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

Salmon played an important part in the Kutenai economy, but it is obvious that the members of the trout
family were paramount in their thinking.
The author indicates that the Upper Kootenay were considered as very skilled at hook and line fishing
but notes they also practised small weir fishing of faster flowing waters using their distinctive conical
traps in a funnel shape across the stream. Another type of distinctive trap “was devised for use at
waterfalls...[and] used in the autumn when the fish could be expected to be going down stream
seeking deeper water” [p. 47].
The Ktunaxa canoes were of the “sturgeon nosed” type, with low pointed bow and sterns that were
under the water, and designed primarily for paddling in lakes.
A migrating Kutenai band could assemble a fleet of respectable size. Bull Robe [informant] says that
he heard of an expedition of the Libby-Jennings and Tobacco Plains bands travelling by river to
Windermere in a fleet of one hundred and fifty-five canoes.
The seasonal round of the food quest is summarized in this way. Early in the spring the Ktunaxa
went to their fishing grounds and in the late spring harvested roots. Then came the early summer
bison hunt, where they were often joined by the Coeur d’Alene and Spokan Indians. This was
followed by a general time of rest, especially for the horses, although women did lay in the annual
berry supply. In the late summer, salmon fishing was a prominent activity, most notably in the
Windermere area, or westward towards Arrow Lakes. During the early autumn, the Lower Ktunaxa
undertook their deer drives while the Upper Ktunaxa resumed hunting buffalo. Turney-High also
mentions that there was a third buffalo hunt in the winter, but one carried out by snow-shoe, not with
riding and pack horses.
Additionally, in the late summer, salmon fishing was a prominent activity, most notably in the
Windermere area, or westward towards Arrow Lakes.
Although the buffalo hunt formed a central element in the Upper Ktunaxa way of life, Turney-High
makes clear that the hunting of deer and bear and the fishing for bull trout and salmon were
fundamentally important as well. He concludes his remarks on subsistence as follows [p. 55]:
The Kutenai considered their land a fortunate one wherein any industrious man could get plenty to eat
for himself and family. Scarcity, need, and famine were so unusual that they were considered of
supernatural origin.
5. Bill Brunton
Bill Brunton’s views of the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa are found in Volume 12, Plateau, of
the Handbook of North American Indians, published by the Smithsonian. The primary contribution
taken from his article is his map at Fig. 6 entitled “Kootenai territory at contact in 1792…” and like
Turney-High, he marks the northern limit of Ktunaxa territory in the vicinity of Golden, B.C.
Brunton’s map [Figure 7] indicates a territorial division between the Lower and Upper Kootenay that
appears to follow the Purcell Range. Brunton’s piece does not offer much more for our specific
purposes, although he notes that the first missionary establishment, named St. Mary’s and begun in
archive], this fish was prized by Indians and settlers alike who would usually take it by hook and line ice fishing [see
picture, p. 101].
41
Page 185 of 200