Alert Bay

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Alert Bay
The U'mista Cultural Center
The U'mista Cultural Center
Location in British Columbia
Alert Bay, British Columbia
Alert Bay
Alert Bay
State : CanadaCanada Canada
Province : British Columbia
Regional District : Mount Waddington
Coordinates : 50 ° 35 ′  N , 126 ° 56 ′  W Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′  N , 126 ° 56 ′  W
Height : 30  m
Area : 1.69 km²
Residents : 489 (as of 2016)
Population density : 289.3 inhabitants / km²
Time zone : Pacific Time ( UTC − 8 )
Postal code : V0N
Foundation : 1946 ( incorporated )
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.
 
 
209
 
5
2
 
 
148
 
7th
2
 
 
126
 
9
3
 
 
95
 
11
4th
 
 
74
 
14th
6th
 
 
81
 
16
8th
 
 
51
 
18th
10
 
 
65
 
18th
10
 
 
91
 
16
8th
 
 
191
 
12
6th
 
 
252
 
8th
3
 
 
210
 
6th
2
Temperature in ° Cprecipitation in mm
Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1971-2000. In: Environment and Climate Change Canada . Retrieved September 14, 2012 .
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 5.4 6.8 8.9 11.3 14.1 15.7 17.9 18.2 16.1 11.9 7.5 5.6 O 11.6
Min. Temperature (° C) 1.5 2, 2.6 3.9 6.1 8.3 10, 10.4 8.4 6, 3.3 1.7 O 5.4
Precipitation ( mm ) 209.2 147.7 125.6 94.5 73.7 81 50.5 65.4 91.3 191.4 251.5 209.6 Σ 1,591.4
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
5.4
1.5
6.8
2,
8.9
2.6
11.3
3.9
14.1
6.1
15.7
8.3
17.9
10,
18.2
10.4
16.1
8.4
11.9
6,
7.5
3.3
5.6
1.7
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g
209.2
147.7
125.6
94.5
73.7
81
50.5
65.4
91.3
191.4
251.5
209.6
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1971-2000. In: Environment and Climate Change Canada . Retrieved September 14, 2012 .

Alert Bay is a place in the Canadian province of British Columbia . It is located around 3 km off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island on Cormorant Island .

Almost half of the inhabitants, according to the respondents 260, belong to the indigenous population, most of them one of the 12 tribes of the Kwakwaka'wakw . This is a group of First Nations ( Indians ) in whose traditional territory the place is located. The three regional First Nations are represented by the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council . These Kwakwaka'wakw groups include the Mamalilikulla , the Kwicksutaineuk and above all the 'Namgis , in whose traditional area Alert Bay is located. In the village is the Alert Bay Indian Reserve, in which 537 residents live.

Of the groups designated as visible minorities in Canada , i.e. all non-whites or non-Caucasians with the exception of First Nations , Inuit and Métis , only Filipinos are resident, the number of whom was 15 in 2006.

The highest totem pole in the world is in the village . It consists of three parts and should be 56.4 m high. Alert Bay is only accessible by boat and plane. The name of the place goes back to the British ship HMS Alert from 1856, which surveyed and mapped the region around 1860. The local newspaper is called the North Island Gazette .

history

Totem poles in Alert Bay, around 1900
The more than 80 m long Princess Sophia in port, no later than 1912. The British ship with a crew of 44 was in service with the Canadian Pacific Railway . It operated between Vancouver and Alaska .

In 1792, the Discovery appeared in the region as the first European ship under George Vancouver and made contact with the 'Namgis. Their chief was Cheslakee. In 1849 the Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Rupert next to the village of Tsa x is to protect a coal mine . The fort was the first permanent British establishment in the Kwakwaka'wakw area, but the Kwakiutl and Kwixa claimed the coal themselves. They recaptured their village and enforced a treaty on February 8, 1851, making them the only Kwakwaka'wakw tribes who signed one of the so-called Douglas contracts. This refers to contracts that were signed with Governor James Douglas . They envisaged eight reservations around Beaver Harbor and at the mouths of the Keogh River and the Cluxewe River. A larger area of ​​forest on Malcolm Island was also included.

