Nootka

Any of several bands of Northwest Coast Indian people of southwestern Vancouver Island, B.C., Can., and northwestern Washington, U.S. The name Nuu-chah-nulth, which they adapted in preference to Nootka (given them by others), means along the mountains. They speak a Wakashan language. Culturally related to the Kwakiutl, the Nuu-chah-nulth were traditionally specialized whale hunters. They moved seasonally, returning to their principal homesites during the winter. Local groups were usually socially and politically independent. The most important religious ceremony was the shaman's dance, a reenactment of mythological themes that ended with a potlatch. Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 8,500 individuals of Nuu-chah-nulth descent.

Nootka (nʊt'kə), Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Wakashan branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Nootka proper are a small group on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, but the name is also used to refer to the Aht Confederacy, which formerly included more than 20 tribes. Traditional Nootka culture was fundamentally that of the Northwest Coast area (see under Natives, North American); they fished for salmon, lived in long wooden houses, and created elaborate totem poles. In 1991 there were some 4,000 Nootka in 15 bands in Canada. The so-called Nootka hats of woven fiber were common among other tribes of this area. With the exception of the Makah and a few of their neighbors, they were the only Native Americans on the Pacific coast who hunted whales.

Bibliography

See P. Drucker, The Northern and Central Nootkan Tribes (repr. 1988).