Metlakatla

Metlakatla is on the one hand one of the seven villages of the Tsimshians in the Canadian province of British Columbia , which is located on the Metlakatla Pass near Prince Rupert . On the other hand, there is a place of the same name in Alaska , more precisely on Annette Island , which thus belongs to the USA .

The name of the place goes back to Maaxłakxaała , which means "salt water pass" in the language of the Tsimshians who traditionally live there. Originally it was a winter village of the nine tribes from the lower Skeena River . Nevertheless, the place cannot be assigned to one of the 14 Canadian sub-tribes of the Tsimshians.

history

In 1862 the Anglican lay preacher William Duncan established a utopian Christian community consisting of around 350 Tsimshians from Lax Kw'alaams ( Port Simpson ). They were joined by members of other Tsimshiang groups.

But in the same year the community hit one of the worst epidemics in western Canada, a smallpox epidemic . Duncan interpreted this catastrophe as a sign from God. His most influential supporter, Chief Ligeex (Paul Legaic) of the Gispaxlo'ots, lived alternately in the two villages, in his traditional and in the new parish. He had long controlled trade in the Skeena region, but had to give in to the Hudson's Bay Company , which increasingly enforced its trade monopoly. Dr. John Frederick Kennedy of the Company had married a relative of the chief in 1832 to end the dispute by means of a political marriage.

Duncan and Chief Ligeex were not always on good terms, however. When Duncan rang the bells on the day of the chief's daughter's initiation , it almost cost him his life. The chief threatened him with a rifle. But a chief of a house group of the Tsimshians saved his life. Chief Ligeex, for his part, was converted by Duncan. He even stood up as a missionary and died in 1869 while on a missionary trip. The congregation continued to grow quite quickly, in 1874 the largest church in the northwest, St. Paul's Church , was built, and in 1879 the congregation already had 1,100 people.

But in 1881 Duncan was expelled from the Anglican Church Missionary Society after a dispute . He then founded his own Independent Native Church . In 1887 he took around 800 residents of the town on a canoe trip and founded New Metlakatla in Alaska.

To do this, Duncan first traveled to Washington and asked the government there for land. Annette Island granted him this . The community built a village near Port Chester that included a church, a school, a sawmill and a tannery. Duncan was a tanner by trade . The name of the new place was New Metlakatla . In 1888 Duncan traveled again to Washington and achieved that in 1891, although there were no Indian reservations in Alaska, one was set up. It consisted of Annette Island and the surrounding islands and is now the only Indian reservation in all of Alaska.

Duncan led the community until his death in 1918. In his principles, he fought against numerous elements of the Tsimshian culture, such as face painting, healing practices, and the traditional giving away at potlatch . In addition, he forbade gambling and alcohol, in addition, he demanded Sunday rest, attendance at religious instructions, school attendance, cleanliness, diligence, peacefulness, openness and honesty in trade, the construction of well-kept houses and the payment of the local tax levied by the community.

During the Second World War , an airstrip was established on the island, which until a few years ago was the largest in Alaska. It was not until the establishment of Ketchikan Airport on Gravina Island in the Inside Passage that its function took over. In 1998, a connection road to the Inside Passage, promised at the end of the 1940s, was built across the island. In 2000 Metlakatla had 1,375 inhabitants, of which over 80% were attributed to the indigenous population, in 2010 of the 1,405 inhabitants 1,162 were Indians or Alaska Natives , which corresponded to 82.7% of the population.

After the departure of Duncan and his supporters, those who remained in Alt Metlakatla were under the spiritual guidance of his opponent, Bishop William Ridley , who headed the newly founded Diocese of Caledonia . In July 1901 a fire broke out in St. Paul's Church, which completely destroyed it. The bishop suspected the people of Duncan and had the church rebuilt in 1903, but in 1905 he had to leave his diocese and go to England. In 1914 the church burned down again.

In 1983 Alt Metlakatla only had 117 inhabitants.

literature

• Phyllis Bowman: Metlakahtla - The Holy City! , Chilliwack: Sunrise Printing 1983.
• Susan Marsden, Robert Galois: The Tsimshian, the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Geopolitics of the Northwest Coast Fur Trade, 1787-1840 , in: Canadian Geographer 39 (1995) 169-183.
• Susan Neylan: The Heavens Are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity , McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal 2001.
• Jean Usher: William Duncan of Metlakatla. A Victorian Missionary in British Columbia , National Museum of Man, Ottawa 1974.
• Henry Solomon Wellcome: The Story of Metlakahtla , Saxon, London 1887.

Remarks

1. ↑ According to US Census 2000 and US Census 2010 .

Coordinates: 54 ° 20 ′ 17.8 "  N , 130 ° 26 ′ 37.8"  W.