In 1862 a severe smallpox epidemic broke out, which also hit the groups in the north of Vancouver Island hard. In December 1865 the HMS Clio appeared in front of the village and had it completely destroyed. Although the Kwakiutl suffered heavy losses (e.g. 70 canoes), they rebuilt 26 houses in front of Fort Rupert. This village was to become the central place of worship, famous for its potlatches , until 1900 , when it was increasingly displaced by 'Yalis (Alert Bay) in the ' Namgis area . So the Church Missionary Society of London moved its mission from Fort Rupert to 'Yalis and the Kwawkewlth Indian Agency followed in 1896.

As early as the 1870s, the salmon spawning trains in the Nimpkish River attracted two entrepreneurs. SA Spencer and Wesley Huson processed salmon for the first time and founded a company that preserved the catches with salt. In order to get clean water, they built a reservoir, but this dried up the soil in other areas, the water table sank there and the trees died. Only the red cedars, giant trees of life, are still there today and form the Gator Gardens . Many Indians took part in fishing, the women took them out. Other fish processing companies followed.

But the timber industry, as in many places, became a danger for the spawning trains, and thus for the entire fishing industry, due to the rigorous cutting down of the lower-lying and easier-to-reach trees. The steep, rainy valleys were washed away and the spawning areas destroyed. As a result, salmon fishing has become insignificant and the livelihoods of the 'Namgis have been severely damaged.

The methods by which Franz Boas and others came into possession of the "art objects" are very controversial today. Douglas Cole, Captured Heritage, describes these "forays" by collectors and scientists . The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts from 1985. That much of it was destroyed during the destruction of Hamburg in World War II is particularly bitter for the Kwakwaka'wakw. After all, this book has made it possible for the Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Center on Quadra Island and the U'Mista Museum and Cultural Center in Alert Bay to retrieve some artifacts from other museums.

In 1914 Edward Curtis made the documentary In the land of the headhunters . The starting point for the film, which was made within a year, was Alert Bay. Curtis was taking a high risk, because between 1884 and 1951 it was not only forbidden in Canada to celebrate ritual celebrations like the potlatch , but also to show them in public. Curtis tried to make some kind of entertainment film, but the company was unsuccessful.

In 1921 the Canadian government tried to ban the potlatch, which is central to the culture of the Kwakwaka'wakw. To do this, she confiscated numerous masks, copper shields and other culturally significant objects on the basis of the Indian Act . It was not until the 1970s that they successfully reclaimed their property. The objects are now on display at the U'mista Cultural Center , which was founded in 1980. Today, music and dance performances can also be seen there. The center supports scientific research on regional cultures.

The former St Michaels Residential School is now owned by the 'Namgis

In addition, so-called residential schools were set up for all Indians in Canada . In Alert Bay, this was St. Michael's Residential School from the 1920s to the 1970s . There, as in most schools of this type, severe sentences were imposed on the children not using their language but speaking English. Other cultural expressions were also strictly prohibited. In 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for the conditions in the schools.

Mungo Martin (1879 - 1962) came from Tsa x is and contributed to the renaissance of the art of carving as well as the entire Pacific Indian culture. He was the hereditary chief of the Kwakiutl. In 1947 he went to Vancouver , 1952 to Victoria , where he left the stakes in front of the Royal British Columbia Museum . After the ban on the potlatch was lifted in 1951, he celebrated his first public potlatch in Victoria.

In 1959, a library with an attached museum, the Alert Bay Public Library and Museum , was established in Alert Bay . Mungo Martin carved a totem pole for the house. In addition, an administration building, a recreation center, the T'lisalagi'lakw School, its own school with culturally adapted teaching content and the Big House were built. There are the artifacts of the local cultures.

Judge and traditional chief Alfred Scow of the Kwicksutaineuk First Nation, also known as the Gilford Island Band , is the first Indian to rise to a high judge's office in British Columbia. He presides over the Provincial Court in Coquitlam . He was born in Alert Bay, where he attended St. Michael's Residential School .

