Laana Ts'aadas — A Public Record
Hereditary Governance, Lineage, and Cultural Authority
What follows is a detailed account of the hereditary governance concerns that have arisen within Laana Ts'aadas. This is a public record, written in the interest of transparency and clarity, for the Haida community and for history. We have been advised by respected elders and cultural knowledge keepers to be transparent about our lineage, our plans and to explain the protocol breaches that have occurred. We have done so carefully and respectfully.
The points outlined below share protocol-based concerns regarding recent leadership claims within our clan. These are not personal disputes. They are matters of hereditary order and cultural responsibility.
In Northwest Coast cultures, in governance systems birth order matters. Lineage matters. Continuity of responsibility matters. With that in mind, the issues are as follows.
1. Hereditary Order
Our clan descends from our Matriarch Edna Jones, who had children from two marriages. This created two distinct branches: the elder branch from her first marriage, the Crosbys, and the younger branch from her second, the Roberts.
In Haida law, hereditary responsibility follows birth order within the elder line unless that responsibility has been relinquished or abandoned through prolonged absence from family and cultural life. The elder branch carries hereditary authority.
Refer to our visual Clan chart here.
2. Claims to Matriarchal Authority
A member of the younger branch began identifying as clan matriarch and attended CHN Matriarch Council meetings representing herself as such. This was never recognized or accepted by the elder matriline. At most, any acknowledgment was limited to leadership within her own branch — the younger branch descending from Edna Roberts through Martha's line. Expanding that claim to represent the entire clan was never accepted. At no point did she or her branch host a feast, potlatch, or any ceremony upholding clan prerogatives.
3. Misappropriation of Hereditary Names
Hereditary names are not individual possessions. They are lineage trusts. Authority to assign them rests with the eldest lineage holders of the appropriate hereditary line. The authoritative record of name placements within Laana Ts'aadas is the clan names document established by Ken Brillon — our clan historian — prior to his death.
Several serious breaches of hereditary protocol have occurred regarding the misappropriation of names reserved for the elder branch.
A high-ranking hereditary name was self-claimed by a member of the younger branch without the consent of the lineage holders. One of our highest ranking matriarchal names — reserved for the eldest branch — was claimed by a member of the younger branch. The elder branch chose to keep peace within the family rather than contest it. That restraint was not recognition, and it does not establish legitimate claim to a name that belongs to the elder line.
The name belonging to Leonard Brillon — which he intends to bestow within the elder branch in accordance with proper protocol — was also claimed and placed onto a member of the younger branch. And the name Dagaay Kii Gaan — already placed by Ken Brillon onto his great nephew of the elder branch — was used in the September 2025 public announcement to identify a chief in waiting, without the consent of the lineage holders to whom it belongs.
Ken Brillon's official clan names document remains the authoritative record.
It is worth noting that the name Kalga Jaad carries layered history. Our Matriarch Evelyn gave this name to her firstborn granddaughter, Erin Brillon, in childhood — as is appropriate by matrilineal protocol. Evelyn understood her name to mean Pearl Girl and she carried it that way her whole life. Ken Brillon's subsequent research, verified in published historical sources including photographic evidence in Haida Monumental Art, revealed Kalga Jaad to be a high ranking matriarch's name within our lineage — Woman of Ice. Ken Brillon's official clan names document from 2009 places Kalga Jaad — Woman of Ice — on both Evelyn and Erin, reflecting his research into the name's historical significance within our lineage. New research brings new understanding. Both the living meaning our grandmother carried and the historical record are part of the name's history. This is how living cultures work.
Reassignment of hereditary names outside the proper hereditary structure — whether through self-claiming, unauthorized documents, or announcements made without consent — constitutes a breach of hereditary protocol.
4. Cultural Revitalization and Upholding Traditional Prerogatives
After several generations in which no ceremonial practice was carried out within Laana Ts'aadas, the elder branch initiated the restoration of our clan's cultural foundation.
Our ancestral territory included Tllgaduu — Slatechuck — the mountain from which all Haida argillite comes.
In the video below, esteemed Haida Chief Solomon Wilson speaks to the territories our clan once held.
