Colonial Despatches

There are several related features named Nitinat, which is on the southwestern coast of Vancouver Island, including a bar, a lake, a narrows, and a river.

According to Scott, Nitinat is a variant of the older “Nittinaht”, and before that, “Ditidaht”; both names are in reference to the Ditidaht Nation, who are loosely connected to the Nuu-chah-nulth confederacy, despite their lack of membership to the same nation.1 The narrow and shallow entrance to Nitinat Lake, which is actually a saltwater fjord, has a reputation of treachury to mariners to this day.2

• 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 428.
• 2. Ibid.