Metlakatla First Nation

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Metlakatla First Nation is a band government based at Metlakatla on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada, to the north of the city of Prince Rupert. They are a member of the Tsimshian First Nations treaty council.[1]

Chief and Councillors[edit]

Position Name Term Start Term End Reference
Chief Harold Leighton June 15, 2007 May 31, 2010 [2]

BC Treaty Process[edit]

In the British Columbia Treaty Process, the Metlakatla First Nation in Stage 5.[1]

Demographics[edit]

INAC number 673, the Metlakatla First Nation has 794 members.[3]

DNA testing[edit]

In 2013, anthropologists from the US and Canada conducted a mitochondrial DNA mapping study on the 5,500-year-old remains of a woman found on Lucy Island, B.C., and conclusively determined that she had genetic links with living relatives from the Metlakatla Nation: proving that the Metlakatla have been living in the region for over 200 generations.[4]

In November 2016, a study published in Nature Communications linked the genome of 25 Indigenous people who inhabited modern-day Prince Rupert, British Columbia 1000 to 6000 years ago with their descendants in the Metlakatla First Nation. The study validated the oral history of the Metlakatla, which had maintained their presence in the region for thousands of years.[5][6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Tsimshian First Nations". Executive Council of British Columbia. 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
  2. ^ "Metlakatla Governance". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
  3. ^ "Metlakatla". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2009.
  4. ^ Living People Linked to 5,500 Year-old DNA
  5. ^ Mortillaro, Nicole (November 22, 2016). "Science is finally backing up what First Nations oral tradition has been saying for centuries". CBC News. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
  6. ^ Lindo, John; Huerta-Sánchez, Emilia; Nakagome, Shigeki; Rasmussen, Morten; Petzelt, Barbara; Mitchell, Joycelynn; Cybulski, Jerome S.; Willerslev, Eske; DeGiorgio, Michael (November 15, 2016). "A time transect of exomes from a Native American population before and after European contact". Nature Communications. 7: 13175. doi:10.1038/ncomms13175. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 5116069. PMID 27845766.