Chiyone

Chiyone lies in the traditional Tsetsaut country near the head of Portland Canal, where mountainous waterways cross what later became the Alaska–British Columbia boundary. This was not a single town but a network of river valleys, lakes and sheltered channels used by an Athabaskan-speaking people. Their territory included the upper canal around Stewart and the Salmon and Bear rivers, as well as the White River and Meziadin Lake basins, extending toward the upper Skeena and Bear and Sustut lakes. Salmon runs and access between coast and interior gave these places their value.

Nisga’a and Gitxsan neighbours called the Tsetsaut “those of the Interior,” recalling that the people had migrated from farther inland; the term could also describe Tahltan and Sekani communities. Knowledge of Tsetsaut history survives largely in Nisga’a accounts and in recorded language fragments. Estimates placed their population near 500 in 1830, when they were living around the Behm Canal before moving to the Portland Canal. Salmon fishing, hunting and travel by canoe and trail between coast and interior shaped their year.