Songhees place names were used to identify their favorite hunting and gathering areas, to record events, or to relate myths. If a place was rich in game, seafood or plants, that abundance was reflected in their choice of words they used to describe it. For example, Kohweechella (Mary Tod Island) means the place where there are many fish.

When the first Europeans sailed through the labyrinth of islands and channels in search of fresh water, game, or a sheltered place to beach their boats, they encountered Songhees villages in the bays. The Songhees were not a single tribe but were comprised of a large number of independent household groups with a common dialect of Straits language and a similar way of life.

Villages consisted of one to four or more houses which were built of large cedar poles and planks. Houses sheltered extended family groups from 30 to 200 people.

Along the open hillsides and fields, women and children gathered camas root. Men caught seals from shore. Families fished both on and off shore, harvesting salmon, crab, halibut and trout and gathered shellfish in the bays and inland waterways. In the low-lying deciduous forest they hunted ducks and deer and collected materials for weaving. They moved regularly from place to place during the course of their annual round of hunting, gathering and ceremonial activities.

By the late 1890s, most of the Songhees had moved from their original villages around Victoria and amalgamated into one large village on the west side of Victoria harbor--the present location of the Songhees luxury condominium development. In 1911 the Songhees exchanged this land for two reserves on the northwestern border of Esquimalt where they live today.

(Claire Hefferman. This article is an excerpt from the exhibit, A History of the Gordon Head Campus Land from 11000 BC to 1970)

2. Stsangal was the name given to a little bay on this side of Albert Head where the Stsanges lived. Stsanges is the name from which the collective term Songhees or Songhish is derived. The Stsanges were often raided for slaves by their Songhees and Klallam neighbors.

Esquimalt Harbor

3. Esquimalt means "a place gradually shoaling" and according to Hudson's Bay Company agent J.W. McKay, it refers to the flats at the mouth of Mill Stream. The present Indian name Swhaymalthelth applies loosely to the harbor, the village and the people. The longer name might be translated as the vicinity of the village of (the) Whyomilth.

4. Kalla means "spring water gushing down the beach" and refers to the Esquimalt Reserve. The people who occupy this village are the descendants of those whose village once stood near the spot where the Parliament Buildings are now located.

5. Eyellnuk, "clear or nice open field," is the name given to Ashe Head on the new Songhees reserve created in 1911.

6. Stchayak or "mouldy beach" is the name of a small bay inside Rodd Point (Duns Nook). The rocks look mouldy when you turn them over during clamming. Also an old village site.

7. Stakaya Ayla, "wolf den," was the name given to a tiny island where the wolves used to come right down to the beach.

8. Thlungalachin, "two pieces torn apart," refers to a pair of islands across the harbor near a coho stream.

9. Stchilikw, "stones with green moss hanging from them," describes an old village site.

Portage Inlet and the Gorge

10. Pulkwutsang means "place of ghost" or haunted by ghosts. Also known as Craigflower Creek or Deadman River on Pemberton's 1855 map. Indians fished here for coho-the only salmon run in the Gorge.

11. Shtchaalth means to squeeze something through or drag over a narrow place and refers to a portage from Craigflowerr Creek to Esquimalt Harbor.

12. Skosappsom, the site of old Craigflower school and possible Kosampsom village site.

13. Swengwhung is the name of the Indian people (Sqinqun) who formerly lived on the upper part of the Gorge above the bridge. They were one of the original Songhees groups who relocated near Fort Victoria.

14. Camossung, or the Gorge, was considered a sacred place by the Indians for spirit quests. After the Flood, the Raven, Mink and the Transformer Hayls in consultation with a young girl and her grandfather choose the Gorge as the site for ducks, herring, oysters and coho.

Fort Victoria

Fort Victoria was first known as the Port of Camosack--a popular location used by the Indians for harvesting the camas root. The port was identified by Captain McNeill of the Beaver who encouraged James Douglas to consider the site as a permanent location for Hudson's Bay Company operations. The name Camosack was changed to Camosun and later Fort Victoria became the first white settlement on south eastern Vancouver Island.

15. Pallatsis, "place of cradle," was a sacred place where Indian people deposited the cradles of their children who had reached the walking stage to ensure them long life. Dancers' staffs were also placed there and persons engaged in spiritual quests would dive there to obtain spirit powers. Many tribes of the Songhish moved to this location opposite the Fort and built a village in 1844. They were later moved to a reserve in Esquimalt in 1911.

16. Whosaykum meant clay or muddy place and is the present location of the Empress Hotel. People used to camp here while they gathered camas root on Beacon Hill and rushes for mats in James Bay.

17. Meeqan, "warmed by the sun," refers to an open meadow in Beacon Hill Park where people sat to have their bellies warmed by the sun or play qoqwialls, an early version of field hockey using hollowed oak sticks.

18. Mukwuks--Macauley Point--the site of a Songhees reef net location. All other sites were across Haro Strait on San Juan and Henry Islands.

20. Chikawich or McNeill (Shoal) Bay means big hips and refers to the way the Indian houses were arranged. This was the village site of the Chekwungeen people. In 1891, McNeill Bay was occupied by four groups of Indian people.

21. Sahsima, "harpoon", was the name for the point where the old Chinese cemetery was located. Legend has it that white men cut the sacred rock on the point for gravestones and that is why there are so few seals there now.

22. Tlikwaynung means Indian peas or Trial Island.

23. Kukeeluk, "place of war," was derived from the word keeluk (war) and the name for a village site on Ganzales point. The waters were so swift here that people passing in canoes were not permitted to speak.

Oak Bay and the Islands

24. Shpwhung means "flying dust" or fog. The present location of Oak Bay marina.

25. Sitchanalth covers Willows Beach and a former Indian village. The word means drift logs and trees that lodge themselves in the sand.

26. Kohweechella, "where there are many fish," refers to Mary Tod Island, formerly known as Jimmy Chicken Island.

27. Skwahanna was the name for Emily Inlet.

28. Thleethlayakw, "broken in pieces," was the name for the Chain Islands. It is said that during the great flood, this was a single rock standing very high to which the people tied their canoes as the waters rose. When the flood receded, the island fell and broke into many pieces.

29. Skingeenis was the name given to the people who lived on Discovery island. The island was one of the early Songhish villages and predated Fort victoria. The island was later used by the Indians to escape the smallpox epidemic in 1862.

30. Stsnaang was Chatham Island.

31. Kwakwaylachets was the small island with the radio towers between Discovery and Chatham.

32. Shkwakaykalth means the landing place where the canoes come in from fishing on Strongtide Island.

33. Tiappas was Vantreight Island.

34. Bukkaynung was Jemmy Jones Island where the Cadboro Bay people gathered camas.

Cadboro Bay and beyond

35. Sungayka means "snow patches" and refers to the name given to Cadboro Bay and people who lived there. The point south of the Yacht Club was used as an Indian fort and lookout for raiding parties from the north. Cadboro Bay was the principal village of the Songhees before 1843. The village consisted of six households: three of the Chekonein, two of the Chilcowitch and one of the Discovery Island people.

36. Kakhalaang was the small island and point at the end of Rutland Avenue.

37. Kohnguksen, "tide rip running around a point," or Telegraph Cove.

38. Pkaals was Mount Tolmie.

39. Kwatsech was Gordon Head.

40. Tseleethch was a village site located in Cordova Bay and considered to be Songhees territory, which included Elk Lake.

41. Tiumalatchung, Cowichan Head, the northern boundary of Songhees territory.

(Source: The Fort Victoria Treaties, by Wilson Duff, B.C.
Studies Number 3, Fall 1969.)