Bill Reid honlap3 VI 2 f Haida (Queen Charlotte islands)
Inhabited seven to ten thousand years ago, the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia, Canada are home to the Haida Indians Geologists determined the islands to be part of the tertiary coastal range originally located in the South Pacific, but pushed northwards by shifting continental plates No glaciation occurred on the islands and consequentíy unique plant and animal life inhabit its terrain
Six thousand Haida Indians inhabited the islands when the first European, Spanish explorer Juan Perez Hernandez, arrived in 1774 Spiritual and material pressures from exposure to
European culture disrupted the Haida's balanced way of life nearly to extinction European-introduced diseases and weapons reduced the tribe's population to 558 in 1915 The population has since tripled
Haida, which means 'people', are of Skittagetan linguistic stock (Denver Art Museum, 1936), and subsisted as fishermen, hunters and gatherers Their isolation resulted in singular development by the Haida, known to be the best canoe-builders and the most sophisticated in the development of Northwest Coast Indian Art (Holm) 1 heir mortuary poles are unique, as are their carvings in the grey-black slate-hke stone known as aigillite'
The Haida believed then land to be supported by a supernatural being-Sacred One StandingandMoving-who supports a cosmic tree containing earth Tangible and mythical animals and sea creatures along with their spirit counterparts composed the thematic and symbolic elements in Haida art and architecture The Eagle and the Raven, the two primary clans (or moieties) to which the Haida belonged, are reflected in their totems and art
Ihe plank house embodies several layers of symbolism A manifestation of the cosmos, a lineage house also identifies the ancestral clan group entry symbolizes ascent from the profane to the spiritual world of ancestors Gable-roofed with the short side facing the water, houses were sited, or aligned according to social rank, with the village chief's house at the centre Facing a thin strand of beach and bordering forests, a sophisti-
cated system of axes linked house and village to the supernatural worlds The axes intersected at the house pit (da), which was the centre of each lineage's world and the focus of ritual ceremonies
'The Haida built two types of house differing mainlv in the approach to construction, rather than in the character of the finished house ' (MacDonald) The first type is a simple post and beam structure, the second relies heavily on joinery, resulting in stronger structures with more interior space The second housetype developed later, primarily in the southern villages, possibly influenced by joinery seen on European ships
The post and beam structure also referred to as a 'two-beam house', roughly 12 m (40 ft) square, is found on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska The second housetype, referred to as a six-beam house', was innovated by the Haida and unique to the Queen Charlottes It integrates the structure through mortise and tenon joints Four slotted and notched corner-posts receive the bottom plate and the sloping roof plate beam Vertical planks fit into gable and base plate slots often steam-bent to weathertight the side walls The roof is supported by angled gable plates at each end, corner-posts and six stout log beams with flat undersides
Houses were built of red cedar using axes and wedges to make corner-posts, support beams and various sized planks Other construction tools included adzes, mauls, chisels, wooden hammers, shell, horn or nephrite (jade) blades and sharkskin for sandpaper Extensive use of metal tools was employed after the arrival of Europeans
The house was constructed with great care and precision, with attention to a building order and regard for symbolic alignments A potlatch celebrated the completion of the house in the final act of erecting the carved frontal pole which bore the crests earned or inherited by the house family 1 he house was entered through a low entrance 'hole' in the stomach of the crest animal carved at the base of the frontal pole support 1 his support function was later revised, possibly with the introduction of hinged doors, and poles were placed in front of the house
The interior of the house was organized around the centre open hearth at which a fire continuously burned The house, about 15 m (50 ft) long, encompassed in an open plan kitchen, dining area, bedchambers, storage space, workshop and a shed for the canoe Sleeping compartments reflected the rank of the inhabitants with the chief's compartment located at the centre back of the house 1 he chief's seat, a legless bench, provided the only typical furmtuie Carved and painted chests stacked in a corner stored winter provisions, hunting and fishing equipment Painted ceremonial screens formed a sacred compartment during ceremonies Parts of the house, including the front, were sometimes though not always, decorated or carved I hough dates are speculative, internal screens and house door poles were described by the Europeans in 1790
Of the 34 villages along the coast in 1774, only Masset and Skidegate survived. The village of Masset, or 'White Slope', in the north Queen Charlottes built the largest recorded Haida house in about 1850 Known as Chief Weah's 'Monster House' or 'Neuwons' it employed two thousand people to build the
17 m (55 ft) square house in an eiglit-beam system ratlier titan the typical six. In 1979 the Haida lineage house was built at Masset as a synthesis of traditional and adopted customs.
