Archaeologists In Canada Unearthed An Ice Age Settlement That May Rewrite North American History

They are the main descendants of Haitzaqvla-speaking people, and they identify as being from one or more of the five tribal groups. The Heiltsuk ancestors have been located on the Central Coast since at least 7190 BCE.

"There are people connected to this site. There are people who created these artifacts; there are people who lived here, resided here." ----- Larissa Dixon.

The First Nations are groups of Indigenous people who are the earliest known inhabitants of an era. "When First Nations talk about time immemorial, it just goes to show how far back the occupation of this land goes back in deep time." ----- Alisha Gauvreau.

They offer the Indigenous-ACE program, which provides culturally sensitive and community-tailored entrepreneurial and business education to ensure the full participation of Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian economy.

It is a scientific research, meeting, and teaching center on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. The institute works with First Nations, local schools, and government agencies.

Paleosol is a thin layer of fossil soil, and finding it, intrigued archeologists. What really interested them was what the soil contained and the items that they found.

It was the land that First Nation people had been telling stories about for so long. "This find is very important because it reaffirms a lot of the history that our people have been talking about for thousands of years." ----- Housty.

In addition, they found a drill that would've been used to start fires. They uncovered cutting and woodworking tools made from a volcanic glass called obsidian.

The ancient Heiltsuk people would have come to this land, going through species of prehistoric beasts, including bear-sized moths, lions, cheetahs, dire wolves, and saber-toothed tigers.

They would've been capable of moving along the coast of the land bridge into North America, and it appears they continued to move deeper into the continent along the coast rather than by land.

In order to hunt large marine mammals, the people would've been capable of taking to the waves. "It's a lot more work to hunt large animals, but when you get one, you get a lot. It's a high caloric payoff." ----- Alisha Gauvreau.

One of the key pieces of evidence revolved around the diet of the Triquet habitants. The evidence shows that for roughly fifty-seven hundred years, people's diet shifted to fin fish. Evidence of shellfish processing was found as well.

They said it was there that their ancestors took shelter from the freezing conditions. However, the new findings suggest they came by sea and not by land.

It also helped to preserve evidence of continuous use and the dramatic changes in the occupants' hunting and eating habits. However, the natural rise and fall of sea levels and the Earth's tectonic plates have left ancient villages on other parts of the coast submerged.

"So now we don't just have oral history; we have this archaeological information. It's not just an arbitrary thing that anyone's making up. We have a history supported from Western science and archaeology." ----- William Housty.

"Gvi'ilas not only governed our relationship and responsibilities to land and resources but also social relationships and obligations with respect to lands and resources. For example, take a little and leave a lot; dispersed and varied resource harvesting obligations to share and support family and community; obligations to care for the resource; seeing all aspects of harvesting, from the taking of the resources to the methods used, as a gift of the Creator." ----- Chief Moses Humchitt.

It had a population of up to four hundred cannery workers, fish processors, maintenance personnel, and their families. Sadly, due to high transportation costs and low fish prices, forced the shift to the fish being shipped south to Vancouver and west to Japan for canning.

The story of the flood exemplifies some of the ways in which Heiltsuk history is embedded in the mountains and rocks of the Huyat landscape. In addition, it shows that the settlement of Huyat was one of the first settled on the island.

When Europeans arrived in the eighteenth century, there were several Heiltsuk villages on the various islands near the present-day location called Bella Bella.

It is the site of the BC Ferries terminal, a Heiltsuk fish processing plant, and a salmon hatchery. The old Hudson's Bay Company land is now owned by the Heiltsuk, and today is the New Bella Bella.

He was the chief of the Heiltsuk people but adopted an English name because of his reputation as a skilled carver. The photo is of one of his amazing pieces of work.

There are even glaciers from the Ice Age that remain in Greenland and Antarctica. There was a lot of movement over time, and the major effects were erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents, the creation of millions of lakes, modifications of river systems, changes in sea level, and so much more.

The artifacts that were found proved that the first humans crossed into North America much sooner than originally thought. They found that the area had been through a couple of giant tsunamis and that the first humans were present there before the first tsunami hit.

"The bottom line is that even though the physical corridor was open 13,000 years ago, it was several hundred years before it was possible to use it. That means that the first people entering what is now the US, Central, and South America, must have taken a different route. Where you believe these people were Clovis, or someone else, they simply could not have come through the corridor, as long claimed." ----- Eske Willerslev.

The fragments were pulled out, taken off to be carbon-dated, and the results were then tested. They tested many parts of what they found in the ground.

It could've also been used as a tool for drilling holes in hard materials such as wood, stone, or bone. They got a spark by holding the rod vertically between both hands and moving it back and forth.

The settlement is three times as old as the Great Pyramid at Giza. That's another reason why archeologists were so interested when they found the Ice Age settlement.

