#Nootka people free

#Nootka people free

In the ensuing Nootka Sound Controversy, Spain eventually agreed to a convention (1794) according to which both nations were free to navigate and fish in the Pacific, to trade and establish settlements. In 1789 a Spanish force occupied the sound and built a fort 2 months later a British force arrived and a quarrel developed. Soon after, the region became a centre of trade and then of competition among Russia, Britain and Spain. Cook first called the inlet King George's Sound, then Nootka Sound, thinking this was its Indigenous name. The sound was likely first explored by James Cook in 1778, although PerГ©z Hernandez had approached it 4 years earlier. The coastal environment was particularly bountiful in fish of many varieties, and the semisedentary Nuu-chah-nulth developed an elaborate culture.

They were the only Indigenous people in Canada to specialize in whaling and were the first in BC to meet Europeans. The first inhabitants of the region were the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), who made their living by hunting and fishing. One of these reaches 65 km inland to Strathcona Provincial Park, another to the sawmilling community of Tahsis. From a cluster of forested islands near the mouth of the sound, three deep inlets (Tahsis, Tlupana and Muchalat) penetrate inland. Nootka Sound, BC, is an inlet on Vancouver Island's western coast, 270 km northwest of Victoria.