Until the 1980s the termKwakiutl was usually applied to all of the various First Nations peoples of northern Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Strait and the Johnstone Strait whose traditional Wakashan language was Kwak'wala. Increasingly through that time, those First nations began to resurrect and insist on the the use of their own names for themselves and Kwakiutl, pronounced something like "kwag-yewlth", came to refer more specifically to the First Nation whose home community was at Fort Rupert near Port Hardy. The preferred collective term for these nations became "Kwakwaka'wakw" which means, those who speak the language Kwak'wala. Prior to contact with European settlers, there were probably 17 distinct local groups whose principal tongue was Kwak'wala:

Kwagu'(Fort Rupert) Mamalilikala (Village Island) Namgis (Nimpkish-Cheslakees) Awit'sis (Turnour Island) A'wa'et'ala (Knight Inlet) Da'naxda'xw (New Vancouver) Ma'amtagila (Etsekin) Dzawada'enux (Kingcome Inlet) Kwikwasut'inux (Gilford Island) Gwawa'enux (Hope Town) 'Nak'waxda'xw (Blunden Harbour) Gwa'sala (Smith's Inlet) Gusgimukw (Quatsino) Gwat'sinux (Winter Harbour) T'lat'lasikwala (Hope Island) Weka'yi (Cape Mudge) Wiwekam (Campbell River)

See also:

• Kwakiutl music
• Haisla, erroneously called the Haisla Kwakiutl. See Oweekyala, which lists the Haisla and other tribes sometimes called Kwakiutl whose territories are farther north than the Kwakwaka'wakw and Kwagyuilh