| The first families to move
to Gitwinksihlkw were John and Alice Moore and family and
Henry and Martha Azak and family. Moments in history:
History of a Village Before the volcanic eruption there was a village call Lax Ksiluux. Lax Ksiluux was on the south side of the river near a creek now call Ts'oohl Ts'ap. At that time the Nass River flowed down the south side of the valley and the creek ran into the river a little east of where it does today. When the vocano erupted Lax Ksiluux was buried beneath several meters of lava. The people who survived began a new community, further down the river, which they call Lax Kiswihlgest. They lived in Lax Ksiwihlgest for many years. The, perhaps because of a flood, they left that village and moved to the site of a large "fortress" of rock just behind it. The name they gave this new village was Ts'oohl Ts'ap. Ts'oohl Ts'ap means "behind the village". They remained there until they moved to Gitwinksihlkw. In the summer of 1885 there was a terrible fire and the whole village of Gitwinksihlkw was burned to the ground. Rather than rebuild on the same site they moved down river to a place on the sounth bank called Gwinahaa. They lived at Gwinahaa for about three years but then there was another flood and, a few families at a time, they moved upriver to a new site call Hlaxwhl Yans, Underleaf. In the summer of 1917, Underleaf was destroyed bye a flood so the people moved back up ther river to Gitwinksihlkw, the village that had been destroyed bye fire thirty-three years before. Canyon City In 1927 Salvation Army Major Carruthers, changed the name of the villae to Canyon City which was easier for visitors to pronouince. On September 11, 1989 the residents of that community officially changed the name back to Gitwinksihlkw. |
See a slide show of Nisga'a Artifacts
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