page_title: Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
section_title: Kwakwakaʼwakw
hierarchical_section_title: Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast / List of nations / Kwakwakaʼwakw
caption_attribution_description: العربية: صورة إدوارد كيرتيس Edward Curtis photo of a Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch. Čeština: Indiánská slavnost (Foto E. S. Curtis, kolem 1900). English: Edward Curtis photo of a Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch with dancers and singers. Kwakwaka'wakw people in a wedding ceremony, bride in centre. Photo taken by Edward Curtis, 1914. Film footage of this same event was used in Curtis' feature film In the Land of the Head Hunters Français&#160;: Photo d'un potlatch Kwakwaka'wakw, Edward Curtis. Hrvatski: Potlač Kwakwaka'wakw Indijanaca. 日本語: クワキウトル族のトーテムポール. クヮクヮカワク族のポトラッチ。. Latina: Homines Kwakwaka'wakw (olim Kwakiutl appellatis) apud potlatch, praestationem et rem culturae; photographum ab Eduardo Curtis factum. Русский: Свадебная церемония в племени квакиутл, невеста в центре. Фотограф Эдвард Кёртис, 1914. Kiswahili: Edward Curtis, picha ya sherehe ya Kwakwaka’wakw.
context_page_description: The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities, but they share certain beIiefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term Northwest Coast or North West Coast is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of what is now called British Columbia, Washington state, parts of Alaska, Oregon, and Northern California. The term Pacific Northwest is largely used in the American context.
  At one point the region had the highest population density of a region inhabited by Indigenous peoples in Canada.
context_section_description: The Kwakwakaʼwakw are an indigenous people, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the mainland. The autonym they prefer is Kwakwakaʼwakw.  Their Indigenous language, part of the Wakashan languages family, is Kwakʼwala. The name Kwakwakaʼwakw means "speakers of Kwakʼwala". The language is now spoken by less than 5% of the population—about 250 people.  Today 17 separate tribes make up the Kwakwakaʼwakw, who historically spoke the common language of Kwakʼwala. Some Kwakwakaʼwakw groups are now extinct.  Kwakʼwala is a Northern Wakashan language, a grouping shared with Haisla, Heiltsuk and Oowekyala.
caption: Kwakwakaʼwakw people at a wedding ceremony in 1914
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