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Chief Jeffrey H. Johnson on the Life of the Gitxsan and Tsimsien along the Skeena

(recorded April 2, 1963)

One of Roy’s favourite recordings from the Imbert Orchard Collection is this one with Chief Jeffrey H. Johnson (b. 1897), who carried a Chieftainship from Kispiox (or Anspayawks, “The Hiding Place”). Johnson explains how he looked for the Gitxsien name for the Skeena River for a long time, and finally he found an old woman from Kitkatla who told him the name, which is interpreted as “the moisture from the clouds,” or as Johnson said, “the juice from the clouds.” Today, says Roy, the word is spelled Xsan in the Gitxsan language (Gitxsanimix) but the more accurate phonetic spelling, when you hear the word spoken, is Xsien. It is a part of the name we call ourselves: the word for “people” is spelled Git, and so the word for “the people of the Skeena River” is Gitxsan (or, as I prefer, Gitxsien).

Although Gitxsanimix is the language spoken on the Skeena River today, it is a dialect of the old language Tsimshian, which is more accurately spelled Tsimsien and is interpreted as “in the moisture from the clouds” or “in the rain.” This word, Xsien, is connected to our word for “clouds,” which is Yain. We call the moisture from the clouds Wxsyain. The language is difficult to learn as it requires attentive listening and then working at repeating the sounds. It is still spoken by many people but the literal meanings are lost because it is being spoken by people who think in English and give interpretations of the words that are far from the literal meanings. Already in Chief Johnson’s time, the literal meanings and names of our words were being forgotten.

My grandmother Kathleen Vickers, who was a Kitkatla woman, helped me understand the loss of meaning in language. I once asked her why we use two different expressions for “I don’t know.” It took a long time for her to explain that one expression literally translates as “they are not in my heart” and is used when speaking of people. A different set of words literally translates as “there are so many leaves on the ground I can’t tell which one is which” and is used when speaking of objects. What I have come to understand is that language is a part of our culture, and a greater part of culture is our relationship to our environment. Know the environment and you will have an understanding of the culture.

Xsien (Cloudwaters)

IMBERT ORCHARD: What is the Native name for the Skeena River?

CHIEF JOHNSON: The Skeena is, in the old language, they called it Xsien. Xsien. And the meaning of that is “the juice of the clouds.” That’s Xsien.

Do you know that cloud, or the fog comes from the water, isn’t it? Well, that fog is letting the water out in the Fall. Well, that means “the juice of that cloud” or “a fog” makes the river stronger.

I’ve been trying to get this Xsien for a long time with the olden people, you know. Some of them said different things altogether, and I don’t [feel] satisfied with that. And I went to another man and asked him, “What’s that meaning of that Xsien?” Well he said this and that, you know. It doesn’t seem to me [it] would be true. And at last there’s an old woman down here, Kitkatla. That’s the woman that explains the name of the Xsien.

Because those people they were up this side Kitwanga [Gitwangax]. They used to live there for fall-time, making food for the winter, you know: berries and fish and all things like that. And after the fall fishing for them, they went home. So that’s how they know everything in the old language up there.

River of Mists Fur Bearers

In those times before the white men came in, they made their own traps for wood. They were trapping something like marten, and fishers, and the bear, they used a snare to kill the bear. No gun, no nothing. And what they do with the skin, they tan it and make coats out of it, out of those martens and other things. And mountain goat; they used snares for that. And they used the meat and they used the skin too. They tanned that skin of the mountain goat and used it as a blanket. And it’s very, very warm blanket, better than the Hudson’s Bay’s. Heh heh.

And when the white mens came in: the Hudson’s Bay peoples was the first people, and then the churches, missionaries. As they call it now, United Church, it’s the first church that came to the Skeena. And then the Anglican, and then the Salvation Army. Those three. And then churches they have further up toward Smithers, in Moricetown, it’s all Roman Catholic. And then from Hazelton this way is United Church and Anglican and Salvation Army.

St. Mary Magdalene in the Wet’suewet’en Village of Hagwilget Old Ways Are Forgotten

And besides that it was smallpox. I forget what year it is when the people cleaned out down the Skeena, and there was very few people left when I was a little boy. Not many young people, not many older people, because of that disease was cleaned the people out.

They say the Hudson’s Bay taking the freight up to go to Babine and it came so late in the fall and it stored in the store at Hazelton, those stuff that had to be shipped in around Babine. That’s how the smallpox starts: any of these people buying sugar, because they like that sugar at that time, you know. Not many before. So they buy those sugars, and that’s where the diseases comes and spread among the people and cleaned the people out. That’s the time of the Hudson’s Bay. They don’t like to say anything about it because they’re scared of the law. They don’t know what to do or what to say in regards to this, you know. They just kept it down because they can’t fight it. They can’t do anything because they don’t know how they can handle it to the law.

Now before that, when the people lived before the white people came in, and there’s nothing for them to do for a living except what they made by themselves. There’s no vegetables until the Hudson’s Bay came in and brought in the seeds of potatoes. The store man, he said, “It’s a good seed!” He said, “It’s a good seed!”