The Sto:lo peoples also known as “The People of the River”, who live along the Fraser River and its tributaries.

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Beginning in the 1800’s the Sto:lo peoples were put on reserves, thus resulting in a loss of their traditional knowledge due to a history of forcibly being sent to residential schools. They also faced other oppressive methods such as the “outlawing of spiritual and traditional practices” (Labun and Emblen, 2007).

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The Sto:lo society which exists today emerged from several organizations in a response to Trudeau’s governments 1969 Liberal Indian Policy which would have eliminated all the benefits accorded to Status Indians (stolonation.bc.ca).