The Nuxalk homeland and territory are located in and around Bella Coola. This entire area is particularly rugged, with high mountains rising steeply from the shores of the inlets and along both sides of the narrow Bella Coola valley. Extensive estuaries are found at the mouths of the larger rivers emptying into these inlets and there are lowland areas along the river valleys. This territory provided its inhabitants with a plentiful supply of food and other resources. Because of the area’s abundance, its residents were able to remain relatively sedentary throughout the year, apart from small excursions to seasonal camps to exploit specific resources. Until 1953, Bella Coola was linked to the rest of BC only by trail, air or water. 

The Nuxalk, also known as the Bella Coola, speak a Coast Salish language that is geographically isolated from the rest of the Salishan family and forms a separate division within it.

They wore fur robes, capes, and sometimes caribou skin moccasins, although most walked barefoot. Both men and women wore there hair long and occasionally braided. Personal adornment included necklaces, bracelets, and nose and ear ornaments of shell and bone. Tattooing was also common for both sexes.

Their houses were large, constructed from red cedar, and often built on stilts to accomodate the riverbank slopes and flooding, as well as to provide defense from attacks by raiding parties.

Most travel was by canoe, and the most common type used was a long, narrow spoon canoe, made from a single red cedar tree and used in rivers.

While the Nuxalk shared a common language, culture, and territory, the villages did not form a political unit. Furthermore, there was no ranking of houses within the village.

The Nuxalk worldview holds that Tatau, the Creator, took them from the heavens and put them in ancestral Nuxalk territory. Family ancestors came to the earth in various animal cloaks- the eagle, killer whale, grizzly bear, raven, and others. They believe they are the caretakers of their lands and are part of them. They validate these claims through their songs, dances, names and titles, which have been handed down to them since the first ancestors descended to Nuxalk territory. Nuxalk views on the environment are tied to the responsibilities of being a Nuxalk citizen.

The Nuxalk believed that their first ancestors were so close to the supernatural that virtually all of them were shamans. Later, human beings had much less power, although each, regardless of status, had the potential to receive supernatural power, allowing him or her to become a shaman, a shaman with power from ghosts, or a sorcerer.

Sturtevant, William C., and Wayne P. Suttles. Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 7, Smithsonian Institution, 1990.

“Welcome to the Nuxalk Nation Website.” Nuxalk Nation, nuxalknation.ca/.