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Page last updated August 26, 2003
Gitsegukla is a Gitxsan village at the confluence of the Kitseguecla and Skeena rivers west of Hazelton, with a set of tall, slender totem poles that are distinctive to the place. It also has an interesting old United Church, originally Methodist, with sheet-metal spires, the main one of which has a real "candle-flame" top. The setting is superb, with Mount Roche de Boule in the distance and a variety of village houses along the street. Perhaps only Hagwilget Village near Hazelton, with its Catholic church, St. Mary Magdalen, on the high ground, gives an equivalent evocation of the missionaries and their once-dominant role in the villages along the Skeena. By comparison, the totem poles at Gitanyow and Kispiox dominate their villages. Hagwilget, its church built by Father Morice in 1908, was the "outpost of Catholicism" in the Babine district; the villages to the west along the Skeena were divided between the Anglicans (such as Kitwanga with St. Paul's) and the Methodists (such as Kispiox and Kitsegukla), while some Kispiox villagers who had become members of the Salvation Army founding the community of Glen Vowell in 1898 (Glen Vowell is a very tidy, orderly village, with a large church near the Kispiox River and a very interesting, Victoria- style band administration office, built by local carpenters in the 1970s).
From the United Church of Canada British Columbia Conference Archives: "Presbyterian work in Hazelton began around 1911 and was confined to that town until the following year when New Hazelton came into being as a railway construction center. During the year 1912 the Mission consisted of two towns, New Hazelton and Old Hazelton with headquarters at Old Hazelton. In October of 1912 headquarters of the Mission was moved to New Hazelton where a hall was built in the early summer of 1913. Later on in 1913, owing to many families changing their place of residence from Old Hazelton to other parts of the district it became necessary to close down the mission in Old Hazelton. In 1925 the New Hazelton Presbyterian Church voted against Church Union but it could not get supply. An arrangement was made whereby the United Church took over the work in that community. At that point it was recognized as a United Church. The first Methodist religious services in Hazelton were held in a room over a drug store in 1912. The congregation quickly grew so large that they had to rent the St. Andrew's Hall. Around 1920 St. Andrew's Hall was destroyed by fire. In 1922 Hazelton Methodist Church was built in Hazelton. According to the United Church yearbooks, Hazelton Pastoral Charge has had many different preaching points over the years. Various congregations have moved in and out of the pastoral charge. Today Hazelton Pastoral charge includes Gitsegukla and Hazelton, but for several years in its past history it has included Kispiox, Skeena River, Cedarvale, and Miller Memorial United Church (at Wrinch Memorial Hospital) as well as small preaching points in the area."
The place is also known as Skeena Crossing, due to the GTPR's crossing of the river nearby.
Note on the Gitxsan from the Chief's Page: There are approximately 10,000 members of the Gitxsan nation worldwide, with about 70% living on the traditional territories. The population is young compared to provincial and Canadian statistics with over 70% under the age of 30. Most live in five Gitxsan villages (Gitwangak, Gitsegukla, Gitanmaax, Glen Vowell, Kispiox) and two provincial municipalities (Hazelton, New Hazelton). The Gitxsan people make up about 80% of the total population living on the territories. The remaining population is mostly of European descent. Settlement of the area by non-Gitxsan began around the turn of the century. Gitxsan people have lived on the territory since creation. Western archaeological evidence has so far supported more than 10,000 years of occupation by the Gitxsan. The English translation of the Gitxsan is ÒPeople of the River of MistÓ.
