Comox
The Comox or K'ómoks are one of the Canadian First Nations in British Columbia . They belong to the Salish language group and lived around the Puntledge River on Vancouver Island and also on the eastern side of the Strait of Georgia . Like the Pentlatch and the Sechelt, they belong to the northern coastal Salish group. The name Comox is the Anglicized form of K'ómoks and is also the name of the present-day city of Comox .
According to the Aboriginal Portal Canada , there were 273 Comox in 2008.
history
Basics
When Joseph McKay visited the area around what is now Comox in 1852, he reported to his client James Douglas that the prairies were interspersed with "Sanetch" (Saanich), park-like meadows. In addition, natural harbors and good soil allowed arable farming, where camas and potatoes had previously grown.
Camas ( Camassia quamash ) and the recently introduced potatoes played an important role for the Pentlatch , K'ómoks and Kwakwaka'wakw tribes . The Camas meadows and a species of oak that only occurs in Northwest America also formed a kind of healing garden for the Indians. The meadows were burned down periodically, which increased their fertility and at the same time prevented other species from over-foresting. There was also trade in the great Camas fruits, especially the Nuu-chah-nulth .
The tomato , which found its way into the region between 1800 and 1815, was added as another commodity . The Haida grew tomatoes and sold them for several decades to passing ships, but also in Fort Simpson . In this way, the tribes living in northern Vancouver Island found a small substitute for the fur trade, which almost led to the extermination of otters and beavers . Possibly the K'omoks took over potato cultivation from people of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in Fort Langley , but possibly earlier through traditional trade.
First contacts with Europeans
Although George Vancouver and other explorers made contact with this group, they were of no interest to the fur trade in the absence of otters . The drastic social changes that this trade brought about among the Nuu-chah-nulth on the west coast of Vancouver Island, but also in the north and south of the island, reached the Comox with a considerable delay.
The Battle of Hwtlupnuts (Maple Bay) around 1840
While the first smallpox epidemics weakened the southern tribes as early as 1775 and 1782, the Kwakwaka'wakw in the north were spared it for a long time. They took the opportunity to rob and capture slaves. They benefited from muskets that they acquired indirectly through the fur trade with the Europeans. But the settlement of the HBC soon brought rifles into the hands of the southern tribes, such as the Comox. The Comox even allied themselves with the invaders from the north. But the rest of the region's tribes, the Nanaimo , Saanich , Songhees , Esquimalt , Musqueam and Squamish allied against the invaders, in this case the Lekwiltok . In Maple Bay, disguised as women, they lured opponents into a trap. The largest tribal alliance in island history was a disaster for the Comox, who had sided with the Lekwiltok. Incidentally, it was the tribal coalition that attacked Fort Victoria in 1843, even if they agreed to a peace treaty. Tzouhalem, chief of the Cowichan , had led them.
White settlers
George Drabble, who visited the area in 1862 on behalf of the province, still recorded villages on the coast and the Pentlatch village on Tsolum in his maps. Shortly thereafter, beginning October 2, 1862, settlers buying the land for a dollar an acre began to oust the Indians. The Camas meadows were abandoned, the oaks felled, potato fields soon dominated the land, along with cattle. The land cultivation of the Indians was not even recognized as agriculture.
The K'ómoks, deprived of their economic foundations, had to work for low wages from the settlers: cutting down trees, transporting canoes, building roads and working in the fields. The women mostly worked in the potato fields.
When the McKenna-McBride Commission visited the reservations from 1913, it suggested that of the two reservations of the “Comox Tribe”, “No. 1 - Comox, 155.00 acres ”will remain, while“ Pentledge Reserve No. 2 ”should be drawn in. There was also a 14 acre cemetery at Goose Spit, which has also been confirmed. These Commission proposals did not become legally binding until 1923.
Todays situation
In 1967, 783 Comox were counted. They are represented in the Kwakiutl District Council , which includes ten First Nations. In addition to the Comox, the council also includes the Campbell River tribes , including the Cape Mudge , the Da'naxda'xw First Nation, the Gwa'Sala-Nakwaxda'xw , the Kwakiutl First Nation , the Kwiakah , the Mamalilikulla-Qwe'Qwa 'Sot'Em , the Quatsino and the Tlatlasikwala . The Comox now own a total of four reserves. Comox 1 , Pentledge 2 and Goose Spit 3 are near the town of Comox, Salmon River 1 is further north on Queen Charlotte Street .
literature
- Franz Boas, Comparative Vocabularies of eight Salishan languages [1900]
- Sharon Niscak, Camas Meadows to Potato Patches - The Land of Abundance, 2006
- William C. Sturtevant (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 7: Wayne Suttles (Ed.): Northwest Coast . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1990, ISBN 0-87474-187-4 .
See also
- History of the Coastal Salish
- History of British Columbia
- First Nations history
- List of Indian tribes recognized in Canada
Web links
- Map of the former settlement area of the Comox, the Sechelt and the Pentlatch
- K'ómok's First Nation
Individual evidence
- ↑ ASSERTED FIRST NATIONS TRADITIONAL TERRITORIES, MOF SOUTH ISLAND FOREST DISTRICT, COMOX BAND . South Island Forest District, August 15, 2005, accessed October 31, 2010 (PDF, 3.20 MB)
- ↑ S. Aboriginal Portal Canada, First Nation Connectivity Profile ( Memento of the original of September 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ This and the following from: Sharon Niscak: Camas Meadows to Potato Patches - The Land of Abundance , 2006 ( Memento of January 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ The published text: Minutes of Decision - Comox Tribe ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ The published text: Minutes of Decision - Cowichan Tribe and Cowichan Lake Tribe ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
