| Before Nisga'a lived in modern
houses they lived in longhouses. Longhouses were the main
house of the Nisga'a. They built longhouses in their
permanent, home villages. Nisga'a built smaller homes at
their fishing camps and hunting camps. Most Nisga'a longhouses were about twelve meters square. Some of the North West Coast peoples built larger houses but because the Nass Valley can get so cold in winter the Nisga'a built smaller homes. The smaller houses were easier to keep warm. The longhouse was built around a frame of very large posts and beams. The posts held up the beams and the beams held up the roof. The walls were constructed from large planks that stood up from the ground and fit into special slots under the roof. The insides of the longhouse was one room. The posts were sometimes one meter thick and the beams more than twelve meters long, and as much as half a meter wide. To build with such large, heave materials was difficult. Building a longhouse required a good knowledge of both wood and engineering. Longhouses Were Built in Rows Houses in a village were built a long the bank of the river. If a wilp was small it might live in only one house but that was very rare. A wilp usually filled serveral houses, sometimes as many as ten or more. All the houses of a wilp were built together in one village. The houses were built together in a row. The map below shows Gitwinkshihlkw in the 1800's before it burned.In this map you can see three rows of houses. Each row is made up of all the houses in one wilp. |
See a slide show of ancient Nisga'a artifacts.
Nisga'a Treaty - This is where you can get the Nisga'a Treaty documentation.
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