Endemism
Endemism is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, country or other defined zone, or habitat type. The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species, endemic is precinctive, which applies to species that are restricted to a defined geographical area; the word endemic is from New Latin endēmicus, from Greek ενδήμος, endēmos, "native". Endēmos is formed of en meaning "in", dēmos meaning "the people"; the term "precinctive" has been suggested by some scientists, was first used in botany by MacCaughey in 1917. It is the equivalent of "endemism". Precinction was first used by Frank and McCoy. Precinctive seems to have been coined by David Sharp when describing the Hawaiian fauna in 1900: "I use the word precinctive in the sense of'confined to the area under discussion'...'precinctive forms' means those forms that are confined to the area specified." That definition excludes artificial confinement of examples by humans in far-off botanical gardens or zoological parks.
Physical and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The orange-breasted sunbird is found in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa; the glacier bear is found only in limited places in Southeast Alaska. Political factors can play a part if a species is protected, or hunted, in one jurisdiction but not another. There are two subcategories of endemism: neoendemism. Paleoendemism refers to species that were widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization and polyploidy in plants. Endemic types or species are likely to develop on geographically and biologically isolated areas such as islands and remote island groups, such as Hawaii, the Galápagos Islands, Socotra. Hydrangea hirta is an example of an endemic species found in Japan. Endemics can become endangered or extinct if their restricted habitat changes, particularly—but not only—due to human actions, including the introduction of new organisms.
There were millions of both Bermuda petrels and "Bermuda cedars" in Bermuda when it was settled at the start of the seventeenth century. By the end of the century, the petrels were thought extinct. Cedars ravaged by centuries of shipbuilding, were driven nearly to extinction in the twentieth century by the introduction of a parasite. Bermuda petrels and cedars are now rare. Principal causes of habitat degradation and loss in endemistic ecosystems include agriculture, urban growth, surface mining, mineral extraction, logging operations and slash-and-burn agriculture
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia; the island is 460 kilometres in length, 100 kilometres in width at its widest point, 32,134 km2 in area. It is the largest island on the West Coast of the Americas; the southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada to lie south of the 49th Parallel. This area has one of the warmest climates in Canada, since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow subtropical Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons. Vancouver Island had a population in 2016 of 775,347. Nearly half of that population live in the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria. Other notable cities and towns on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville and Campbell River. Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, is located on the island, but the larger city of Vancouver is not – it is on the North American mainland, across the Strait of Georgia from Nanaimo.
Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The island was explored by Spanish expeditions in the late 18th century, it was named Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 by Spanish commander of the Nootka Sound settlement, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, by British naval captain George Vancouver, during the Nootka Crisis. Bodega y Quadra's name was dropped from the name, it is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who explored the Pacific Northwest coast between 1791 and 1794. Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 11th largest island, Canada's second most populous island after the Island of Montreal, it is the largest Pacific island anywhere east of New Zealand. Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years; the groupings, by language, are the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, various Coast Salish peoples.
Kwakwaka'wakw territory includes northern and northwestern Vancouver Island and adjoining areas of the mainland, the Nuu-chah-nulth span most of the west coast, while the Coast Salish cover the southeastern Island and southernmost extremities along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Their cultures are connected to the natural resources abundant in the area; the Kwakwaka'wakw today number about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the mainland. They are known as Kwakiutl in English, from one of their tribes, but they prefer their autonym Kwakwaka'wakw, their indigenous language, part of the Wakashan family, is Kwak'wala. The name Kwakwaka'wakw means "speakers of Kwak'wala"; the language is now spoken by less than 5% of the population—about 250 people. Today 17 separate tribes make up the Kwakwaka'wakw; some Kwakwaka'wakw groups are now extinct. Kwak'wala is a Northern Wakashan language, a grouping shared with Haisla and Wuikyala. Kwakwaka'wakw centres of population on Vancouver Island include communities such as Fort Rupert, Alert Bay and Quatsino, The Kwakwaka'wakw tradition of the potlatch was banned by the federal government of Canada in 1885, but has been revived in recent decades.
The Nuu-chah-nulth are indigenous peoples in Canada. Their traditional home is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of nations was much greater, but as in the rest of the region and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of some groups, the absorption of others into neighbouring groups, they were among the first Pacific peoples north of California to come into contact with Europeans, as the Spanish and British attempted to secure control of Pacific Northwest and the trade in otter pelts, with Nootka Sound becoming a focus of these rivalries. The Nuu-chah-nulth speak a Southern Wakashan language and are related to the Makah of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State and Ditidaht; the Coast Salish are the largest of the southern groups. They are a loose grouping of many tribes with languages. On Vancouver Island, Coast Salish peoples territory traditionally spans from the northern limit of the Gulf of Georgia on the inside of Vancouver Island and covering most of southern Vancouver Island.
