Changing Channels: Past, Present, and Future Land Use on the Salmon River Delta, British Columbia

by Joshua Fontaine

B.A. (Anthropology), University of British Columbia, Okanagan, 2008

Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

in the Department of Archaeology Faculty of Environment

© Joshua Fontaine 2020 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2020

Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval

Name: Joshua Fontaine Degree: Master of Arts Title: Changing Channels: Past, Present, and Future Land Use on the Salmon River Delta, British Columbia Examining Committee: Chair: Rudy Reimer Associate Professor George Nicholas Senior Supervisor Professor Jonathan Driver Supervisor Professor Nola Markey Supervisor RPCA, Crane Heritage Research David Maxwell External Examiner Lecturer

Date Defended/Approved: April 20, 2020

ii Ethics Statement

iii Abstract

This study examines how using multiple lines of evidence can help us understand the complex human-environment interactions that have occurred on the Salmon River delta in south-central British Columbia in the pre-contact, historic, and modern eras. Using a qualitative methodology, I examine archaeological, ethnographic and ethnohistoric, and environmental studies to evaluate how complementary these different sources of information are in studying this topic. I scrutinize the intersection of these approaches through four questions: 1) what do archaeology, ethnohistory, ethnographies, and traditional knowledge tell us about land use in the past?; 2) what can archaeology and environmental studies tell us about how the delta has been impacted by settlement activities (both Indigenous and settler)?; 3) what can ethnohistory, ethnographies, traditional knowledge, and environmental studies tell us about environmental impacts to the Salmon River delta?; and 4) how can a synthesis of these approaches help us understand the complex human-environment interactions?. A series of interviews conducted with Neskonlith elders documents how the delta was utilized as an important traditional use area for hunting, fishing, and gathering plants for food and other uses, and how these traditional- use activities were impacted throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. My investigation indicates that the Salmon River delta was used by local First Nations groups for millennia, and continues to be an important traditional use area for the Neskonlith community. Archaeological and environmental studies demonstrate how intensive land-clearing and development activities have impacted the environment, and traditional knowledge provides context on the impact the decline of many important plant and animal species, especially local salmon, have had on the community. Most importantly, this study demonstrates how incorporating multiple lines of evidence provides a clearer picture of the complexity of human-environment interactions, specifically between how Indigenous groups and settler populations managed the land.

Keywords: Traditional Knowledge; Ethnohistory; Secwépemc; Neskonlith; Floodplain Archaeology; Human-environment Interactions.

iv Dedication

To my wonderful wife, Alicia. Thank you for your love, support, and patience through this journey. I could not have done this without your unwavering belief, dedication, and encouragement for me to see this through.

To my daughter, Kinleigh. Thank you for your being so adorably exuberant, joyful, and hilarious. Your laughter and love inspired me and was a constant reminder to enjoy the wonderful, silly, and strange moments in life. You will make a wonderful big sister.

v Acknowledgements

It takes a village to make a grad student, and I would not have been successful in this had it not been for all these fine people:

I am incredibly fortunate to have the approval and support of the Neskonlith Band for this project I am profoundly appreciative to the three Neskonlith elders, Louis Thomas, Lorna Thomas, and Harold Thomas, who generously agreed to talk with me and share their knowledge and experiences. Each conversation was truly an enriching experience, and it was an incredible opportunity to hear your insights and words of wisdom.

Thank you to Merrill, Jovanna, Kristina, Chris, Shannon, and Peter for all the incredible work you do on the front lines and behind the scenes. Your tireless efforts and support meant so much to me, and helped push me toward the finish line.

Thank you to my supervisory committee: my supervisor, George Nicholas for his constant support, guidance, feedback, and patience in pushing me (through thick and thin) to see this project through; to Jon Driver for your insights and ability to ask the tough questions in the pursuit of making me a better student, and ensuring this thesis meets the standards of our institution; and to Nola Markey, who put me on this path by suggesting this area for a research project, providing me with abundant research materials to get me started, for putting me in touch with Louis Thomas, and for your invaluable insights and feedback.

Thank you to the rest of my examining committee: my external examiner, Dave Maxwell, working alongside you these past few years has been an incredible experience, and your friendship has been one of the highlights of my time at SFU; and the chair of my defense, Rudy Reimer/Yumks, it has been a privilege to get to know you through my time at SFU, your friendship, feedback, and support have been invaluable to me, and helped keep me going on this journey through the good times and the bad.

Thank you to my cohort, Zoe, Cameron, Jacalyn, Candace, Shera, Ellie, Phil, Richard, and Katherine, as well as Dana Lepofsky for helping me work through the design of this thesis; your feedback, support, and friendship really helped shape me develop this project through its initial stages.

vi Thank you to all of the graduate students I made while on this journey, especially Chelsea, Lia, Erin, Joe, Thomas, Megan, Laure, Luisa, Derek, Earl, Laura T., Laura B., Richard, Ailidh, Emily M., Emily P., Alex, Andrew, Alec, Travis C., Bryn, and Jon for your friendship, support, and advice throughout my time at SFU.

Thank you to the SFU Archaeology faculty: Dave Burley, John Welch, Francesco Berna, Denis Sandgathe, Mark Collard, Christina Giovas, and Ernest Buman, getting to know each of you, and to learn from some many incredible scholars in this field has been a highlight of my time at SFU.

Thank you to the professors from my pre-SFU life: Stan Copp, Naomi McPherson, Diana French, John Wagner, and Marilyn Mardiros.

Thank you to my friends and family for their love, patience, support, and understanding through all of this – especially my in-laws, siblings, nephew, niece, and my parents. A special thank-you to my Aunt Brenda for giving me a base of operations in Salmon Arm for the field component of my research.

Finally, to the friends, family, and colleagues that I have lost prior to, and during this journey: Grandma Margaret, Grandpa Bill, Uncle Ken, Dr. Richard Garvin, Brandon House, Sharon (George) Aldridge, and Rory.

vii Table of Contents

Approval ...... ii Ethics Statement ...... iii Abstract ...... iv Dedication ...... v Acknowledgements ...... vi Table of Contents ...... viii List of Tables ...... xi List of Figures...... xii

Chapter 1. Introduction ...... 1 Research Goals ...... 2 Research Objectives ...... 3 The Study Area ...... 4 Methods ...... 6 Literature Review ...... 6 Interviews with Traditional Knowledge Holders ...... 7 Archaeological Overview Assessment ...... 7 Key Terms ...... 7 Thesis Organization ...... 8

Chapter 2. Background ...... 10 Physiographic Setting ...... 10 The Shuswap Region ...... 11 Salmon River Watershed ...... 12 Biogeoclimatic Zones ...... 12 Paleoenvironmental History ...... 13 Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene (~13,000-9,000 BP) ...... 13 Early to Mid-Holocene (9,000-5000 BP) ...... 14 Mid-Holocene (~5,000 BP-Present) ...... 15 The Culture History of the Interior Plateau ...... 15 Early Period (~11,000-7,500 BP) ...... 15 Middle Period (7,500-4,500 BP) ...... 16 Late Period (4,500-200 BP) ...... 17 Shuswap Horizon (3,500-2,400 BP) ...... 17 Plateau Horizon (2,400-1,200 BP) ...... 18 Kamloops Horizon (1,200-200 BP) ...... 19 Ethnohistory of the Interior Plateau and South Shuswap ...... 19 The Secwépemc People ...... 20 European Settlement in the Interior Plateau and Shuswap Region ...... 20 The Settlement of Salmon Arm ...... 22 Chapter Summary ...... 25

viii Chapter 3. Methods and Sources ...... 26 Archaeological Research Methods ...... 26 Archaeological Sources ...... 27 Ethnohistoric and Ethnographic Research Methods ...... 27 Ethnohistoric and Ethnographic Sources ...... 28 Traditional Knowledge Interview Methods and Sources ...... 28 Environmental Review Methods ...... 30 Environmental Review Sources ...... 31 Chapter Summary ...... 32

Chapter 4. Results ...... 33 Archaeological Results ...... 33 Group 1 Sites ...... 35 Group 2 Sites ...... 36 Group 3 Sites ...... 38 Ethnographic, Ethnohistoric, and Traditional Knowledge Results ...... 55 Spiritual Areas ...... 56 Cultural-Historical Areas ...... 57 Settlements ...... 58 Food Harvesting ...... 59 Food Processing ...... 64 Non-food Plant Gathering ...... 66 Medicinal Plant Gathering ...... 68 Environmental Review Results ...... 68 Timber Harvesting ...... 69 Agricultural Activity ...... 70 Urban Development ...... 71 Linear Development – Highways, Roads, Railroads, and Utilities ...... 72 Mining Activities ...... 72 Natural Disturbances ...... 73 Land Clearing and In-filling Along the Salmon River ...... 74 Low Water Flows ...... 74 Decline in Water Quality in the Salmon River Watershed ...... 75 Impacts on Salmon Stocks ...... 77 Chapter Summary ...... 80

Chapter 5. Discussion ...... 81 Artifact Assemblages and Activities ...... 82 Plant remains ...... 83 Pit-cooking and fires ...... 84 Theme 2: Archaeology versus Environmental Studies ...... 84 Group 1 and 2 sites ...... 85 Group 3 sites ...... 85 Theme 3: Ethnography, Ethnohistory, and Traditional Knowledge versus Environmental Studies ...... 86

ix The Decline of Salmon on the Salmon River ...... 89 Deforestation ...... 90 Land Clearing and Development ...... 92 Channelization of the River ...... 93 Pollution ...... 95 Theme 4: Synthesis of the Approaches ...... 96 Chapter Summary ...... 97

Chapter 6. Conclusions ...... 99 Research Goal and Objectives Revisited ...... 99 1) To assess the level of environmental impacts to traditional-use areas on the Salmon River delta...... 100 2) To document the range of subsistence and non-subsistence activities on the Salmon River delta that occurred in pre-contact, historic, and modern times...... 101 3) To study the intersection of archaeological and environmental data, with ethnographic, ethnohistoric and Traditional Knowledge data to understand the complex human-environment interactions on the Salmon River delta...... 102 Future Directions for Archaeological Research ...... 104 Current Cultural and Heritage Education Initiatives in the Neskonlith Community ...... 104 Conclusion ...... 105

References Cited ...... 107

Appendix. Interview Framework ...... 119

x List of Tables

Table 1: Archaeological site groupings on the Salmon River delta...... 34 Table 2: Archaeological sites within vicinity of study area...... 35 Table 3: Group 1 sites and artifacts...... 36 Table 4: Group 2 archaeological sites and artifacts...... 37 Table 5: EeQt-29 artifacts and notes...... 39 Table 6: EeQt-62 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 40 Table 7: EeQt-63 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 44 Table 8: EeQt-64 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 48 Table 9: EeQt-65 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 49 Table 10: EeQt-66 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 50 Table 11: EeQt-67 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 51 Table 12: EeQt-68 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 52 Table 13: EeQt-69 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 53 Table 14: EeQt-70 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes...... 54 Table 15: Categories of Traditional Use areas and activities...... 56 Table 16: Traditional animal foods hunted or collected by Secwépemc people on the Salmon River Valley and Shuswap Lake...... 61 Table 17: Traditional plant foods collected by Secwépemc people on the Salmon River Valley and Shuswap Lake...... 62 Table 18: Food processing activities along the Salmon River delta...... 65 Table 19: Non-food plant gathering on the Salmon River, Shuswap Lake and Mount Ida...... 67 Table 20: Medicinal plant gathering near the Salmon River delta...... 68 Table 21: Salmon River Watershed forestry inventory ...... 70 Table 22: Allowable annual cuts for the Okanagan Timber Supply area...... 70 Table 23: Estimated number of dairy and poultry farms, Salmon River watershed 71 Table 24: Agricultural activities in the Salmon River estuary...... 71 Table 25: Loss of vegetation in the Salmon River Valley...... 74 Table 26: Water withdrawal from the Salmon River Watershed...... 75 Table 27: Fish counts for the Salmon River (1947–1994)...... 79 Table 28: Indigenous perspectives on causes of environmental changes and loss of traditional-use areas in the Salmon River Valley and delta...... 88

xi List of Figures

Figure 1: The study area (circled) on the Salmon River Delta with inset map of British Columbia...... 5 Figure 2: The Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada...... 11 Figure 3: A Secwépemc camp with fish drying racks at Sandy Point facing south. 23 Figure 4: Map of archaeological sites on the Salmon River delta...... 34 Figure 5: View southeast from EeQt-71 overlooking Salmon River and Shuswap Lake...... 37 Figure 6: View south from EeQt-72 of the Salmon River valley and Mount Ida in the background...... 37 Figure 7: View west of the cemetary to EeQt-73...... 37 Figure 8. Excavation of two EU’s from EeQt-29...... 39 Figure 9: Profile of west wall of EU 1 from EeQt-62...... 40 Figure 10: Profile of west wall of EU 2 from EeQt-62...... 41 Figure 11: Profile of west wall of EU 3 from EeQt-62...... 42 Figure 12: Profile of west wall of EU 4 from EeQt-62...... 43 Figure 13: Profile of west wall of EU 1 from EeQt-63...... 44 Figure 14: Profile of west wall of EU 2 from EeQt-63...... 45 Figure 15: Profile of west wall of EU 3 from EeQt-63...... 46 Figure 16: Profile of west wall of EU 4 from EeQt-63...... 47 Figure 17: Profile of west wall of EU from EeQt-64...... 48 Figure 18: Profile of west wall of EU from EeQt-65...... 49 Figure 19: Profile of west wall of EU from EeQt-66...... 50 Figure 20: Profile of west wall of EU from EeQt-67...... 51 Figure 21: Profile of west wall of EU from EeQt-68...... 52 Figure 22: Profile of north wall of EU from EeQt-69...... 53 Figure 23: Profile of north wall of EU from EeQt-70...... 54 Figure 24: Modern pithouses located on the Salmon River delta...... 64 Figure 25: Louis Thomas standing in front of a smoke house...... 64 Figure 26: Modern pithouse on the Salmon River delta...... 66 Figure 27: Interior of modern pithouse...... 66 Figure 28: Brayden & Johnston sawmill, on the Salmon River circa 1901...... 69 Figure 29: Salmon River salmon counts by species...... 78 Figure 30: Changing river channels on the Salmon River delta...... 94

xii Chapter 1.

Introduction

Floodplains and wetlands are biologically diverse ecological zones that are important cultural areas for settlement and resource gathering throughout the world (Brown 2002). Although ecologically productive, they are some of the most threatened areas from global population and development pressures (Bernick 2013; Menotti 2013). When such areas are settled, modified, and developed, there are adverse consequences for local populations, most especially Indigenous groups, as they lose access to traditional resources and places of cultural significance. Examining human-environment interactions requires careful evaluation of information from a variety of sources to understand the cultural and environmental importance of a floodplain and wetland environment, and the consequences of their loss.

In British Columbia, the Salmon River delta have been impacted by land clearing for forestry, farming, pastureland, orchards, and urban development for over 130 years (Brown et al. 1979; Garibaldi 2003; McPhee et al. 1996; Fraser Basin Council 2016). Located at the mouth of Shuswap Lake, west of Salmon Arm, the delta lies within the Neskonlith First Nation’s territory. Named for the once-abundant sockeye salmon runs that spawned in the river, the Salmon River was an important fishing area in the past, but experienced a sharp decline in productivity during the early 20th century. Despite this, the Salmon River delta remains an important traditional use area for the Neskonlith people, despite continued impact by commercial development and transportation infrastructure projects, as well as by farming and ranching activities upriver.

Salmon has been an important food resource for Indigenous groups throughout the Interior Plateau for thousands of years (Carlson 1996b; Richards and Rousseau 1987; Rousseau 2004; Teit 1909). Salmon is a cultural keystone species, as is reflected in language, stories, cuisine, and the wide range of technology developed to harvest and process it (Garibaldi and Turner 2004). Although the decline of the fisheries along this river is well documented (Brown et al. 1979; Burt and Wallis 1997), the impacts of habitat loss on other cultural practices, especially plant foods and plant material gathering, are often not considered (Turner and Clifton 2009). Ethnographic work in the

1 latter part of the 20th century documented the importance of the delta for collecting wapato, cattail, and water celery (Garibaldi and Turner 2004).

Until recently, our understanding of the pre-contact history of the Shuswap region has been limited, with little in the way of published literature to draw upon as much of the archaeological investigations have been conducted by consulting firms, and their reports are not readily accessible without permission from the Archaeology Branch. While other parts of the Shuswap have been investigated more intensively, the archaeological potential for the area around Salmon Arm has remained relatively unknown. Archaeological investigations from the past decade have identified several archaeological sites adjacent to the study area and postulate a moderate to high potential for more unrecorded ones on the floodplain and delta (Kamp 2011; Markey 2016a-c; Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a-i; Ursus Heritage Consulting 2012a-c).

My thesis research aims to establish a synthesis of the ethnohistoric, ethnographic, Traditional Knowledge, archaeological, and environmental data of the Salmon River watershed and delta, while examining the congruent and conflicting intersections between these approaches. This combination of approaches seeks to provide a holistic explanation of the complex human-environment interactions that occurred on the floodplain and delta in the past, throughout the historic era, to the present. Incorporating multiple lines of evidence helps demonstrate how dynamic environments, such as floodplains and wetlands are important, environmentally sensitive areas that have significant cultural heritage implications for local First Nations groups. This study also serves as an initial step in developing a synthesis of archaeological and traditional use data for the entire Shuswap region.

Research Goals

The primary goal of my research is to study how a combination of archaeological, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, traditional knowledge, and environmental studies can help us understand the type, intensity, and long-term impact of 19th- and early 20th-century settler activities on and around the Salmon River delta. Each offers unique insights into answering this research goal. Archaeology provides material evidence of past land use, as well as evidence of the type and extent of disturbances resulting from settler activities. Ethnohistory and ethnography both describe the present and past character of

2 the land, but also document cultural behaviours and events – many of which do not preserve in the archaeological record. Finally, environmental studies reveal the influence of human activities upon the land and water. Together, these approaches provide a broad context of perspectives to answer the objectives of this study.

Research Objectives

This thesis project provided an opportunity to combine archaeological data with ethnohistoric studies from the 19th and 20th centuries, ethnographic work from the early 2000s, and environmental reports from throughout the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century to develop a multi-faceted study of the impacts that 19th- and 20th- century settler activities have had on the delta. Prior to this study, most information about the delta came from environmental reports, many of which focused on the impacts of timber harvesting and agriculture to the Salmon River, and its salmon stocks. A few ethnographic studies provided much-needed cultural perspectives about the area, but these were written in the early 2000s. This two-decade gap gave me the chance to expand on these previous studies while working with Neskonlith elders, who provided information on traditional-use activities in the area, while offering insights into how the landscape has changed during their lifetimes. Recent development projects, including construction of a shopping centre, highway expansion, and bridge construction, have necessitated archaeological surveys within and around the delta, which resulted in the first archaeological study of this area. The reports from these surveys presented a chance to incorporate the limited information from academic sources with reports from cultural resource management firms to establish a baseline of archaeological information for the Salmon Arm area.

Three objectives guided my research:

1) To document the range of subsistence and non-subsistence activities on the Salmon River delta that occurred in pre-contact, historic, and modern times.

This was accomplished through analysis of three sources of information: 1) ethnohistoric sources such as written accounts of traditional use activities in the area; 2) archaeological data compiled from cultural resource management reports; and (3) from interviews I conducted in the Neskonlith community.

3 2) To assess the level of environmental degradation and its impacts on traditional use areas to the Salmon River delta caused by settler activities, such as timber harvesting, ranching, farming, and urbanization.

This objective was accomplished through a literature review of ethnohistoric, archaeological, and environmental data for the Salmon River watershed, and the delta. Additionally, I conducted interviews with three elders in the Neskonlith community to get their perspectives on how settlement of the area has impacted the environment, and traditional use areas.

