Prince Rupert, British Columbia

Kanada

Kaien Island (before Prince Rupert)

The Pearl in the background

Prince Rupert was founded in 1910 to provide a reason to lure passengers to ride the new railroad to the West Coast of Canada. This was a pretty typical at that time: to settle the vast country, the Canadian just like the US government gave the railroad barons huge landgrants (free land) and pretty much let them do what they wanted, as long as it got settlers to go west. California is still suffering from the aftermath resulting from the "railroad constitution"

Prince Rupert then (1910)

The town grew living off fishing and lumber. Both industries pretty much died in the 1980's and the town was in danger of withering away. Recently it has received areprieve after a container port was built and, of course, from the cruiseships

and now

We had booked a tour with the title "Mysteries of the First People" and really had no idea what it would be. It turned into a delightful surprise, beginning with a tour of the Museum of Northern British Columbia a small, but excellent museum filled with Tsimshian art and artifacts, much of which had to repurchased from British collectors who acquired it with the help of devout missionaries who convinced the native people that these heathen things were either useless or evil. Sometimes they even paid something for it.

         the pictures here provide a small impression of the treasures stored in the museum. We had a very well done tour, led by a guide who not only explained the meaning of some of the more important artifacts, but also provided an introduction in the history of the First people, their customs and practices.

We did not know it at first, but our guide was a member of the Tsimshian band. He divided us into three groups of honorary Tsimshians - the wolf clan, the eagle clan; and the killer whale clan. Each with a designated clan chief. (I became the chief of the eagle clan) After we finished with our visit of the museum, our guide led us the lodge shown in the picture below, wher it turned out we had been invited to participate in a reeactment of a traditional feast.

The chief invited each of the "visiting clans" to enter the lodge. As the leader of the eagle clan - the least important of the three visiting clans, I fear - I was asked first - in Tsimshian which I, of course did not understand. However, the chief was polite and repeated the invitation in English. The clans were seated behind their leaders - this required a bit of housekeeping since not all the guests quite got it! Once everyone was seated, the chief explained how such a feast was conducted in teh olden days. and the dancing commenced. zuging. The chief is the second from the left with the interesting head gear and the mustache.

The first dance was the eagle down dance. During this dance eagle down is scattered over the guests. This means that as long as the feast lasts, there will be peaceful behavior, regardless of differences that may normally exist between the various clans. I am not sure what the sanctions are for anyone who breaks that ruel, but we did not take any chances and behaved ourselves appropriately.

Raven and other important figures

The final dance told one of the foundation myths of the Tsimshian: A hungry and thirsty stranger came to the village and asked for food and water. But the villagers said they did not have enough for themselves and sent him away. This happened twice and the results were not good. No rains, bad harvest, you get the picture. When the pale stranger came to the third village he was invited to sit down and partake of teh last food and water. As a result, once the stranger disappeared the rains came and the fields were fruitful again.

The pictures above show the pale stranger and the village chief.

Once the dancing concluded we received food - soapberry mousse. It doesn't sound good, but tasted a lot better than one would expect from the name.

 After the feast ended we only had a little time left to look around Prince Rupert and spent a little more time in the museum. We were very sorry that we only had a few hours in Prince Rupert. We would have loved to stay longer in the museum and the people who had treated us so well. The "feast" and the explanations of the customs of the Tsimshians were done to well, we regret we could not spend more time with the Taimshians.

The sunken garden in in Prince Rupert.

But we had to return to the ship and begin the final cruise home to Seattle

Redwoods