Distinct nations within the Coast Salish peoples on Vancouver Island include the Chemainus, the Comox of the Comox Valley area, the Cowichan of the Cowichan Valley, the Esquimalt, the Saanich of the Saanich Peninsula, the Songhees of the Victoria area and Snuneymuxw in the Nanaimo area. Europeans began to explore the island in 1774, when rumours of Russian fur traders caused Spain to send a number of expeditions to assert its long-held claims to the Pacific Northwest; the first expedition was that of the Santiago, under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández. In 1775, a second Spanish expedition under the Spanish Peruvian captain Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was sent. By 1776 Spanish exploration had reached Bucareli Bay including the mouth of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, Sitka Sound. Vancouver Island came to the attention of Britain after the third voyage of Captain James Cook, who spent a month during 1778 at Nootka Sound, on the island's western coast. Cook claimed it for Great Britain.
The island's rich fur-trading potential led the fur trader John Meares to set up a single-building trading post near the native village of Yuquot, at the entrance to Nootka Sound. The building was removed by the end of 1788; the island was further explored by Spain in 1789 with Esteban José Martínez, who est
James Cook
Captain James Cook was a British explorer, navigator and captain in the Royal Navy. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755, he saw action in the Seven Years' War and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec, which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society. This acclaim came at a crucial moment in his career and the direction of British overseas exploration, led to his commission in 1766 as commander of HM Bark Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages. In three voyages, Cook sailed thousands of miles across uncharted areas of the globe, he mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail and scale not charted by Western explorers.
As he progressed in his voyages of discovery, he surveyed and named features, recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, an ability to lead men in adverse conditions. Cook was attacked and killed in 1779 during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific while attempting to kidnap Hawaiian chief Kalaniʻōpuʻu in order to reclaim a cutter stolen from one of his ships, he left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which influenced his successors well into the 20th century, numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him. James Cook was born on 7 November 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 14 November in the parish church of St Cuthbert, where his name can be seen in the church register, he was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, his locally born wife, Grace Pace, from Thornaby-on-Tees.
In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years' schooling, he began work for his father, promoted to farm manager. Despite not being formally educated he became capable in mathematics and charting by the time of his Endeavour voyage. For leisure, he would climb Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude. Cooks' Cottage, his parents' last home, which he is to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having been moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick, in 1934. In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 miles to the fishing village of Staithes, to be apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and haberdasher William Sanderson. Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. After 18 months, not proving suited for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be introduced to friends of Sanderson's, John and Henry Walker.
The Walkers, who were Quakers, were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade. Their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast, his first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove, he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, trigonometry and astronomy—all skills he would need one day to command his own ship, his three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea. After passing his examinations in 1752, he soon progressed through the merchant navy ranks, starting with his promotion in that year to mate aboard the collier brig Friendship. In 1755, within a month of being offered command of this vessel, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, when Britain was re-arming for what was to become the Seven Years' War.
Despite the need to start back at the bottom of the naval hierarchy, Cook realised his career would advance more in military service and entered the Navy at Wapping on 17 June 1755. Cook married Elizabeth Batts, the daughter of Samuel Batts, keeper of the Bell Inn in Wapping and one of his mentors, on 21 December 1762 at St Margaret's Church, Essex; the couple had six children: James, Elizabeth, Joseph and Hugh. When not at sea, Cook lived in the East End of London, he attended St Paul's Church, where his son James was baptised. Cook has no direct descendants—all of his children died before having children of their own. Cook's first posting was with HMS Eagle, serving as able seaman and master's mate under Captain Joseph Hamar for his first year aboard, Captain Hugh Palliser thereafter. In October and November 1755, he took part in Eagle's capture of one French warship and the sinking of another, following which he was promoted to boatswain in addition to his other duties, his first temporary command was in March 1756 when he was master of Cruizer, a small cutter attached to Eagle while on patrol.
