This section presents a timeline of historical sqwélqwel focusing on specific people and events from just prior to and throughout the contact era. It is presented beside a world timeline of events for the same period. Sq’éwlets historical events that took place before this period are described in the sxwōxwiyám and Archaeology sections.
1763
A Royal Proclamation is issued by the King of England, George III, protecting “Indian” lands from colonial speculators and colonists in eastern North America. The proclamation says that Aboriginal lands can only be occupied by Xwelítem (European settlers) after “nation-to-nation” negotiations with First Peoples. Aboriginal lands can only be acquired by the British Crown through purchase or treaty.
1763
Treaty of Paris marks the end of the Seven Years War and the beginning of British dominance outside Europe. As part of the treaty, France gives New France to Britain, and Louisiana to Spain. Spain gives Florida to Britain.
1774-1783
American Revolution.
1776
Adam Smith publishes “The Wealth of Nations” and gives a basis for capitalism.
1776-78
The Spanish under Juan Perez and the British under James Cook visit the west coast of Vancouver Island.
1782
Smallpox (Variola major) is a terrible disease that causes people’s skin to blister and rupture. It originated in the Middle East thousands of years ago. It then slowly spread across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Europeans brought smallpox and other new diseases to North and South America. Smallpox may have impacted the Sq’éwlets as early as 1494, but we know for certain that it arrived in Sq’éwlets territory in 1782, spread through tribal trade networks from south. Between 60% and 90% of the population died tragically in less than a month.
1791-2
Spanish ships under explorers José Narvaez, Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores and the British explorer George Vancouver explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Georgia Strait. They meet Musqueam and/or Squamish peoples near present day Vancouver, B.C.
1792
British ships searching for the Northwest Passage under the command of Captain George Vancouver visit Sq’éwlets’ neighbours near the mouth of the Fraser River.
1808
Simon Fraser, a fur trader with the Northwest Company based in Montreal, travels downriver past the junction of the Fraser and Harrison Rivers. He reaches Musqueam, in present-day Vancouver. They had previously had bad experiences with Xwelítem (European settlers) and chased his crew back upriverStó:lō.
1815
French Emperor Napoleon defeated by Anglo Prussian troops at the Battle of Waterloo.
1823
James McMillan, an officer with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) headquartered at Ft. Vancouver on the Columbia River, visits the lower Fraser River looking for a site to build a fort. His men explore the lower stretches of the Fraser and almost reach the junction of the Fraser and Harrison Rivers.
1827
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) establishes Fort Langley in the mid-Fraser Valley as a regional fur trade post. The Stó:lō, however, exchange few furs, preferring to stick to their traditional salmon trade.
1833 - 1845
Several Coast Salish people receive messages from the spirit world foretelling dramatic changes that will occur in people’s lives. One of these prophets is from Shxwohamel. He travels throughout S’ólh Téméxw, the Stó:lō World, telling women they should be able to choose their own husbands (rather than have arranged marriages) and predicting the arrival of large numbers of Xwelítem (European settlers) bringing many new technologies. He warns that “half will be good, and half will be bad”.
1838 Colonial History
Our Past Is Our Future
View Transcript[Andy Phillips]: So Sq'éwlets is one of 24 communities in Stó:lō. I’m proud to say that we’re a small community, and we’re a healing community. And you can see the pride in some of the families now. It’s really good to see that transition, and I’m glad to be part of that.
[Reg Phillips]: It wasn’t cool to be a native, when I was young. There was a lot of prejudice and a lot of discrimination. And there were a lot of things that I really didn’t understand at the time, about a lot of things. I told my mom I would try residential school. Well they brought me, they dropped me off.
[Vi Pennier]: My experience there was just like... everything was punishment.
[Clarence Pennier]: When I was six, going on seven. I was taken from the Sardis hopyards to St. Mary’s school in Mission. You know in grade 12, that first morning I got on the school bus outside the res. And looked at all these brown faces. I really never knew who they were. But they were from Chehalis, and they were a number of them were my cousins. But I didn’t know that because I spent time in the school all the time. And down in the states berry picking. So that’s how I grew up without any real teachings handed down through my grandparents or parents. My grandparents were from Chehalis, from my mother’s side. On my father’s side, they were living off reserves. I never really - never really got to know my grandparents from either mother or father. For the fact of being in the school and berry camp.
[Reg Phillips]: There’s so much in my life that when I was blinded by the pain and the sorrow, Blinded when I drank. And now to see that blindedness that I created could be undone.
[Clarence Pennier]: I quit drinking, and I waited for two years before I talked to Willie about accepting the gift. So that started the process of going through the ceremonies of making sure that I could get that gift. And have to go through different teachings and have older dancers talk to me about what it means to wear that mask and how I have to conduct myself and all the different things that we can do with it. You know, in terms of helping people, and it’s all it is, is to make sure we help people. Whether it’s for their funerals, whether it’s for their weddings, whether it’s for their naming ceremonies.
[Joseph Chapman]: But you really don’t realize like how much you’re hurting people until you sober up. And that’s when your work begins. You know, you know you’re hurting people, but the alcohol - it won’t let you stop. Unless you stop it. You know people can always say, :I’m going to sober up for this person and that person,” but you really gotta sober up for yourself. I hear it all the time, you know, how are you gonna, how are you gonna support your family? How are you gonna love family? How are you gonna do this, how are you gonna do that if you can’t even do it for yourself? ‘Cause if you’re not happy, you can’t make anybody else happy.
[John Williams, Sr.]: Nowadays, you have to teach your kids how to paddle and how to balance themselves on the canoe. We didn’t have to do that back in them days because you lived on the canoe.
