Wet'suwet'en

This page is for the people. For the language they speak, see Babine-Witsuwit'en language.
Wet'suwet'en
Wet'suwet'en fishing on the Bulkley River
Total population
(2,447 )
Regions with significant populations
Canada (British Columbia)
Languages
English, Babine-Witsuwit'en
Religion
Christianity, traditional beliefs
The Wet'suwet'en's bridge across the Bulkley River, Hagwilget, 1872

Wet'suwet'en (also known as Hwotsotenne, Witsuwit'en, Wetsuwet'en, Wets'uwet'en) are a First Nations people who live on the Bulkley River and around Broman Lake and Francois Lake in the northwestern Central Interior of British Columbia. The name they call themselves, Wet'suwet'en, means ″People of the Wa Dzun Kwuh River or Bulkley River″.[1]

The Wet'suwet'en are a branch of the Dakelh or Carrier people, and in combination with the Babine people have been referred to as the Western Carrier. They speak Witsuwit'en, a dialect of the Babine-Witsuwit'en language which, like its sister language Carrier, is a member of the Athabaskan family.

Their oral history, called kungax, recounts that their ancestral village, Dizkle or Dzilke, once stood upstream from the Bulkley Canyon. This cluster of cedar houses on both sides of the river was said to be abandoned because of an omen of impending disaster. The exact location of the village has not yet been discovered.[2] The neighbouring Gitxsan people of the Hazelton area have a similar tale, though the village in their version is named Dimlahamid (Temlahan).[3][4]

The traditional government of the Wet'suwet'en comprises 13 hereditary chiefs, organized today as the Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en, or the Office of the Wet'suwet'en in BC government terminology (the government does not recognize their hereditary rights). The Office of the Hereditary Chiefs is the main political body of the Wet'suwet'en and is involved in the negotiating process for an eventual treaty with the British Columbia government. In the past, they were co-complainants in the Delgamuukw v. British Columbia case, which sought to establish recognition of the hereditary territorial rights of the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en Confederacy.[5]

Like most of the First Nations peoples of BC they have never signed a formal treaty and are in the process of negotiating a treaty now.[6]

Today's Wet'suwet'en First Nations

Carrier Sekani Tribal Council[7]

Independent First Nations

Clans

There are five Wet’suwet’en clans:

See also

Notes

Witsuwit'en is the correct spelling in the writing system in general use. In non-technical publications it is usually misspelled as Wits'uwit'en, Wit'suwit'en, Wets'uwet'en, or Wet'suwet'en due to the difficulty of distinguishing glottalized [ts] from plain [ts] and official spellings with <ts'> and <t's> in the name of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation and the Office of the Wet'suwet'en. In point of fact the [ts] is not glottalized. Older spellings include Hotsot'en and Hwotsot'en. Whutsowhut'en is the Carrier name in the Carrier Linguistic Committee writing system in general use for that language. In the feast hall they work as four clans with the Tsayu (Beaver) and Laksamshu (Fireweed) working together.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, March 12, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.