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

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
Fidler soon met the Ktunaxa at Old Man River and discovered during his conversations with
them that their travels through the Rockies from “their homelands” some 40 miles to the
southwest took only five days. 8
Historians report that the Blackfeet possession of guns in the 1790s either allowed them to
control the trade with the Ktunaxa, or have military supremacy over their enemies. 9 <strong>Evidence</strong>
supporting this proposition is provided by fur trader Duncan McGillivray who wrote in 1795
from Fort George that “The Coutonées [Ktunaxa] have already made several attempts to visit us,
but they have been always obstructed by their enemies.” 10 Fidler had noted that “the Muddy
river, Blood, Black Feet & Southern Indians always prevent them, they wishing to monopolize
all their Skins to themselves...”. 11
As anthropologist Claude Schaeffer has discussed, the Ktunaxa had, for nearly 75 years prior to
about 1800, “increasingly come under the influence of two innovations of European origin,”
specifically firearms and horses. 12 Yet by the 1790s, some Ktunaxa had acquired shaky peaceful
relations with at least the Peigans of the Old Man River area. Fidler mentioned in November
1792 that “the Snake [Shoshoni] & Cottonahou Indians had sent proper people to make peace
with the Muddy river Indians…”. 13
Schaeffer noted that it was difficult for the Ktunaxa and their Salishan-speaking neighbours to
“hold their own against Blackfeet aggression, especially during their seasonal excursions to the
buffalo plains.” 14 Authors of the 2008 Shuswap Indian Band’s “Traditional Use Study” entitled
Re Tsqwátstens-kucw ne Csalíken’ cite Schaeffer and seemingly interpret his reference to
“Salishan-speaking neighbours” as being “Shuswap.” However, it is more probable that these
Lethbridge, Alberta. Page 42. See also J.G. MacGregor (1966). Peter Fidler: Canada’s Forgotten Surveyor 1769-
1822. McClelland and Stewart: Toronto. Page 74.
8 Mac Gregor 1966:76. See also Haig 1991, page 46.
9 Hugh Dempsey (1998). Indians of the Rocky Mountain Parks. Fifth House, Ltd.: Calgary. See also David
Chance (1981). The Kootenay Fur Trade and Its Establishments 1795-1871. US Army Corps of Engineers Report,
Seattle District. Page 28.
10 Arthur S. Morton (1929). The journal of Duncan M’Gillivray of the Northwest Company at Fort George
on the Saskatchewan, 1794-5. MacMillan Company: Toronto. Pp. 55-56. Cited in Chance 1981, page 28.
11 MacGregor 1966, pp 78-79.
12 Claude Schaeffer (1966). Le Blanc and La Gasse: Predecessors of David Thompson in the Columbian
Plateau. Studies in Plains Anthropology and History, Number 3, page 1. Published by the US Department of the
Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Pp.1-2.
13 Haig 1991, pp. 16, 20.
14 Schaeffer 1966, pp. 1-2.
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