Semiahmoo People

The Semiahmoo were a band of Native Americans who lived in the Blaine and Birch Bay area (future Whatcom County) in the centuries prior to European settlement. Culturally and linguistically a Straits Salish band, they were distinguished from many other area tribes because they fished with reef nets, catching thousands of salmon yearly this way off Point Roberts and Birch Point.  In the early 1850s most of the Semiahmoo moved a short distance north of Blaine, only a few years before the first non-Indian settlers arrived; this move was just far enough north to place them in Canada when the U.S.-Canadian boundary was drawn in the late 1850s. Today (2009) many of the remaining Semiahmoo live in the Semiahmoo Indian Reserve, just northwest of the Canadian side of Peace Arch Park.

A Straits Salish People

The Semiahmoo were a small band; a 1790 estimate placed their number at approximately 300. There are different interpretations as to what the word “Semiahmoo” means. Semiahmoo historian Jack Brown writes that, according to Chief James “Jimmy” Charles (1867-1952), chief of the Semiahmoo from 1909 to 1952, the word Semiahmoo means “half-moon,” and describes the shape of Semiahmoo Bay. But White Rock, B.C., historian Lorraine Ellenwood writes that “it translates, in one sense, as ‘water all around’ or ‘hole in the sky’” (Years of Promise, 28). The reader should also keep in mind that the name “Semiahmoo” is a derivative of a name given to this group of Native Americans in 1854 by U.S. Indian Agent E. C. Fitzhugh, based on his hearing of what they called themselves. There have also been different spellings over the years of “Semiahmoo” -- two other commonly used spellings in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were Semmianma, (or Siamannas), and Semiamu. They were known for being a peaceful group, not given to war unless necessary for defense.

The Semiahmoo’s territory included the area around Semiahmoo Spit (known by Indians and early nineteenth century fur traders as Tongue Point) and Birch Bay, stretched south to Point Whitehorn, turned east to include Lake Terrell, then turned north to encompass the area around Blaine, along the shore of Drayton Harbor and the drainage basins of California and Dakota creeks.  In the years before the mid-nineteenth century, the territory also included the Semiahmoo Bay shoreline that went north and west into British Columbia, past White Rock and the shores of Mud Bay and Boundary Bay, then curved back south to cover the eastern shore of what we today know as Point Roberts.  In the 1850s their territory expanded north and east to include an additional part of the British Columbia Lower Mainland.   

Villages and Camps  

Semiahmoo villages were located at Birch Bay, Drayton Harbor (between Dakota and California creeks), and at the entry to Semiahmoo Spit. Brown writes that the village on Semiahmoo Spit was the principal village in the years before the arrival of the first European explorers in the late eighteenth century. He describes the village as having three rows of houses, forming an inverted V; one row of houses faced east to Drayton Harbor, and two rows faced west to Semiahmoo Bay. The Semiahmoo lived in rectangular wooden longhouses, up to 50 feet wide and anywhere from 50 to 200 feet long, which were typically built parallel to the water. A burial ground was located just beyond the village, at about the point where the spit narrows. A few villagers lived at the far end of the spit, where the Semiahmoo Resort is located today. This area was more wooded than it is today. 

By the time European explorers passed through in the 1790s, the band had moved their main village to the eastern shore of Drayton Harbor, between Dakota and California creeks. In the 1850s the Semiahmoo moved again, this time a few miles north, and established their primary village at the mouth of Campbell River on Semiahmoo Bay, near what is today the southeastern edge of White Rock, B.C.    

The Semiahmoo established temporary summer camps throughout their territory as well. The two biggest camps were at Lily Point on Point Roberts, the Semiahmoo’s favored fishing ground (British explorer George Vancouver saw one such abandoned camp when he landed at Point Roberts in 1792), and later at Crescent Beach  just northwest of White Rock, B.C.  The Crescent Beach location was chosen because the area’s tideflats had lots of clams, and on the nearby flood plains, wild berries, in particular cranberries, were available by the basketful