Abstract

This paper explores some of the results of the Gingolx Heritage Restoration Project, a multi-year research/conservation project on the lower Nass River, near the Nisga'a village of Kincolith (Gingolx). Kincolith was established in 1867 by Christian missionaries to whom traditional Nisga'a burial practices were seen as pagan. In addition, the missionaries began converting, baptizing, and re-naming the local converts according to the protocol of the British Church Missionary Society. In essence, a Victorian patrilineal system of record keeping and kin reckoning was imposed on the residents of the community, one which continues to this day. However, in traditional Nisga'a society, descent, inheritance, kin recognition, and rights of possession are centered around matrilineal clans organized into larger phratries. The stylistic, temporal and spatial distributions of the Gingolx Cemetery grave markers provide an interesting window into the organization of traditional Nisga'a culture and how that may have changed over time.