Introduction
The Haida tribe, also referred to as the Hydah people are an indigenous ethnic group that lived in North America, specifically, the Pacific Northwest Coast. The principal territory of the Haida people is the Queen Charlotte Islands, presently known as the archipelago of the Hydah Gwaii. The Hydah Gwaii is in the northern area of the British Columbia. Other people that are thought to be related to the Haida people are the Kaigan Haida. The Kaigan Haida inhabited the area around the Dixon Entrance in the Prince of Wales Island, Southeast Alaska.
It is estimated that before coming into contact with Europeans and settlers, the population of the Haida people was tens of thousands in tens of their towns. At the time the Haida tribe was making contacts with the settlers, its population dramatically slumped to 600. Historians such as Amoss have attributed this retrogressive state of affairs to the introduction or importation of diseases such as measles, smallpox and typhoid into the archipelago of the Hydah Gwaii and other areas that the tribe occupied (Amoss, 1993).
According to T'Áawxíaa (2013), archaeological evidence indicates that the Haida tribe has occupied the Pacific Northwest Coast or the Hydah Gwaii for more than 17,000 years. It is at this time that the Haida tribe: made intricate connections between the land they occupied and the oceans within the vicinity of the Haida Gwaii; put up many villages; and also made structured and highly organized societies. T'Áawxíaa, also contends that the tribe has also occupied the south of Alaska for more than two centuries. In this light, the latest group of the Haida tribe to leave Haida Gwaii did so towards the close of the 18th century (T'Áawxíaa, 2013).
At the moment, the number of the Haida tribe in the islands reach 2,500. Again, the present-day areas of occupation for the Haida people are Skidegate and Old Massett. Old Massett is situated at Graham Island’s north end while Skidegate is at the south end. Other places that host a considerable number of the Haida people include Prince Rupert and Vancouver. Vancouver us about 770 kilometers away from Haida Gwaii while Prince Rupert, 100 kilometers east of Hecate Strait. The dynamics of globalization have also had an impact on the distribution of the Haida tribe. Specifically, there are more than 2000 Haida people who are scattered throughout the globe.
As for their economy, the Haida tribe was known for its skills in long-distance trading, craftsmanship, slaveholding, warring nature and craftsmanship. While honing their skills in the long-distance trade, the Haida tribe was always easily identified for their trademark: massive red cedar canoes. In this light, the Haida tribe is believed to have traded with British, Russians, American and Spanish whalers and fur traders and forged strong commercial relations with the coastal people and westerners. It is for this reason that some historians such as Hinton have always postulated that the Haida tribe had a way of life akin to the Vikings (Hinton, 2010).
At the moment, the people from the Haida tribe eat modern food. This is not to say that the Haida tribe had no staple food. The Haida tribe had a unique cuisine which ensured that members of the community had a well-balanced diet. A part of their diet was derived from the Pacific Ocean as already mentioned. This is the case since the people of the tribe had hunted and fished from the ocean for thousands of years. As such, fish, sea mammals and shellfish made up a part of the Haida tribe’s staple food. These were complemented with roots, berries, eggs, birds and fruits. These were hunted and gathered to make up for the seasons when the ocean food became scarce or to bring about variety.
The ancestors of the Haida tribe hunted, gathered and fished according to seasons. During autumn and summer, they moved in the previously mentioned canoes to traverse rivers such as the Yakoun. The Yakoun River also served as a source of recreation as thousands from the tribe swam there.
The manner in which the ancestors of the Haida tribe managed to catch huge shoals of fish is a matter of great debate among historians. This is because, at this time, there were no modern implements to make fishing and hunting in the Pacific Ocean more efficient. Members of the tribe are however in one accord that during the thousands of years in which their ancestors fished in the Pacific Ocean, the ancestors had implemented tradition equipment to ensure that the catch they hauled out of the deep recesses of the ocean was plentiful. It is these technically advanced fishing nets, weirs and hooks that the ancestors of the Haida tribe carried with them into the open waters of the Pacific Ocean and the rivers that surrounded them.
Present Life of the Haida Tribe
However, the Haidas continue to enjoy traditional aquatic food in their Haida Gwaii homeland and villages. During summer and spring, Haida communities prepare halibut, salmon, roe and herring in large quantities. These may also be served alongside seaweed and other forms of nutritious food. The k’aaw which is herring roe on kelp features among the most valued delicacies in the Haida tribe. This cuisine is sought the world over.
