A Brief History of Vancouver, WA

Before the Lewis and Clark expedition camped in the area in 1806, various Native American tribes, such as the Chinook, inhabited the area and the Klickitat, whose name for the area was Ala Si Kas or "land of the mud-turtles". Lewis wrote that it was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains." The first permanent white settlement did not occur until 1824, when Fort Vancouver was established as a fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company. From that time on, the area was settled by both the US and Britain under a "joint occupation" agreement.