3) To study the intersection of archaeological and environmental data, with ethnographic, ethnohistoric and Traditional Knowledge data to understand the complex human-environment interactions on the Salmon River delta.

I accomplished this by comparing each data set (i.e., archaeology with ethnohistoric, ethnographic and traditional knowledge; archaeology with environmental studies; ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and traditional knowledge with environmental studies) to examine congruencies and conflicts between them. In combining these approaches, I provide a holistic picture of how settler activities have impacted the environment, traditional-use areas, and areas of cultural heritage.

The Study Area

The Salmon River delta is situated west of the city of Salmon Arm in the southwestern area of Shuswap Lake. The Shuswap region is in south-central British Columbia, north of the Okanagan region and east of the Thompson region. The Salmon River is one of the main tributaries of Shuswap Lake, and is an important salmon spawning river in the greater Shuswap Basin. The river is characterized by a series of small oxbow ponds, relic channels, open meadows, stands of cottonwood trees, and wetland areas. While this area has been modified by settler activities, including conversion of land for agriculture and ranching, the Salmon River delta remains the largest undeveloped delta in the interior of British Columbia (Gwanikar et al. 1998:31).

The study area is within the ancestral territory of the Neskonlith, Little Shuswap, Adams Lake and Splatsín Indian Bands, which are divisions of the Secwépemc Nation. Within this territory, the lake and rivers served as major transportation routes throughout the

4 Shuswap, and connected the people living there to the adjacent Thompson, Okanagan, and Columbia regions (Garibaldi 2003:80). The Salmon River delta is lies partially within the boundaries of Switsemalph Indian Reserves No. 3 and No. 7, and is adjacent to Switsemalph Indian Reserve No. 2, which is located immediately west along a ridge, and runs parallel to the TransCanada Highway, and the shore of Shuswap Lake (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The study area (circled) on the Salmon River Delta with inset map of British Columbia. Source: Google Earth and https://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=23538&lang=en for the inset.

The project boundaries are loosely defined as the delta and its surrounding landscape, with a focus on areas that have been subject to archaeological investigations, or areas that are identified as traditional-use areas. The TransCanada Highway runs along the southern extent of the study area, and a bridge crosses the Salmon River before the highway turns to follow the shoreline of Shuswap Lake towards Tappen Bay. The mudflats on Shuswap Lake, located at the mouth of the Salmon River, comprise the northern extent of the study area, while the eastern boundary is delineated by the city of Salmon Arm. A railway runs parallel to the shore of Shuswap Lake, and bisects the delta, crossing the Salmon River 1.6 km northeast from the highway bridge. From the railway bridge, the delta extends 1–1.5 km northeast, fluctuating in response to seasonal freshet and drought. At its narrowest, the study area is 1.8 km wide near the highway

5 bridge and expands to 2.75 km at the mouth of the river. The total area of the delta fluctuates between 8.8 km2 and 9.6 km2, depending on seasonal flooding and drought.

Methods

My thesis research has three components that together illustrate land-use activities on the Salmon River Delta over the past several thousand years, environmental impacts to the delta, and impacts to traditional use areas. To examine how a combination of archaeological, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, traditional knowledge, and environmental studies can research the type, intensity, and long-term impact of 19th- and early 20th- century settler activities on the Salmon River delta, I utilized three different methods. First, I conducted an extensive literature review of archaeological, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and environmental sources. Second, I interviewed knowledgeable elders in the Neskonlith community for the Traditional Knowledge component. Third, I conducted an archaeological overview assessment. This identified archaeological sites in the vicinity of the delta, areas associated with traditional use, and assessed the type and level of environmental degradation caused to the Salmon River, Salmon River valley, and its delta.

Literature Review

I located and reviewed all available ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of First Nations in the Shuswap Lakes area – particularly along the Salmon River. These documents allowed me to establish a baseline of traditional activities during and slightly after contact with Euro-Canadian settlers, and included photographs, journals, and historical accounts of changes to the landscape over the past 130 years. Environmental studies from government ministries and other sources provided information on environmental impacts to the Salmon River watershed, including the decline in salmon productivity on the Salmon River (Brown et al. 1979; Gwanikar et al. 1998; Miles 1995; McPhee et al. 1996; Fraser Basin Council 2016). Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to utilize the Neskonlith Band’s archives.

6 Interviews with Traditional Knowledge Holders

Interviews I conducted with three members of the Neskonlith community provided information on past and present land-use, and their concerns about the future of the Salmon River delta. In semi-structured interviews, the elders discussed traditional activities that they or their older relatives did on the Salmon River delta throughout the 20th century to the present. I describe the interview process in Chapter 3.

Archaeological Overview Assessment

This component involved determining the type of archaeological investigations that have been conducted along the Salmon River, its floodplain, delta, and along the shores of Shuswap Lake. I used the Remote Archaeological Access Database (RAAD1) to identify the locations of archaeological sites and access available site reports. I also reviewed aerial photographs from the 1950s to 1990s, as well as satellite imagery available from Google Earth to (a) plot archaeological sites and landmarks on a map and (b) determine how the landscape has changed since the 1950s.

Key Terms

Eight terms utilized throughout the thesis are defined here to ensure clarity of meaning.

Traditional Knowledge (TK): The system of knowledge, beliefs, and traditions, built over generations of observation and experimentation within a cultural and ecological setting, that is intended to preserve, communicate, and contextualize Indigenous relationships with culture and landscape over time. It can be conveyed formally and informally among kin group and communities through social encounters, oral traditions, ritual practices, and other activities, and is passed down intergenerationally” (Bruchac 2014:3814; Lepofsky 2009:161).

Ethnohistory: The use of both historical and ethnographic data such as maps, music, paintings, photography, folklore, oral tradition, site exploration, archaeological materials, museum collections, enduring customs, language, and place names (Axtell 1979:3-4).

1 https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/natural-resource-use/archaeology.

7 Ethnography: The description of a people and its way of life, including customs and practices. In contemporary social science, it refers to both the process of research and to accounts (written, audio, video) resulting from that research (Angrosino 2002:1).

Secwépemc: The Secwépemc are one of four groups belonging to the Interior Salish people, who had the largest and northernmost territory of the Interior Salish-speaking groups. Their language, Secwépemc-tsin, belongs to the Salish language family, and is separated into two main dialects: eastern Shuswap and western Shuswap. Today there are 17 bands located along the Thompson and Fraser rivers, and their tributaries (Garibaldi 2003:29; Ignace 1998:203).

Neskonlith: The Neskonlith are one of seventeen bands that comprise the Secwépemc people. They are located in the south central part of BC, with reserve lands located adjacent the Village of Chase and City Salmon Arm (https://neskonlith.net/).

Archaeological Overview Assessment (AOA): The assessment of several variables (e.g., known archaeological sites; traditional-land use; environmental variables) to identify and assess the potential of an area for as-yet unrecorded archaeological sites. An AOA may be a large-scale GIS model, or small-scale map review (Archaeology Branch website).

Archaeological Impact Assessment (AIA): The identification and assessment of archaeological sites to determine whether proposed projects will impact archaeological resources. Archaeological impact assessments are conducted by archaeologists under permit, which allows for subsurface investigations, artifact collection, and other activities (Archaeology Branch website).

Preliminary Field Reconnaissance (PFR): The field evaluation of archaeological potential for an area, which can be conducted without a permit (Archaeology Branch website).

Thesis Organization

Chapter 2 introduces the natural history, ecology, and culture history of the Interior Plateau, and more specifically of the Salmon River watershed and its delta. It provides an ethnographic profile of the Secwepemc people, including their early interactions with

8 Euro-Canadian explorers. Finally, it summarizes the settler history of Salmon Arm, including changes made to the Salmon River delta prior to intensified settlement.

Chapter 3 describes the methods and sources employed in this study: archaeology, ethnographic and ethnohistoric research, and environmental studies. I describe the literature reviews employed in all three approaches, and my interview methods.

Chapter 4 presents the results from the literature reviews and interviews regarding the impact of settler activities on the Salmon River watershed and delta as revealed by archaeological data, ethnohistoric and ethnographic research, and environmental studies.

In Chapter 5, I interrogate those results in relation to the research questions of this thesis. I examine the utility of combining the research methods employed: 1) archaeological and Traditional Knowledge; 2) archaeological and environmental studies, and 3) Traditional Knowledge and environmental studies. Finally, I discuss what this study reveals about the impacts of 19th- and 20th-century settler activities upon the Salmon River delta, including traditional use areas.

In the final chapter I discuss the importance of a multi-faceted approach to human- influenced environmental change and the effects it has had to local First Nations. I also describe several initiatives the Neskonlith community is implementing to revitalize traditional-use activities through education and environmental restoration. I conclude with a set of recommendations for future archaeological investigations on the Salmon River delta, and for further ethnographic work in the area.

9 Chapter 2.

Background

This chapter provides the paleoenvironmental, archaeological, and ethnohistoric background for my project area in the Salmon River Valley. I begin by describing the general setting of the Shuswap Lakes region in terms of physiographic features, the paleoenvironmental history of the region from the late Pleistocene to late Holocene, and finally the biogeographic zones of the present day. I then summarize the culture history of the Interior Plateau from the late post-glacial period to shortly before the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century. Finally, I describe the nature of early European contact and settlement in the South Shuswap, specifically Salmon Arm, and the Salmon River delta, along with relevant ethnohistoric information collected by ethnographers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Physiographic Setting

The Interior Plateau of British Columbia is in the south-central interior of the province (Figure 2). It is defined by the Coast Mountains and Cascade Range to the west, and the Selkirk and Purcell Ranges of the Rocky Mountains to the east. The northern extent of the Plateau is delineated by the subarctic spruce forests near Quesnel to the northeast and Burns Lake to the northwest, and central Oregon and Idaho to the south (Pojar and Meidenger 1991:40-41; Prentiss et al. 2005: 49-51). The Plateau is characterized by a series of interconnected plateaus, and north-south running valleys, that are drained by the Fraser River and the Northern Columbia River (Prentiss et al. 2005:49; Rousseau 2004:3). Its seven biogeoclimatic zones range from sagebrush deserts to sub-boreal spruce forests, which provide habitat for a wide range of plants and animals (Hudson and Wilson 1986:437).

10

Figure 2: The Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_Plateau.

The Shuswap Region

The Shuswap Highlands is a prominent feature along the eastern margin of the Interior Plateau, situated east of the Thompson Plateau, north of the Okanagan Valley, west and south of the Monashee Mountains and the Columbia Mountain Range. Within the Shuswap highlands is the Shuswap Lake Basin, which is characterized by rugged, deeply dissected, fjord-like terrain that is fjord-like, with steep rock walls, and consists of Mara Lake, Adams Lake, and Shuswap Lake. Shuswap Lake is fed by the Adams, Shuswap, Eagle, Seymour, and Salmon Rivers – all of which are important salmon- bearing streams, as well as numerous streams and creeks. It is drained by the Little River into Little Shuswap Lake, which is the source of the South Thompson River, a

11 branch of the Thompson River, which is a tributary of the Fraser River (Ryder et al. 1991).

Salmon River Watershed

The Salmon River Watershed has two physiographical divisions: the area to the west of Westwold is part of the Thompson Plateau, while that to the east is part of the Shuswap Highlands. The headwaters of the Salmon River originate in the vicinity of Tahaetkun and Bouleau Mountains south of Westwold, and northeast of Merritt. The river itself is approximately 120 kilometers in length (McPhee et al 1996:1). From its headwaters, the river flows westward to Salmon Lake and then northeasterly through the communities of Westwold, Falkland, and Silver Creek to Salmon Arm Bay of Shuswap Lake. The Salmon River Watershed has an area of 1,510 km2 and ranges in elevation range from 2,038 m asl2 at the summit of Tahaetkun Mountain to 349 m asl at Shuswap Lake. Much of the watershed is forested land, with a narrow ribbon of agricultural land immediately along the river (Gwanikar et al. 1998:1; Miles 1995:3-6).

The Salmon River Valley, downstream from Salmon Lake, is a glacial meltwater channel, which explains its large size relative to the present river (Miles 1995:5). The valley is characterized by small discontinuous terraces, small glaciolacustrine deposits, and unconsolidated sediment deposits of pre-Fraser Glaciation, as well as a series of large fans and slide deposits that extend into the valley, which have promoted the formation of bogs and marshes in upstream areas (McPhee et al. 1996:6) A large glaciofluvial fan located at the south end of Salmon Arm Valley diverts the stream from its natural exit to the Okanagan Valley into Salmon Arm Bay of Shuswap Lake (Miles 1995:5).

Biogeoclimatic Zones

The Salmon River valley lies within the Interior Douglas-fir zone (IDF) as defined by the British Columbia Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification System or BCBECS (Lloyd et al. 1990). The IDF zone is described as low to mid-elevation areas located in south- central British Columbia. It is further defined by variant and subzone; the Salmon River

2 Above Sea Level

12 Valley is categorized as moist and wet (mw1). The climate is characterized by a warm, dry climatic regime with a relatively long growing season in which moisture deficits are common. The Shuswap Highland is wetter than the Thompson Plateau with the average annual precipitation and temperature in the Salmon River Valley decreasing upstream from Shuswap Lake (Lloyd et al. 1990:127). The mean annual precipitation of 475 mm and snowmelt contributes approximately 70% of the Salmon River’s flow, often resulting in erosion and flooding in the spring (Miles 1995:4). Weather station data for the Salmon River Valley indicate that the total annual precipitation has been generally increasing by 17 percent since 1944. The average annual temperature has also increased, but not consistently throughout the valley (Miles 1995:5).

Paleoenvironmental History

Since the end of the Pleistocene, changes in climate have influenced the landscape and environment of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. During the late Pleistocene, the Shuswap Valley contained two major glacial lakes: Glacial Lake Thompson, and Glacial Lake Shuswap – both of which drained into the Okanagan Valley (Fulton 1969:10-12; Johnsen 1998). Pioneering grasslands appeared in deglaciated areas as early as 13,000 BP3, with forests developing later, between 12,000 and 10,000 BP (Hebda 1995:65). The climate was cool and moist during this time. Between 10,000 and 8,000 BP, the conditions were hot and dry, with grasslands extending from valley bottoms to 1,300 m above sea level (Hebda 1995:65).

Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene (~13,000-9,000 BP)

Deglaciation of the Interior Plateau was under way by at least 13,000 BP (Fulton et al. 2004:23), with higher elevation areas being exposed earlier than the valley lowlands, which continued to be occupied by large masses of melting glacial ice for several millennia (Rousseau 2017:79). The melting of the massive Fraser Glaciation ice sheet led to the formation of post-glacial lakes in the deep valley bottoms of the Thompson, Okanagan, Shuswap, and Nicola regions that drained no later than 8,900 BP (Fulton 1969:3; Fulton et al. 2004:39). Following drainage, river systems became established and began to down cut through glacial deposits, resulting in the formation of valleys and

3 Before Present

13 extensive river terraces along their sides (Rousseau 2017:79). This period is characterized by cool, early successional conditions (Bennett et al. 2001:340).

Pollen assemblages for this cool drier climatic period indicate that pioneering grasslands, comprised of grasses, sedges, and sage, were established throughout the region. These could have supported populations of small mammals and birds, and small populations of ungulates (Hebda 1995:65; Rousseau 2017:79). Coniferous forests developed between 12,000 and 10,000 BP, while valley bottoms continued to be dominated by grasslands during this time (Hebda 1995:65). Animal populations were better established by 12,000 years ago, including migratory herbivores such as elk, sheep, moose, and deer, as well as smaller mammals and predators (Rousseau 2017:79). The climate became somewhat warmer and drier between 11,000 and 10,500 years ago, with grasslands and sage lands reaching their maximum extent (Hebda 1995:65).

Early to Mid-Holocene (9,000-5000 BP)

The early to mid-Holocene had the warmest and driest conditions for the entire Holocene, with the levels of precipitation gradually increasing toward the end of this period (Hebda 1995:65-66) The vegetation shifted with the contraction of open grasslands and increases in stands of conifers, including pine, spruce, and Douglas-fir (Hebda 1995:65; Mathewes 1985:414). Increasing precipitation levels resulted in higher lake and pond levels, which led to expansion of forests into previously open terrain, and expansion of tree species adapted to moist environments, including Engelmann spruce, black cottonwood, and paper birch (Hebda 1995:66).

This shift in climate and vegetation is attributed to the eruption of Mt. Mazama around 6,700 BP (Mathewes 1985:414). Beginning around 7,500 BP, the southern interior of British Columbia had a relatively warm and dry climate, with temperatures gradually decreasing and precipitation increasing until about 4,000 BP (Rousseau 2017:86). Salmon and other species of fish were established in the Fraser, Thompson, and Columbia River systems as early as 18,000 BP (Carlson and Klein 1996:278), and expansive grasslands and small lakes provided habitat for various species of mammals and game birds in all environmental contexts (Rousseau 2017:86).

14 Mid-Holocene (~5,000 BP-Present)

This period is generally interpreted as the period of stabilization of the modern climate, and the development of modern extents of forests and grasslands (Rousseau 2004:10). The cool, moist conditions of the mid-Holocene gradually began to stabilize and modern conditions of hot, dry summers, and moderately cold winters with little precipitation developed (Nicholson et al. 1991:126). Modern Interior Douglas-fir forests likely developed around 4,000 BP as open grass communities disappeared (Hebda 1995:68). The shifting climate likely impacted wildlife populations, including a reduction in ungulates (i.e., deer, elk, moose) populations, while being favourable to increasing salmon stocks (Prentiss and Kuijt 2004:62). In the last 3,000 years, grassland areas and sagebrush have slightly increased, with recent major changes such as decease in native vegetation and introduction of non-native plants resulting from land clearing and other disturbances by European settlers (Hebda 1995:65).

The Culture History of the Interior Plateau

Historically, the Plateau area encompasses three cultural and linguistic groups, the Salish, Kutenai, and Athapaskan-speaking peoples (Hudson and Wilson 1986:437-438). Common elements of late Plateau societies include autonomous villages, a reliance on salmon, hunting, trapping, and cultivating various plant foods (Hudson and Wilson 1986:439). The pre-contact history of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia consists of three periods: Early, Middle, and Late (Stryd and Rousseau 1996). These roughly correspond with climatic fluctuations, and are characterized by changes in subsistence strategies, artifact typologies, and settlement patterns.

Early Period (~11,000-7,500 BP)

While humans likely occupied parts of the Plateau by 11,000 BP, there are few excavated sites for this period (Rousseau 1993:40). Early occupations are inferred by the presence of surficial diagnostic points found in museum and private collections from around the Thompson and Shuswap regions, which represent five distinct early cultural traditions: Western Fluted-Point (11,000-9,000 BP), Early Intermontane Stemmed-Point (11,000-9000), Plano (9,500-8,000 BP), Old Cordilleran (9,000-6,000 BP), and Northwest Coast Microblade traditions (Carlson 1996:2-9; Rousseau 1993:148-152;

15 2008:222-228). The earliest evidence of human occupation for this area are human remains found at the Gore Creek site near Pritchard at 8,340 BP (Rousseau:1993:156- 158; Stryd and Rousseau 1996:184-185). Land-use patterns at this time indicate an orientation to a broad subsistence base that focused on terrestrial resources (e.g., ungulates and small game), with some reliance on fishing (Stryd and Rousseau 1996:198).

