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

The Columbia Lakes moved down the Columbia River, past Kinbasket Lake and along Canoe River,
then up through the Yellow Head Pass ["Yakti.kL", = "foot print"], to east of the plains.
Then they moved south along east bench of the Rockies and returned by one of the many passes,
Vermillion, Kicking Horse, Elk or Crow's Nest, etc., to the west side of the mountains.
Chief Arbell also observed that the Columbia Lakes area had “no deer” [but] an abundance of elk,
moose, goats and sheep. Paul David advised that “the T.P. [Tobacco Plains] and St. Mary’s Kutenai
used to hunt moose and elk, as far north as Golden.” [Vol. V, p. 46]
Schaeffer himself observed in a letter to his thesis advisor Dr. Wissler dated July 13, 1937 that “the
Windermere Kutenai” participated in the buffalo hunt to the extent that they had horses, but noted
that "...the veneer of Plains trait was very thin” [Vol. IX]. The Columbia Lakes people therefore had
placed a strong reliance on fishing and local game hunting for a very long time, consistent with this
observation in Schaeffer’s notes [Vol V, p. 50]:
‘Lived near town of Fairmont Springs and used these springs for treating the sick in the old days...They
hunted north along the Sillimacheen River (yaginasu.ke - "Red River", named from the blood of salmon
speared in this river)...
Schaefer recorded that Eustace informed him about some of the seasonal round of the old qatmukinik
people of Toby Creek, ancestors of the Columbia Lakes Ktunaxa:
Katamu was a regular place on Toby Creek, at Columbia Lakes, where these people secured their
second batch of salmon. Must have spent considerable time there, since that name was given them...
At close of fishing seson, the Katamukunek split up, some set out to hunt bison, others elk and at end of
season would meet to winter together in the south. Some returned Katamu after New Year's, to spend
the months of January, February and March, hunting mountain sheep and wild fowl. Often Kutenai
from Tobacco Plains joined them, as game was plentiful there...
In his letter to Dr. Wissler, he also gives an indication of the impressive range of the Ktunaxa when
he describes the area covered by the Michel Plains people:
…[I]n addition to the Columbia Lakes and Tobacco Plains groups, there is left the group about Crow's
Nest Pass (whom Teit called Tunaxa and claimed were living entirely east of the Divide). Strangely
enough, I have been able to secure but little information on the latter group from informants here. The
Chief told me the Tunaxa made a two year circuit of the region, fishing one fall at Columbia Lakes,
then crossing the Rockies by Yellowhead Pass (near which is the Kutenai Parc mentioned by Henry
Thompson, per your letter and which he confirms) moving south along the mountains in search of bison
and recrossing again at North Kootenay Pass, and even as far south as Missoula, and then coming north
to Tobacco Plains. This route refers to period after introduction of the horse, it being rather improbable
that such a territory could be covered on foot in that length of time...
Clearly the Ktunaxa had a heavy dependence on fish and game in the upper Columbia Valley, but
Schaeffer reports a deep sadness in his informants at the passing of this richness, expressed in a
poignant statement to him by Francais Adam Vol. VII, p. 3]:
Nowadays the Kutenai get insufficient fish and game and believe that they may undergo a physical
deterioration, similar to that of white foods when spoiling or rotting.
There appears very little in Schaeffer’s notes concerning relations of the Upper Ktunuxa with the
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