4 First Nations of the Fraser

The Hacamaugh

The Nlaka'pamux occupy the arid rainshadow of the Coast Range from just south of Lillooet to south of the United States border. Their traditional territory on the west side of the Fraser River included the Stein Valley and the east-flowing watersheds above Harrison Lake from Texas Creek in the north to Sawmill Creek, just above Yale, in the south. East of the river their territory extended up the Thompson River to Ashcroft, past Merritt and around Nicola Lake, then south to include Ross Lake in the U.S.

Fraser met his first Hacamaugh on June 16 in the company of two visiting Shoshone.

"All were exceedingly well dressed in leather, and were on horseback," he wrote. "They have a great quantity of shells and blue beads, and we saw a broken silver broach such as the Sauteaus [Saulteaux] wear, among them. They were kind to us and assisted us at the carrying place with their horses."

He met others at the Stein River and was greeted by 1,200 at a camp near present day Lytton, where he observed that "They have many chiefs and great men, appear to be good orators, for their manner of delivery is extremely handsome."

The next day, his party was overtaken by two men who were bringing a piece of iron (probably an axe head) that the explorers had accidentally left behind: "We considered this an extraordinary degree of honesty and attention."

Living in a sparse, desert-like terrain, the Nlaka'pamux relied heavily on salmon resources in the Fraser and steelhead runs into the Thompson. Salmon were caught using dipnets at strategic locations where fish would swim close to the riverbank using back-eddies to conserve strength while steelhead were often speared.

Ethnobotanist Nancy Turner has identified more than 120 species of plants that were gathered for food and hunters killed mountain goats, bighorn sheep, deer and black bears using stone-tipped arrows, spears, snares, deadfalls and nets.

Life among the Nlaka'pamux was remarkably egalitarian and democratic compared to the class-conscious society that came to supersede them as the dominant culture. According to David Wyatt, writing in the Smithsonian Institution's Handbook of North American Indians, every individual was a member of a family, local community and a band "but ruled by none, for each man had a voice in the informal councils where hunting, war and other matters were discussed. Leadership came from the wise and the experienced, and there might be different leaders on different occasions; women spoke and led in their own areas of expertise ... . There were no classes ... and ranking was informal, based on an individuals perceived wealth, knowledge and family origin."

Like their neighbours, the Nlaka'pamux were accomplished horsemen and capable of ranging widely across their territory and engaged in trade that extended from the coast to the Rocky Mountains. And, just as their neighbours had been, the Nlaka'pamux suffered greatly as a consequence of the Gold Rush,  which disrupted fishing on the Fraser and caused famine that winter. A short-lived but bloody war with largely American miners was ended with the intervention of a revered chief from Lytton.

The Nlaka'pamux have been politically active in seeking redress for grievances on the land question since they resisted the forcible incursion of miners in 1858, sending delegates to plead their case in London and laying groundwork for the creation of the Allied Tribes of B.C. at a meeting at Spence's Bridge in 1915.

The Ackinroe

Simon Fraser made his first contact with the Halkomelem-speaking people of the Fraser River who call themselves the Sto:lo, or people of the river, at Spuzzum on June 27, 1808. He was, he wrote, "hospitably entertained" with fresh salmon, both boiled and roasted, green and dried berries, oil and onions" - a pretty good repast for voyageurs whose own rations of dried fish had long ago been cached or consumed.

Sto:lo territory was extensive, ranging from just above Yale to near Cape Flattery on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. It extended from the lower Squamish River to Lake Whatcom and the upper watersheds of the Nooksack River. The east side of Vancouver Island below Northwest Bay near Nanaimo to beyond Sooke, west of Victoria, the south shore of Juan de Fuca Strait as far as Port Townsend and the Canadian and American Gulf Islands were all part of the territory.

This was a wealthy, powerful and highly organized society, as Fraser discerned during his visit. Anthropologist Wayne Suttles, who studied the people ethnologists call the Central Coast Salish for most of his life, divides them into several groups: the Upriver Halkomelem who greeted Fraser so hospitably; the Downriver Halkomelem who chased him back up the river; the Island Halkomelem, whose aggressive Cowichan tribe was feared on the mainland; the Northern Straits people who occupied the Gulf Islands and around Victoria; and the Clallam people first encountered by Spanish and British explorers in the last decade of the 18th century.

According to Suttles, the Upriver Halkomelem first encountered by Fraser were comprised of the Matsqui, the Sumas, the Nicomen, the Scowlitz, the Chehalis, the Pilalt and the Tait, who occupied the river between Hope and Yale. The Downriver Halkomelem Fraser would have encountered were the Musqueam, the Kwantlen, the Coquitlam, the Katzie and the Nicomekl.

However, this social and political landscape was thrown into great upheaval and dislocation following the smallpox epidemic of 1782-1784. For example, the Nicomekl and possibly several other groups on the lower Fraser simply vanished after the epidemic, either killed by the virus to going as survivors to live elsewhere.

The rich salmon resources of the great river and their seasonal cycles were then central to the economic culture of the Sto:lo, a fact which endures and permeates the salmon politics which continue to bedevil competing interest groups today.

As Fraser observed in his journal, the Sto:lo lived in large, well-constructed cedar plank buildings which could be organized in rows facing the shoreline and housed extended families and groups of families. These buildings were remarkable for their elaborately decorated house posts with carved human, animal and totemic figures. Fraser commented upon the great skill of the artists and artisans in shaping the wood.

Fraser also observed that people he visited on two occasions altered their appearance with the cosmetic use of paint, one group using red and another using white, while almost every social visit was accompanied by singing and dancing by the hosts.

On June 29, Fraser noted the weaving of different coloured "rugs" from dog hair. This practice was also observed by Captain George Vancouver during his explorations of the coast in 1792. Vancouver saw packs of dogs among the Clallam that resembled Pomeranians, although larger.

"They were all shorn as close to the skin as sheep are in England; and so compact were their fleeces, that large portions could be lifted up by a corner without causing any separation. They were composed of a mixture of a coarse kind of wool, with very fine long hair, capable of being spun into yarn," Vancouver wrote.

Traveling painter Paul Kane recorded images of women spinning wool and weaving at their looms when he visited the West Coast in 1847.

Other materials used in weaving included mountain goat wool, fireweed cotton and the down of some waterfowl. Cowichan sweaters, although now knitted from sheep wool, are a direct descendent of this ancient technology.

Today, the Sto:lo and their Halkomelem neighbours are a potent but pragmatic force in the politics of aboriginal rights and have advanced the cause with a series of significant and successful court challenges which have altered the ways in which governments and mainstream society are required to deal with such issues.

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