Middle Period (7,500-4,500 BP)

The Middle Period consists of the Nesikep and Lehman phases (Rousseau 2004:3,8). The environmental conditions during the early Nesikep phase (7,000-6,000 BP) were slightly drier and warmer than today (Hebda 1995:65). Nesikep sites tend to be concentrated in upland areas, including mountain valley sides, and near confluences of rivers and creeks. Sites are present in all ecological niches and altitudes; they are typically represented by small short-term residential and logistical camps (Rousseau 2017:87). Subsistence strategies focused on hunting large animals, such as deer and elk, with fish, birds, and mussels increasing in importance toward the end of the phase as the climate began to shift to cooler, wetter conditions, facilitating the expansion of forests (Hebda 1995; Rousseau 2004:6). Common formed tools include bone points and needles, ground rodent teeth, and antler wedges (Rousseau 2004:6), as well as lanceolate bifaces, corner-notched bifaces, formed unifaces, and microblade technology (Rousseau 2004:5-6; Pokotylo and Mitchell 1998:83-85).

During the Lehman phase (6,000-4,500 BP), regional climate was initially drier and warmer than today, with a trend toward cooler and wetter conditions later in the period (Hebda 1995:65). During this time, water levels of the major river systems, would have been lower, due to drought conditions, which would have undoubtedly had a negative impact on salmon runs, while also promoting conditions for freshwater mussel populations (Lindsay 2003:78-79; Rousseau 2017:91). The bone, antler, and lithic assemblages are similar to those of the earlier Nesikep phase, but with a decline in microblades, and an increase of non-local, colorful lithic material. There is evidence of some seasonal salmon fishing, which is not apparent in Nesikep sites (Rousseau 2017:91). Lehman Phase sites are small and typically deeply buried in mid-elevation and upland areas beside small lakes and streams, and on river terraces, located near both extinct and extant creek and river systems (Kuijt 1989; Rousseau 2017:92). Evidence of

16 subsistence includes remains of elk and deer, small amounts of salmon, and middens containing hundreds of mussel shells (Lindsay 2003:78-79; Rousseau 2017:92).

Late Period (4,500-200 BP)

The Late Period represents the shift from a mobile hunting and foraging settlement and subsistence adaptation to a logistically organized collector strategy (Prentiss et al. 2005:57), and is divided into the Lochnore phase and the Plateau Pithouse Tradition (Rousseau 2004:11-13). The Lochnore Phase (4,500-3,500 B.P.) may represent the interaction, and subsequent melding of cultural traditions between resident Lehman and Salish-speaking peoples, who traveled inland along major river systems (i.e., Fraser, Thompson, and Columbia) to fish and hunt during the warmer months of the year beginning around 5,000 B.P. (Rousseau: 2004:12-13; Stryd and Rousseau 1996:187). Michael Rousseau (2014: 13) suggests that these two groups potentially cohabitated the same landscape, with the Lehman people primarily hunting in upland areas, and the Salish groups hunting and fishing in lowland areas. By 4,400 years ago, the first pithouses in the Interior Plateau were established along salmon-bearing rivers in the Interior (Rousseau 2004:11-13; Stryd and Rousseau 1996:187), which was also the period when salmon populations began to increase (Kuijt 1989:105). This transitionary period laid the groundwork for the development and elaboration of the Plateau Pithouse Tradition (Rousseau 2004:13).

The Plateau Pithouse Tradition (4,500-200 BP) is divided into three horizons: Shuswap (ca. 3500-2400 BP), Plateau (2400-1200 BP), and Kamloops (1200-200 BP) (Rousseau 2004:13). Each horizon is based on distinct cultural adaptations represented by technology, subsistence, and settlement behaviours (Prentiss et al. 2008; Rousseau 2008). This tradition marks the beginning of seasonal sedentism, represented by pithouse villages, which was made possible by intensified fishing and storage of anadromous fish, and increased gathering and processing of root and other plant foods (Alexander 1992; Pokotylo and Froes 1983; Rousseau 2004:13).

Shuswap Horizon (3,500-2,400 BP)

The climate during the Shuswap Horizon corresponds to a cooling neoglacial event which started 3,500 BP climaxing around 3,000 BP, and gradually became warmer and drier by 2,500 BP (Hebda 1995:65). Increased precipitation during this time enhanced

17 rearing and spawning habitat for salmonids, and expanded forest communities at the expense of shrinking grassland areas, which forced foraging ungulates to graze on valley sides and bottoms (Hebda 1995:65; Rousseau 2017:101).

Shuswap Horizon people lived in small, semi-subterranean pithouses villages for at least a portion of the year, likely during the winter months. These villages were typically composed of five to ten pithouses, each of which averaged 7.5 to 16 m in diameter, with a foundation of 2 m below the surface (Rousseau 2017:102-104). They practiced a semi- sedentary resource harvesting strategy that focused on storage of dried plant and animal foods. Evidence for hunting large ungulates and other mammals, and fishing for anadromous salmonids and trout is abundant (Richards and Rousseau 1987), whereas there is currently no evidence for plant roasting pits or other floral remains for this time (Rousseau 2004:15). Common artifact types include: leaf-shaped knives, stemmed, basally indented, shouldered, and corner-removed projectile points, and key-shaped unifaces used for woodworking, perforating, graving, piercing, and scraping (Rousseau 2004:15-16; 2017:101-105).

Plateau Horizon (2,400-1,200 BP)

Shortly after 2,400 B.P., the climate was slightly warmer and drier than it is today (Rousseau 2008:16-17; 2017:105). Based on the number of pithouses per village, the population was greater for the Plateau Horizon than the preceding Shuswap, and subsequent Kamloops horizons (Rousseau 2004:19). The Plateau Horizon was a period of rapid population growth in the region, which reached its peak around 2,000 years B.P., followed by a steady decline after 1,200 B.P. (Rousseau 2004:16-17). Pithouse villages varied in size, with sites containing anywhere from 10 to 150 housepits – each ranging from 4 to 8 m in diameter – and generally were located in resource-rich valley bottoms near major fish-bearing rivers and streams (Rousseau 2004:16-17; Rousseau 2017:106).

Antler and bone tools are abundant at sites from this era, including the presence of digging-stick handles, used for digging roots (Rousseau 2004:17). There is ample evidence in the archaeological record of extensive use of plant resources, especially edible tubers that required pit-cooking (Peacock; 2008; Pokotylo and Froes 1983; Rousseau 2017:107). Another change is the appearance of storage pits for dried plants, meat, and salmon (Rousseau 2004:17; Rousseau 2017:110). Projectile points are often

18 barbed, and either side- or corner-notched; these points are somewhat smaller than previous styles. Bow and arrow technology appears around 1,600 BP or later with atlatl and dart technology phasing out by 1,200 BP (Rousseau 2008:239-241; Rousseau 2017:110).

Kamloops Horizon (1,200-200 BP)

Archaeological sites from the Kamloops horizon share many traits with the preceding horizon. Many sites were continuously occupied from the preceding phase (Rousseau 2004:19). Housepits range in size from 6 to 20 m in diameter, and are either oval, circular, rectangular, or square (Rousseau 2004:19; 2017:112-116). While settlement and subsistence strategies are similar those of the Plateau Horizon, notable differences include a smaller population, a marked decline in frequency and intensity of root processing sites, and the prevalence of small arrowheads as the dominant form of projectile point technology (Rousseau 2004:19-20; 2008:241-244). The decline in both population and plant resource use may be the result of the adoption of the bow and arrow, which made hunting deer, birds, and small mammals easier to procure (Rousseau 2004:21). The arrival of Europeans into the Interior Plateau in the early 19th century marks the end of the Kamloops Horizon as local First Nations groups adopted European technologies, including metal tools and guns, and began to engage in their market economy (Rousseau 2004:21).

Ethnohistory of the Interior Plateau and South Shuswap

Europeans and First Nations in the Interior Plateau of British Columbia did not meet face to face until the beginning of the 19th century. Initial contacts were between explorers and trappers throughout the first half of the century, with missionaries and gold seekers arriving in the middle of the century. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, opened the province to settlers, and most towns were established during this time. The first ethnographers and explorers to visit the area, notably Franz Boas (1890) and James Teit (1909) studied the Secwépemc, and provided insights into their lifeways. Their observations inform our understanding of the traditional lifeways of the late pre- contact and early transition periods.

19 The Secwépemc People

The Secwépemc are one of four groups belonging to the Interior Salish people, the others being the Stl’atl’imc (or Lillooet Stl’atl’imc), the Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), and the Okanagan (Syilx) (Kennedy and Bouchard 2019). The Secwépemc had the largest and northernmost territory of the Interior Salish-speaking groups, encompassing roughly 180,000 km2 (Ignace 1998:203-205). The Secwépemc language, Secwépemc-tsin, belongs to the Salish language family, and is separated into two main dialects: eastern Shuswap and western Shuswap, with the division at Kamloops (Ignace 1998, in Garibaldi 2003:29). James Teit noted that the Secwépemc comprised of 25 bands in 1909. Today there are 17 bands located along the Thompson and Fraser rivers, and their tributaries (Garibaldi 2003:29; Ignace 1998:203).

At the time of European contact in the early 19th century, the Interior Salish peoples occupied seasonally permanent winter villages along the major river systems of the Plateau. These villages, consisting of groups of extended family pithouse dwellings, were occupied during the winter months, and served as the focal point of activities (Peacock and Turner 2000:3). People utilized and often modified or managed resource areas with task groups moving between riverine, lacustrine, and montane ecosystems at different times of the year to take advantage of a wide variety of resources (Peacock and Turner 2000:3). The Secwépemc traditionally utilized widely dispersed sources of food through a semi-nomadic seasonal round of hunting, gathering, and fishing, which made full use of abundant and readily available resources, including ungulates, fish, berries, and roots (Palmer 1975:200). Concepts of resource ownership were not strongly developed, but resource gathering forays brought them into competition and conflict with neighboring tribes (Palmer 1975:200). To mitigate this, the Secwépemc extended and stabilized a network of kinship ties through marriage rules and obligations (Palmer 1975:200).

European Settlement in the Interior Plateau and Shuswap Region

Initial direct contact between Europeans and First Nations groups in the Interior Plateau occurred in 1805 when Simon Fraser explored the area, and again in 1807 when David Thompson mapped the Columbia River (Duff 1997:76). Missionaries established the first church in the Interior in the 1840s, which began a complex and contentious relationship

20 between Plateau groups and Christianity that continued to the present (Duff 1997:132- 134; Furniss 1995:149; Thomson and Ignace 2005:7-9). Euro-Canadian fur traders established Fort Thompson at Kamloops in the 1820s (Carlson 2006:221) with three Hudson’s Bay Company outposts in the Shuswap area: Seymour Arm, Chase, and Tappen (Cooperman and Zoretich 1988:3).

A series of smallpox and influenza epidemics ravaged the population of the Interior Plateau in 1782-83, 1800, 1832, 1837, and 1864 – the latter killing an estimated one- third of the Indigenous population (Hudson and Wilson 1986:438; Teit 1909:463). These epidemics reduced the number of Secwépemc bands from 14 to 7 by the early 20th century (Duff 1997:58-61; Furniss 1995:148). In the aftermath of the drastic depopulation and the influx of non-Aboriginal settlers that followed, the remaining fragments of family groups gathered in centralized villages – often near the new settlements (Furniss 1995:149). After British Columbia joined Canada in 1871, colonial administrators believed that the rapidly declining First Nations population would be gone as a distinct population within a few generations (Duff 1997:87).

The latter half of the 19th century saw the influx of settlers flood into the Interior Plateau to take part in the gold rush4. A few gold seekers from the United States arrived in the southern interior region in the early to mid-1850s, but were forcibly driven away by local First Nations (Muckle 2007:67). Subsequent gold rushes, including those in the Fraser and Thompson in 1858, the Cariboo in the 1860s, and in the north in the 1870s proved too much for First Nations groups to withstand, as approximately 30,000 gold seekers arrived in the province (Furniss 1995:148; Muckle 2007:67). The short-lived Columbia River Gold Rush of 1865 saw thousands of prospectors travelling along Shuswap Lake to the boomtown of Seymour Arm, and beyond on the trail to the gold fields (Cooperman and Zoretich 1988:3). Members of First Nations communities became involved in the gold rush as prospectors, freighters, guides, and loggers (Hudson and Wilson 1986:442).

British Columbia was declared a British colony by Governor James Douglas in 1858, with the establishment of reserves being an ongoing concern of the government in the

4 Aboriginal trails east of the Fraser River and along the Thompson River acted as wagon highways, many of which were eventually transformed into modern roads and highways (Ignace and Ignace 2017:438).

21 following decades (Muckle 2007:75). Many were established near white settlements, with the colonial government’s belief that close contact between the two would help to advance the First Nations groups toward civilization (Duff:2007:86). Within Secwépemc territory, government surveyor William Cox left the task of surveying reserve land to local chiefs. For the Shuswap area, Chief Nesqénnell5 and his people marked out a reserve comprising 600 km2 that started at Monte Creek in the west, ran along the South Thompson River and Little Shuswap Lake to Scotch Creek on Shuswap Lake, and from there extended north to Adams Lake (Ignace and Ignace 2017:439). Following Governor Douglas’ retirement in 1864, Governor Frederick Seymour appointed Joseph Trutch as surveyor general and chief commissioner of lands and works. He considered the Kamloops and Shuswap Reserves were disproportionate in size to the requirement of local First Nations, and moved to reduce the area of this Reserve land in order to open up the land to settlers (Ignace and Ignace 2017:439-441).

By the 1870s, the Interior was experiencing considerable unrest due to the small amounts of land being allocated to reserves (Hudson and Wilson 1986:442). While the Land Ordinance of 1860 protected First Nations villages, it did not recognize their rights to traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering sites (Hudson and Wilson 1986:442). Originally James Douglas had envisioned allocating 10 acres per family, but subsequent governors dramatically reduced this amount (Duff 2007:86). The early 20th century saw government control over First Nations’ rights extended, including regulating hunting, fishing, and trapping activities, with fish weirs being outright banned. Many traditional plant gathering areas were destroyed due to land clearing and development activities (Hudson and Wilson 1986:443; Palmer 1975:200-201).

The Settlement of Salmon Arm

Canadian geologist George Dawson conducted a geological survey and mapping of Shuswap Lake, and the surrounding area from July 27 to August 11, 1877. He surveyed Tappen Bay and Salmon Arm Bay on August 5th and 6th (Marshall 2007:33). That first day he travelled by canoe from Sicamous Narrows to a sandy point located approximately 2 km north of the mouth of the Salmon River delta, where he camped,

5 He rose as a prominent chief in the 1850s, and was considered the “western gatekeeper” of the Shuswap Lakes territory when settlers began to enter the area in the 1860s. His name was later anglicized to “Neskonlith” (Ignace and Ignace 2017:369).

22 and dubbed the area “Mallard Point,” after shooting eight mallard ducks for dinner (Marshall 2007:35). This area was later renamed Sandy Point, and is featured in the earliest photo of the area (Figure 3), taken in 1884, and showing a small camp of Secwépemc people drying hundreds of salmon on racks.

Figure 3: A Secwépemc camp with fish drying racks at Sandy Point facing south. Source: bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

The following day, Dawson surveyed the area around Salmon Arm Bay, including the Salmon River Delta, which he described as:

part of the Salmon River Valley, which seems quite flat, contain a considerable area of land eventually arable, now thickly timbered. If cleared, would need no irrigation. Some of the benches would probably answer for agriculture [as well as] the low undulating country above White Creek Lake. Examined and sounded the entrance of Salmon River and found it too shallow even at this stage of the water for anything large to go up, being about 4 feet at the bar, but deeper within. The river itself is also narrow and tortuous and does not look as if it could be navigated under any circumstances, though the Indians say slack water extends to within a few miles of the wagon road [from Kamloops to the head of Okanagan Lake via Westwold]. They do not go up it in canoes, because of the great quantity of logged timber (cited in Marshall 2007:35).

23 Local First Nations peoples relocated from nearby pithouse villages and reserves, to work alongside Chinese and European settlers to clear the area by hewing railway ties for the arrival and completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 18856 (Hudson and Wilson 1986:442). The railway brought a steady influx of settlers to the Shuswap area, who favoured prime agricultural land located close to transportation routes, and the Salmon River Valley was among the earliest areas to be settled (Cooperman and Zoretich 1988:3; Hudson and Wilson 1986:442). By 1893, farmers were already shipping out vegetables (Cooperman and Zoretich 1988:3). Mining and forestry activities began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (McPhee et al. 1996). Prospectors were initially focused on surveying the nearby Mount Ida for gold and silver, but it ultimately proved unproductive, and their interests led them to other areas of the Shuswap (Cooperman 2014). Forestry activities persisted throughout the historic period and continue to be an important industry in the region today (McPhee et al. 1996:39).

Another early visitor to Salmon Arm was a Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officer David S. Mitchell, who first came to the area in 18897 (Mitchell 1925:2). During his initial visit, he describes local First Nations people traveling along the lake in their canoes, and many thin plumes of blue smoke rising along the shores of Shuswap Lake (Mitchell 1925:2). Mitchell provides a first-hand account of a sockeye run from an early visit to the area:

Many years ago, I rowed in the moonlight up the Salmon River. About a mile from its mouth I tied the bow to a long stake that was driven in the bed of the stream. There was no sign of salmon. I unrolled my blankets in the stern and went to sleep. Several times I awoke to listen and look around, there was no sound but the faint gurgle of the passing water around the bow. In the grey of the early morning I was aroused by a commotion and found the river full of sockeye running up stream. I put in an oar and felt that the river was half fish. The increasing light showed that it was red from bank to bank. Then a stampede of panic occurred, and salmon came surging down, but the river was so full of ascending fish that they blockaded and made a great flat wriggling dam. So jammed were they that they crowded out and were rushed up the sloping banks out of water. Where the bank steepened, these struggling, flapping fish were rolled down onto the

6 This was partially the result of the Dominion Government under Prime Minister Laurier enacting a policy to settle Western Canada by advertising in England, Europe, and the United States (Cooperman and Zoretich 1988:3). 7 He later ran the Granite Creek hatchery at Tappen Bay from 1902 to 1916 (Cooperman 2011:1).

24 backs of the fish in the river bed below, into the mess of which they would again sink (cited in Mitchell 1925:15).

Following this account of the sockeye run on the Salmon River, their numbers never reached these heights again, and ultimately disappeared from the river. This was partially the result of outside factors, including over-fishing on the coast and the Hell’s Gate slides of 1913 and 1914 (Burt and Wallis 1997:4; Mitchell 1925:25), and local factors, including deforestation and intensive agricultural development as the population of Salmon Arm increased throughout the 20th century (McPhee et al. 1996). The changes brought about to the Salmon Arm area from its settlement by Euro-Canadians in the 19th and 20th centuries impacted the local First Nations groups in a variety of ways, which will be examined in greater detail in Chapters 4 and 5.

Chapter Summary

This chapter reviewed the background for the study area, which included a biogeoclimatic overview, a review of the culture history for the Interior Plateau, an ethnohistoric summary of the Secwépemc people in the area, and the early settlement history of Salmon Arm. I began with an overview of the physiographic setting of the Interior Plateau, the Shuswap Region and the Salmon River Watershed, as well as the paleoenvironmental history from the formation and subsequent draining of post-glacial lakes in the late Pleistocene to the development of modern climatic conditions in the mid-Holocene. Next, I provided a review of the culture history of the Interior Plateau, with a focus on the three horizons from the Late Period: Shuswap, Plateau, and Kamloops. Finally, I presented an ethnohistoric overview of the Secwépemc people living in the area during the early settlement of Shuswap by Euro-Canadians, which began with the gold-rushes of the mid-19th century, and intensified with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, which made the area more accessible for settlement. First-hand accounts by early visitors to the area provided crucial information about the local First Nations people and the environment from this period.

25 Chapter 3.

Methods and Sources

This chapter outlines the rationale for my research methods, which includes literature reviews, with an overview of the key sources, and an interview component. The literature reviews comprise a major component of this study, and were drawn from archaeological, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and environmental sources. I provide an overview of the key sources I used for each of these approaches, and describe the methods used to analyze data from these sources. Semi-structured interviews comprised the other major component of this study; I detail how interviews were conducted, were transcribed, categorized into themes, and their limitations. I begin with an explanation of my methods for the archaeological component, followed by the ethnohistoric and ethnographic components, then I describe the traditional knowledge component, and conclude with the environmental component.

