The local group took its name from the name of its main village’s location.
These groups were likely more independent long before the White people came to our shores, but during the time since our history has been recorded in documents, we have been viewed as one people, with one common territory, and one name by which we are all known today. We are Ditidaht, or as we say in our own language, diitiid7aa7tx. Some of us prefer the name da7uu7aa7tx, the name of the original Nitinat Lake people. But today we are best known as the Ditidaht.
Our name for ourselves means ‘people of diitiida,’ as the suffix -aa7tx means ‘people.’ Therefore, when we refer to the names of the individual groups comprising our Ditidaht Nation, we use the name of their original village, plus the suffix ‘people.’ For example, these are the names of some of the original local groups that form the present Ditidaht Nation, and the location of their main village:
tsakkawis7aa7tx ‘people of taskkawis.’
Tsakkawis is located about 500 feet west of the mouth of an unnamed creek located west of the Klanawa River and east of the Darling River. Although the Government agreed to our request that Tsakkawis be set aside as an Indian Reserve, this was never done.
tl’aadiiw7aa7tx ‘people of tl’aadiiwa.’
Tl’aadiiwa, anglicised as “Klanawa,” is the name of an area at the mouth of the Klanawa River, and of the river itself.
tsuxwkwaad7aa7tx ‘people of tsuxwkwaada.’
This site was set aside as “Tsuquanah” Indian Reserve No. 2. It is located on the ocean west of the entrance to Nitinat Narrows.
da7uu7aa7tx ‘people of da7uuw7aa.’
The term da7uuw7aa is used to refer to an area also known as “Iktuksasuk” (anglicised from hitats’aasak), Indian Reserve No. 7, located at the lower end of Nitinat Lake. This Indian Reserve is known locally as “the Flats.” Some Ditidaht people use the word da7uuw7aa to refer also to the entire Nitinat Lake area.
waayaa7ak7aa7tx ‘people of waayaa.’
Known locally as “Nitinat,” waayaa (or waayaa7ak, anglicised as “Whyac”) was one of the largest Ditidaht villages in historic times. Wyah Indian Reserve 3 was occupied until the 1960s.
tluu7uus7aa7tx ‘people of tluu7uus.’
The name tluu7uus refers to a Ditidaht village site and halibut fishing station situated on the ocean shore in Clo-oose Bay. It is also known as “Clo-oose” (anglicised from tluu7uus), Indian Reserve No. 4.
wawaax7adi7s7aa7tx ‘people of wawaax7adi7s.’
Wawaax7adi7s is the name of a beach located northwest of Carmanah Point.
kwaabaaduw7aa7tx ‘people of kwaabaaduwa7.’
This name applies to the area now known as Carmanah Indian Reserve No. 6, located northwest of the mouth of the Carmanah Creek
These are only a few of our ancestors’ villages. These are places where they maintained large cedar plank houses that provided shelter and warmth during the wet and dreary West Coast winters. They also had camps situated throughout our territory where they stayed while fishing, hunting, gathering seafood and wild plants, or making canoes. Living well in Ditidaht territory required a thorough knowledge of the location of resources and the times of their availability. Such a strategy developed over many, many years. Our ancestors knew where to go at each particular time of year. We have marked the location of each of these named places on maps and have recorded the use and history of each place. In this way, we have identified about 250 Ditidaht place names.