4 First Nations of the Fraser

When Simon Fraser passed beyond Fort Alexandria, where Alexander Mackenzie had decided to turn back on his journey down the Fraser River to the Pacific in 1793, he began encountering new nations. Using the names applied by their neighbours, through whom he was first introduced to them, Fraser called these peoples the Atnah, the Askettih, the Hacamaugh and the Ackinroe.

Ethnologists would later call them the Shuswap, the Lillooet, the Thompson and the Coast Salish. They prefer to call themselves by their own names, the Secwepemc, the St'at'imc, the Nlaka'pamux and the Sto:lo, although within each of these linguistic and cultural groupings, subunits have their own local names.

The Atnah

Secwepemc territory covered about 180,000 square kilometres and extended from west of the Fraser River to the Rocky Mountains. It reached from present day Windermere in the south, through the Yellowhead Pass to Jasper, Alberta, and north to a point in the Rocky Mountain Trench east of Prince George. In the west, their territory on the Fraser River extended from just above Soda Creek to just above Lillooet and according to 19th Century ethnologist James Teit, included the lower Chilcotin River and Riske Creek.

Based on the carrying capacity of the land, it's thought that as many as 9,000 people occupied this territory at the time of Fraser's visit. As a result of smallpox and influenza, the population had dwindled to about 2,000 early in the 20th century. Today it has rebounded to near first contact numbers.

When Fraser met them for the first time at the end of May, 1808, he discovered he was not the first white person they had encountered.

"One of them had seen Mr. A.M.K. [Alexander Mackenzie]  and even served him as a guide," he wrote. "It was through his means we were able to have any conversation with the others - I mean the Atnahs, whose language has not the least affinity with any of the different tribes with which I am acquainted."

The language that gave Fraser such difficulty was of the Interior Salish linguistic group. The Atnah spoke two distinct dialects, western and eastern, and in Fraser's time there were 25 bands who were loosely organized into seven divisions - North Thompson, Shuswap Lake, Kamloops, Bonaparte around Ashcroft, around Canim Lake, Fraser River around Williams Lake and Quesnel Lake and the Canyon division on the west side of the river below Soda Creek and Pavilion.

Almost a third of these bands, including the entire Canyon division, disappeared after the last great smallpox epidemic in 1862, leaving 17 bands today.

The Secwepemc of Fraser's day were nomadic hunters who travelled on a seasonal round to exploit resources, digging roots, gathering berries, fishing in lakes and rivers and hunting big game from the river bottoms to the sub-alpine mountain meadows.

Although the salmon resources of the Fraser River were of crucial importance, hunting and sharing big game was a more prestigious activity than fishing.

"They had bows and arrows both extremely well made, which they laid down on coming to us. Most of their bows were made of Juniper or Box wood and Ceader and covered with the skin of the rattlesnake, which they say are numerous in this quarter, and their arrows are pointed with stone of the flint kind but dark, and their clothing consisted of dressed leather, leggings and shoes with robes...," Fraser wrote.

The Secwepemc had obtained horses in the late 18th century and by the time of Fraser's visit the horse had revolutionized travel, transportation, hunting and warfare, although for the most part the Atnah were on good terms with their neighbours, who consisted of the Kootenay, the Cree, the Okanagan, the Nicola, the Lillooet or Askettih, the Chilcotin and the Carrier.

The Gold Rush of 1858, in conjunction with the depopulation caused by the smallpox epidemic which accompanied it, devastated Secwepemc culture and resulted in systematic alienation from their traditional lands and resources.

Although the colonial government under Sir James Douglas had originally set aside large reserves of land that was identified as desirable by the Secwepemc themselves, when British Columbia became a province it reduced these reserves and permitted the preemption of Indian lands by settlers.

Only when the Secwepemc threatened a war was the problem addressed and the province laid out reserves totaling about 400 square kilometres - less than one per cent of the land over which they had ranged freely 200 years ago.

The Secwepemc have played a key role in positioning the unresolved question of aboriginal title and native Indian lands at the forefront of B.C.'s political agenda. Chief George Manuel became a key political player on the national stage as leader of the National Indian Brotherhood. For the past quarter century, the Secwepemc have been leaders in promoting public education and the preservation of their language and culture.

The Askettihs

St'at'imc territory extended from near the height of land separating rivers emptying into the coastal inlets from the Lillooet and Bridge river watersheds in the west to the Fraser River between Leon Creek, where Simon Fraser abandoned his canoes during his 1808 journey, and Texas Creek just south of present day Lillooet. Other territory included the Pemberton region, Seton Lake, Anderson Lake, Lillooet Lake and the upper part of Harrison Lake.

Fraser made first contact with members of the band occupying the river around Pavilion on June 12 while travelling by land from Leon Creek.

"Seven Askettihs presented themselves before us with their bows and arrows in readiness for attack; they conceived us to be enemies, but upon coming nearer they discovered from our appearance and demeanour their mistake, laid by their weapons, joined us and we shook hands. However, we could not understand them." Fraser wrote.

"They looked manly, and had really the appearance of warriors," he said of emissaries sent from chiefs camped further downstream. "The Askettihs dress the same as the Atnahs. They are civil but will not part with their provisions without difficulty. They have a variety of roots, some of which taste like potatoes and are excellent. Their bows and arrows are neat. Their mats are made of different materials, such as rushes, grass, watap [spruce roots]."

In the northern part of their territory, families lived in communities of pit houses during the cold winter months and these were occasionally fortified - Fraser saw one in which the wooden palisades were about six metres high. Farther south, people lived in cedar plank houses that were similar, although smaller, to those constructed by coastal peoples.

The St'at'imc were not a large or powerful nation and were pressured at the boundaries by their larger neighbours, particularly the Halkomelem-speaking peoples to the south and the Chilcotins to the north. There was also occasional conflict with the Nlaka'pamux and the Secwepemc.

All of which explains the initial caution with which they met Fraser's expedition.

Although the St'at'imc subsisted by hunting big game, particularly elk, mule deer, mountain goat and black bear in the mountains, the band that Fraser encountered relied much more upon the abundant runs of salmon and other fish into the Bridge River, Seton and Anderson lakes and the lower reaches of the large creeks flowing into the Fraser River. A major fishery using traditional dip nets and racks for the wind-drying of salmon still takes place each summer at the confluence of the Bridge River and the Fraser River.

In fact, just four years after Fraser had passed through their territory, the St'at'imc on the river became the main purveyors of the dried salmon provisions which sustained Fort Kamloops, established in 1812, and regular brigades of pack horses carried bales of the commodity there in trade. Contemporary arguments over the right of native Indians to both claim an aboriginal right to a share of salmon resources and to sell them for economic gain have their origins in these ancient commercial practices which predate the existence both of Canada and B.C.

Like their neighbours, the St'at'imc were heavily impacted by the Gold Rush and epidemics. Population fell from an estimated 4,000 people in Fraser's time to about 1,200 in the early 20th century but has since rebounded to pre-contact numbers.

The St'at'imc have been at the forefront for redress, not only on behalf of their own grievances but those of other first nations, too. Early in the 20th century, aided by ethnographer James Teit who had made extensive studies of the Interior tribes, the St'at'imc became active in an organization known as the Allied Tribes and later petitioned the government demanding restoration of lands taken from them.

A long history of militant political activism, including rail and road blockades, has characterized their frustration with the failure of provincial and federal governments to address grievances involving land and aboriginal rights.

For 15 years, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, an organization opposed to the treaty negotiation process and advocating for aboriginal rights, was led by Saul Terry of the St'at-imc's Bridge River Band.

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