Archaeological Research Methods

Archaeological information relating to the Salmon River area was obtained through a review of academic publications and technical reports produced by CRM firms for the Archaeology Branch of British Columbia. These reports were found using the digital database – the Remote Access to Archaeological Data (RAAD). This database provided locations for 16 archaeological sites within and around the delta. The project reports listed artifacts, site maps, site photos, and soil profiles for all excavated areas. The information provided in these reports was reviewed to determine the presence of temporally diagnostic artifacts, use-wear, context of recovery from disturbed or intact matrices, and concentrations throughout the study area. Of particular interest was any evidence of historic and modern settler activities reported as this could indicate the type, frequency, and intensity of activities that have altered the environment, and disrupted traditional use areas. Where available, stratigraphic data were analyzed for each site to determine the depth of disturbances resulting from waste disposal, imported fill material, and construction activities to the delta.

26 Archaeological Sources

Initial archaeological investigations within Secwépemc territory were carried out by archaeologist Harlan Smith (1900) from 1897 to 1899 as a part of Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Franz Boas recruited Smith to collect information about the livelihood, social organization, mythologies, material cultures, and languages of the peoples of northwestern North America, and northeast Asia (Rousseau 2017:74). Smith worked near the modern-day city of Kamloops, under restrictions imposed on him by the local chiefs. It was not until the 1960s that any significant archaeological research was undertaken in the Thompson and Shuswap regions, when David Sanger (1967,1968) conducted salvage work on a burial mound near the town of Chase, on behalf of the Neskonlith and Adams Lake Bands..

Archaeological investigations in the south Shuswap have focused near the municipalities of Chase, Sicamous, and Enderby, primarily the result of CRM work. Knut Fladmark (1969) identified six sites in Tappen Bay, Canoe, and east of Salmon Arm – all of which lie north of Salmon Arm Bay. An investigation throughout the Shuswap was undertaken by Fladmark et al. (1988) to identify areas of moderate to high potential, identifying sites through surveys, and by looking at museum and private artifact collections. Most archaeological investigations conducted in the vicinity of Salmon Arm have been limited to the past decade. A small number of sites were identified by Fladmark (1969) Fladmark et al. (1988), Millenia Research (2000), Golder Associates (2012), and Stantec (Zatorski 2014) in the area around Tappen Bay, and north of Salmon Arm in the community of Canoe. Recent CRM investigations have identified several additional sites within the Salmon River delta, and the surrounding landscape (Kamp 2011; Markey 2016a-c; Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a-i; Ursus Heritage Consulting 2012a-c).

Ethnohistoric and Ethnographic Research Methods

To address my objective of identifying past and present traditional-use activities in and around the Salmon River delta, I reviewed ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources pertaining to Secwépemc people living in the South Shuswap. Ethnohistoric literature from the late 19th and early 20th centuries provided the earliest written accounts of Secwépemc lifeways relating to the Salmon River delta as well as information about the area before Euro-Canadian settlement. Ethnographic literature from the latter part of the

27 20th century was also reviewed. The data from these reviews were categorized according to (1) current traditional-use activities (e.g., fishing, plant gathering, settlements, spiritual areas), (2) historical accounts of traditional use activities, and (3) observations about environmental impacts caused by settler activities.

Ethnohistoric and Ethnographic Sources

Ethnohistoric information was obtained from sources spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Boas 1891; Dawson et al. 1989; Mitchell 1925; Smith 1900; Teit 1909). Later in the 20th century, local historian Ernest Doe (1975) published a book documenting the first 100 years of Salmon Arm’s history. A locally published journal, The Shuswap Chronicles, contain many historic accounts of early settler life in the Shuswap region.

Ethnographic studies for the South Shuswap began in the latter half of the 20th century with Gary Palmer (1975) who worked with members of the Neskonlith community near Chase. Ann Garibaldi (2003) conducted ethnographic fieldwork with the Neskonlith as a major component of her Master’s thesis research in Anthropology, which included some of the information on the Salmon River delta. Nancy Turner (2005) also conducted interviews with the elder Mary Thomas regarding her experiences growing up on the Salmon River delta.

Traditional Knowledge Interview Methods and Sources

Interviews with elders in the Neskonlith community comprised another method for obtaining information regarding traditional-use activities on the Salmon River delta. For this research component, I reviewed interviews with the late Dr. Mary Thomas that had been conducted by Garibaldi (2003) and Turner (2005), which provided insights into interactions between settlers and the Neskonlith community from the early to late 20th century. In October 2017, archaeologist Nola Markey, proprietor of Crane Heritage Research, put me in contact with Louis Thomas – Mary’s second eldest son, and a member of the Neskonlith Band Council – to discuss the potential for collaboration on this study. I met again with Louis, and other members of the Neskonlith Band Council in November 2017 to discuss my proposed research and address any comments and questions that they had. During this meeting, the council identified several members of

28 the community, including Louis, who would be good candidates for me to interview regarding changes and challenges to traditional-use areas in my project area.

Before conducting the interviews, I developed a set of questions to ask of each of the knowledge-holders (Appendix A). I employed a hybrid unstructured and semi-structured approach (Bernard 2006:211-212) to interviewing. This allowed for the interviewees to relate their knowledge and experiences in their own words, while also allowing me to guide the conversation to answer the questions of this study. Unstructured interviews are based on a clear plan that one keeps constantly in mind but are also characterized by a minimum control over people’s responses, which gets people to express themselves in their own words (p. 211). Semi-structured interviews can be used in situations where there may not be more than one chance to interview someone. It has much of the freewheeling quality of unstructured interviewing, but makes use of an interview guide, which is a written list of questions and topics that need to be covered (p. 212).

I conducted three interviews in the summer of 2018. Before each interview I had the participant sign a consent form and followed SFU Ethical guidelines. The first interview was with Louis Thomas, conducted on July 29th. Which began along the Salmon Arm Wharf, and continued near the banks of the Salmon River on Switsemalph Indian Reserve No. 3. The other two interviews, with Lorna Thomas and Harold Thomas, were conducted on August 9th in each of their homes on Switsemalph Indian Reserve No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. All interviews were recorded with permission and stored on a Micro SD card. Each took between 1 and 2 hours to complete; the interviewees were compensated for their time with an honorarium.

Each interview was transcribed using the transcription software, Sonix (https://sonix.ai/), which utilizes artificial intelligence to quickly and accurately transcribe each interview. I chose this program after researching several different services online, and considered such factors as privacy and security for uploaded data, price, efficiency, and testimonials. After the software produced a transcript, I reviewed it while listening to the audio of the interview to correct any errors in transcription caused by background noise or inconsistencies in the interviewees’ speech. Utilizing this software expedited the transcription process, provided consistency with formatting, including regular timestamps, and mitigated listener bias. Using this software was not without its challenges in that it was not always accurate in the transcription process, especially if

29 the speaker was not speaking clearly, or background noise distorted the sound quality, and it occasionally missed blocks of a few minutes in length. After the interviews were transcribed, the transcriptions and audio files were sent to the interviewees for their own personal use, and potentially submitted to the archives at the Neskonlith Band Office, at each participants’ discretion.

The data gleaned from the 2018 interviews and the previous interviews were catalogued by topic, location, and person. Topics ranged from traditional-use activities (e.g., food gathering, material gathering, settlements), to observations of environmental impacts resulting from settler activities, and other impacts (e.g., Residential Schools, the Reserve system) to the community. Where available, I included the Secwepemc-tsín8 word next to the English and scientific names for plants and animals, as well as for traditional-use activities.

A limitation to my interview methodology was the very small number of elders available speak to the topic of this thesis – all of whom belong to the same family. Many members of the community had moved away for extended periods of time, or were discouraged from continuing with their cultural traditions, or had passed away. Another obstacle was that I was never able to access the archives at the Neskonlith Band Office, which contained land-use files and interviews transcripts from other members of the community. This was due in part to scheduling conflicts, and repeated vehicle problems on my end, which limited my ability to return to the Shuswap after I had concluded my interviews. Consequently, there is undoubtedly much ethnographic and Traditional Knowledge information missing from this study.

Environmental Review Methods

Information relating to environmental changes associated with historic settlement activities and their impacts on traditional activities associated with the delta, was collected from environmental overviews and impact assessments from several government ministries, as well as from independent studies. There was considerable overlap within the reports in examining the specific environmental impacts to the delta.

8 The Chief Atahm School Language Project. http://www.atahm.info/language- dictionary/dictionaries/view/3

30 The data from these reports include fish counts for salmonids, total areas of timber harvesting activities, total areas for agricultural and ranching, and waterbody data, including water quality, stream depth, and withdrawal amounts, and erosion levels.

I analyzed several data sets provided by the environmental reports. Some of the most salient data came from fish escapement studies for the Salmon River. Since 1947, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has conducted annual fish counts for spawning salmonids on the Salmon River (Brown et al. 1979:168) and other major tributaries of Shuswap Lake (e.g., Adams, Shuswap, Eagle, Seymour Rivers). Data from land-use studies were also used to determine the extent of land-clearing activities, including forestry, agriculture, ranching, and urban areas. I also analyzed data from water quality studies to determine which pollutants are having the most impact on the Salmon River, and how they are impacting aquatic life in the river and Shuswap Lake.

Visual evidence of changes to the Salmon River delta came from aerial photographs and satellite imagery. Available aerial photographs of the delta were taken between the 1950s to the 1980s, with their visual fidelity greatly improving by the 1970s and 1980s. Analysis of these photos undertaken by Miles (1995) indicates the types and levels of disturbance that the delta experienced throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Satellite images of the delta are available through Google Earth and range from 2004 to 2019. The satellite images also depict the study area during different seasons and demonstrate the dynamic environment of the Salmon River delta at different times of the year.

Environmental Review Sources

Early accounts of the landscape and environmental conditions of the south Shuswap region, including the Salmon River delta, came from historic sources, namely Dawson (1891), and Mitchell (1925), with an agricultural report on dairy farms by Hare (1921). The most complete synthesis of environmental data within the Salmon River watershed was commissioned by the Fraser Basin Council and authored by McPhee et al. (1996). An independent study of the Salmon River delta (Patterson and Hawes 2009) provided a more recent report for the region, with a focus on the environmental impacts to the delta.

31 Biogeoclimatic information for the Shuswap area, from the late Pleistocene through to the present is summarized in Fulton (1969), Johnsen (1998), Mackenzie and Moran (2004), Meidinger and Pojar (1991), and Ryder, et al. (1991). Information pertaining to historic and modern mining activities collected by the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Petroleum Resources was summarized in McPhee et al. (1996). Fisheries data for the Salmon River and Shuswap Lake was compiled from several reports spanning the 1970s to the 1990s (Brown et al. 1979; Burt and Wallis 1997; DFO (1998); Harding et al. 1994; Whelen et al. 1982), and the Ministry of Environment’s database for Fish Inventories Data Inquiries for Single Waterbody Queries. Lloyd et al. (1990), McPhee et al. (1996), and Miles (1995). The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (Werk 2017) provided overviews of forestry activities in the watershed from the 1940s to the present. Additional reports and studies of the Salmon River delta include Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (2012); Broersma et al. (2017); Fast and O’Riordan (1998); Fraser Basin Council (2016); Gwanikar et al. (1998); McDougall (2014); and the Salmon River Watershed Roundtable (2003).

Chapter Summary

This chapter outlined my research methods for this study, which included a literature review of each research approach, and semi-structured interviews with Neskonlith elders. For the archaeological component, I reviewed academic literature for the Plateau, Shuswap Region, and Salmon Arm, but I mostly relied on CRM reports, which provided geo-spatial data, artifact tables – specifically for lithics, and soil profiles for the southern sites. In the ethnohistoric component, I examined first-hand accounts of Canadian explorers to the area and scrutinized local historical sources for any mention of First Nations activities from the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. Ethnographic literature provided a broad overview of the region, and a few recent studies that focused on the Salmon River delta. Semi-structured interviews afforded me the opportunity to focus on traditional-use activities in the area, while the use of transcription software expedited the transcribing process, provided consistency in formatting, and helped eliminate listener bias. Finally, for the environmental component, I reviewed numerous environmental studies, which presented data on different land-uses (forestry, agriculture, urban areas), impact assessments to the Salmon River, and salmon inventories for the latter half of the 20th century.

32 Chapter 4.

Results

This chapter summarizes information from both the literature reviews I conducted for the archaeological, ethnohistoric and ethnographic, and environmental components of this study, and the Traditional Knowledge interviews I conducted. I begin by summarizing the archaeological data from site reports, which include detailed descriptions of the level of site disturbance, detailed stratigraphic profiles, and tables for recovered artifacts. Next, I present key observations drawn both from ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources, which provide a broad regional context, and accounts of local First Nations groups conducting a variety of subsistence activities. Within that section I also summarize information taken from interviews with elders whose knowledge helped to contextualize environmental changes and their impacts on traditional-use areas. I conclude with environmental information on how historic land development and resource extraction activities impacted the environment of the Salmon River, its delta, and the surrounding landscape.

Archaeological Results

The provincial RAAD9 system lists 16 archaeological sites within or adjacent to the Salmon River delta (Figure 4). I organized these into three groups on the basis of location within the study area, and to each other (Table 1). Each group is arbitrarily designated and represents a cluster of sites generally located on the same landform. Below I briefly describe the key elements (e.g., landscape features, level of disturbance) for each group, rather than repeating the same information on a site-by-site basis.

9 Remote Access to Archaeological Data.

33

Figure 4: Map of archaeological sites on the Salmon River delta. Source: Google Earth.

Table 1: Archaeological site groupings on the Salmon River delta. Site Groupings Relative Location Archaeological Sites Group 1 North EeQt-35, EeQt-36, EeQt-37 Group 2 Northwest EeQt-71, EeQt-72, EeQt-73 Group 3 Southwest EeQt-62, EeQt-63, EeQt-64, EeQt-65, EeQt-29, EeQt-66, EeQt- 67, EeQt-68, EeQt-69, EeQt-70

The Group 1 sites are located near the shore of Shuswap Lake on a series of sand bars, adjacent to wetland and forested areas10 (Ursus Heritage Consulting 2012a-c). Group 2 sites are all on reserve land, but are scattered from each other – with two (EeQt-71 and EeQt-72) located along a ridge, and the other (EeQt-73 located along a mid-rise bench. All sites were identified and recorded by Crane Heritage Research (Markey 2016 a-c). The Group 3 sites are located adjacent to the TransCanada highway, 3 km south of the shore of Shuswap Lake. All sites had been subjected to extensive subsurface investigation, including machine-auger testing, shovel testing11, and evaluative units, to determine the archaeological potential of the area ahead of construction activities related

10 No site reports were available on RAAD, only artifact tables and site maps. 11 Shovel testing was only conducted at EeQt-29 (Kamp 2011).

34 to a commercial development (Kamp 2011), and the expansion of the Trans-Canada Highway (Kamp 2011; Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a-i).

I also used RAAD to identify any additional recorded sites within a 10-km radius of the study area to provide a regional context of archaeological sites located near Salmon Arm Bay and Tappen Bay (Table 2). Of particular interest is EeQt-12, a pictograph site located between Sandy Point and Tappen Bay, as it was also mentioned during my interview with Louis Thomas. The report for this site indicated that there are several shallow pits near the pictographs, but none had been tested. These features could possibly be associated with the construction of the railway, which included blasting activities, or may represent pits used for cooking (Golder Associates 2012:1).

Table 2: Archaeological sites within vicinity of study area. Site Type Location EeQt-1 Lithic scatter (surface find) Canoe EeQt-2 Lithic scatter (surface find) South Canoe EeQt-3 Precontact burial; house pit; lithic scatter Tappen Bay, Sunnybrae Park EeQt-4 Lithic scatter Tappen Bay, Sunnybrae Park EeQt-5 Cache pits; house pits (unspecified number) Herald Provincial Park EeQt-6 Lithic scatter Tappen Bay, Sunnybrae Park EeQt-10 Precontact burial Shore of Shuswap Lake EeQu-10 Lithic scatter Tappen Bay EeQt-12 Pictograph Between Sandy Point and Tappen Bay EeQt-34 Precontact burial Herald Provincial Park EeQt-46 Lithic scatter (surface find) Canoe EeQt-76 Lithic debitage and tools White Creek, Tappen EeQt-77 Debitage; faunal remains White Creek, Tappen EeQt-78 Lithics; faunal remains; 1 historic CMT White Creek, Tappen

Group 1 Sites

These three sites were located during an AIA performed by Ursus Heritage Consulting, and are located approximately 100 m east of the TransCanada Highway, and approximately 30 m west of the shore of Shuswap Lake. RAAD site maps indicate that the sites are adjacent to a narrow (15-30 m) band of wetlands along the western shore of Shuswap Lake (Ursus Heritage Consulting 2012a-c). The northernmost site, EeQt-35, is 1.6 km south of Sandy Point (Figure 3), which is in the central upper portion of Figure 1 (2012a). Both EeQt-36 (2012b) and EeQt-37 (2012c) were located on long, narrow sand bars immediately adjacent to the wetland areas on the lake shore. Although subsurface testing was conducted at these three sites by Ursus Heritage Consulting, no

35 stratigraphic data were available to assess the level of disturbance in this area. The site maps indicate that all shovel tests were negative, and all artifacts were surface finds (Table 3). Two small circular depressions were noted and tested at EeQt-35, but lacked any associated archaeological materials (2012 a).

Table 3: Group 1 sites and artifacts. Site Artifact Type Notes EeQt-35 2 flakes basalt; secondary flakes EeQt-36 1 biface; basalt; missing distal end; 1 projectile point basalt; Shuswap Horizon EeQt-37 1 flake; basalt; secondary flake; 1 block shatter; basalt; 1 utilized flake; basalt; 1 projectile point basalt; projectile point tip

Group 2 Sites

The three sites are located within the boundaries of Neskonlith Indian Reserve #3 and were identified during a preliminary field reconnaissance by Crane Heritage Research. EeQt-71 (Markey 2016 a) and EeQt-72 (Markey 2016 b) (Figures 3-4) are both located on a ridge 1-1.8 km west of Shuswap Lake and the mouth of the Salmon River on rock promontories that offer panoramic views of the surrounding valley. EeQt-73 is located in the northern section of Neskonlith IR 3 (Figure 5) and is 990 m west of the mouth of the Salmon River Delta, 330 m west of the wooded shoreline of Shuswap Lake, and 135 m west of the CP railway (Markey 2016 c). The site is located on a mid-slope bench or terrace feature, which continues northwest into Highway 1 (2016c:1). The information for each of these sites, including artifacts recorded, and landscape characteristics is presented in Table 4.

36 Table 4: Group 2 archaeological sites and artifacts. EeQt-71 (Markey 2016a) Artifacts Notes View 1 flake, basalt The presence of stumps and second-growth forest indicate past logging, but likely had minimal impacts on the site due to its location on an exposed rock surface.

Figure 5: View southeast from EeQt-71 overlooking Salmon River and Shuswap Lake. Photograph by Nola Markey (2016a:8). EeQt-72 (Markey 2016b) Artifacts Notes View 1 flake, basalt The presence of stumps and second- growth forest indicate past logging, but this likely had minimal impacts on the recorded site due to its location on an exposed rock surface

Figure 6: View south from EeQt-72 of the Salmon River valley and Mount Ida in the background. Photograph by Nola Markey (2016b:8). EeQt-73 (Markey 2016c) Artifacts Notes View 3 flakes, basalt Impacts to the area include the 1 unifacial tool, construction of the TransCanada Highway chert and Canadian Pacific Railway and clearing forest cover in the early historical period to create the nearby cemetery, all of which caused some disturbance to the ground surface.

