Gitwilgyoots


The Gitwilgyoots are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada, and one of the nine of those tribes making up the "Nine Tribes" of the lower Skeena River resident at Lax Kw'alaams, B.C. The name Gitwilgyoots means literally "people of the place of kelp." Their traditional territory includes several areas around the estuary of the Skeena River. Since 1834, they have been based at Lax Kw'alaams, when a Hudson's Bay Company fort was established there.
The chieftainship of the Gitwilgyoots resides in the hereditary name-title Saxsa'axt. The anthropologist Viola Garfield recorded in 1938 that the holder of Saxsa'axt at that point had succeeded his mother's brother, in accordance with matrilineal rules of succession, and had held office for more than thirty years. In the 1930s the House of Saxsa'axt was the largest house-group in Lax Kw'alaams. A totem pole belonging to this house, portraying an anthropomorphous grizzly bear, was raised in the 1870s and was by the 1930s still standing but decayed beyond recognition.
In 1935 William Beynon recorded that Gitwilgyoots people in Lax Kw'alaams included 49 members of the Gispwudwada , 1 member of the Ganhada, 10 members of the Laxgibuu , and 23 members of the Laxsgiik .

Houses and Clans by rank of the Gitwilgyoots

House of Sax'sa'axt
House of Yahaan
House of La'dox
In Lak'agyet
House of Ha'litkwa
House of Wuts'int
House of Algomxa
House of Lu'g'ol
House of Niis'Amaga
House of Legisgago'
House of Gilaxa'ks
House of Kwusax'sa'loks
House of Gwunba
House of Wi'o'nemo'lk
House of Wai'yii
House of Gwus'awa'l
House of T'emga'osemtkwa