Sam Greer and “the Old Reserve” at Chilliwack Landing 1

On Sam Greer’s passing, the April 8, 1925 Chilliwack Progress declared that the hostile relationship between the Stó:lo and Chilliwack Landing’s first sheriff had “compelled Mr. Greer to move to Kitsilano before the arrival of the railway.” Greer lived in the Chilliwack, BC area for less than twenty years, but his land exploits as a squatter and claim jumper are etched into the geography of modern-day Chilliwack, visible in the rectangle of territory that he ripped from the block of Stó:lo reserve lands.

Sam Greer was born in Ireland in about 1844. He arrived in North America and enlisted in the United States Navy to support the Union side in the American Civil War. In 1864, Greer married Sara Friar in Montreal and afterwards was “attracted by the gold discovery in the Cariboo district.” Greer traveled to BC, then split his time between Chilliwack Landing and Barkerville, where he operated a bar at Jack of Clubs Creek.

Throughout the 1860s, residents from the cluster of Stó:lō reserves near modern day Chilliwack (Skwah, Skwali, Kwaw-kwaw-a-pilt, Squiala and Skway) generally tolerated newcomer settlers living outside of their core settlement areas. Professor Keith Thor Carlson notes how “the Stó:lō refer to non-natives as Xwelítem (‘the starving ones’),” meaning “hungry to the point of starving.”They had not purchased the land from the Stó:lō or the Colonial Government, nor had they officially registered pre-emptions with the Colonial authorities. Rather, they had simply moved into the area on their own accord.