Vancouver
A Brief History
Vancouver in the modern sense has existed for a little over 110 years. Over the course of the previous nine thousand years the Fraser Valley was home to the Tsawwassen, Musqueam and another twenty or so native tribes, who made up the Sto:lo Nation, or “people of the river”. The fish, particularly salmon, of this river were the Sto:lo lifeblood. Over the millennia these people ventured relatively little into the mountainous interior, something that remains true to this day. One of the things that makes modern Vancouver so remarkable is how wild and empty British Columbia remains beyond the Fraser’s narrow corridor. The Sto:lo inhabited about ten villages on the shores of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet before the coming of the Europeans. A highly developed culture, the Sto:lo were skilled carpenters, canoe-makers and artists, though little in the present city - outside its museums - pays anything but lip service to their existence. Vancouver Island is the nearest best bet if you’re in search of latter-day tokens of aboriginal culture.