Haida

plural Haidas

1. A member of an indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of North America who live primarily in British Columbia and Alaska.

   The first recorded European contact with the Haida was by the Spanish explorer Juan Perez in 1774 at Langara Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Soon the Haida were caught up in the lucrative fur trade, and the time they spent hunting sea otters and other marine mammals greatly increased.

   2003, Sharon Busby, Spruce Root Basketry of the Haida and Tlingit, Lucia Marquand Books, →ISBN, page 109

1. The indigenous language of this people.

   The Haida language, called Skittagetan by Powell, was anciently spoken only on the Queen Charlotte islands off the coast of British Columbia.

   1911, John R. Swanton, “Haida”, in Franz Boas, editor, Handbook of American Indian Languages, Washington, page 209

   Synonyms: Skittagetan, X̱aat Kíl, X̱aayda Kil