the late Chief Viola Wyse requested that B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell protect the site, the province purchased it. For a time the site remained "sad, forlorn and neglected", surrounded by a bent chain-link fence and covered in straggled patches of weeds. In March 2013, as part of the provincial reconciliation agreement with First Nations, this site was transferred to the Snuneymuxw. Referring to this discovery, The site of the former Moby Dick Hotel, 1000 Stewart Ave, Nanaimo, was the location of a Snuneymuxw village of historical importance to the First Nation. It is situated at the narrowest point of Newcastle Channel, separating Newcastle Island from Nanaimo. Former Snuneymuxw Chief White had plans to construct modest facilities on Newcastle Island to deliver new kinds of programming on Coast Salish culture, Newcastle Island's coal mining history, the CPR history, and the canneries history as part of a heritage tourist destination. Snuneymuxw First Nation will be collaborating with Waterfront Holdings Ltd. on current and future waterfront development on Stewart Avenue. The First Nation operates Newcastle Island Marine Provincial Park. Nanaimo Indian Hospital The Nanaimo Indian Hospital served Indian patients and was operated by the federal government of Canada on Snuneymuxw territory from 1946 to 1967. The system of state-run Indian hospitals was deeply intertwined with the institution of residential schools. Like the schools, the hospital system has been documented for having a history of physical and sexual abuse of Indigenous people. In the summer of 2021, hundreds of unmarked graves were identified at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Other First Nations began to undertake their own surveys of sites of local Indian schools. In response, Steve Sxwithul'txw of the Penelakut First Nation, carver Tom LaFortune, and educator Michele Mundy started a GoFundMe campaign to help First Nations on Vancouver Island conduct their own research around sites of former residential school and the Indian hospital. They will use current technology that does not disturb the ground. On 15 September 2021, the group gave Snuneymuxw First Nation , to help the First Nation conduct a search and to identify possible unmarked graves in and around the former grounds of the hospital. Territory and current land base Snuneymuxw Territory on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and the Fraser River in the British Columbia was in the centre of Coast Salish territory. The band's traditional territory covers . They share of non-exclusive traditional