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

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
The story of the Kinbasket migration as told by these two sisters has been reviewed in reports
compiled recently both on behalf of the Shuswap Indian Band (2008; Fish Lake Consulting
2009) and also by the Ktunaxa Nation (Robertson 2007). To the information discussed in these
reports can be added information that Mrs. Dehart and Mrs. Williams provided during interviews
with CBC broadcaster, Imbert Orchard, in 1964. The BC Archives holds the originals of these
interviews; unedited transcripts are available online through the University of Regina and are
excerpted below. 155
In the 8 November 1964 interview, Shelagh Dehart describes the exploration of the hunters, the
Kinbasket migration, and the eventual meeting between her Shuswap ancestors and the Kootenay
near Golden. Those sections that focus on the move from the west to the upper Columbia Valley
are included, as follows: 156
Oh, well, my great-great-grandfather and his, like his brother-in-law
and a few other friends, wanted to go hunting and so they went way up,
what you call it, Seymour Arm? You know where that is? And they went
along there and in the old days, you see, when they go out like that and
travelling, you know, they stayed out for a month sometime, and weeks.
And so they went up there and then they crossed over. Now I guess we
would have to have a map to know where it is and then they have these
Shuswap names. But I see where they went up the Seymour Narrows
and then they crossed under, to the Columbia R i v e r . A n d t h e n t h e y
c a m e d o w n a n d , y o u s e e , m y great-great-grandfather used to
climb the mountains, you know, and he wondered what it was like down
on the other side. And so this kept on all spring and all summer and then
they finally got to Kinbasket Lake. And they were on foot, of course,
just the men folks. And that was so beautiful, you know, this valley
here, from the Kinbasket Lakes. And then they wandered to, down to
Golden and they didn't think anybody lived in this valley, so then they went
back. Gosh, I don't remember how long that took them now, to go. It
was months, like maybe three months they travelled at a time. But I
think they wintered here and then they went back in the spring and he
told his people that it was so beautiful out here and, what did they call the
place now? The lakes I think it was.
……………………
155 Available online: Shelagh Dehart: http://dspace.cc.uregina.ca/dspace/items-byauthor?author=Dehart%2C+Shelagh%2C+%28Mrs.%29;
Tracie Williams: http://dspace.cc.uregina.ca/dspace/itemsby-author?author=Williames%2C+Tracie%2C+%28Mrs.%29.
156 The present authors have not cross-checked these transcripts against the original tape recordings. The
transcriber has written “(name)” in those places in the transcripts where indigenous words are mentioned.
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