In 1984, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee began its campaign to preserve the largest remaining tract of low-elevation ancient temperate rainforest left in North America at Clayoquot Sound. The history and stories of the Aboriginal people on Flores Island in Clayoquot Sound were told by Ahousat elder Stanley Sam Sr. in Ahousat Wild Side Heritage Trail Guidebook (Vancouver: Western Canada Wilderness Committee, 1997), with a foreword by Robert Kennedy, Jr. The book supported the Ahousaht Wild Side Heritage Trail Project to link the village of Ahousaht with the beaches and headlands on the west side of Flores Island. Born in an Ahousat longhouse on February 29, 1928, Sam learned many stories from his grandfather partly because his poor health as a child kept him from attending residential school until age nine. For 54 years, he worked as a commercial fisherman. He also self-published Tsasiits Himwica Disciplines: For A New Beginning of Life (1999).

BOOKS:

Sam Sr., Stanley M. Ahousat Wild Side Heritage Trail Guidebook (Vancouver: Western Canada Wilderness Committee, 1997).

Sam Sr. Stanley M. Tsasiits Himwica Disciplines: For A New Beginning of Life (s.p. 1999).

[BCBW 2005]