21 Facts About Tsimshian

Tsimshian are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

Some Tsimshian migrated to the Annette Islands in Alaska, and today approximately 1, 450 Alaska Tsimshian people are enrolled in the federally recognized Metlakatla Indian Community, sometimes called the Annette Island Reserve.

Tsimshian society is matrilineal kinship-based, which means identity, clans and property pass through the maternal line.

The Tsimshian language has some 27 different terms for 'chief' likely because it is a stratified and ranked society.

The Nisga'a and Gitxsan remained in the upper Skeena region near the Nass River and forks of the Skeena respectively, but other Tsimshian chiefs moved down the river and occupied all the lands of the lower Skeena valley.

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Tsimshian maintained winter villages in and around the islands of Prince Rupert Harbour and Venn Pas.

Altogether, one in four Tsimshian died in a series of at least three large-scale outbreaks.

In 1895, the BC Tsimshian population stood at 3, 550, while the Alaska Tsimshian population had dropped to 465 by 1900.

Some of the Tsimshian had returned south to their homelands on the Skeena.

However, the numbers of the inland Tsimshian peoples are now higher than they were historically, while those of the Southern and Coastal Tsimshian are much lower.

The Metlakatla Tsimshian maintained their reservation status and holdings exclusive of the ANSCA.

Some Tsimshian moved south into the Columbia River Basin mid-nineteenth century for picking hops and other agricultural crops.

Many Tsimshian have moved into Seattle region from both AK and BC.

Tsimshian have a matrilineal kinship system, with a societal structure based on a tribe, house group and clan system, properly referred to as a moiety.

Tsimshian religion centered on the "Lord of Heaven", who aided people in times of need by sending supernatural servants to earth to aid them.

The Tsimshian believed that charity and purification of the body was the route to the afterlife.

Tsimshian engage in the feast system or potlatch, which they refer to as the yaawk for one specific event.

Tsimshian have maintained their fishing and hunting lifestyle, art and culture, and are working to revitalize the common use of their language.

Tsimshian wanted to preserve their villages and fishing sites on the Skeena and Nass Rivers as early as 1879.

Tsimshian speak a language, called Sm'algyax, which translates as "real or true tongue".

The Tsimshian speak a language variety similar to Gitxsan and Nisga'a, but differentiated from the regional Tsimshian variations.