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

DRAFT REPORT: Rights and Title Interests in the Columbia Valley Transmission Project Area
waters at Fairmont Springs to treat their sick “in the old days”. He also recorded that they hunted
and speared salmon north along the Spillimacheen River 214 (identified by Schaeffer
as“yakinasúkwe” meaning ‘red river’), 215 which joins the Columbia near Brisco. And like their
predecessors, the “kátamukinik” , the “akískənəkinik” went eastward up Sheep Creek and across
the Rockies to hunt bison. 216
Information concerning the subsistence practices of these “Columbia Lakes” people is also
provided in documents of the Indian Reserve Commission. In August 1884 when Indian Reserve
Commissioner Peter O’Reilly met with Chief “Moyeas” of the Upper Kutenai people who were
living around the south end of “Lower Columbia Lake” (Lake Windermere), O’Reilly reported
that:
Until recently these Indians subsisted almost entirely on the products of
their annual hunt on the eastern slope of the Rocky mountains, and on the
salmon which formerly were abundant in the Columbia river; these
sources of supply being exhausted, and game not very plentiful in their
own country, they now depend chiefly on their cattle, horses, and
gardens, supplemented by what they can earn as herders, packers, or
laborers. 217
O’Reilly set aside an 8,320-acre Indian Reserve for the “Upper Kootenay Indians” who
214 As reviewed earlier, in 1866 Moberly saw Kinbasket and his band fishing near Spillimacheen.
215 Elsewhere in his field notes, Schaeffer (1934-1969, Microfilm No. 1) wrote this river was known as
as“yakinasúkwe” meaning ‘red river’ because of the blood of the salmon speared here. On another occasion,
Schaeffer (1934-1969, Microfilm No. 2), Schaeffer was told that the term “yakinasúkwe” was applied to a “salmon
fishing site at Brisco.” He was also told that its meaning was ‘red water’ which was derived from the fact that a
water monster was speared here. And he was told that the people fished here in August, that there was a campsite
here, and that this the first place where the Columbia Lakes people caught salmon each year (as discussed above, the
second place they caught salmon was at “kátamu”, Toby Creek).
216 A summary of Ktunaxa bands said to have been prepared by Keefer et al. (2004; no reference provided;
2002, no reference provided) is contained in Robertson’s 2007 report, at page 1.
217 Letter of 16 December 1884 from Indian Reserve Commissioner Peter O’Reilly to the Superintendent
General of Indian Affairs, Ottawa [re: Indian Reserves set aside for the Kootenay Indians in August 1884]. Federal
Collection, Indian Reserve Commission Minutes of Decision, Correspondence and Sketches, Volume 10. Copy held
by the Indian Lands Registry, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. BC Regional Office, Vancouver. Pp. 36-40; the
Provincial set of these same materials is found in: Provincial Minutes of Decision etc. O’Reilly to the Chief
Commissioner of Lands & Works, Victoria. 19 November 1884. BC Archives, Victoria. GR 2982, Box 3, Item
3041/84.
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