LEKWUNGEN

The Songhees Nation were relocated in 1911 to a reserve in Esquimalt, but were originally located on the western shore of what is now Victoria Harbour. They spoke a Coast Salish dialect called Lekwungen.

"In 1858, the Lekwungen winter population on the Songhees Reserve was about 700 people. A steady population decline due to diseases and home-based alcohol followed, according to John Lutz. In 1859, the population was 600. In 1864-65, it was down to 285. In 1886, the village had only 134 people. The Reserve population reached a low of 117 in 1911.

May 19, 1911 Songhees Indian Reserve Act

(4) Remove the dead, together with all monuments and tombstones from the said Songhees reserve in the city of Victoria to the new reserve at Esquimalt, and there re-inter and replace them in a manner satisfactory to the Superintendent General, the whole at the cost of the Government of British Columbia."

Settlers wanted aboriginals out of the way except when they provided cheap labor. The demise of the fur trade economy rendered aboriginal trapper and trader obsolete, so male aboriginals worked in construction, land-clearing, plowing, fishing and as paddlers for express canoes, always receiving wages well below that of whites. Women sheared sheep, grew potatoes for sale to whites, did domestic work, and in the 1870's and early 1880's, were salmon cannery employees.

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