The name ‘Port Douglas’ originates from the colonial period, when the town, one of the earliest to be established in British Columbia, was erected adjacent to the present First Nations community in 1858. It was the starting point on the famed Harrison-Lillooet wagon road, also known in historic times as the Douglas Portage. Thousands of miners from all over the world stopped in Port Douglas before undertaking on this less than comfortable trail, which led to the Fraser River and on to the Cariboo gold fields.

The Douglas First Nation, aka the Douglas Indian Band or Xa’xtsa Nation, are a band government as defined in the Indian Act, and a subgroup of the larger St’at’imc Tribe, also referred to as Lower Stl’atl’imx. The Douglas, Skatin and Samahquam communities are related through familial ties as well as culturally and linguistically.

Xa’xtsa is made up of two communities: Port Douglas, which is situated at the northern end of Little Harrison Lake, and Tipella which is on the west side of the Lillooet River.  The name ‘Port Douglas’ originates from the colonial period, when the town, one of the earliest to be established in mainland British Columbia, was erected adjacent to the present Xa’xtsa community in 1858. It was the starting point on the Harrison-Lillooet wagon road, also known in historic times as the Douglas Portage. It was named after James Douglas, the first Governor for the Province of British Columbia, who spearheaded the effort to construct the road. Thousands of miners from all over the world stopped in Port Douglas before undertaking on this less than comfortable trail, which led to the Fraser River and on to the Cariboo gold fields. The town reached its economic peak between 1859 and 1860, but after the completion of the Cariboo wagon road through the Fraser River Canyon, traffic through Port Douglas was re-routed, and the town was virtually abandoned by 1865. The reserve beside Port Douglas was originally allotted in 1859 by the magistrate of the town, but the current reserve allotments were first surveyed in 1884 by the Reserve Commission of the Department of Indian Affairs.

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