Kitselas Canyon, the first major constriction of the lower Skeena River, has been an important fishing site for at least 5,000 years. A sedentary village was built about 1000 B.C., when techniques of procuring, processing, and storing large quantities of salmon were well known. Later canyon residents, middlemen as well as fishermen, controlled the flow of trade goods along the river. At the time of first contact with Europeans, perhaps 600 people lived in the villages of Gitlaxdzawk and Gitsaex.