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- Reconstructing A Songhees Village on the Campus. Midden remains allow researchers to estimate the time the village was active and aid in reconstructing the lifestyle and culture of the early occupants. This particular site was not carbon dated, but enough information exists on neighbouring sites in the are to draw some conclusions regarding the importance of this location to native people. The area was likely used as a temporary camp for hunting deer and ducks and gathering tules, reeds and camas. The only tool found near the site was a stone hand maul. DcRt is located 500 feet north east of the Elliot building near the exit of Parking Lot B. Songhees Relocated. Before Fort Victoria was founded in 1843, the Songhees way of life has been profoundly altered by epidemics, diseases and warfare. These problems intensified through contact with European cultures. by 1850 only 700 Songhees survived out of a population which had numbered in the thousands. By the late 18th and 19th centuries most of the Songhees had moved from their traditional villages of Cadboro Bay, Oak Bay and McNeill Bay and amalgamated into one large village on the west side of Victoria Harbour. In 1911 the Songhees exchanged this land for two reserves on the northwestern border of Esquimalt where they live today. Songhees - Nootkan potlach, Circa 1880. Royal British COlumbia Museum PN8877.
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