Ligeex

Ligeex (variously spelled: "Legaic" etc.) is an hereditary name-title belonging to the Gispaxlo'ots tribe of the Tsimshian First Nation from the village of Lax Kw'alaams (a.k.a. Port Simpson), British Columbia, Canada. The name, and the chieftainship it represents, is passed along matrilineally within the royal house (a matrilineally defined extended family) called the House of Ligeex. The House of Ligeex belongs to the Laxsgiik (Eagle clan).

Ligeex is considered to be traditionally the most powerful Tsimshian chieftainship. In the period of early European contact, Ligeex controlled Tsimshian trade with peoples up the Skeena River, a privilege he protected through tribute and through war if necessary. His position was eventually weakened as the Hudson's Bay Company rose in influence through the fur trade in the nineteenth century.

The name Ligeex is conventionally described as being of Heiltsuk linguistic origin and as meaning Stone Cliff. Tradition holds that the House of Ligeex is an offshoot of another Gispaxlo'ots Laxsgiik house, the House of Nis'wa'maķ. This is one of the Gwinhuut houses deriving from migrations from Tlingit territory in what is now Alaska. A woman from the House of Nis'wa'maķ was kidnapped by -- and wedded to -- a Haisla chief from Kitamaat, to the south.

She was subsequently kidnapped from Kitamaat by a Heiltsuk chief from Bella Bella, even farther south, who took her as his wife. She bore him a son, who inherited from his father, the Heiltsuk chief, the name Ligeex. When the woman and her son were allowed to return to the Gispaxlo'ots, her son retained the name "Ligeex," which was passed through the family's maternal line. It gradually came to stand for the hereditary chief.

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