Adopted 2 August 1956 on C.3597. Location corrected 4 September 1958 on C.3797, to the position labelled on BC Lands' map 2C, 1919, and described in BC Pilot, vol 1, 5th edition, 1923, p.325.

Source: BC place name cards, files, correspondence and/or research by BC Chief Geographer/Geographical Names Office.

This area is part of the traditional territory of the Nakwakto (Nak’waxda’xw, Nakoaktok) people, who are members of the Kwakwaka.wakw First Nation. Their main village Ba’as (Pahas), was located at Blunden Harbour, to the SE. The Nakwakto produced some notable artists, including Hiamas, or Willie Seaweed, whose carved poles can still be seen in Alert Bay. The tribe moved to Port Hardy in the early 1960s when the federal government threatened to cut off funding if they remained in their isolated location. The Nakwakto Rapids are the fastest on the BC coast (and one of the fastest in the world), reached 15 knots (27km/h) of a strong ebb tide and caused Turret Rock (qv) in the middle of the rapids to tremble. The duration of slack water is only about six minutes. The rapids were named by RN surveyor Lt Daniel Pender on the Beaver in 1865.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, page 417.

Established name - BA2448; BC Pilot, Volume 1, 1951; B.C. Gazetteer, 1930. [date/edition of British Admiralty Chart 2448 not cited - the Seymour Inlet area is not compiled on 1872 edition of BA2448, in BC Geographical Names library]

Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database, Ottawa

"(Kah-tsis-illa). Named by Captain Pender, RN, when surveying Seymour Inlet in 1865. After the Indian tribe residing in this neigbourhood from time immemorial. The remnant of this tribe, known to the Indian department by the name Na-kwawk-to, numbering, in 1905, ninety-five souls, their chief named Siwitti, now make their principal residence at Blunden Harbour."

Source: Walbran, John T; "British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: Their Origin and History"; published for the Geographic Board of Canada, Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)

"The current, flowing according to the tide, is exceedingly strong in Nakwakto rapids, the velocity on the ebb at springs is said to attain 20 knots." (Walbran, 1905) "...in the centre of the rapids is Turret Island, against which the tidal stream rushes with great fury.... If it be necessary to proceed through Nakwakto rapids, the turn of the stream should be most carefully watched, so that the vessel may with certainty make the passage during the only 16 minutes of slack water, for at no other time would it be possible to do so with any degree of safety." (BC Pilot, vol 1, 1923)

Source: included with note