[Reg Phillips]: The past can either imprison us, or set us free. That is our choice. And so, link that with the tremendous culture and customs and traditions that we have as Xwelmexw people. All of the sacred things that the people, the native people, do or live through like culture is a way of living. And I think just beginning to understand who we are and what we are and why we are. And I believe that last one, like why we are, what are we really here on this earth, at this time, for. And I really believe it has to do with a lot of healing. And they say if you can heal the mind, you can heal the body.
[Andy Phillips]: If we don’t have identity, we’ll just become assimilated to the Western world society. And if you look at a million people in Canada, Aboriginal to 30 million people together, you know that policy really almost wiped out our nation. We’ve survived all of what’s been thrown before us, so. I thought it’s very important that we, again, let our kids be part of something as a transition. That transformation. I want to be transformed into that true definition of an Indian.
[Vi Pennier]: Always keep an open mind. Nothing is really wrong, unless you make it wrong. Everything is precious. White or First Nations, is very, very precious.
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The first Roman Catholic priests visit S’ólh Téméxw, the Stó:lō World. Stó:lō people are curious about the priests’ spirituality. Several hundred Stó:lō are baptized while visiting Fort Langley.
Before the Xwelitem (European settlers) we were wealthy people. Diseases made the first major impact to our people. Later the governments took away our lands, our resources, and our ability to live as we always had. This is our colonial history which we are actively recovering from.
1846
America and Britain have been challenging one another’s right to control large sections of land across North America. Without consulting with First Nations communities, the two newcomer governments agree to create the international boundary at the 49th parallel.
1846-47
A.C. Anderson, an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), and Stó:lō guides explore a route linking the Thompson, Lillooet, and Lower Fraser Rivers so British fur traders can stay north of the international boundary.
1847
Measles, a highly contagious and deadly disease, hits the Fraser Valley.
1848
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) establishes Fort Hope and Fort Yale. They also build a fishing station at the mouth of the Chilliwack River.
1850
Another deadly measles epidemic hits the Fraser Valley.
1855
Breaches of treaty promises by the United States (US) government lead to a war between Coast Salish people and the US Army in Puget Sound. Stó:lō people tell the colonial government of British Columbia that they do not want a treaty like the one their American cousins received.
1858
Over 30,000 miners, most of them American veterans of the California gold rush of 1849, arrive on the lower Fraser and Thompson Rivers. Violence erupts and escalates into battles. Several Stó:lō and Nlaka’pamux villages are attacked and burned to the ground. Chiefs Liquitim of Yale and Spintlim of Lytton negotiate peace treaties with some of the American miners.
1858
British Columbia becomes a colony of Britain. James Douglas, formerly the Chief Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is appointed Governor. He proclaims Britain’s rule over these “wild and unoccupied lands”. The new colony includes Sq’éwlets tribal lands, S’ólh Téméxw, the Stó:lō World, and all of modern British Columbia.
1858
Steam boats traveling between Victoria and Port Douglas start making regular stops at Sq’éwlets to refuel. A post office is established at Sq’éwlets (which is briefly named “Carnarvon” by the settlers, after the Earl of Carnarvon). A hotel and saloon are opened at the steamboat landing next to Sq’éwlets homes.
1858
Joseph Trutch, an ambitious developer, receives a government contract to build the Harrison-Lillooet Road to help miners reach the gold fields.
1859
Charles Darwin publishes “On the Origin of Species” and introduces his theory of evolution.
1859
Governor James Douglas—whose wife is Métis from Manitoba—appoints Gold Commissioners and Stipendiary Magistrates throughout the colony. He instructs them to create Indian reserves so as to protect core Native land from arriving settlers.
1859
Governor James Douglas visits Sq’éwlets and proclaims that a town for non-Native settlers will be built here, near the Sq’éwlets longhouses. Sq’éwlets people carve the name “Carnarvon” onto one of the planks of their longhouse.
1859
American miner George Crum stops at Sq’éwlets and kidnaps the ten year old son of Sokolowictz (a member of the neighbouring Pilalt tribe). The family repeatedly tries to have the Hudson’s Bay Company and colonial government help them return their son. They are unsuccessful and Sokolowictz’s son eventually dies and is buried in a pioneer cemetery in Sacramento California under the name “Charles Crum”.
1860
Xwelítem (European settlers) start the commercial salmon canning industry at the mouth of the Fraser River. Some Stó:lō work at the canneries, but they have increasingly less control over the salmon resource as time goes on.
1861 (March)
Governor Douglas orders the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, Colonel R.C. Moody, to mark out the Indian reserves of the colony “as they may be severally pointed out by the Natives themselves.”
1861 (April)
Tensions are mounting between newly arriving settlers and Stó:lō people. Government surveyors are ordered to “mark on the ground with strong stakes and blazed trees all the land claimed on the Harrison River by the Indians, likewise all that they claim on the Fraser River from the mouth of the Harrison to Fort Langley.” The government agent specifically refers to the Sq’éwlets settlements “at the mouth of the Harrison River, both sides.” Subsequent instructions from Colonel Moody clarified that “the Indians shall put down the Stakes themselves” to mark their lands.
1862 (June)
Governor Douglas is upset to learn that none of the Indian Reserves on the Harrison or the lower Fraser Rivers have been marked out as he ordered. The First Nations are angry and upset. The Governor has been under the impression “that the work of marking out (not surveying) the Indian Reserves had been long ago carried out.” Despite Douglas’ anger, Colonel Moody (who is speculating on land himself) delays giving the directive to the surveyors working under his command to mark out the reserves.
