Tsimshian

Tsimshian, group of Native North American tribes of the Tsimshian language family and of the Northwest Coast culture area. Fishers in summer and hunters in winter, they originally lived in the vicinity of the Skeena and Nass rivers in northern British Columbia.

The Tsimshian were first exposed to white culture in 1862, when the British missionary William Duncan erected an Anglican mission at Metlakatla. He eventually converted the Tsimshian to Christianity; in the process much of their original way of life perished. In 1887 Duncan relocated, accompanied by most of the Tsimshian; they built New Metlakatla on Annette Island, Alaska.

The Tsimshian lived in one-story wooden buildings consisting of a large room surrounding a fireplace with a sleeping platform built around the inner walls. A house was inhabited by 30 to 40 members of the same clan. Kinship was matrilineal, and society was stratified into chiefs, nobles, and commoners. The Tsimshian were skilled carvers of memorial totem poles. Today, most Tsimshian live on reservations in British Columbia and Alaska. In the 2000 U.S. census about 2,200 people identified themselves as Tsimshian only; an additional 1,200 people reported being part Tsimshian.

See also Native American Languages; Native Americans of North America: Northwest.