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The Haida (Xaadas) are Native American people that belong to the southeastern coast and coastal islands of Alaska. The Haida migrated north from the Queen Charlotte Islands in the late 1600s to Prince of Wales Island and established the village now known as Old Kasaan (Gásaáan), seven miles south on Skowl Arm. It is the only known permanent Haida village on the east coast of Prince of Wales Island. Kasaan gets its name from the Tlingit word meaning “only place that looked good” or “pretty place,” but can be translated as “town on a rock.” Many Tlingit names remain in Southeast Alaska because Tlingits once controlled the area.

The Haida and their northern neighbors, the Tlingit, were among the most aggressive Northwest Coast people. They were known for their fierce sea fighting skills and, according to Canadian anthropologist Diamond Jenness, introducing the totem pole tradition. The Haida and Tlingit both belonged to the larger culture of the Northwest Coast Indians. Descent among the Northwest Coast peoples was traced from the maternal line, and status was based on individual wealth. The status of individuals, and indeed whole villages, was determined by the potlatch, a ceremonial occasion when gifts and food were given away to guests, and which displayed the wealth of the giver.

All Haida people are born either “Ravens” or “Eagles” as determined by the mother’s clan or moiety. Within the moiety are lineages; associated to these lineages are several crests, legends, and Haida names. The Raven and Eagle Clans own and have a right to display certain crests. Samples of the crests affiliated with the Ravens are: Killer Whale, Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, Hawk, Moon, Sea Wolf, Shark and Wolf. Totem pole carvings or grave markers bearing these crests would be found on totem poles in front of the owner’s long house or grave marker.

It is of great importance to show the owner’s status and lineage affiliations with designs. The main crests are utilized for display, personal identity and ceremonial purposes. Art symbols are earned in one’s lifetime, inherited or acquired by adoption. Each carving has a three-part story: the Past, the Present and the Future. The past asks: Where did it come from? Who made it? How old is it? Where has it been? The story of the present applies to the day it was carved and the days leading up to this time, and what it took to get there. Who did this carving and why? What was on his mind as he worked on this carving? How did the carving find its way into the moment? The story of the future of the carving has just begun. Who knows what path it will take? Who knows what future generations will think about as they gaze upon it? As time goes by, the carving will have a story to tell.

The totem poles at Kasaan display both Haida and Tlingit carving styles. In general, totem poles tell clan stories and history, serve as monuments to adorn graves, or hold the dead and their possessions. The three house posts in Chief Son-I-Hat’s Whale House/Náay I’waans show two styles. The two outer posts are identical, with the large faces lending to realistic shape, a key to the Haida style. The center post is predominantly carved in a Tlingit variation of the Northwest Coast style. It has Haida faces peeking out of the ears and nostrils of the creature portrayed. The center pole has a planed and drilled location for the head of a creature whose tail is in the hands of a bird.

The long house was the basic unit of Haida and Tlingit societies. Typically, it was large, square or rectangular, with cedar planks set vertically along the sides and a planked gable roof held up by massive decorated corner posts and equally massive round ridge beams. Inside, the floor was dug for two or more levels of benches. The inside also had separate platforms for sitting and sleeping. The house faced the water, and usually would be in a single line along the beach because of the limited availability of flat land in Southeast Alaska. Each house had an entrance pole incorporated in the front façade or standing a short distance in front of the house. The Whale House/Náay I’waans is an example of the latter practice. Typical of Northwest Coast houses, its main entrance in in the center of the front façade. There is a second entrance at the south end of the east elevation and a smoke hole in the center of the roof. The Whale House and totems are composed of cedar, which has helped preserve them.

The Haida were involved in the fur and potato trade with Russia for 40-50 years before the Russians formed the Russian American Company in Sitka in 1799. From the 1790s through the 1830s, they were in close contact with maritime fur traders from the United States, Great Britain and Spain. The time frame is not certain, but Kasaan resident and Original Kavilco Shareholder, Dexter Wallace was told by his elders that Japanese ships came into Karta Bay to buy dog salmon from Haida fishermen.

There is a substantial amount of written information about the Haida in general, but very few studies have focused on the Kasaan Haida. It appears that the Haida and Tlingit negotiated the Kasaan Haida move to southern Prince of Wales Island peacefully and incorporated each other into their social structures despite linguistic differences. Old Kasaan was a Kasaan Haida village on the north shore of Skowl Bay, on the east side of Prince of Wales Island. The community had seven house chiefs, among them Son-I-Hat, and one village chief, Chief Skáwaal.

The village had numerous totem poles in front of the houses that were in a line along the beach. In the 1870s and 1880s, several epidemics killed many of the residents, including Chief Skáwaal, who died during the winter of 1882-1883.

