Haida is spoken in two widely divergent dialects which are not fully mutually intelligible. Skidegate, the name of the dialect being taken from the only remaining Haida community on the southern Queen Charlotte Islands, is an amalgamation of the southern dialects; Masset (the only remaining Haida community on the northern island), and A1asl~n (mainly at Hydaburg, with some at Kasaan and Ketchikan), closely related but with minor systematic dialect differences, are amalgamations of the northern dialects. The total Haida population is about 1700, 500 (at most 100 speakers) in Alaska and 1200 (at most 200 speakers) Cansda; the youngest speakers of the language are in their forties.

In this section the dialects have been signaled for the items by letters following the HA -- S, M, or A. These signal letters affect neither the ordering of the she1f1ist nor the shelving of the items, but are included for the convenience of the user. When no third letter appears in the call number, this indicates that the item deals with several dialects, or with Haida in general. There was some religious literature printed for Masset, 1884-1899, and then nothing more until the modern practical orthography was established in 1972; since then a modest amount of educational material has been published.

The collection may be incomplete for the more recent educational materials from Alaska and Canada.

[Krauss & McGary 1980]