Tomekichi Homma, Canadian: 2

Homma became a salmon gillnetter in Steveston, then a summer boom town where Indigenous fishers and workers from every part of the world harvested the massive salmon runs

The salmon fleet at Steveston, 1905, Frederick Bell-Smith, from the Vancouver Art Gallery collection, reproduced with permission.

Vancouver presented a dramatic contrast to Homma’s home village. The settlement emerging around what is now Gastown in downtown Vancouver was flanked to the east by a major sawmill. Arriving steamships docked within sight of a…