Nuxalk Nation

Nuxalk Nation
Bella Coola (Nuxalk Nation)
Nuxálk
Eulichan Stink Box.jpg
Nuxálk people gathered around an eulachon stink box near the Bella Coola River.
Regions with significant populations
Bella Coola, British Columbia
Languages

English, Nuxalk
Religion

American Indian panentheism, Christianity, other
Related ethnic groups

other Coast Salish peoples

The Nuxalk Nation (Nuxalk: Nuxálk; pronounced [nuxálk], with the 'x' like German ach), also referred to as the Bella Coola or Bellacoola, are an Indigenous First Nation in Canada, living in the area in and around Bella Coola, British Columbia. Their language is also called Nuxalk.

The name Bella Coola, often used in academic writing, is not preferred by the Nuxálk; it is thought to be a derivation of the neighbouring coastal Heiltsuk people's name for the Nuxálk, bḷ́xʷlá (rendered plxwlaq's in Nuxalk orthography), meaning "stranger".

The Nuxalk peoples, known collectively as Nuxalkmc, were four tribes (the Kimsquit from Dean Channel, the Tallheo/Talio from South Bentinck, the Stuic (Stuie) from Tweedsmuir Park, and the Kwalhna/Kwatna from King Island) who gathered in their current Bella Coola Valley, settling together based on cultural and linguistic similarities. Not everyone settled within the current Nuxalk Nation, and as such the Nuxalk share many family ties with their neighbours and beyond, most extensively with the Heiltsuk.

The Nuxalk Nation is a member of the Oweekeno-Kitasoo-Nuxalk Tribal Council, and until March 2008 was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.


Before European contact, the Nuxalk population was approximately 35,000 (based on oral histories and academic research). After the small pox epidemic of 1862-64 (following waves of new gold seekers and settlers), Nuxalk villages were devastated to approximately 300 survivors. Nuxalk people were scattered throughout the territory and either relocated on their own to survive, or were forcibly removed by the Department of Indian Affairs, to form a settlement in what is now known as Bella Coola. Knowledge of family ancestry remains strong in Nuxalk families, including villages of descent, family crests, as well as songs and dances that tell the histories of our people in our smayustas.

Subsistence activities on these lands and trading with other Nations have always been central to the Nuxalk way of life. We are salmon people of the rainforest and without healthy and abundant lands and water, our very existence is seriously threatened. We, the Nuxalk, maintain our rights and title to our entire traditional territory and continue to strive to maintain our traditional systems of governance and powers, citing a long and rich cultural history as evidence of our continued use and occupation.

Despite the devastation of the small pox epidemic and the relocation of the survivors from certain villages to Bella Coola, the Nuxalk Nation has long asserted our rights and obligations to our ancestral territory and has never ceded, sold, surrendered, nor lost our traditional lands through act of war or treaty. The Nuxalk remain strongly against entering any treaty process as we know that our Ancestral lands have never been surrendered and remain legally ours, in both our tradition and under Canadian law.

Current Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) population estimates indicate a total Nuxalk population of approximately 1400 with nearly 900 of those living on the Nuxalk reserve in Bella Coola. However, according to traditional Nuxalk government, the true Nuxalk population is closer to 3,000. This number includes people of Nuxalk ancestry who are not registered or may be registered to another "Indian Band."

See also

External links


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