More recent disturbances to the area have resulted from clearing shrubbery and excavation of burial plots at the cemetery..

Figure 7: View west of the cemetary to EeQt-73. Photograph by Nola Markey (2016c:8).

37 Group 3 Sites

These ten sites are located approximately 3 km south of the shore of Shuswap Lake, and were identified during an archaeological impact assessment in 2011 and 2016 (Kamp 2011; Terra Archaeology Limited 2016). Four sites (EeQt-62-65) are located west of the Salmon River, and six (EeQt-29; EeQt-66-70) east of it. The four sites west of the river are located on a section of artificially levelled terrain that was built up using imported fill material up to a depth of 200 cm below the surface in some areas. All ten sites have been impacted by a variety of settler activities including agriculture (crops and pastureland), residential development, and the operation of an RV park. Evaluative Unit 4 at EeQt-62 revealed wooden planks at 121 and 228 cm below the surface, possibly an historic structure, with what appears to be successive layers of flood deposits above them (Table 6) (Figure 12). Subsurface examination of the sites by Terra Archaeology Limited (2016 a-d) included machine auger tests and evaluative units. Due to the uncontrolled nature of auger testing, the depth of recovered artifacts using this method could not be determined. All excavation units that documented cultural materials (lithics) recovered them from within disturbed matrices that contained historical and modern debris.

The six sites east of the Salmon are immediately north of the TransCanada highway, and were recorded by Terra Archaeology Limited (Kamp 2011; Terra Archaeology Limited 2016 e-i). The terrain is generally flat or gently sloping toward Shuswap Lake. A small wetland is located between the shore of Shuswap Lake and the highway. The area has been artificially levelled with imported fill for several residential properties, a RV park, and a large shopping complex. All excavation units were positive for cultural materials recovered from disturbed matrices, but two sites (EeQt-67 and EeQt-70) did contain artifacts in intact deposits. Stratigraphic profiles and accompanying digital photographs for these units indicates the extent of disturbance at each site (Tables 5- 14).

38 Table 5: EeQt-29 artifacts and notes. EeQt-29 (Kamp 2011) Artifacts Notes Image of site 10 flakes; rhyolite Post-1846 CMT birch noted on the (9); chalcedony northern extent of the property. (1) Mottled matrices to 35 cm DBS, containing historical debris.

Disturbed by highway construction, stream diversion hydro pole placement, installation of storm and sewer drains, agricultural and industrial activities, and residential development.

Figure 8. Excavation of two EU’s from EeQt-29. Photograph by Sarah Kamp (2012:16).

39 Table 6: EeQt-62 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 87 flakes; Extensive disturbance from residential and recreational 11 utilized flakes; construction activities. 3 retouched flakes; 25 faunal fragments (butchered, burned, or unmodified; Most, if not all, archaeological materials collected were elk, horse, cat, duck, chicken, cow, and possibly coyote present in disturbed and/or imported fill material to 218 or dog) cm DBS. Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:11). LAYER DEPTH (CM) DESCRIPTION A 3-55 Greyish brown silt with trace medium-grained sand, mottled with grey clay and 50% subrounded to subangular gravels to cobbles; extremely compact with historic debris throughout B 55-102 Very dark grey medium- grained sandy silt and 50% subrounded to subangular gravels to cobbles; extremely compact with historic debris throughout C 102-125 Dark greyish brown silty medium-grained sand and 60% subangular gravel; moderately compact D 125-128 Very dark greyish brown silty fine-grained sand; moderately compact E 128-141 Dark greyish brown medium-grained sand; compact F 141-169 Dark grey clay with trace medium-grained sand and Figure 9: Profile of west wall of EU 1 from 5% subrounded to EeQt-62. subangular pebbles, (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:18). flecks of charcoal, wood debris, and large pieces of concrete; extremely compact with historical debris throughout. Concrete block at bottom of unit.

40 Evaluative Unit 2 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:13). LAYER DEPTH (CM) DESCRIPTION A 3- 32 Greyish brown coarse- grained, sandy silt and 50% angular to subrounded gravels to cobbles; very compact with historic debris throughout B 32-88 Very dark greyish brown silt with trace medium-grained sand and 5% subrounded pebbles, mottled with dark greyish brown clay; extremely compact with historic debris throughout C 88-98 Very dark brown fine-grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded gravel; moderately compact D 98-110 Brown, slightly silty fine- grained sand; moderately compact, mottled with very dark brown fine-grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded gravel; compact E 110-113 Very dark greyish brown, fine-grained sandy silt; compact Figure 10: Profile of west wall of EU 2 from EeQt-62. (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:18).

41 Evaluative Unit 3 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:12). LAYER DEPTH (CM) DESCRIPTION A 3-71 Dark grey silty coarse- grained sand and 50% subrounded to subangular gravels to cobbles; very compact with historic debris throughout. B1 71-78 Very dark greyish brown silty B2 90-96 fine-grained sand; moderately compact C1 78-85 Very dark grey fine-grained C2 96-101 sandy silt with flecks of C3 121-145 charcoal and <5% subangular gravel; compact D 85-90 Very dark greyish brown fin- grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded gravel; compact E1 101-121 Dark greyish brown slightly E2 145-160 silty medium-grained sand; E3 162-168 moderately compact F1 160-162 Very dark greyish brown silty F2 168-174 fine-grained sand; moderately compact G1 174-178 Dark grey fine-grained sandy G2 183-188 silt; compact H1 178-183 Dark grey, mottled with H2 188-207 yellowish brown, slightly silty Figure 11: Profile of west wall of EU 3 from coarse-grained sand; EeQt-62. moderately compact I 207-230 Dark grey silty medium- (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:18). grained sand; moderately compact

42 Evaluative Unit 4 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:10). Layer Depth (cm) Description C1 38-40 Dark greyish brown, fine- C2 42-45 grained sand and <5% C3 50-52 subrounded gravel; C4 57-59 moderately compact with historic debris in upper layer D1 40-42 Dark brown silty fine- D2 52-57 grained sand; compact D3 60-62 D4 72-82 E1 45-50 Very dark greyish brown, E2 59-65 fine-grained sandy silt; E3 65-72 compact E4 82-84 F 84-100 Very dark grey, medium- grained sandy silt and 10% subrounded to subangular gravel to pebbles; very compact, mottled with dark greyish brown clay; very compact, with historic debris throughout G 100-121 Dark grey brown, mottled with 6 dark yellow brown, very fine-grained sandy silt; very compact with placed wooden planks Figure 12: Profile of west wall of EU 4 from (historic) EeQt-62. H1 121-134 Dark greyish brown, (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016a:18). H2 151-155 mottled with dark yellow H3 157-159 brown, silt; compact LAYER DEPTH (CM) DESCRIPTION I1 134-141 Dark greyish brown, I2 145-151 mottled with dark yellow A 2-13 Dark greyish brown medium- I3 159-167 brown, silty fine-grained grained sandy silt and 5% sand; moderately compact subrounded pebbles; very J1 141-145 Dark grey silt; compact compact J2 155-157 K 167-180 Very dark grey, mottled with dark yellow brown, B 13-38 Very dark greyish brown, fine-grained sandy silt; slightly silty coarse-grained compact sand and 50% subrounded to L 180-185 Greenish black sandy silt; subangular gravel to pebbles, compact mottled with grey clay; very compact with historic debris M 185-196 Dark yellow brown slightly and charcoal throughout silty, medium-grained sand; moderately compact N 196-218 Very dark grey fine-grained

sandy silt; very compact with cut wood planks at EU bottom

43 Table 7: EeQt-63 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 35 flakes; Extensive disturbance from historic farming activities 4 utilized flakes; and residential construction. 3 retouched flakes; 35 faunal fragments (butchered or unmodified; cow, pig, Historical materials observed at 100 cm DBS. house cat and unidentified species) Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:15). Layer Depth (cm) Description B 10-29 Dark greyish brown, slightly sandy silt and <5% subrounded pebbles; very compact with charcoal flecks throughout C1 29-41 Dark greyish brown clayey C2 45-50 silt; very compact D1 41-45 Very dark grey clayey silt; D2 50-52 very compact D3 62-64 E1 52-62 Greyish brown with dark E2 64-70 yellowish-brown flecks, clayey silt with trace sand; very compact F 70-79 Grey, with dark yellow brown flecks, clayey silt; very compact G 79-89 Olive grey with dark yellowish- brown flecks, clayey silt with trace sand; very compact H 89-121 Olive grey with dark yellowish- brown flecks, clay; very compact I 121-132 Olive grey with dark yellowish- brown flecks, fine-grained sandy silt; compact J 132-160 Olive grey with dark yellowish- Figure 13: Profile of west wall of EU 1 from brown flecks, silty coarse- EeQt-63. grained sand; moderately (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:11). compact K 0-10 Dark greyish brown clayey Layer Depth (cm) Description silt; very compact A 0-10 Very dark greyish brown, L 0-7 Olive grey silty coarse-grained coarse-grained sandy silt sand; loosely compact and 25% subrounded to subangular gravels; very compact, charcoal flecks throughout

44 Evaluative Unit 2 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:16). Layer Depth (cm) Description A 3-18 Very dark greyish brown, silty coarse-grained sand and 50% subangular to subrounded gravels to pebbles; compact B 18-21 Very dark brown, medium- grained sandy silt and wood mulch; compact C 21-34 Dark grey, fine-grained sandy silt; very compact D 34-56 Dark greyish brown, silty fine-grained sand; very compact E 56-70 Dark reddish brown silty, medium-grained sand; compact F 70-100 Yellowish red silty, medium-grained sand; compact G 100-105 Strong brown silty coarse- grained sand; moderately compact H 105-124 Yellowish grey, with pockets of olive grey, slightly silty coarse-grained sand; Figure 14: Profile of west wall of EU 2 from moderately compact EeQt-63. (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:11).

45 Evaluative Unit 3 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:17). Layer Depth (cm) Description A 1-10 Very dark grey, medium- grained sandy silt and 80% subangular pebbles to gravels; moderately compact (imported, on top of geotextile fabric) B 10-40 Very dark brown, fine- grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded to subangular pebbles; very compact. Tree root bisecting layer 20-30 cm. C 40-59 Dark greyish brown silt with trace, fine-grained sand; very compact D 59-63 Light brownish grey ashy silt; compact E1 63-71 Grey with flecks of dark E2 73-75 yellow brown clayey silt with trace fine-grained sand; very compact F1 71-73 Black clayey silt; very F2 75-77 compact G 77-81 Grey clay with trace fine- grained sand; very compact H 81-110 Olive grey with flecks of Figure 15: Profile of west wall of EU 3 from dark yellow brown, clay EeQt-63. with trace fine-grained (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:11). sand; very compact

46 Evaluative Unit 4 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:18). Layer Depth (cm) Description A 0-44 Very dark greyish brown, coarse-grained sandy silt and 60% subrounded to subangular pebbles and gravels; compact B 44-77 Dark greyish brown, medium-grained sandy silt with flecks of charcoal; very compact C 50-63 Greyish brown, clayey silt with trace fine-grained sand; very compact D 59-60 Light brownish grey ashy silt; compact E1 67-69 Greyish brown, mottled with E2 71-74 dark yellow brown, clayey E3 74-80 silt with trace fine-grained sand; very compact F1 69-71 Very dark grey silt with F2 73-74 trace fine-grained sand; F3 80-82 very compact G 82-88 Grey clay with trace fine- grained sand; very compact H 88-111 Olive grey, mottled with dark yellow brown clay; very compact Figure 16: Profile of west wall of EU 4 from I 111-138 Grey clay with trace fine- EeQt-63. grained sand; very compact (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016b:11).

47 Table 8: EeQt-64 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 2 flakes; Extensive ground disturbance from site’s use as a 1 utilized flake; maintenance yard for motel and RV park. and access 3 faunal fragments (2 historically butchered; 1 calcined) roads. 1 freshwater snail Heavy vehicle traffic in and out of the area has caused compaction of sediments in certain areas of the site.

Mixed archaeological and historical materials to 150 cm DBS. Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016c:11). Layer Depth (cm) Description A 2-11 Very dark grey, coarse- grained sandy silt and 40% subangular to subrounded gravels and pebbles; compact B 11-22 Greyish brown, silt with less than 5% subrounded pebbles; very compact C 22-87 Brown, light grey, and very dark greyish brown, coarse- grained sandy silt and 60% subrounded to angular gravel to small cobbles, mottled with 5Y5/1 grey clay; very compact with historic debris throughout including a piece of asphalt D 87-150 Dark greyish brown, coarse- grained sandy silt and 20% subrounded pebbles; moderately compact. Tree root is present in northwest part of the wall profile at a depth of 120-139 cm E 150-152 Black fine-grained sandy silt; compact F 152-161 Very dark brown, slightly Figure 17: Profile of west wall of EU from sandy silt; very compact EeQt-64. (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016c:10).

48 Table 9: EeQt-65 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 2 flakes; Extensive ground disturbance from construction of a (1 recovered within confirmed disturbed matrices) motel, RV park, and access roads.

Heavy vehicle traffic in and out of the area has compacted the sediments in certain areas of the site.

Historical material including glass metal and asphalt to 90 cm DBS. Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016d:12). Layer Depth (cm) Description C 7-31 Dark yellowish brown coarse- grained silty sand and 40% subangular to rounded gravels to cobbles; very compact D 31-59 Olive grey fine-grained silt and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact with historic debris throughout E 42-62 Very dark greenish grey, fine- grained silt and <5% subangular gravels; very compact F 62-75 Black wood mulch mottled with very dark brown, coarse- grained silty sand and 25% subangular to subrounded gravels to cobbles; very compact G 75-82 Greenish black, fine-grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact, with some pieces of charcoal noted H 78-103 Very dark brown, medium- grained silty sand and <5% subrounded gravels; moderately Figure 18: Profile of west wall of EU from compact, sand becomes finer EeQt-65. with depth (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016d:10). I 103-107 Greenish black, fine-grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded Layer Depth (cm) Description gravels; compact A 0-2 Very dark greyish brown, J 107-132 Greyish brown coarse-grained medium-grained silty sand and sand and <5% subrounded 10% subrounded to gravels; moderately compact, subangular sand becomes finer with depth gravels; very compact K 132-165 Greenish black mottled with B 2-7 Dark yellowish brown, coarse- 5Y3/2 dark olive grey, fine- grained silty sand and 15% grained almost pure silt and angular to subangular gravels; <5% subrounded gravels very compact

49 Table 10: EeQt-66 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 3 flakes; Extensive ground disturbance and deposition of fill 1 ground stone “button;” material to 160 cm DBS. 1,333 faunal fragments (calcined, burned, historically butchered) Glass, metal, and ceramics found within disturbed matrices.

Past residential construction activities Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016e:13) Layer Depth (cm) Description B 20-131 Dark greyish brown mottled with very pale brown, grey, and black, medium-grained sandy silt, with pockets of ash and 50% subangular to subrounded gravels to small cobbles; compact with historic debris throughout C1 131-150 Very dark brown fine- C2 159-161 grained, sandy silt and <5% C3 161-164 subrounded pebbles; C4 166-170 compact C5 181-185 D1 140-143 Dark brown, silty fine-grained D2 159-161 sand; compact E1 152-156 Dark greyish brown slightly E2 164-166 silty, medium-grained sand; E3 170-177 compact E4 177-181 E5 190-202 E6 205-220 F 174-178 Very dark grey medium- grained sandy silt; moderately compact G 181-189 Greyish brown medium- grained sand; moderately Figure 19: Profile of west wall of EU from compact EeQt-66. H1 188-190 Very dark greyish brown, (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016e:11). H2 202-206 with flecks of dark yellow brown, silty fine-grained Layer Depth (cm) Description sand; compact A 2-20 Greyish brown silt with trace I1 220-226 Very dark grey, with flecks of fine-grained sand and <5% I2 229-233 dark yellow brown, fine- subangular to angular grained sandy silt; compact pebbles; very compact J 226-229 Black fine-grained sandy silt; compact

50 Table 11: EeQt-67 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 1 Flake Site is relatively intact, with only minimal disturbance from ongoing agricultural activities (i.e., plowing and grazing).

The flake was recovered with an auger test, but is assumed to be from intact deposits. Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016f:11) Layer Depth (cm) Description B 15-30 Dark greyish brown silt with trace medium-grained sand and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact C 30-50 Dark grey, ashy, almost pure silt and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact D1 40-92 Dark greyish brown, with D2 90-102 flecks of reddish brown fine- grained sandy silt; very compact E 49-80 Brown with specks of red brown, fine-grained silty sand and <5% subrounded gravels; compact F 70-88 Dark greyish brown almost pure silt and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact G 95-113 Brown, fine-grained silty sand and <5% gravels; compact H 113-142 Dark greyish brown, fine- grained, sandy silt and <5% gravels; very compact I 169-179 Dark grey, mottled with dark red brown streaks, silty sand and <5% subrounded

gravels; very compact Figure 20: Profile of west wall of EU from J 195-223 Dark greyish brown, with EeQt-67. dark reddish-brown flecks, (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016f:9). fine-grained sandy silt; compact Layer Depth (cm) Description K1 70-82 Grey mottled with reddish A 3-15 Very dark greyish brown K2 76-107 brown, almost pure coarse- almost pure silt and <5% K3 105-169 grained sand and <5% subrounded gravels; very gravels; moderately compact compact L 34-60 Greyish brown silt and <5% subrounded pebbles; very compact

51 Table 12: EeQt-68 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 2 flakes; Numerous pieces of historic debris, including glass, 1 ground stone “button;” wood, metal, and plastic were observed in subsurface 9 faunal fragments (calcined mammal bone) contexts of 209 cm DBS, which is likely from imported material used to cap the original surface. Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016g:12) Layer Depth (cm) Description A 4-30 Dark greyish brown, coarse grained silty sand and 70% subangular gravels to large pebbles; moderately compact B 30-60 Brown, fine-grained sandy silt and 45% subangular gravels to pebbles; moderately compact C 60-100 Very dark grey silt with trace fine-grained sand and 25% subangular gravels and 5% cobbles; compact D 100-121 Dark grey medium-grained sandy silt and less than 5% cobbles; compact E1 121-180 Grey, mottled with 5YR3/1 E2 185-209 dark red brown silt with trace fine-grained sand and <5% subangular gravels; compact F 180-182 Light olive grey silt with trace fine-grained sand; very compact G 182-185 Reddish brown silt with trace fine-grained sand; very compact H 209-237 Very dark grey silt with fine- Figure 21: Profile of west wall of EU from grained sand and <5% EeQt-68. subangular gravels; very (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016g:10). compact

52 Table 13: EeQt-69 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 4 flakes; Area artificially levelled using imported fill for the 1 retouched flake; construction of an RV lot, gravel parking lot and 1 microblade core; access road. 2 faunal remains (1 butchered pig, and 1 unmodified horse bone) Historic refuse including metal, glass, asphalt, and plastic were found in subsurface contexts up to 180 1 debitage (collected between 30-40 cm DBS from disturbed cm DBS. matrix) Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016h:12) Layer Depth (cm) Description D 40-73 Dark green grey silt and 10% subangular to subrounded gravels to cobbles; very compact E* 50-60 Very dark grey brown, fine- grained silt and <5% subangular to subrounded gravels; very compact F 73-80 Very dark grey brown, medium-grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact G 77-113 Very dark, grey brown, fine- grained sandy silt and 5% subangular to subrounded gravels; compact H 113-130 Very dark grey brown, fine- grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded gravels; compact I 130-140 Very dark grey brown, fine- grained sandy silt and <5% subrounded gravels; compact J 140-157 Dark brown, fine-grained silty sand and <5% subrounded gravels; compact K 157-163 Very dark brown, fine-grained sandy silt; compact, charcoal, Figure 22: Profile of north wall of EU from and woody debris noted EeQt-69. L 163-177 Very dark grey, medium- (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016i:10). grained sandy silt and 5% subrounded gravels; very compact Layer Depth (cm) Description M 177-181 Black, fine-grained silt with A 0-35 Dark yellow brown, coarse- decomposing organic plant grained silty sand and 20% material; compact subangular to subrounded N 181-198 Very dark grey, fine-grained gravels to large pebbles; very silt; very compact compact O 198-202 Grey clayey silt; very compact B 35-46 Black asphalt; very compact *Layer E is present on north wall profile; the photo of that profile is not C 42-51 Very dark grey brown, silt with available trace coarse-grained sand and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact

