Heiltsuk

The Heiltsuk, historically called the Bella Bella, are an Indigenous people of the central coast of British Columbia, centred on Bella Bella. Archaeology on nearby Triquet Island traces their ancestors back more than nine thousand years. Several tribal groups coalesced at Bella Bella during the nineteenth century, and their Heiltsuk language is a Northern Wakashan tongue.

Organized into ranked families, they lived from seasonal rounds centred on permanent winter villages, built clam gardens and cedar houses, and were famed for canoe making, ceremony and the potlatch.

Their first likely European contact came in 1793, and the name Bella Bella dates from 1834. In the maritime fur trade they became skilled middlemen and shipbuilders, though disease and rivalry with the Haida sharply reduced their numbers. From 1832 they settled at McLoughlin Bay beside Fort McLoughlin, founding the Bella Bella community.