Laxsgiik

The Laxsgiik (variously spelled) is the name for the Eagle "clan" (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast Alaska. It is considered analogous or identical to identically named groups among the neighboring Gitksan and Nisga'a nations and also to lineages in the Haida nation.

The name Laxsgiik derives from xsgiik, the word for eagle in the Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a languages.

The chief crest of the Laxsgiik is the Eagle. Beaver and Halibut are also common Laxsgiik crests.

Tsimshian, Gitksan, and Nisga'a matrilineal houses belonging to the Laxsgiik tend to belong to one of two groups, the Gwinhuut and the Gitxon.

The Gwinhuut (meaning literally "refugees") are according to tradition descended from migrations from the Eagle-clan peoples of the Tlingit nation in what is now Alaska. Gwinhuut houses are more numerous than Gitxon ones, and they are related to various Tlingit Eagle groups. All Gitksan Laxsgiik are Gwinhuut, as are most Tsimshian and Nisga'a Laxsgiik houses.

Gwinhuut houses include:

The Gitxon (also spelled Gitxhoon) group mostly claim descent from ancient migrations from the Queen Charlotte Islands, homeland of the Haida nation. Gitxon is popularly etymologized as git (people of) + x (to eat) + hoon (salmon), yielding the meaning "salmon eaters." The anthropologist Marius Barbeau, whose writings are the best introduction to Laxsgiik histories, calls this group's ancestral histories "the Salmon-Eater tradition." Members of the Gitxon group can be found among the Nisga'a, among the Tsimshian tribes of Kitselas and Gitga'ata, among the Haisla nation at Kitamaat, and at Skidegate on the Queen Charlottes. Gitxon houses frequently are headed by chiefs named Gitxon. At Hartley Bay, where the Gitga'ata live, the group is known as the House of Sinaxeet.

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