It is to their kla'a that I was most keen to explore. Kla'a or outside is the term for their coastal environment and hilstis for their inside or inland environment. The best answer to why it matters is because it matters.Įach of the subgroups of the Nuu-chah-nulth viewed their lands and seasonal migration within them (though not outside of them) from a viewpoint of inside and outside. While collectively, they are the Nuu-chah-nulth, be interested in their more regional name should you meet them.īut why does it matter? If you have ever mistakenly referred to someone from New Zealand as an Aussie or someone from Scotland as English, you have likely been schooled by an immediate - sometimes forceful, sometimes gracious - correction of your ways. Bless the Nuu-chah-nulth for their grace in choosing this collective name.Īn older term for this group of peoples was Aht, which means people in their language and is a component in all the names of their subgroups, and of some locations - Yuquot, Mowachaht, Kyuquot, Opitsaht. It is similar in a way to the use of the United Kingdom to refer to the lands of England, Scotland and Wales - though using United Kingdom-ers would be odd. It is a term now used to describe several First Nations people living along western Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Two hundred years later, in 1978, the Nuu-chah-nulth chose the collective term Nuu-chah-nulth - nuučaan̓uł, meaning all along the mountains and sea or along the outside (of Vancouver Island) - to describe themselves. In actual fact, Nootka means, go around, go around. Friendly, but not familiar with the local language, he misunderstood the name for both the people and land to be Nootka. He and his crew stayed on for a month of storytelling, trading and ship repairs. Just four years after the 1774 visit by Spanish explorer Juan Pérez - and only a year before the Spanish established a military and fur trading post on the site of Yuquot - the Nuu-chah-nulth met the Englishman, James Cook.Ĭaptain Cook sailed to the village of Yuquot just west of Vancouver Island to a very warm welcome. While we know this area as Nootka Sound and the land we explore for fossils as Nootka Island, these names stem from a wee misunderstanding. This is the land of the proud and thriving Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations who have lived here always.Īlways is a long time, but we know from oral history and archaeological evidence that the Mowachaht and Muchalaht peoples lived here, along with many others, for many thousands of years - a time span much like always. Just off the shores of Vancouver Island, east of Gold River and south of Tahsis is the picturesque and remote Nootka Island.
Here the seas heave along the shores slowly eroding the magnificent deposits that often contain fossils.
The rugged west coast of Vancouver Island offers spectacular views of a wild British Columbia.
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