Our Nation
The Tlowitsis Flood Story
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As told by Chief John Smith
“After the Flood when the waters receded, an old man named Tlowitsis was the first to come down from the mountain. He followed his way down along the Nu’mas River (now the Glenlion River) escorted by a butterfly and eventually settled at the mouth of the river along the shore. He was soon joined by Kwagiulth and Mamalilikulla who came down from the mountain, and together they established a village at the mouth of the Nu’mas and a created a union of the three.
The village grew. From there, the three peoples travelled together by canoe to seek out food and other opportunities. Eventually, the Tlowitsis, Kwagiulth, and Mamalilikulla established seasonal sites amongst the Islands and inlets. While they settled separately as people, they always lived nearby to protect each other.”
Our History
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The Tlowitsis are a Kwakwaka’wakw people whose territories span the coastal area of Northern Vancouver Island, Johnstone Strait, and adjacent mainland inlets. Tlowitsis means “the angry people” and were known for their battle skills, defensive strategy, and ferocity. The Tlowitsis chose to live amongst the islands in their territory so it was more difficult for outsiders and invaders to attack them.
Like many coastal Nations, the Tlowitsis practiced slavery, often leading to raids of coastal villages by canoe or acts of retaliation for raids upon the Tlowitsis. However, when outside Nations like the Haida and Heiltsuk invaded the area and waged wars, people would seek protection and safe harbour in Tlowitsis territory. The Tlowitsis’ weaponry arsenal included sling shots, bows and arrows, spears, and clubs, and there are numerous accounts of the Tlowitsis joining neighbouring Nations in battle against Coast Salish tribes.
Like many Indigenous peoples, the Tlowitsis were nomadic. Careful not to overstrain their resources, they never hunted, fished, or gathered in one place for long. They also had preferred summer and winter camps. One such destination was Dzawadi, what is now Knight Inlet, where the tribes in the area would gather to make t’lina (pronounced gleetna), oil or grease made from dzaxwan, a smelt-like fish called eulachon in English.
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From time immemorial until the 1960s, the Tlowitsis occupied numerous sites throughout the coastal area of Northern Vancouver Island, Johnstone Strait and adjacent mainland inlets. Seasonal travel routes, food processing locations, burial and cultural sites, and other named places extended across the entire territory.
Until the mid-19th century, the Nation’s primary village was Klaoitsis. Kalagwees, “bent bay”, on Turnour Island, was originally a Kwakiutl village. However, after the Kwakiutl left Kalagwees around 1850, the Tlowitsis were welcomed to utilize the site, and it became the Tlowitsis’ primary winter residence.
Three masted ships, possibly Spanish, were painted on a rock shelf near Kalagwees, as well as a horse-drawn wagon. It is not known who painted these, whether they were Kwagiulth, Tlowitsis, or other neighbouring Nations around the time of first contact.
Post-contact with Spanish, Russian, and British explorers, the Tlowitsis continued to move freely throughout their territory from site to site. It wasn’t until settlers came to the area that the Tlowitsis started staying year-round at Kalagwees on Turnour Island.
Impacts of colonization and the Indian Act
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Canada became a country in 1867, however the remote coastal areas of British Columbia remained generally untouched by outsiders. That began to change when the Indian Act was enacted in 1876, a federal law that governs matters of Indian status, bands, and reserve lands, and was historically designed to control and assimilate First Nations like the Tlowitsis.
In 1879, the Canadian government recognized the existence of the Tlowitsis (then called Klowitsis) and the neighbouring Matilpi tribes. In 1945, these two tribes were amalgamated into the Turnour Island Tribe (later Tlowitsis Tribe) to simplify administration. In 1885, the Tlowitsis and all B.C. First Nations were banned from having potlaches, a prohibition to force further assimilation that was applied to all First Nations on the West Coast until 1951. In 1921 Chief Smith Sewid was jailed for three months for practicing the potlach.
In 1886 the federal government allotted Kalagwees (then Karlukwees) as Indian Reserve #1. By 1914, there were 21 houses in the village. To avoid sending their children to the nearest residential school in Alert Bay, the Tlowitsis opened their own school in Kalagwees with teaching positions funded by the federal government, as First Nations’ education did not fall under provincial jurisdiction. There was also a monthly visit from the ship The Columbia, ran by a Christian group, that included medical and dental work, that travelled to Kalagwees and other First Nations communities in the area.
However by the mid-20th century, Tlowitsis citizens began to leave the village for work, better opportunities for their families, and access to better healthcare. Eventually there were not enough students to attend the school in Kalagwees to warrant a full-time teacher funded by the government. The medical ship and its monthly visits also became less and less until they stopped altogether. The nearest hospital was a three-hour ride by boat, and access to a grocery store, though closer, was difficult during the winter.
The loss of in-village education meant the returned fear of children being sent to residential school. This and losing their local healthcare access did not give the remaining citizens of Kalagwees much choice except to leave. The result was the Tlowitsis leaving their home village and the dispersal of its citizens across BC’s coast in the mid-1960s.
Unlike other First Nations, the Government of Canada did not provide the Tlowitsis with an alternative community to transition to on Vancouver Island after leaving Kalagwees. Tlowitsis citizens were spiritually, culturally, and physically separated from their people and their traditional territory without a formal community to call home.
For the past six decades, the Tlowitsis have done their best to keep connected to each other and to their language, culture, and history. Limited opportunities have been available to members to take an active role in their community while leadership searched for an opportunity to find a new home.
T'lina
Nations in the region made the journey to the Klina- Klini River, located at the head of Knight Inlet, where the eulachon return annually. The process of making t’lina, Eulachon grease or oil, an essential part of coastal Indigenous diets and medicine, was meticulous. For the Tlowitsis, they rendered the fish in boiling water at a constant temperature, then the oil was skimmed off the top of the water and stored in .
T’lina is an important food staple for coastal Nations like the Tlowitsis, but eulachons were also cooked fresh or preserved by smoking. Male fish (less oily than female fish) were half smoked for more immediate consumption or fully dried out in the smokehouse where it was hung up and preserved for winter supply.
T’lina is rich in vitamins and minerals and was used to dip dried fish in. It also serves for medicinal purposes, with Tlowitsis accounts of its people surviving the Spanish Flu epidemic due to the consumption of t’lina.
The grease or oil was important culturally, as well as for trade. “Grease trails” were elaborate trade routes that stretched the length of the coast and reached far into the interior of British Columbia and Alberta.
Governance
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Under Canada’s Indian Act, the Tlowitsis’ current governance structure falls under the ‘custom electoral system’ where council is appointed by the Tlowitsis’ hereditary chief.
Language: Kwak’wala
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Kwak’wala is a Northern Wakashan language spoken along the Queen Charlotte Strait, north of Vancouver Island in Canada by the Kwakwaka’wakw.