Split Mountain Adventures takes you from the Skeena region to the culturally rich area of Kitselas Canyon on the Skeena River.
Kitselas Canyon is where the Gitselasu people have inhabited with over 5,000 years of occupation. Kitselas is 15 kilometers east of Terrace and is one of seven Tsimshian First Nations communities on the North Coast.
Amongst longhouses and totem poles, Tour Director Webb Bennett will give his personal insight into the history, culture, and role the Kitselas people played as “toll keepers” to this scenic canyon on the Skeena River. Battles were fought here as the Skeena River was an important trade and transportation link. The narrow passage of the canyon provided economic opportunities to the Gitselasu. Listen to stories of how the Gitselasu met passing tribes at the canyon and the consequences if they did not pay their toll.
Watch and interact with master carvers Dempsey Bob and Stan Bevan and their team of apprentices as they carve a 30 foot totem for the village of Gitaus and two house poles that will be erected later this summer to stand in front of the four longhouses on site. Dempsey and Stan were both students under Freda Diesing, a Haida artist who created a unique art design taught at a Northwest Community College school named in her memory. Each cedar pole tells a story and Webb will teach you the symbolic meaning behind the carver’s design.
Split Mountain is pleased to be the only local tour operator working with the Kitselas Development Corporation to provide this unique experience of First Nations culture. We will make the connection between the pioneers who settled well after the First Nations people and how they interacted. This tour is 2 1/2 hours and we provide transportation to and from Terrace.
What else you can discover:
- four cultural long houses
- the Gitselasu connection to the land, their use of plants, salmon and wildlife
- the meaning of the welcoming totem poles that overlook the canyon
- you can beat on drums and wear ceremonial masks
- examine cedar carved spoons and colourful bentwood boxes (a piece of cedar steamed into a box)
- walk the staircase to a viewing platform above the canyon
- learn how the petroglyphs on Ringbolt Island and nearby archaeological features confirmed the cultural richness of Kitselas Canyon. See a reproduction of the petroglyphs on display in the long houses.
