron Dunira. The Dundas Islands were originally perceived by Vancouver to be one island, named by him Dundas's Island. Among the smaller islands of the group are Baron Island, Dunira Island, Melville Island and other small islands and islets on the west side of Chatham Sound between Brown and Caamaño Passages.431 Tsimshian and Kalum ownership of the place Marius Barbeau states that Dundas Island was: “Gitzaxtet property; for hunting and fishing beaver, halibut, sea otter, seal, sea lion, etc. and also seaweeds and foods there.”432 The property is represented as number 22 on the map with a line drawn around the Dundas Islands, but the Kitsumkalum Ganhada House of Niiskiimas (currently headed by Verna Inkster) has also historically used this area for sea food

431 http://maps.thefullwiki.org/Dundas_Island_(British_Columbia) 432 B-F 418.2.

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(personal communication shared with Jim McDonald, 1979). Barbeau also noted that Dundas Island was common ground for hunting and fishing.433

Figure 102. Detail from BF Map B16 Dundas Island Kalum (traditional) uses of the place Elizabeth Spalding, who was a Kitsumkalum Giluts’aaw and a Ganhada, also went there, often with Vera Henry’s family, to pick seaweed (personal communication shared with Jim McDonald, 1979). Gord Roberts also fished for dog fish at the top end of Dundas (1999, TUS).

In addition, the legend of the “Cormorant Head Dress of Sen’arhaet” provides a link between Kalum and Dundas Island (as well as between Kalum and Gitwilgyoots):

Many of the Tsimsyan could speak Haida as well. The Haida could also understand the Tsimsyan, because they always met each other when seal and sea-otter hunting. They were always trading with each other, especially the Gitwilgyawt who had the trading privilege with the Haida people. It was a Gitwilgyawt chief who now took Deeks, not only as his guest but as one of his many wives.

She was his youngest wife and the most beautiful. This made the other wives jealous of her. She had now established an Eagle (Larhskeek) group among the Gitwilgyawt, of which her first son, Iyu'ens, became the head chief; the second was Gamrhregwen. Their sisters were Lu rhsmawks and 'Alulrehl. The jealous wives of the Gitwilgyawt chief now tried to ridicule the Haida wife by giving her a nickname, Sa'magul , because she had been cast adrift while picking strawberries.

433 BF 418.6.

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The Eagle group of the Gitwilgyawts was headed by 'Luqawl. There were a great many adopted members of this group. The young wife of the Gitwilgyawt chief, Neeslaws, became their royal leader. And they adopted the nickname Na'sa'magul to be a royal name for her. They recognized Iyu'ens, her son, for their Eagle chief. So was established this royal house- hold among the Tsimsyan. Many children from this group went to [Kitsumkalum] and became members of the Gitrhawn [Gitxon] group.

Iyu’ens, a grandchild of the original Diiks – also the son of a her daughter Diiks who was kidnapped by Haisla people from Kalum territory - returned to Haida Gwaii because of taunting among the Haisla. However, he was the victim of the same behaviour there and thus made plans to return to Tsimshian territory, camping first on Dundas Island.434

As with the original Diiks legend, the “Cormorant Head Dress of Sen’arhaet” is important for the fact that, through a continuous line from the “legendary” past to the contemporaneous present, the community is linked firmly to the ocean and particular locations on the coast – in this case Dundas Island.

434 Original handwritten version at Barbeau, BF 289.7; transcription above from: http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/barbeau/mbp0508e.shtml

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GRASSY POINT Map Location

Figure 102. Grassy Point LNG And Environs

On August 18, 1992, in a letter intended for unedited publication in the Prince Rupert Daily News, CTN Chairman Robert Hill stated that:

The public should be aware that Port Simpson [Lax Kw’alaams] Band is not the only Band of the Tsimshian Nation that will be effected by any major decisions with regard to Grassy Point - the proposed site of the Liquefied Natural Gas plant. Grassy Point is part of the Tsimshian Nation's land claim. Port Simpson Band, located across the bay from Grassy Point, represents a portion of the Tsimshian nation. The following member Bands, namely - Kitkatla, Metlakatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Hartley Bay and Kitasoo are concerned that Dome Petroleum is not aware that the whole of the Tsimshian Nation will be effected by any major decisions that may be made regarding Grassy Point. [emphasis added]

The Kalum community believes very strongly that it would not be Tsimshian without acknowledgement of its title and rights to Grassy Point and the other coastal sites listed

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above – but of course its sites on and around the Skeena River, and also further inland, are just as important.

This paper therefore turns to Kalum title and rights in those River and inland locations.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

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