The little-known US-Canada border war

Located between the Haida Gwaii archipelago on the north coast of British Columbia and the southern tip of Alaska’s Panhandle, Dixon Entrance’s nutrient-rich waters, which attract orcas, albatross and five species of salmon, surge towards the rocky shores and green forests of Prince of Wales Island and the mainland. At some point as we sailed through the waves, we left Canadian waters and entered the US. But really, the only way we knew we’d travelled from one country to the next is that our electronics jumped back an hour to Alaska Standard Time after we passed a Canadian Fisheries patrol boat on the lookout for border violators.

In fact, the actual line where we crossed from one country to the next has long been under dispute. Even before European contact with the nearby indigenous peoples, the Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian occasionally warred over the land and sea boundaries in this abundant territory. These days, this boundary disagreement continues between new adversaries and the treasure at the heart of this dispute has evolved from furs and gold to salmon.