Haida and Tsimshiam

The Tlingit are the most widespread Alaskan Native culture in the Southeast region and historically occupied the entire region. However, two other Native groups recently moved into Southeast Alaska: the Haida and Tsimshiam.

The original homeland of the Haida people is the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, Canada.  The Haida have lived on these islands just south of Alaska for thousands of years.  In the 1600s, before the European discovery of Alaska, a group of Haida migrated north to the Prince of Wales Island area within Alaska (the purple area within the U.S. on the map to the right).  By the mid-1700s, nearly 2,000 Haidas lived in six Prince of Wales Island villages.  This group is known as the “Kaigani” or Alaska Haidas. Today, the Kaigani Haida live mainly in the two villages of Kasaan and Hydaburgon on Prince of Wales Island.

The Tsimshiam arrived in Alaska even more recently.  Like the Haida, the Tsimshian originally lived just south of Alaska along the Pacific coast of British Columbia.  In 1887, 800 Tsimshiam requested to settle on Annette Island.  Congress granted the request and created a reservation for them, which remains the only Native reservation in Alaska (green on the map to the right).