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upper Nass, and Nees-laranows, of the Gitlaen tribe of the Tsimsyan; 
among the Gitksan, they are: Malee or Nees-laranows, of Gitwinlkul, 
and Kleem-larh®, of Kispayaks. 
The family traditions as recorded among these various branches of 
the clan enable us to reconstruct their history at least in its outlines. 
Their remotest remembered ancestor belonged to the Tahltan nation,^ 
at the headwaters of Stikine river to the north, and was born in the 
Larhwiyip country still occupied by the Tahltan. 
After a war between the Wolf and the Eaven phratries, at a place 
named Dehldaan, he took to flight down the Stikine, with his relatives 
embarked in six canoes. These fugitives spent a winter at a place named 
Hlaranus, a Tlingit term, and then proceeded to Stikeen, a point where one 
of their members settled with his family. The others joined another party 
of fugitives at Na'a (near the present Port Chester), and travelled 
southwards until they reached a stronghold of the Wolf people at Tongas, 
among the west coast Tlingit. Some of their members decided to join 
the Tongas tribe in permanence; others, in four canoes, continued on 
their migration southwards. Two canoe loads proceeded up Nass river, 
and the last two journeyed down to the coast Tsimsyan country’', where 
they became members of the Gitlten tribe." 
The two households which the Nass lliver branch of this clan estab- 
lished on the upper Skeen a soon encountered adversity, through a feud 
between Ka-ugwaits and Keeshje, their leaders. Ka-ugwaits, after his 
house was destroyed, took to flight, and ascended Kispayaks (Kispiox) 
river^ to its head. Thence, lie went beyond and founded a new home at 
the Dr^'-prairie (Gifa7igivalk ). One of his successors at a later date joined 
the tribe of the People-of-the-foothill-trail (Kaksparh-skeet ), now the 
Gitwinlkul, then living much farther north on the Grease Trail than at 
the present time. His direct heirs now are Malee of Gitwinlkul, and 
Kleem-larhae and the subsidiary houses of Kispayaks. 
Keeshie, the head of the opposite household, meanwliile sojourned 
at Place-of-snat (a small shrub),'* on Kispayaks river. One of his nephews, 
Mukweluks, after a time migrated to the Nass and settled at Gitlarhdamks. 
Skateen, the present head-chief of this tribe, is his foremost descendant. 
He himself moved down the river, to Temlaham; and his heirs now live 
at Gitenmaks (now Hazelton). Thus we have, roughly, the course of 
events which, according to tradition, have led to the present diffusion of 
the clan. Some of the families within the clan became further split up in 
modern times, and spread to other tribes, as we will see later, when des- 
cribing their individual totem poles. 
Spawrh owns a single totem pole, which now stands in tlie Indian sec- 
tion of Hazelton. Another may have stood in commemoration of a member 
of this family, in the older village. 
‘Of the Athapascan linguistic stock. 
^Iie traditional account of these migrations was recorded among the coast Tsimsyan. The following, which 
concerns the Gitkaan and Nisrse branches of this clan, was obtained among the Gitksan. 
“A tributary of the upper Skeena. 
‘Sransnat. 
