Sto:lo people

Sto:lo

Stó:lō woman with cedar baskets
Regions with significant populations
Canada ( British Columbia)
Languages
English, Upriver Halkomelem
Religion
Christianity, Animism
Related ethnic groups
Coast Salish

The Sto:lo /ˈstɔːloʊ/, alternately written as Stó:lō, Stó:lô, or Stó:lõ and historically, as Staulo or Stahlo, and historically known and commonly referred to in ethnographic literature as the Fraser River Indians or Lower Fraser Salish, are a group of First Nations peoples inhabiting the Fraser Valley and lower Fraser Canyon of British Columbia, Canada. Stó:lō is the Halqemeylem word for "river." The Stó:lō are the river people. The first historically documented reference to these people as "the Sto:lo" occurs in Catholic Oblate missionary records from the 1880s. Prior to this, references were primarily to individual tribal groups such as Matsqui, Ts’elxweyeqw, or Sumas.

The first traces of people living in the Fraser Valley date from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The Stó:lō called this area, their traditional territory, S'ólh Téméxw. The early inhabitants of the area were highly mobile hunter-gatherers. There is archeological evidence of a settlement in the lower Fraser Canyon (called "the Milliken site") and a seasonal encampment ("the Glenrose Cannery site") near the mouth of the Fraser River. Remains of this latter campsite show that in spring and early summer, the people came here to hunt land and sea mammals, such as deer, elk, and seals and, to a lesser extent, to fish for salmon, stickleback, eulachon, and sturgeon and to gather shellfish. Their lives depended on their success at harvesting the resources of the land and the rivers through fishing, foraging, and hunting.