Dr. George F. MacDonald
The Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) have fascinated all who have visited them, from the first travellers and explorers of the late eighteenth century to the anthropologists of the present. To early visitors the Haida presented a culture, complex in social organization and rich in artistic expression, which displayed a fine and fulfilling balance between man and the natural and supernatural worlds. With continued exposure to the pressures, both spiritual and material, of European culture this balance was disrupted, and the traditional Haida way of life came close to extinction. Today, however, the Haida regard their future with hope, bolstered by recent developments that hold great potential for reinforcing their cultural revival.