In June 1757 Cook formally passed his master's examinations at Trinity House, qualifying him to navigate and handle a ship of the King's fleet. He joined the frigate
Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations
The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations are a Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation in Canada. They live on ten reserves along the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Vancouver Island, British Columbia; the band is part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. There were 618 people living in the Tla-o-qui-aht reserves in 1995, their primary economic activities are tourism. Tla-o-qui-aht, whose ancestral border is determined by the'height of land, the direction of the rivers flow and as far as the eye can see on the ocean, is a confederacy of aboriginal groups who were independent from one another. Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations is the ‘Indian Band’ mandated under the Federal Indian Act to deliver civil and human services to Tla-o-qui-aht; the hereditary governance systems and structures of Tla-o-qui-aht that exist today, that have existed since time immemorial have a dynamic relationship with the Indian Band administration and with the general population of Tla-o-qui-aht. The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation resides on two separate reserves, one on Meares Island and the other at Esowista, surrounded by Pacific Rim National Park.
A reserve expansion is planned for the Esowista site. The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation has been active in economic development; the keystone to understanding Tla-o-qui-aht history is understanding what the term Tla-o-qui-aht means. The following translation/interpretation was developed based on conversations with various Tla-o-qui-aht elders, fluent speakers, master craftsmen, seasoned politicians and those who participated in the exhaustive community consultation, implemented by Tla-o-qui-aht during the Meares Island court case. Tla-o-qui-aht is the confederation of historic native groups that once lived all around the lake system called Ha-ooke-min. Tla-o-qui-aht has been translated to mean “different people from a different place.” However, it means much more than that: aht is a prefix for the term'people', tla-o-qui is a place in Clayoquot Sound presently known as Clayoqua. In this way Tla-o-qui-aht can be understood to mean the “people from a different place.” Clayoquot Sound is located on the western coast of Vancouver Island, north of Tofino.
This understanding of Tla-o-qui-aht speaks of the history of our people dating back to the early to mid-17th century. As mentioned, in former times, the tribe's ancestors were in fact not one tribe, but many small tribes and family groups who lived all around Ha-ooke-min, now known as Kennedy Lake and, where Tla-o-qui is located; the defining event that changed the face of Tla-o-qui-aht forever is eternalized in the name of the Esowista Peninsula. The war of Esowista was a great war; the people who once lived on the peninsula from Long Beach to Tofino and further north had kept tight control of ocean resources and had made it a common practice to raid the sleepy fishing villages of Ha-ooke-min to take slaves and other commodities. In our language Esowista means “clubbed to death.” Tla-o-qui-aht maintained their presence in this part of the Sound through to first contact with Europeans in the late 18th century. In summary, Tla-o-qui-aht, different people, are the people from Tla-o-qui. Tla-o-qui-aht is in the process of rebuilding through a combination of restoring functions and adapting to the modern political landscape in British Columbia.
The Hereditary Chiefs are leading Tla-o-qui-aht through this process. Tla-o-qui-aht maintains two administration offices, one at Opitsaht and the other on the property of Tin Wis Resort in Tofino, they are making plans for a new administration and cultural center for the Nation. Regionally focused appointments are made by the Hereditary Chiefs. Internal appointments to band committees etc. are made by Chief to the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust Board of Directors, the Clayoquot Sound Technical Planning Committee, the Central Region Management Board and the Central Region Board. The Tla-o-qui-aht has been active in economic development, they own and operate TinWis Resort, have launched a tourism-booking center owned by their Economic Development Corporation. The Nation has artist/carver and small business entrepreneurs, they are involved in expanding their community housing with a reserve expansion situated adjacent to Pacific Rim Provincial Park and they are working towards the establishment of a tribal park in the Kennedy Lake watershed that will "marry" economic development and environmental protection in this part of their territory.