In 1892 the Copper Queen mine, camp, sawmill, post office and store were built on Kasaan Bay. The mine went bankrupt by 1900, but in 1902 a salmon cannery opened near the mine site. Chief Son-I-Hat decided to move from Old Kasaan to a seasonal camp near the bay, probably because of the availability of jobs for his family members, and the Haida people relocated to this new village, called New Kasaan. The cannery burned in 1907, 1910 and again in 1911, but was rebuilt each season. The cannery operated sporadically until 1953. During this time, Kasaan had a school, three stores, a Presbyterian Church and other businesses. Kavilco Incorporated, the local village corporation, purchased the old cannery buildings and property in 1974 and in 1980 removed the cannery buildings.

In 1900, the census recorded 150 people living at New Kasaan. New Kasaan’s population has never been higher than 150 people, and in the early 1970s was only seven. The 2000 census count was 39, of whom 49% were Native. The 2010 census recorded 49 people, of whom 34.7% are Native.

Chief Son-I-Hat built the Whale House during the 1880s, a traditional long house which became the focus of the new Kasaan Totem Park, established during the late 1930s. Many of the totems left from the old village site were moved to the park in 1938. Remnants of the historical Karta River village and petroglyphs lie north of the city, and the Old Tom Creek village and fort lie south of the city.

The U.S. Forest Service used the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal Program, to provide jobs in Southeast Alaska during the 1930s. The program was used to develop recreational facilities in Tongass National Forest, to create parks for local residents and visitors, and to preserve the Native peoples’ heritage. In several Southeast Alaska communities, the Forest Service hired local Native people to restore or reconstruct traditional Native houses and totem poles. They moved a number of totem poles and pieces from abandoned Southeast Alaska villages, one being Old Kasaan, to Kasaan. The poles were either repaired and refurbished or copied by carvers. Linn A. Forrest, an architect for the Forest Service in Alaska led the effort. CCC funds paid for more than 200 Native carvers and laborers to restore and replicate Tlingit and Haida traditional houses and totem poles. At Kasaan, the Whale House and totem pole moved to the community by Chief Son-I-Hat at least 35 years earlier were in need of repair. They were documented and restored as part of the CCC program. Eight totems were moved from Old Kasaan to New Kasaan. The men who restored the building and totem poles were the children who had moved at the turn of the century to New Kasaan, including Felix Young, Peter Jones, Walter Young, and Chief Son-I-Hat’s son James Peele. The CCC created the park at Kasaan.

The current historic district includes two distinct cemeteries. The north cemetery has some of the oldest burials, including one of Chief Skáwaal’s sons. His grave is marked with a killer whale fin. Chief Frank is also buried in the older cemetery, and his grave is marked by an animal figure that rotates. Chief Son-I-Hat is buried in the southern cemetery. The southern cemetery has a number of ornate, upright marble headstones. In all, there are not more than 50 graves. A trail, cut by the CCC, starts at the west end of the Village of Kasaan, goes through the woods and, in several places, emerges close to the shore. After crossing a wooden bridge over Son-I-Hat Creek, the trail passes the nine free-standing totems and the Whale House. It continues to the southern cemetery and turns north to access the northern cemetery. The land, buildings and totems are owned by Kavilco Incorporated, the village corporation.

Today, Kasaan is traditionally a Haida village, but the population has become mixed, with Haidas, Aleuts, Eskimos and non-Natives. Subsistence activities are a major contributor to villagers' diets. Most villagers participate in subsistence or recreational activities for food sources, harvesting deer, salmon, halibut, shrimp and crab. With the addition of tourism, the mainstays of the economy are fishing, mining and logging.

A large number of photographs dating from the mid-1880s have been located but most of the social and cultural history of the Kasaan Haida have come from interviews with people who had lived in Old Kasaan and unpublished journals.

Sources:
Jones, Sr., Louis. Personal information of lineage and crest designs shared with the Kavilco Board of Directors. March 2, 2012.

McDonald, George F., Dr. "The Haida: Children of Eagle and Raven," Canadian Museum of Civilization http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/haida/haindexe.shtml#menu (accessed October 26, 2011)

Metcalf, P. Richard “Indians of the Northwest Coast.” The New Encyclopedia of the American West. ED. Howard R. Lamar New Haven @ London: Yale University Press, 1998. 538-540

Thompson, Louis A. Chief Son-I-Hat’s Whale House and Totems Historic District. Alaska SHPO. June 11, 2002. This write-up is extensively based upon the National Register nomination.

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Updated March 5, 2018 © Kavilco Incorporated 2003