Kitselas

'people of the Canyon'[1]) are one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, in northwestern Canada.

From the 1870s until the 1960s, many Kitselas and Kitsumkalum Tsimshians lived at the cannery town of Port Essington, farther down the Skeena River (now a ghost town), at the confluence of the Ecstall and Skeena rivers.

Until its dissolution in 2005, the Tsimshian Tribal Council represented Kitselas in treaty negotiations with the provincial and federal governments.

William Beynon and the anthropologist Marius Barbeau recorded traditional information from Kitselas people at Port Essington, B.C., in 1924, including Chief Walter Wright and Chief Samuel Wise, who held the Kitselas Laxsgiik (Eagle-clan) name Gitxon.

Following are the house-groups (matrilineal extended families) of the Kitselas: Detailed narratives were also recorded from Chief Walter Wright (Niistaxo'ok) in the 1930s and collected in a volume called Men of Medeek.

Kitselas canyon in 1910