I should start this article by explaining who I am. I do not, and have never, lived in Powell River for more than a few weeks at a time. I am an historian who works with Tla’amin Nation, and I have read many of the historical documents that explain how a large swath of Tla’amin territory became remade as Powell River. Tis’kwat (pronounced Tees’kwat) – the river called Powell in the colonial lexicon – was wrested from Tla’amin control as part of a logging licence called Lot 450 in 1878.
