Penelakut Island

Last updated

Penelakut Island
Penelakut First Nation (50385963131).jpg
Penelakut.png
Coordinates: 48°57′36″N123°38′42″W / 48.96°N 123.645°W / 48.96; -123.645
CountryCanada
Province British Columbia
Government
   MLA Doug Routley (NDP)
Population
  Total302
Time zone UTC−8 (PST)
  Summer (DST) UTC−7 (PDT)
Postal code
V0R 5K0

Penelakut Island (called Kuper Island by colonists between 1851–2010 [1] ) 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. [2]

Contents

A Mediterranean climate of mild winters and warm, dry summers supports a unique ecosystem and an ideal living environment. The island is in the rain shadow of Vancouver Island, with an annual rainfall of about 850 millimetres (33 in). Unlike most neighbouring Gulf Islands, the topography is subdued with few bluffs or rock outcrops. [3] Poorly drained soils are common. [4]

There is a Roman Catholic Church and a longhouse, but no commercial establishments on the island. Because it is an Indian reserve, property is not available for purchase. (There is one private lot dating from the events of 1863).

From 1890 to 1978, the Catholic Church operated a residential school on the island. The present comprehensive school is run by the Penelakut. There is still much bitterness in the community over the violence and sexual abuse suffered by Indigenous children who attended the school. In 2002, Glenn Doughty, a Catholic Oblate brother who was employed at the school was sentenced to three years in prison for his historical crimes at the Kuper Island School, including indecent assault on a male, gross indecency, and one count of buggery involving 11 different victims. Those were the laws on the books when the crimes occurred in the 1960s and '70s., [5] and former attendees say the abusive practices were widespread. [6] In July 2021, an announcement was made that 160 unmarked graves were identified near the site of the residential school. [7] [5]

History

Britain's Royal Navy, surveying the area in 1851, cruised into a group of five islands in the Strait of Georgia, declaring the colonial name of the two largest islands to be Kuper and Thetis, after their Captain Augustus Leopold Kuper R.N. (1809–1885) and his frigate, HMS Thetis, a 36-gun Royal Navy frigate on the Pacific Station between 1851 and 1853.

In 1861 about 300 Bella Bella Indigenous people in 19 large canoes were ordered away from Victoria by Governor James Douglas. On their return journey north, they staged a surprise attack at dawn on the Penelahut natives of Kuper Island, a tribe of about 400 in number. About 225 Penelahuts were murdered in one of the worse massacres recorded.

A Nanaimo chief named Winni-win-chin was visiting Kuper Island. He escaped to Nanaimo and reported the massacre to Mr. A.G. Horne, in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company post. Mr. Horne dispatched canoe men to Victoria to report the act.

On April 20, 1863, the British gunboat HMS Forward attacked the native village on Kuper Island. The captain believed that the village harboured individuals of the separate Lamalchi tribe involved in two recent assaults in the Gulf Islands in which three Europeans had been killed in combat. The gunboat fired on the village but, unprepared for a naval landing, withdrew with one casualty after a fierce battle with island warriors. Following the event, the colonial government responded with one of the largest military assaults in British Columbia's history, which took place on the east coast of Vancouver Island and extended throughout the waters and islands of Active Pass, Trincomali Channel and Stuart Channel. Subsequently, having gained control of the region, the government publicly hanged four Indigenous men in Victoria and established colonial governance in the region, ultimately forming the Province of British Columbia.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vancouver Island</span> Largest island in British Columbia, Canada

Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km2 (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km2 (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snuneymuxw First Nation</span> Aboriginal people from Vancouver Island

The Snuneymuxw First Nation is located in and around the city of Nanaimo on east-central Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The nation previously had also occupied territory along the Fraser River, in British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chemainus</span> Community in British Columbia, Canada

Chemainus is a community within the municipality of North Cowichan in the Chemainus Valley on the east coast of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thetis Island</span>

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 (1,036 ha) 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.

