The Hwlitsum or Lamalchi or Lamalcha are an Indigenous people whose traditional territories were in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada.
On 20 April 1863, a shelling of their village on Kuper Island by the Royal Navy's HMS Forward led to a series of events known as the Lamalcha War or Lamalchi Affair.
After a prolonged firefight, resulting in the killing of one British sailor, the Forward retreated.
While some say this episode was the only tactical defeat of the Royal Navy in the era following the Crimean War to the opening of the 20th Century, the Forward returned the next day to destroy the then-abandoned village.
A letter of support for their cause was sent to the federal and provincial governments in 2007 by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.