Halkomelem

Halkomelem is the Central Salish language of the lower Fraser country and adjoining coast, spoken in Island, Downriver and Upriver dialects by peoples including the Stó:lō, whose name means river people, along the Fraser Valley.

They lived in plank-house villages on the waterways, living from the Fraser's salmon runs marked by a First Salmon ceremony; rank was affirmed at potlatches, and families crossed the Strait of Georgia to fish and marry, binding them together. Disease arrived before any European: a smallpox epidemic in 1782 spread along Native trade routes and killed roughly two thirds of the Stó:lō within weeks.

Spanish explorer Narváez and George Vancouver charted the Strait of Georgia in 1791 and 1792 without entering the Fraser; Simon Fraser's 1808 descent brought first face-to-face contact. The Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Langley in 1827, and the Kwantlen settled beside it.