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The Squamish First Nation are a major Salishan-speaking people of southwestern British Columbia. Their main reserves are near the town of Squamish, British Columbia and at the mouths of the Capilano River, Mosquito Creek , and Seymour Creek in the Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The Squamish Nation is an amalgamation of various Squamish speaking villages into one political unit: Sḵwx̱wú7meshulh Uxwumixw (the Squamish Nation).
Language
The Squamish language, written Skwxwú7mesh snichim in the official writing system of the Squamish Nation, is a Coast Salish language most closely related to Shishalh (Sechelt), and Sḵ'emin'em (Musqueam, Nanaimo, Cowichan, Chilliwack dialects of Halkemeylem) and Xwsa7k (Nooksack). They are closely related to the Burrard Band or Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, who reside further east on Burrard Inlet, and have family connections to the Musqueam who reside on the southern edge of the city of Vancouver. The Skwxwu7mesh-ulh's neighbours on the north are the Lil'wat people, also known as the Lower Lillooet, the main southern branch of the St'at'imc (also known as the Lillooet). Both Squamish and Lil'wat are co-hosts of the 2010 Olympic Games, as the community of Whistler hosting those games straddles the boundary between their traditional territories in the area of the upper Cheakamus River.
"Squamish" is the modern name for the Skwxwu7mesh-ulh people.
History
The Squamish were the first mainland British Columbia aboriginal people known to have met Europeans, entering Howe Sound in 1792 near St'a7mes, the village near the town of Squamish. St'a7mes is where the English name Stawamus is derived from and is also where the name of the St'a7mes Siy'am' (the Squamish Chief) comes from.
In Pauline Johnson's Legends of Vancouver two French priests - Jesuits by dress as described in the Squamish history taught her by Chief Joe Matthias - aboard a Russian trading vessel moored in English Bay and afflicted by scurvy were given a talisman by the chief of the Burrard Inlet to help thwart off the disease and replenish the drained life energy of the crew. The chief told the priests that they had heard of the great French chief Bonaparte, and that they should give the talisman to him and he should always have it with him. The talisman was a vertebra from the Sisiutl, the great double-headed serpent which spanned the First Narrows and was slain by a hero of the Squamish people. Johnson's account of the legend goes on to say that tradition has it that Napoleon lost it on the morning of Waterloo.
The language used to communicate between the priests and the Squamish is not known but should be presumed to be the early phase of the Chinook Jargon, as it is unlikely the Jesuits had time to master the complexities and phonological difficulties of the Squamish language. No Jesuit record exists of such a voyage.
Many other place names in southwestern British Columbia are derived from Squamish words or names. Kitsilano neighbourhood, for example, of Vancouver is named after a Squamish chief, Xats'alanexw (Khatsahlano a.k.a. August Jack)
Reserves
The Squamish Nation is made up of sixteen bands in the following Indian Reserves:
- Ustlawn I.R. #1 (Mission)
- Ch'ch'Elxwikw I.R. #1 (Seymour)
- Homulchsen I.R. #5 (Capilano)
- Senakw I.R. #6 (Kitsilano)
- Skowishin I.R. #7
- Poyam I.R. #9
- Cheakamus I.R. #11
- Yookwitz I.R. #12
- Poquiosin I.R. #13
- Waiwakum I.R. #14 (Brackendale)
- Seaichem I.R. #16
- Kowtain I.R #17
- Stawamus I.R. #24
- Chekwelp I.R. #26
- Sxaaltxw I.R. #27 (Shelter Island)
- K'ik'elxen I.R. #28 (Port Mellon)
External links
First Nations in British Columbia | History of British Columbia
"Squamish First Nation"