Vancouver Island » History

For thousands of years before Captain Cook's arrival on the shores of Nootka Sound in 1778, the First Nations people lived in the Vancouver Island Region.

The people had known for thousands of years that this was a special place and lived here in harmony with nature and the life cycles of the salmon. They occupied small villages scattered along the coast in sheltered bays and inlets.

On the west coast of Vancouver Island lived the Nuu-Chah-Nulth ("Nootka"), while the Kwak-Waka'wakw (Kwagiutl) inhabited the northeastern tip of Vancouver Island and the mainland directly opposite. The Coast Salish occupied some southern parts of Vancouver Island and those areas on Vancouver Island not occupied by the Kwak-Waka'wakw (Kwaguitl) and the Nuu-Chah-Nulth ("Nootka"), from Johnstone Straight to Port San Juan.

The City of Victoria and adjoining territory has been occupied by Aboriginal people for over 4000 years. Historically, the original site of the Songhees Indian Reservation was located in Victoria's Inner Harbour. The main village sites were at the British Columbia Legislature and James Bay, and across the harbour on the Victoria west side. The Songhees Nation is now located in Esquimalt, 5 kilometers from Victoria. The Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations people are a part of the Coast Salish descendants.

The Coast Salish people and culture survived the epidemics, as well as colonization, and banishment of Traditional Ceremonies. Their Traditional Winter Ceremonies are one of the most secretive in British Columbia, if not in North America. The huge "bighouses" that are modeled after traditional living dwellings are now used for large gatherings, where the history is recorded and mapped out orally in ceremony.

Nanaimo was originally the site where five separate Native villages gathered together, a place called "Snenymo" which meant 'great and mighty people'. Nanaimo derives from a Coast Salish word, Sney-ny-mo, the "meeting place". It was first explored by the Spanish and later by Captain George Vancouver. In 1891 the Snuneymuxw First Nation was known as the Nanaimo Indian band. The population of the Nanaimo band — according to the Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs (1892) — was 178. A Chinese community existed here from 1906 until 1960, when it was completely destroyed by fire.

The Bute Inlet region on the north eastern Island near Campbell River was home to the Homalco People. Their main villages were on the Homathco River, the Southgate River and around Orford Bay on the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island. The people came to Campbell River, year in and year out, to add to their food supplies. It was said you could walk from there to Quadra Island on the backs of the salmon.

In the mid 19th century before Europeans had settled the area the Salish lost their land to the Lekwiltok branch of the Kwakiutl. Traveling in large war canoes, the Lekwiltok came south from Johnstone Strait with guns obtained from Europeans. Historically, canoes were the typical mode of transportation between territories. There were primarily two types of canoes: war canoes and ocean-going canoes. A war canoe was smaller and designed for speed and an ocean-going canoe was made to travel great distances with a lot of supplies.

In March 1778, Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy became the first European to set foot on British Columbian soil when he visited Friendly Cove on Nootka Island. While anchoring in Resolution Cove on Bligh Island, across from Friendly Cove, the natives hollered "itchme nutka, itchme nutka", meaning "go around" (to Yuquot), but Cook misinterpreted their calls, believing the name of the area to be Nootka.

The first recorded contact by the Europeans with the local First Nations people occurred at the ancient village of Tsa-Kwa-Luten, "the gathering place," on Quadra Island, by Captain George Vancouver in 1792. A village of about 350 people was discovered with the people residing in 12 wooden quadrangular houses, with several families in each house.

When the law banning the potlatch was finally deleted from the revised Indian act in 1951, potlatching came onto its own again and especially to mark major events such as the raising of a totem pole. First Nations Elders reached back into their early memories and provided the new generations with information on ceremonies, rights and privileges, legends, songs, dances and aspects of their traditions. From the 1960’s onward, awareness and appreciation of Northwest Coast Art and traditions has grown steadily among non-natives.

In 1966 British Columbia celebrated the centennial of the joining of the two colonies of Vancouver Island and the mainland to form the colony of British Columbia. One of the centennial committee’s projects was to involve the provinces First Nations in a large-scale carving project named “Route of the Totems.” Eleven carvers were commissioned to create nineteen totem poles to be placed along tourist routes from Victoria to Prince Rupert.