The head of tide of the W?last?kw, known as Ekwpahak in W?last?kwey, has long been a gathering place for the W?last?kokewiyik and was reserved for them by colonial authorities in the mid-18th century. However, when 11,000 Loyalists invaded unceded W?last?kwey territory after the American Revolution, and the influential Judge Isaac Allen purchased Ekwpahak in a highly questionable dealing, the W?last?kokewiyik were deprived of their land, with some forced to settle a few miles upriver at Kingsclear. In this long-awaited volume, Andrea Bear Nicholas assembles Oral Traditions, archival documents, paintings, maps, and photographs to document the history of the Kingsclear First Nation community, from its establishment in the late-18th century to the disastrous mid-20th century attempt to centralize the W?last?kwey Nation at Kingsclear. These documents demonstrate the destructive impact of colonialism upon the W?last?kokewiyik, from their dispossession by Loyalists and the establishment of the Sussex Vale Indian School in the late 18th century, to the increasing restrictions on traditional life that both impoverished and oppressed them.
