'Namgis
/ˈnɑːmɡɪs/noun
A Kwakwaka’wakw Indigenous nation and cultural community centered around Alert Bay, British Columbia.
Did you know?The ’Namgis are one of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, whose ceremonial traditions include potlatches that were criminalized by the Canadian government from 1885 to 1951.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-contact
Kwak’wala
’Namgis
“Traditional Indigenous ethnonym; the precise internal meaning is not securely established in widely available historical sources.”
18th–19th Century
Kwak’wala
N’amgəs
“A recorded variant of the nation’s name in colonial and ethnographic sources.”
19th Century
English records
Namgis
“An anglicized spelling used for the people, territory, and chiefly families associated with the northern Kwakwaka’wakw.”
1885–1951
Canadian English
Namgis
“The community’s cultural practices were affected by the federal ban on potlatches, despite the nation’s continued existence.”
Modern English
English
'Namgis
“The preferred modern name of the ’Namgis First Nation and its broader cultural community.”
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