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

little in the way of fresh insights into the Ktunaxa and their use of the territory. Unfortunately the
RG10 microfilm copies of the letterbooks of both Agents are mostly illegible.
Still, several interesting documents from Galbraith’s tenure have been located, including a
Memorandum of Agreement between the Stoney Indians of Alberta and the Ktunaxa and Kinbasket
Shuswap [see the discussion of this group in the next section]. It was designed to put an end to
hostilities arising from provocative and destructive hunting incursions of the Stony Indians into the
Upper Columbia Valley region. Dated September 27, 1895, and signed by chiefs and headmen of the
three groups in the presence of the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Agent Galbraith , it
is agreed: 54
That the Stonies shall have the privilege of hunting as far West as the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers,
and that in return the Kootenay Indians, and the Shuswap Indians shall have the privilege of hunting as
far East as the base of the Rocky Mountains, on the Eastern Slope thereof.
And that this mutual concession is made with the distinct understanding that the Game Laws of British
Columbia, and the North West Territories, as the case may be, shall be strictly observed, and that any
infraction of the said Game Laws by the Stonies of British Columbia, or by the Kootenays or Shuswaps,
in the North West Territories, shall be considered sufficient reason for withdrawing the concessions
above made, from the band or bands to which the Party, or Parties Transgressing belong.
The fact of such an agreement suggests a sense of continuing ownership and stewardship on the part
of the Ktunaxa towards the Upper Columbia Valley region and its resources. In line with this, the
historical documentation reviewed in this section supports the sense that the study area has always
lain within the core territory of the Ktunaxa.
10. THE KINBASKET BAND
The migration of Kinbasket’s people into the Upper Columbia Valley
Documentation located supports the notion that, around the time of European contact in the early
1800s, a group of Shuswap people led by their chief Yeheelna Kinbasket began spend more and more
time eastward of their North Thompson traditional home territory. After years of movement, this
eventually culminated in the creation of a permanent settlement near Windermere Lake around the
middle of the 19 th Century. Descendants of these people, now known as the Shuswap Band or
sometimes the Kinbaskets, assert a claim to the upper Columbia Valley study area.
Agent Galbraith in a 1914 interview with the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs [the McKenna –
McBride Commission] offered this comment on the Kinbasket migration [see immediately below],
stating that “…there was some family feud years ago and they passed over the Selkirk mountains and
came and settled in the Kootenay country where they originally were known as the men-withoutclothes.”
55
From examination of Hudson’s Bay Company archival material dating from the 1820s 56 it is clear
that this band of Shuswaps began trading with the Company by at least the mid 1820s. For example,
54 From RG.10, Vol. 3855, file 80143
55 From Kootenay Agency – Transcript - Examination of Indian Agent Galbraith, pp. 72-140, Royal Commission on
Indian Affairs in the Province of B.C.
56 Journals of Thompson’s River Post [B.97/a-1] and Jasper House [HBCA B.94/a1-3]
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