Frank Nahanee
(Kwela ’kin)
Biography
Frank Nahanee was born in Vancouver on September 2nd, 1939, and raised on the Mission Reserve No. 1. He attended St. Paul’s Indian Residential School until the age of 14 when he left to start work. He spent most of his career as a tugboat operator, and then in retirement, spent time on the water as part of the Kxwu7lh Squamish Canoe Family. He is committed to celebrating his cultural heritage and has earned the ancestral name of Kwela’ kin.
Tugboat Life
“Many years ago, I was very young, and Dad was a fisherman. We were fishing out by the river and I can’t tell you if it was the size of the gill-netter that he had, but he took me from Point Grey and we went all the way over towards Horseshoe Bay because he wanted to get me an ice cream cone. I remember that, still in my head, as a small boy. The weather that morning was sort of foggy… how could you see where you’re going? But I guess the old-timers, they could smell their way. It was so amazing and as I grew up in boarding school, I still had this in my mind, you know, the boats.
As time gone on, my older brother, he found this job at the towboat agency, in June ’55. He came home and said, “Come on, I’ll get you a real job.” So he took me over to the agency, signed me in. I was 14 but he lied about my age, good man. And it wasn’t a month later I got a call from the agency to report to H.N.L. Towing. June 9th, 1956, was my debut on tugboats and I loved it! My first pay was $79.00 for the month of June.”
