Nanaimo Indians, Nanaimo People, Nanaimo First Nation (contraction of Snanaímux). A Salish tribe, speaking the Cowichan dialect, living about Nanaimo Harbor, on the east coast of Vancouver Island and on Nanaimo Lake, British Columbia. Population 161 in 1906. Their gentes are Anuenes, Koltsiowotl, Ksalokul, Tewethen, and Yesheken.