53 Table 14: EeQt-70 artifacts, stratigraphy, and notes. Artifacts Notes 2 flakes; Minor ground disturbances due to farming activities 1 flake tool; (cattle and horse grazing, and plowing) as well as 1 flake (from intact deposits; 200-210 cm DBS) from residential development Evaluative Unit 1 (Terra Archaeology Limited 2016i:12) Layer Depth (cm) Description B 23-37 Dark greyish brown almost pure silt and <5% subangular to subrounded gravels; very compact C1 37-40 Greyish brown almost pure C2 49-53 silt and <5% subangular to subrounded gravels; very compact D1 40-49 Dark brown, with flecks of D2 53-62 dark reddish brown, almost D3 65-112 pure silt and <5% subrounded gravels; very compact E 62-65 Dark brown fine-grained silty sand and <5% subrounded gravels; compact F1 112-131 Dark greyish brown, mottled F2 175-180 with dark yellowish brown, medium-grained silty sand and <5% subrounded gravels; moderately compact G1 131-175 Dark greyish brown, mottled G2 180-212 with dark yellowish brown, coarse-grained sand and <5% subrounded gravels; moderately compact

H 151-156; Greenish grey almost pure Figure 23: Profile of north wall of EU from 182-200 silt; compact EeQt-70. I 223-224 Light grey hardpan; very (Photo by Terra Archaeology Limited 2016i:10). compact J 224-237 Brown clayey silt; compact Layer Depth (cm) Description A 4-23 Dark greyish brown, medium- grained sandy silt and <5% subangular to subrounded gravels; very compact

54 Ethnographic, Ethnohistoric, and Traditional Knowledge Results

This section summarizes the interviews with Neskonlith elders Louis Thomas, Lorna Thomas, and Harold Thomas, who are the children of the late Mary Thomas. They range in age from their late 60s to mid-70s. Additional information is provided through interviews that Anne Garibaldi (2003) and Nancy Turner (2005) each had with Mary Thomas. These interviews reveal the importance of the Salmon River valley and the Salmon River delta to the Secwépemc people. The information obtained from the interviews (and for the literature review discussed below) was grouped according to seven categories (Table 15) related to types of traditional-use activities: 1) spiritual areas; 2) cultural-historical areas; 3) settlements; 4) food harvesting; 5) food processing; 6) material collecting; and 7) medicinal gathering. There may be some overlap in these categories (e.g., some spiritual sites are also historical places). The information summarized here is not intended as an exhaustive account of the traditional-use activities associated with the Salmon River delta and the surrounding landscape but is directed to my specific research questions.

55 Table 15: Categories of Traditional Use areas and activities. Category Activity Spiritual Areas Funerary Spirit power questing Ritual cleansing Ceremonial Cultural-Historical Areas Named landforms or places Storied places or landform features Historical places Settlements Residential village Seasonal camps Food Harvesting Plant gathering Fishing Hunting Avian egg collecting Food Processing Drying or smoking food Pit cooking Material Collecting Bark and root gathering Trees for construction purposes Animal parts Mining/quarrying/rock gathering Medicinal Gathering Plant gathering Non-plant medicine

Spiritual Areas

Spiritual areas include locations where activities such as funerary practices, spirit power questing, ritual cleansing, and other ceremonial practices took place. In general, when asked about where spiritual activities occurred, all the interviewees related few details, but recalled their grandparents and parents telling them stories about certain spiritual activities when they were young. They mentioned that their limited knowledge about such things and feeling of spiritual disconnection was the result of the influence of the church-run residential schools, the pressures of fitting in in public schools, and living away from home for extended periods.

Three locations were identified by interviewees that relate to spiritual activities within the study area: the cemetery located in the north of Switsemalph Indian Reserve 3; a pictograph (EeQt-12) located between Sandy Point and Tappen Bay; and a hill north of the delta where a modern sweat lodge is located. Harold Thomas indicated concern about potential highway expansions impacting the cemetery, specifically unmarked graves that might be located close to the highway (9-8-18 interview). Louis Thomas

56 discussed the location of several pictographs in the South Shuswap, including the one between Sandy Point and Tappen Bay:

They go out there for four days and four nights, and whatever vision comes to them, they paint it on the wall. It tells the story of their vision. The one over there [EeQt-12], there's a little mound—it looks like, I think it might be a sweat house, then there's deer—about four deer around it. So maybe he got visited by deer, or he might have had a vision of deer (29-7-18 interview).

Louis also identified an area on a hill immediately north of the study area where his sweat house is located: “when I'm at my sweat house, you know, I sweat— I've been sweating for about 40 years now. [My] sweat house [is] up on the hillside there? I've got my own. I don't allow anybody to use it” (29-7-18 interview).

Cultural-Historical Areas

Areas of historical importance to the Secwépemc include named landforms or places (e.g., Mount Ida [Kela7scen]), storied places or landform features (e.g., Transformer sites), and locations of famous battles or other significant events. Based on ethnographic sources and interviews, three locations of importance to local Neskonlith people were identified: Mount Ida, Shuswap Lake [Sexqéltkemc], and gravel bar near Falkland, Although not within my study area, Mount Ida and Shuswap Lake are nearby, while Falkland is located midway between Salmon Lake and the Salmon River delta, and is the location of a 13 km-long gravel bar that prevents fish from migrating further upriver.

The spiritual significance of Mount Ida was related to me by Louis Thomas. He told me a legend that was passed onto him by his grandparents and other elders in the community about a Secwépemc man hunting on the mountain:

There was a famine in the land [the Shuswap] -- there was no more game or anything, the hunter was wandering around up there [Mount Ida] and looking for food for his family, but he couldn't find any. He fell asleep and woke up and little people around them, and they asked him what are you doing on our mountain? Oh, my family's starving, we got no food. And the people told him. Oh, you know why? No. And they said, well you keep taking and taking and giving nothing back in return, and it'll create that. And what he did was he stayed up that mountain for four days and four nights sweating. That was his way of offering. And as he came down that mountain, he seen, according to the story, he found game -- shot a deer, and he took the heart and liver out. He brought back to his people and he

57 told them what -- what he'd seen and what he heard. Ever since that day, our hunters, before they go hunting, they go up there and they sweat for four days and four nights, when they went hunting, and so I think that lasted -- I've heard stories about back in the early 1900s when they were still going up there doing it (29-7-18 interview).

Various locations along the Fraser and Thompson Rivers contain “tracks” and rock formations that explain various incidents and encounters between Coyote and the salmon (Ignace and Ignace 2017:38). James Teit recorded this one:

After Coyote led salmon up the Thompson River, he continued his journey, and led the salmon to the headwaters of the North Thompson River, then, returning to Kamloops Lake, he conducted them up the South Thompson to Shuswap Lake. From the latter place he went south through the Spallumcheen and Okanagan to take the salmon up the Columbia River (1912:301).

The Splatsín Secwépemc people identify Coyote’s final canoe resting place, “Upside- Down-Canoe,” on a flat close to Falkland, which is near the headwaters of the Salmon River. This area is impassable for anadromous fish for much of the year – except during exceptional periods of freshet, which generally do not correlate with migration and spawning periods for salmonids (Ignace and Ignace 2017:38; Miles 1995).

Settlements

Settlements include seasonal camps and semi-permanent pithouse villages and log-built houses. Today, many members of the Neskonlith community live in two reserves, Switsemalph IR2 and IR3, which are located adjacent to, and on the delta, respectively. In pre-contact times, this area was not inhabited year-round as it was a heavily wooded swamp, thick with mosquitoes in the summer (Dawson et al. 1989; Mary Thomas, cited in Garibaldi 2003). Local historian Ernest Doe noted that “in 1882 there was a settlement of these natives extending along the higher ridges from Sandy Point to the mouth of Salmon River” (1971:4). Louis Thomas told me that “the only place they wintered was way over there in that bay [Tappen (EeQt-3 and EeQt-5)], I don't know if there's any more left, but there are some pit houses along that little hill there” (29-7-18 interview). He also related how his family and others moved to the Salmon River delta: “[W]hen the railway came in a lot of our people come over here to make cordwood, you know for the locomotives…our people were doing that, you know, to make money because they quit

58 traveling, and hunting and gathering…some from Enderby, from all over.” Louis added that:

they moved over to Sandy Point, but in [those] times the winter was really, really severe, [with] snow about two to three feet deep and cold wind all the time...I think they had temporary pit houses – they built the trees they put the main beams up, and they sodded it…it was too cold there, that north wind just kept blowing through there, …and that's when they started building homes all over there in the delta, [and there were] a few up and up on the hillside…[B]ut that's basically how our people started settling over here (29-7-18 interview).

When they were younger, Louis and his brothers used to camp along the shore of Shuswap Lake on the Salmon River delta: “that's where we camped on that tree line just up there. All summer, that's where we camped every summer – all us young guys” (29-7- 18 interview). He added that this was not just restricted to summer months: “we even camped out during the winter months—we had skates – old skates, and we cleared ponds and built lean-to's, and had fire going there and then we'd go down skating all weekend” (29-7-18 interview). Mary Thomas identified Sandy Point, which is north of the delta, as a spot where she and her parents used to camp at when she was a young girl (cited in Garibaldi 2003:76).

Food Harvesting

Food harvesting activities include hunting, fishing, and gathering plants and other resources. According to Ernest Doe, “The Indians wandered through the country from Shuswap to the Okanagan trapping and hunting, living on game, fish and berries…in 1887, Indians along with their squaws, [equipped with] long muzzle-loading rifles, their canoes piled high with furs, made their way to the Hudson’s Bay Co. outposts” (1971:4). Interviews with Mary Thomas (Garibaldi 2003; Turner 2005), and her children Harold, Louis, and Lorna, further documented the range of subsistence activities, and types of food resources that were (and still are) utilized, by the Neskonlith community (Tables 16- 17).

The Secwépemc people gathered a variety of plant foods along the shore of Shuswap Lake and delta of the Salmon River (Garibaldi 2003; Turner 2005; Louis Thomas 9-8-18 interview). The delta is an important habitat for spawning and rearing numerous species of fish, including salmon, red mouth, and trout. The Salmon River was once known for its

59 seasonal migrations of sockeye, coho, chinook, and pink salmon, which were speared from canoes or from the river banks during the summer and fall (Mitchell 1925) as recently as the 1950s and 1960s (Harold Thomas 9-8-18 interview; Louis Thomas 29-7- 1 interview). They used to ice fish for ling cod and suckers in the winter using spears (Harold Thomas 9-8-18 interview; Lorna Thomas 9-8-18 interview; Mitchell 1925:51-52). Likewise, both the delta and the lake were important migration and mating habitat for numerous species of birds, providing ample opportunities for Secwépemc people to hunt and collect their eggs (Garibaldi 2003:39; Louis Thomas 29-7-18 interview). Deer, moose, and bear were also hunted throughout the Salmon River valley, including the delta, and along the slopes of Mount Ida (Louis Thomas 29-7-18 interview).

60 Table 16: Traditional animal foods hunted or collected by Secwépemc people on the Salmon River Valley and Shuswap Lake. Name Secwépemc-tsin Subcategory Location Notes Word Chinook kekésu7(ll); Fishing Salmon River “Different salmon and different kinds of fish” (HrT 2018) (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) tsegwllníw̓t; “We fished, like in August salmon would start running, that's when we'd start Coho xqelte7cesell catching them” (LuT 2018) (O. kisutch) tsxeyqs; xwnup̓t

Sockeye sqelte7úw̓I; (O. nerka) sqlelten7úw̓i Trout písell; Fishing Shuswap Lake; “They floated out there and when they're spawning in that stand or gravel or (Oncorhynchus mykiss) sgwígwle Delta whatever they spawned in – you'd just spear a few out of each bunch” (LuT 2018)

“Trout that spawn and they torch them in their canoes” (LuT 2018) Ling Cod n/a Fishing Shuswap Lake “Immaculate great big lingcod” (HrT 2018) (Lota lota) Sucker tseqwtsítse; Fishing Shuswap Lake “Ling cod and the suckers… they'd ice fish for those out in the bay here” (LuT (Catostomus machrocheilus) tseq̓wmús 2018) Redside shiner n/a Fishing Delta “Just above the rail, there was a little slough there” (LuT 2018) (Richardsonius balteatus) Porcupine sets̓úye; Hunting Salmon Arm “Get all the quills out, then you can skin it and then then we just cook it up – tastes (Erethizon dorsatum) stkú7pece like chicken” (LrT 2018) Deer Hunting Mount Ida; “The boys used to hunt right down below at the house the out on the rock bluff (Mule) ts̓i7 Salmon Arm they'd see a deer up there and they'd shoot it” (LrT 2018) (Odocoileus hemionus) (White-tailed) sek̓wtúps; “That's all we lived on was the wild meat” (LrT 2018) (O. virginianus) tpqúqpe7 Moose teníye Hunting Mount Ida; (LrT 2018) (Alces alces) Salmon Arm Bear kenkekne; Hunting Mount Ida; “It's too fatty and the only way you could really eat it is if you smoke it” (LuT 2018) (Ursus americanus) kenkekne; skwleqs Salmon Arm Eggs (Duck) cpelk̓wíl̓t Non-plant food Delta “They'd go out there and their canoes, you know when the ducks started laying gathering Shuswap Lake eggs, they'd go along and they'd go to each nest and they take out a few from here, a few from there” (LuT 2018) Freshwater clams n/a Non-plant food Delta “Gathered on sandy beaches and used in chowder” Mary Thomas (Garibaldi gathering Shuswap Lake 2003). Louis Thomas = LuT; Lorna Thomas = LrT; Harold Thomas = HrT; and Mary Thomas = MaT

61 Table 17: Traditional plant foods collected by Secwépemc people on the Salmon River Valley and Shuswap Lake. Name Secwépemc-tsin Subcategory Location Notes Word Saskatoons speqpeq7úw̓i Plant food Delta; (LuT 2018) (Amelanchier gathering Salmon Arm ainfolla) Blueberries sec7epyugw Plant food Delta; “Our people used to go to pick lowbush blueberries over there. It's all (Vaccinium gathering Salmon Arm development in there now and our low bush blueberries are disappearing corymbosum) over there” (LuT 2018) Chokecherries llik̓wu; Plant food Delta; (LuT 2018) (Prunus virginiana) tskit-em gathering Salmon Arm Highbush t̓nís Plant food Delta; “All over the hillside – all over, and we had the high bush cranberries” (LuT Cranberry gathering Salmon Arm 2018) (Viburnum opulus (LrT 2018) L.) “[grew] further upriver” MaT in Garibaldi (2003:73-75) Lowbush tekt̓eqst̓i7úse7 Plant food Delta; (LuT 2018) Cranberry gathering Salmon Arm (Vaccinium oxycoccos) Bog Cranberry seketúcwe7; Plant food Delta; “There's only a few places you could find bog kind of cranberry” (LuT 2018) (E sketúcw) gathering Salmon Arm Wild Apples ápels Plant food Delta; (LrT 2018) gathering Salmon Arm Indian Rhubarb xwtellp Plant food Delta; (LrT 2018) (Heracleum gathering Salmon Arm lanatum) Skunk Cabbage tím̓et Plant food Delta; “Collected along the river bank, with the roots washed, cooked, and (Lysichitum gathering Salmon River pounded into flour MaT in Garibaldi (2003:77). americanum) Cow’s Parsnip michx Plant food Upriver areas “Eaten in the middle of May before the plant flowered” MaT in Garibaldi (Heracleum gathering (2003:77) lanatum) Water parsnip ets̓eméts Plant food Shuswap Lake MaT in Garibaldi (2003:75) (Sium gathering cicutaefolium)

62 Name Secwépemc-tsin Subcategory Location Notes Word Hazel nuts qep̓cw; Plant food Delta “The best hazel nuts around that grow down by the down by the river” (LuT (Corylus qep̓cwéllp gathering Salmon Arm 2018) californica) “They're not like the ones now you see we have on the hill side all over – they're all wormy and small (LuT 2018) Black tree lichen wíle Plant food Delta; “Black moss that was our candy…tastes like licorice” (LrT 2019) (Bryoria fremontii) gathering Salmon Arm Yellow avalanche smelta7 Plant food Neskonlith “We went picking up in Neskonlith Lake (LrT 2018). lily pursh gathering Hills (Erythronium “Collected on the Neskonlith Flats near Chase ( MaT in Garibaldi (2003:73- grandiflorumn) 70). Chocolate lily seq̓em̓xwe Plant food Highland areas “Used to be everywhere, [but are] choked out by grass, weeds, and (Fritillaria affinis) gathering everything else” (LrT 2018). Spring beauty ckwetkwtúts̓tn Plant food Highland areas “That was our rice” (LrT 2018). (Claytonia gathering virginica) Wapato ckwalkwalús; Plant food Shuswap Lake “[We] used to go out there in the lake and harvest the wapato” (LuT 2019); (Sagittaria latifolia) ckwalkwalúl’s; gathering tseckwelkwelúl’s MaT in Garibaldi (2003:73-75). Bulrushes kwtéllp Plant food Salmon River “The bulrushes the people ate that too” (LuT 2018) (Scirpus acutus) gathering Shuswap Lake Mint cwecw7ú7cw, Plant food Delta “Used to grow at the mouth of the Salmon River” Garibaldi (2003:77) (Mentha arvensis ucw7ú7cw gathering L.) Louis Thomas = LuT; Lorna Thomas = LrT; Harold Thomas = HrT; and Mary Thomas = MaT

63 Food Processing

Traditional food-processing activities known for the Salmon River delta area included drying plant and animal foods, smoking prepared fish and meat, and pit cooking. All of these have recently been re-introduced as a part of an education initiative spearheaded by Louis Thomas and other members of the Neskonlith community (Table 18). Louis took me to an area on the delta where he taught and supervised young members of his community in the construction of five pithouses, two of which are still standing (Figure 24). During my interview with Lorna Thomas, she mentioned participating in the construction of a smoke house and drying area, which Louis showed me during my visit to the delta (Figure 25).

Figure 24: Modern pithouses located on Figure 25: Louis Thomas standing in front the Salmon River delta. of a smoke house. Photograph by Joshua Fontaine. Photograph by Joshua Fontaine.

