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

Shuswaps described in the HBC records dating from the 1820s, 64 the book shows how “Kinbasket”
could still be actively travelling through the mountains with Provincial Surveyors nearly half a
century later.
The book asserts that this band spent a number of years living in the vicinity of the Boat
Encampment, and that oral tradition describes how busy a place it was with comings and goings of
many kinds of people, including priests. This again is consistent with the use of Boat Encampment
by the fur trade, especially from the 1820s on, as a key stop on the route known as the Columbia
Express and the employment by the HBC of Shuswaps as packers, hunters and guides. The claim
that Yelheelna met David Thompson therefore becomes plausible, and ties in with suggestions that
these Kinbasket Shuswaps were present in the area of Boat Encampment by 1811.
According to Dehart, the migration began as an exploration of some young Shuswap men from the
Adams Lake area [pp. 28-29]:
They were really exploring and so they went north on Kinbasket Lake up to Canoe Reach and on to
Valemont. They explored all of Kinbasket Lake on both sides. They camped for a few days before
they got to the Columbia River. From there they crossed the river and kept following the shore. They
again camped at Downie Creek where it enters the Columbia River for quite some time. They were
away from their people a long time and when they went home, they told the people about it. The Elders
told them “That’s Kootenay Country, very dangerous”.
_____ _____ _____
The Elders tried to stop the explorers, they forbad them to keep going into enemy territory, the
dangerous Kootenay Country but the young ones continued to explore.
Eventually the explorers grew into a band, with Yeheelna as their chief, staying for some time at the
Boat Encampment and making occasional forays southward up the Columbia Valley. The Shuswaps
were evidently fearful that they would be attacked for encroaching on Ktunaxa territory and then very
happy with ultimate acceptance into the northerly portion of the Ktunaxa’s territory. Referring to the
meeting that established peace between them, deHart indicates that the main body of the Kinbaskets
were camped at the confluence of the Beaver and Columbia Rivers at that time, with a smaller group
including Chief Yeheelna camping further upstream near present day Donald [p. 33]. According to
her book, the Ktunaxa had watched the Shuswap for a long time before offering Yeheelna and his
small group a welcome and friendship through the making of signs and offering of gifts [p.34].
Dehart then indicates that the Ktunaxa continued to freely hunt or travel there, often in the company
of their new neighbours.
Regarding the founding of the Kinbasket settlement Dehart goes on to say:
The Indians met the Morigeau’s [sic] near Windermere Creek sometime before 1840. The first priest
Father de Smet came in 1845. He baptized the Morigeau children and a few Indian children, among
them Chief Pierre’s oldest daughter Maras. 65 The Kinbasket’s and the Morigeau’s [sic] were already
settled here before that. The Weir’s settled after that but they all had met the Shuswaps before the
priests came.
64 For example, the Kamloops – North Thompson Journal entry for November 8, 1822, mentions “the old North Branch
Chief…and family are in the habit of going some times to the east of the Rocky Mountains & Jaspers House…”
65 This reference to Chief Pierre is likely incorrect, unless he had a daughter at a very young age. Other parts of her
account indicate the Chief at this time was Paul Neass.
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