1862
Invited by Governor Douglas, Roman Catholic missionaries establish St. Mary’s Residential School for boys at what is now Mission, B.C. Some Stó:lō cautiously send one or two of their children. Most students who attend the school over the next fifty years are orphans or illegitimate children. Starting in 1921 the Federal government enforces mandatory school attendance.
1862
A smallpox epidemic hits Victoria. First Nations visiting the town are sent home, thereby spreading the disease throughout the colony. Inoculation for this disease by Catholic priests protects most Stó:lō living in Solh Temexw, the Stó:lō World, against this particular epidemic.
1862 (December)
Catholic Priest Frère Leon Fouquet writes to Colonel Moody saying that Chief Kelapelatelia of Sq’éwlets (along with the chiefs of Sumas and Chehalis) would like stakes to put in the ground to mark their reserve lands. Moody refuses to comply.
1862
The Cariboo Wagon Road is built through the Fraser Canyon. Joseph Trutch is provided with the contract to build the Alexandria Bridge across the Canyon. He is helped by Captain John of Soowahlie. Trutch charges a toll to go across the bridge or under it in a canoe.
1863
St. Mary’s school complex is expanded to include a section for girls. It is run by the Sisters of St. Ann, an order of Roman Catholic nuns.
1863
Sq’éwlets people 'strongly protest' a pre-emption claim made by a settler named John Donnelly that was “within the limits of what they claimed...as their 'settlement'”.
1864
Kotlemeltre (also known as Kelapelatelia, Skolremeltroo, Scultlaamento, and Scǔlt-lā-ment) is Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1864 (March)
A Stó:lō delegation visits Governor Douglas and demands that their reserves finally be marked out and protected. Governor Douglas sends the surveyor William McColl to meet with Stó:lō communities in the central Fraser Valley and demarcate Indian reserves. Sq’éwlets is left out.
1864 (May)
Frederick Seymour becomes Governor of British Columbia. Joseph Trutch becomes Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, despite his conflict of interest stemming from his control of the Alexandria toll bridge. Tribes that have reserves mapped by McColl tell Seymour they are pleased with their lands and ask him to protect them. Governor Seymour promises to protect their lands.
1866
The very first telegraph line in what is now western Canada reaches Solh Temexw, the Stó:lō World, from Washington Territory.
1866
Skolremeltroo is Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1867
British North American Act establishes Canada as a nation. The colony of British Columbia is not involved in the planning and remains an independent until 1871.
1867
Joseph Trutch and Governor Frederick Seymour (who replaced James Douglas) reduce the central valley Stó:lō reserves created by McColl by 92%.
1868 Reserve Creation
B.W. Pearse, a surveyor for the B.C. colonial government, surveys the first Sq’éwlets Indian reserve. It is 330 acres.
Our traditional maps were created through our experiences on the land, held in our minds, and passed along through the memories of our Elders. Families knew every inch of the rivers we paddled and the forests we walked. Xwelítem would draw our lands on paper and carve out spaces called Indian Reserves that divided and separated us.
1871
British Columbia joins the nation of Canada. Joseph Trutch becomes Lieutenant Governor of the new province.
1870
Captain John Scultlaamento of Sq’éwlets is appointed Chief after some confusion during which Culkithl had earlier been recognized by the B.C. government as Chief.
1872
A smallpox outbreak hits parts of British Columbia.
1874
Chief Scǔlt-lā-ment (Captain John) travels to Hope to meet with 109 other chiefs to discuss their dissatisfaction with the size of their Indian reserves. They write “We consider that 80 acres per family is absolutely necessary for our support, and for the future welfare of our children. We declare that 20 or 30 acres of land per family will not give satisfaction, but will create ill feelings, irritation amongst our people, and we cannot say what will be the consequence.” They also complain that it is unjust that they must pay Joseph Trutch a toll for travelling under the Alexandria Bridge on the river of their ancestors in their canoes.
1875
Many Sq’éwlets men start finding work in the local sawmill and in the logging industry.
1876 Indian Act
Displacement (Gwen Point)
[Gwen Point]: So if you know anything when you hear, ‘specially the traditional names, my traditional name is Shóyshqwelwhet. That was given to me by my father’s grandfather - my father’s father. And, if you know that, you’ll know that I’m displaced. Because my name should come from my mother’s side of the family. It shouldn’t come from my father’s side of the family. My name should come through my mother’s mother’s mother’s line. But because we were displaced through government policies, where if you married you had to move to your husband’s reserve. In our tradition, if you married, the husband moved to the wife’s reserve. So, my mother was displaced at Ts'a'í:les, and when I was married I was displaced at Ts'elxwéyeqw, today known as Chilliwack. So when people hear my name though, they know that it comes from my father’s family, which is still wrong. But the way my grandmother put it is because she raised us. She claimed us, she raised us. As she would her daughter’s children. We’re matrilineal. So, my sister was named after her, my father’s mother. And she’s the one who raised us, and where we learned our history. Our local history plus, um, our history about our ceremonies. She was also fluent in all the surrounding languages. Not just Halkomelem, but she could speak Hul'q'umi'num', and she understood Hul'q'umi'num'. But she also spoke what she called the Thompson language, Nłeʔkepmx. She could speak all the surrounding languages. So I was fortunate, like some of my other siblings and cousins, to be raised with those stories. And I really want people to know that that’s where my knowledge comes from.As well as I’d like to encourage young people, to learn. To learn those stories, but more important to share them.
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We suffered many losses with the coming of Xwelitem (European settlers). This section talks about the Indian Act and how it profoundly affected our way of life. It changed our ways of governing ourselves, our ideas of property, and our relationship to our lands and waterways.
