British Columbia's First Nations by Region

Within British Columbia, there are 198 First Nations, more than in any other province or territory in Canada. Each has their own traditions, history, heritage, language and art. The following provides an overview of some of the First Nations communities in BC.

Vancouver Coast & Mountains

This is the most populated region of the province, with stunning geography ranging from oceans to mountains, and includes temperate rainforests, alpine peaks, lakes, fjords and fertile valley delta lands. This region is home to Vancouver, British Columbia’s largest city and Whistler, a world-renowned year-round resort. In 2010, both destinations will play hosts to the world during the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Coast Salish, one of the largest First Nations in the province, inhabits the entire region. The following are related groups within the Coast Salish family.

• The Squamish Nation is comprised of Salish peoples who are descendants of the aboriginal peoples who lived in the present day greater Vancouver area, Gibson's landing and Squamish River watershed. Squamish means "Mother of Wind" or "Birthplace of the Winds" in the Coast Salish language.

• Sto:Lo means “People of the River.” Their traditional territory includes the Fraser Valley, much of the Lower Mainland and the Harrison Lake watershed. As their name implies, it is a culture rich in fishing traditions. The Sto:Lo are still skilled fishers, and they still prepare the salmon in the ways of their forefathers, either wind drying, smoking, or salting. The rivers were rich in sturgeon and eulachon, and the surrounding lands were plentiful in larger game so, as with the coastal regions, basic essentials were easily attainable, leaving time to foster a culture rich in art and storytelling.

• The Tsleil-Waututh are Coast Salish people who speak the down-river dialect of the Halkomelem language. Today, Tsleil-Waututh First Nation members live in a community located on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, in North Vancouver. Prior to contact with Europeans, oral history tells us the Tsleil-Waututh numbered over 10,000 people, in an area that reached from the Fraser River in the south to near Whistler in the north. The heart of Tsleil-Waututh culture involved a complex cycle of food gathering, hunting, and spiritual and cultural activities.

• The St'át'imc First Nations, which is composed of 11 different communities, has a traditional territorial range from from Port Douglas in the south to Pavilion in the north. They were traditionally hunter gatherers who followed the game they sought, living in pit houses in the winter and bark shingled lean-tos in the summer. Much of their travel was by canoe, and they built different styles for different conditions, one for traveling up river, another wider one for carrying game, and a third heavier one for the lakes. Clothing was made from animal skins for winter, and woven cedar for summer.

• The Lil’Wat are the largest of the St'át'imc First Nation communities, with a traditional territory situated between Squamish and Lillooet. They were hunter gatherers who followed the game they sought, living in pit houses in the winter and bark shingled lean-tos in the summer. Much of their travel was by canoe, and they built different styles for different conditions, one for traveling up river, another wider one for carrying game, and a third heavier one for the lakes. Clothing was made from animal skins for winter, and woven cedar for summer.

The housing styles for First Nations communities in this region were varied, from longhouses (large square wooden structures, usually built along the ocean or river) to pit houses (housing built into the hillside) which could easily be hidden to protect from enemy tribes and was naturally insulated during extremely hot or cold weather. Temperatures were relatively mild, fish was plentiful, and there were many larger animals to hunt for meat. Travel and trade followed river routes.

The Lil'wat are partnering with the Squamish to build a world-class Cultural Centre in the heart of Whistler, British Columbia's world-class resort, situated 2 hours north of Vancouver. Scheduled to open in 2007, the Centre will celebrate the joint history of the Squamish and the Lil'wat Nations by showcasing their history, creative works, and cultures. It will be a two-story complex that will include an interpretive centre, theatre, eco-walk, gift shop, arts and crafts, a high-end traditional foods restaurant and cafeteria. The Centre will enable both nations to share their culture with the world and invite visitors to 2010 Olympics to enjoy First Nations hospitality.

Vancouver Island

The largest island off the Pacific Coast of continental North America, Vancouver Island is nine times larger than Long Island, New York, and larger than many European and Asian countries. The region is home to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia as well as world-renowned Butchart Gardens, the West Coast Trail, beaches, golf courses, wineries, farms, the pastoral Gulf Islands and a year-round temperate climate. On the island you can experience whale watching, visit cultural centres, go skiing, surfing, kayaking and hike through virgin rainforests.

