Vancouver Officially Admits It Was Built on Unceded Aboriginal Land

"Vancouver city council decided that the land still belongs to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people"

"The first western settlement built in what is now the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, went up in 1893. Little more than a trading post set up by the Hudson's Bay Company, a fur-trading company that at one point owned most of Canada, Vancouver has grown and grown to the point where it is now the largest city in British Columbia, and the third largest city in Canada.

Like in many other parts of Canada, the land on which the Hudson's Bay Company settled wasn't empty. Before it became Vancouver the land was part of the territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh aboriginal communities. The Hudson's Bay Company and those that settled after didn't fight these people for their land, and they didn't buy it. No treaty was signed passing the land from one hand to the other. The westerners who claimed Vancouver as their own simply decided that it was theirs.

Yesterday, in a unanimous vote by Vancouver's city council, the city officially decided that the land on which Vancouver rests still belongs to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations, says Global News."

Colin Schultz reports for Smithsonian magazine June 26, 2014.