[2] The New Westminster Indian Band is one of the smallest First Nations in Canada and the only one registered without a land base.
[5] The Seabird Island First Nation, which was also established in 1879, is another example of a composite "in common" band created by Indian Agents.
The reserves in New Westminster were closed by the McKenna–McBride Commission on April 13, 1916, and the residents returned to their home communities.
In testimony to the Commission, George Roberts, a representative of the New Westminster Indian Band identified Poplar Island as a graveyard for members of the Kwantlen First Nation.
[14] Roberts explained that the people who lived on the New Westminster reserves permanently were not considered "Indians" though some had remote ancestry at Katzie and Chehalis (now called Sts'ailes).
[13] Finally, Roberts described how the Indigenous residents of the New Westminster Band were relocated by priests to the Musqueam and Kwantlen reserves at the historic community of qayqayt.
The New Westminster Indian Band, as it exists today, was reconstituted in 1994 by its present chief, Rhonda Larrabee, after she discovered that her mother's family was one of the last to live within the former reserve.