64 Table 18: Food processing activities along the Salmon River delta. Activity Secwépemc-tsin Location Notes Word Pit cooking q̓elstém Salmon River “They used to take their buggy rides from here [Salmon Arm] to Chase every year, and just pick delta; all along as they were going – [it would] take about two or three weeks to go from here to there. Shore of Collecting food along the way, they'd make pits and they'd do their pit cooking every time they'd Shuswap Lake move, they'd set one up and then on their way back they'd be able to heat them when they come back” (LrT 2018) Smoke house (for ck̓ecméllcw: Salmon River “We had a smoking [house] down below a few years ago -- quite a few years ago and we salmon); necwek̓mellcw delta smoked some salmon down there, and built one ourselves” (LrT 2018)

Drying racks necwík̓me7 “They built smoke houses and smoked the fish right down there for the winter” (LuT 2019) sq̓yex Fileting and Drying p̓úm̓llts̓e; Salmon River “[Salmon is] easier to handle when you use when you filet it…and if you don't pre-dry it, you fish q̓wemnúcw; Delta; know that meat is so, you know, kind of soft yet whenever you got the stick across it kind of sp̓úm̓llts̓e Sandy Point popped off and then drop into the fire” (LuT 2018) Drying berries kwetkwetéllp; Salmon River “My grandfather [would] get up at five o'clock every morning as far back as I can remember…all pkwetes delta day drying berries, drying fish” (HrT 2018)

65 Non-food Plant Gathering

Non-food plant gathering includes collecting plant materials such as bark for baskets, roots, and fibrous plants for weaving, and trees for making canoes and structures, such as pithouses, cabins, or mat lodges. Mary Thomas and her parents imparted their knowledge of basket making and weaving onto their eldest children, Lorna, Harold, and Louis. Lorna is skilled with weaving using bulrushes, and cattails. Harold was initially taught by his mother to make birch bark baskets, but owes much of his skill to the trial and error of a self-taught artisan. Louis was taught construction techniques and methods for building pit houses by his grandparents (Figures 26-27). Information about plant use obtained from interviews with these four individuals is provided in Table 19.

Figure 26: Modern pithouse on the Salmon River delta. Figure 27: Interior of modern Photograph by Joshua Fontaine. pithouse. Photograph by Joshua Fontaine.

66 Table 19: Non-food plant gathering on the Salmon River, Shuswap Lake and Mount Ida. Name Secwépemc-tsin Sub- Location Notes Word category Bulrushes kw(c)tellp Material Salmon River, “You can collect them anywhere” (LrT 2018) (Scirpus acutus) gathering Delta; Shuswap Used for making mats of various sizes Lake Cattail st̓nel̓tcw Material Salmon River, Collected for weaving (MaT in Garibaldi 2003:77) (Typha latifolia) gathering Delta; Shuswap Lake Tule pept̓nel̓tcw Material Salmon River, “The bulrushes the thules, all the swamp things are gone” (LuT 2018) (Schoenoplectus gathering Delta; Shuswap acutus) Lake Indian hemp spéts̓e Material Salmon River, Used to make rope (MaT in Garibaldi 2003:77) (Apocynum gathering Delta; Shuswap cannabium) Lake Cedar roots stínesten; Root Provincial Parks Provincial parks are the best place to gather cedar roots, but people are not (Thuja plicata) stínestn gathering (unspecified) allowed to harvest them (LrT 2018). Birch bark qweqwllíllen̓llp; Bark Mount Ida “The birch trees are all getting cut down [in favour of commercially-viable] (Betula papyrifera) qwllin gathering spruce trees” (LrT 2018)

“There's different grades – the thinner the [bark] the thinner [the basket]” (HrT 2018)

67 Medicinal Plant Gathering

Certain plants were collected to treat a wide array of ailments but could also be gathered to aid with discomfort related to things like menstrual cramps. Many of these known traditional medicines, but their properties are today unfamiliar to most members of the community given the transition to Western medicine. During my interview with Lorna Thomas, she identified several plants that were used for medicinal purposes (Table 20). Her mother, Mary Thomas, in collaboration with anthropologists Nancy Turner, Marianne Ignace, and Sandra Peacock, shared a wealth of information from Secwépemc elders regarding plants use for subsistence, medicine, and utilitarian purposes (Turner et al. 2017).

Table 20: Medicinal plant gathering near the Salmon River delta. Name Secwépemc-tsin Sub- Location Notes Word category Coltsfoot n/a Material Wetland Used for menstrual pads ((MaT, in Garibaldi (Tussilago gathering areas; 2003:78) farfara) Delta Invasive species Sunflower smúkwe7ce; Medicinal Salmon Roots used for unspecified medicine (LrT (Balsamorhiza tsets̓elq gathering Arm 2018) sagittata) Devil’s Club ḱets7éllp Medicinal Salmon Used for treating diabetes and cancer (LrT (Oplopanax gathering Arm 2018) horridus)

Environmental Review Results

This final section summarizes information on the impact of settler activities in the Salmon River area from the latter half of the 19th century to the present. As outlined below, activities that have had the greatest impact on the Salmon River watershed are timber harvesting, agriculture, urbanization, linear development (i.e., transportation corridors; energy infrastructure), and mining, in addition to such natural disturbances as forest fires; mountain pine beetle infestations. After first outlining the range of settler activities, I summarize the impacts these have had on the environment such as in-filling of riparian and wetland areas along the river, increased erosion along the river system, low water flows, water withdrawals, and water quality issues in the Salmon River Watershed.

68 Timber Harvesting

In 1877, Canadian geologist George Dawson described the shore of Shuswap Lake and the mouth of the Salmon River as being swampy, and noted that the heavily timbered valley would be suitable for agriculture if cleared (Marshall 2007:35). A sawmill operated from 1901 to 1924 near the present-day TransCanada Highway bridge at Salmon Arm (Figure 28). Logs were floated down the Salmon River to the mill, which processed millions of board feet during its two decades of operation, closing when farmland in the valley had been cleared (Salmon Arm Museum and Heritage Association 1980, cited in Burt and Wallis 1997:4). Timber-harvesting activities remain an important industry within the watershed where the predominant silviculture system is clearcutting, followed by replanting commercially-viable species (McPhee et al. 1996:39).

Figure 28: Brayden & Johnston sawmill, on the Salmon River circa 1901. Source: R. J. Hayney Museum.

Since 1901, 40% of the forest cover has been removed for commercial lumber, or for agricultural land clearing (Table 21) (Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, cited in Burt and Wallis 1997:1). By 1996, an estimated 51% of the area was still forested (McPhee et al. 1996:35), however, from 1995 to 2014, it was estimated that 22.79% of the gross watershed area has been harvested (Fraser Basin Council 2016:134). In 1998, the

69 equivalent clear-cut area for some areas as high as 43.6% (Forsite Consultants Ltd. 1998, cited in Fraser Basin Council 2016:134).

Table 21: Salmon River Watershed forestry inventory Forestry Resource Type Area (km2) % of Area Non-forested 134.4 8.95 Potentially forested 1,366.8 91.05 Recently logged 161.4 10.75 Older logging 439.1 29.25

Total area logged 600.5 40 Forest remaining 766 51.05 (from McPhee et al. 1996:35-36).

A 1996 report on the Salmon River watershed stated that the annual allowable cut for the Okanagan timber supply area was 2,615,000 m3, then projected to be sustainable until 2010, with a long-term goal of reducing this by 10% per decade until the goal of 2,022,000 m3 was achieved (McPhee et al. 1996:38). A follow-up study in 2016 by the Fraser Basin Council (Table 22) indicates that these projections have not been maintained, instead they have increased by almost 1,000,000 m3. Intensified deforestation has impacted the stream hydrology and water quality with increased water temperatures and erosion levels from lack of vegetative cover and grazing cattle, which also contaminate the water with their feces (Gwanikar et al. 1998:36).

Table 22: Allowable annual cuts for the Okanagan Timber Supply area. Effective Date Allowable Annual Cut m3/yr Allowable Annual Cut km2/yr 1989 2,700,000 2.7 1992 2,615,000 2.6 1993 2,804,000 2.8 1994 2,615,000 2.6 1996 2,615,000 2.6 2001 2,655,000 2.6 2006 3,375,000 3.3 2012 3,100,000 3.1 (from Fraser Basin Council 2016:59).

Agricultural Activity

Agricultural activity in the Thompson-Shuswap region is intensive, particularly along the South Thompson corridor and in the arable lands to the south of Shuswap Lake, the Salmon River valley, and Shuswap River basin (Fraser Basin Council 2016:73). It is

70 estimated that 80% arable land in the Salmon River Valley (or 5.6 % of the watershed) was being used for agriculture by 1954 (Burt and Wallis 1997:4). The Salmon River below Westwold is currently utilized for a variety of agricultural activities (Table 23), with the Salmon River delta being the largest area of high capability agricultural land in the entire watershed (McPhee et al. 1996:33).

Table 23: Estimated number of dairy and poultry farms, Salmon River watershed River Section Dairy Commercial Poultry Middle Section: Westwold to Silver Creek 3 1 Lower Section: Silver Creek to Salmon Arm 13 5 Total 16 6 (from Fraser Basin Council 2016:73).

Cattle grazing, feed crop production, and dairying are the main agricultural activities along the river valley bottom, although other agricultural activities are also practiced (Table 24) (Fraser Basin Council 2016:73). Feed for livestock is generally produced on the farm using sprinkler irrigation, which can be taxing on local surface and groundwater sources (Miles 1995). Manure generated on the farm is used as a soil conditioner and fertilizer, which has raised concerns about impacts to water quality at certain times of the year (Fraser Basin Council 2016:73). Furthermore, cattle are often observed to have uncontrolled access to the river, which results in a breakdown of bank vegetation and structure, contributing to river sedimentation, and pollution (Burt and Wallis 1997:45).

Table 24: Agricultural activities in the Salmon River estuary. Crop Livestock Ginseng Dairy (dominant) Orchard: Apple/Cherry (minor) Beef Berries: Raspberries/Blueberries Poultry Strawberries Pigs Vegetables (full range) Sheep Irrigated corn silage Goats Irrigated forage: silage/pasture/hay Horses: breeding/pleasure Improved pasture Bison Christmas Trees Emu/Ostrich (from McPhee et al. 1996:28).

Urban Development

The city of Salmon Arm is the largest urban area in the Shuswap, and the within the Salmon River watershed. Urban areas increase the amount of impervious surface area

71 in a watershed, which affects the hydrology by increasing overland flow and flood peaks. Residential development degrades water quality by point source pollution such as storm water and wastewater inputs, and septic seepage (Fraser Basin Council 2016:82). Settlement along the Salmon River is mainly rural and associated with agricultural activity, except for the small communities at Silver Creek, Falkland, and Westwold. In addition to impacts associated with agriculture, residential settlement contributes to clearing of riparian vegetation and seepage from septic tanks (Fraser Basin Council 2016:136).

Linear Development – Highways, Roads, Railroads, and Utilities

The earliest and most visible linear development to impact the Salmon River delta was the construction of the railway in 1885. In addition to clearing forested land for the right- of-way, the delta was leveled, and the river channel rerouted near the mouth of the river (Mitchell 1925). Today, the road density for the Salmon River watershed is 2.54 km/km2, which includes urban, rural, and logging roads, as well as Highways 1 and 97, both of which cross the river, and contribute run-off pollutants to the waterways (Fraser Basin Council 2016:134). The construction of logging and rural roads contributes to increased sedimentation and pollution to water courses (Fraser Basin Council 2016:67).

There is ongoing concern over potential toxic spills into salmon-bearing waters resulting from train derailments or accidents on roadways and the risk is considerable since highways and railways follow valley bottoms and run along rivers and lakeshores. Additionally, road maintenance activities, such as applying sand and salt during winter months, contribute sediments and increase the salinity of the water (Fraser Basin Council 2016:78, 85). Finally, riprapping for channel containment and erosion control causes a reduction of channel complexity through the loss of side channels and off- channel habitat (Fraser Basin Council 2016:82-85).

Mining Activities

Mineral-related impacts in the Salmon River watershed have not been significant due to limited mining activity near important salmon-bearing streams, However, the potential for future mining activity is high. Mineral exploration activities initially occurred during the

72 Columbia gold rush and carried on with the Scotch Creek gold rush in 1865 (Cooperman and Zoretich 1988:3).

The first mining claim in Salmon Arm was staked on Mt. Ida in 1899, and two large shafts yielded moderate amounts of silver and a little gold before the claim was abandoned in 1925 (Cooperman 2014). Using Map Place 2 from the British Columbia Geological Survey, I identified nine areas of mineral potential within a 5-km radius of the study area, including uranium, gypsum, nickel, copper, molybdenum, silver, lead, gold, zinc, platinum, tin, and antimony. Currently there are no operational metal mines in the watershed. Industrial mineral mines within the watershed include Harper Ranch (limestone) and Falkland (gypsum) (BC Ministry of Energy and Mines, 2015, cited in Fraser Basin Council 2016:87).

Natural Disturbances

The two main natural disturbances that have impacted the Salmon River watershed are wildfires and infestations of Mountain Pine Beetle. The watershed has experienced multiple wildfires in the past 50 years, including one at Gleneden, northwest of the delta in the 1970s (McPhee et al. 1996:41); one on Mt. Ida and the Fly Hills Area, south of Salmon Arm, in 1998 (>6,400 ha lost), and another near Falkland in 2003 (1,620 ha lost) (Fraser Basin Council 2016:134). It is estimated that between the forest fire, and land- clearing activities, almost 50% of the area below Mount Ida has been denuded (McPhee et al. 1996:41).

Post-wildfire water quality monitoring in the small creeks draining the affected areas showed high levels of turbidity, sediment, and nutrients; sedimentation measures were high enough in some creeks to the detriment of aquatic life. Another impact that wildfires have on fish and fish habitat include the loss of riparian cover, resulting in increased temperature variation, decreased leaf and insect drop, streambank instability and increased erosion, and less recruitment of large woody debris (Grace 2003, cited in Fraser Basin Council 2016:134). The Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic from the 1990s and 2000s has impacted the Salmon River watershed more than any other major sub- basin of the South Thompson –Shuswap Region, with over 35,000 ha (22.4%) of the mainstream watershed impacted (Fraser Basin Council 2016:134).

73 Land Clearing and In-filling Along the Salmon River

Land clearing and stream diversions have resulted in upland and foreshore erosion and water quality degradation. Foreshore habitat has been impacted by dredging and filling and continues to be impacted as sediments are continuously deposited in the mudflats of the delta, and Shuswap Lake (Miles 1995:11). Construction of the wharf, marinas, boat launches, breakwaters, retaining walls, and groynes has resulted in loss of foreshore substrate and riparian vegetation (Table 25) vital for maintaining fish and wildlife habitat (Fraser Basin Council 2016:82). Valley flat development (i.e. draining and in-filling) has reduced the number of wetlands, and backchannel areas, which are crucial to positive fisheries habitat (Burt and Wallis 1997:1; Miles 1995:11).

Table 25: Loss of vegetation in the Salmon River Valley. Extent Total (km) Total (%) Little or no bank vegetation 42.6 28 Less than half the channel width 33.5 22 Unvegetated or poorly vegetated 76.1 50 (from Miles 1995:9)

Miles’s (1995) analysis of air photos indicate that approximately 50% of the vegetation between Westwold and Salmon Arm had been removed between the 1950s and 1995 (p. 11). 20 km (13%) of the channel banks between Westwold and Salmon Arm are actively eroding; 14 km of eroded banks (71%) are associated with banks that have either no vegetation or only a narrow fringe that is insufficient to mitigate these impacts (Miles 1995:9). The loss of vegetation has resulted in (a) a wider (10-100 m) and shallower channel (0.5-1.4 m), which restricts access to migrating salmonids and other fish, (b) higher rates of channel shifting, (c) increased sediment loads and reduction in stream shade, and (d) warmer summer water temperatures (Gwanikar et al. 1998: 55; Miles 1995:7-11). Earlier analysis of aerial photos identified the areas where the river channel has been diverted at least twice since the 19th century (Miles 1995:67), which has inhibited access to upriver spawning and rearing habitat for anadromous fish.

Low Water Flows

As early as 1954, the Salmon River experienced a low residual flow inadequate for both the maintenance of salmon stocks and for fulfilling the demands from irrigation (Burt and Wallis 1997:4-5). At the delta of the Salmon River, the river averages 1-3 m3/s, with a

74 peak of 15-25 m3/s during freshet (Gwanikar et al. 1998:76-77). Water extraction below Westwold takes almost half of the available surface water during August and September, which severely inhibits salmon reproduction (Obedkoff et al. 1976, cited in Burt and Wallis 1997:5). A water-use study within the watershed (Table 26) found that the city of Salmon Arm maintains a public water supply from a surface water source (Shuswap Lake) while the other municipalities within the watershed (Falkland, Westwold, Silver Creek) utilize groundwater sources (Gwanikar et al. 1998:39). In total, 2,913 wells have been constructed throughout the Salmon River watershed (Gwanikar et al 1998:79); additionally, there are 284 water licenses, each equal to 0.014 m3/s or 1,019,032.85 liters per day of surface water withdrawal (Gwanikar et al. 1998:40) from the river for domestic purposes, irrigation, and water for livestock.

Table 26: Water withdrawal from the Salmon River Watershed. Type No. of licenses Amount of withdrawal Liters/day per license (m3/s)/day Agricultural 58 0.6409 m3/s 38,453.99 (groundwater) Agricultural 425 1.628 m3/s 97,199.99 (surface) Domestic Unknown* 0.651 m3/s 39,059.99 (Groundwater) Domestic (Surface) 284 0.014 m3/s 839.98 Total 767 2.9339 m3/s 175,553.95 (Gwanikar et al. 1998:39-40). * Water licenses are not required for groundwater use, which makes it unregulated, and can cause overdrawn water tables (Obedkoff, cited in Gwanikar et al. 1998:40).

Decline in Water Quality in the Salmon River Watershed

Agriculture, forestry, urban settlement, and wastewater from sewage and industrial activities are identified as the activities most contributing pollutants to the Salmon River (Fraser Basin Council 2016; Gwanikar et al. 1998; Miles 1995). Impacts from these activities include high turbidity, nutrient loading, and bacteriological contamination (Fraser Basin Council 2016:79). Other factors such as dissolved oxygen, pH levels, alkaline levels, and presence of metals were deemed to be within acceptable ranges, but were not ruled out as having significant impacts on water quality for the Salmon River (Gwanikar et al. 1998: 56-58, 83, 91-94).

75 Considerable erosion is apparent near the mouth of the Salmon River (Gwanikar et al. 1998: 22). Sedimentation in the river is high due to ongoing valley flat development, loss of bank vegetation – especially mature trees, and heavy erosion of upriver areas (Miles 1995:11). Turbidity levels at the mouth of the river have been measured at 650 mg/L and are associated with runoff from plowed fields, cattle grazing, and roads (Gwanikar et al. 1998:85). The larger sediments are deposited within the delta, while the finer sediments are either deposited on the mudflat, north of the train bridge, or are carried further into Shuswap Lake (Miles 1995:12).

The Salmon River contributes a substantial nutrient load to Shuswap Lake, resulting in trophic levels higher in Salmon Arm Bay, and Tappen Bay than in other parts of the lake (DFO 1997, cited in Fraser Basin Council 2016:135). The Salmon River contributes an estimated 22,200 kg total phosphorous annually to Shuswap Lake, of which 60–98% is attributed to agricultural activities from manure and fertilizers, with the remainder originating contaminated groundwater seepage from septic tanks, forestry, and linear development (Gwanikar et al. 1998:85-88). The river also contributes an estimated 359,000 kg total nitrogen to the lake, of which 37% is attributed to agriculture, and 59% is attributed to timber harvesting and forest fires (FBC 2016:79). Ammonia levels peak during late winter and early spring in the Salmon River, possibly resulting from runoff from livestock areas, with the highest levels recorded near cattle farms (Gwanikar et al. 1998:89).

The Salmon River frequently exhibits levels of fecal coliforms that exceed the water quality objectives of 10 colonies/100 mL for raw water for human use, and 200 colonies/100 ml for livestock use. At their maximum, fecal coliforms were observed to be 2,400 colonies/100 ml (Gwanikar et al. 1998:90). These high levels are attributed to livestock feedlots, winter feeding areas, manure handling and storage, and seepage from septic fields, with the highest levels being detected in the middle reaches of the river, which also has the densest concentrations of cattle feedlots (Lilley and Webber 1997, cited in Gwanikar et al. 1998:80). The Salmon Arm Sewage Treatment Plant discharges effluent into Shuswap Lake and is a major contributor of nutrients into Salmon Arm Bay and Tappen Bay, as are an unknown number of domestic discharges, two abattoirs, a cheese-making facility, and a mobile home park (Gwanikar et al. 1998:44).

