An archaeological site reaffirms what the Heiltsuk First Nation have known all along; their ancestors have lived in the British Columbia area for thousands of years.
In an article posted on Smithsonian's website:
While digging on the Triquet Island, archaeologists unearthed a settlement that dates to the period of the last ice age.
The archaeological team, supported by the Hakai Institute, sifted through meters of soil and peat before hitting upon the charred remains of an ancient hearth. Researchers painstakingly peeled away charcoal flakes, which were then carbon dated. In November, tests revealed that the hearth was some 14,000 years old, indicating that the area in which it was found is one of the oldest human settlements ever discovered in North America. Or as Randy Shore of the Vancouver Sun contextualizes, the village is “three times as old as the Great Pyramid at Giza.”
Channel 4 News also posted a video about the dig.
Heiltsuk oral tradition states that the original Heiltsuk ancestors were set down by the Creator in various areas in the territory now referred to as the Central Coast of British Columbia, before the time of the great flood. An archeological excavation and study of ancient remains based in a Heiltsuk Village site of Namu in the 1960’s and 1970’s concluded that the history of the Heiltsuk go back as far as 11,500 years.
