[2] The name is a reduced form of [naːsqaʔ], which is a loan word from Tongass Tlingit, where it means 'people of the Nass River'.

[5] This might include razor clams, mussels, oysters, limpets, scallops, abalone, fish, seaweed and other seafood that can be harvested from the shore.

The grease of the oolichan fish (Thaleichthys pacificus) is sometimes traded with other tribes, though nowadays this is more usually in a ceremonial context.

The heads of a type of cod, often gathered half-eaten by sharks, are boiled into a soup that, according to folklore, helps prevent colds.

Prior to the mid-twentieth century, around three or four extended families might live in one house; this is nowadays an uncommon practice.

[citation needed] Prior to European colonization, men wore nothing in the summer, normally the best time to hunt and fish.

As part of the settlement in the Nass River valley, nearly 2,000 km2 (770 sq mi) of land was officially recognized as Nisga’a, and a 300,000 dam3 (240,000 acre⋅ft) water reservation was also created.

The land owned collectively is under internal pressures from the Nisga'a people to turn it over into a system of individual ownership.

It contains many historical artifacts of the Nisga'a people returned after many decades in major museums beyond the Nass Valley.