In 2008 the Nation signed a protocol with the District of Tofino to work collaboratively towards planned development on the north end of the peninsula where several large parcels of crown land are under discussion. Like several other Nations, some TFN members are still involved in the fishing industry including spawn-on-kelp, commercial salmon and halibut fishing. Is a run-of-river hydro plant in operation since 2010. A weir on Canoe Creek diverts water through a 4 km penstock dropping 474 meters to a powerhouse with a 5.5 MW Pelton wheel generator. Water is returned to Canoe Creek flowing into the Kennedy River, it is owned by a partnership of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations & Swiftwater Power Corp, managed by Barkley Project Group Ltd. The powerhouse is beside the highway at 49.176894°N 125.395741°W / 49.176894. It has a weir in Haa-ak-suuk Creek diverting water to a 3.6 km penstock leading to a 6 MW powerhouse at 49.248074°N 125.383682°W / 49.248074. Eli Enns, "The Tla-o-qui-ahth First Nations,"
Kwakwakaʼwakw
The Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw known as the Kwakiutl are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their current population, according to a 2016 census, is 3,665. Most live in their traditional territory on northern Vancouver Island, nearby smaller islands including the Discovery Islands, the adjacent British Columbia mainland; some live outside their homelands in urban areas such as Victoria and Vancouver. They are politically organized into 13 band governments, their language, now spoken by only 3.1% of the population, consists of four dialects of what is referred to as Kwakʼwala. These dialects are ʼNak̓wala, G̱uc̓ala and T̓łat̓łasik̓wala; the name Kwakiutl derives from Kwaguʼł—the name of a single community of Kwakwakaʼwakw located at Fort Rupert. The anthropologist Franz Boas had done most of his anthropological work in this area and popularized the term for both this nation and the collective as a whole; the term became misapplied to mean all the nations who spoke Kwakʼwala, as well as three other Indigenous peoples whose language is a part of the Wakashan linguistic group, but whose language is not Kwakʼwala.
These peoples, incorrectly known as the Northern Kwakiutl, were the Haisla and Heiltsuk. Many people who others call "Kwakiutl" consider that name a misnomer, they prefer the name Kwakwakaʼwakw, which means "Kwakʼwala-speaking-peoples". One exception is the Laich-kwil-tach at Campbell River—they are known as the Southern Kwakiutl, their council is the Kwakiutl District Council. Kwakwakaʼwakw oral history says their ancestors came in the forms of animals by way of land, sea, or underground; when one of these ancestral animals arrived at a given spot, it discarded its animal appearance and became human. Animals that figure in these origin myths include the Thunderbird, his brother Kolus, the seagull, grizzly bear, or chief ghost; some ancestors are said to come from distant places. The Kwakwakaʼwakw economy was based on fishing, with the men engaging in some hunting, the women gathering wild fruits and berries. Ornate weaving and woodwork were important crafts, wealth, defined by slaves and material goods, was prominently displayed and traded at potlatch ceremonies.
These customs were the subject of extensive study by the anthropologist Franz Boas. In contrast to most non-native societies and status were not determined by how much you had, but by how much you had to give away; this act of giving away your wealth was one of the main acts in a potlatch. The first documented contact was with Captain George Vancouver in 1792. Disease, which developed as a result of direct contact with European settlers along the West Coast of Canada, drastically reduced the Indigenous Kwakwakaʼwakw population during the late 19th-early 20th century. Kwakwakaʼwakw population dropped by 75% between 1830 and 1880. Kwakwakaʼwakw dancers from Vancouver Island performed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. An account of experiences of two founders of early residential schools for Aboriginal children was published in 2006 by the University of British Columbia Press. Good Intentions Gone Awry – Emma Crosby and the Methodist Mission On the Northwest Coast by Jan Hare and Jean Barman contains the letters and account of the life of the wife of Thomas Crosby the first missionary in Lax Kw'alaams.
This covers the period from 1870 to the turn of the 20th century. A second book was published in 2005 by the University of Calgary Press, The Letters of Margaret Butcher – Missionary Imperialism on the North Pacific Coast edited by Mary-Ellen Kelm, it picks up the story from 1916 to 1919 in Kitamaat Village and details of Butcher's experiences among the Haisla people. A review article entitled Mothers of a Native Hell about these two books was published in the British Columbia online news magazine The Tyee in 2007. Restoring their ties to their land and rights, the Kwakwakaʼwakw have undertaken much in bringing back their customs and language. Potlatches occur more as families reconnect to their birthright, the community uses language programs and social events to restore the language. Artists in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Mungo Martin, Ellen Neel and Willie Seaweed have taken efforts to revive Kwakwakaʼwakw art and culture; each Kwakwakaʼwakw nation has its own clans, history and peoples, but remain collectively similar to the rest of the Kwak̓wala-Speaking nations.
Kwakwakaʼwakw kinship is based on a bilinear structure, with loose characteristics of a patrilineal culture. It has interconnected community life; the Kwakwakaʼwakw are made up of numerous bands. Within those communities they were organized into extended family units or na'mima, which means of one kind; each ` na ` mima' had positions that carried particular privileges. Each community had around four'na'mima', although some had more, some had less. Kwakwakaʼwakw follow their genealogy back to their ancestral roots. A head chief who, through primogeniture, could trace his origins to that'na'mima's ancestors delineated the roles throughout the rest of his family; every clan had several sub-chiefs, who gained their titles and position through their own family's primogeniture. These chiefs organized their people to harvest the communal lands. Kwakwaʼwakw society was organized into four classes: the nobility, attained through birthright and connection in lineage to ancestors, the aristocracy who attained status through connection to wealth, resources or spiritual powers displayed or distributed in the potlatch and slaves.
