Kwakiutl

A N Pacific Coast American Indian group living on the coast of British Columbia as fishermen and traders. They were famed for their woodwork, frequently painted in bright colours, including masks, totem poles, war canoes, whale hunting vessels, and decorative boxes. Art is still produced, much of it for the tourist trade. They also had elaborate dances and ceremonies, including the recently revived potlatch.

(Discuss)

Until the 1980s the term Kwakiutl was usually applied to all of the various First Nations peoples of northern Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Strait and the Johnstone Strait whose traditional Wakashan language was Kwak'wala. Prior to contact with European settlers, there were probably 17 distinct local groups whose principal tongue was Kwak'wala:

Kwagu'(Fort Rupert) Mamalilikala (Village Island) Namgis (Nimpkish-Cheslakees) Awit'sis (Turnour Island) A'wa'et'ala (Knight Inlet) Da'naxda'xw (New Vancouver) Ma'amtagila (Etsekin) Dzawada'enux (Kingcome Inlet) Kwikwasut'inux (Gilford Island) Gwawa'enux (Hope Town) 'Nak'waxda'xw (Blunden Harbour) Gwa'sala (Smith's Inlet) Gusgimukw (Quatsino) Gwat'sinux (Winter Harbour) T'lat'lasikwala (Hope Island) Weka'yi (Cape Mudge) Wiwekam (Campbell River)

See also:

Kwakiutl music Haisla, erroneously called the Haisla Kwakiutl. See Oweekyala, which lists the Haisla and other tribes sometimes called Kwakiutl whose territories are farther north than the Kwakwaka'wakw and Kwagyuilh

Is in present day Washington

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