Evidence on the Adequacy of First Nations Consultation - BC Hydro ...

3. APPROACH OF THIS STUDY
The main thrust of this study has been to locate and review relevant historical documentation,
ethnographic studies and scholarly publications with the aim of illuminating the history of aboriginal
peoples in the subject area with a particular focus on the Ktunaxa.
The Internet has played a fundamental role in locating these sources. A crucial resource has been the
various computer search engines mounted on websites for most major catalogues, including those for
the libraries of the Universities of British Columbia [UBC], Simon Fraser, Toronto, Washington and
Gonzaga, the Vancouver Public Library [VPL] and for holdings in the B.C. Archives and Library
Services [BCARS], Library and Archives Canada [LAC], the Department of Indian and Northern
Affairs Canada [INAC], 2 and the Hudson’s Bay Co. Archive [HBCA] located in the Provincial
Archives of Manitoba.
The internet also contains a myriad of other useful websites, including those of first nations,
environmental and historical associations and local archives, as well as on-line publishers of books
and essays relating to the area. Often these are useful stepping stones to find primary and secondary
source materials. 3
Major archives visited in person during this research include the Special Collection and Koerner
Library divisions of U.B.C., the Northwest Collection of the Vancouver Public Library, British
Columbia Archives and Research Services [BCARS] and Hudson’s Bay Company Archives and The
Resource Centre of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. Local archives visited [at time of writing]
include those in Castlegar [Selkirk College Local Collection], Fort Steele, Kaslo, Nakusp, Nelson
[the Shawn Lamb Collection at Touchstones Museum], Revelstoke and those of the Ktunaxa Nation
Council at Cranbrook.
This study presents a general historical summary of the area with a focus on how the documentation
gathered reflects on the inter-tribal relationships through time as they relate to traditional territory.
Traditional material culture will also be a focus, primarily through published ethnographies, with a
view to exploring the historical use and importance of the subject area to the Ktunaxa people.
Names used will employ, in a somewhat arbitrary fashion, common Anglicized versions as opposed
to constructions informed by linguistic symbols or other specialized conventions, e.g., Ktunaxa,
Shuswap, Sinixt, Okanagan, etc.
It is important to note that this research has relied entirely on the review of written documents
reflecting the observations and views, principally of non-natives: explorers, fur traders, early settlers,
ethnographers, archaeologists and historians. The conclusions that are drawn are based on this
evidence and may not completely accord with the knowledge of the members of the Ktunaxa Nation.
2 The holdings of primary interest in LAC and INAC are found in Record Group 10 [RG 10] of the Federal Government
of Canada, the majority of which has been microfilmed. The resource centers at the resource centers of Specific Claims
West [INAC] and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs [UBCIC], both located in Vancouver, have fairly complete collections
of the Black Series [the western component] of RG 10 microfilmed documents.
3 Special mention must be made of the web site Early Canadiana Online [http://canadiana.org], on which can be found in
their entirety a number of early accounts relating to the area and published in the 19 th Century by fur traders and others
and available as .pdf downloads. These include the writings of David Thompson, Ross Cox, Alexander Ross, the artist
Paul Kane and Father Pierre-Jean De Smet.
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