B. Map - Native-European Encounters Preserved in Native Oral Tradition and
European Written Narrative

Plateau: Okanagan and Shuswap

Shielded by the Rocky Mountains, the First Nations of the Plateau region did not have direct contact with Europeans from the east until the late eighteenth century. They did, however, have indirect access to European goods that came from the Pacific Coast. Direct and sustained contact was not evident until the late nineteenth century.

Okanagan and Shuswap Encounter with Europeans

This narrative is from the recollection of Marie Houghton Brent and is published in "Indian Legends of Canada", 1955. The Okanagan Chief Pelkamulox was her great-great-grandfather. The two white men in the story were Finan MacDonald and Legace, fur traders with the North West Company. It provides an example of the indirect influence European technology had on the political and social life of the Plateau peoples.

Pelkamulox travelled throughout the areas east and west of the Stoney Mountains. He spoke many languages and joined the hunts of many different tribes. His people, the Okanagan, banded with the Kalispels, Spokanes, Kootenays, as well as with the Nez Perces and Coeur d'Alene for protection against the Blackfeet. Pelkamulox went on a buffalo hunt and travelled east. He encountered the white men for the first time. The white men needed a guide through the mountains and Pelkamulox took them west through ancient trails. He entrusted the white men to his friend and said "You are my white children and I do not want to lose you. I want you to live in my territory. I have a big country, big enough for all of us. I have plenty of everything - enough for all of us, for our children and for our children's children." Pelkamulox left this Columbia River region to return to his own people. The Okanagan enjoyed the stories of the white men and Pelkamulox was invited by the Shuswap to feast and tell his strange tales. In this way Pelkamulox travelled from band to band until he was invited by the Seton Lake Chief to speak. After finishing his stories of the white men Pelkamulox was interrupted by the Seton Lake Chief who said the stories were untrue and no white men such as he described existed. Insulted and angered Pelkamulox lunged for his weapon, but the Seton Lake Chief was too swift and mortally wounded Pelkamulox. Nicola, his son, was near and promised to avenge his father's death. Years passed and Nicola grew into a chief trusted by the white traders. He banded the Shuswap, Thompson River and Okanagan together and challenged the Seton Lake tribe. Nicola had European guns and horses. He defeated the Seton Lake people and his revenge was complete.

European Encounter with Plateau Societies

Simon Fraser explored and mapped the interior of British Columbia and the Plateau region in the early nineteenth century. Fraser's expedition of 1808 brought him into contact with the people of the Camchin. He recorded the encounter in his journals. He was welcomed with great ceremony by the people, who offered him abundant salmon, berries, oil, and roots, as well as the meat of six dogs. He recorded that a great chief made a great harangue in which he pointed to the sun, four quarters of the world and then to the Europeans. The chief introduced his father who was decrepit and blind and made a great effort to greet Fraser. An evening of song and dance continued throughout the night, much to the delight of Fraser and his men. They departed with their gifts. He believed the people viewed him and his men with some sort of religious significance, guessing that the gestures and gifts given them might have been due the Camchin perception of the explorers as superior beings.

A return visit to the Camchin village was not as successful as the first. Fraser noted coldness in the reception he received from the great chief. There was a disagreeable doom in the village, perhaps related to the fact that most of the children were terribly afflicted with some serious disorder that had reduced them to skeletons.

Plateau Societies

The Plateau First Nations peoples lived west of the Stoney Mountains (Rocky Mountains) and east of the Pacific Coast groups. They subsisted within a fishing culture complex and traded with bands to the west and east of their territories. As the fur trade pushed farther west, Plateau groups participated in small game trapping in exchange for European goods. Simon Fraser travelled through the Lilloot territories in 1808 for the North West Company. He recorded that they had European goods, most likely traded from Pacific Coast bands. Fraser noted that the Lilloot were not significantly affected by European disease. The only possible affect from this indirect trade was the competition and conflict created by rival, high-ranking chiefs. No trading posts were established in the western Plateau region until the nineteenth century.

In the eastern Plateau region, along the edge of the Rocky Mountains, the Kutunai had access to European goods through trade networks controlled by the Blackfoot. Attempts were made by European explorers to contact the Kutuani directly, but the mountain passes that led to Kutuani territory were protected by the Pikanni who wanted to defend their middleman position in the trade networks. North West Company trader, David Thompson, was the first trader to cross the mountains via Howse Pass in 1806. This was a dangerous crossing because of the Pikanni so Thompson negotiated a safer, more northerly route with the Tsuu T'ina through the Athabasca Pass. The Kutenai were willing to assist European traders to gain access to their territories because they wanted direct access to European goods and guns, and they wanted to avoid the high prices charged by the Blackfoot middlemen.