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

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
Joseph Howse of the Hudson’s Bay Company also passed over the Rockies in the summer of
1810, using the pass that now carries his name. Howse continued south, and after initially being
stalled by the Peigans at Old Kootenay House, at Toby Creek (near Windermere), 98 he continued
south and established a trading post at either Flathead Lake or Pend d’Oreille Lake. A Cree man
who had accompanied the HBC men later reported to Alexander Henry that the Peigans were
watching the NW Company men on the Kootenay River. Once he had told them, quite falsely,
that David Thompson was to the south, the Peigans left, assuming that their enemies would not
receive firearms this season. 99
H. Christoph Wolfart, author of the entry on Joseph Howse in the Dictionary of Canadian
Biography Online writes the following concerning this time:
Opposition to both companies was mounted by the Peigans; at war with
the Flatheads, they strove to block all trade across the mountains. While
Thompson, travelling in October, chose to seek a more northerly route
through Athabasca Pass (B.C.), Howse had reached the Cootana
(Columbia) River by 20 August. There he remained some time “to gain
further intelligence” in view of the threat the Peigan Indians posed to
“him, or any white man” in the summer of 1810. According to one of his
Cree guides, Howse was still on the Columbia on 1 September and on
22 October another guide, who had “just come across the mountains,”
specified his location to Henry as the “old” Kootenay House, at the head
of the Columbia. The NWC’s watch was still being kept, and McMillan
did not leave until 12 December, at which time Howse was reported to be
wintering on or near Flathead Lake (Mont.). When he returned to
Columbia Lake (B.C.), Howse once more crossed paths with Thompson,
who was told of Howse’s presence on 14 May.
The only record of the journey by Howse’s own hand is contained in a
letter written to HBC governor Sir George Simpson in 1843. In sketching
his itinerary Howse writes that he “crossed the Rocky Mounts in the
Summer and Autumn of 1810 by y e North Branch of the Saskatchewan –
ascended the Kootoonay [Columbia] River – carried into the Flat-Bow
(?) [Kootenay] River – descended by the most Southly Bight of it –
crossed (Portage Poil de Custer) to Flathead River . . . where we built.”
He goes on to describe a further crossing of the continental divide in
December 1810: “with a couple of my men I accompanied the Flat-heads
to the head branches of y e Missouri – returned to our House – in Feb y
1811.” 100
98 Coues 1897, page 656.
99 Coues 1897, page 656.
100 http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=38099; accessed 28 October 2009.
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