Musqueam Indian Band

The Musqueam Indian Band (Halkomelem: xʷməθkʷəy̓əm IPA: [xʷməθkʷəjˀəm]) is a First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia and is the only First Nations band whose reserve community lies within the boundaries of the City of Vancouver.

Musqueam Indian Band

xʷməθkʷəy̓əm

Musqueam
Territory of the Musqueam Indian Band
CountryCanada
ProvinceBritish Columbia
Government
  TypeBand council
  ChiefWayne Sparrow
  Councillors
Area
  Total1,448.88 km2 (559.42 sq mi)
Time zoneUTC-8 (PST)
  Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)
Postal code span
V3H, V3J–N, V3V
V4C, V4K, V4G
V5- to V7-
Area code(s)604, 778
Ethnic groupsCoast Salish
LanguagesHalkomelem, English
Websitewww.musqueam.bc.ca
Members of the Musqueam Indian Band near Vancouver, British Columbia, with their chief and Coast Salish style house post in background.

Name

The name Musqueam relates back to the flowering plant, məθkʷəy̓, which grows in the Fraser River estuary. There is a sχʷəy̓em̓ that has been passed on from generation to generation that explains how they became known as the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm – People of the məθkʷəy̓ plant. Their name is one of the ways that their historical connection to the land is highlighted. The old people spoke of a small lake called xʷməm̓qʷe:m (Camosun Bog) where the sʔi:ɬqəy̓ (double-headed serpent) originated. They were warned as youth to be cautious and not go near or they would surely die. This sʔi:ɬqəy̓ was so massive its winding path from the lake to the stal̕əw̓ (river) became the creek flowing through Musqueam to this day. Everything the serpent passed over died and from its droppings bloomed a new plant, the məθkʷəy̓. For this reason, the people of long ago named that place xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam – place of the məθkʷəy̓).[2]

History

The Musqueam people are the oldest-known residents of Vancouver. The Great Marpole Midden[3] (also known as the Eburne Site, or Great Fraser Midden), is an ancient Musqueam village and burial site located in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. Also known as the Great Fraser Midden, a thousands-year old deposit of skeletal remains, artifacts, stone and wooden tools, artwork and shells.[4] The village itself was known as c̓əsnaʔəm.[4] Formerly there was a second residential area near the current one, maləy̓, known in English as Mahlie.[5]

The Musqueam's ancestors, the Coast Salish, have lived in the Fraser River estuary for thousands of years. Their traditional territory encompasses the lands, lakes, and streams defined and included by a line commencing at Harvey Creek in Howe Sound and proceeding eastward to the height of land and continuing on the height of land around the entire watershed draining into English Bay, Burrard Inlet, and Indian Arm; south along the height of land between Coquitlam River and Brunette River to the Fraser River, across to the south or left bank of the Fraser River and proceeding downstream taking in the left bank of the main stream and the South Arm to the sea, including all those intervening lands, islands and waters back along the sea shore to Harvey Creek, and the sea, its reefs, flats, tidal lands, and islands adjacent to the above described land and out to the centre of Georgia Strait.

The area of the Musqueam Reserve is the closest Hudson's Bay Company explorer Simon Fraser made it to the Strait of Georgia; he was driven back by hostile Musqueam who had had bad experiences with white men on ships just prior. Chief Whattlekainum of the Kwantlen warned Fraser of an impending attack, thereby saving his life.

Language

Their traditional language is hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the Downriver Dialect of the Salishan language Halkomelem, and they are closely related to neighbouring peoples of the lower Fraser River. The nearby Kwantlen and Katzie peoples just upriver share the same hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ dialect, while the upriver Sto:lo people speak another dialect, Halq’əméyləm (known as the Upriver Dialect). The Cowichan, Chemainus, Snuneymuxw and neighbouring Coast Salish peoples of Vancouver Island and the parts of the Gulf Islands of the southern Gulf of Georgia speak another dialect, Hul'qumi'num' (usually spelled Hulquminum), often called the Straits dialect, or Island Halkomelem, but not to be confused with North Straits Salish, which is a group of related dialects to the south.

In early 2018 the University of British Columbia installed at its main campus 54 street signs in the Musqueam language, written in Americanist phonetic notation. (In 2010, UBC’s Okanagan satellite campus had put up signs in Nsyilxcen, the language of the Okanagan Nation. Before the 2010 Olympic Games, the British Columbia government installed road signs in Squamish, Lil’wat and English on the Sea-to-Sky Highway between Whistler and Vancouver, BC.)[6]

The xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Musqueam dialect, hən̓q̓əmin̓əm is from the Hul’q’umi’num’/Halq'eméyle/hən̓q̓əmin̓əm language family.[7]

Indian Reserves

Indian Reserves under the administration of the band are:[8]

The former Musqueam Indian Reserve No. 1, known in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ as qiqéyt, in Halqemeylem as Qiqayt, and often anglicized historically as Kikait, is now named the New Westminster Indian Reserve and in recent times was allocated to the fledgling Qayqayt First Nation after many years of not being attached to any band.

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Dunkley, Katharine. Indian Rights and Federal Responsibilities: Supreme Court Musqueam Decision. [Ottawa]: Library of Parliament, Research Branch, 1985.
  • Guerin, Arnold, and J. V. Powell. Hunq̓umỉn̉um ̉= Musqueam Language. Book 1. [Vancouver, B.C.?]: Musqueam Band, 1975.
  • Johnson, Elizabeth Lominska, and Kathryn N. Bernick. Hands of Our Ancestors: The Revival of Salish Weaving at Musqueam. [Vancouver?]: University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology, 1986. ISBN 0-88865-108-2
  • Suttles, Wayne P. Musqueam Reference Grammar. First Nations languages. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004. ISBN 0-7748-1002-5
  • Weightman, Barbara Ann. The Musqueam Reserve: A Case Study of the Indian Social Milieu in an Urban Environment. Seattle, Wash: University of Washington, 1978.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.