# Gispaxlo'ots

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gispaxlo'ots
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gispaxlo'ots.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gispaxlo'ots
> Source revision: 990457879
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

The **Gispaxlo'ots** are one of the 14 tribes of the [Tsimshian](/source/Tsimshian) nation in [British Columbia](/source/British_Columbia), Canada, and one of the nine of those tribes making up the "Nine Tribes" of the lower [Skeena River](/source/Skeena_River) resident at [Lax Kw'alaams](/source/Lax_Kw'alaams) (a.k.a. Port Simpson), B.C. The name *Gispaxlo'ots* means literally "people of the place of elderberries." Their traditional territory includes an area on the Skeena River between present-day [Terrace](/source/Terrace,_British_Columbia) and [Prince Rupert](/source/Prince_Rupert,_British_Columbia). Since 1834, when a Hudson's Bay Company trading fort was established at Lax Kw'alaams, they have been based there. Their chief [Ligeex](/source/Ligeex) permitted the HBC to build on Gispaxlo'ots territory.

Traditionally, the Gispaxlo'ots have been the most powerful of the Tsimshian tribes, due to the exploits and wealth of [Ligeex](/source/Ligeex), a great trading chief. As part of the negotiations with the HBC, he arranged in 1832 for his daughter Sudaał to marry Dr. [John Frederick Kennedy](/source/John_Frederick_Kennedy), the first HBC partner of the fort. The House of Ligeex belongs to the [Laxsgiik](/source/Laxsgiik) (Eagle clan).

Other house-groups (extended matrilineal families) of the Gispaxlo'ots include:

- House of Spooxs -- [Laxsgiik](/source/Laxsgiik) (Eagle clan) (this house has members associated today with the [Kitsumkalum](/source/Kitsumkalum) community)
- House of Suhalaayt -- [Gispwudwada](/source/Gispwudwada) (Killerwhale clan) (a [totem pole](/source/Totem_pole) belonging to this house was standing in Lax Kw'alaams as recently as the 1930s)
- House of T'amks -- [Gispwudwada](/source/Gispwudwada) (headed by [Arthur Wellington Clah](/source/Arthur_Wellington_Clah) until his death, 1916)
- House of 'Wiigyet—Gispwudada (Killerwhale clan)

In 1935 [William Beynon](/source/William_Beynon) recorded that Gispaxlo'ots people in Lax Kw'alaams included 18 members of the [Gispwudwada](/source/Gispwudwada) (Killerwhale clan) (2 house-groups), 24 members of the [Ganhada](/source/Ganhada) (Raven) (1 house-group), and 63 members of the [Laxsgiik](/source/Laxsgiik) (Eagle) (6 house-groups).

## Prominent Gispaxlo'ots people

- [Paul Legaic](/source/Ligeex), Legaic V, hereditary chief and merchant trader
- Rev. [William Henry Pierce](/source/William_Henry_Pierce_(missionary)), missionary and memoirist
- [Henry W. Tate](/source/Henry_W._Tate), oral historian
- [Arthur Wellington Clah](/source/Arthur_Wellington_Clah), head man and diarist, taught Father Duncan sm'algyax
- Legaic IV, known as Old Legaic, the pinnacle of chiefly dynasty
- Elizabeth Diiks Lawson, sister to Legaic V, mother of Sgagweet IV
- John C. Tate, oral historian,
- Xoop, in time of Legaic IV, acted as regent for the child chief

- Current heads of the tribe:

- Russell Mather Sr., Chief *Neesa Walp* (House of Neesa Walp)
- Alex Campbell Sr., Chief Gitxoon (House of Gitxoon)
- Wayne Ryan

## Sources

- [Barbeau, Marius](/source/Marius_Barbeau) (1950) *Totem Poles.* 2 vols. (Anthropology Series 30, National Museum of Canada Bulletin 119.) Ottawa: National Museum of Canada.
- [Garfield, Viola E.](/source/Viola_Garfield) (1939) "Tsimshian Clan and Society." *University of Washington Publications in Anthropology,* vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 167–340.
- McDonald, James A. (2003) *People of the Robin: The Tsimshian of Kitsumkalum.* CCI Press.

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gispaxlo'ots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gispaxlo'ots) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gispaxlo'ots?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.