BELLA COOLA

The many tribes of the Northwest Coast Culture Area— NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS—spoke many different languages within a relatively small region. The Bella Coola were a Salishan-speaking people living on the Bella Coola and Dean Rivers as well as nearby inlets of Queen Charlotte Sound in present-day British Columbia, Canada. They were surrounded by the Wakashan-speaking KWAKI-UTL, including their subgroups the Bella Bella and Heiltsuk. The name Bella Coola, pronounced BEL-uh-KOOL-uh, is an Anglicization of a Heiltsuk name for the river. The current Native name used by the Bella Coola, taken from that of a particular band, is Nuxalt.

The Bella Coola probably broke off from Salishan-speaking groups, known collectively as the Coast Salishans or Coast Salish, living to the south in present-day southwestern British Columbia, western Washington, and western Oregon, although there is no tribal tradition of such a split. Other Salishan-speaking people referred to as Interior Salishans or Interior Salish lived to the east and are grouped among PLATEAU INDIANS.

Like their Kwakiutl neighbors and other Northwest Coast Indians, the Bella Coola had autonomous village communities of cedar-plank houses, with attached or free-

Bella Coola grave monument

Standing totem poles. They also crafted cedar log dugout canoes. Fishing, especially of salmon, was central to their economy, complemented by some hunting of seal, bear, and wildfowl and gathering of berries, nuts, and roots. Oil extracted from eulachon (also known as candlefish) was used as a condiment. Woven cedar bark was used to make clothing, such as capes of several layers for warmth. The Bella Coola obtained wool from captured wild goats, setting them free after shearing them. They traded fish with inland tribes for animal skins. Also like their neighbors, the Bella Coola practiced the giveaway ceremony known as the potlatch, using it to celebrate important events, such as marriages, births, initiations, name giving, death, or dedicating a new house or totem pole. Potlatches were typically part of an autumn ceremony celebrating legendary beings and a wintertime ceremony involving initiation into secret societies, such as the Laughers and Throwers. Some of the participants performed dances wearing elaborately carved and painted masks representing legendary beings. In the Bella Coola belief system there are five worlds, an upper heaven, a lower heaven, Earth, an upper underworld, and a lower underworld. In their complex pantheon of deities, a female being, Qama’itsa, rules upper heaven; she is also considered the Creator who made Earth habitable for the people. Legendary beings, after frequenting the Earth the rest of the year and haunting humans, supposedly return to their home in the lower heaven in wintertime. Supposedly souls of the dead join them in the sky, while human shadows go to the underworld.

It is thought that the Bella Coola settled their present location by about 1400. Their earliest contact with non-Indians is assumed to have been with seagoing exploratory or trade expeditions of the 18th century. In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie, exploring overland for the North West Company, reached a Bella Coola village and wrote extensively about them. In 1851, gold was discovered in the area. One of the routes to the goldfields traversed the Bella Coola homeland. The Hudson’s Bay Company established a trading post in 1867, followed by a Methodist mission in 1883. Alcohol contributed to the decline of tribal unity.

Logging brought additional outsiders to the region in the 20th century. The present town of Bella Coola, the center of current Bella Coola tribal activity, is situated on a long inlet known as the Burke Channel.