Pentlatch language

The Pentlatch or Puntletch are one of the Canadian First Nations in the province of British Columbia. They are, like the Comox and Sechelt the group of northern coastal Salish. Its original name is not known, the current form is the anglicized version of the name that attached any them their neighbors, the Comox and Sechelt. They lived on the east coast of Vancouver Iceland, along the Strait of Georgia, and on the islands of Denman and Hornby. Their language, a dialect of northern Central Salish, is considered to be extinct since the 1940s. She was closely related to the Comox, similar to the language of the Sechelt. The Puntledge River derives its name from the Pentlatch.

History

- See a history of the coastal Salish

Although measures Vancouver, Dionisio Alcalá Galiano - (1792 ) and other explorers contact with them on, but they were of no interest to the fur trade due to lack of otter furs.

In 1800 they lived between Kye Bay in the north to the area of ​​today's Parkville. They were after severe smallpox epidemics and attacks the north living Lekwiltok ( they were among the Kwakwaka'wakw ) of the northern neighbors, the Comox absorbed. Hornby Iceland ( off the east coast of Vancouver Island, still east of Denman Iceland ) was probably deserted as early as 1850. By 1860, attacked the Cowichan into their territory, to pull the fishing rights on Qualicum itself. George Drabble, 1862 by order of the province visited the area, nor recorded villages on the coast and the Pentlatch village on Tsolum in his cards.

In addition to fish and after 1800 also potatoes the life and culture of Pentlatch based on Camas ( Camassia quamash ). With the large camas fruit trade was driven beyond, such as with the Nuu- chah- nulth.

Shortly after 1862 the displaced settlers who purchased the land for one dollar per acre, the few remaining Pentlatch. If one estimates their number to 1700 to 1800 to around 300 people, so lived around 1900, 50th your language died after 1940. In 2005, 81 people designated as Pentlatch. They are part of Kwaguilth / Pentlatch, Qualicum band.

The Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, there are two totem poles of Pentlatch (RBCM 2355, 2356 ), which were acquired in 1912 in Nanaimo. They originate from the area around Comox.

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