Metlakatla North Coast Regional District, British Columbia

Community - An unincorporated populated place, generally with a population of 50 or more, and having a recognized central area that might contain a post office, store and/or community hall, etc, intended for the use of the general public in the region. NW side Venn Passage facing Digby Island, just W of Prince Rupert, Range 5 Coast Land District

Mapped Location

Metlakatla: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on Metlakatla

  • Feature Type: Place

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Metlakatla

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name Description
Metlakatla Official

 

Origin Notes and History of Metlakatla

References to Metlakatla that document the origin of its place name

Metlakatla (village) adopted 11 May 1905. "Metlakatla (not Metlah Catlah, Metla-Catlah, Metla-kathla, Methlakahtla, Metla Catla, nor Metla-Katla)" identified in the 6th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 30 June 1906. Confirmed 3 July 1946 on C.3702. Form of name changed to Metlakatla (settlement) 3 April 1952 on 103 J, and 8 July 1954 on 103 J/8. Subsequently changed to Metlakatla (community).

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

"Metlah-Catlah Bay" and "Metlah-catlah Mission" first labelled on British Admiralty Chart 364, published in 1865 from surveys by Captain Richards, RN, in 1862. Still so-spelled on 1872 and 1878 Admiralty Charts. Spelling adjusted to "Metlakatla" sometime before Metlakatla Post Office was opened 8 October 1889; closed temporarily 1 June 1942; re-opened 5 September 1942; closed 6 October 1951. At the time of the final closing, the post office had been location at the south side of IR2. (original or earlier location(s) not cited).

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

"An adaption of the Tsimshian word "Metla-kah-thla" the Indian name of the harbour and surrounding shores. This word is understood to mean "a passage between two bodies of salt water"; metla (between) and kah-thla (salt) - the latter being a very old word and now seldom used, pronounced soft and long (communicated to the writer in 1906 by Mrs. Odille Morison, an old resident of Metlakatla, and now of Hazelton). The passage referred to joins together Chatham sound and Tuck inlet, on the shores of which passage were the villages of the small bands into which the tribe living there was divided."

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)  |  Province of British Columbia

"The principal home of the Tsimshian Indians before they left it for Fort Simpson [later called Port Simpson, now Lax Kw'alaams] when that post was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1834. The Indians, under the superintendence of Mr. William Duncan, returned in 1862 to the site of their old home, and built there a number of comfortable modern dwelling houses and a large wooden church. In 1863, the schooner Carolina was purchased by Mr. Duncan on behalf of the mission, and was used to carry produce and stores between Metlakatla and Victoria. Owing to untoward circumstances beyond the control of Duncan, this flourishing settlement had to be given up and Duncan, with the majority of the Indians, removed, in 1887, to Alaska, and founded a new mission of the same name, now called New Metlakatla, on Annette Island, which has been equally successful. The large church was destroyed by fire in 1900."

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)  |  Province of British Columbia

"In October 1857 there arrived among the Tsimshian Indians a lay missionary, William Duncan, despatched from England by the Church Missionary Society. In 1862, determined to isolate his converts from heathenism, Duncan resolved to found a new, Christian settlement. Thus on May 27th he arrived by canoe with some fifty Indians at the site for a new town which he named "Metlakatla". Metlakatla is an Indian word meaning "a passage joining two bodies of eater." Here it refers to Venn Passage which joins Tuck Inlet with the sea. William Duncan was a good, eccentric and very strong-willed man. Through his personal ascendancy over the Indians, he created a model community at Metlakatla. On the other hand, he quarelled with his fellow missionaries and with his bishop and, because of some personal quirk, he refused to let his Indian converts receive the Holy Communion. In 1887, having received an ultimatum from the Church Missionary Society, he defied both it and Bishop Ridley and, moving with over 800 of his Indians, founded New Metlakatla in Alaska."

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; 1001 British Columbia Place Names; Discovery Press, Vancouver 1969, 1970, 1973.  |  Province of British Columbia

 

North Coast Regional District

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2023-09-27