Before there were cities, wineries and golf courses, there were First Nations villages. The Coast Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwakaw’akw lived in areas where the ocean provided them with all the food our ancestors could eat and the mild climate of the temperate rainforest meant that edible plants provided harvest throughout much of the year. The food came to them, eliminating the need to migrate to follow herds, so their houses were large permanent structures, often facing outward to the ocean, the food source and avenue of transportation. This ease of survival ensured the people had enough leisure time to develop richly complex art forms.

• The Nuu-chah-nulth, previously known as the Nootka, covers nearly the whole west coast of Vancouver Island and the western tip of Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. Their name means “all along the mountains.” Traditionally, the Nuu-chah-nulth were the major whalers of the B.C. Coast. Their canoes were built extremely sturdy because their waters are so rough and because they needed to tow the whales with their canoes. The traditional longhouses are still important for ceremony and dances, and the culture remains rich in artistic traditions.

• The territory of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation extends from Cape Scott to Quadra Island in the Queen Charlotte Strait of Northern Vancouver Island, and on to the adjacent mainland coast. Central to the cultural and spiritual practices of Kwakwaka'wakw people is the potlatch, a complex system of distributing wealth, passing on rights to songs, names, and social positions. The potlatch tradition has fostered a fine artistic tradition. Kwakwaka'wakw artists today are among the best-known First Nations artists in the world. In addition to their artistic lineage, Kwakwaka'wakw people were known for trading the highly valued oolichan grease, which was traded up and down the west coast of North America, and was a symbol of wealth and social status.

• In addition to living on the southwest coastal areas of mainland British Columbia the Coast Salish territory includes the southeast coastal areas of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

• While there has been intermarriage between the nations, each person is aware of their lineage, often matrilineal, and knows the songs and traditions from each branch.

Northern British Columbia

Northern British Columbia comprises more than half the entire province. At approximately 500,000 square kilometres, it is larger than California or Japan and twice the size of the United Kingdom. Much of the area is preserved and protected by a world-class system of provincial parks and nature reserves. The mountain ranges, which dominate the northern landscape, were shaped by volcanic fire, then folded and raised by powerful forces below the earth’s surface. The rugged, heavily-forested valleys between them were carved by the glaciers, which at one time covered most of the province.

• The Haida live along the coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, also known as Haida Gwaii, of British Columbia and coastal Alaska. The Haida have lived in this region for at least 6000 to 8000 years and have a language related to no other. Haida show their clan membership through their family crests, which are carved on totem poles, cedar boxes, war canoes, and masks. As with other coastal indigenous cultures, the Haida the backbone of the culture are the large ceremonial feasts, called potlatches.

• The Tsimshian people – also known as “People Inside the Skeena River” –are one of the largest First Nations in British Columbia, inhabiting the north and central coast. Their people are made up of those who trace their origins to one of the following communities: Gitga’at (Hartley Bay), Kitasoo (Klemtu), Kitkatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Lax Kw’Alaams, Metlakatla and Metlakatla Alaska. Tsimshian carvings of totem poles and masks, Bent wood boxes, elaborate Chilcat blankets, paintings and prints, intricate cedar basketry, jewellry, clothing and beautiful coppers are treasured by collectors.

• The Nisga’a live in the Nass River Valley in coastal northern British Columbia. The river and its watershed continue provide the food, fur, tools, plants, medicine, timber and fuel that enabled to thrive and to develop a rich cultural tradition of carving, dance, and song. Throughout the Nass, there are great totem poles, old and new, that speak of clans and creation stories. Within the Nisga’a territory is also the most recently erupted volcano, leaving a trail of lava beds that have created an eerie landscape. The Nisga’a say the volcano erupted because young boys were mistreating a salmon.

• The Tlingit, the northernmost of the Northwest Coast peoples, lived traditionally by fishing and hunting marine animals and built large plank houses, totem poles, and ocean-going dugout canoes. They are well known for their richly carved totem poles and masks, and beautifully woven blankets.

• The previously nomadic Kaska are primarily located in the southeast Yukon and north British Columbia, of Canada, between the Coastal and Rocky Mountain ranges. The Kaska have lived in their territory for tens of thousands of years, long before the existence of provincial and territorial borders. The Kaska traditional territory consists of 93,000 square miles of beautiful, rugged, resource-rich land. It covers about 25 per cent of the Yukon, adjacent areas of Northwest Territories and about 10 per cent of B.C. Historically, the Kaska were primarily caribou hunters who lived in tepees. Prior to contact with Europeans transport was by birch-bark canoe in summer, and snowshoe and toboggan in winter.

