Heiltsuk

The Heiltsuk homeland extends across the islands, channels and deep inlets of the central Pacific coast. Its villages stood in many different parts of this intricate shoreline, some on islands or steep ground that could be defended. Canoes carried people and goods between the coast and neighbouring inlets, where the Heiltsuk traded with other Indigenous communities.

By the 1790s maritime fur traders were visiting these waters, and George Vancouver recorded populous villages during his journeys along the coast. In 1833 the Hudson’s Bay Company built Fort McLoughlin on Campbell Island. A Heiltsuk community grew beside the post, and its traders became important intermediaries: furs brought by Nuxalk visitors from the Bella Coola valley could pass through Heiltsuk hands to European ships and company agents.