Way kamalh kw’alhtnim wa suuncw ats, p’iixlalayctimut-s ti qnklstilh t’ayc ala snuxyals wa skulhaltwas; ska sisuuncwalh t’axw alhtxw.

When the world was forming our earth was like an island floating in an ocean of stars; ever moving in the cosmos of outer space. This is what is known about our first ancestors when Alhkw’ntam created the earth. Nuxalkmc believe everything is interconnected and has spirit. At the beginning the world was made ready and prepared by our Creator and his four carpenters.

Our first ancestors were made in Nusmata, the House of Smayusta, the Creator’s house in the upper world. There were 45 original families; each had their own room in the house. They were carved from the cosmic tree, Tcncniyaaq, the Milky Way and they were given cmanwas (spirit), placed in the bone of the back of their neck, and given slhup’tsta (breath), and they came alive. The Creator prepared them to come to earth and provided them with skwatsta (names), asulicts (food, provi- sions, and tools), stl’cw (code of ethics), and sxayaxw (protocols). All of these were placed within their nuslhiixwta (treasure box).

Once they were ready, the Creator said, “look to the walls of my house.” Hanging there were animal, bird, and sea creature cloaks. They were instructed to choose a cloak and they put them over their backs the same way we wear our dance cloaks today, and they sinaaxwmiixw (danced). These cloaks represent our family crests.

Wearing their animal cloaks, the first ancestors descended to the mountain tops
on the eyelashes of the sun, where they journeyed down and found places to build their sulh (houses) and their silhmak (fish traps). Soon they began to prosper and apsulh (villages) were formed. The land was bountiful, and their houses began to fill up to the ceiling with boxes of goods. This is when the Creator spoke to the people, instructing them to lhlm (potlatch), to invite their neighbours from far and wide, to tell the story of how the Creator placed them on the land and to share their wealth, validating their su7ulm (rights and title) to the land.

Pre-contact, Nuxalk people are enjoying a fully developed society, culture, economy and system of governance, and have established our autonomous Nuxalk Nation. Nuxalk managed a specific economy through the trading of sluq’ (eulachon grease) that began at the mouth of eight eulachon-bearing rivers in Nuxalk territory and stretched east to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, facilitating trade routes such as the Sluq’alh (Nuxalk-Carrier Grease Trail), that lasted thousands of years.

After contact, Nuxalk people experienced the Usqalits’ txw, (smallpox epidemic) of 1862. Intentionally spread, this disease reduced Nuxalk people from an estimated 30,000 living throughout the four territories in over 50 towns and villages, to approx- imately 300 survivors.

These 300 people were brought together by Chief Waxit Pulhas at Q’umk’uts, who married 11 high-ranking women. This unusual union was necessary to bring the survivors together and preserve their ties to their ancestral territories as dictated by Nuxalk law, enabling them to work the land at Q’umk’uts and rebuild the Nation.