In several locations
along northern Hunter Island, our ancestors built “lookouts” – small settlements situated on higher ground with good views outward to the ocean. In this way, people could see friends and foes approaching from a distance. Based on our archaeological investigations, lookout sites were first occupied in Húy̓at about 1500 years ago, but oral traditions speak of potentially more recent conflicts.
"That was a story that I'll always remember. Stories about Húy̓at that during the war, raiding parties that would come in, they knew where to go hide or disperse and nobody could find them. They knew, I guess that's why they had those lookouts, to see who was coming so they could disperse. The way I heard it told was that when the raiders came in, like either from the Queen Charlotte Islands or Tlingit, they would go to another community and then they would get somebody to guide them to where the villages were in around Bella Bella. So they knew where. They didn't have to look. They just knew where to go from the information from the other people that were captured."
- Gvágva̓u Steve Carpenter
View from lookout site in Jane Cove. This site, with two terraces that could accommodate multiple houses, is approximately 15 meters above sea level. This height afforded the occupants an unobstructed view out to Lama Pass so they could keep an eye out for friends and foes that may have been approaching.
