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About
Name in Hul’q’umi’num’: q’ul’its’ ~ q’ulits’
Literal translation of the name in English: “sheltered area” ~ “protected [bay]”
Geographical location/Alternative names: Kulleet Bay (Generic Term, for Whole Bay)
Geographical type: village
Coordinates: 49.028304, -123.766029
Map view: Click here
Language
Hul’q’umi’num’ name: q’ul’its’ ~ q’ulits’
APA: kəlic̓ (Suttles, 1952:11)
Speaker: George Seymour
Listen to the pronunciation:
Morphological information:
Semantic Basis: Nanaimo River Place-Names
Description
On a sunny day, George and I took the day to explore and visit places in Stz’uminus. Our second last stop of the day we walked to this spot in qulit’s. This adventure started at a trail, and we walked down to the beach, and we continued to walk along the beach until we found this big rock. This rock is not an ordinary rock. There is a great significance behind this rock. This rock was created to ensure that the territory of stz’uminus food will always be plentiful as there was a time when food sources of fish, clams, oysters were not plentiful.
Rozen stated that the term q’ulits’ was used for the whole bay and the term shts’emines was used for the “Indian village” and the “Indian people” there. Rozen explained that the name was later anglicized in the middle of the nineteenth century. As “the Bay was formally known as Chemainus bay and the “Indians” that resided there became known as the “Chemainus Band”. Rozen stated that the name was changed on all maps early in the nineteenth century to Kullet Bay to avoid all confusion from the town Chemainus. The old people and some people today still refer to Kullet bay as Chemainus Bay. It was claimed that the village at Kullet Bay, shts’umines, is closely associated with a former village near the mouth of the Cowichan River. It was later that this village was named shts’umines ‘little eroded riverbank’ or ‘little chemainus’. Curtis (1913:175) states that “several generations ago people from this…(Cowichan River) village migrated northward and established a settlement called kalits…The people there are still known as shts’umines.” Rozen shared that the people of Cowichan today agree with Curtis’ statement but added that the Cowichan villagers were not “migrating” northward but stated that they were camping at Kulletbay for fishing and digging clams.