Map One - Regional Approach

Plateau

West of the Rocky Mountains, in the interior of present-day British Columbia, is the Plateau region. A high amount of precipitation, which is characteristic of this region, creates a climate of hot, dry summers, tempered by cold, humid winters. The region is primarily Columbia-Montane Forest is comprised of pine and alder in the higher elevations. The lower elevations consist of grasslands or Sub-Arctic forests.

The First Nations populations occupied areas along rivers and along established trade routes. Ktunaxa (Kootenay) peoples lived along the Stoney Mountains (Rocky Mountains). Dakelh (Carrier), Okanagan, Secwepemc (Shuswap), Stl'atl'imx, Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), Tsilhqotin (Chilcotin), and Salishan peoples are all associated with the southern Plateau region. Dene-thah, Gitksan, and Athapaskan groups occupied the northern territories.

Throughout the spring, summer, and fall seasons, approximately thirty people lived together in lodges. The dwellings were large enough for several families to have separate sleeping areas and to gather around the central cooking fire for meals and other domestic activities. Dried food was stored outside the dwelling in boxes raised on posts or in deep, bark-lined pits. Constructed of light pole frames, these lodges were covered with tree boughs, brush, bark, or rush mats. In the winter, shelters were lined with moss for insulation. The reusing of lodge construction materials facilitated the semi-nomadic lifeway of the Plateau peoples. Subterranean dwellings of the Interior Salish, for example, were constructed by digging a round hole and building the structure over top. These pit floors were usually about two metres deep and from six to twelve metres wide. The lodge floor was covered with spruce boughs over which a conical framework of poles was erected. An opening was left at the top to serve as both smoke-hole and doorway. The framework was then insulated with spruce boughs, more poles and the earth that had been removed from the pit. The house was accessible by steps carved in a sturdy, slanting log, the top of which protruded through the opening. The Dakelh of the northern Plateau region built rectangular winter houses of cedar planks. The roof was covered with spruce bark and each side slanted right down to the ground to serve as both roof and walls.

Food sources were abundant and varied in the Plateau region. Seasonal hunts for deer and large game, as well as annual fish harvests provided year-round sustenance. Women snared small game and participated in the annual salmon harvest. Gathering was primarily a woman's task. A variety of roots, bulbs, tubers, stems, shoots, buds, leaves, fruit, seeds, nuts, and inner bark were collected for medicine, food, and beverages. Women utilised a special method of preserving the thousands of berries they picked during the early autumn. They dried saskatoon berries, salmon berries, raspberries, and blueberries in the sun on racks of cedar covered with large leaves.

The salmon harvest was primarily for collecting and preserving fish. Only small amounts of the fish gathered were eaten fresh. The remainder of the annual catch was cleaned, smoked over a slow fire, and stored for winter in underground pits lined with birch bark. Salmon oil was made from boiling the entire fish in water heated with hot stones. As the mixture cooled the oil congealed at the top and was skimmed off and placed in containers. This salmon oil combined with dried, powdered fish and saskatoon berries was used to create preserved, nutritious fish pemmican. The inner bark of evergreen and poplar trees was collected in the spring when the sap was rising. The bark was removed in long slivers with a special scraper of thin bone or antler. Hung to dry, the bark was edible for several months. Preserved food was vital to survival because of the seasonal availability of certain types of foods.

Hunting technology was adapted to the thick forests and grassland environments of the Plateau region. Large mammals were caught in deadfall or pitfall traps. Pits were dug along a deer trail then camouflaged with a top layer of twigs and leaves. A deer would fall into the pit and would be unable to escape. It was then ambushed and killed with bow and arrow at close range. Arrows were made of either cedar or saskatoon wood. Lillooet hunters bit the wood of their arrows to break the grain and so prevent warping. The tools for hunting included the bow and arrow, spears, and knives. In the southern area of the plateau, bows were made of yew wood or juniper. In the north, willow or spruce was used. A bowstring of deer sinew was covered by rattlesnake skin to strengthen the bow. Dakelh hunters trapped waterfowl in nets held between two canoes. The Kootenay peoples also practised duck hunting. They strung nets at the tops of poles and caught the birds in flight.

Sockeye and salmon fishing technology was adapted to each fishing site. Narrow or shallow rivers required hooks, lines, nets, stone and basket traps, or wooden weirs. At canyon or waterfall sites, the fish were harvested with hooks, dip nets, spears, and large basket traps. During the summer months, countless salmon swam upstream to spawn in the headwaters of the Pacific-bound rivers. The Plateau peoples developed several techniques to benefit from this annual migration. The Dakelh, for example, constructed weirs in the shallows of swift waters to block and trap schools of fish. Another method took advantage of the salmon's habit of leaping up over waterfalls. Basketry screens with curled bottom edges were firmly set at the top of the waterfall so that the jumping fish were caught when they fell backward. Many of the Plateau fishermen used dip nets, positioning themselves on a rocky ledge just above a river. The twine for the nets was made from Indian hemp, nettle fibres, or the inner bark of the willow. A two-pronged spear was used to catch the fish by first spearing them and then holding the fish with the prongs.