Notes on Names and Terms

Magical, and symbolically laden with history, its forests still standing, its mountains and rugged coasts facing across the waters to today’s Tofino, British Columbia, Canada, Meares Island lies within the southern part of Vancouver Island’s Clayoquot Sound. The Sound itself is a labyrinth of inlets, islands and passages. This is the Nuu-chah-nulth nations’ territory of traditional lands and waters.

The names of the leading Nuu-chah-nulth chiefs of the late 1700s and early 1800s appear as Wickaninnish, Maquinna and Sitakanim, though they are variously spelled in documents and published narratives of the time, and I have not sought to change the original spellings given by my documentary sources. Wickaninnish is invariably named in the records as a chief; however, the Nuu-chah-nulth word for his rank, possessions and station is Ha’wiih.

For such technical matters as the elevation of Lone Cone and Mount Colnett and the longitude and latitude of Opitsat, I have used modern scientific data, though I am conscious that historical records disclose earlier observation coordinates, and that magnetic variations have changed over time. By and large, in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, British nautical measurement of longitude was based on distances west of Greenwich, England.

Great Britain did not acquire sovereignty of the area we now call British Columbia through conquest or by doctrine of discovery. Rather, its claimed sovereignty was recognized in 1846 by treaty with the United States (the Oregon Treaty). When the Colony of British Columbia joined Canada by Act of Union in 1871, the direction of “Indian Affairs” passed to the Dominion (later Government) of Canada. Thus, Indian reserves and bands became (and are to this day) regulated by that government, headquartered in Ottawa. The term “band” is used here in the context of the Indian Act of Canada. No formal system exists in law for the authorized naming of bands.

The word “Nu-tka-,” or more commonly “Nootka,” has now been supplanted by the terms “Nuučaan̓uł,” “Nuu-chah-nulth” or, occasionally, “the west coast peoples.” The language spoken is now referred to as Nuu-chah-nulth. This language is part of the Wakashan language grouping. Representing constituent components is the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council (NTC). The term “Nuu-chah-nulth,” meaning loosely “all along the mountains and sea,” was formally adopted by the NTC in 1980.

I have generally used the common spelling “Clayoquot”; that being said, the reader’s forbearance is requested, for all variant spellings appear in quoted passages. To complicate matters, the Indigenous people formerly called Clayoquot changed their name to Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation effective November 21, 1988. The reader’s attention is therefore specifically drawn to the following: in this book Clayoquot usually means the location (though sometimes, particularly when referring to events in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, can mean the peoples or band); Tla-o-qui-aht means the Clayoquot First Nation. Wherever possible I have followed the Canadian convention of using the single form of a First Nation rather than the plural form (thus, Ahousaht rather than Ahousahts). Note that all sorts of variant spellings of names and places exist in the historical documentation, and I have not standardized these when I am quoting from the source documents.

Meares Island contains two Indian reserves: I.R. 1, Opitsat, and I.R. 2, Cloolthpich, the latter west of Lone Cone. I.R. 1 was dedicated in 1890 as a Clayoquot Indian reserve. I.R. 2 was dedicated in 1890 as a Kelsemaht Indian reserve. Numerous other reserves exist within the Clayoquot Sound area including Marktosis, Sutaquis, Clayoquot, Tofino.¹ The Indian Act of Canada specifies that an Indian reserve is a “tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band.”

During the sea otter trade of the 1700s and 1800s, which features in Part I of this book, Haida Gwaii was known as the Queen Charlotte Islands to the Europeans (and many Boston traders called them Washington’s Isles). I have used this name in that context, but Haida Gwaii when referring to more contemporary events.

The terms used to refer to Native Peoples remain unsettled. Most of the historic documents use “Indian,” and this is still the term used in the Indian Act and as part of the tri-partite definition of “the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada” given in Article 35 of the Canadian Constitution (Constitution Act, 1982), that is, “Indians, Inuit and Métis.”² The capitalized form “Aboriginal Peoples” is also used in Canadian legal contexts. “Indigenous” is usually an adjective (“indigene” is the noun), meaning “native and belonging to the soil, born of it.” I prefer to use “Native,” as in my view it best represents those who were here before the modern era (which I date as the era beginning with the arrival of the Norse). However, again, when quoting material from the historical record, I use the term used by the writer. And whenever possible I use the specific name of a group or nation.

Different terms are used abroad. I have lectured on Canadian history in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and consequently know that I will get into trouble with local experts in Australia when I use the term “aboriginal” to mean Canadian Indigenous person, and I will certainly get into equal if not more hot water in South Africa if I use the word “native.” In Alaska the current usage is “Alaska Natives,” organized in 1971 as Alaska Native Tribes. In the continental United States, “American Indian” passes as standard. American informants tell me that “Indian” is still widely used without difficulty in many locales. (This may be the case in places in Canada.) Odd it is that Columbus called the original inhabitants of some Caribbean Islands “Indians” and left for all of us (at least in Canada) this tortured legacy still in need of working out terms for clarification and accuracy.
Legal cases, whether in short or full form, are shown in italics: thus, Meares Island.

“Old-growth forest” means a mature forest ecosystem, one that contains a broad diversity of plant and animal species, and which is relatively uninfluenced by the human race.