Gwaii Haanas National Park/Haida Heritage Site

The history of Gwaii Haanas provides a model of a respectful relationship between human beings and the earth, a place where people can now learn about a way of life where humans are a part of nature, and where they can experience Haida culture and respect sacred and spiritual values. Sensitive cultural features are fragile evidence of thousands of years of habitation. Traditional activities continue to take place here as part of the living and evolving culture of the Haida.

Hundreds of generations of human beings have been nourished by Haida Gwaii. The islands provide an abundance of all the essential ingredients for sustenance and growth. Readily accessible foods allowed time for the development of a complex society and a unique art form that reflects the Haida People's close interaction with the land and seas. Heraldic columns of cedar announce the crest and lineages of the Haida families. Haida house construction has secured its place in the world of architecture.

Research has provided an inventory of over 500 major Haida archaeological features. Haida oral history, language, stories and songs have been recorded, and Haida place names mapped.

Among the hundreds of Haida sites are the remains of Skung Gwaii which, with the agreement of the Haida, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981. The village site of Skung Gwaii on this island is considered to have the world’s finest examples of Haida mortuary poles - all more than a hundred years old. Such undisturbed areas of the Haida Gwaii continue to inspire Haida artists who command international recognition in today’s world.

Visits to the base camps--staffed by the Haida Gwaii Watchmen located at key cultural and natural features in the archipelago--provide a face-to-face encounter with the living Haida culture. For most visitors the spiritual aspect of these sites echoes in them long after they’ve gone home. Basecamps are located at Skung Gwaii (Anthony Island), Gandla K’in (Hotspring Island), T’anuu (Tanu) and Hlk’yaah (Windy Bay on Lyell Island) in the protected area, and at K’una (Skedans) to the north of the boundary.

In 1957, the province of British Colombia designated Anthony Island (containing the abandoned Haida village of Skung Gwaii) as a provincial park. In 1981, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board recommended, and the minister approved, that Gwaii Haanas was a site of national historic significance. Skung Gwaii was identified as the most important village site connected to the now vanished Khungit Haida. The board subsequently recommended that Canada nominate Skung Gwaii for inclusion on the UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE list and that measures should be taken, in cooperation with the province of British Columbia, to ensure its preservation and protection.

Evidence of human occupation and use of Skung Gwaii remains in the form of seven heritage sites, which include two cave sites (one containing burial remains, the other, both burial remains and shell midden deposits), four general activity shell midden sites and one village site. It is the remains of the village of Skung Gwaii which gives the island World Heritage Site significance. The village of Skung Gwaii represents the only example in the world of the ruins of a traditional Northwest Coast Indian village site, complete with standing totem and mortuary poles and the remains of massive cedar long houses.

Today, Skung Gwaii is included in Gwaii Haanas and administered by the Archipelago Management Board. The surviving poles are aided by an ongoing conservation plan initiated by the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM). As well, there is a Haida Watchman on the site for four months of the year. The site included 20 standing memorial and mortuary poles, five fallen ones and some standing house posts and beams. Besides the wealth of cultural resources, Skung Gwaii is also important for its sea bird colonies and rich intertidal life. Species nesting here include the rhinoceros auklet and the peregrine falcon.

The principal historic site on Skung Gwaii was called "Skung Gwaay ’Llnagaay" by the Haida , or "Red Cod Island Town". Early traders referred to the village by the name of its chief, "Koyah", and then "Nunsting". Recently there has been a trend back to calling it Skung Gwaii. The site is among the most important associated with a Haida subgroup called the Kunghit. The Masset, Skidegate and Kunghit together formed a distinct linguistic category.

Archaeological investigation dates earliest occupation in Skung Gwaii to around 1500 B.P. (before present). However, it became the center of Kunghit culture only toward the middle of the last century. After contact with maritime fur traders, historical and archaeological information suggests that the village became a large multi-lineage community. At its peak, Skung Gwaii town probably had 20 houses and a population of approximately 300 people. The wealth of Skung Gwaii was manifest in the number of impressive totem and mortuary poles erected through the first half of the 19th century.

Unfortunately, the trade which brought wealth also brought disease. A series of epidemics--beginning in the 1830s and recurring periodically through the 19th century--almost wiped out the entire Haida people. Disease was especially fatal to the Kunghit. The resulting depopulation of the southern archipelago forced the Kunghit to abandon their villages. Survivors gradually migrated north. Skung Gwaii was emptied by 1884.

Natural decay of the abandoned village site was hastened by human intervention. In 1892, several houses and poles at the south end of the village were burned by Vancouver-Island natives passing through on a sealing schooner. Along with other abandoned villages of the Northwest coast, Skung Gwaii was plundered for artifacts by museum collectors, ethnologists and curio dealers. The remoteness of the site deterred extensive removal of poles, as occurred at T’anuu and K’una. Although four poles had been removed from the site in 1938 and taken to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, the other poles were largely left alone until a major expedition mounted by the Royal British Columbia Museum and the University of British Columbia in 1957 removed 23 poles. These were removed with the knowledge and permission of the Skidegate Band.

Despite these depredations, Skung Gwaii remained the best preserved of all the old Haida villages. This was due in part to its remoteness from Canadian settlements, also in part to the sheltered nature for the site.

In 1957, eleven of the best preserved poles of Skung Gwaii were removed and shipped to museums in the south. Despite this, the village is considered to provide the most magnificent display of standing Haida Mortuary poles in the world and in 1981 was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In 1995, a number of the poles were straightened to prolong the period before they returned naturally to the earth.

Wandering amidst the fragments of the old Longhouses and over two dozen remaining totem poles, many of them toppled or tilted, one feels the presence of the past. One cannot help but be touched by the beauty and dignity of these weathered poles lining the shore which look out over the small crescent shaped beach beyond the shoreline to the sea. At low tide, canoe runs are still visible on the beach in front of the village.

All of the poles at Skung Gwaii were carved from cedar trees (Thuja plicita). In a survey of Anthony Island, in 1957, neither large existing cedars or tree stumps of the size that could have been used for totem poles was found.

In 1982, there were twenty-one standing poles and six recognizable fallen poles at Skung Gwaii. These included twenty carved mortuary poles, three plain uncarved mortuary poles, two carved memorial poles, and two carved house frontal poles. Frontal poles, placed against the front of the house, visually portray the lineage of the house’s occupants. Memorial poles commemorate a person who died and are usually erected by the person who takes the name of the deceased. Mortuary poles house the dead, commonly the elite, in grave boxes at their summits. Twenty-one of the poles at Skung Gwaii are mortuary poles, this may be the result of the high death rate from the smallpox epidemic.