Opinion: Squamish Nation's true cost for reclaiming Senakw land | Daily Hive

Opinion: Squamish Nation sets the record straight on the real high cost of reclaiming Senakw reserve land

November 2024 construction progress on the first phase of Squamish Nation's Senakw rental housing complex. (Peak Construction Group)

Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Squamish Nation councillor Wilson Williams and Nch’ḵaỷ Development Corporation CEO Mindy Wight.

To everyone saying the Sen̓áḵw land did not cost the Squamish Nation anything: you’re wrong, it cost us a lot.

Since the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) announced the Sen̓áḵw development in 2019, we have been met with an incredible amount of support and excitement.

Sen̓áḵw is the largest First Nations residential development partnership in Canada’s history. The project will create over 6,000 homes at our village site in the heart of the area known today as Vancouver — bringing desperately needed rental housing to the city.

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But five years in, we continue to encounter a lot of misunderstanding.

One central misconception we often hear is that we were “given” the land at Kitsilano Reserve No. 6. People say the land “did not cost us anything,” implying that we are somehow now developing “free” land.

This belief is deeply ironic, given that Vancouver is built on land taken from First Nations through coercion and land theft, with early settlers paying lower prices than they would have paid their white counterparts or, in many cases, paying nothing at all.

Site of the Senakw development in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood, on the reserve of the Squamish Nation. (Revery Architecture/ Westbank/Squamish Nation)

senakw squamish nation vancouver september 2022

September 2022 artistic rendering of the refined detailed design of Senakw: perspective looking northwest from Granville Street near West 4th Avenue. (Revery Architecture/Kasian/Tandem Studios/Squamish Nation)

Senakw master plan. (Revery Architecture/Kasian/Tandem Studios/Squamish Nation)

Whether people like the Sen̓áḵw development or not is up to them — but it’s important that critics recognize the documented truth.

Here is a brief history lesson.

The land in question has been our land for thousands of years. For millennia, Sen̓áḵw (meaning “inside the head of the bay” at False Creek) was a seasonal village that was home to a longhouse that was 200 ft long and 70 ft wide (a bit larger than your typical gym), as well as more than 15 family dwellings. Wildlife abounded: deer, elk, and salmon were plentiful. Sen̓áḵw was our seasonal home.

In 1869, the Canadian government renamed Sen̓áḵw “Kitsilano Reserve No. 6,” and after that, began the swift expropriation of our land. Acre by acre, our land was taken to build the railways. Our land was taken to build the growing city of Vancouver. Then in 1911, the City of Vancouver and the provincial government began pressuring Sḵwx̱wú7mesh to vacate Sen̓áḵw entirely. By 1913, the band agreed to the “sale” of Sen̓áḵw — a transaction that all parties agreed was illegal.

“Most of the elders could not even speak English,” Squamish Chief Gibby Jacob told The Globe and Mail in 2000. “And there were no words in our language to describe the things that were going on.”

senakw construction kitsilano trestle bridge

Remnants of the Kitsilano Trestle Bridge on Senakw’s fourth phase footprint on the east side of Burrard Bridge. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Vancouver and the province did not include the federal government in the “deal,” which still had the final sign-off on managing a reserve according to Canadian law. Yet the “sale” was finalized nonetheless.

The remaining families were loaded onto a barge and sent across Burrard inlet with their belongings and ancestors’ remains.

After they left, their homes were burned to the ground.

And from the moment Sen̓áḵw was destroyed and all the land was taken, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh began its fight to get it back. It took more than 60 years.

Significant barriers had been created by the government through the Indian Act.

For instance, until 1951, not only was it illegal for First Nations to hire a lawyer to fight for land claims, we had to renounce our status to train in the profession, or any profession, until 1961.

Finally, in 1977, the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw launched a series of land claims known as the Omnibus Trust Action. That court case worked its way through the system for almost 25 years, with the land eventually being returned to Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw in 2001.

However, of the original 82 acres of reserve land known to the federal government as Kitsilano Reserve No. 6, just 10.4 acres were rightfully returned.

senakw phase 1 construction july 22 2024

Construction progress on the first phase of Senakw as of July 22, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Yet, we still encounter the statement — “the land didn’t cost you anything.”

We assure you; the land has cost the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) People a lot.

Beyond the obvious economics, we have also paid a social and cultural price. The neighbourhood itself is named for Squamish historian Xáts’lánexw (August Jack Khatsahlano).

Imagine a world where our families may have continued to reside in the village, all this time. Imagine a Vancouver where we had been treated with equal rights to live in the city.

Now, all levels of government praise our project, and we’ve entered good-faith agreements. The courts have affirmed our rights to the land. But most of all, we are affirming our own history, our own research, and our records.

We are back, once again, living, managing, and developing our own lands. But make no mistake, this land has cost us a lot.

senakw squamish nation wilson williams mindy wight

Nch’ḵaỷ Development Corporation CEO Mindy Wight (left) and Squamish Nation councillor Wilson William (right) at the Senakw construction site. (Submitted)

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