Gilbert Jacob (Chief Gibby)

This is Gilbert Jacob.

Everyone calls him Chief Gibby.

He used to be one of the leaders of the Squamish Nation, a nation of around 5,000 indigenous people living in the Pacific Northwest.

We met him in this charming little neighborhood full of single-family homes.

There was a big open park nearby.

Then the white people came.

Government officials from British Columbia in 1913 came and took the land.

They forced the Squamish to leave and destroyed the village.

Over the decades, the land where Chief Gibby's great-grandparents used to hunt and fish was turned into streets, houses and apartments, government buildings, a park, a wharf, a marina.

The location of those 10 and a half acres was incredible.

We were standing right next to it.

It's so close to downtown Vancouver.

This was the biggest economic opportunity in the history of the Squamish nation.

The land they got back was a prime piece of real estate in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

And now they had to decide, what were they going to do with it?

Hello and welcome to Planet Money.

Today on the show, we follow the Squamish nation as they live a kind of economic experiment.

What would you build on a piece of land when all the normal rules go out the window?

Chief Gibby and the Squamish Nation had this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

In 2003, they'd gotten back those 10.5 acres of undeveloped land, about the size of a large football stadium, in the middle of Vancouver.