![]() ![]() “Two distinguished chiefs who led the Mowachaht people of Nootka Sound at the end of the 18th century bore the name Maquinna. This plaque describes part of the Maquinna legacy. I just scour the beaches every time I come out here.”Ī third plaque from the Canadian monuments board has also sat in the Yuquot church for nearly 20 years, but will soon be mounted on a carving made by Patrick Amos. “The high tides are really big in the winter. “It’s really hard to find a good log with no knots, so it was a matter of looking around on the beaches for a good log,” he said. The carvings are being formed from a cedar log Williams found on Yuquot’s beach. Plus it’s part of my family crest, so I use the wolf a lot.” “It was one of my ideas because the q#ayac’iik, the wolf, in our culture is used quite a bit, like in potlatches to keep kids quiet when the wolf dancer has his mask on. ![]() “The wolf acts in our territory as a protector, a protector of the land,” he said. The carvings show a wolf standing up, howling at the moon over three people who represent the clan of the wolf, explained Williams. While the community and visitors gathered in Yuquot’s church, carver Sanford Williams was working on pieces to carry the plaques in his work shed by the shore. “Near here once stood the Whalers’ Washing House, a unique ceremonial structure and the most significant monument to a purification ritual on the West Coast of North America.” “Whaling was a vital part of the life of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht, and of all the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples,” reads the 2002 plaque. ![]() One plaque bears a message in Mowachaht followed by a translation in Spanish, the other carrying the same caption in English and French. By 2002, two new plaques were produced by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to provide a more rounded version of history. “It didn’t acknowledge the Mowachaht people or Chief Maquinna on that original plaque.”Īt the request of former Ha’wilth Ambrose Maquinna, this introductory information about Yuquot began a process of revision in the late 1990s. “It says nothing about the people,” said Margarita James, president of the Land of Maquinna Cultural Society. A plaque remains there from when the location was originally designated a national historic site in 1923. This change in perception is evident on a cairn that stands by the entrance to Yuquot at the southern tip of Nootka Island. In the early 1970s the First Nation moved its reserve community to near Gold River, but the Williams family remained at Yuquot, and in recent years the historical perspective of the site has shifted to consider those who lived there for millennia. Demand for pelts and other resources in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory brought Great Britain and Spain to the brink of war during the Nootka Sound Controversy of 1789-94. Archeological digs have uncovered evidence of continual habitation at the site for over 4,300 years, and Yuquot, which is also known as Friendly Cove, served as the focal point of West Coast First Nation trade with Europeans during the early years of contact. Yuquot has always been the centre of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht’s social, economic and cultural world, and at one time was the capital of Nootka Sound’s 17 tribes. The crowd of over 100 didn’t approach Yuquot’s historical population, but as Tyee Ha’wilth Mike Maquinna welcomed all to his traditional home in the village church, he noted that the Yuquot community gathering was the first to be held since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. The most people in two years gathered at the traditional home of the Mowachaht in early August with the return of the First Nation’s Yuquot Spirit Summerfest.Īs Mowachaht/Muchalaht members resumed their annual camp out at the Nootka Island site, visitors filled the MV Uchuck to visit the First Nation’s ancestral village on Saturday, Aug. ![]()
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