Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound lies just off the west coast of
Vancouver Island, just south of
Nootka Island. Nootka Sound is part of the traditional and current homes of the Nuu-chah-nulth-aht,
or
people all along the mountains and sea,
2 whose language
Captain Cook mistook and anglicized upon his famous visit to the area in 1778.
2Cook was the first European to explore the sound specifically; initially, he called it
“King George's Sound”, but upon later inquiry as to the local name,
Cook somehow confused the Nuu-chah-nulth words for “go around” (“nootka-a”) as the location
name.
3
Yuquot, or Friendly Cove, a place famed politicially and culturally, looks out to Nootka
Sound from the southern shore of
Nootka Island.
- 1. Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Vision and Mission, Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council.
- 2. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 430.
- 3. Ibid.