page_title: History of Vancouver
section_title: First Nations settlements
hierarchical_section_title: History of Vancouver / Early history / First Nations settlements
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph take in 1886 and from BC Archives
context_page_description: The history of Vancouver is one that extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants arriving in the area following the Last Glacial Period. Vancouver is situated in British Columbia, Canada; with its location near the mouth of the Fraser River and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia, Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet, and their tributaries. Vancouver has, for thousands of years, been a place of meeting, trade, and settlement.
  The presence of people in what is now called the Lower Mainland of British Columbia dates from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago when the glaciers of the last ice age began to disappear. The area, known to the First Nations as S'ólh Téméxw, shows archeological evidence of a seasonal encampment near the mouth of the Fraser River that dates from that time.
  The first Europeans to explore the area were Spanish Captain José María Narváez in 1791, and British naval Captain George Vancouver in 1792. The area was not settled by Europeans until almost a century later, in 1862. The city grew rapidly following completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway transcontinental line from Eastern Canada, allowing for continuous rail service in the late 1880s.
context_section_description: The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the original inhabitants of what is now known as Vancouver.  The city falls within the traditional territory of three Coast Salish peoples known as, Squamish (Sḵwxwú7mesh), Tsleil-waututh and Xwméthkwyiem ("Musqueam"—from masqui "an edible grass that grows in the sea").  On the southern shores of Vancouver along the Fraser River, Xwméthkwyiem live with their main community.  In the False Creek and Burrard Inlet area, Squamish currently live on numerous villages in North Vancouver, with their territory also a part of Howe Sound and upwards towards the town of Whistler.  Further down the Burrard Inlet,  Tsleil-Waututh have their main community.  Xwméthkwyiem and Tsleil-Waututh historically spoke a language dialect of Halkomelem language, whereas Squamish language is  separate but related.  Their language is more closely connected to their Shishalh neighbors at Sechelt.  Historically the area of where Vancouver is now was all resource gathering places for food or materials.
  The Musqueam have been living continuously at their main winter village, Xwméthkwyiem, at the mouth of the Fraser River, for 4,000 years.  Vancouver's ecosystem, with its abundant plant and animal life, provides a wealth of food and materials that have supported the people for over 10,000 years. At the time of first European contact, the recently arrived Squamish people had villages in the areas around present-day Vancouver in places like Stanley Park, Kitsilano and False Creek area, as well as Burrard Inlet.  Tsleil-Waututh were said to also be settled on Burrard Inlet at the time of George Vancouver's arrival in 1792.  The largest villages were at Xwemelch'stn (sometimes rendered Homulchesan), near the mouth of the Capilano River and roughly beneath where the north foot of the present Lions Gate Bridge is today, and at  Musqueam.  X̱wáýx̱way was a large village in Stanley Park (in the Lumberman's Arch area).  The foundation of a Catholic mission at the village, called Eslha7an, near Mosquito Creek engendered the creation of another large community of Squamish there.  Along False Creek, at the south foot of Burrard Bridge, another village called Senakw, existed at one time a large community, and during colonization was the residence of Squamish historian August Jack Khatsahlano.
  The Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast had achieved a very high level of cultural complexity for a food gathering base.  As Bruce Macdonald notes in Vancouver: a visual history: "Their economic system encouraged hard work, the accumulation of wealth and status and the redistribution of wealth..."  Winter villages, in what is now known as Vancouver, were composed of large plankhouses made of Western Red Cedar wood.  Gatherings called potlatches were common in the summer and winter months when the spirit powers were active.  These ceremonies continue to be an important part of the social and spiritual life of the people.
caption: An indigenous village at Coal Harbour in 1886. Vancouver fell within the traditional territory of three Coast Salish peoples.