The Bella Coola Tribe History often referred to as Nuxalk were known as Bella Coola due to the location where they lived, which was Bella Coola British Columbia. Their homes were along the Bella Coola coastline of Canada and the United States. This tribe was known well for their creation of the totem poles that were carved into an animal which was symbolic of guardian spirits. Within the Nuxalk tribe, you will find four different tribes of Indians which were the Kimsquit, Tallheo, Stoic, and the Kwalhna.

Bella Coola Tribe History

Before any outsiders arrived there were close to 35,000 in the tribe. The smallpox epidemic hit the tribe and decreased the number to around 300. Many of the Bella Coola tribe were pushed out of the area by the Department of Indian Affairs and created a type of reservation which is now known as the Bella Coola Valley but is east of the town known by the same name.

Bella Coola Housing

The Bella Coola Tribe History created homes from red cedar trees and formed them into Plankhouses often built over a large pit that would be home to the entire tribe up to 1,000 individuals. The houses themselves were usually between 20 to 60 feet wide and between 50 and 150 feet in length. The homes did not have windows, but slots in the roofs so fresh air could entire the dwelling. The entrance normally had carvings of totem poles that showed the history, mythology, or the clan of those that called the houses home.

Bella Coola Diet

Due to their location along the coastline, their main food source was fish including rainbow trout, steelhead trout, five types of salmon, Pacific herring, eulachon, cutthroat trout and others. The eulachon was used as a grease and was a very important staple for their food supply. Other items in their diet included land mammals such as the bear, fowl, deer, and mountain goat among others. They also ate berries and hemlock in which they steamed along with skunk cabbage leaves, then pounded and dried which was then blended with the eulachon grease.

Bella Coola Religion

The tribe believed in four or sometimes worlds which included a center world where humans lived, while the supernatural ensured the world where the humans lived would stay balanced, and there were several different deities including the superior one being a female and lived in the sky.

There were also what was called secret societies along with the Soak which was only for children and had to be related to specific chiefs of the tribe. This society had ceremonies in which masks were worn. The Kusiut society was based on their connection with the supernaturals. Ceremonies including dances like the fungus, breaker, scratcher, and cannibal along with songs and masks that only symbolized the supernaturals. Every tribe member had the opportunity to become a Shaman which gave them the power to cure sickness and see the dead. Those afflicted were cured by the ghosts that the Shaman could see.

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