Haida Gwaii: The Islands of the People

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a) Introduction A small archipelago off the northwest coast of Britsh Columbia is known as the “islands of the people.” This island is diverse in both land and sea environment. From the 1700’s when the first ship sailed off its coast and a captain logged about the existence, slow attentiveness was given to the island. Its abundance, in both natural resources physical environment, and its allure in the concealed Haida peoples, beckoned settlers to come to the island. Settlers would spark an era of prosperity and catastrophe for the native and environmental populations. b) Physical Characteristics of Environment Haida Gwaii is composed of many small islands consisting of a multitude of inlets, rivers, and beaches (Dalzell 13, and Horwood and Parkin 13). These, more than 150, islands create an isolated archipelago totalling in approximately 9940 km2. Freshwater systems, inlets, waterways, rivers, and lakes are scattered throughout the islands (www.gohaidagwaii.ca). Areas, such as the Skidegate Inlet, between the lowland Graham Island and the narrow, steep-sloped Moresby Island, provide broad view of the landscape (Horwood and Parkin 52). The 100 km wide (www.gohaidagwaii.ca), Hecate Strait, dividing Haida Gwaii with the mainland, is shallow and temper-mental with shallow areas, huge waves, rock overfalls, and tide rips (Dalzell 14). The west coast of the islands is on the edge of a continental shelf created by ancient volcanic movement (Broadhead 5) .This volcanic activity is due to plate tectonic movement which also created the numerous amounts of earthquakes on the island. Compared to the rest of British Columbia, Haida Gwaii has the most earthquake activity (Broadhead 5), the last of which being in a magnitude of 7.7 on t... ... middle of paper ... ...Economic Trends in Communities on Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) Affected by the Creation of a Haida Heritage Site & National Park Reserve in Gwaii Haanas (South Moresby). Skidegate, B.C.: Queen Charlotte Islands Museum, 1995. "Cultural History." Go Haida Gwaii. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. Dalzell, Kathleen E. The Queen Charlotte Islands, 1774-1966. 1st ed. Vol. 1. Terrace, B.C.: C. M. Adam, 1968. Fisher, Robin. Contact and Conflict: Indian-European Relations in British Columbia, 1774-1890. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 1977. Horwood, Dennis, and Tom Parkin. Haida Gwaii: The Queen Charlotte Islands. 3rd ed. Surrey, B.C.: Heritage House, 2000. Books.google.ca. Takeda, Louise, and Inge Røpke. "Power and Contestation in Collaborative Ecosystem-based Management: The Case of Haida Gwaii." Ecological Economics 70.2 (2010): 178-88.

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