Ninstints, or 'Red Cod Island Town', located on the eastern shore of the small Anthony Island, thrived in the 1830s with over 300 inhabitants. It was abandoned in the 1880s as was Skedans, and survivors of the villages moved to Skidegate or 'Place of Stones'. Presently in its process of natural decay, Ninstints was designated as a 'World Heritage Site' in 1981.
White man's first contact with Skidegate was in 1787: the population diminished in the 1860s and by 1884 the old houses were down or in ruins; the village adopted the ways of European settlers. Built by the Haida band council, the recently constructed Council House at Skidegate illustrates a resurgence of Haida culture. A traditional six-beam house, it introduces a glass facade and reinterprets the hearth through the design of a metal lighting hood and conference table, presenting a fusion of tradition and modernity in Haida architecture.
Haida_longhouse_szov1813_15.txt
3 VI 2.1 KwakiutI (BCO)
The Kwakiud live on northeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, and on the adjacent mainland. They have sometimes been called the 'Southern Kwakiud' and in the iggos have been disdnguished as the 'Kwakwaka'wakw', the 'speakers of Kwak'wala language', following the transcription of the U'mista Cultural Centre. Their territory includes dense rain forest in a climate kept temperate by the Japanese Current; winters are mild and summers moist. In this setting, special skill and technology in the handling of wood continue to be integral to the culture.
Of all the trees available, the most important is the red cedar (Thuja plicata). Straight-grained, its loose, cellular structure creates air spaces, giving it better insulating propertíes than hardwoods. Though not as strong, it is considerably lighter. Most significant, the easily opened cleavage planes allow it to
be readily split, and the wood has thujaplicin, a toxic oil that acts as a fungicide to resist rot in the damp climate. From red cedar, KwakiutI past and present build the traditional rectangular cedar plank 'big house', or longhouse as some popular literature has termed it. Until the early-20th century this was the standard structure for living, eating and sleeping in as well as for ceremonies, but in recent years both old and newly constructed big houses are used primarily for ceremonies.
20th-century ceremonial big houses are based on any of several models current since the late-igth century. Most are 12-18 m (40-60 ft) long, rectangular, built with the narrower gabled side facing a transporation route, and the door in the centre. In some the transportation route includes, as it did traditionally, the water, as well as a road, but often in the 20th-century houses the road provides the major orientation. One housetype has four central posts, a pair near the front and a pair near the rear, each supporting a crossbeam. Two longitudinal beams, making a double ridge-pole, rest on the crossbeams. At each side, three smaller posts support an eaves beam. A second type has three central posts, a large one at the rear and a pair of smaller ones at the front, only the doorway width apart, holding up a short crossbeam. A single ridge-pole rests on the top of the rear pole and on the crossbeam. As in the first type, there are six side posts and two eaves beams. In a third model there are only two central posts with the ridge-pole directly on them. With all three types there are rafters and stringers holding the roof planks, which run from ridge-pole to eaves, interlocking like tiles. In the front and rear there are vertical poles fastened to the rafters and serving to hold the wall planks. The front and rear wall planks are set into a sill, with the side wall planks set directiy into the ground, their top ends fitted into the eaves
beams (Codere) With the development of sawmills in the area since the late-igth century, many houseřront facades are of sawn lumber nailed on horizontally rather than fastened vertically, the large, relatively smooth area this produces is particularly suitable for the painting of family crest designs directly onto the surface By the turn of the centurv glass windows began to appear in the front walls of some houses Yet other houses were framed, but in traditional proportions As with the more fully traditional big houses, these innovative versions served not only as domestic housing but also as ceremonial structures, with the removal of interior partitions and furniture After the first quarter of the 20th century, depending on village location, nuclear family domestic housing of light frame construction became more common Ultimately, as old big houses decayed, it became desirable to construct new ones for ceremonial purposes, from Mungo Martin's in Victoria m 1953, continuing into recent times with the opening of Tony Hunt's big house at Ft Rupert in 1992 A freestanding carved memorial pole may stand outside near the house entrance, again depict-mgcrests.
Haida_Kwakiut_szov1817_18.txt