1876
Stó:lō leaders present Governor General Dufferin with a petition during his visit from Ottawa to British Columbia.
1878
Stó:lō Chiefs are upset by the Lieutenant Governor’s throne speech, in which he declares that the Land Commission is going to be dissolved.
1879
The Stó:lō tribes design a self-government model and present it to Indian Reserve Commissioner G.M. Sproat. Their vision of self-governance would unite the lower Fraser First Nations together. The government rejects this fearing that once formally united, the Stó:lō would be too strong a political body and a threat to their colonial power.
1879
Indian Reserve Commissioner G.M. Sproat creates the shared “five mile fishery” reserve in the Fraser Canyon as a resource to be shared by all the Stó:lō people.
1879
Chief Scult-la-ment (Captain John) visits Commissioner Sproat and tells him that “'his peoples' place [was] sunk in water.” Captain John wanted different land for the Sq’éwlets reserve land that was higher and dry, had cedar timber, and that stretched back to Mount Woodside. He also wanted the cemetery across the river included as reserve, as well as a fishing site on the river. Sproat agreed, but could not formally survey the lands at the time due to the flooding.
1880
St. Mary’s is the smallest residential school in the province with only 12 boys and 26 girls registered.
1881
The government creates the Lower Fraser River Indian Agency as an administrative district. Sq’éwlets is part of this agency. Measles and the deadly scarlet fever break out in the Fraser Valley.
1881
Indian Reserve Commissioner Peter O’Reilly (the brother-in-law of Joseph Trutch) meets with Captain John and then increases the size of the original 1868 Sq’éwlets reserve. However, he denies the legitimacy of the agreement reached between Captain John and Sproat in 1879. Indian Reserve 2, across the Harrison River at the graveyard, is also added by O’Reilly. O’Reilly, who has a reputation for misrepresenting Native people, reports that there are 38 people living at Sq’éwlets and that they are satisfied with their new reserve boundaries.
1882
Indian Agent McTiernan reports that the Sq’éwlets people have come to him on several occasions complaining about the reserve boundaries laid out by O’Reilly. They want the reserve boundaries earlier agreed to by Reserve Commissioner Sproat.
1882
The federal government appoints four men from the Yale First Nation as constables. This is the first time Stó:lō people are recognized as police officers.
1883
Anthropologist Franz Boas interviews Stó:lō Elder George Chehalis.
1883
The Fraser River floods.
1884
A Stó:lō boy named Louie Sam from Sumas is lynched by Americans on the Canadian side of the international border. Stó:lō people gather in Chilliwack to decide how to respond. They consider going across the border and killing the 120 Americans (allegedly) in the lynch mob.
1884
The federal government amends the Indian Act to outlaw the potlatch and Winter Dance ceremonies.
1884
Chief Scult-la-ment intercepts Peter O’Reilly as the commissioner was passing Sq’éwlets. The Chief convinces him to enlarge the reserve to include both drier forested land as well as Squawkum Creek (Indian Reserve #3), 375 acres on the western bank of Harrison Bay.
1885
The Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) runs through Sq’éwlets reserve lands.
1887
United States government passes the Dawes Act. This policy allows Indian reservations to be divided into 160 acre plots and distributed to individual families, who could then sell them. Left over lands were immediately open to purchase by non-Natives. Canadian First Nations are concerned that this will happen in Canada.
1887
Bronchitis (a respiratory disease) kills many people from Sq’éwlets and neighbouring Chehalis.
1888
Smallpox outbreak.
1890
An influenza outbreak kills approximately one member of each Stó:lō family.
1894
A major Fraser River flood puts Sq’éwlets under water.
1894
Coqualeetza Day School, operated by the Methodist Church in Sardis, is expanded into a residential school.
1895
A local ethnographer named Charles Hill-Tout meets Patrick Joe and Chief Casimir of the Sq’éwlets community and conducts interviews about Sq’éwlets culture and history.
1896
Bill Uslick, a Stó:lō man, is the first person convicted under the anti-potlatch law of 1884. He serves two months in prison.
1896-98
Klondike Gold Rush.
1897
Casimir becomes Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1901
The Harrison Mills public school is built on the Sq’éwlets reserve. However, it was primarily used for the children of white men working in the local mill.
1903
First flight of fixed wing aircraft in United States.
1904
A Sq’éwlets man named James is recorded in the government records as having a dairy farm with 12 cows.
1913
First Nations protest over the tiny size of their reserves and for not being compensated for lands outside of their reserves taken up by Xwelítem (European settlers). In response, the government creates a special reserve commission to study the issue. Chief Joe Hall testifies before the McKenna-McBride Commission and demands that Aboriginal title be recognized. He states that Governor James Douglas promised the land outside reserves would be like a fruit tree benefitting Natives and non-Natives alike, and that Governor Frederick Seymour promised the Stó:lō people 1/3 of all resources from the development of lands outside reserves. Chief Hall also requests equipment and training for the community so they can improve their farming. He says that children at St. Mary’s school need better medical care. He remembered the poor health conditions from when he was a student there and so sent his own children to Sechelt residential school.
1914
Canadian National Railway causes a massive landslide in the Fraser Canyon at Hell’s Gate that dramatically decreases salmon stocks.
1914-18
First World War.
1914
Nine Stó:lō men volunteer to serve in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in the Great War in Europe.
1919
Chief Joe Hall petitions the government to allow Sq’éwlets to sell portions of their reserve land so they can raise money to support Elders. The land is sold to local farmers, though oral histories suggest it was meant to go to returning World War I veterans.
