Kiusta (Haida: K’yuusda) located on Haida Gwaii is the oldest Northern Haida village and the site of first recorded contact between the Haida and Europeans in 1774. Haida lived in this village for thousands of years, due to the sheltered nature of its location it was used for boats offloading, especially in rough waters. Kiusta is one of the oldest archeological sites of human use in British Columbia, and continues to be a site for cultural revitalisation.

The name K’yuusda means "where the trail comes out," in reference to a trail used from T’áalan Stl’áng to the village. The trail is substantial and is still used between these villages on the west coast of Graham Island.

The village of Kiusta lies on a sheltered beach facing Cloak Bay on the northwest corner of Graham Island, opposite Langara Island. It faces north onto Parry Passage, noted for its tidal currents, but is well protected by Marchand Reef along its northern end.

Kiusta is one of the few sites that has been archeologically dated and "in 1986, archeologists from the Haida Gwaii Museum uncovered campfire charcoal dating back 10,400 years" denoting it as "one of the oldest known sites of human activity in British Columbia."

During the maritime fur trade era Chief Cuneah was the primary leader of Kiusta and had influence over the entire region. George Dixon visited the Kiusta area in 1787 and called the inlet where he traded "Cloak Bay", for the large number of beautiful sea otter cloaks he acquired there. The first European to visit Kiusta and meet Cuneah was William Douglas, in June 1789.

Kiusta was first portrayed in 1799, in a drawing in the journal of the ship Eliza. The illustration provided a panorama of the town from the water.

In the late 1830s an epidemic of smallpox ravaged the North Coast resulting in the death of more than half the Haida (though others have estimated the deaths to be closer to 80 to 90 per cent of the population.) With the reduced population, trade became monopolized by a smaller number of chiefs. Over the next quarter-century other chiefs, including Chief Edenshaw of Kiusta, had to establish stronger links with other chiefs as a result of their remote location and dwindling population and many gravitated to Masset where there were missionaries and other service and commercial people.

Evidence of trade in abalone shells is based in part on recovered abalone shells from a site in Kiusta. it is suggested that traders imported California-area abalone shell because "they had noticed local peoples' use of "paler, smaller" abalone. Such importation was likely done by American traders who dominated the sea otter pelt trade in the Haida Gwaii area from the mid-1790s to the 1840s (Lyle Dick, Parks Canada, pers. comm. 2001)." This trade is important as the "Haida used abalone shell fragments for personal adornment including labrets, jewellery, appliqué on garments, inlay into personal ceremonial dress such as frontlets, and inlay in argillite carvings for sale (Barbeau 1953). Boas (1898: 15) reports that sometimes pieces were glued directly to the skin for facial decoration.", and some families adopted abalone shells as crests.