In 2022, a Laana Ts'aadas clan feast was hosted by the elder branch in Skidegate — the first in over 150 years. Our clan stood publicly for the first time in generations. Prerogatives were exercised and witnessed.
Photos by Roberta Aiken 2022
In 2024, our clan upheld hereditary responsibility at a potlatch in K'omoks through two marriage ceremonies — again hosted by members of the elder branch. Prerogatives were exercised and witnessed. Names were formalized and protocol adhered to. Marriage obligations were carried out according to traditional law, including bride price and formal repayment. The clan stood publicly.
Many Haidas were present not only to witness but to participate. At the potlatch especially, respected members of the broader Haida community stood with our clan in the absence of internal participation. We knew that certain clan members would not attend, but other Haidas gladly stepped forward to participate as family — in accordance with long-standing Northwest Coast practice where witnessing and support from the wider nation carries weight.
These were not informal gatherings. They were formal acts of governance and cultural responsibility. After several generations in which our clan was unable to uphold these responsibilities, these acts constitute substantive restoration of cultural authority for Laana Ts'aadas.
The memorial pole raising and potlatch on July 11 2026, and the acknowledgment of our Clan Chief, represents the continuation of this work — the next step in a sequence built deliberately, ceremony by ceremony, in accordance with Haida law.
5. Exclusion of Hereditary Successors from Leadership
In September 2025, a public announcement was released stating that "the matriarchs and women held in high esteem of the Laana Ts'aadas clan" had appointed a hereditary chief, with a potlatch to follow at a future date. This announcement was made without the knowledge, consultation, or consent of the hereditary lineage holders of the elder branch. The rest of the clan was not informed until after the announcement had already been made publicly.
This attempt to appoint a chief:
- Deliberately excluded the rightful lineage holders
- Did not follow hereditary succession
- Was made without consultation with or approval from the elder matriline
- Was announced publicly before the clan was informed
As such, these announcements carry no authority under Haida law.
Leonard and Jesse, as hereditary successors by birth order within the elder branch, were excluded from all discussions leading to that announcement.
In Haida hereditary systems it is well documented that succession normally falls first to the eldest surviving brother of the deceased chief. Only in default of brothers does succession pass to a nephew. As Swanton records in Haida Ethnology:
"Normally, the succession falls to the eldest surviving brother of the deceased chief; in default of brothers, to the eldest son of the eldest sister (in Skidegate, the eldest nephew by any sister)."
For Skidegate people, that specific variation takes effect as our clan resided in Skidegate for well over 100 years. Under this principle, hereditary chiefly responsibility rests first with Leonard Brillon as eldest surviving male of the elder branch, and passes to his nephew Jesse Brillon.
A second public statement later circulated presenting a list of our clan's "past chiefs" intended to demonstrate a straightforward succession leading to the newly announced chief in waiting. This misrepresents our clan history. In reality, Laana Ts'aadas has not had a chief who upheld that role culturally through feast or potlatch in over 150 years. The individuals listed held the hereditary lineage, but none of them upheld that role. The attempt to present this as an unbroken succession ignores the generations of dormancy — and emerged only after the elder branch had already done the work of restoration.
To bypass living hereditary successors and advance another candidate directly disregards the hereditary order that Haida law recognizes.
Leonard Brillon, as the rightful hereditary lineage holder, will stand up as Clan Chief of Laana Ts'aadas on July 11 2026 — in full accordance with Haida law and proper succession.
6. Disregard for Demonstrated Hereditary Action
Within Haida hereditary governance, there is a shared and collective understanding: publicly upholding cultural responsibilities establishes standing. When prerogatives and obligations are fulfilled before the broader nation, it should go without saying that those acts carry governance and significant cultural weight — especially after several generations had been unable to uphold those responsibilities.
To proceed as though these efforts did not occur — or to reposition leadership in a direction that intentionally excluded the lineage that has publicly upheld that responsibility — deliberately dismantles the foundation upon which hereditary authority is built.
When a clan has been culturally recognized, when prerogatives have been witnessed, and when traditional obligations have been fulfilled in full view of the community, those acts form the foundation of clan governance.