There is also the razor clam which is a common item in the Haida kitchens. At the onset of every clam-digging season, the villages of the Old Massett run low. At this point, truckloads of men head to the Tow Hill to dig the clams. That razor clams are part and parcel of the Haida tribe culture is underscored by the fact that families go to the beach for an entire day either for picnicking or clam digging, or both.
The cultural practices that are observed by the Haida tribe are cyclic and are therefore done perennially, in accordance to the nascent observation before the advent of the settlers. Some of these observations and practices included initiation and rite of passage, songs and dances and wrestling. These were done by the youth who were mainly candidates for rite of passage. Other forms of cultural observations were done within the day-to-day basis and within the home setting, in the evening. Some of these practices include storytelling, riddles and moral teachings.
Legally, the Haida tribe has the Hereditary and Aboriginal Rights and Title to the intellectual property rights and cultural values of the Haida Nation and all Haida Territories. The citizenry of the Haida Nation strictly comprises the people of the Haida ancestry.
There are measures that the Haida tribe has put in place to ensure the continuity of their culture. For instance, all Haida citizens have the right to access all Haida Gwaii resources for commercial purposes, cultural reasons or for food (subsistence). This is as long as the access is done consistently with the Laws of Nature as is stipulated by the laws of the Haida Nation. The import of this is that through the stipulated access, all the citizens of the Haida tribe have the opportunity to interact with the total way of life of the Haida people. This ensures that there is the cyclic relaying of the society’s cultural values from one generation to another. In this case, the material culture that is contained in the Haida Gwaii resource centers are explained and decoded to the greenhorns. The cultural fledgling visiting the Haida Gwaii resources centers leave these areas having interacted firsthand with the culture of Haida tribe and having become acquainted with the same.
Because of modernization, there are some changes that the Haida tribe has undergone. One of these changes that the Haida tribe has undergone concerns they political way of life. Before having contact with the settlers and invaders, the tribe had a highly ascephalous (or decentralized) political structure. Presently, the tribe’s political organization and structure has become more complex, involving several arms and organs. Some of these organs include the hereditary chiefs’ council, village councils and the secretariat of the Haida.
The Secretariat of the Haida is a much more formal, compared to the other immediately aforementioned outfits. The Secretariat of the Haida Nation is tasked with the responsibility of providing corporate vehicles for the reception and administration of funds, for and on the behalf of the Council of the Haida Nation. The board that makes up the Secretariat of the Haida Nation is tasked with overseeing the administration of the Council of the Haida Nation and managing all the staff of the Secretariat of the Haida Nation. The same board also develops procedures and policies that are indispensible in the provision of the necessary services. The fact that the scope of responsibilities that are discharged by the Secretariat is wide is also underpinned by the additional facts that it (the Secretariat) presides over. For instance, the board helps the CHN to deliver on its mandate. The Secretariat of the Haida Nation achieves the latter task by providing financial planning, administrative and technical support and preparation and monitoring roles that are specific to every CHN meetings.
The aforementioned Hereditary Chiefs Council consists of Haida Gwaii’s Potlatched Hereditary Chiefs. At the moment, there are about thirty-three Haida Gwaii clans. The importance of these hereditary chiefs is in turn emphasized, not only by the sacrosanct roles that they play, but also by the fact that not all of these clans have chiefs in place to serve and direct them. The inability of some of the Haida Gwaii clans is a testament to their shortage, and should therefore not be misconstrued to mean that the hereditary chiefs are less important.
According to the Council of the Haida Nation (2015), there are also village councils which run and operate alongside the aforementioned organs. These village councils are always divided into two. There is the Skidegate Band Council (SBC) and the Old Massett Village Council (OMVC). Members of the OMVC and the SBC are elected before gaining membership. Having attained the position of a member, the responsible party will sit to discharge the functions designated for a village government within every Haida Gwaii clans or the entire community. The two councils are therefore to be tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the wellbeing of all the Haida Gwaii communities. The village councils also enforce the legal policies and programs, especially in areas that touch on health, education, capital, social development and membership, among other factors.
