WELCOME TO
Ksan Historical Village & Kitwanga
‘Ksan is a historical village and living museum of the Gitxsan Aboriginal people in the Skeena Country of northwestern British Columbia.
Found within Gitxsan Territory, Ksan Historical Village stands where the village of Gitanmaax has existed for centuries. It is the desire of Ksan to preserve and truthfully portray the lifestyle of the people who have always lived here.
‘Ksan Historical Village and Museum is located near the ancient village of Gitanmaax, at the confluence of the Bulkley and Skeena Rivers in the community of Hazelton, British Columbia.
For centuries, possibly millennia, Gitxsan’s maintained communities at important canyons and junctions on the Skeena River. This location was an important fishing and transport site.
As a replicated ancient village, ‘Ksan illustrates features of a Gitxsan village from the past. Like its predecessors, ‘Ksan’s houses form a line with each building facing the river. Making the large decorated house fronts and totem poles of the village visible from the water. Along with other features, the smoke house and food cache, ‘Ksan illustrates characteristics typical of a past Gitxsan village.
Kitwanga is the starting point of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. Outstanding carved cedar poles – some more than a century old, are found here, as well as St. Paul’s Anglican Church, built in 1893.
There is recreational salmon fishing (chinook, coho, pink, sockeye and steelhead). The community is governed by a local band office. As of the current census the population of Kitwanga is approximately 480 and is primarily a small town made up of patriarchal families like the Ranahans Harris, fallers Faulkners Daniels and the Spooners.
The totem poles of Gitwangak village are a National Historic Site of Canada, as is also Kitwanga Fort.