• The Gitxsan people of British Columbia tell how many years ago a man carried off one of their maidens into the sky. She came back down eventually, and the man turned into a grizzly bear. The maiden's brothers killed the bear without realizing what they were doing. They brought its skin to the riverside, and here the Gitxsans have dwelled ever since, from Yakutat Bay in Southeastern Alaska, along the British Columbia Coast, including the Queen Charlotte Islands, as far south as the northern tip of Vancouver Island on the mainland. Their many art forms include bent boxes, ceremonial masks, button blankets, shaman’s regalia, fishing gear, hunting utensils.

• Also known as the Acha’otinne, or "woodland people," the traditional territory of the Dene Thah covers a large area of the Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia, and northwestern Alberta. They were forest-dwellers and had few enemies due to their reputation of being powerful sorcerers. Traditionally, the clothing of the Dene Thah was more decorative than other Athapaskan tribes and, before the women obtained beads through trade, they used porcupine quills and colored moose hair for adornment. To this day, the women are known for their beautiful beadwork and silk embroidery.

• The Dunne-za, or Beaver Indians, are Athabaskan-speaking hunting people of the Peace River area of British Columbia and Alberta. The Beaver Nation are also known as the Dunne-za or the Tsattine, or "dwellers among the beavers." As cousins to the Slavey, Chipewyan and Sarcee, who all speak similar, Athapaskan-rooted languages, the Beavers originally once inhabited a vast territory between the present-day Alberta–Saskatchewan border and the Peace River.

• Closely related to the Dunne-za are the Carrier Sekani people, who call themselves /tsek'ehne/ or /tθek'ehne/ depending on dialect, both meaning ``people on the rocks''. The usual English term is an anglicization of this. Their territory is the Prince George area and, given the interior location, the mainstay of their diet was elk and moose, with fish playing only a minor role.

