Lekwungen

{{short description|First Nation in Victoria, British Columbia}} {{Infobox ethnic group | native_name = lək̓ʷəŋən | native_name_lang = str | image = Songhees.png | image_caption = Map of traditional Lekwungen territory | languages = Lekwungen | related_groups = Coast Salish }} {{infobox ethnonym |root= |person= |people=Lək̓ʷəŋən |language=Lək̓ʷəŋín̓əŋ |country=Lək̓ʷəŋən Tung’exʷ<ref>{{cite web |title=Lkwungen Greeting and Welcome |url=https://www.sd61.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2014/05/AcknowledgementPoster.pdf |publisher=Greater Victoria School District |access-date=7 November 2023}}</ref> }}

The '''Lekwungen''' ({{langx|hur|lək̓ʷəŋən}}) are a Coast Salish people who reside on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in the Greater Victoria area. They are represented by the Songhees First Nation and Esquimalt First Nation. Their traditional language is Lekwungen, a dialect of the North Straits Salish language.

== Name == The term "Lekwungen" is a contemporary designation used to describe a group of Indigenous peoples who speak the Lekwungen language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duff |first=Wilson |date=1969 |title=The Fort Victoria Treaties |url=https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/607 |journal=BC Studies |issue=3 |pages=4 |doi=10.14288/bcs.v0i3.607 |via=Open Journal Systems |doi-access=free}}</ref> It refers specifically to six families historically residing on southern Vancouver Island, in the area now known as Greater Victoria.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Language & Culture |url=https://www.esquimaltnation.ca/our-nation/language-culture |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=Esquimalt Nation |language=en}}</ref>

The people associated with this term have also been referred to as the Songhees or Songish, although the latter designation is now primarily used to refer to the Songhees Band government. This term was an Anglicization of an ethnonym to describe a group living between Albert Head and Esquimalt Lagoon.<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://docs2.cer-rec.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2449925/2450020/2785351/C123%2D3%2D3_%2D_Appendix_B_%2D_James_Bay_Litigation_Report_%2D_A4L5L6.pdf?nodeid=2784907&vernum=-2 |title=Aboriginal Affiliation of the James Bay Reserve |last=Kennedy |first=Dorothy |date=April 17, 2006 |publisher=Counsel for the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations |page=3 |access-date=January 21, 2025 |format=PDF}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Pre-colonial history === The traditional territory of the Lekwungen encompasses most of what is now the Greater Victoria area, as well as the nearby Discovery, Chatham, and San Juan islands. Their territory was divided between six families: Kayaakan, Teechamitsa, Whyomilth, Kosampsom, Swngwhung, and Chekonein.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lutz |first=John Sutton |url=https://archive.org/details/makuknewhistoryo0000lutz |title=Makúk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations |publisher=UBC Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7748-5559-4 |location=Vancouver |pages=67 |language=en |doi=10.59962/9780774855594 |oclc=646864117 |access-date=2025-01-21 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>thumb|Old Songhees village on Victoria Harbour (c. 1880s) thumb|Painting of a Songhees woman weaving a blanket, (1849–1856) There is evidence of a fortified village existing at Finlayson Point in Beacon Hill Park before the arrival of Europeans. Before European contact much of the government was through a clan system, with twelve clans which each had its own fishing and hunting territory. Chiefship was hereditary in the male line and there were three castes - nobles, commons, and slaves. Like other north-west coast tribes they practiced potlatch and ceremonial gift distribution. The dead were buried in canoes or boxes upon the surface of the ground, or laid away in trees. Mentioning the names of a dead person was taboo. The Coast Salish traditionally lived in bighouses, large rectangular communal houses of cedar planks, adorned with carved and jointed totem posts.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Songish Indians}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=January 2025}} thumb|1800s picture of Songhees male in traditional hat|alt=Man wearing straw hat and blanket

==== Sitchanalth ==== A major Coast Salish seaport community called Sitchanalth was located in the area now known as Willows Beach in Oak Bay, British Columbia. It is estimated that the village's peak population was around 10,000 people.<ref name="cattlepoint">{{cite web |url=http://www.cattlepoint.org/sitchanalth-ancient-salish-seaport-on-oak-bay-vancouver-island/ |title= The Destruction of Sitchanalth by the Devil Mountain Tsunami of 930AD |last=Smith |first=W.E. |date=May 2017 |website= Cattle Point Foundation |access-date=12 May 2021}}</ref>

Sitchanalth was destroyed by a tsunami<ref name="cattlepoint" /> related to a major earthquake along the Devils Mountain Fault that occurred around 930 A.D.<ref>{{cite news |last=Doughton |first=Sandi |date=July 11, 2012 |title= Ancient quake and tsunami in Puget Sound shake researchers |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/ancient-quake-and-tsunami-in-puget-sound-shake-researchers |work=Seattle Times |location=Seattle Washington |access-date=12 May 2021}}</ref> The death toll from the earthquake and resulting tsunami have been described as "catastrophic" with a small group of survivors relocating from Willows Beach to what is now the Inner Harbour area of Victoria, British Columbia.<ref name="cattlepoint" />

