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

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
that they formerly resided on the “Kootenay or Columbia,” referring to names both applied to the
Columbia River upstream from the Big Bend, but that they had lost these lands to the Ktunaxa. 80
When David Thompson came to the Columbia Valley region in 1807 he did not note the
presence of “Snare” people. He sent his men explicitly in search of the “Kootanaes,”
who he expected and who were found to be in the area. Nor did Alexander Henry expect
to see Snare people still residing in the Columbia Valley in the early 19 th century. 81 Still,
Thompson’s arrival on the Columbia occurred only three decades after a major smallpox
epidemic had devastated the region’s population. Speaking of the effects this disease had
on the Ktunaxa, Peter Fidler wrote in the postscript to his 31 December 1792 entry:
They [the Cottonahew] have but few horses, but a great number is
running wild in the Woods & plains as wild as Deer, very few of which
the Natives can catch.
They have been in this state ever since the Time of the smallpox in the
Summer 1781, which swept away nearly whole nations. 82
This same smallpox epidemic likely caused great losses among the “Snare,” as well.
Observations on the Aboriginal Presence in the Columbia Valley 1807-1811
David Thompson became very familiar with the Rocky Mountain trench during his travels on the
west side of the Rocky Mountains between 1807 and 1811. Barbara Belyea in her Introduction to
the Columbia Journals summarizes these expeditions, as follows:
...from 1807-1812, Thompson established the routes and posts of a
Columbia Department: from Rocky Mountain House to Kootanae House
via Howse Pass, by water and overland from the Columbia headwaters to
Kullyspel House and Saleesh House on the Clark Fork River, and
overland again from Pend Oreille Lake to Spokane House. During his last
two years in the West, Thompson crossed the divide via Athabaska Pass
and travelled the entire length of the Columbia River. He discovered and
mapped what Mackenzie had failed to find: a navigable route from the
Rocky Mountains to the western ocean. 83
80 Coues 1897, page 705. At page 672, Coues provides a synonymy of the names used by David Thompson
and the names used at the time of his edition, 1897.
81 Coues 1897, pp. 596, 703-706.
82 Fidler, edited by Haig 1991, page 50.
83 Belyea 1994, page xxi.
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