The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the original inhabitants of what is now known as Vancouver. The city falls within the traditional territory of three Coast Salish peoples known as, S?wxwú7mesh (Squamish), Tsliel-waututh and Xwméthkwyiem ("Musqueam"—from masqui "an edible grass that grows in the sea"). On the southern shores of Vancouver along the Fraser River, Xwméthkwyiem live with their main community. In the False Creek and Burrard Inlet area, S?wxwú7mesh currently live on numerous villages in North Vancouver, with their territory also apart of Howe Sound and upwards towards the town of Whistler. Further down the Burrard Inlet, Tsleil-Waututh have their main community. Xwméthkwyiem and Tsleil-Waututh historically spoke a language dialect of Halkomelem language, where as S?wxwú7mesh language was separate but related. Their language was more closely connected to their Shishalh neighbors at Sechelt. Historically the area of where Vancouver is now was all resource gathering places for food or materials.
The Xwméthkwyiem village at the mouth of the Fraser River dates back around 3,000 years. Vancouver's ecosystem, with its abundant plant and animal life, provides a wealth of food and materials that supported these peoples for over 10,000 years. At the time of first European contact, S?wxwú7mesh had villages in the areas around present-day Vancouver in places like Stanley Park, Kitsilano and False Creek area, as well as Burrard Inlet. Tsleil-Waututh were said to also be settled on Burrard Inlet at the time of George Vancouver's arrival in 1792. The largest villages were at Xwemelch'stn (sometimes rendered Homulchesan), near the mouth of the Capilano River and roughly beneath where the north foot of the present Lions Gate Bridge is today, and at Musqueam. X?wáýx?way was a village in Stanley Park (in the Lumberman's Arch area). The foundation of a Catholic mission at the village, called Eslha7an, near Mosquito Creek engendered the creation of another large community of Squamish there. Along False Creek, at the south foot of Burrard Bridge, another village called Senakw, existed at one time a large community, and during colonization was the residence of S?wxwú7mesh historian August Jack Khatsahlano.
The Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast had achieved a very high level of cultural complexity for a food gathering base. As Bruce Macdonald notes in Vancouver: a visual history: "Their economic system encouraged hard work, the accumulation of wealth and status and the redistribution of wealth..." Winter villages, in what is now known as Vancouver, were composed of large plankhouses made of Western Red Cedar wood. Gatherings called potlatches were common in the summer and winter months when the spirit powers were active. These ceremonies were an important part of the social and spiritual life of the people.