Douglas tribes of British Columbia

Band No:
Preferred Name:
Formerly Known As:
Name of First Nation:
Linguistic Group:

561
Douglas
n/a
Douglas
Salishan

General Information:
Located at head of Harrison Lake at the mouth of the Lillouet River, 112 km from Pemberton. Three reserves; 432.3 hectares; Main community is on Tipella I.R No. 7.

History:
Douglas, Skookum Chuck and Samahquam First Nations were originally called the Douglas Tribes, after Governor Douglas. He ordered a port be built at the place now called Port Douglas, for the start of the Caribou Highway into the Interior of British Columbia in 1858. The original Douglas Reserve was 2,500 acres, and included the town site at Port Douglas.

Economic Activities:
A member of the Coast Mountain Development Corporation.

Facilities Available On Reserve:
Cultural centre, school, band office, teacherage, powerhouse.

Band Office Address:
7311 James St., Unit C
Mission, BC
V2V 3V5
Tel: (604) 820-3082
Fax: (604) 820-3020

Affiliations:
Coast Mountain Development Council

Source: British Columbia's First Nation On-line Community

The following has been contributed by Don Harris, Band Councillor (hereditary chief):

In regards to the Douglas Reserve, the main reserve is i.r. # 8. The west side of Douglas i.r. # 8 is referred to as the village of Tippella. Tippella i.r. # 7 is actually a small tract of land that is a grave yard.

Between 1850 and 1864 Sir James Douglas as Governor and Chief Factor for the Hudson’s Bay Company and later Governor of the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia developed a broad and consistent policy for resolving the Indian Land Question in the colonies. While the earlier aspects of this policy, effected mainly under the auspices of land conveyances for the Hudson’s Bay company, are easily accessible through official documentation of the so-called Fort Victoria Treaties, Douglas’s later efforts are frequently ambiguous and difficult to document for a number of reasons. The purpose of this memorandum is to outline the consistent, over-arching principles that informed Douglas’s approach to aboriginal title, settlement problems and political ramifications of early colonial land policy. From Douglas’s Fort Victoria land conveyances one can infer that his approach to reserves and land pre-emptions would have been more rational and less ambiguous had it been within his power. In particular he would have extinguished aboriginal title given adequate funds. Most importantly, the reserve policy implemented by Governor Douglas in the Fort Victoria treaties, and by extension in the later reserve system, was, insofar as he understood it, a consistent extension of both Imperial and later Dominion aboriginal policy. It constituted a recognition of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and its alteration in the years following his tenure is illustrative of the development of an anomalous, indigenous British Columbia approach to Indian lands that diverged from those principles contained in the Proclamation.