On the nobility class, "the noble was recognized a
Nootka Sound
Nootka Sound is a sound of the Pacific Ocean on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia known as King George's Sound. It separates Nootka Island, it played a important role in the maritime fur trade. The inlet is part of the traditional territory of the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth people, they called it Mowichat. John R. Jewitt is an Englishman who describes the area in some detail in a memoir about his years as a captive of chief Maquinna from 1802 to 1805. On August 8, 1774, the Spanish Navy ship Santiago, under Juan Pérez and anchored in the inlet. Although the Spanish did not land, natives paddled to the ship to trade furs for abalone shells from California. Pérez named the entrance to Nootka Sound Surgidero de San Lorenzo; the word surgidero means "source". When Esteban José Martinez arrived in 1789 he gave Nootka Sound the name Puerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca; the Spanish establishment established at Friendly Cove. In March 1778, Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy landed on Bligh Island and named the inlet "King George's Sound".
He recorded that the native name was Nutka or Nootka misunderstanding his conversations at Friendly Cove/Yuquot. There may have been confusion with Nuu-chah-nulth, the natives' autonym, it may have been based on Cook’s mis-pronunciation of Yuquot, the native name of the place. The earlier Spanish and British names for the Sound swiftly went out of use. At the time, the Spanish monopolized the trade between Asia and North America, had granted limited licenses to the Portuguese; the Russians had established a growing fur trading system in Alaska. The Spanish began to challenge the Russians, with Pérez's voyage being the first of many to the Pacific Northwest; the British became active in the region. The next European to visit Nootka Sound after James Cook was the British trader James Hanna in August 1785. Hanna traded iron bars for furs, he sold the furs in China for a handsome profit. Starting in 1774 Spain sent several expeditions to Alaska to assert its long-held claim over the Pacific Northwest which dated back to the 16th century.
During the decade 1785–1795 British merchants, encouraged by Sir Joseph Banks and supported by their government, made a sustained attempt to develop British fur trade in the area, despite Spain's claims and navigation rights. The endeavours of these merchants did not last long in the face of Spain's opposition; the challenge was opposed by a Japan holding obdurately to national seclusion. In 1789 Spain sent Sub-Lieutenant Esteban José Martinez, commanding Princesa and San Carlos, to enforce Spanish sovereignty and defend its claims, he established a settlement and built Fort San Miguel. The ship Iphigenia Nubiana, under Captain William Douglas and owned by John Meares, was impounded and two other British ships, including Princess Royal, were seized by the Spanish Navy. Two American ships in the area were allowed to sail. However, the American ship Fair American, under Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe, was seized and taken to San Blas, before being released; the capture of the British ships led near war between Britain and Spain.
The British challenged Spanish claims to "un-colonized" land on the Pacific coasts of North and South America. The first Nootka Convention gave both countries the right to settle along the Pacific coasts, interrupting the Spanish monopoly for the first time in over two centuries; the British sponsored the Vancouver Expedition of exploration. Difficulties in implementing the terms led to a second, a third Nootka Convention; the Nootka Sound controversy played a part in the French Revolution. The Spanish Bourbon monarchy asked for French support in the dispute in the event that it led to war between Spain and Great Britain; the French Bourbon king Louis XVI wanted to back Spain against Great Britain, but his right to enter France into an alliance on his own prerogative was disputed by the National Assembly. The Assembly maintained that the King's right to determine foreign policy and declare war was subject to the sovereignty of the people; the Assembly ruled that a proposal for a declaration of war could be initiated by the king, but had to be ratified by the Assembly.
