Lacrosse Floats Upriver

It seems fitting that the Fraser River should bring lacrosse into the hands of the Stó꞉lō people, as the river was the lifeblood of the communities inhabiting the Fraser Valley. Stó꞉lō, the Halq’eméylem word for “river,” marked the Stó꞉lō as the “river people.” The many waterways of the Fraser Valley served as the “fiber of the web” connecting the various Stó꞉lō communities to each other and to the larger grouping of Coast Salish nations. The Stó꞉lō called their traditional territory consisting of the Fraser Valley and lower Fraser Canyon, S’ólh Téméxw.

Due to the upriver location of Stó꞉lō territories, direct contact with Europeans occurred later than in Coast Salish nations closer to the ports and coastal European settlements. That is not, however, to say that the Stó꞉lō did not feel the effects of the European presence on the West Coast. In 1782, long before direct contact, the Stó꞉lō were ravaged by a smallpox epidemic that had been transmitted via intertribal relations with Indigenous people who had been directly exposed to European-borne infectious diseases. It is estimated that 62% of the Stó꞉lō population died in the outbreak. Unfortunately, the 1782 smallpox epidemic would only be the first in a series of European diseases to impact the Stó꞉lō. Over the course of the next century, the Stó꞉lō people would be impacted with at least three other major epidemics (smallpox/measles in 1824; measles in 1848; and smallpox again in 1862). It would not be until Simon Fraser’s exploration of the Fraser River in 1808 that face-to-face contact would occur between the Stó꞉lō and Europeans would occur. Following this meeting, the Stó꞉lō people had relatively positive relationships with the European explorers and traders whom they called Xwelítem (“The Hungry People”). Settlers and traders, typically unprepared and ill-equipped to feed themselves in the West Coast wilderness, often relied heavily on the help of Stó꞉lō people to survive. While these mostly positive relations would last throughout the early to mid 19^th century, the gold rush of 1858 would drastically alter the relationship between the Stó꞉lō and non-Indigenous settlers.

In the 1858, word reached San Francisco that gold had been found in the sandbars of the Fraser River. This discovery resulted in an influx of 30,000 gold miners trekking through the Fraser Valley with aims to strike it rich. The arrival of these gold miners in the region caused significant problems for the Stó꞉lō, as they encroached on Stó꞉lō territory, resources, and homes. Furthermore, miners arrived with the notion that the resources and lands around the Fraser River were open to be exploited and/or claimed. This resulted in many land disputes between the Stó꞉lō and miners, as the Stó꞉lō people regarded the river, including its land and resources, to be their property. Governor James Douglas, in an effort to resolve these issues, tried to separate the Stó꞉lō and the miners by designating separate territories for each group to occupy along the Fraser River. This marked the beginning of a long history of land disputes between the Stó꞉lō and various groups of non-Indigenous settlers in the Fraser Valley. While most miners left the area by the 1860s, more permanent non-Indigenous immigrants arrived and began to establish farms. As more and more non-Indigenous peoples began to settle in the Fraser Valley, Stó꞉lō territory was dramatically reduced to make way for the development of settler towns and communities.

One such settler community was that of Chilliwack, B.C. The land upon which the settlement rested was known as Tcil’Qe’uk (“valley of many streams”) by the Stó꞉lō people who traditionally inhabited the region.Following the departure of the miners in the mid-1860s, several farms had been established around the steamboat landings on the Fraser River. The proximity of these farms to the steamboat landings (Miller’s Landing, Sumas Landing and Chilliwack Landing) was not incidental- steamboats were the main mode of transportation, carrying passengers and goods between Chilliwack and New Westminster. The Township of Chilliwack was incorporated in 1873, becoming the third municipality established in British Columbia. Despite the separation of non-Indigenous townspeople and the Stó꞉lō through the reserve system, there continued to be a high degree of interaction between these groups. Stó꞉lō people were often hired as labourers on the numerous farms around the community.

It would be the settler need for agricultural labour that would draw young Coast Salish men up the river from their traditional coastal territories to the in-land Chilliwack for extended periods of time. Through the mingling of these Coast Salish and Stó꞉lō labourers, the game of lacrosse had made its way into the Stó꞉lō communities of the Chilliwack area.