1920
A vigilante mob in Chilliwack led by Constable Harding beats Pat Tommy, a Stó:lō man, to death.
1920
The federal government bans the use of dipnets for salmon fishing on Fraser River, the traditional Stó:lō method of fishing.
1920
The last outbreak of smallpox to affect Stó:lō people occurs. There are relatively few casualties due to earlier vaccination efforts.
1921
Chief Joe Hall sends a telegram to the Minister of Indian Affairs, Duncan Campbell Scott, saying he wants permission to cut dead timber for pulp wood on the north side of the Canadian Pacific Railway line. He notes that the Sq’éwlets people are out of work and starving.
1927
The Indian Act is amended to prohibit First Nations from raising funds to hire lawyers to pursue land claims.
1928
Penicillin antibiotic qualities used for medicinal purposes.
1929-39
Great Depression.
1933
Stó:lō workers stage a strike at the Agassiz hop yards about their poor working conditions.
1935
A special sanatorium building is built at the Coqualeetza residential school to house tuberculosis patients.
1938
The Canadian government takes over responsibility for Indian Reserve lands from the provincial government.
1938
First Programmable Computer in Germany.
1940
Coqualeetza Residential School closes. The following year the Coqualeetza Hospital opens. Indian hospitals, like Coqualeetza, were funded and operated by the federal government, unlike other hospitals that were provincially run.
1939-1945
Second World War.
1945
First atomic bomb exploded (USA) and used to bomb the people of Japan.
1947
Radiocarbon dating invented by Willard Libby.
1948
The Fraser River floods.
1949-1997
Cold War between Soviet Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) led by the United States.
1951
After sustained protest by First Nations, the Indian Act is amended to remove the anti-potlatch and anti-winter dance provisions.
1954
Leonard Hall replaces Joe Hall as Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1955-1973
Vietnam War.
1957
First Personal computer IBM 610.
1958
Joe Pennier replaces Leonard Hall as Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1961
Federal legislation allows Aboriginal Peoples to vote in federal elections for the first time.
1962
Johnny Phillips replaces Joe Pennier as Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1965
Elsie Phillips replaces Johnny Phillips as Chief to become the first female chief of Sq’éwlets.
1966
Richard Williams replaces Elsie Phillips as Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1968
John L. Hall replaces Richard Williams as Chief of Sq’éwlets.
1969
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs is formed in response to the federal government’s proposal to do away with Indian status and rights.
1970
A new Stó:lō longhouse for winter dancing is built.
1979
Clarence (Kat) Pennier is elected chief of Sq’éwlets.
1982
Canadian Constitution acknowledges "existing" Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada.
1985
Stó:lō Tribal Council and Stó:lō Nation Canada are both formed.
1990
Internet introduced to the public.
1992
Chief Clarence Pennier invites archaeologists to conduct research at Qithyil, forming the Sq’éwlets Archaeological Project. Intensive fieldwork is done with Sq’éwlets community members until 1999.
Excavations begin with the ancestor mounds at Qithyil. Field school in 1992 is run by Dr. Michael Blake of University of British Columbia, with support from Sq’éwlets and Stó:lō Nation.
1993 - 1996
Sq’éwlets archeology project focuses on excavating ancestor mounds and ancient houses at Qithyil. Field schools in 1992 and 1995 are run by Michael Blake from the University of British Columbia, with support from Sq’éwlets and Stó:lō Nation. Field project at the Qithyil wet site in 1993 run by Kathryn Bernick and overseen by Michael Blake, both of the University of British Columbia.
1997 - 1999
Sq’éwlets archaeology project continues to focus on ancestor mounds across the landscape of Harrison Knob and the ancient houses at Qithyil. Field schools are run in 1997, 1998, and 1999 by Dr. Dana Lepofsky of Simon Fraser University, and in 1998 jointly with University of British Columbia, all with support from by Sq’éwlets and Stó:lō Nation.
1999
Planning for the Reciprocal Research Network Project begins, spearheaded by the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.
2005
Development of the Reciprocal Research Network is underway. Partners include the Museum of Anthropology and Laboratory of Archaeology at the University of British Columbia, Stó:lō Nation, Stó:lō Tribal Council, Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre, Musqueam Indian Band, and U'mista Cultural Society.
2005 - 2006
Fraser Valley Archaeology Project focuses on mapping and test excavating house features on Qithiyl Island. The Qithyil field project is run by David Schaepe, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and Stó:lō Nation.
2009
New Sq’éwlets Health Centre and Band Office, playground, and sports fields built.
2010
Reciprocal Research Network is launched (www.rrncommunity.org).
2010
Opening ceremony for Sq’éwlets Health Centre and Band Office.
2011
Sovereignty in Heritage Project begins, which in turn stimulates the idea of reconnecting the Sq’éwlets community to ancestral belongings collected from the archaeology projects of 1992-1999. Collections from Qithyil are housed at University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and Stó:lō Nation. Our goal is to digitize the belongings in order to upload them to the Reciprocal Research Network and reunite them in an online platform.
2012
Sq’éwlets Digitization Project begins the process of reuniting collections of belongings from Qithyil. This work is undertaken by University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Sq’éwlets and Stó:lō Nation, and Ursus Heritage Consulting.
2013 Repatriation
Repatriation (Dave Schaepe)
[Dave Schaepe]: The Sq’éwlets community has -- with the current chief of council -- have in the past couple of years been involved in, again, repatriation and particularly ancestral remains from the Museum of Vancouver in Vancouver. And three -- the remains of three individuals -- actually, one at the Lab of Archaeology at UBC, and two from the Museum of Vancouver being returned physically. So the participation in that process, too, is, you know, it's connected to archaeology, it's connected to the heritage -- very individually to the remains of individuals who lived here in the past.
