The Nuu-Chah-Nulth and the Enlightenment Expeditions to the Island of Nutka

From 1774 until around 1795, the San Lorenzo outpost of Nutka on present-day Vancouver Island served as the northern outpost of the Spanish Empire, as it pressed into Russian and British claims in the Pacific Northwest. During this period a maritime mission commanded by Juan de la Bodega y Quadra visited Nutka, accompanied by two members of the Royal Botanical Expedition: the botanist José Mariano Mociño and the draftsman Atanasio Echeverría. Mociño learned the local Tlingit language so as to communicate with the indigenous population about botanical, ethnographic, linguistic, and political matters. The results of these investigations would be published in Noticias de Nutka (1793). Despite the attention to Mociño’s work, little attention has been paid to his informants. Of particular importance were the Nuu-chah-nulth chiefs, Macuina and Quelequem. This presentation examines the roles of the Nuu-chah-nulth as informants, along with the information-gathering methods employed by Mociño and other explorers to the region.