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

three of their children including Francois Jr. He then brought a second wife from east of the Rockies,
a Scots Metis named Isabella, who bore him at least four sons and five daughters, including Baptiste
who was born in 1840. A number of these children including Baptiste subsequently married into both
Kinbasket and Ktunaxa families. Baptiste claimed that it was Chief Paul Kinbasket who assigned
land in the area to him upon his marriage in the 1850s.
Winifred A Weir’s Book
Tales of the Windermere, self-published in 1980 by Ms. Weir, whose ancestors were among the
earliest settlers in the area, is written in a folksy style and contains chapters on historically prominent
families in the Golden area, most notably for our purposes the Morigeaus and Kinbaskets. The
general detail appears to be in good agreement with Shelagh de Hart's book [following] which was
published more than 20 years later.
Regarding the Morigeaus, this material asserts categorically that it was Francois Morigeau Sr. who
was baptized by de Smet, and that Baptiste Morigeau married Collette a daughter of Paul Kinbasket.
[pp. 107-109].
The book also conveys a history of the Kinbasket migration as part of an imagined conversation
between Marianne Kinbasket and her granddaughter Rosie [p. 122]:
Your great-great-grandfather Gelhulnah had brought your great-grandfather Paul Ignatius with him. It
was long ago, maybe 1819 or some year near that. It was a hard trip over the mountains but the
Kinbaskets are never afraid. Paul went back to the Shuswap country and then returned here."
Chief Paul Ignatius Kinbasket had brought his people from the Shuswap Lake country in the 1850s,
travelling through the Big Bend country of the Columbia to settle finally in the Windermere valley.
With a group of his band he had travelled from the Adams Lake area, across the Purcell Mountains.
They stayed for a time at a large lake in the Big Bend country, the lake named Kinbasket Lake by
Walter Moberly...Whether the mosquitoes drove them on or whether they were headed for the
Windermere Valley is not known but here they arrived.
Shelagh Dehart’s Book
Another interesting source of information for this aspect of East Kootenay history is the memoire of a
direct descendant of the Kinbasket chiefs, Shelagh Dehart, edited by her granddaughter, Dusty Dehart
and published in 2007. 63 Titled The Kinbasket Migration and Other Indian History, this book offers
a number of important recollections that illuminate the area’s history.
For example, one might be forgiven if an impression was made from a number of other sources
consulted that “Kinbasket” was one chief. In fact, as Ms. Dehart makes plain, this is a hereditary
name that was used by the leader of the band and refers to her three male ancestors, great-great
grandfather Yelheelna, his son Paul Neass [Paul Ignatius], and her own father, Pierre. According to
her narrative, the wanderings of the Shuswap happened over a period of many years, starting when
Yelheelna was a young man and ending after his death, when his son and successor Paul founded the
present Kinbasket settlement. Since it is likely that Yelheelna was the old established chief of the
63 Published by Palliser Printing, Invermere, B.C., 2007. It may be argued that, logically, such a publication should not be
part of this study which is essentially predicated as a survey of written historical materials from “non-tribal” sources, i.e.,
not directly from Ktunaxa/Kinbasket people themselves. However, it is included here both as a publication and because it
is illuminating and forms some interesting corroborations with other sources referenced in this study.
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