[4] Historically, the Haisla, along with their neighboring Wuikinuxv and Heiltsuk peoples, were mistakenly identified as the Northern Kwakiutl.

[5] Attempting to bring a new face to the territory, Alcan called it the "town of the future" and changed the spelling to Kitimat.

[7] Kitamaat Village, which serves as the Haisla reserve, is located a 20-minute drive south of Kitimat town.

A canoe crafted by Haisla members of the Kitimat Athlete club holds cultural significance.

Ellis Ross, a notable elected Chief Councillor of the Haisla Nation, played a prominent role in collaborating with major oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) companies.

In the past, the Haisla people were organized into six clans, each named after an animal that held cultural significance for the tribe.

The Haisla people were among the few indigenous nations in northern North America that had a hierarchical class system, comprising noblemen, commoners, and slaves.

Noblemen enjoyed privileges such as participating in secret rituals and having authority over commoners and slaves in labor activities.

This clan system is believed to have been inherited through the migration of Tsimshian women as they integrated with various northern tribes.

It is told that, in 1872, a smallpox epidemic infected the people of the Haisla Nation (located in the north of what we now call British Columbia), killing the vast majority of inhabitants.

The leader of the Eagle Clan of the Haisla tribe, named Chief G'psgolox, lost his whole family due to the epidemic, as well as many of his friends.

There, he met with the spirits Tsooda and Zola, who told the Chief to go to the edge of a mountain at dawn, where he would see his deceased loved ones and learn to heal those still living.

In appreciation of the spirits' help, Chief G'spgolox commissioned a nine-meter-tall totem pole with three figures.

The Norwegian emigrant named Iver Fougner (1870—1947) who chopped down the pole was employed as an Indian agent.

This led to the Swedish government granting permission for the museum to gift the totem pole to the Haisla people in 1994, with the condition that the replica be an exact match to the original.

The Haisla nation also build a historical preservation centre in the Kitamaat Village that would host the original pole.

For many West Coast Nations, the oolichan has been known as the saviour fish, representing fresh food after a long winter.

[9] The process of extracting the fat is to boil the oolichan in large cedar boxes until the grease separates from the meat and rises to the top.

[11] The potlatch began with the introduction of the mass production of goods within indigenous settlements along the Canadian Pacific coast, mainly British Columbia as well as some parts of the United States such as Oregon and Washington.

The potlach word comes from the Chinook jargon that was mainly used for trading purposes in the villages along the Pacific coast of Canada, and it means to “give”.

The potlatch is a ceremony that marks a feast that celebrates a special event such as redressing family dishonor, funerals, births, and marriage.

Indigenous people along the Canadian and US Pacific coast have been practicing these rites for hundreds of years and these ceremonies often last a few days.

[14] The three highest dances are secret, called hai'likula (a word meaning magical or shamanistic) and commoners are not permitted to know the details.

Historically, the Haisla people believed eating dog meat or human flesh was poisonous.

The Haisla language is spoken by the descendants of the Gitamaat and Kitlope bands from the Kitimat area of the northern coast of British Columbia.

Haisla names are written in a phonemic alphabet[16] that allows the language's sounds to be distinguished from that of other indigenous people.