Any subsequent proclamation of authority that ignores the hereditary lineage holders who have upheld these responsibilities constitutes a profound betrayal of Haida hereditary law and the governance system our ancestors established.
The ceremonies hosted by the elder branch have been witnessed by members of the Haida community. Attempts to reposition leadership in a direction that deliberately excluded our lineage — after we have publicly upheld our responsibilities — constitutes a serious breach of cultural law.
7. Eligibility and Authority
In Haida governance, birth order matters. It tells us where responsibility is meant to flow. But birth order alone does not automatically make someone a leader. In present-day practice, leadership must also fall on someone who holds cultural knowledge, demonstrates integrity, and maintains relationships within the clan and across the broader nation — through being raised within family kinship, connected to the matriarchal line, participating in cultural life, and taking on cultural responsibility over time.
A member of the elder branch who disowned her mother — our Matriarch — for nearly 50 years, has submitted a letter to our clan declaring herself Head Matriarch in order to seat her son as Chief. All the while still refusing to communicate with any one of us. This is a violation of Haida law. One does not walk away from all responsibilities to family and to culture only to attempt to take over as Matriarch after decades of rejecting all the things that role is tasked to uphold. No reason was ever given for the estrangement. No explanation has ever been offered. That estrangement lasted until Evelyn's death and continues today.
By contrast, Edna Elizabeth Brillon has dedicated 28 years to facilitating healing, empowerment, and trauma workshops with First Nations communities — addressing the generational impacts of residential schools. Over the course of nearly three decades she has facilitated well over 500 days of this work, creating spaces for people to share their lived experiences and begin to heal from the indoctrination that was designed to make Indigenous people ashamed of who they are.
The individual announced as chief in waiting was not raised within the family or the culture. He did not grow up participating in clan life or carrying clan responsibilities. That absence has consequences.
In our culture, leadership is not assigned first and learned later. It is developed over time within family, clan, and community. A chief is expected to be grounded in the culture he is expected to uphold, not a stranger to it.
8. Religious Indoctrination and Cultural Authority
There is no separation between spirituality and leadership in Haida culture. Ceremony is governance. Ancestor work is governance. Prerogatives are spiritual obligations as much as they are material ones. A chief is neither a figurehead nor a politician — he is a ceremonial leader.
The religious doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses not only condemns connection to culture — it fractured kinship. That religion taught our own people to see ancestral practice as evil and anyone upholding culture as inferior. That damage is not theoretical. It is generational and still very much present within those now claiming authority.
If burning ceremonies to feed our ancestors are believed to be evil, who will lead them? If cleansing rites are rejected as unholy, who will stand in them? If prerogative dances are not embraced, who will carry them?
One cannot reject the spiritual foundation of Haida traditions and claim to stand at its center as a voice of cultural guidance and leadership.
Leadership in this moment of clan restoration requires full alignment — spiritually, culturally, and relationally. Anything less repeats the fracture that weakened us in the first place.
This is why we will never accept someone who has rejected the foundation of Haida culture, who has not lived our culture, carried its responsibilities, and stood in its ceremonies — not as Matriarch and not as Chief.
Moving Forward Together
This has been written because context cannot be understood in fragments on social media. Misinformation spreads easily when complex cultural systems are reduced to partial information. There must be at least a foundational understanding of how Haida law works — from a lived perspective, both today and traditionally, before disruption.
If we are serious about lifting our culture, we must understand what we are lifting.
If we are going to move our culture forward by embodying more pre-colonial traditions, we need better ways of sharing information than social media exchanges. We need spaces — formal and informal — where history can be taught, questions asked, and traditional law examined honestly. We need to study our governance systems the way our ancestors lived them.
Cultural restoration is about rebuilding understanding, layer by layer.
If we want unity, it comes from doing the work to understand the structure we are trying to stand inside. And if we are serious about lifting our culture, then we need to study it, practice it, and uphold it — not reinterpret it to justify authority.
That is the work in front of us.
Haaw'a
On behalf of Laana Ts'aadas Elder Matriline