While Pender Harbour residents gave Sechelt (shíshálh) Nation officials a warm reception last Saturday at the launch of the official community plan review, one speaker at the end of the meeting challenged the band’s historic claims to the area.
Pender Harbour resident Shauntelle Nichols addressed the packed community hall in Madeira Park as the Sechelt delegation was leaving the building, dropping a bombshell behind them.
“Some of you may know and some of you may not know, but I’m here today on behalf of the Pender Harbour Indian Band to shed some light on the documented history of the kalpilin area of Pender Harbour,” Nichols told the crowd of about 100 people.
“Pender Harbour had its own clan of Native people called Klay-ah-Kwoss,” Nichols said. “Although they share the same blood and kinship as the Sechelt Indian Band, they were an individual clan who governed their own territory, hunting, gathering and fishing grounds.
“The Natives of Pender Harbour are today in active band formation and are going forward with the objective to reclaim the culture, history and voice of the Pender Harbour people for the Pender Harbour community. We have the same goals of protecting and rebuilding our natural resources and are more than happy to work in alliance with the Sechelt Nation and community groups of Pender Harbour and the Sunshine Coast.”
Nichols, who said she recently graduated with a diploma in law enforcement from the Justice Institute of B.C., noted Pender Harbour was “disputed land” as no reconciliation agreement has been reached yet between Sechelt and the province.
“While we’re in the process of a disputed land claim in the kalpilin area … in respect we ask the Sechelt Nation to refrain from actions affecting the Pender Harbour area without notifying the Pender Harbour Band until everything has been finalized.”
Interviewed after the meeting, Nichols said the band was currently comprised of about 30 members.
“And there’s a lot of people who are on the fence because we tried to do an alliance with Sechelt, but Sechelt would not accept any Pender Harbour Band members. However, they want to come in and have control over the Pender Harbour area,” she said.
“So what we’re trying to do is re-establish our clan, because our clan never left. We’ve been here for generations and generations.”
While no members of the Sechelt delegation were present to respond to Nichols’ claims, Chief Calvin Craigan began his address earlier in the meeting by pointing out that his and his wife’s heritage was derived from the area.
“My mother-in-law, my dad grew up on Indian Island — Boulder Island, it’s called,” Craigan said, later noting that resource director Sid Quinn and cultural coordinator Candace Campo were likewise descended from families that lived on Indian Island.
Coun. Garry Feschuk also said he was born in the Pender Harbour area and his wife’s lineage was from the area.
Feschuk said he was excited about the Feb. 28 community gathering, where the band could share its culture, explain the importance of Pender Harbour to the Sechelt “and also explain how we were displaced out of this area. We didn’t leave voluntarily.”
