they also became known as skilled traders. Highly skilled in canoe making and later shipbuilding, a number of trading schooners were made in Bella Bella by the canoe makers who had learned to make western style vessels. For a time they acted as middlemen in the fur trade, benefiting from early access to guns. The traders complain in some of their records of the Heiltsuk being hard to trade with, passing off land otter skins for sea otter, demanding extra large blankets, then cutting them to standards size for retrade and sewing the extra pieces together to make more blankets. The Heiltsuk experienced significant population loss due to introduced diseases, and conflict. A war between the Heiltsuk and the Haida involved reciprocal attacks, ending in 1852 with an agreement that has been characterized as a peace treaty. Founding of 'Bella Bella' at McLoughlin Bay Between 1832 and 1900, some of the Heiltsuk built a village in McLoughlin Bay, adjacent to the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort McLoughlin. Called Bella Bella or Qlts, the community saw a number of other Heiltsuk groups join through the late 1800s. Move from Old Bella Bella to new Bella Bella The Heiltsuk community at Old Bella Bella (located at McLoughlin Bay) were forced to relocate the community to the site of the present-day village of Bella Bella (aka Waglisla) because of colonists attempt to exterminate the community with smallpox blankets. By 1903, the Heiltsuk had founded and largely moved into the current village of Bella Bella. Like other First Nations on the coast, the Heiltsuk were subject to repeated attempts of genocide by the colonists, primarily of smallpox, that killed the majority of the population. The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic alone killed about 72% of the Heiltsuk people. The population collapse caused the Heiltsuk to coalesce into fewer communities, and reduced the population to just under 225 by 1919. Like other First Nations, the expected demise of the Heiltsuk did not occur. Instead, the population rebounded following the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic and, as of September 2014, was well over 2,500. When the McKenna–McBride Royal Commission visited Bella Bella in 1913, they were told: The Heiltsuk have continuously maintained they have the right to self-determination and continue to hold title to the Territory. Accordingly, many members have asserted rights. From this situation arose recognition by the Supreme Court of Canada (in R v Gladstone) of