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

An important part of Teit’s analytical technique was to trace the occurrence of Salish place names as
determinants of their territory, and use this to infer traditional Salishan occupation of those areas [pp.
209-221]. His findings with respect to the study area are firmly based in the post-contact era, much
of it the outgrowth of the Kinbasket settlement at Windermere Lakes. As such they ignore the much
older occupation of this area by the Ktunaxa who, after permitting the settlement of the Kinbaskets in
the mid 1800s, shared this area with them 71 .
Note also the inclusion of the Arrow Lakes area as Shuswap speaking despite hard historical evidence
that Ktunaxa, Sinixt and Okanagan people were also using the area. It appears that Teit’s map should
be simply construed as a map where Shuswap Salish could be heard during the lifetime of his
informants and not a meaningful delineation of traditional territorial boundaries at or predating the
time of contact.
An interesting contrast to Teit is afforded by the language based assessments made by the
ethnographer Verne Ray of the traditional territory of the Sinixt people, now largely gathered in the
Colville, Washington area. His 1936 map [Figure 7] suggests that Sinixt territory [vertical cross
hatching] included all of the Big Bend area, extending up the Columbia to the vicinity of Golden.
Figure 7. Traditional territories of the Plateau Indians, by Ray [detail, from Turnbull 72 ]. “S”, “O”
and “C” indicate Salish, Okanagan and Colville peoples respectively.
71 As seen for example, in Shelagh Dehart’s book
72 Turnbull, Charles J., (1977).
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