Nootka Island

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Nootka Island is an island adjacent to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.[1] It is 534 square kilometres (206 sq mi) in area. It is separated from Vancouver Island by Nootka Sound and its side-inlets.

Europeans named the island after a Nuu-chah-nulth language word meaning "go around, go around". They likely thought the natives were referring to the island itself. The Spanish and later English applied the word to the island and the sound, thinking they were naming both after the people.[2]

In the 1980s, the First Nations peoples in the region created the collective autonym of Nuu-chah-nulth, a term that means "along the outside (of Vancouver Island)". An older term for this group of peoples was "Aht", which means "people" in their language and is a component in all the names of their subgroups, and of some locations (e.g. Yuquot, Mowachaht, Kyuquot, Opitsaht etc.).

See also[edit]


Coordinates: Names 49°44′35″N 126°46′10″W﻿ / ﻿49.74306°N 126.76944°W﻿ / 49.74306; -126.76944