Gispwudwada

The Gispwudwada or Gisbutwada (variously spelled) is the name for the Killerwhale "clan" (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. It is considered analogous or identical to the Gisgahaast (variously spelled; also Gisk'aast) clan in British Columbia's Gitxsan nation and the Gisḵ'ahaast/Gisḵ'aast Tribe of the Nisg̱a'a. The Nisg̱a'a also call this group the Killerwhale Tribe, though the Gitxsan use the term Fireweed clan; Gisgahaast means literally "people of the fireweed."

The name Gispwudwada is of unknown etymology.

The chief crests of the Gispwudwada are the Killerwhale (a.k.a. orca) ('neexł in Tsimshian) and Grizzly Bear (midiik).

Tsimshian matrilineal houses belonging to the Gispwudwada tend to belong to one of two groups, the Git'mlaxam and the Gitnagwinaks.

Git'mlaxam

The Git'mlaxam trace their origins to the legendary Temlaxam (a.k.a. Temlaham, Dimlahamid, etc.) or "Prairie Town" on the Skeena River in what is now Gitksan territory. The Git'mlaxam can be further subdivided.

Git'mlaxam house-groups among the Tsimshian include the royal House of Ts'ibasaa in the Gitkxaała (Kitkatla) tribe.

Gitnagwinaks

The Gitnagwinaks (sometimes spelled Nagunaks) trace their migrations southward, to the vicinity of the Kitasoo Tsimshians at Klemtu, British Columbia. In a discussion of the Bear Mother myth, the anthropologist Marius Barbeau in 1950 published information recorded by the Tsimshian ethnologist William Beynon from his fellow Gitlaan Tsimshian E. Maxwell which describes a dispute among the Kitasoo Gispwudwada house-heads Wuts'iint, Dzagmsagisk, and T'amks as to ownership of certain crest privileges, resulting in migration to Kitkatla, Gitwilgyoots, and Gitlaan tribes of Tsimshians.

The following Gitnagwinaks crests are listed:

Nisg̱a'a - Gisḵ'ahaast (People among the Fireweed)

Belongs to Nass river family of W'ii Seeks, Ts'iibaasaa Is held by Steven Bright

The Nisga'a no longer rank their chieftains as "head chief" of a tribe.

Bibliography

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