The post glacial settlement of our area

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - New evidence suggests that First Nations people may have arrived in north Vancouver Island as early as 18,500 years ago.

Chris Hebda, from the Hakai Institute, is the lead author of a study that found that Topknot Lake, near Cape Scott, has been ice free that long. In today’s interview he also gives a tentative outline of our area’s history from post ice age settlement down to the First Nations that we recognize today.

“We looked at two different sites on Vancouver island. Topknot lake, which is within about two kilometres of the ocean and Little Woss Lake, which is basically right in the Northern portion of the Vancouver island ranges,” he explained.

Core samples taken from the bottom of those lakes illustrated how the landscape had changed throughout the millennia.

The first people to settle in this area probably arrived by boat. They probably hunted seals, harvested fish, shellfish, berries and cold climate plants. Vancouver Island probably looked more like modern Greenland than the forested landscape we are used to. There would have been lots of grass, daisies and some smaller trees like willows.

Hebda and his colleagues discovered that Topknot Lake was ice free at this time and possessed an environment similar to what the first settlers would have been familiar with.

“The key thing about our study is the demonstration that we have an environment in which people could live,” said Hebda.