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British Columbia Tourism Region : Northern BC
Description From Owner:
- Metlakatla - In October 1857 there arrived among the Tsimshian Indians a lay missionary, William Duncan, despatched from England by the Church Missionary Society.
- In 1862, determined to isolate his converts from heathenism, Duncan resolved to found a new, Christian settlement.
- Thus, on May 27th he arrived by canoe with some fifty Indians at Metlakatla harbour the name Metlakatla being a Tsimshian Indian word meaning 'a passage connecting two bodies of salt water.'
- Duncan was a good but eccentric and very strong-willed man. Through his personal ascendancy over the Indians, he created a model community at Metlakatla.
- On the other hand, he quarrelled with his fellow missionaries and with his bishop. He refused to let his Indian converts receive Holy Communion fearing that they would confuse partaking of the body of Christ with the cannibal dancer's biting spectators.
- . In 1887, having received an ultimatum from the Church Missionary Society, he defied both it and Bishop Ridley and, moving with over 800 of his Indians, founded New Metlakatla in Alaska.
- With permission from G.P.V and Helen B. Akrigg 1997 British Columbia Place Names. UBC Press.
Address of this page: http://bc.ruralroutes.com/Metlakatla