[Scene from repatriation ceremony inside of Museum of Vancouver, followed by a procession carrying ancestral remains in bentwood boxes out of the Museum of Vancouver].
To reunite and consider how to do the things properly in terms of treatment of very sensitive things, particularly those two individuals from those mounds are going to be soon taking their next step with community input as to what exactly to do with them for their final resting place.
So in the meantime, though, information was gathered and gained through analyses and with community oversight so that it's complementary information, it's useful information about who those individuals are and that's used to inform the community about the process for taking care of them.
[Scene outside of the Museum of Vancouver, at the conclusion of the repatriation ceremony]
[Naxaxalhts’i ‘Sonny’ McHalsie]: We are going to continue our journey now back home how. So our hands go up to our Musqueam brothers helping us with the work here as well and also to the Museum of Vancouver. Everyone is invited to join us as well. We are going to bring our ancestors home to Chilliwack. We are going to share a lunch.
So hopefully if any of you can make it, you are welcome to come and join us as well. We are asking our pallbearers, drummers, cedar brushers to finish our work when we get home. So our work isn't done here yet today.
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As Stó:lõ people, we have to take care of everything that belongs to us. Many of our belongings were taken away during our recent history. We are now bringing home many of our belongings, as well as our ancestors. This process of repatriation helps us know who we are as Stó:lõ people and where we are going.
2013
Sq’éwlets Virtual Museum of Canada Project proposal developed and submitted by partners from Sq’éwlets First Nation, Stó:lō Nation, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, Ursus Heritage Consulting, Popgun Media, University of Saskatoon and University of Victoria. The proposal is accepted and begins with a kick-off at Sq’éwlets in October. For the next three years, we conduct a series of intensive workshops and culture camps at Sq’éwlets to develop, create, and verify content for the website.
2016
Sq’éwlets website launched.
Reserve Creation
The first Xwelítem (European settlers) passed through our lands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Fur traders George Vancouver and Simon Fraser, who sought to collect furs for trade and make maps of our lands and resources, came through in 1792 and 1808. Soon after, more Xwelítem began to settle. The first men of the Hudson’s Bay Company arrived to trade in 1827. The British planted a flag in S’ólh Téméxw, our Stó:lō world, and declared their ownership of the Colony of British Columbia in 1858. After that, the Fraser Canyon gold rush brought thousands of settlers who were interested in our lands and surveyors whose maps showed what riches were there.
The rush of new settlers created pressure for space through the 1860s. This created problems in our relationship with Xwelítem. Until this time, we had lived relatively peacefully with the newcomers. Now, Britain and the new nation of Canada developed a policy to govern us – “benevolent assimilation”. They sought to make us just like the settlers at the same time as taking away our lands for Xwelítem to settle and our resources for them to use. Government surveyors staked out small Indian Reserves along the Harrison River as spaces for us to live. Our first reserve was established in 1868 when Cul-kithl was our Chief, or Siyá:m. It totaled 330 acres. Two more small reserves were later assigned. The government “officially” called us the Scowlitz Indian Band.
Together, all Stó:lō reserves equal less than 1/10th of one percent of the lands of S’ólh Téméxw, our world. Our traditional lands were never ceded, surrendered or lost. We never agreed to the Xwelítem’s use of our lands. Colonial and later Federal Governments broke their promises. We voiced our concerns. We asked - how did the government get our land? What happened to our traditional rights? Today our leaders continue to fight for our rights regarding the ‘Land Question’, to regain our traditional lands.
Scowlitz Reserve 1868, First recorded reserve at Sq'éwlets.
Scowlitz Reserve 1881: Rough Plan of Scowlitz I.R. 1 and I.R. 2
Scowlitz Reserve 1884: Squawkum Creek I.R. 3
Repatriation
Repatriation (Dave Schaepe)
[Dave Schaepe]: The Sq’éwlets community has -- with the current chief of council -- have in the past couple of years been involved in, again, repatriation and particularly ancestral remains from the Museum of Vancouver in Vancouver. And three -- the remains of three individuals -- actually, one at the Lab of Archaeology at UBC, and two from the Museum of Vancouver being returned physically. So the participation in that process, too, is, you know, it's connected to archaeology, it's connected to the heritage -- very individually to the remains of individuals who lived here in the past.
[Scene from repatriation ceremony inside of Museum of Vancouver, followed by a procession carrying ancestral remains in bentwood boxes out of the Museum of Vancouver].
To reunite and consider how to do the things properly in terms of treatment of very sensitive things, particularly those two individuals from those mounds are going to be soon taking their next step with community input as to what exactly to do with them for their final resting place.
So in the meantime, though, information was gathered and gained through analyses and with community oversight so that it's complementary information, it's useful information about who those individuals are and that's used to inform the community about the process for taking care of them.
[Scene outside of the Museum of Vancouver, at the conclusion of the repatriation ceremony]
[Naxaxalhts’i ‘Sonny’ McHalsie]: We are going to continue our journey now back home how. So our hands go up to our Musqueam brothers helping us with the work here as well and also to the Museum of Vancouver. Everyone is invited to join us as well. We are going to bring our ancestors home to Chilliwack. We are going to share a lunch.
So hopefully if any of you can make it, you are welcome to come and join us as well. We are asking our pallbearers, drummers, cedar brushers to finish our work when we get home. So our work isn't done here yet today.
