Nootka island

The name "Nootka" stems from a European linguistic misunderstanding. When Captain James Cook anchored on Nootka Island in 1778, the local Nuu-chah-nulth ("along the mountains and sea") people gestured toward the bay saying nuutkaaa ("to go around" or "circle around"). 

Cook mistook this for the name of the people and the island itself.

Nuchatlaht  (Nuučaan̓uɫ) which translates  to ("people of the mountain" or "people off a mountain"), are a First Nation belonging to the Nuu-chah-nulth  and live on the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada.

The Nuu-chah-nulth , also formerly referred to as the Nootka, Nutka, Aht, Nuuchahnulth or Tahkaht, are fifteen related tribes.  

Nuu-chah-nulth itself meaning is ("along the mountains and sea").

Nuchatlaht territory ("the Ḥaḥahuułi of our haw̓iiḥ"), encompasses the northern and northwestern portion of Nootka Island, extending into  and surrounding inlets off Vancouver Island's west coast such as Nuchatlitz Inlet, Esperanza Inlet, and surrounding waterways.  

For thousands of years, the Nuchatlaht lived in seasonal and permanent settlements across northern Nootka Island. 

The Nuchatlaht First Nation holds full, exclusive Aboriginal title over the 210-square-kilometre area on northern Nootka Island.

The Nuchatlaht people  are a coastal Islands nation asserting hereditary governance over their ancestral lands.