Introduction

Human beings have inhabited the place we call British Columbia for about 10,000 years. Unfortunately, far less information survives about the early centuries than about the last two. Men and women did not leave the kinds of records making it possible to reconstruct their lives in more than the broadest outlines. It was the arrival of newcomers with a penchant for record keeping that is usually seen to mark the beginning of the "history" of BC. The name British Columbia is itself an artifact emanating out of these last 200 years. Apart from the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east, the place BC is as much constructed as is the "history" that we attribute to it. All the same, some boundaries, both literal and illusory, are essential to any story. BC has existed as a political entity--and increasingly also as an economic and social unit--only since the 1860s.

Some aspects of the lives of aboriginal peoples prior to the European intrusion are generally known. A broad division existed between peoples living along the coast and those inland. The generally harsh nature of the Interior terrain meant that people there had to spend much of their time obtaining food and shelter. For the most part they did not develop the complex social organization and rich ceremonial life associated with coastal people, who lived in a more bountiful environment symbolized by the two basic staples of salmon for food and cedar for most everything else. Coastal peoples divided the year into two parts, the summer given over to securing a livelihood and the winter to cultural and spiritual activities. At their heart lay the potlatch, a highly regulated ceremony at which goods were distributed to confirm or assert status or to commemorate important events. The complexities of tribal groupings across what is now BC is indicated by the existence of 30 different languages, each as distinctive from the others as is English from German.