User talk:Marijkev11/sandbox

Hi MJ! Great article, sweet to see how much information is covered!

Here are a few formatting edits to suggest:

First sentence: "S'G̱ang Gwaay llnagaay [remove comma] is the Haida name for Anthony Island, where the village [which village? provide more context] is located and means "Red Cod Island". During the late 18th and early 19th centuries [add comma] the village was referred to as Koyahs or Coyahs, also rendered Quee-ah, after the chief at the time, Koyah. The name "Ninstints", also spelled "Nan Sdins," was the name of the most powerful [village] chief in the mid-19th century and came to be used as the village's name [add comma] as a result of the practice of ship captains to refer to villages by the name of the headman or chief at the location.[2]

The village was the southernmost [remove "of"] Haida village, [remove "being just west of and"] facing Kunghit Island, the southernmost island in the archipelago. Early records of Haida testimony recorded by John R. Swanton place the number of [village] long houses at twenty.[3] S'G̱ang Gwaay llnagaay is the earliest recorded village in the southern archipelago.[4]

Larger Kunghit Haida villages had as many as twelve or more longhouses, each which housed approximately [do you mean people, not villages?] thirty or forty villages, with village populations ranging from less than two hundred to more than five hundred.[3] One of the chiefs, named Ninstints, whose English name was Thomas Price, was a noted and [replace "highly artistic" with skilled] carver of Haida art, notably in Haida Argillite Carvings.

S'G̱ang Gwaay llnagaay today features the largest collection of Haida totem poles in their original locations, many celebrated as great works of art [cite here?], though they are being allowed to succumb to the natural decay of the [remove the word "lush"] temperate rainforest climate. Images of the ruins of S'G̱ang Gwaay llnagaay are emblematic of Haida culture [remove "and of Haida Gwaii"] and are featured in tourism promotions for the islands [add comma] and the province at large. The site is extremely remote, and access[ible] only by sea or air from towns in the northern part of the islands. To protect the valuable Haida Heritage Sites, the Haida operate a Watchmen program, stationing Haidas at traditional village sites within Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site to ensure that visitors are acting in an appropriate manner and maintain a presence on their traditional territories.[5]

History[edit | edit source] Ninstints was the location of several episodes in the early history of white contact with the isles [unclear sentence, perhaps edit]. During the maritime fur trade era [add comma] the village was visited in 1787 by George Dixon, [in] 1788 by Charles Duncan, and twice in 1789 first by Robert Gray then by Gray's partner John Kendrick.[2] It is thought that Koyah's humiliation [what was his humiliation? provide context] by Kendrick in 1789 and 1791 is thought to have hurt his prestige in Haida society and resulted in the rise of the Ninstints lineage by the mid-19th century. Koyah was probably killed during an attack on the sloop Union, under John Boit, in 1795.[2]

Ninstints was greatly reduced by the smallpox epidemic of 1862. The population continued to decline due to other introduced diseases [such as...]. Sometime around 1885 the [replace "remnants" with "the remaining Ninstints people"] of the Ninstints people abandoned the village and moved to Skidegate.[6]