You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (March 2014)Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consideradding a topic to this template: there are already 1,762 articles in themain category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Hwlitsum]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|de|Hwlitsum}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation.

TheHwlitsum are descendants of theLamalchi orLamalcha, anIndigenous people whose traditional territories were in theGulf Islands ofBritish Columbia, Canada. Their traditional villages were onCanoe Pass, which is known in their language as Hwlitsum, and onKuper Island (called by them Lamalchi, another spelling of their name,)Saltspring Island andGaliano Island.

On 20 April 1863, a shelling of their village on Kuper Island by theRoyal Navy'sHMSForward led to a series of events known as theLamalcha War or Lamalchi Affair. The reason for the shelling was the authorities of theColony of Vancouver Island believed the village was sheltering men suspected of murdering three white men. After a prolonged firefight, resulting in the killing of one British sailor, the Forward retreated. While some say this episode was the only tactical defeat of the Royal Navy in the era following theCrimean War to the opening of the 20th Century, the Forward returned the next day to destroy the then-abandoned village.^[1] During the war the escaped Lamalcha evaded capture by various other Royal Navy warships, includingHMSSatellite, until the seven suspects were captured and brought to Esquimalt.

Eventually four Lamalcha were hanged for murder in Victoria and the Lamalcha village confiscated; that area is now home to thePenelakut andKuper Island'sIndian reserves are governed by thePenelakut First Nation.

A detailed account of the events leading to the Lamalcha War is provided by Chris Arnett in "Terror of the Coast - Land Alienation and on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands 1849 -1863.”

In 2014 elders of the group filed a land claim in the BC Supreme Courts for large pieces ofStanley Park,Galiano Island andSaltspring Island, overlapping with claims of theSquamish andMusqueam Nations and others (this is common throughout BC).^[2][3] Currently the Hwlitsum Band is not yet recognized under the federal Indian Act.

A letter of support for their cause was sent to the federal and provincial governments in 2007 by theUnion of BC Indian Chiefs.^[4]

• Arnett, C. (1999) Terror of the Coast - Land Alienation and on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands 1849 -186. Talon Books, Burnaby, BC.

• Gulf Islands
• First Nations in British Columbia
• Coast Salish

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing translation from German Wikipedia