Haida Gwaii
archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada
Haida Gwaii (; Haida: X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / X̱aayda gwaay, literally "Islands of the Haida people"), previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between 55–125 km (34–78 mi) off the northern Pacific coast in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecate Strait. Queen Charlotte Sound lies to the south, with Vancouver Island beyond. To the north, the disputed Dixon Entrance separates Haida Gwaii from the Alexander Archipelago in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Haida Gwaii consists of two main islands: Graham Island (Kiis Gwaay) in the north and Moresby Island (Haida: T'aawxii X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay linag̱waay, lit. 'south people island half', or Gwaay Haanas "Islands of Beauty") in the south, along with approximately 400 smaller islands with a total landmass of 10,180 km2 (3,931 sq mi). Other major islands include Anthony Island (Sg̱ang Gwaay), Burnaby Island (Sg̱aay Kun Gwaay.yaay), Langara Island (Kiis Gwaay), Lyell Island (Athlii Gwaii), Louise Island, (Ḵ'uuna Gwaay), Alder Island and Kunghit Island (G̱angx̱id Gwaay).
On June 3, 2010, the Haida Gwaii Reconciliation Act formally renamed the archipelago to Haida Gwaii as part of the Kunst'aa guu – Kunst'aayah Reconciliation Protocol between British Columbia and the Haida people.
The previous official name was given to the archipelago by British explorer George Dixon in 1787 after Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the islands are known colloquially as "the Charlottes".
The islands, upon which people have lived for 13,000 years, form the heartland of the Haida Nation. Members of the Haida Nation currently make up approximately half of the islands' population.
The public source identifies “Haida Gwaii” as archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Haida, Gwaii and archipelago.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q210907. VIAF identifies the subject as 157028029. The Library of Congress control number is sh85109795. Authority coordinates are 53.000, -132.000. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 1787.
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This entry incorporates text from “Haida Gwaii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.