A cairn at Willows Beach marks the spot where the ancient settlement once stood.<ref>{{cite news |last=Van Reeuwyk |first=Christine |date=December 18, 2014 |title=Oak Bay maps First Nations monuments |url=https://www.oakbaynews.com/news/oak-bay-maps-first-nations-monuments/ |work=Oak Bay News |location=Oak Bay, British Columbia |access-date=12 May 2021}}</ref>

==Colonization== {{Further|Settler colonialism in Canada}}

The Lekwungen population was estimated to be 8,500 in 1859, but by 1914 the population had decreased to less than 200.<ref>[http://www.nosracines.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3621317 ''British Columbia from the earliest times to the present''. Vol. 1, Charles Hill-Tout chapter "The Native Races of British Columbia", in E.O.S. Scholefield & F.W. Howay, publ. S.J. Clarke, Vancouver, 1914, p.577]</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2026}}

At the time of the establishment of Fort Victoria by the British in 1843, a Lekwungen village was situated adjacent to the fort. The village was subsequently moved across Victoria Harbour and a reserve established adjacent to what is now the municipality of View Royal.{{citation needed|date=February 2026}}

A traditional blessing in Lekwungen appears on a mural on the Ogden Point breakwater.<ref>{{Cite news | last = Patterson | first = Travis | title = Traditional language comes alive on breakwater | work = Victoria News | accessdate = 2013-06-02 | date = 2011-06-01 | url = http://www.vicnews.com/entertainment/122903678.html | archive-date = 2016-05-13 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160513224843/http://www.vicnews.com/entertainment/122903678.html | url-status = dead }}</ref>

During the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic, which killed about two-thirds of all native people in British Columbia, the Lekwungen were largely spared due to smallpox vaccines given by Hudson's Bay Company physician Dr. John Helmcken, as well as Lekwungen self-quarantining on Discovery Island. Due to these factors the Lekwungen survived the epidemic with few deaths.<ref name=lange>{{cite web |url= https://www.historylink.org/File/5171 |title= Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians |publisher= HistoryLink |last= Lange |first= Greg |access-date= 8 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="Boyd">{{cite book |last1=Boyd |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_FdUPbmwCgC&pg=PA172 |title=The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774–1874 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-295-97837-6 |pages=172–201 |chapter=A final disaster: the 1862 smallpox epidemic in coastal British Columbia |accessdate=10 February 2021}}</ref>

===Douglas Treaties=== {{Further|Douglas Treaties}} thumb|Dr. Franz Boas 1887 map showing Lekwungen territories

The Lekwungen were one of the few First Nations in BC to have a treaty with the British. Sir James Douglas, governor of the Vancouver Island colony, negotiated a treaty with the Lekwungen in 1850.

The Lekwungen considered that the government of British Columbia had failed to honour the 1850 treaty and commenced a legal action against the province and the Government of Canada for redress.{{when|date=February 2026}} A settlement of the action was announced in November 2006 by Songhees Chief Robert Sam, the federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Jim Prentice, and the provincial Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, Mike de Jong.<ref>{{cite press release | date=November 18, 2006 | publisher=Province of British Columbia |title=Proposed Settlement Resolves Victoria Land Claim |url=https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2005-2009/2006arr0022-001394.htm}}</ref>

=== Esquimalt First Nation === {{Main|Esquimalt First Nation}} They were signatories of the Douglas Treaties as the ''Kosapsum''. x̣ʷiméɫǝɫ (Esquimalt) is the term which was originally used to describe the specific location of a group of Songhees people living near the mouth of the Mill Stream at the head of present-day Esquimalt Harbour. x̣ʷiméɫǝɫ was translated by J. W. McKay during the negotiation of the Douglas Treaties as meaning “a place of gradually shoaling”.<ref name=":0">{{Cite document |last=Kennedy |first=Dorothy |date=July 29, 1995 |title=An Examination of Esquimalt History and Territory: A Discussion Paper |publisher=Prepared for the Esquimalt Nation |last2=Bouchard |first2=Randy}}</ref>{{Rp|page=20}} Over time, the term “Esquimalt” came to be applied more generally to the harbour area and to a group of people living at the village known as Kalla,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Keddie |first=Grant R. |url=https://archive.org/details/songheespictoria0000kedd |title=Songhees pictorial : a history of the Songhees people as seen by outsiders, 1790-1912 |publisher=Royal BC Museum |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7726-4964-5 |location=Victoria, Canada |language=en |oclc=1411211530 |access-date=January 21, 2025 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> located on the northern shore of Plumper Bay (archaeological site DcRu-36). The contemporary Esquimalt Nation comprises descendants of the signatories of the Kosapsum Treaty,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> rather than the original group of individuals after whom the name originated. This latter group signed a distinct treaty known as the Whyomilth (Esquimalt) Treaty.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.songheesnation.com Songhees Nation website] * [https://www.esquimaltnation.ca/ Esquimalt Nation website]

Category:Coast Salish Category:First Nations in British Columbia Category:Victoria, British Columbia