The largest island off the Pacific Coast of continental North America, Vancouver Island is nine times larger than Long Island, New York, and larger than many European and Asian countries. The region is home to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia as well as world-renowned Butchart Gardens, the West Coast Trail, beaches, golf courses, wineries, farms, the pastoral Gulf Islands and a year-round temperate climate. On the island you can experience whale watching, visit cultural centres, go skiing, surfing, kayaking and hike through virgin rainforests. Before there were cities, wineries and golf courses, there were First Nations villages. The and lived in areas where the ocean provided them with all the food our ancestors could eat and the mild climate of the temperate rainforest meant that edible plants provided harvest throughout much of the year. The food came to them, eliminating the need to migrate to follow herds, so their houses were large permanent structures, often facing outward to the ocean, the food source and avenue of transportation. This ease of survival ensured the people had enough leisure time to develop richly complex art forms. • The previously known as the Nootka, covers nearly the whole west coast of Vancouver Island and the western tip of Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. Their name means “all along the mountains.” Traditionally, the Nuu-chah-nulth were the major whalers of the B.C. Coast. Their canoes were built extremely sturdy because their waters are so rough and because they needed to tow the whales with their canoes. The traditional longhouses are still important for ceremony and dances, and the culture remains rich in artistic traditions. • The territory of the extends from Cape Scott to Quadra Island in the Queen Charlotte Strait of Northern Vancouver Island, and on to the adjacent mainland coast. Central to the cultural and spiritual practices of Kwakwaka'wakw people is the potlatch, a complex system of distributing wealth, passing on rights to songs, names, and social positions. The potlatch tradition has fostered a fine artistic tradition. Kwakwaka'wakw artists today are among the best-known First Nations artists in the world. In addition to their artistic lineage, Kwakwaka'wakw people were known for trading the highly valued oolichan grease, which was traded up and down the west coast of North America, and was a symbol of wealth and social status. • In addition to living on the southwest coastal areas of mainland British Columbia the territory includes the southeast coastal areas of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland. • While there has been intermarriage between the nations, each person is aware of their lineage, often matrilineal, and knows the songs and traditions from each branch. Northern British Columbia comprises more than half the entire province. At approximately 500,000 square kilometres, it is larger than California or Japan and twice the size of the United Kingdom. Much of the area is preserved and protected by a world-class system of provincial parks and nature reserves. The mountain ranges, which dominate the northern landscape, were shaped by volcanic fire, then folded and raised by powerful forces below the earth’s surface. The rugged, heavily-forested valleys between them were carved by the glaciers, which at one time covered most of the province. • The live along the coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, also known as Haida Gwaii, of British Columbia and coastal Alaska. The Haida have lived in this region for at least 6000 to 8000 years and have a language related to no other. Haida show their clan membership through their family crests, which are carved on totem poles, cedar boxes, war canoes, and masks. As with other coastal indigenous cultures, the Haida the backbone of the culture are the large ceremonial feasts, called potlatches. • The people – also known as “People Inside the Skeena River” –are one of the largest First Nations in British Columbia, inhabiting the north and central coast. Their people are made up of those who trace their origins to one of the following communities: Gitga’at (Hartley Bay), Kitasoo (Klemtu), Kitkatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Lax Kw’Alaams, Metlakatla and Metlakatla Alaska. Tsimshian carvings of totem poles and masks, Bent wood boxes, elaborate Chilcat blankets, paintings and prints, intricate cedar basketry, jewellry, clothing and beautiful coppers are treasured by collectors. • The live in the Nass River Valley in coastal northern British Columbia. The river and its watershed continue provide the food, fur, tools, plants, medicine, timber and fuel that enabled to thrive and to develop a rich cultural tradition of carving, dance, and song. Throughout the Nass, there are great totem poles, old and new, that speak of clans and creation stories. Within the Nisga’a territory is also the most recently erupted volcano, leaving a trail of lava beds that have created an eerie landscape. The Nisga’a say the volcano erupted because young boys were mistreating a salmon. • The the northernmost of the Northwest Coast peoples, lived traditionally by fishing and hunting marine animals and built large plank houses, totem poles, and ocean-going dugout canoes. They are well known for their richly carved totem poles and masks, and beautifully woven blankets. • The previously nomadic are primarily located in the southeast Yukon and north British Columbia, of Canada, between the Coastal and Rocky Mountain ranges. The Kaska have lived in their territory for tens of thousands of years, long before the existence of provincial and territorial borders. The Kaska traditional territory consists of 93,000 square miles of beautiful, rugged, resource-rich land. It covers about 25 per cent of the Yukon, adjacent areas of Northwest Territories and about 10 per cent of B.C. Historically, the Kaska were primarily caribou hunters who lived in tepees. Prior to contact with Europeans transport was by birch-bark canoe in summer, and snowshoe and toboggan in winter. • The people of British Columbia tell how many years ago a man carried off one of their maidens into the sky. She came back down eventually, and the man turned into a grizzly bear. The maiden's brothers killed the bear without realizing what they were doing. They brought its skin to the riverside, and here the Gitxsans have dwelled ever since, from Yakutat Bay in Southeastern Alaska, along the British Columbia Coast, including the Queen Charlotte Islands, as far south as the northern tip of Vancouver Island on the mainland. Their many art forms include bent boxes, ceremonial masks, button blankets, shaman’s regalia, fishing gear, hunting utensils. • Also known as the Acha’otinne, or "woodland people," the traditional territory of the covers a large area of the Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia, and northwestern Alberta. They were forest-dwellers and had few enemies due to their reputation of being powerful sorcerers. Traditionally, the clothing of the Dene Thah was more decorative than other Athapaskan tribes and, before the women obtained beads through trade, they used porcupine quills and colored moose hair for adornment. To this day, the women are known for their beautiful beadwork and silk embroidery. • The , or Beaver Indians, are Athabaskan-speaking hunting people of the Peace River area of British Columbia and Alberta. The Beaver Nation are also known as the or the , or "dwellers among the beavers." As cousins to the Slavey, Chipewyan and Sarcee, who all speak similar, Athapaskan-rooted languages, the Beavers originally once inhabited a vast territory between the present-day Alberta–Saskatchewan border and the Peace River. • Closely related to the Dunne-za are the people, who call themselves /tsek'ehne/ or /tθek'ehne/ depending on dialect, both meaning ``people on the rocks''. The usual English term is an anglicization of this. Their territory is the Prince George area and, given the interior location, the mainstay of their diet was elk and moose, with fish playing only a minor role.

