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

Obviously, these place names may also have been developed out of familial relationships or post
contact employment in adjacent lands, and this may also have contributed to the evident overstating
of Shuswap and Sinixt territories. 74
Vibert 75 describes more generally how such mechanistic interpretations can be misleading:
Not only did language not coincide with culture, it did not coincide so neatly with territory. Language
was little obstacle to the movement of people, goods, and ideas in the Plateau…
Before we leave Teit, it should also be noted that he authored an article concerning the origins of the
Ktunaxa 76 , at least a part of whom were living on the Plains before contact with whites and their
resulting devastation by smallpox and rifle bearing Blackfoot. Much of the article concerns the fate
of the Tona’xa, who appear to have been a plains oriented Ktunaxa, possibly associated with the
Michel Plains Ktunaxa. In this regard, he mentions that in pre-contact time, Ktunaxa may have
occupied portions of southwestern Alberta:
The Piegan claim that before the white man dominated their country, the Blackfoot, Blood and Piegan
lived north of Macleod; the Kutenai in the vicinity of the present Blood Reserve.
3. Claude E. Schaeffer
As a less published ethnographer, Schaeffer is not as well known in the field as some others, but in
the late 1930s, working around the same time as Turney-High, he assembled a very large and
valuable collection of field notes on the Ktunaxa, which he ultimately converted into some nine
volumes of typescript notes. Although research has yet to discover a map of his that delineates
aboriginal territories, he recorded valuable information relevant to our purposes from his many
informants, who generally indicated an abundance of fish and game in the Upper Columbia Valley,
yet an impressively large Canadian range from the U.S. Border to Yellowhead Pass and east of the
Rockies.
Some of the main fishing spots on the upper Columbia were named [Vol. VII, p. 31]:
"1. yakinasu'kwl `red water' (from story of water monster yawu'nik that was speared here). Name
given to salmon fishing site at Briscoe, on the Columbia 77 . The Kutenai fished here in August and was
first fishing of season, as they followed the salmon up the Columbia River.
2. roatqranur "where lake empties into river". A fishing site near Athalmer. This was a shallow place
where the salmon spawned. This was last site at which Kutenai fished [for salmon?] in October.
3. raras'ituk, "mouth of river". A fishing site at mouth of Coldspring Creek where it empties into
Columbia, not far from Fairmont Springs. Kutenai fished here in September, following fishing at
Briscoe. (Coldspring Creek or Dutch Creek?).
4. kotwa.akak, "berries of rosebush". A site on north side of Geary Creek, where it empties into
Columbia. Kutenai speared Salmon here.
Louis Arbell, who appears to have been a highly valued informant judging by the number of
references, claimed that:
74 For example, we call the capital of Russia “Moscow”, but that doesn’t mean we can claim “Moskva” [the Russian
pronunciation] as part of Canada.
75 Vibert, Traders’ Tales, p. 30.
76 Teit, Traditions regarding the Tona'xa America Anthropologist, Volume unknown, pp. 625-632, 1930. The Blood
Reserve is located at Cardston, in the southwest corner of Alberta.
77 Brisco is about midway between the Windermere and Golden.
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