Kwikwetlem
The Kwikwetlem or Kwikwetlem First Nation (also Kwayhquitlum, Coquitlam, etc.) are one of the First Nations in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia . They live at the confluence of the Coquitlam into the Fraser River and in Port Coquitlam . The tribe, which lives in both the USA and Canada, included exactly 63 people on Canadian territory in August 2009.
They belong to the coastal Salish and spoke Hun'qum'i'num, a dialect of the downriver Halkomelem. Their neighbors were the Tsleil-Waututh in the north and the Tsawwassen in the south. The name means "red fish in the upper river".
The place Coquitlam is named after them.
history
1978–1981 the archaeologist Valerie Patenaude excavated a summer village on Mary Hill by-pass, which was probably in continuous use for 6,000 years. 50,000 artifacts were saved. They are now in the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria .
Europeans
The Kwikwetlem called the Europeans Xwelitems or "Hungry People". In 1808, Simon Fraser traveled to the Fraser River named after him . He described a Kwikwetlem longhouse that was 640 feet long and 60 wide. The front was 18 feet high and the posts were 3 feet in diameter. One of the posts served as a passage. Above it hung a life-size figure depicting an animal and / or a bird.
In 1846 Great Britain and the USA agreed on the 49th parallel as the border, in 1859 JW Trutch visited the area. In 1860 the Catholic St. Charles Mission opened in New Westminster , which made contact with the tribe that same year. In May 1861 the tribe was referred to as the "Coquitlam Tribe". He was one of the first tribes to receive a reservation from Governor Douglas . The Indian Reserve 2 assigned in 1871 was created because of a burial site located there.
A few years later Coquitlam was founded, which bears the name of the chief Kwikwetlem William . From 1878, Indians were no longer allowed to catch fish for commercial purposes. With the Indian Act of 1884, important institutions such as the potlatch were banned, and in 1889 a system of fishing permits was established, which ended commercial fishing. It was not until 1923 that such licenses could be purchased.
Although Canada had prevented court rulings on land claims since 1927, the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia clandestinely performed this task in 1931 . Twenty years later the potlatch ban was lifted. Chief Kwikwetlem William, who died on April 23, 1953, was reportedly 110 years old. 700 to 800 mourners attended his funeral. He was succeeded by Tommy William. In 1992 the British Columbia Treaty Commission was set up.
Current situation
The larger reservation and residential area of the tribe is Coquitlam 2 , which covers 81.9 hectares. It lies on the left bank of the Coquitlam River, 3 km above its confluence with the Fraser River. Coquitlam 1 covers just 2.6 hectares and is just 7 km east of New Westminster, on the right bank of the Coquitlam River. In August 2008, 31 people lived in the reserve, while the remaining members of the 63-person tribe lived outside the reserve.
See also
- History of the Coastal Salish
- History of British Columbia
- First Nations history
- List of Indian tribes recognized in Canada
literature
- Wayne Suttles (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 7: Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1990. ISBN 0-87474-187-4
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ According to the information from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development , First Nation Profiles: Kwikwetlem First Nation ( Memento of March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
- ^ According to: Kwikwetlem First Nation ( Memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive )