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

Another group of Ktunaxa, the Qatmuk’nek, also frequented the Duncan Lake vicinity during their
seasonal transhumance between the winter ungulate range at the Columbia’s headwaters in the Rocky
Mountain Trench and the summer salmon fishery of the Arrow Lakes.
In the Jumbo Pass research study, 16 he and his co-authors conclude that the Toby Creek people
(whose descendants are now largely part of the Columbia Lakes Band of Windermere) have traveled
through the Purcells into the Lardeau-Duncan area and on to the Arrow Lakes as a part of their
seasonal round for a very long time. From personal observation they found the route from Toby
Creek over the saddle of Jumbo Pass and down Glacer Valley to be topographically suitable with
considerable supportive habitat. In addition, a somewhat cursory examination yielded several sites
bearing signs of pre-contact use.
The archaeological evidence therefore is consistent with the notion that, with the exception of the
recent adoption of the horse in the eastern part of their range and the added focus on the buffalo hunt,
the Ktunaxa first encountered by Europeans on the Columbia Plateau in the 19 th century were living
in much the same way and largely in the same areas their ancestors had for millenia, and that a major
focal point of their range was the upper Columbia River Valley.
7. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EUROCANADIAN IMPACT ON THE KTUNAXA
Most of our early written knowledge of the traditional culture and inter-relationships of the Ktunaxa
and other Indians of the Columbia Plateau comes to us from the observations of fur traders,
missionaries and adventurers who began arriving in the area in the early 1800s. 17 This was a time of
upheaval in western North America, arising primarily from three great impacts of Europeans upon
Indian culture.
The descendants of horses originally taken from the extensive Spanish ranching district around Santa
Fe expanded northward through the western plains, and early in the 18 th Century became a crucial
part of life for those engaged in the seasonal buffalo hunts on the eastward portions of the Plateau and
the Great Plains. 18 With ranges dramatically expanded for cultures long used to travelling on foot,
increased competition for hunting territory and access to the buffalo herds soon evolved into range
wars between the various tribes and an increased glorification of warrior culture. Into this volatile
mix stepped fur traders who brought with them trade goods and contagious diseases, most notably
firearms and smallpox, and these had further huge impacts on the indigenous people of the Plateau.
In order to assist readers with place names of the area, some of which are no longer found on modern
maps, a detail of John Arrowsmith’s 1864 map of “The Provinces of British Columbia & Vancouver
Island, with Portions of the United States & Hudson’s Bay Territories” is included as Figure 3.
15 Choquette, 2005, p. 14
16 Keefer et al, 2004, pp. 23-25
17 According to Bill Brunton, the first European contact with the Ktunaxa occurred in 1792 “when Peter Fidler met a
small party east of the Rocky Mountains” from the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 12, p. 232.
18 For example, see Haines, Frances (1932): he attributes this spread to the frequent escapes from Spanish missions by
indentured Indians with their horses and equestrian knowledge, followed by the development of systematic horse theft,
especially by the Apache. Aided greatly by the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, horses are believed to have reached the Plateau
area by the 1720s, after which they were spread north and east into Blackfoot and Cree country.
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