"Pocahontas Bay" adopted 31 December 1934 on C.3590, as identified in 1899 BC Mines Report, p.804, and as labelled on Geological Survey sheet #997A, Nanaimo & New Westminster Mining Divisions, 1908. Official name changed to "Shehtekwahn" (bay) per the provisions of the Tla'amin Treaty, Appendix W-2, effective 5 April 2016. Name changed to lɛχʷamɛn (bay) 30 September 2025 on 92F/9, as requested by Tla'amin Nation.

Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff.

The name Shehtekwahn translates to “steep or high” because from a canoe vantage the mountain looks like a person with a really high head where it comes down into the bay.

Source: Sliammon Traditional Use Study, Sliammon Place Names Project & Sliammon Culture, Heritage and Language Committee 2010.

Shehtekwahn is a phonetic spelling of a word in the language of the Tla’amin, Tlo’hos and Xwe’malhkwu people. Ayeahjuthum is what we call our language and linguists call the “Mainland Comox dialect.”

Source: Sliammon Traditional Use Study, Sliammon Place Names Project & Sliammon Culture, Heritage and Language Committee 2010.

Sahyehyeen (Texada Island) has always been a very important place to the Sliammon people. Our elders recall the days when they depended on the island's land and sea resources. This is evidenced by the presence of numerous archaeological sites that substantiate Sliammon use of the island for harvesting and habitation for thousands of years. Most sites on Texada are shell middens, pictographs and petroglyphs, culturally modified trees, burials and intertidal sites include fish traps, clam gardens, sea gardens and canoe runs. Sites that are harder to see on the landscape now are old villages, seasonal camps, sacred sites and traplines. Although Sliammon people extensively utilized multiple village sites on Sahyehyeen until after 1879, none of them were registered as reserves.
Texada was special for many reasons including its unique ecosystem that supported an abundance of indigenous species of plants utilized for medicines, technology, spirituality and recreation. People had special hunting areas for deer, duck and seal and both sides of the island had prized shellfish beaches. The great herring run along with coho, chum and sockeye salmon migration routes pass around the island on their journey to existing streams and on their way to the Fraser River.
Texada is also the place where our people first met with fur traders from a Hudson’s Bay company ship named “Beaver” in 1838. Muskets (powder guns) were traded for furs piled to the same height.

Source: Sliammon Traditional Use Study, Sliammon Place Names Project & Sliammon Culture, Heritage and Language Committee 2010.