The Kwaktiutl village of Xumtaspi-Nawittl
Dublin Core
Title
The Kwaktiutl village of Xumtaspi-Nawittl
Subject
British Columbia
Nahwitti
Jacobsen
Kwaktiutl
19th century
Nahwitti
Jacobsen
Kwaktiutl
19th century
Description
The source is a photograph of the village in Vancouver Island called Xwamdasbe, translated as ‘Place where there is otter’. The photograph includes fishery housing with the house on the right featuring three painted family crests. There are also totem poles and a painting of a figure crouching over a doorway. Advertisements designed to attract Anglo-American seamen are also present emphasising the friendliness towards the white man. The source is significant because it was an area of tension in Native/European colonial relations. Three decades earlier in 1850 the British Royal Navy shelled the Nahwitti that were retreating as the Brits destroyed and burned their villages. This was the first use of colonial military force against an aboriginal community on Vancouver Island.
Source consulted:
Peter Nabokov, Robert Easton, Native American Architecture, (Oxford, 1990)
Source consulted:
Peter Nabokov, Robert Easton, Native American Architecture, (Oxford, 1990)
Creator
E. Dossetter
Publisher
First Nations: Land Rights and Environmentalism in British Columbia
http://www.firstnations.de/fisheries/kwakwakawakw-kwakiutl.htm
http://www.firstnations.de/fisheries/kwakwakawakw-kwakiutl.htm
Date
1881
Contributor
David Cook
Rights
American Museum of Natural History
Language
N/A
Type
Visual - photograph
Identifier
19th century British Columbia
Files
Collection
Citation
E. Dossetter, “The Kwaktiutl village of Xumtaspi-Nawittl,” The American Pacific Rim: Colonisation, Conflict and Connections, 1800-Present, accessed May 13, 2024, https://theamericanpacificrim.omeka.net/items/show/20.