Light rain and the sound of kids singing the Happy Song in Haida filled the air when a new welcome sign was unveiled June 21 at the Hiellen Village Longhouses.
A new sign is one of several changes people will soon see when they drive past the Hiellen River for a stay at one of the cedar longhouses or tent pads at Hiellen Village Longhouses — a campground owned and run by the Old Massett Village Council (OMVC).
Standing on each side of the new sign are two brightly painted “baby” totem poles carved by Lyle Campbell, T’aaw Tlaahl, and a team of four Haida youth.
The poles stand about six feet tall, and Campbell said they were created with children in mind.
“They are really short and stocky and bulky so that kids could actually climb on them and they wouldn’t break,” he said.
The pole on the left features Eagle and Frog, while the other features Raven and Butterfly.
Frog is a sign of prosperity and good fortune, said Campbell, and is a subcrest for many Haida Eagle clans.
In myth time, Raven and Butterfly were often travelling companions, he said, adding that Raven’s buddy Butterfly was known to flit between the physical world and the spirit realm.
Using local red cedars milled by Mick Morrison, Ts’iihlanjaaw, the poles were carved by Campbell with help from Chucky Edenshaw, T’aawjuwee Tlaatsga; Zack Campbell, Ts’ing Hlgangulaas; Brittany Campbell, Gyaa Jaad Laygaas; and Morgan Sampson.
With a chorus of Tahayghen Elementary students led by Ed Davis, Iihlangaa K’adangaa, plus a chili and chowder lunch served by volunteers, the sign unveiling was hosted by OMVC on National Indigenous Peoples Day.
It was also 10 years to the day that the first longhouses opened at what began as a tenting-only campground.
Ivy Bell, the economic development manager for OMVC, says there is a lot more to come.
Bell is leading a $1.1-million upgrade of the campground that will include seven more small cedar longhouses.
The project will also include a new washroom and shower building by the large group longhouse; a series of six-foot wide, wheelchair-accessible boardwalks with bench seating to connect the new and existing longhouses; and four new tent pads that look out through the trees onto North Beach.
The design and prep work was funded with a grant from Coast Funds, while the construction is funded by Indigenous Services Canada’s Community Opportunity Readiness Program. Northern Savings Credit Union is also a supporter.
Bell said rather than hiring a single, off-island contractor to do all the work, OMVC split the project into a series of smaller phases that local contractors can manage.
Bell said her vision is to see the children and grandchildren drive by the longhouses in future and say, “That’s where my chinni worked — he helped build that.”
To help train more local people to take on construction projects, Bell said for the next phase OMVC plans to hire a Haida carpenter who will work with a small team of apprentices on all the longhouse pads. Mick Morrison will lead the construction of the longhouses themselves.
Bell said the four new tent pads are already installed, and will have a short trail leading to them from the main campground to North Beach. OMVC cancelled earlier plans to extend a boardwalk right to the beach because it would cross a wetland.
The new tent areas will open soon, she said, but not before some campfire rings are installed for wildfire safety.
Bells said one of the final touches, once all the new longhouses are in place and the new road loop complete, is to plant some native crabapple trees along the new boardwalks where they could be easily picked by elders.
Lots of crabapples used to grow in the area, she said, which was formerly the site of a large Haida village called Hl’yaalan ‘Lngee.
Bell said the last several years have been challenging ones for the campground. This is the first full tourist season it has opened since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, and last year’s season was interrupted by the need to install new septic tanks.
Crews with Tekton Construction recently finished new water and sewer lines for all the longhouse sites. The campground currently relies on septic tanks alone, but there are plans for a septic field in future.
“We kind of hobbled through last season, but we got a lot of work done,” said Bell, noting that OMVC redid the exterior and interior of the village Welcome House last year, as well as renovated the interiors of the seven original longhouses.
All the work was done by local people, and was funded by a nearly $800,000 grant from B.C. Community Economic Recovery Initiative Program.
The Welcome House, where visitors check in and the caretaker stays, may be next for an upgrade.
“It has a full kitchen, so we’re speaking about maybe having a bistro out there,” Bell said, adding that with a patio and windows onto the Hiellen River, it would be a great spot to enjoy lunch or a coffee.