Haida Gwaii ("Islands of the People") is an archipelago off the northwest coast of British Columbia, Canada, consisting of two main islands, Graham Island in the North, and Moresby Island in the south, and approximately 150 smaller islands with a total landmass of 3,932 sq mi. The islands are separated from the British Columbia mainland to the east by the Hecate Strait. Vancouver Island lies to the south, across Queen Charlotte Sound, while the U.S. state of Alaska is to the north, across the Dixon Entrance.
Haida Gwaii were officially explored in 1787 by Captain George Dixon of the Royal Navy, who christened them the Queen Charlotte Islands for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Consort of Great Britain. On June 3, 2010, the Haida Gwaii Reconciliation Act formally renamed the archipelago as part of the Kunst'aa guu – Kunst'aayah Reconciliation Protocol between British Columbia and the Haida people.
Haida Gwaii in The Two Georges[]
The Queen Charlotte Islands were a group of islands off the north shore of the province of Vancouver near the border with Russian Alaska. Given the close proximity to Russian territory, the Royal North American Navy maintained a large naval base here and the entire archipelago were a military reservation.
The native Haida had been decimated by "white man's diseases" (mainly smallpox) in the 17th century but continued to survive and live on the island and the mainland. Many no longer followed their native traditions, but those who still did lived in Skidegate Village just outside Skidegate proper.
In 1995, Colonel Thomas Bushell's investigation of the theft of The Two Georges brought him initially to Skidegate and then to other parts of the islands.
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