These expressions include organization into extended family groups, linkage to origin stories, ranking and differentiation in status, ownership of non-physical prerogatives, seasonal movement to harvest resources centred on large permanent "winter villages", sophisticated use of wood, stone and other items, complex ceremonies and elaborate social interactions culminating in the "potlatch".

Rediscovered in recent years by a collaboration between archaeologists and traditional knowledge-holders, clam gardens extend throughout the coast of BC.

The traders complain in some of their records of the Heiltsuk being hard to trade with, passing off land otter skins for sea otter, demanding extra large blankets, then cutting them to standards size for retrade and sewing the extra pieces together to make more blankets.

After White contact the skills of these artisans were turned to the market demand for canoes and boxes.The Heiltsuk experienced significant population loss due to introduced diseases, and conflict.

A war between the Heiltsuk and the Haida involved reciprocal attacks, ending in 1852 with an agreement that has been characterized as a peace treaty.

Like other First Nations on the coast, the Heiltsuk were subjected to repeated attempts of genocide by the colonists, primarily by means of smallpox, which killed the majority of the population.

From this situation arose recognition by the Supreme Court of Canada (in R v Gladstone) of a Heiltsuk commercial Aboriginal right to herring.

This dispute boiled over during the 2015 herring season with the Heiltsuk occupying a Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) office for four days.

These styles most likely originated within individual villages or social groups.Skull imagery is usually associated with the Tánis (Hamatsa) ceremony practised by the Heiltsuk and Kwakwakaʼwakw people.

Young males are initiated into the community during a four-part ritual in which they are symbolically transformed from flesh-eating cannibals, a state equated with death, into well-behaved members of society.

The Canadian federal government, spurred by Christian missionaries, outlawed the potlatch under the Indian Act.

The missionaries saw the potlatch as the basis for Heiltsuk (and more broadly for other First Nations on what anthropologists label the Northwest Coast) social and political organization, and as the most obvious expression of non-Christian beliefs, to which they were opposed.

[25] Chiefs responded by hosting Christmas feasts, where even the most ardent colonist could not stop the distribution of gifts.

While the Heiltsuk continued to practice elements of the feast system in secret, it was not until after the ban that it began to emerge into public light again.

Where once the community was dominated by a strict version of Methodism, by the 1990s the Heiltsuk were once again regularly hosting potlatches, feasts and other ceremonial events.

The Heiltsuk are part of this cultural and political rise, seeing an increase in artists, carvers, singing, and efforts to strengthen and restore the language.

The resurgence of building traditional ocean going canoes is one of a number of cultural and ceremonial practices and technologies that have regained strength among BC First Nations.

[30] This gathering was a major event and part of a wider movement among First Nations to revive and strengthen the traditions of ocean-going dugout canoes.

[32] The Heiltsuk travelled to Masset, Haida Gwaii for a renewal of a peace treaty on September 20, 2014, that dates to the end of the Heiltsuk-Haida wars of the 19th century.

The precedent-setting Canadian Supreme Court of Canada R v Gladstone case found a pre-existing Aboriginal right to herring that includes a commercial component.

This longstanding position was elaborated during land use planning in the 1990s and 2000s but came to a head during the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines proposal and process.

The Joint Review Panel travelled to the Heiltsuk Nation in April 2012 for hearings into the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal.

Facing non-violent protest as part of the greeting at the local airport – the JRP members suspended the hearings for a day and a half.

While the hearings did resume – substantial time had been lost, meaning fewer people could present to the JRP than had planned.

Like Oowekyala (a closely related language spoken by the Oweekeno of Rivers Inlet), Haisla (the language of the people of Kitiamaat), and Kwakwala (spoken by the Kwakwaka'wakw to the south), it is a North Wakashan language.The Heiltsuk were also users of the Chinook Jargon, particularly during the fur trade period.