Lake Cowichan
The Lake Cowichan or Lake Cowichan First Nation are the smallest people in the Hul'qumi'num group on Vancouver Island . They are very closely related to the Cowichan and live on Cowichan Lake . Cowichan comes from the Hul'qumi'num word Khowutzun and means warm land or land warmed by the sun , because there is hardly any ice on the lake and river.
The Lake Cowichan First Nation is one of the six tribes of the Hul'qumi'num group, which also include the Halalt , Chemainus , Cowichan , Penelakut and Lyackson . The Lake Cowichan have only 15 members of the group, which represents a total of 7,000 Indians . The Hul'qumi'num Nation claim an area of 334,000 hectares between the Nanaimo River, the Goldstream, Douglas Island and Tuck Lake.
history
Archaeological investigations have unearthed a village on the northeast side of Lake Cowichan that was in what is now the reservation.
The small group was apparently decimated by diseases and conflicts with neighboring tribes as early as the 19th century. In 1887, Ashdown Green reported that wars with the Cowichan and Ditidaht in particular had resulted in high losses. In addition, reported a Samuel Harris in 1860, who was traveling in the area in search of raw materials, the Indians died of smallpox .
In 1863 the "Cowichan Lake Indians" were granted a reservation of 800 acres (324 hectares), an area in which the reservation is still located today. Another reserve of 129.5 hectares on the west bank of Cowichan Lake appeared in a government report in 1873, plus a third of 70.8 hectares, which the Indian Commissioner Peter O'Reilly had granted them in 1887. But the two reservations were never confirmed. Two settlers, a Captain McCallum and a Charles Morrow, bought 160 acres from the 800-acre reservation in 1885 , regardless of the families living there, referred to simply as "Sam's and Charley's". Morrow stated that Captain McCallum had tried to persuade him to simply kill the Indians at Cowichan Lake to solve the problem. Although the government tried to get the land back, it was sold to a Mr. Green. He agreed with the government to return the crown land - at least 107.5 acres - to clear a plot of 2 acres to build a house for "Indian Charley" and to pay $ 25 to the Indian Commissioner as compensation. But the house was not finished in the agreed time. To date, the 107.5 acres the Lake Cowichan Indian Reserve on the north shore of the lake.
Current situation
The only 15 Lake Cowichan left now live in three houses.
Reservations
The 18.3 hectare reserve is the Lake Cowichan Indian Reserve.
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
- Lake Cowichan on the tribal council side
- Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group site
- Map of the Hul'qumi'num Contracting Group areas
