Tsleil-Waututh Nation

Before contact with Europeans, the Tsleil-Waututh population was great, with oral history telling us that there were up to ten thousand Tsleil-Waututh members living throughout the traditional territory. 

The ancestors’ survival was dependent on cycles of hunting, harvesting and preserving foods, and on trading using our land and water transportation networks and protocols we had with our neighbors.

In mid-July or early August, most of the Tsleil-Waututh, as well as other Coast Salish groups, travelled to the Fraser River to catch and dry the most favoured type of salmon: sockeye. During this time, people would visit, exchange news of relatives and form alliances. Large volumes of many kinds of berries were also harvested and dried during the summer months.

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation speaks the Henqeminiem language.