DOUGLAS COLLEC®

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COLLEGE FINDS NAME

 

"Kwantlen" - what more appropriate name could the Douglas College
Board have come up with for a new College to serve the School Districts
of Langley, Surrey, Delta and Richmond?

Douglas College is being split into two colleges in April of 1981,
one college to serve the north side of the Fraser and one to serve the
south side. The name Douglas will remain with the college on the north
side.

The name Kwantlen was submitted by Surrey Leader News Editor, stan
McKinnon and was chosen by unanimous consent of the board at a meeting
held Thursday, September 18. Over 200 names were submitted for the
contest.

The name is taken from the Indian people who inhabited the territory
corresponding closely to the college region south of the Fraser River.

According to Wilson Duff, author of the Upper Stalo Indians of the
Fraser River in B.C., the name Kwantlen means "tireless runners".

These people were closely associated with the white settlement at
Langley on the Fraser. Their association with James Douglas and his
colleagues were subsequently weakened when the capital was shifted from
Fort Langley to New Westminster - a parallel to the split of Douglas
College.

"The Kwantlen were a large tribe...Their name means "tireless
runners," and they were said to be great hunters. Their territory
extended down the North Arm to a small creek above Marpole, and down
the South Arm to a small slough a few hundred yards above Ladner.

It extended through (Surrey) to Mud Bay and included the Serpentine
River)... .Wilgen Dutt.

Although their territory extended to the north shore of the Fraser,
most of it lay south of the river extending to the eastern end of the
Lulu Island where it met the land of the Musqueam, to West Delta where
it bordered Tsawwassen territory and to Serpentine Fen where it met the
hunting grounds of the Semiahmoo. Thus it included all or part of the
school districts in the proposed college region, only White Rock lay
entirely within the Semiahmoo lands. To the east, the Kwantlen territory
extended right across Langley to Matsqui territory.

There were four other people who submitted Kwantlen as a name £Or
the new College which will start operation in April of 1981. However,
because McKinnon's entry had the earliest post mark, his won the first
prize of $500. 3

The Community Relations Committee submitted a short lbs. Of “four
names to the board which included second place winner Tillicum College,
submitted by Richmond resident Shirley Gelz, and third place winner
Dogwood College, submitted by Bonny Ricker of Surrey. Salish college
was also submitted.

Over a third of the names were ingenious acronyms, some of which
are: Surdelari, Surichlandgel, Surdellamond, Surich-Delang, Ralds,
Su-Ri-De-La, Surdel-Langrich and Dayy.