Haida

The Haida homeland is Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, and the southern half of Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. Their language is an isolate. They were skilled carvers of red cedar, seamen and traders. In the early eighteenth century Haida from southern Haida Gwaii crossed north and settled beside the Tlingit as the Kaigani Haida.

Juan Pérez met their canoes in 1774. George Dixon opened the sea-otter fur trade with them in 1787, and the Haida stayed at the centre of the China sea-otter trade for decades, capturing ships such as the Eleanor and the Susan Sturgis in conflicts with traders between 1780 and 1830.