The Huu-ay-aht story of the great earthquake of 1700

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The Huu-ay-aht story of the great earthquake of
1700
Steven Earle, Malaspina University-College,
Nanaimo, BC
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Huu-ay-aht territory
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Huu-ay-aht oral traditions

• mythical stories of many kinds (including stories
  of animals with human characteristics and stories
  of magical passages into other places)
• stories of great exploits and wars
• stories of common events such as finding food,
  potlatches and rights of passage
• a story about an earthquake and a tsunami

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Chief Louis Nookmiis(1880-1964)
This is the most important story the Huu-ay-aht
people have
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West Coast Trail
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Nookmiis
Anacla-aq-sop
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Thomas de Suria, 1791
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Nookmiis
Anacla-aq-sop
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TOPATI

• boulder lifting contest
• climbing up a slippery pole
• guessing game with a feather
• long-jump across a ravine

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In the jumping competition the youngest brother
of Nookmiis succeeded in jumping across the
ravine, but in doing so he smashed his head
against a rock and died.
Nookmiis and Analca-aq-sop were married, and she
went to live with him in Kiixin
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kixiin
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Air photo
Kiixin
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Air photo
Anacla
Pachena Bay
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I think it was at night time that the land
shook
They simply had no time to get hold of canoes,
no time to get awake. They sank all at once, were
all drowned not one survived
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I think it was a big wave smashed into the
beach. The Pachena Bay people were lost
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Approximate area of rupture zone
Pachena Bay
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Other evidence of a great earthquake
port alberni
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A tsunami wave hit several locations in western
Japan on January 27th 1700. There is no record
of a corresponding earthquake occurring near to
Japan, or anywhere else around the Pacific Ocean
Based on the time for the wave to cross the ocean
it is estimated that the quake struck at around 9
PM local time on January 26th, 1700.
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According to Chief Louis, everyone living at
Pachena Bay was killed in the tsunami. Anacla aq
sop, who was living in Kiixin with Nookmiis, was
the only surviving member of her people.
The current chief of the Huu ay aht, Spencer
Peters, is a direct descendant of Chief Louis and
of Nookmiis and Anacla aq sop.
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Application of the Pachena Bay story to teaching

• learn about why earthquakes happen
• learn about why they happen here
• learn about the impacts
• tsunami waves
• shaking and destruction
• learn about First Nations culture and history