British Columbia K-class ferry

The K-class ferries are a group of similarly designed ferries operated by both BC Ferries and TransLink in British Columbia, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uplands, Greater Victoria</span> Olmsted-designed neighbourhood in Oak Bay, BC

Uplands, Victoria is a 188.17-hectare (465.0-acre) neighbourhood located in the north east part of the District of Oak Bay, a suburb adjacent to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and situated between the neighbourhoods of Cadboro Bay and North Oak Bay. Uplands is a prominent example of a garden suburb designed in the early part of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saturna Island</span> Island of the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada

Saturna Island is a mountainous island, about 31 square kilometres (12 sq mi) in size, in the Southern Gulf Islands chain of British Columbia, Canada. It is situated approximately midway between the Lower Mainland of B.C. and Vancouver Island, and is the most easterly of the Gulf Islands. It is surrounded on three sides by the Canada–United States border. To the north is Point Roberts, Washington, and to the east and south are the San Juan Islands. There is a First Nations reserve on the island for the Tsayout and Tseycum Nations. The island has a permanent population of around 350, however, this number increases during the summer season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelakut</span> Large Hulquminum-speaking First Nation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria in Canada</span> Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Diocese of Victoria is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its episcopal see is in Victoria. The diocese encompasses all of Vancouver Island and several nearby British Columbia islands. A suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Vancouver, the diocese's cathedral is St. Andrew's Cathedral and its present diocesan bishop is Gary Gordon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trincomali Channel</span> Channel in British Columbia, Canada

Trincomali Channel is a channel between Galiano Island and Saltspring Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seair Seaplanes</span> Scheduled and charter airline based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Seair Seaplanes is a scheduled and charter airline based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The airline flies routes between the Vancouver International Water Airport and the Nanaimo Harbour Water Airport, as well as other Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia, exclusively with float planes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Tzouhalem</span> Mountain in Canada

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 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 Saltspring Island and Galiano Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hwlitsum First Nation</span>

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.

Comox Sandhills represents an ancient sand dune system in Comox and the Comox Valley Regional District near Cape Lazo, British Columbia. The dunes have been overgrown by a forest of Douglas-Fir and Shore Pine, which are frequently joined by Western Hemlock in moist areas. More rarely, kept uncommon by exceptionally low soil fertility, Western White Pine, Sitka Spruce, Western Red Cedar, Red Alder, Bigleaf Maple, Black Cottonwood and Trembling Aspen are present. Classic podzol soil profile development was the rule, mapped as Kye-Custer complex ("Ky-Cu") in a 1959 survey; however, housing developments have since disturbed the area and disrupted soil profiles so that many of the soils no longer resemble podzols. As a result, a 1985 report mapped the Sandhills in a brunisolic (Kuhushan) soil association. A 1989 report mapped the Beddis series for drier parts and Baynes series for imperfectly drained areas.

Beryl Mildred Cryer (1889–1980) was a Canadian writer about Indigenous cultures on Vancouver Island.

Beddis soil series is a coarse, well to rapidly drained soil which occurs on eastern Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands. Its parent material is eolian, fluvial or marine sand. The soil texture is usually loamy sand or sandy loam, but pure sand horizons may also be encountered. The usual soil classification is Orthic Dystric Brunisol. A Gleyed Humo-Ferric Podzol example is also known, although that profile does not have the eluvial horizon characteristic of classic Podzol development.

Baynes soil series is an imperfectly drained soil which occurs on eastern Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands. Its parent material is eolian, fluvial or marine sand. The soil texture is usually loamy sand or sandy loam, but pure sand horizons may also be encountered. It is classified as Gleyed Dystric Brunisol or Gleyed Humo-Ferric Podzol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuper Island Indian Residential School</span> Defunct Canadian residential school

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.

References

  1. "Penelakut Island - Wikimapia". wikimapia.org. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  2. "Telegraph Harbour". BC Geographical Names. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  3. https://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/publications/surveys/bc/bc43-3/bc43-3_report.pdf Soils of the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Volume 3, p. 19.
  4. https://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/publications/surveys/bc/bc43-3/bc43-3_report.pdf Soils of the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Volume 3, p. 20.
  5. 1 2 . APTN. July 13, 2021.
  6. "Murder at the Kuper Island Catholic School". canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  7. "More than 160 unmarked graves found near another B.C. residential school site: Penelakut Tribe". CTV News Vancouver. July 12, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Penelakut Island at Wikimedia Commons