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In our language we say xyolhmet te mekw stam it kw’elat – we have to take care of everything that belongs to us. Many of our belongings were taken away during our recent history. This includes our syewelá:lh (ancestors’) belongings as well as our language and knowledge. It also includes our physical remains from our ancient graves. To take care of what belongs to us we are working at qà:qwèl stexw, to bring back and return many things. This means ‘to repatriate’. It is important to bring home our belongings, our culture and our history so that we know who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. The more we bring back the stronger we become. As a strong community we are able to take care of what belongs to us.
In 2013, we brought home the physical remains and belongings of some of our Sq’éwlets ancestors. These ancestors included the partial skeletal remains of an adult female, an adult male, returned by the Museum of Vancouver, and a baby. In 1933, the remains of the man, woman and their belongings were dug from the ancestor mounds in anancient Qithyil cemetery by a provincial work crew looking for trophies and treasures. This location is pictured in the banner to the section of this site called ‘Our Past is Our Future’. Their skulls and some of the ancestor’s belongings were turned over to the Museum of Vancouver shortly after having been taken from their resting place.
Our male ancestor was a man who was at least 46 years old, as old as we can tell from anyone’s bones. He was put to rest with dentalium shell beads and copper in his mouth, a sign of his importance and high standing. He had severe arthritis, which fused his upper seven vertebrae in his neck directly to his skull. He clearly had to be cared for during the many years he lived in this condition. Our female ancestor was also laid to rest with copper on her face, representing her importance and high standing within our culture. They both died and, as highly respected people, were put to rest in large ancestor mounds about 1,200 years ago. Now they have come back home to rest. Through this repatriation, we are taking care of our culture. Bringing home our syewelá:lh, our ancestors, helps our community to heal.
Indian Act Rights & Title
Displacement (Gwen Point)
[Gwen Point]: So if you know anything when you hear, ‘specially the traditional names, my traditional name is Shóyshqwelwhet. That was given to me by my father’s grandfather - my father’s father. And, if you know that, you’ll know that I’m displaced. Because my name should come from my mother’s side of the family. It shouldn’t come from my father’s side of the family. My name should come through my mother’s mother’s mother’s line. But because we were displaced through government policies, where if you married you had to move to your husband’s reserve. In our tradition, if you married, the husband moved to the wife’s reserve. So, my mother was displaced at Ts'a'í:les, and when I was married I was displaced at Ts'elxwéyeqw, today known as Chilliwack. So when people hear my name though, they know that it comes from my father’s family, which is still wrong. But the way my grandmother put it is because she raised us. She claimed us, she raised us. As she would her daughter’s children. We’re matrilineal. So, my sister was named after her, my father’s mother. And she’s the one who raised us, and where we learned our history. Our local history plus, um, our history about our ceremonies. She was also fluent in all the surrounding languages. Not just Halkomelem, but she could speak Hul'q'umi'num', and she understood Hul'q'umi'num'. But she also spoke what she called the Thompson language, Nłeʔkepmx. She could speak all the surrounding languages. So I was fortunate, like some of my other siblings and cousins, to be raised with those stories. And I really want people to know that that’s where my knowledge comes from.As well as I’d like to encourage young people, to learn. To learn those stories, but more important to share them.
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In 1876, the Government of Canada passed a law called the Indian Act. At this time, our people had already suffered greatly from the smallpox epidemics and the missionaries. The Indian Act applied to Sq’éwlets and all other Aboriginal people in Canada. Its aim was to destroy our unique culture and rights. It also aimed to force us to live and act and think like the Xwelítem (European settlers). The Indian Act is still in place today, and has caused great losses to our people.
Sturgeon Mask Dance (Naxaxalhts\'i "Sonny" McHalsie)
View Transcript[Naxaxalhts’i ‘Sonny’ McHalsie]: We did have a lot of masks around here. Like right now the only masks that survived is the sxwóyxwey. That’s why it’s so sacred to us, is because that’s the one that survived. But we did have more here, because the late Peter Dennis Peters, He said that what had happened was the missionaries, the priests, asked everyone to bring their masks up to Yale. And they didn’t know what was going to happen to them. They got up to Yale, and the priests started a bonfire. And they burned all of the masks. Right, so the only mask that survived then was the sxwóyxwey. All the rest of them were burned. And so when I look at some of these groups now, like the spindle whorl dancers that are coming up with these different stories with masks, I really think that we need to do that; we need to bring that part back. You know, because when you look at all the different oral histories, the stories, like especially the stories about ancestors that were transformed, I’m quite certain that in the past we probably had a dance that went along with it. Because I know like Ralph George and Les Fraser, the story that [scho-ham-oway] talked earlier about the man and woman that were transformed into sturgeon, they had a dance that was like a sturgeon dance, where they had a mask that looked like a sturgeon, they had regalia that looked like the back of a sturgeon, and when they did the dance they actually did it down by the water. And when they were singing their song, they actually walked into the water and walked back out of the water, because that was part of the dance. And that was the sturgeon mask dance.
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Through this Act, Canada defines who we are as ‘Indians’ with special ‘Indian Status’ registered to an Indian Band. Through the Act, the government defined small parcels of land called Indian Reserves, which many of us still live on today. The Act sets out how we are to govern ourselves in a way that is foreign to our traditions. It controls nearly every aspect of our lives. For example, in 1864, the Anti-Potlatch Law banned us from meeting to discuss our rights to the land. In 1929, the government banned us from hiring lawyers to help protect our rights. For many decades, all of our decisions had to be approved by an ‘Indian Agent’, including permission to leave our reserve.