The Scottish political reformer Thomas Muir had been banished to Port Jackson in Botany Bay in Australia for 14 years for the crime of sedition in 1793. He managed to escape having only spent 13 months there, on board the American merchant ship Otter. After a adventurous voyage across the as yet uncharted Pacific Ocean to Vancouver Island, Otter dropped anchor in Nootka Sound on 22 June 1796. In conversation with José Tovar, the piloto of Sutil, a Spanish vessel at anchor in the Nootka Sound, Muir learned to his dismay of the presence in neighbouring waters of HMS Providence, the British sloop-of-war under William Robert Broughton; this vessel had visited Port Jackson in Australia shortly before Muir’s escape and, since Broughton had certainly become acquainted with the captain or members of the crew, his life was now in real danger. To be captured while under sentence of transportation meant immediate execution. Once again Muir’s extraordinary luck held out. While a student at Glasgow, he had acquired a fluent command of Spanish and he was now able to persuade Tovar to break his regulations regarding th
First Nations
In Canada, the First Nations are the predominant indigenous peoples in Canada south of the Arctic Circle. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit; the Métis, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and relations between First Nations people and Europeans. There are 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a "designated group", along with women, visible minorities, people with physical or mental disabilities. First Nations are not defined as a visible minority under the Act or by the criteria of Statistics Canada. North American indigenous; some of their oral traditions describe historical events, such as the Cascadia earthquake of 1700 and the 18th-century Tseax Cone eruption. Written records began with the arrival of European explorers and colonists during the Age of Discovery, beginning in the late 15th century.
European accounts by trappers, traders and missionaries give important evidence of early contact culture. In addition and anthropological research, as well as linguistics, have helped scholars piece together an understanding of ancient cultures and historic peoples. Although not without conflict, Euro-Canadians' early interactions with First Nations, Métis, Inuit populations were less combative compared to the violent battles between colonists and native peoples in the United States. Collectively, First Nations, Métis peoples constitute Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or first peoples. First Nation as a term became used beginning in 1980s to replace the term Indian band in referring to groups of Indians with common government and language; the term had come into common usage in the 1970s to avoid using the word Indian, which some Canadians considered offensive. No legal definition of the term exists; some indigenous peoples in Canada have adopted the term First Nation to replace the word band in the formal name of their community.
A band is a "body of Indians for whose use and benefit in common lands... have been set apart... moneys are held... or declared... to be a band for the purposes of" the Indian Act by the Canadian Crown. The term Indian is a misnomer given to indigenous peoples of North America by European explorers who erroneously thought they had landed on the Indian subcontinent; the use of the term Native Americans, which the US government and others have adopted, is not common in Canada. It refers more to the Indigenous peoples residing within the boundaries of the United States; the parallel term Native Canadian is not used, but Native and autochtone are. Under the Royal Proclamation of 1763 known as the "Indian Magna Carta," the Crown referred to indigenous peoples in British territory as tribes or nations; the term First Nations is capitalized. Bands and nations may have different meanings. Within Canada, First Nations has come into general use for indigenous peoples other than Inuit and Métis. Individuals using the term outside Canada include U.
S. tribes within the Pacific Northwest, as well as supporters of the Cascadian independence movement. The singular used on culturally politicized reserves, is the term First Nations person. A more recent trend is for members of various nations to refer to themselves by their tribal or national identity only, e.g. "I'm Haida". For pre-history, see: Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods First Nations by linguistic-cultural area: List of First Nations peoplesFirst Nations peoples had settled and established trade routes across what is now Canada by 1,000 BC to 500 BC. Communities developed, each with its own culture and character. In the northwest were the Athapaskan-speaking peoples, Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ, Tutchone-speaking peoples, Tlingit. Along the Pacific coast were the Haida, Kwakiutl, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nisga'a and Gitxsan. In the plains were the Blackfoot, Kainai and Northern Peigan. In the northern woodlands were the Chipewyan. Around the Great Lakes were the Anishinaabe, Algonquin and Wyandot. Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk, Innu and Micmac.
The Blackfoot Confederacies reside in the Great Plains of Montana and Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The name "Blackfoot" came from the colour of the peoples' leather footwear, known as moccasins, they had painted the bottoms of their moccasins black. One account claimed that the Blackfoot Confederacies walked through the ashes of prairie fires, which in turn coloured the bottoms of their moccasins black, they had migrated onto the Great Plains from the Plateau area. The Blackfoot may have lived in their homeland since the end of the Pleistocene 11,000 years ago.. For thousands of years, they managed the prairie to support bison herds and cultivated berries and edible roots, they allowed only legitimate traders into their territory, making treaties only when the bison herds were exterminated in the 1870s. The Squamish history is a series of past events, both passed on through oral tradition and recent history, of the Squamish indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Prior to colonization, they recorded their history through oral tradition as a way to transmit stories and knowledge across generations. This was common among all the peoples; the writing system esta
