As of today, Squiala First Nation has over 200 members. All members can be traced to Sam and Theresa Jimmie. Together, they had 7 sons and Squiala membership is made up of the descendants from the seven brothers.
Squiala is a member of the Ts’elxweyeqw Tribe which is a member of the greater Sto:lo – People of the River. Squiala is also a member of Sto:lo Nation which is the political amalgamation of 9 Sto:lo communities.
The Ts’elxwéyeqw are the First People of the Chilliwack River Watershed in the Central Fraser Valley of southwestern British Columbia. Our tribal name, ‘Ts’elxwéyeqw’ is commonly known in English as ‘Chilliwack’. We are one of the tribes of the Stó:lō (Stah-lo) – People of the River – as our livelihood was very much connected to the Fraser River. Ts’elxwéyeqw is one of the major river systems of the lower Fraser River Watershed and extends into northwestern Washington State. We are part of the broader Coast Salish collective whose lands surround the Salish Sea of the North American Pacific Northwest. Halq’eméylem is the ‘upriver’ dialect of the Halkomelem language spoken by Ts’elxwéyeqw and our relatives between the Fraser Canyon near Yale, throughout the Lower Fraser Valley around Vancouver, and across the Georgia Strait to southeastern Vancouver Island around Nanaimo.
For more information, please visit www.squiala.com