In the 1790s Spanish and British vied for control of Nootka Sound, home of the Nuu-chah-nulth who lived a life of abundance here, harvesting salmon, clam, mammals and whales.  The Europeans sought to gain access to prized otter pelts.  After years of conflict, the third Nootka Convention was signed in 1794, allowing both British and Spanish trading posts. Trading captains were unaware of First Nations customs, and their disrespectful treatment led to the seizure and destruction of several foreign ships.

Disease and intertribal fighting had greatly diminished the indigenous population. In 1843 James Douglass and the local Songhees and Esquimalt built Fort Victoria, a Hudson’s Bay trading post on Vancouver Island. This became the capital of a new colony in 1849. British settlement gradually spread to encompass the territory known today as British Columbia. The Pacific Coast First Nations had to share their homeland with foreign people, but the Nuu-chah-nulth would never surrender their claim to the land and waters that had shaped their civilization.