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The Hwlitsum or Lamalchi or Lamalcha are an Indigenous people whose traditional territories were in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. Their traditional villages were on Canoe Pass, which is known in their language as Hwlitsum, and on Kuper Island (called by them Lamalchi, another spelling of their name,) Saltspring Island and Galiano Island.
On 20 April 1863, a shelling of their village on Kuper Island by the Royal Navy's HMS Forward led to a series of events known as the Lamalcha War or Lamalchi Affair. The reason for the shelling was the authorities of the Colony of Vancouver Island believed the village was sheltering men suspected of murdering three white men. After a prolonged firefight, resulting in the killing of one British sailor, the Forward retreated. While some say this episode was the only tactical defeat of the Royal Navy in the era following the Crimean War to the opening of the 20th Century, the Forward returned the next day to destroy the then-abandoned village. [1] During the war the escaped Lamalcha evaded capture by various other Royal Navy warships, including HMS Satellite, until the seven suspects were captured and brought to Esquimalt.
Eventually four Lamalcha were hung for murder in Victoria and the Lamalcha village confiscated; that area is now home to the Penelakut and Kuper Island's Indian reserves are governed by the Penelakut First Nation.
A detailed account of the events leading to the Lamalcha War is provided by Chris Arnett in "Terror of the Coast - Land Alienation and on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands 1849 -1863.”
In 2014 elders of the group filed a land claim in the BC Supreme Courts for large pieces of Stanley Park, Galiano Island and Saltspring Island, overlapping with claims of the Squamish and Musqueam Nations and others (this is common throughout BC). [2] [3] Currently the Hwlitsum Band is not yet recognized under the federal Indian Act.
A letter of support for their cause was sent to the federal and provincial governments in 2007 by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. [4]
Galiano Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands located between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the west side of the Strait of Georgia, the island is bordered by Mayne Island to the southeast, Salt Spring Island to the west and Valdes Island to the northwest. Galiano is part of the Capital Regional District Electoral Area G, and has a permanent population of 1,396 inhabitants as of 2021.
Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia (BC), Canada. It is about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by a 20-minute ferry service. It has a land area of about 57.6 square kilometres (22.2 sq mi) and a resident population of 4,500.
Penelakut Island is located in the southern Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada. The island has a population of about 300 members of the Penelakut Band. The island has an area of 8.66 square kilometres (3.34 sq mi). There is frequent car and passenger ferry service to Penelakut from Chemainus on Vancouver Island. On its west side sits Telegraph Harbour.
Mayne Island is a 21-square-kilometre (8.1 sq mi) island in the southern Gulf Islands chain of British Columbia. It is midway between the Lower Mainland of BC and Vancouver Island, and has a population of over 1300. Mount Parke in the south-central heart of the island is its highest peak at 255 metres.
Thetis Island is an island and unincorporated community off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, lying between Vancouver Island, which is to the west across Stuart Channel, and the west from the north tip of Galiano Island, from which it is separated by Trincomali Channel. With its immediate southern neighbour Penelakut Island, it is one of the Gulf Islands. Thetis island is 2,560 acres (10.36 km2) in size. It is approximately two miles wide and three miles long north to south. Two north to south land ridges define the east and west sides of the island. Burchell Hill is 503 feet above sea level, and forms the high point on the west side of Thetis island, and Moore Hill is 511 feet above sea level, and forms the high point ridge on the east side of the island.
Ganges, British Columbia is an unincorporated community on Salt Spring Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada.
Quamichan is a traditional nation of the Coast Salish people, commonly referred to by the English adaptation of Qu'wutsun as the Cowichan Indians, or First Nations, of the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, in the area near the city of Duncan, British Columbia and Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
The Penelakut are a large Hul'qumi'num-speaking First Nation. They live primarily on Penelakut Island near the south end of Vancouver Island, and Galiano Island. Their land stretches to Tent Island which is private and currently uninhabited.
Valdes Island is one of the Gulf Islands located in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada. It is across Porlier Pass from Galiano Island, which lies to the southeast. It has an area of 23 square kilometres, and is 1.6 kilometres wide by 16 kilometres in length. The island is popular with kayakers, boaters and has historically been the site of several human settlements.
Salt Spring Island or Saltspring Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia, Canada, and Vancouver Island.
Sansum Narrows is a strait or channel between Vancouver Island (W) and Saltspring Island (E) in the Southern Gulf Islands region of British Columbia, Canada. The narrows are between Maple Bay and Tl’ulpalus.
Trincomali Channel is a channel between Galiano Island and Saltspring Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada.
Vesuvius, also known as Vesuvius Bay, is an unincorporated settlement and ferry terminal on the northwest coast of Saltspring Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. It is the eastern terminus of a ferry which connects Saltspring Island to Vancouver Island across Sansum Narrows to Crofton, which is just north of the city of Duncan.
HMS Grappler was an Albacore-class gunboat of the Royal Navy. She served on what is now the British Columbia Coast from 1859 until sold into commercial service in 1868. She sank with significant loss of life as result of a fire in 1883.
Mount Tzouhalem is a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, 4 kilometres east-northeast of Duncan in the municipality of North Cowichan. It is situated between Quamichan Lake, Maple Bay and Cowichan Bay.
The Hwlitsum First Nation is an organization representing the group historically known as the Lamalchi or Lamalcha but properly called Hwlitsum. The Hwlitsum are the descendants of the Lamalchi people and changed their name to Hwlitsum when they moved to Hwlitsum in 1892. Hul'qumi'num custom names groups based on the location of their winter village. Changing location of their winter village changed the name of the people. The Hwlitsum are a Hulquminum-speaking people whose home region is in the Southern Gulf Islands. The Hwlitsum were never granted reserves or band status and are currently seeking recognition as a band government from the governments of British Columbia and Canada.
Stuart Channel is a strait in the Gulf Islands region of the Gulf of Georgia, separating Vancouver Island on the west from Thetis, DeCourcy and Penelakut (Kuper) Islands on the east. Ladysmith Harbour and the town of Chemainus face onto it from Vancouver Island. It is crossed by a BC Ferries route serving Thetis and Penelakut Islands.
HMS Forward was a British Albacore-class wooden screw gunboat launched in 1855 and sold in 1869. After her sale, Mexican pirates captured her, and boats from the United States Navy sloop-of-war USS Mohican destroyed her in the Battle of Boca Teacapan in 1870.
The Kuper Island Indian Residential School, also known as Kuper Island Indian Industrial School, was a Canadian Indian residential school located on Kuper Island, near Chemainus, British Columbia, that operated from 1889 to 1975. The school was operated by the Roman Catholic Church, with funding from the Department of Indian Affairs.