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

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
1822-1823 report of John McLeod written from Spokane House mentions that the “Chin-poo”
[“Simpcw”, i.e, North Thompson] were one of the “tribes or nations” trading at Fort Kamloops.
McLeod also remarked that they were remnants of the “Snare Indians” and that they
“occasionally go in small parties to the Canoe River, and have often been seen at Jasper House
on the east side of the Rocky Mountains.” 137 Still, McLeod does not mention the Kinbasket
ancestor, “Yelheela.” A discussion of the Snare people can be found in section 4.2.2.
The reference in the 2007 Ktunaxa study to “the 1845 letter of Father DeSmet” is more apparent,
although it is the present authors’ opinion that it doesn’t provide direct evidence of Shuswap
either “transiting” or “hunting” in the Columbia Valley in the 1820s, as alleged. This letter
requires comment, as the author of a recent Shuwap Indian Band study (Fish Lake Consulting,
on behalf of the Shuswap Indian Band, April 2009) recently pointed to it in support of the same
proposition, where he writes:
The earliest documented date that a Chief of the Kenpesq’t (Yelheelna
Kinbasket) and his companions were in the Columbia Valley was in
1819. However, based on a number of stories of their settlement, it
seems as though the gradual move towards permanent settlement in the
Columbia Valley may have started in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s. 138
It is necessary to ask if, indeed, as alleged, this letter does confirm that the “earliest documented
date that a Chief of the Kenpesq’t (Yelheelna Kinbasket) and his companions were in the
Columbia Valley was in 1819.”
This date “1819” is based on a 9 September 1845 letter from Father P.J. de Smet to his Superior.
The full translated letter, and another from this time, appear in the 1905 volume Life, Letters and
Travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.J., edited by Hiram Chittenden and Talbot
Richardson. 139 In this September 9 th , 1845 letter, De Smet describes meeting the Canadian trapper
and hunter [Francois Baptiste] Morigeau at the Columbia Lakes. He says that this man had been
in the region—described here as “this desert,” but not meant literally—for 26 years [i.e., since
137 John McLeod (1822-1823). Spokane House Report 1822-1823. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives,
Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg. B.208/e/1. To this can be added James Teit’s note that the Shuswap
crossed the Rockies only through the Yellowhead Pass and that after the Kinbasket migration some of these people
“may have crossed occasionally in later times visiting the Stoney.” See, James Teit (1908-1920). Salish
ethnographic materials. American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia. Boas Collection 372, Roll 16, S .7
(copy held by the B.C. Archives, Victoria. Add. Mss. 1425, Microfilm A-247).
138 Fish Lake Consulting on behalf of the Shuswap Indian Band 2009, p. 18.
139 See Hiram Martin Chittenden and Alfred Talbot Richardson, editors (1905). Life, Letters and Travels of
Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, S.J., 1801-1873. 4 Volumes. Francis P. Harper: New York.
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