"The First Schooner" is basically a Heiltsuk historical narrative knowledge account on the contact with the western world people. In the first episode, an old couple "a man and a woman," [p.49 Line3] who wears "cedar bark clothes," [p.49 Line 2] was in awed when they saw a steamboat glides down through their pass. The couple was paralyzed by fear of the steamer's smokestack. As the captain "picked him off, [and] picked her off," [p.49 line 13] the Heiltsuks seem very passive, subordinate, and ignorant of the situation for which they find themselves in. For, they do not know what a steel ax is or clocks and everything else that the white men has. After the couple was dressed, fed and they were being put back into a canoe to go back home with the people from Old Town "qelc". Then all of these people left their own town to "kelemt" which is Strom Bay and on their way they met another sailing ship from South America. Their encounter with the white people this time let them associate more by swim racing, canoe racing and boat racing. After their account with the white people from Vancouver, they were known as Bella Bella meaning "beautiful beautiful".
So "The First Schooner" was significant because both episodes describe a meeting with a European ship in Heiltsuk territorial waters. The encounters are very unexpected, for the people there are engaged in activities characteristic of the time of year: fishing for cod in the winter, swimming and playing with plenty of food at close hand in the summer. Rather than being dumb struck by the white technology, the Heiltsuks adopted quickly after and prove their mastery. In the first episode, the man and the woman are part of the whole Heiltsuk society and are literally incorporated in the dwelling of the host. In the second episode, there is structural opposition as the young men stand for the Heiltsuks as a whole to represent them when competing against their counterparts with the South American sailors.
