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

They speak of a racial group living in the vicinity of McLeod, Alberta, half of whom became the ancestors
of the Piegans. The other half, their numbers reduced by a virulent epidemic, crossed the mountains to
inhabit what is now the south-eastern part of British Columbia. The members of this latter group became
the ancestors of the present day Kootenay.
However, linguistic analysis, archaeology and material adaptation demonstrate the longevity of
Ktunaxa occupation of their Kootenay territories. The most plausible explanation is that the Ktunaxa
are an ancient tribe who predate the much larger Salishan and Cree tribes in the region, having
resisted the swirl of migration around them because of their isolation, and who experienced losses of
effective control of buffalo hunting grounds in the eastern part of their traditional range because of
their relatively late acquisition of firearms and the ravages of smallpox. 22
This and other diseases obviously played a major role in reducing the Ktunaxa presence on the Plains.
The early ethnographer James Teit considered the Ktunaxa on the plains an old offshoot of the main
body of Ktunaxa, and called this group the Tunaxe; he suggested that they disappeared primarily
because of smallpox with an assist by Blackfoot predation. This echoes an earlier account of one of
the Catholic missionaries in the area: 23
In his 1847 “Recollections” from Flathead Mission, Jesuit Father Gregory Mangarini…recalled being
told by the elders that about seventy years earlier (ca. 1777), a devastating outbreak of smallpox had
killed a large camp of Salish Flathead, sparing only a few children. At the same time the epidemic
destroyed an “entire nation” living five days journey to the north. This nation was very likely the
Kutenai Tuna’xe, an eastern band of Kutenai who, like the Salish Flathead, travelled annually to the
plains to hunt buffalo.
Writings of David Thompson 24 and others indicate that the Blackfoot 25 attempted to discourage as
much as possible the westward advance of fur traders past their territories. However, the Northwesters
and others were determined to trade directly with tribes like the Ktunaxa in the rich fur lands
west of the Rocky Mountains. Although this westward movement was delayed for a number of
years, trading posts were eventually opened west of the Great Divide in the early 1800s, and with it, a
redressing of the arms imbalance between the two sides. With their discipline, excellent hunting
skills and abundant game, the Ktunaxa were soon well armed and able to re-establish a strong
presence in the buffalo hunting grounds east of the Rockies. Although their control of substantial
buffalo hunting grounds may not have been reasserted to its previous extent, they began to regularly
travel in large vanguards from their mountain redoubts to the buffalo hunting grounds, often allied
with other tribes, especially the Flathead Salish to the southeast.
22 A parallel example in Europe worth considering might be the Hungarian people, who also live in a mountainous region
and speak a language isolate, evidently resisting the great movements of people that have occurred in Europe since the
dawn of agriculture.
23 From Elizabeth Vibert, Traders’ Tales, pg. 55. The ethnographer Teit also subscribed to this account of a Ktunaxa
band residing east of the Rockies, whom he called the Tunaxe, being wiped out by smallpox.
24 See Nisbet, The Mapmaker’s Eye, for a good overall description.
25 It should be mentioned that the eastern neighbours of the Ktunaxa were the Cree [Sarsi and Stoney] to the northeast and
the Blackfoot [Piegan, Blood, Blackfoot] to the south and southeast. The Cree were usually considered friends and the
Blackfoot enemies, although on occasion the Ktunaxa traded with the Small Robe Piegans, even during hostilities with
other Blackfoot. This may be due to the ongoing presence in that tribe of a remarkable young Canadian from Trois
Rivieres, Quebec named Hugh Monroe. At the age of 15, he was sent by the Hudson’s Bay Company to live with the
Piegan and learn their language, eventually living out his days as a full member of the tribe with the name of Rising Wolf.
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