In 1999, the Alert Bay municipality signed the Alert Bay Accord, which aims to improve cooperation with the 'Namgis. In 2003, a five-person Culturally Modified Tree Field Crew was created whose task is to examine Culturally Modified Trees and, if necessary, to place them under protection. These are trees that show traces of processing that go back over a thousand years. The crew goes out about 20 times a year to inspect new discoveries. The results flow into a database that now has more than 1,200 entries. In 2005 a project began to record the genesis myths of the five Namima or clans of the 'Namgis.

The granting of local self-government for the community took place on January 14, 1946 ( incorporated as Village ).

Demographics

The census in 2016 showed a population of 489 inhabitants for the municipality, after the census in 2011 still showed a population of 456 inhabitants for the municipality. Compared to the last census in 2011, the population has increased by 12.4%, well above the provincial trend, while the provincial average only increased by 5.6%. In the census period from 2006 to 2011, the number of inhabitants in the municipality had decreased by 2.4%, while the provincial average increased by 7.0%.

For the 2016 census, a median age of 52.1 years was determined for the municipality . The median age of the province in 2016 was only 43.0 years. The median age was 47.1 years, or 42.3 years in the province. For the 2011 census, a median age of 49.9 years was determined for the municipality. The median age of the province in 2011 was only 41.9 years.

economy

In Alert Bay, the largest areas of employment are public administration and commerce.

The median income of all Alert Bay employees in 2005 was slightly above average C $ 25,594  , while at the same time the average for the entire province of British Columbia was only C $ 24,867. The income difference between men (C $ 20,739; provincial average = C $ 31,598) and women (C $ 29,682; provincial average = C $ 19,997), based on the average income of all employees in the province, is the opposite in Alert Bay than in the comparison for the entire province. Male employees earn well below average here both in comparison to the provincial average of all employees and in comparison to all male employees in the province, while the income of female employees is well above average in both comparisons.

traffic

The island's ferry terminal is in the harbor. From Vancouver Island (via Port McNeill Ferry Terminal ) ferries operated by BC Ferries operate in one round trip to Cormorant Island (via Alert Bay) and Malcolm Island (via Sointula ).

In the southeast of the municipality is the Alert Bay airfield (IATA: YAL, ICAO: CYAL), which has an asphalt runway 884 meters long. The local sea airport is located in the port of the island community (Transport Canada Identifier: CBC3).

Sons and daughters of the place

literature

  • Robert Galois: Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw settlements, 1775-1920: a geographical analysis and gazetteer. With contributions by Jay Powell and Gloria Cranmer Webster, on behalf of the U'mista Cultural Center, Alert Bay. UBC Press, Vancouver 1994, ISBN 0-7748-0397-5 . (University of Washington Press, Seattle 1994, ISBN 0-295-97310-2 )

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Alert Bay Indian Reserve Community Profile. Census 2011. In: Statistics Canada . June 6, 2012, accessed August 8, 2012 .
  2. ^ Andrew Scott: The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia . Harbor Publishing, Madeira Park, BC October 2009, p. 38 (English).
  3. ↑ Based on a report by the Daily Colonist on January 6, 1866.
  4. ^ Rutgers University website on the film
  5. The film was restored and shown again in 2008 (see Aaron Glass - Restored Edward Curtis Film with Live Music and First Nations Dance, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, June 22, 2008 )
  6. ^ Cultural Heritage. Namgis First Nation website , archived from the original on September 11, 2014 ; accessed on February 24, 2020 (English).
  7. ^ Origin Notes and History. Alert Bay. In: GeoBC . Retrieved August 8, 2012 .
  8. ^ Alert Bay Community Profile. Census 2016. In: Statistics Canada . January 23, 2017, accessed September 16, 2017 .
  9. ^ Alert Bay Community Profile. Census 2011. In: Statistics Canada . June 6, 2012, accessed August 8, 2012 .
  10. ^ Alert Bay Community Facts. BCStats , accessed February 10, 2014 .