Colonial Impact

Musqueam people welcomed visitors to their land, assuming they came in peace. Upon the first European contact in 1791, Musqueam people traded food and canoes in exchange for copper and iron from the Spanish. However, in the early 1800s, increased settler presence resulted in smallpox that decimated the Musqueam population. Furthermore, the Gold Rush in 1858 accelerated settler colonialism on Musqueam lands and interfered with the Musqueam way of life. Upon the discovery of gold in the region, tens of thousands of settlers travelled to their territories, prompting the British to declare a colony. At this time, further benefitting English farmers eager to come to Canada, colonial policies enabled settlers to acquire 160 acres of unceded lands while subjecting the Musqueam to small reserves. The Musqueam people faced increasing barriers to hunting on their lands, performing ceremonies, and maintaining kinship systems thanks to colonial processes of control. Through time, the Musqueam were pushed onto reserves and increasingly small parcels of land to make room for European settlement.

Indian Act controls

The Indian Act implemented in 1871 formally legislated the actions of the Musqueam people and forced them to assimilate into the dominant Canadian society. Though Europeans were uninvited guests who disrupted Musqueam villages and ways of living, they established permanent settlements and imposed their belief system onto the Musqueam people. Settlers completely disregarded the Musqueam's rights and title to the land, let alone their millennia of history, stories, and traditions that existed on these lands for far longer than Europeans had been there.

In 1884, the Canadian state enforced a potlatch ban to disrupt Indigenous cultural practices further and take power away. Furthermore, it was made illegal for Indigenous peoples to hire lawyers to advocate for land claims within the imported colonial government in 1927. Combined with the horrific impact of residential schools, the Canadian state systematically prevented the intergenerational transfer of teachings and stories.

Impact of reserves

The reserve system imposed on the Musqueam people in the early 20th century fractured the population and impeded their ability to hunt, gather, celebrate, and sustain themselves. Furthermore, reserves caused divisions between neighbouring Indigenous nations, which were fragmented into distinct and separate pieces of land. Fueled by this colonial division, the relationship between the Musqueam and nearby Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations became hostile and competitive. Today, these nations aim to work harmoniously to resist colonial eradication and harm.

Story: Colonially imposed sexism

In the 19th century, colonizers began increasing control over the Musqueam through the creation of reserves and the imposition of the Indian Act. Wendy John-Grant, a councillor of the Musqueam Indian Band, discovered that at the time, a government official told a priest to "teach Indian men how to treat their women" because "their women have too much power," reflecting colonial patriarchal values and a fear of the power of women within Indigenous communities (The Georgia Straight). Unfortunately, this mandate increased divisions between Musqueam men and women, causing harm for generations.

Residential school impacts

In the 20th century, thousands of Musqueam children were forced to attend residential schools, affecting at least six generations. One of the schools was St. Paul's Indian Residential School, where young people were institutionalized from grades one through eight. Unfortunately, at least twelve unidentified students died while attending the school between 1904 and 1913. Though the intergenerational impact of residential schools on language, traditions, and family relationships is immeasurable, efforts by local Indigenous nations are underway to heal according to their cultural and spiritual needs. (Click here for more information and resources for support).

Attempts of forced relocation

In the early 20th century, the non-Indigenous population of Vancouver ballooned. Colonial leaders intentionally drew wealthy, elite settlers to Vancouver because of its abundance of valuable land near the water. While the Musqueam valued the water for its life, culture, and richness, settlers were eager to take that land for exploitative use. Though the Musqueam faced pressure to relocate out of the growing and prosperous city of Vancouver, they resisted and protected their Musqueam Indian Reserve. The city of settlers expanded, eventually bordering the reserve despite efforts from Indian Agents to keep the Musqueam and non-Indigenous populations separate. The Musqueam experienced a significant loss of life and land while settlers grew their industrial cities. With every policy and house built, non-Indigenous peoples asserted their supposed control and right to occupy that land.

The overreach of the Department of Indian Affairs

Alongside land theft and the imposition of colonial structures on unceded lands, the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) empowered Indian Agents to control the movement of the Musqueam people and punish them for transgressions in the late 19th century. The DIA discouraged travelling away from the reserve and beyond the watch of Indian Agents, removing the autonomy of the Musqueam people and forcing them to abide by colonial rules. In particular, the DIA monitored Indigenous women and enforced policies that stripped Indigenous women of their status and any perceived benefits that came along with it.

Unceded lands

In the past and today, and in the future, the land that colonizers implemented their belief systems and political and social structures onto remains stolen, unceded territories. The Musqueam and the neighbouring Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish nations never signed treaties with settlers and thus never ceased their Aboriginal title over their lands. Thus, the city of Vancouver and surrounding suburbs grew on top of Indigenous territories, and at the detriment of Indigenous populations, despite colonial narratives that describe empty lands waiting to be civilized and used for settler benefit.

Legacy of colonialism

The ability of the Musqueam people to sustain themselves through hunting and gathering, practice cultural activities such as weaving and ceremony, and care for their lands, was significantly impacted because of colonial controls over their movement and the imposition of industry, settlements, and ideas. Even today, similar notions of colonial control and exploitation are seen with pipelines, tanker traffic, and other resource development projects that lack consent and violate the values of Indigenous peoples.

Ongoing criminalization

Indigenous peoples face extraordinary risks in defending their lands, even today. For example, Indigenous peoples participating in protests or actions nearby pipeline construction sites risk unjust police discrimination. Several land defenders have been arrested by police opposing the Trans Mountain Pipeline or the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, including Secwepemc Hereditary Chief Sawses and Secwepemc Matriarch April Thomas. In addition, a group of young Indigenous people in the Lower Mainland known as the Braided Warriors have experienced police violence and injury during a peaceful sit-in and ceremony.

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