he Sliammon people lived along both sides of the Northern
Strait of Georgia in the province of British Columbia,
but now the majority of the population resides on Sliammon
Reserve No.1. The Sliammon traditional territory has been
largely ignored by both archaeologists and anthropologists
until the research of Professor Homer Barnett in the mid 1930's.

he Sliammon people were acquainted with their immediate
neighbours the Homalco, Klahoose, Sechelt peoples and those
with whom they traded. The Sliammon people had mass knowledge
of the Coast of British Columbia. Of course, this was
expected because the Sliammon people did in fact
venture outside of their traditional territory, that they
knew so intimately, to visit other neighbouring communities
and to trade for certain things they did not have access to
within their own territory. 

ere in the northern stretches of the Strait of Georgia there
are a myriad of inlets, bays, river estuaries and sheltered
coves along which the ancestors of the Sliammon people made
their  homes. They would build their villages as close as
possible to the natural resources utilized by the Sliammon
people. Some of the primary settlements were Theodosia,
Desolation Sound, Coast of the Malaspina Strait, Powell River,
and many islands within the Strait of Georgia. Many of these
locations along the coast have become protected archaeological
sites. Although one complicating factor has in fact hindered
the recording of one major archaeological site: would  be the
flooding of one of the main old village sites Tiskw'at, and
the rise in the water level after the construction of the
Powell River dam in 1912; this was done to make way for
hydroelectric development and the construction of the Powell
River Co. Pulp and Paper Mill. The building of the Powell River
dam destroyed a lot of prehistoric evidence of land and
resource use by the Sliammon people. 

thnographic research maintains that the Sliammon people
occupied two permanent settlements. One by which was used in
the fall and winter months; the other in spring and summer.
Some of the high-ranking families would keep houses at both
locations. Then, as  now, the Sliammon people traveled by water,
searching out the best places to fish, hunt, pick berries or
dig roots. Some of these places were simply over-night
campsites, others became locations for seasonal villages where
spacious houses were constructed from the giant red cedars that
met the shore.

aptain George Vancouver estimated in the summer of 1780, that
the population of the Jervis-Inlet people at 5000. We should
take into consideration that this estimate was taken during the
summer when the people were spread throughout their respected
territories and only small segments of the actual population
was observed. Therefore, it would be safe to conclude that
Vancouver's population estimate was considerably lower than the
actual population. The Coast Salish population estimated at
12,000 in 1835, dropped to a low of 4000 in 1915.

oastal Aboriginal people were struck with waves of contagious
diseases such as influenza, measles, small pox, tuberculosis.
It was during this time that all aspects of the Sliammon
language, culture, history, knowledge was threatened and almost
extinct! Very few people survived, let alone capable of
fighting long and hard enough to effectively pass their
knowledge onto their children. 

y the turn of the century, Sliammon, Klahoose, and Homalco's
numbers were less than 300 individuals, approximately 50% of
them under the age of 18. The mandatory residential school
system had already been in effect for more than 40 years, and
the punitive powers of the 'Oblates or Black Robes' were at
their highest. All of these things combined to almost annihilate
the Coast Salish traditional knowledge, beliefs, and practices.