However, the Hudson's Bay Company sought to supplant Indigenous people as middlemen in the fur trade wherever possible. They found out that the Heiltsuk would not allow themselves to be pushed aside.

Members of Heiltsuk-speaking tribes from across the region who gradually relocated to the village over the next sixty years became known as the Bella Bella Indians. 'Qelc was basically another name for the Old Bella Bella.

Several of the villages were completely wiped out, and the others didn't have enough people left to sustain them. The survivors from the various Heiltsuk tribes gradually gathered at Bella Bella because it is centrally located in Heiltsuk territory.

Within just a decade, the village was the second largest on the coast, with a hospital, sawmill, school, fire hall, warehouse, wharf, and planked roads with street lights. The residents contributed to and shared in the success of nearby ventures like Ocean Falls and Namu.

In his home territories, he works as an Indigenous Guardian, which is surveying, monitoring, and stewarding the lands and waters. He stated that he gives thanks to the old ones that safeguarded his family's stories, culture, and origins for the work he's doing today.

She said in an interview, "I remember when we got the dates back, and we just kind of sat there going, holy moly, this is old. What this is doing is just changing our idea of the way in which North America was first peopled." She also said, "It appears we had people sitting in one area making stone tools beside evidence of a fire pit. The material that we have recovered has really helped us weave a narrative for the occupation of this site. Archeologists had long thought that the coast would be completely uninhabitable and impassible when that is very clearly not the case." 

The Heiltsuk people were not new to that climate. They were known for having large permanent 'winter villages.'

"The media took it in a whirlwind (speaking of the Triquet Island discovery last spring. Dixon had put down the stone artifacts she had been cataloging) for future generations to learn from and came to speak with me just outside the lab. The sensationalized aspect of it all was just really overwhelming." ----- Larissa Dixon.

Building progressed quickly, and by 1900, the people of 'Qelc had relocated to the new village, which boasted large European-style houses and businesses run by Heiltsuk. This new community is called New Bella Bella.

It is one of an immense network of culturally important places in the area and is the land where Cumqlaqs gave birth to her wolf children. Huyat refers to several socially and geographically connected bays on northern Hunter Island.

Cecile Reid stated, "I always found that interesting because that apparently is why our people believe that if you burn toast, you can't eat it because the people who do eat it are the dead Haitzaqv. The same with them; they can't eat anymore because they obviously have no stomachs. The story was that whenever there was smoke coming out of the stove, they would inhale it as quickly as possible because that is how the dead lived. Yeah, so there you go.” She also stated, “I always found that interesting because that apparently is why our people believe that if you burn toast, you can’t eat it because the people who do eat it are the dead Haitzaqv. The same with, they can’t eat anymore, because they obviously have no stomachs. The story was that, whenever there was smoke coming out of the stove they would inhale it as quickly as possible because is how the dead lived. Yeah, so there you go.”

Some of the other tribes that are a part of the Northwest Indian Tribes are Alsea, Bella Coola, Chehalis, Chinook, Cowlitz, Haida, Haisla, Klallam, Kwakiutl, Makah, Nooksack, Nootka, Quileute, and many more.

The HALAP would add UVic undergraduate students from the Department of Anthropology's Archaeology Field School. The students receive hands-on and skill-based training in archaeology field methods and get opportunities to work side-by-side with seasoned professionals. 

He stated that his research interests are focused on the Northwest Coast culture of North America. He was interested in the unique position of archeology in the social sciences and humanities in providing a long-term perspective on history. He was also involved in the unearthing of the Ice Age settlement.

They were all located on the Central Coast of British Columbia for many thousands of years. The image above shows how the tribes all lived years ago.

He grew up on the land and waters of Bella Bella, and he has a strong will to protect and take care of his people's territory. He now works with the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department (HIRMD).

For a while, the village was a busy center of trading and shipping activities on the coast. It didn't take long before it was one of the largest trading centers on the coast. They were highly skilled in canoe making and fur trade.

The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic alone killed about seventy-two percent of the Heiltsuk people. The decrease in the population caused the Heiltsuk to coalesce into fewer communities and reduced the population to just under two hundred and twenty-five by 1919.

Their work involves surveying, excavation, and eventually, analysis of the data that has been collected in order to learn more about the past. It is the archeologists that found the Ice Age settlement from more than fourteen thousand years ago.

"So, all the rest of the landmass was covered in ice. As those ice sheets started to recede and we had some major shifts in sea levels coastwide, so further to the north and the south in the magnitude of 150 to 200 meters of difference, whereas here it remained exactly the same." ----- Alisha Gauvreau.

It also defied nearly a century's worth of thinking about the long human journey into North America. The footprints are just the latest in a series of dramatic discoveries that placed people on the B.C. coast long before they were supposed to be there.

They show that oral history can be just as strongly rooted in fact as a record, and it could be key to the future of the Heiltsuk Nation. They have a very rich history, but they still maintain a strong identity today and are legally recognized in British Columbia.