Early History (until 1774)
British Columbia, before the arrival of the Europeans, was home to many Indigenous peoples speaking more than 30 different languages, including Babine, Beaver, Carrier, Tsilhqot'in, Gitksan, Haida, Halkomelem, Kaska, Kutenai, St'at'imcets, Nisga'a, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nuxálk, Sekani, Secwepemc, Sinixt, Sḵwxwú7mesh, Tagish, Tahltan, Nlaka'pamux, Tlingit, Tsetsaut, and Tsimshian.
The abundance of natural resources, particularly salmon and cedar, enabled the development of a complex hierarchical society on the British Columbia Coast. With so much food being available, the peoples of the B.C. coast could focus their time on other pursuits such as art, politics, and warfare.
Read more about this topic: History Of British Columbia
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or history:
“It was common practice for me to take my children with me whenever I went shopping, out for a walk in a white neighborhood, or just felt like going about in a white world. The reason was simple enough: if a black man is alone or with other black men, he is a threat to whites. But if he is with children, then he is harmless, adorable.”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)