Cariboo Chilcotin Coast

This region, which takes part of its name from the indigenous peoples that live here, spans latitudinally across the lower middle of the province, from the fjord-like coastline through lush rainforests to arid mountain peaks, deep canyons and the mighty Fraser River. In the 1860’s, this region experienced the Cariboo Gold Rush. Gold prospectors came from around the world seeking riches. When the gold rush died out, many stayed and became ranchers. Today, cowboys and ranches are in abundance and form part of the tourism experience in this region.

• Here you will find small populations of people sparsely dispersed in a vast landscape. The Tsilhqot’in (also called the Chilcotin) people are the most southern of the Athapascan-speaking Aboriginal people in British Columbia. Their traditional territory is the high altitude Chilcotin Plateau.

• Along the coast are people of the Kwakwakaw’akw and Coast Salish Nations and, further to the interior, is the historical territory of the Secwepemc, part of the Interior Salish peoples.

• The traditional Secwepemc (also known as Shuswap) were a semi-nomadic people, living during the winter in warm semi-underground "pit-houses" and during the summer in mat lodges made of reeds. The traditional Shuswap economy was based on fishing, hunting and trading. Shuswap diet consisted of fish, meat, berries and roots. The lifestyle, based on respect for nature, depended on traditional aboriginal skills and knowledge handed down from generation to generation by oral tradition. Their tradional territory extends from the Columbia River valley on the east slope of the Rocky Mountains to the Fraser River on the west and from the upper Fraser River in the north to the Arrow Lakes in the south.

Thompson Okanagan

most fertile farmland in the province. There are mountains, meadows, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, rolling hills, and thick forests. On the cultivated side, there are large fruit orchards, vineyards and some of the finest wineries in the country. It is also an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise year-round, with activities range from golf, fishing, hiking and biking, to canoeing, kayaking, white water rafting and skiing.

• This area is home to the NLaka'pamux, Okanagan and Secwepemc peoples, each with distinct cultures and traditions. The NLaka'pamux are known for expressing the landscape of their homeland, their dreams, and their experience through their clothing, face-painting, and jewelry. The Secwepemc carry forward their knowledge of plants for food, medicine and tools. The Okanagan lived in harmony with the land, and now educate others through the Nk'Mip Desert & Heritage Centre in the southern Okanagan.

• Through clothing, face-painting, and jewelry, the NLaka'pamux of the southern interior of British Columbia expressed the landscape of their homeland, their dreams, and their experience. Their dress was itself an art form; the images they wore expressed their place in society and indicated their relationship with other beings in the universe. The arrival of European traders in the early nineteenth century threatened to displace the techniques for weaving fabrics and tanning skins which had been developed over thousands of years. People adopted new fabrics, decorative materials and fashions; yet the skills needed to produce traditional clothing and the knowledge of its symbolic importance endured, and are still taught in NLaka'pamux communities today.

• "S-Ookanhkchinx" in the Okanagan language translates to mean "transport toward the head or top end this refers to the people traveling from the head of the Okanagan Lake to where the Okanagan river meets the Columbia river. Okanagan Lake and Okanagan River as well as other water systems were the traditional transportation routes. The Okanagan people were semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers. Their staple diet consisted of deer, salmon, rabbit and other wild game. The Okanagan's were also gatherers of roots, berries and various other plants.

• Guests of the area are invited to tour the traditional kekulis (pit houses) and sweat lodges, participate in aboriginal craft making and story telling, learn about a local winery, adopt a rattlesnake or take in a round of golf. There are interpretive centres, botanical gardens and reconstructed villages, as well as modern lodges, resorts, inns and campgrounds.

Kootenay Rockies

Located in the southeastern corner of the province, the Kootenay Rockies region embraces five different mountain ranges, including the western ranges of the Canadian Rockies, creating breathtaking vistas and river valleys and providing a world-class outdoor playground

• This is the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa Kinbasket Nation, also known as the Kootenay. Shared lands, a rich cultural heritage, and a language so unique that it is not linked to any other in the world, make the Ktunaxa people distinctive. Prior to contact with the Europeans, the Ktunaxa enjoyed a rich and bountiful existence, migrating seasonally from river bottom lands to high mountain valleys and from salmon rich rivers to distant buffalo pastures. Ancient petroglyphs can still be found along the shores of Kootenay Lake.