Klahoose

The ƛoʔos Klahoose are one of the three groups comprising the 'ʔayʔaǰuθəm Tla'Amin or Mainland Comox. The other two divisions of this once-populous group are the χʷɛmaɬku Homalco and Sliammon (which is a corruption of "Tla A'min"). The Klahoose, Homalco and Sliammon are, according to oral tradition, the descendants of the survivors of the Great Flood.[1] The three groups were split by colonialism into different band councils but united historically as the Tla A'min, known as the Mainland Comox, and K’ómoks, the larger grouping of the Comox people, also known as the Island Comox and before the merger with the Laich-kwil-tach culture (which were known as the Sahtloot). Historically both groups are a subgroup of the Coast Salish though the K’ómoks name is from, and their language today, is the Lik'wala (Southern Kwakiutl) dialect of Kwak'wala. The ancestral tongue is the Comox language, though the Sahtloot/Island dialect is extinct.

The Klahoose are governed by the Klahoose First Nation and their main community is also called Klahoose, which is located at the head of Toba Inlet. Before the Laich-kwil-tach migration to the Campbell River area, Klahoose traditional territory extended from there to Cortes Island though the latter is now also claimed by the Kwiakah, one of the four main groupings of the Laich-kwil-tach.

Klahoose, the main Village for the Nation, is located at Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island has been growing over the years has a Health Centre, and 15,000 sq.ft, Multipurpose Building. The Multipurpose Building was built in 2010 and includes a health wing, fitness center, language lab, kitchen facilities and a three hundred person 'great room'.

The Klahoose First Nation has no year-round road access to a service centre and, as a result, experiences a higher cost of transportation. Serviced by BC Ferries, ferry connector service from Vancouver Island to Quadra Island and then Cortes Island.

Klahoose, at Squirrel Cove is home to approximately seventy-five full-time residents who live and work in the surrounding areas. The remaining Klahoose people, approximately three hundred, reside off reserve in BC coastal communities , lower mainland and in Washington State.