GITGA'AT HISTORY

The ancestors of the present Gitga�at people lived at their ancestral home Laxgal�tsap (Old Town) in Kitkiata Inlet, on the northwest side of the Douglas Channel. These early Gitga�at lived in Laxgal�tsap during the winter months, but used several other village and camp sites in Douglas Channel, Whale Channel, Wright Sound, Lewis Pass and Camaano Sound throughout the warmer seasons. Another ancestral group, the Gitn�oogad�x, occupied a large area encompassing Aristazabal, Campania, Princess Royal and other nearby islands.

The first contact between the Gitga�at and the Europeans was with the fur traders who came in sailing ships in the 1780s. The Hudson Bay Company arrived in the 1830s, later building Fort Simpson at Lax Kw'alaams and Fort McLoughlin at Waglisla. The Gitga�at travelled by canoe to trade at both forts.

NOTE: From Rocky Sampson
(coz)
Fort McLoughlin (Waglisla) is Bella Bella. The old Bella Bella was our ancestors territory. James McFadden lived at Fort McLaughlin and found our Bella Bella ancestor (wife) there. Her village of Tenatchenu (sp) is long gone and no one recalls it... it was our family who has papers connecting us to it... the only memory of it. What had happened was the HBC Fort at Bella Bella had brought in small pox... this wiped out whole villages and ours was one of them... just that James' wife (Mary McFadden) was living on Salt Spring by the time her village was wiped out. Now forgotten... the only place left (main village, there are more tho) is Waglisla (Bella Bella). Hartley Bay is the town noted for the rescue of the Queen of the North passengers.

"Git" or "Kit" is a prefex for: "People of", or "People from"