Nootka Sound lies just off the west coast of Vancouver Island, just south of Nootka Island. Nootka Sound is part of the traditional and current homes of the Nuu-chah-nulth-aht,
or people all along the mountains and sea,2 whose language Captain Cook mistook and anglicized upon his famous visit to the area in 1778.2
Cook was the first European to explore the sound specifically; initially, he called it
“King George's Sound”, but upon later inquiry as to the local name, Cook somehow confused the Nuu-chah-nulth words for “go around” (“nootka-a”) as the location
name.3
Yuquot, or Friendly Cove, a place famed politicially and culturally, looks out to Nootka
Sound from the southern shore of Nootka Island.