![]() We provided the ships with daily supplies of fish, as well as water, wood, oil and furs in trade for metal, a rare material of great value to us.” “The month-long visit of the Cook expedition in our territory established an economic and political relationship. This meant that we constantly had to be with the ships to prevent any trespass by our neighbours. We considered the ships as drift on our waters, and according to the traditional ownership rights of our chiefs they were under our control. “The Cook expedition ships did not come in the direction that our chief was beckoning but instead chose an anchorage that was distant from our villages but still in our territory. The words somehow became the name that was applied to us by the outsiders, the Nootka. “In our history, the words that the chief was calling out were ‘nu.tka.?icim, nu.tka.?icim, nu.tka.?icim,’ which translates into English as ‘sail around.’ Of course, there was misunderstanding as the newcomers did not understand our language. “When the two ships from the Cook expedition arrived at the end of March, the beach keeper from our village went out in a canoe to greet the newcomers, standing up in the canoe and with his best oration welcomed the ships to our territorial waters and invited them to come to the harbour in front of our village. The arrival of the Cook expedition is remembered in the traditions of the Mowachaht and Muchalaht people and described by Chief Mike Maquinna, in a paper presented at the Anchorage Museum, March 15, 2011: At the time of contact, the Mowachaht and Muchalaht had numerous villages located throughout the region to which people traced their origins.Īrcheological research has dated the occupation of Nootka Sound to more than 4,000 years ago. Nootka Sound is the traditional territory of the Mowachaht/ Muchalaht First Nation. It examines two features of this encounter in particular: rights of ownership and the nature of trade, including the collecting of “curiosities.” It evaluates the identification of the people and their villages as well as the interactions between these people and the crews of the two ships during their one-month stay in April 1778. This essay focuses on the descriptions and drawings of the Indigenous people of Nootka Sound and the artifacts collected from them that constitute the Cook expedition record. ![]() The third voyage of Captain James Cook to the Northwest Coast of America in 1778 and the reactions of the Indigenous Peoples of the region did much to set the stage for these later developments. In the late 18th century, Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island was the centre of international diplomacy and the commercial maritime fur trade in the north Pacific. The excerpt forms part of Arctic Ambitions: Captain Cook and the Northwest Passage, an illustrated anthology commemorating Cook’s exploration of the Northwest Coast and Bering Strait in 1778-79. Museum anthropologist Richard Inglis, offers a close study of records and logs kept by Captain James Cook and members of his crew during their month-long sojourn at Nootka Sound in 1778. ![]()
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