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The women gathered edible plants, nuts, fruits such as berries and other resources.
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They also traditionally ate various land animals, waterfowl and seafoods. Salmon has always been an important part of Nuu-chah-nulth people’s diet. It recounts the rediscovery of the bones and other artifacts at the museum and the efforts by the Mowachaht First Nation, the shrine’s original owners, who have been seeking to regain these sacred artifacts. It was the subject of the film The Washing of Tears, directed by Hugh Brody.
#Nootka tribe history series
Perhaps the most famous Nuu-chah-nulth artifact is the Yuquot Whalers’ Shrine, a ritual house-like structure used in the spiritual preparations for whale hunts.Ĭomposed of a series of memorial posts depicting spirit figures and the bones of whaling ancestors, it is stored at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, having been taken there by European Americans. It is reflected in stories, songs, names, family lines, and numerous place names throughout the Nuu-chah-nulth territories. Whaling is essential to Nuu-chah-nulth culture and spirituality. The Nuu-chah-nulth were one of the few indigenous peoples on the Pacific Coast who hunted whales. In the early 20th century, the population was estimated at 3,500. The high rate of deaths added to the social disruption and cultural turmoil resulting from contact with Westerners. Only one crew member, a pilot / interpreter hired from the nearby Quinault Nation, escaped to tell the tale.įrom earliest contact with European explorers up until 1830, more than 90% of the Nuu-chah-nulth died as a result of infectious disease epidemics, particularly malaria and smallpox. However, a hiding crew member set fire to the ship’s magazine and the resulting explosion killed many natives. The next day warriors reboarded the empty ship to salvage it. The captain and almost all the crew were killed and the ship abandoned. Tla-o-qui-aht and his warriors had attacked the ship in revenge for an insult by the ship’s captain. In 1811 the trading ship Tonquin was blown up in Clayoquot Sound. This 1815 book is entitled Narrative Of The Adventures And Sufferings Of John R Jewitt Only Survivor Of The Crew Of The Ship Boston During A Captivity Of Nearly Three Years Among The Savages Of Nootka Sound With An Account Of The Manners Mode Of Living And Religious Opinions.
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Jewitt wrote a classic captivity narrative about his nearly 3 years with the Nuu-chah-nulth and his reluctant assimilation to their society. He and his men killed the captain and all the crew but two, whom they kept as slaves.Īfter gaining release, John R. Negotiations to settle the dispute were handled under the aegis and hospitality of Maquinna, a powerful chief of the Mowachaht Nuu-chah-nulth.Ī few years later, Maquinna and his warriors captured the American trading ship Boston in March 1803. It was settled under the Nootka Conventions of the 1790s, when Spain agreed to abandon its exclusive claims to the North Pacific coast. The Nuu-chah-nulth were among the first Pacific peoples north of California to encounter Europeans, who sailed into their area for trade.Ĭompetition between Spain and the United Kingdom over control of Nootka Sound led to a bitter international dispute around 1790, called the Nootka Crisis. The Makah of northwest Washington, located on the Olympic Peninsula in their own reservation, are closely related to the Nuu-chah-nulth. This was the culmination of the 1967 alliance forged among these tribes in order to present a unified political voice to the levels of government and European-Canadian society. In 1978 the tribes of western Vancouver Island chose the term Nuu-chah-nulth (nuučaan̓uł, meaning “all along the mountains”), as a collective term of identification. The term was also applied to the indigenous inhabitants of the area. Cook interpreted this as the native’s name for the inlet-now called Nootka Sound. When James Cook first encountered the villagers at Yuquot in 1778, they directed him to “come around” (Nuu-chah-nulth nuutkaa is “to circle around”) with his ship to the harbour. The Nuu-chah-nulth speak a Southern Wakashan language and are closely related to the Makah and Ditidaht. In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of Nuu-chah-nulth nations was much greater, but as in the rest of the region, smallpox and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of some groups, and the absorption of others into neighbouring groups. Their traditional home is in the Pacific Northwest on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The Nuu-chah-nulth are indigenous peoples in Canada.