The Indian Act took much away, but it did not succeed in assimilating us, because we still exist as Stó:lō people today. We have managed to keep our culture and know our histories. We are still fighting for our lands and resources. The Canadian Constitution now recognizes our Aboriginal Rights. Our Elders continue to teach our youth what it means to be Sq’éwlets, Stó:lō and Xwelmexw, people of the land. We share our teachings with our neighbours to create understanding and live together in a good way. Much of our history, including our losses, would not otherwise be known to Xwelítem.
Our Colonial History
Our Sq’éwlets community traditionally had wealth and influence. Our lands were rich in resources. We formed close ties with other Stó:lõ tribes throughout the region. These things would change with the coming of the Xwelítem (European settlers).
Our Past Is Our Future
View Transcript[Andy Phillips]: So Sq'éwlets is one of 24 communities in Stó:lō. I’m proud to say that we’re a small community, and we’re a healing community. And you can see the pride in some of the families now. It’s really good to see that transition, and I’m glad to be part of that.
[Reg Phillips]: It wasn’t cool to be a native, when I was young. There was a lot of prejudice and a lot of discrimination. And there were a lot of things that I really didn’t understand at the time, about a lot of things. I told my mom I would try residential school. Well they brought me, they dropped me off.
[Vi Pennier]: My experience there was just like... everything was punishment.
[Clarence Pennier]: When I was six, going on seven. I was taken from the Sardis hopyards to St. Mary’s school in Mission. You know in grade 12, that first morning I got on the school bus outside the res. And looked at all these brown faces. I really never knew who they were. But they were from Chehalis, and they were a number of them were my cousins. But I didn’t know that because I spent time in the school all the time. And down in the states berry picking. So that’s how I grew up without any real teachings handed down through my grandparents or parents. My grandparents were from Chehalis, from my mother’s side. On my father’s side, they were living off reserves. I never really - never really got to know my grandparents from either mother or father. For the fact of being in the school and berry camp.
[Reg Phillips]: There’s so much in my life that when I was blinded by the pain and the sorrow, Blinded when I drank. And now to see that blindedness that I created could be undone.
[Clarence Pennier]: I quit drinking, and I waited for two years before I talked to Willie about accepting the gift. So that started the process of going through the ceremonies of making sure that I could get that gift. And have to go through different teachings and have older dancers talk to me about what it means to wear that mask and how I have to conduct myself and all the different things that we can do with it. You know, in terms of helping people, and it’s all it is, is to make sure we help people. Whether it’s for their funerals, whether it’s for their weddings, whether it’s for their naming ceremonies.
[Joseph Chapman]: But you really don’t realize like how much you’re hurting people until you sober up. And that’s when your work begins. You know, you know you’re hurting people, but the alcohol - it won’t let you stop. Unless you stop it. You know people can always say, :I’m going to sober up for this person and that person,” but you really gotta sober up for yourself. I hear it all the time, you know, how are you gonna, how are you gonna support your family? How are you gonna love family? How are you gonna do this, how are you gonna do that if you can’t even do it for yourself? ‘Cause if you’re not happy, you can’t make anybody else happy.
[John Williams, Sr.]: Nowadays, you have to teach your kids how to paddle and how to balance themselves on the canoe. We didn’t have to do that back in them days because you lived on the canoe.
[Reg Phillips]: The past can either imprison us, or set us free. That is our choice. And so, link that with the tremendous culture and customs and traditions that we have as Xwelmexw people. All of the sacred things that the people, the native people, do or live through like culture is a way of living. And I think just beginning to understand who we are and what we are and why we are. And I believe that last one, like why we are, what are we really here on this earth, at this time, for. And I really believe it has to do with a lot of healing. And they say if you can heal the mind, you can heal the body.
[Andy Phillips]: If we don’t have identity, we’ll just become assimilated to the Western world society. And if you look at a million people in Canada, Aboriginal to 30 million people together, you know that policy really almost wiped out our nation. We’ve survived all of what’s been thrown before us, so. I thought it’s very important that we, again, let our kids be part of something as a transition. That transformation. I want to be transformed into that true definition of an Indian.
[Vi Pennier]: Always keep an open mind. Nothing is really wrong, unless you make it wrong. Everything is precious. White or First Nations, is very, very precious.
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Smallpox hit our community hard in 1782. Within a short five weeks approximately 80-90% of the Sq’éwlets people were dead. Survivors struggled to deal with the tragic loss of their families and friends. They also struggled to understand what had happened. The disease arrived through trade networks from the south long before the first Xwelítem visited the region. We slowly rebuilt our community, drawing on the strength of our traditions and the support of our families.
Yet, other changes beyond our control were about to occur. In the 1820s the Hudson Bay Company built a post at Fort Langley. In 1858 over 30,000 miners (mostly single male Americans) rushed into Stó:lõ territory to mine gold in the Fraser Canyon. These events posed major challenges to Sq’éwlets leaders and their control of the lives and resources of our people.
Despite promises from British Columbia’s first colonial governor, James Douglas, within a decade we were confined to a small reserve. The Xwelítem had control of the resources in our territory. The Canadian government passed laws that did not allow us to hold naming ceremonies and winter dances. They passed more laws that did not allow us to sell the salmon we caught.
Through the 20th century, our people struggled to live within an ever growing list of restrictive laws. Still, we found ways to preserve our valued traditions while adapting and succeeding in aspects of the new world and society. Today, our Sq’éwlets people are coming back strong. We are creating new relationships with British Columbian and Canadian society. These are based on true respect and our goal to reconcile the past. For the first time in nearly two centuries, our people are regaining the ability to lead ourselves and to manage our own lands and resources.
