Gitando

The Gitando are the youngest (or last to form) of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada, and one of the nine of those tribes making up the "Nine Tribes" of the lower Skeena River resident at Lax Kw'alaams (a.k.a. Port Simpson), B.C. The name Gitando means the people of weirs. Their traditional territory includes the watershed of the Exstew River, a tributary of the Skeena River. Since 1834, they have been based at Lax Kw'alaams, when a Hudson's Bay Company fort was established there. They are closely related to the Gispaxlo'ots, another of the Nine Tribes, who have an adjacent territory.

The chieftainship of the Gitando resides with the hereditary name-title Sgagweet, the holder of which is chief of the House of Sgagweet, a Laxsgiik (Eagle clan) house-group (extended matrilineal family) of the Gitando. The anthropologist Viola Garfield reported in 1938 that the name was held by Paul Sgagweet, who died in 1887 and was commemorated by a 15-foot totem pole marble headstone representing one of his most prominent crests the "Standing Feeding Beaver", which is still standing in the village of Lax Kw'alaams today. Paul Sgagweet bequeathed the name to his first cousin or sister's son; Alfred Dudoward, who was instrumental in establishing a Methodist mission at Lax Kw'alaams. Dudoward had no (matrilineal) heirs and so adopted his own son and a niece into the house. The son inherited the name Sgagweet after Dudoward's death in 1914 or 1915 and was holding it when Garfield was writing in 1938. He had designated the niece's son as his successor, however, this son named Clarence Watson, moved to Southern BC and enfranchised, thus surrendering his Native Status. The chieftainship was held in trust by the sons of Alfred Dudoward, until the youngest of: Charles Dudoward (Chief Wiishakes), gave the responsibility to his first cousins son, Libby Kelly. From Libby the names were passed on to his nephews Mitch and Fred Dudoward. However the name as never been appointed upon anyone since Alfred Dudoward. There is still contention for the title among the tribe.

In 1935 William Beynon recorded that Gitando people in Lax Kw'alaams included 14 members of the Gispwudwada (Killerwhale clan) (1 house-group), 17 members of the Ganhada (Raven) (1 house-group), and 25 members of the Laxsgiik (Eagle) (2 house-groups, including the House of Sgagweet, with 5 members).

George Kelly was a member of the House of Sgagweet who was adopted into the Gispaxlo'ots in order to perpetuate the House of Ligeex, a house closely related to Sgagweet.

The anthropologist Marius Barbeau, in a survey of totem poles, described several poles belonging to various Gitando Laxsgiik houses which had stood in Lax Kw'alaams. One, a Sgagweet pole depicting a Standing Beaver, stood until at least 1947.

In addition to the House of Sgagweet, other Gitando houses include:

There were ten houses in total at this time. However epidemics and migration decimated the population of the Gitanndo and most tribes of the Tsimshian. Today there are six families that occupy four houses of the Gitando. i)House of Sgagweet ii)House of Gilasgamgan & Gistaaku iii) House of Geyshluk (from Gamayaam) iv) House of Niisyagayunaat

Sources

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