In a closely related wavelength, the two councils are also tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that proper actions are taken to consolidate or enhance the wellbeing of the community and the community’s Band members. In the same light, the two councils are also tasked with the role of establishing cultural programs and to craft and jumpstart initiatives that can trigger and catalyze economic development. The two village councils are not an ultimate power unto themselves. Instead, they are accountable to their respective community membership. To ensure a sense of permanence, discipline and accountability, the two councils are also enshrined in the Constitution of the Haida Nation. The same Constitution of the Haida Nation guides the affairs and duties of the OMVC and SBC and informs the way in which the councils relate with others arms or organs such as the Hereditary Chiefs Council.
Presently, the OMVC council is under the leadership of Ken Rea, the Chief Councilor. Other assistant councilors working with Ken Rea include Harold Yeltatzie, Brandon Kallio, Buster Bell and Cecil Brown, among others, on the one hand. On the other hand, the SBC branch is headed by Billy Jovanovich as the spokesperson, and other councilors such as David Crosby, Duane Alsop, Michelle McDonald and Godfrey Williams, among several others. There are also representatives of the CHN who help the aforementioned councils to operate successfully. Some of the people or officers who make the Representatives of the CHN include the president (Peter Lantin) and the vice president (Trevor Russ). All Haida tribe citizens elect these two officers. The Representatives of the CHN is also made up of participants from other organs: four representatives from Massett and Skidegate and two representatives from Vancouver and Prince Rupert (Sparrow, 1998).
As touching matters socio-cultural, it is important to appreciate the immense programs that are in place to safeguard Haida tribe’s natural resources, habitat and material culture. The Haida Gwaii Cultural Wood Access Permit (also known as HGCWAP) aptly exemplifies this provision. HGCWAP exists as a co-managed process which integrates Free Use Permit (FUP). The Ministry of Forests and Range use FUP, in conjunction with the Rights to Access Permit (RTA). CHN used to use RTA to access trees, especially for cultural purposes.
As a new way of granting or regulating permitting, HGCWAP ensures accountability and efficiency in the management and utilization of the Haida tribe forests so as to provide wood for cultural activities or traditional purposes, or both. However, the use of the Haida tribe forest trees for traditional and cultural purposes may at times overlap especially when the trees being harvested are to be used for medicinal purposes. To ensure a greater degree of efficiency and effectiveness, the Haida tribe has its own guild of herbalists or traditional ethnic medicine men. The same overlap is seen in instances where trees are used for cultural and traditional purposes such as longhouses, totem poles and canoes.
According to Schurr (2012), BC Ministry of Forests and CHN liaise together to moderate and regulate respectful access to these forests, so as to ensure long-term benefits of the Haida tribe and culture for several generations to come. The crux of the matter herein is that the resources are used without depletion. For this cause, the BC Ministry of Forests and CHN will determine the quality and quantity of timber being considered for logging. The size of the materials to be used for the stated project will be considered as a determining factor to avoid the depletion of forest trees.
Again, BC Ministry of Forests and CHN ensure that the trees being hewn are strictly for approved projects only. To bring this measure into force, all applicants are mandated to complete or fill in the Cultural Wood Access application form. Upon appending his own signature against the terms and conditions to the application form, the applicant is consenting to the obligation to adhere to blueprints, particular volume requirements and conditions in the supporting letters for the project. The applicant must also limit himself to the areas specified in the application letter and the agreement that had been entered with the Process Coordinator. Areas that are marked as high wood source arenas are designated to guarantee adherence to sustainable management practices and the use of appropriate and quality timber to match proposed projects.
References
Amoss, P. T. (1993). Book reviews -- The Curtain Within: Haida Social and Mythical Discourse by Marianne Boelscher. Ethnohistory, 40 (4), 674
Council of the Haida Nation. (2015). Council of the Haida Nation: Village Councils. 2013. Retrieved on April 23, 2015; from: http://www.haidanation.ca/Pages/governance/villagecouncils.html Electronic
Hinton, L. (2010). Northern Haida Songs. American Anthropologist, 99 (3), 659
Schurr, T. G., et al. (2012). Clan, language, and migration history has shaped genetic diversity in Haida and Tlingit populations from Southeast Alaska. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 148 (3), 422 – 435
Sparrow, K. B. (1998). Correcting the Record: Haida Oral Tradition in Anthropological Narratives. Anthropologica, 40 (2), 215 – 222
T'Áawxíaa, J. B. (2013). In Honor of Nastáo: Kasaan Haida Elders Look to the Future. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 25 (1), 53 – 67
