The name Haida comes from their name for people, "Ha-de" or "Xa'ida". The Haida lived on fishing, treading and war-trails. The tribe concisted of several smaller tribes. They had the biggest ocean going canoes on the Pacific North Coast. Today the Haida people still have a strong culture.

The village
The village could contain up to 30 or more rectangular wooden houses. The village was placed in a bay far enough from the sea shore to avoid flooding.
     The Haidas lived in longhouses build of planked ceder wood. In the front of the house they often placed a totem pole, the pole would protect the house from evil spirits. The pole also told a story about the people living in each house. The houses had always the door facing the sea. The houses could be up to 600 feet long and 60 feet wide and contained of one big room, sometimes two. The floor was made of packed earth. In some houses where people of high status lived, the floor was planked. Along the walls were raised platforms to sleep and sit on. The space under the platforms served as storage place.
One family lived in each house. To the family belonged uncles, aunts, cousins and other kinfolk, some families were as big as 100 persons. In each house there was one central fire and one cooking fire for each group within the family. The people living in the houses often gave their home a name. Fore example "Clouds-Sound-Against-It-As-They-PassOver."

Society
As most of the natives, the Haidas believed in the Great Mystery. That means that everything has a spirit. The spirits are everywhere among the people and in the nature and not sitting "above" locking down at the people.
     Each person in the tribe had a specific role. Each tribe had it's leader and respected members such as the master canoe-builder or maker of Whale-killing-harpoons.
     The Haida tribe was split into several clans. People within the same clan could not marry each other. they had to find someone in another clan. The clan system kept the people from worrying about wedding close kin.

Religion
A common tradition among the native Americans were story telling and so also among the Haidas. The stories had a deeper meaning than only to entertain. Through story telling, knowledge was passed on from one generation to the next. It was the Elders how told most stories, they told stories about creation, the animals in the nature, fables, folktales, and about the spirits. Through story telling, knowledge was passed on from one generation to the next.
     In each tribe there was at least one shaman. The shaman was one of the most important people in the tribe. The shamans were the peoples gate to the spirit world. the shamans could protect the village from angry spirit. They could, among many other things, heal the sick through intricated rituals of dance, chanting and sleight of hand. Both men and women could become shamans. The Haidas had rituals for everything, for birth, death, the sun, the earth, hunting, first flower and so on. One of the most important spirits was the Raven. Sometimes the Raven was the good one and some time he was the evil one. The Raven is the animal with the most stories told about.

Building a canoe
To have a sea going canoe was one of the most important things in a Haida tribe. Each tribe had a lot of different canoes, some for traveling, some for warfare, ceremonies and some for hunting. A canoe could be over 30 feet long and carry at least 8 crewmen. The man how could built his large, graceful wooden canoe would be honored in his tribe. The canoes were build in red cedar. The trees were cut down with stone-bladed adzes. The canoe-builder roughly cut out the shape of the canoe, then he used an adzes to carve out the hull of the canoe. By filling the canoe with boiling water it helped soften and shape the wood. When the basic shape was finished the canoe-builder added a separate prow and stern to give it added stability on the open ocean. When the canoe was completed the builder would sand it with scouring rushes and polish it with the rough skin of a dogfish so that it would glide smoothly trough the waves. Finally the builder often decorated the canoe with paintings or carvings.

Cedar tree
The haidas used the cedar tree fore everything. They build their houses and canoes in cedar.They made baskets, hats and mats of cedar bark. From the cedar fibers they made waterproof clothing.

Potlatch
To have a potlatch was and still is a very special ceremony. It's a ritual that didn't only gain one person, but the whole clan. The ceremony was to give the host new status or to confirm his power.
It could take years for the host to prepare a good Potlatch. The host should find a suitable gift for each invited guest, he should find proper ceremonial songs and dances.
     The Potlatch ceremony was a big party with food, drink, dance and singing. A Potlatch could continue for a couple of days. In the end the host should give away his gifts. One to each person.
After this the host could claim his true status, granted to him when his guests accepted the gifts. In return the host would be invited to Potlatches among his friends.

Clothing
The Haida people made their cloths of wooden fibers. They used roots which they softened by washing and split into strips. They also used the inner bark from the red and yellow cedar. Out of these fibers a weaver could create a variety of water resistant garments on her half-loom.
The most elegant clothing was crafted from mountain-goat wool.
Sometimes the Haidas also wore clothes made in fur from for example the bear or cloths made of seautter skin

The white man
The Haidas made their first contact with the white people in 1774, when the spanish explored the Queen Charlotte Islands. In 1778 James Cook arrived to the Canadian north west coast, he traded with the indians and then the chips sailed to China where they sold the goods to a very high price.
     The white peoples entry to the land of the Haida brought many changes, they didn't only bring trading goods, they also brought many new diseases to which the natives had no resistance. Smallpox was one of the diseases that brought many natives to death. One good thing that came with the trading was the iron. With the iron the Haidas could make their weapons and tools more effective.
     The white people where not the least interested by the culture or the living of the indians, they wanted to "civilise" the Haida people and all other indian tribes. This was one of the things that offen started a war. To civilise the Haida people the whites, among other things, forbid them to continue with their Potlach ceremony. But the Haidas found a way around the Potlach ban. They maintained their Potlach customs in secret by calling it a "party".

Haida nation today
Today there are still Haidas living on Queen Charlotte Islands, but many of them are quite pore. There is a major drug problem booth among adults and especially among the children. Many of the children also have problems at home.
But not every one has problems. There are a lot of richer and wealthy people too. Some people work very hard to keep the Haida culture alive, preserve the language, the ceremonies, the dances, the songs and other native customs.
     It is easy to see the past in the art of the Haida people (paintings, carvings). The art today is almost the same as the art 100 years ago. Today you can still see the art everywhere, in houses, on canoes, on cloths and off course in all kind of stores. The main object on the paintings and carvings is different kinds of animals which all has their own spiritual meaning.

Dorothy Grant is a Haida women living today, she is trying to keep the Haida culture alive by among other things sculpturing on cloth.
This is what she says about her people: