Gispaxlo'ots


The Gispaxlo'ots are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada, and one of the nine of those tribes making up the "Nine Tribes" of the lower Skeena River resident at Lax Kw'alaams, 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 and Prince Rupert. Since 1834, when a Hudson's Bay Company trading fort was established at Lax Kw'alaams, they have been based there. Their chief 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, 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, the first HBC partner of the fort. The House of Ligeex belongs to the Laxsgiik.
Other house-groups of the Gispaxlo'ots include:
In 1935 William Beynon recorded that Gispaxlo'ots people in Lax Kw'alaams included 18 members of the Gispwudwada , 24 members of the Ganhada , and 63 members of the Laxsgiik .

Prominent Gispaxlo'ots people