Squamish History - Assimilation and Discrimination

Assimilation and Discrimination

Like most indigenous peoples of the coast, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh were hit hard by the contact of foreign diseases like influenza and smallpox which continued to attack the community in waves throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Although early trade with the Hudson's Bay Company was largely controlled by indigenous people who vastly outnumbered Europeans, the Fraser River Gold Rush brought a sharp increase of immigration, and more waves of disease. Furthermore, with the proclamation of the Colony of British Columbia, the British became more bold in attempting to assert colonial power.

With expansion from the east, repeated epidemics, and sometimes violent conflict with settlers, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people became a minority in their own lands. By the turn of the 20th century, they were outnumbered by European and South-east Asian settlers. With racist policies conducted by Canadian toward indigenous people in the country during the first half of the 20th century little opportunities with the people. Children were forcibly removed from homes to attend residential schools, often very far from home to discourage runaways. Individuals who completed Post-secondary institutional could be "enfranchised" and stripped of their aboriginal status. Most of the population was confined to government-allotted reserve lands (the largest around the village of Chiyakmesh) and not allowed to move about without permission from agents sent by the Department of Indian Affairs.

Later, moves in the 1970 with the Child and Family Ministry of British Columbia, there was a large grab of indigenous children who were then placed in mostly non-indigenous home, located distances away from their ancestral homes. This later led to a lot of problems for returning people back to their native community and a strong strike on cultural practices conducted by the native people.