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

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
David Thompson visited the Columbia River in 1807, travelling with his wife and three children
through Howse Pass and meeting the Columbia River at its confluence with the Blaeberry River.
The canoe that Jaco Finlay had left the previous year was unfit for anything apart from light
travel, requiring Thompson to alter his plans. Thompson was to have proceeded to the Flat Bow
country to the south. Instead, he travelled upstream on the Columbia River to the Lower
Columbia Lake (Lake Windermere) and built what he called “Kootenae House.” 53
No Aboriginal people not associated with the NW Company were immediately present on the
west side of the mountains, so on 2 July 1807 Thompson sent two of his men in search of the
“Kootanaes.” 54 In the meantime, his party was starving. He sent word to two “Seauteaux” 55 that
he required them to deliver meat that they owed him. A few days later the Ktunaxa had been
located. 56 Contemporary oral history recorded by the Shuswap Indian Band from one of their
elders states that Thompson was met at the Blaeberry Creek by the Shuswap, who then fed and
cared for him. 57 But there is not support for this statement in Thompson’s own journal. 58
Thompson arranged for some Ktunaxa hunters to provide game for the fur traders. He also hired
Ktunaxa men to accompany a few of his men and take company horses “up to the Kootanae
Lake” [Columbia Lakes area], while Thompson and his family, along with other men, travelled
behind. 59 His description of the route indicates that he travelled upstream on the Columbia River
to the lakes at the headwaters of the Columbia, the lakes now known as Lake Windermere
(formerly Lower Columbia Lake) and Columbia Lake (formerly Upper Columbia Lake). During
this trek he met only local people identified as “Kootanaes.” 60
53 Belyea 1994, page 49.
54 Belyea 1994, page 49.
55 Saulteau, members of the Ojibwa who migrated west with the fur trade.
56 Belyea 1994, page 50.
57 Shuswap Indian Band 2008, page 34; Fish Lake Consulting, on behalf of the Shuswap Indian Band
2009, page 19. The source of this information is Shelagh Dehart, author of several manuscripts and publications on
the migration of the Kinbaskets into the Columbia Valley. Mrs Dehart says in her 2006 book on the Kinbasket
migration that her great-grandfather, Yelheena, was living at the time Kinbasket met David Thompson.. See Shelagh
Dehart (2006). The Kinbasket Migration and Other Indian History. Palliser Printing: Invermere, BC. In her 1964
interview with CBC broadcaster Imbert Orchard, Mrs. Dehart stated: “I mean, when he's a little boy [Pierre
Kinbasket, her grandfather], he came over with his father and the men folks and then that was the time they saw David
Thompson around Golden.” This will be discussed below.
58 Shuswap Indian Band 2008, page 34. The same Shuswap elder mentioned that French men—presumably
Legacé (a.k.a. Legasse) and Leblanc—were at the Blaeberry River before Thompson.
59 Belyea 1994, page 51.
60 Belyea 1994, pp. 50-51.
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