First Nations History in BC
Key Facts
1. Population in 1900: 5,600 First Nations people.
2. Population in 2009: 196,000 First Nation people ( ≈ 4% of the BC population).
3. First recorded human populations:
≈ 14, 000 years ago.
4.
First Nations people in the Vancouver area: Coast Salish people.
5.
Dialect in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley: Halkomelem ; the main language spoken amongst the Coast Salish communities today is English.
6.
Coast Salish communities in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley: Musqueam, Squamish, Stó:lō.
7.
Legal Status: Registered Indian Status gives First Nations people particular rights, most notably associated with their traditional lands and territory.
1. Population Census of 1881
2. The last population census was taken by Statistics Canada in 2006. It records the number and percentage of the population that declared themselves of First Nations origins.