76 Impacts on Salmon Stocks

The Salmon River fish stocks have been depressed from historic levels due to intensive canning activities at the mouth of the Fraser River, restricted access to the mouth of river from low water flows and blockages from log jams, habitat degradation, and changes to the ecosystem brought about by intensive settlement by Euro-Canadians (Burt and Wallis 1997:3; Mitchell 1925:10). Settlers trapped and hunted many of the birds and mammals responsible for preying upon fish species such as ling cod that eat salmon fry and eggs (Mitchell 1925:10). Many of these settlers overfished sockeye during their spawning run – for food, fertilizer, and sport (Mitchell 1925:10).

In 1913, the Hell’s Gate slide on the Fraser River significantly reduced salmon stocks in the Salmon River ((Mitchell 1925::36-37). Prior to 1913, adult stocks returning to the Salmon River were dominated by an early summer run of sockeye (Burt and Wallis 1997:4). During the 1913 spawning run, approximately 1,000 sockeye were reported to have entered the mouth of the river, however all were speared by local settlers near the sawmill (Figure 29) (Mitchell 1925: 37). After 1913, the sockeye summer run dwindled, and by 1925 was virtually extinct (Burt and Wallis 1997:4). Conversely, coho and chinook, which are stronger swimmers, and thus able to overcome the hydraulic forces created by the Hell’s Gate slide, were not as adversely impacted, and continue to spawn in moderate numbers on the Salmon River. Although pink salmon may have been present historically, currently only chinook, sockeye, coho, and rainbow trout are present12 (Burt and Wallis 1997:10) (Figure 29) (Table 27). It is believed that the sockeye present in the river today are strays from the Adams River stock, with their 4- year peak abundance correlating with that of the Adams River run (Burt and Wallis 1997:4).

12 Fish counts were limited to anadromous species.

77 Salmon River Salmon Counts by Species (1947-1994)

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

Sockeye Coho Chinook

Figure 29: Salmon River salmon counts by species. Source: Brown et el. 1979:168; McPhee et al. 1996:59.

78 Table 27: Fish counts for the Salmon River (1947–1994). Year Sockeye Coho Chinook Total 1947 0 75 200 275 1948 0 75 400 475 1949 0 200 750 950 1950 0 1,500 1,500 3,000 1951 0 750 750 1,500 1952 0 3,500 1,500 5,000 1953 0 400 750 1,150 1954 0 0 0 0 1955 0 7,500 200 7,700 1956 0 400 200 600 1957 0 1,500 25 1,525 1958 0 3500 200 3,700 1959 0 750 200 950 1960 0 1,500 200 1,700 1961 0 1,500 25 1,525 1962 45 750 400 1,195 1963 0 1,500 200 1,700 1964 0 750 75 825 1965 0 3,500 200 3,700 1966 0 400 200 600 1967 0 200 200 400 1968 0 1,000 200 1,200 1969 0 1,500 200 1,700 1970 0 750 200 950 1971 0 1,500 400 1,900 1972 0 2,000 200 2,200 1973 0 600 150 750 1974 92 1,800 250 2,142 1975 0 750 200 950 1976 0 900 200 1,100 1977 0 1,588 300 1,888 1978 0 1,500 350 1,850 1979 0 2,000 300 2,300 1980 0 1,300 360 1,660 1981 0 500 300 800 1982 0 800 700 1,500 1983 0 1,000 300 1,300 1984 0 1,550 850 2,400 1985 0 3,800 1,670 5,470 1986 1,465 2,700 1,000 5,165 1987 0 2,476 641 3,117 1988 0 4,405 1,252 5,657 1989 0 2,517 1,456 3,973 1990 1,300 1,070 1,000 3,370 1991 41 308 616 965 1992 0 2,250 300 2,550 1993 324 500 1,850 2,674 1994 78 129 1,262 1,469 (Brown et al. 1979:168; McPhee et al. 1996:59).

79 Chapter Summary

This chapter reviewed the available archaeological, ethnographic/traditional knowledge, and environmental data for the Salmon River delta, and the surrounding landscape. Archaeological site profiles indicate a high level of disturbance to the delta – especially the southern portion of the study area, where most of the archaeological materials were recovered from disturbed matrices. Ethnographic and traditional knowledge studies demonstrate a range of subsistence and non-subsistence activities that were carried out in and around the Salmon River delta. Interviews with elders provided insights into how the delta and Salmon River has been impacted by farming, cattle grazing, irrigation, deforestation, and urbanization. Finally, the environmental impact studies provided data that demonstrates the extent of land clearing from deforestation, agriculture and urban development, and the correlation of these activities with destruction of riparian and wetland environments, increased sedimentation, decreased vegetation, low water levels, and decreased water quality in the Salmon River and Shuswap Lake.

80 Chapter 5.

Discussion

Understanding long-term human-environment interactions on the Salmon River delta requires an approach that transcends focusing only on archaeological investigations, or on ethnographic sources, or on environmental data individually. Each of these approaches provide unique insights into how the Salmon River watershed has been impacted by settler activities from the 19th century to the present, but by themselves reveal only portions of the complete picture. In this chapter I discuss how these, in combination, can provide a greater understanding of long-term human-environment interactions on the Salmon River delta. I have organized these combinations of approaches into four themes: 1) archaeology versus ethnohistory, ethnography, and Traditional Knowledge; 2) archaeology versus environmental studies; 3) ethnography, ethnohistory, and Traditional Knowledge versus environmental studies; and 4) synthesis of the approaches.

Theme 1: Archaeology versus Ethnohistory, Ethnography, and Traditional Knowledge

Archaeology, ethnographic and ethnohistoric data, and Traditional Knowledge can be complimentary approaches to understanding the relationship that Indigenous peoples have with the land. While archaeology is primarily focused on material evidence, which can provide a temporal context for past human behaviours, ethnography, ethnohistory, and Traditional Knowledge offer insights into activities and ideas that do not easily preserve in the archaeological record. In this section I compare what is learned from these approaches to provide a more complete picture of how this area was used in the past by local Secwépemc people.

The varied riparian, forested, and wetland environments on the delta provided habitat for a wide range of food resources including mammals, birds (including eggs), fish, and freshwater clams, along with berries, tubers, and greens (Garibaldi 2003:76-78). Non- subsistence activities on the delta included collecting fibrous plants for weaving, cedar roots and birch bark for basket-making, and wood for construction of pithouses and

81 canoes (Garibaldi 2003:30-34). Shuswap Lake and the Salmon River valley were used as transportation corridors to access a wider range of resources. Other areas, such as Mount Ida (Kela7scen), represented spiritually important places, while the pictographs at EeQt-12 may embody spiritual activities as they were taking place (Golder Associates 2012:1; Louis Thomas 29-7-18 interview).

Artifact Assemblages and Activities

Archaeological investigations in the project area have revealed occupation in the area going back thousands of years. Lithics comprise the main cultural material recovered from the study area, including two temporally diagnostic artifacts, a biface, numerous flake tools, and utilized flakes. These flake tools were identified as an expedient multi-tool, an acute-angle scraper, a thumbnail scraper, gravers, and multiple retouched flakes with micro-flaking consistent with meat and hide scraping, chopping, and cutting (Table 6-7, 13-14)). The utilized flakes represent expedient tools likely used for various subsistence tasks relating to food and non-food plant harvesting, hunting, fishing, food processing, and hide preparation.

One microblade core was recovered at EeQt-69 (Table 13). In this region, microblade technology is commonly found throughout the Middle Period (7,500 to 4,500) (Magne and Fedje 2007:171; Rousseau 2004:5-6). However, radiocarbon dating of microblade sites in the Thompson and Okanagan-Similkameen regions have found that 40% are associated with the Late Period (4,500 to 240 BP), which would indicate that the technology persisted longer than previously believed (Copp 2006:420; Magne and Fedje 2007:178). This artifact was recovered from imported fill material, so nothing can be said of its original context or age.

A Shuswap point was recovered from the surface at EeQt-36 (Table 3). The point type generally dates to 3,500 to 2,400 BP (Rousseau 2008:231) and corresponds with the emergence of semi-sedentary lifeways in the South Thompson and Shuswap Lakes regions (Richards and Rousseau 1987:22-31; Rousseau

82 2008:237). This artifact indicates that someone was traveling and possibly hunting in the area at that time.

Lorna Thomas identified the ridge west of the delta as an area where her brothers used to go hunting, “out on the rock bluff they'd see a deer up there and they'd shoot it. Then they'd all run up there and carry it all back down everything with that's all we lived on was the wild meat” (09-08-2018 interview). Archaeological investigations on the ridge west of the delta identified two archaeological sites (Table 4) that are located on exposed rock bluffs that provide a commanding view of Shuswap Lake and the Salmon River valley (Figures 5-6). Mary Thomas and Louis Thomas identified Mount Ida and the other mountains of the Salmon River valley as important areas for hunting moose, deer, and bear, as well as for collecting birch bark for making baskets and other uses (Turner 2005:138-140; Louis Thomas 29-07-2018 interview).

Plant remains

Archaeological evidence for plant use on the Salmon River delta is non-existent. A post- 1846 birch CMT is located near the Salmon River. While it is not archaeological, it represents traditional-use activities on the land (Kamp 2011:5). However, ethnographic sources provide ample documentation of the importance of plant resources in the area (Garibaldi 2003; Thomas et al. 2016; Turner 2005). Continuity of traditional plant collection and consumption was documented in my interviews with Louis Thomas, Lorna Thomas, and Harold Thomas (Tables 17, 19, and 20).

Recovering archaeological evidence for plant remains in the Interior Plateau is uncommon for two reasons. First, until recently few bothered to look for it via flotation to recover microbotanical remains (Lepofsky and Lyons 2013; Peacock 1998; Pokotylo and Froes 1983). Second, the preservation of plant remains requires either carbonization or environmental conditions for preservation, such as very dry or very wet conditions. However, plant harvesting and processing can also be inferred by such tools as digging stick handles and earth-ovens (Pokotylo and Froes 1983:129; Teit 1909:514). Excavations on floodplains in the Thompson region have yielded deep deposits containing various types of organic and inorganic artifacts spanning the Middle to Late

83 Periods (Nicholas 2004:13). There is a possibility of preserved organic materials in the delta due to the presence of small wetlands, seasonal flooding, and high water table.

Pit-cooking and fires

Within the Group 1 sites, scatters of fire altered rock were located at EeQt-35 and EeQt- 37 (Ursus Heritage Consulting 2016a,c). There were also two small depressions recorded at EeQt-35 (Ursus Heritage Consulting 2012a), but shovel tests for each depression were negative for cultural materials. Lorna Thomas talked about how her mother and grandparents used to travel by wagon on a road adjacent to the railway track that connected Salmon Arm to Chase (now the TransCanada highway), “collecting food along the way they'd make pits and they'd do their pit cooking every time they'd move they'd set one up and then on their way back they'd be able to eat them” (Interview notes 09-08-2018). The proximity of the fire-altered rock scatters to the two depressions could suggest an association with each other, and may indicate pit-cooking, where the pit was dug up after the food was cooked (Pokotylo and Froes 1983:129; Peacock 1998:iii; Teit 1909:96). Alternatively, the fire-altered rock could simply be the remnants of cooking fires, with the depressions representing unrelated activities.

North of Sandy Point are several pits recorded near the pictograph site (EeQt-12). However, no subsurface testing was done on these features (Golder Associates 2012:1), and the association may be accidental. These depressions may represent historical-era pit cooking events, or pre-contact cache pits, or railway construction-related activities from the 1880s (Golder Associates 2012:1).

Theme 2: Archaeology versus Environmental Studies

Archaeological investigations provide a wealth of data about human impacts on the environment in the past. Indeed, most of the site reports used in this study included observations about a variety of environmental disturbances to the area. In sites where subsurface investigations were conducted, the presence of historical debris in deep deposits (i.e. 1.5-2 m below the surface) containing undifferentiated fill material indicates the extent of these disturbances. Additionally, stratigraphic profiles reveal the relative depth of disturbances from construction, land development, and agricultural activities. Environmental studies and reports are a complementary source of historical information

84 regarding settler activities, including timber harvesting, mining, and agricultural activities. Here I compare information from environmental studies and archaeological reports to demonstrate the impacts to the landscape of the Salmon River delta since settlement by Euro-Canadians in the late 19th century.

Group 1 and 2 sites

The absence of subsurface data restricts archaeological statements about the sites in the western and northern sections of the study area (Figure 4). Surface surveys of the western section (Group 2) noted ground disturbance from land-clearing activities, including logging in the form of stumps and second-growth forest, and the construction of the railway and highway (Table 4) (Markey 2016a-c). The northern area (Group 1) was partially logged in the late 19th century to clear a right of way for the railway, which was later expanded to accommodate the construction of the TransCanada Highway (Table 3) (Ursus Heritage Consulting 2012a-c). The northern and western areas were subsequently logged in the early 20th century (Markey 2016c:3). Although timber- harvesting activities undoubtedly impacted archaeological sites on or near the surface of these sites, the full extent of these impacts is unknown.

Group 3 sites

All sites in the southern section of the study area are located near the TransCanada Highway (Figure 4), where historical agricultural activities were noted, or where residential and commercial developments are present (Tables 5-14). This area was deforested in the past for both the highway right of way, and for agricultural and residential purposes. The sites in the southwestern section of the study area (EeQt-62- 65) exhibited extensive levels of site disturbance, with most of the cultural materials recovered from imported fill material (1.5-2 m) used to artificially level the terrain ahead of residential and commercial construction activities (Tables 6-9). It is highly probable that the cultural materials were a part of the fill material that was brought in, or that an existing archaeological site in the area was heavily disturbed and redeposited in this area. The sites located within areas that were used as commercial RV lots (EeQt-64-65) exhibited signs of soil compaction from continuous motor traffic (Tables 8-9). Other sites in this area were impacted by the construction of buildings as demonstrated by the presence of both historical and modern debris within the matrices (Tables 6-9).

85 Evaluative Unit 4 at EeQt-62 (Figure 12) shows wooden planks at 121 and 228 cm below the surface, likely belonging to an historic structure, with what appears to be successive layers of flood deposits above them (Table 6). It is unclear when these layers date to, but likely in the early 20th century; the 2-m depth of deposits demonstrates the large quantity of sediment that is laid down during flooding events. This could indicate that archaeological deposits are probably deeply buried throughout the floodplain.

The sites along the south-central corridor (EeQt-29, EeQt-66-70) displayed moderate to high levels of disturbance, from construction activities related to commercial and residential development, and agricultural activities (Tables 5, 10-14). Most cultural materials were recovered from disturbed matrices that contained historical debris. Subsurface testing indicated the presence of fill material to a depth of 160–200 cm in the sites EeQt-66, 68-69, which corresponds with the extensive commercial and residential developments at those sites (Tables 10, 12-13). EeQt-29 contained less fill material (only 30 cm) than the other sites (Table 5), but all artifacts were recovered within matrices that also contained historical debris (Kamp 2011). The area around this site was also noted to have been disturbed from installations of sewage lines, hydro poles, road construction, channel cutting for stream diversion, and draining and filling wetland areas. EeQt-67 and EeQt-70 are located within agricultural land (Tables 11 and 14); minor disturbance from plowing activities was limited to the top levels of soil, with intact archaeological deposits below (Figures 20 and 23).

Theme 3: Ethnography, Ethnohistory, and Traditional Knowledge versus Environmental Studies

Comparing ethnohistoric and ethnographic data, Traditional Knowledge, and environmental studies offers complimentary approaches to understanding the impacts that urban and rural development and resource extraction activities have on the environment. Environmental studies tend to focus on measurable impacts to the environment, such as declining fish stocks, pollutants in waterbodies, or levels of deforestation and land clearing. Ethnohistoric and ethnographic data provide important information about human-environment relationships, the loss access to important cultural areas, and the decline in traditionally important plants and animals. Concerns about these environmental impacts had been voiced by Mary Thomas (Garibaldi 2003), and later elaborated on by her children during my interviews with them (Table 29). In this

86 section, I compare the information from these different approaches to provide a comprehensive synthesis of environmental and cultural explanations on the impacts to the Salmon River delta since settlement by Euro-Canadians began in the late 19th century.

87 Table 28: Indigenous perspectives on causes of environmental changes and loss of traditional-use areas in the Salmon River Valley and delta. Activity Types of Settler Location Notes/Sources Activities Cattle trampling native vegetation Agriculture Salmon River valley (MaT in Garibaldi 2003:81) and delta Pollution (oil and gasoline from motor and Linear development Salmon River valley (LrT 2018) boat traffic) and delta Shuswap Lake Oil used to control mosquito populations Pollution Salmon River delta (MaT in Garibaldi 2003:81) Draining and in-filling of wetlands Residential, rural, and Salmon River valley (MaT in Garibaldi 2003:76) agricultural and delta development Shuswap Lake Land clearing Urban and rural Salmon River delta (LuT 2018). development Deforestation Forestry Salmon River valley (MaT in Garibaldi 2003:80; LuT 2018, Turner 2005:138-140) and delta

Lower river water levels Agriculture (Irrigation) Salmon River valley (MaT in Garibaldi 2003:81; HrT 2018; LuT 2018; LrT 2018; and delta MaT in Turner 2005:135-136). Sedimentation/Siltation Agriculture/Forestry Salmon River valley (LuT 2018) and delta Channelization of the river Urban and Rural Salmon River delta (HrT 2018; LuT 2018; MaT in Garibaldi 2003:81) development The Hell’s Gate slide of 1913 Fisheries Salmon River, delta (LuT 2018) Overfishing Fisheries Salmon River, delta, (LuT 2018) Shuswap Lake

88 The Decline of Salmon on the Salmon River

During his first visit to the Salmon River in 1889, David Mitchell described his initial encounter with the great sockeye run, where “the sockeye salmon were so thick in the river that one could walk across on their backs,” and he estimated them to number in the hundreds of thousands (1925:15). According to Mitchell, the 1909 run was the last big run on the Salmon River, prior to the Hell’s Gate slides in 1913 and 1914 (1925:25). Following the Hell’s Gate slide, Mitchell estimated that approximately only a thousand sockeye entered the river to spawn, but all were speared by white settlers below the sawmill dam, which was near the present-day TransCanada highway bridge, west of Salmon Arm (1925:37). By 1925, the sockeye were virtually extinct on the Salmon River (Burt and Wallis 1997:4), but these estimates are difficult to verify as fish counts were not regularly conducted or published until 1948 (Brown et al. 1979:168). Conversely, coho and chinook, which are stronger swimmers, were able to overcome the hydraulic forces created by the Hell’s Gate slide and thus not as adversely impacted; they continue to spawn in moderate numbers on the Salmon River (Burt and Wallis 1997:10).

Mary Thomas related her experiences as a girl growing up in the 1920s and 1930s. She remembered that the Salmon River “used to be just full of sockeye salmon. In the fall, spring salmon went up, coho salmon went up to spawn…they were getting less and less, and I would ask why – what is happening?” (cited in Turner 2005:135-136). This first- hand account indicates that the sockeye runs persisted for some years beyond 1925. Louis Thomas indicated that the Hell’s Gate slide as the primary reason for the decline of the salmon, especially the sockeye runs: “I think that's what killed our sockeye because there was millions of them going up there” (29-7-18 Interview). Although Louis was born after the last sockeye runs occurred on the Salmon River, he was told stories about them by his mother, and by his grandparents, who raised him.

Mary Thomas recalled changes to the water levels of the Salmon River noticed during her childhood and adolescence. She stated, “I saw the water going down, my people used to go down to the river to torch for fish at night and I’d spearfish; now you couldn’t get a boat to go down that river” (cited in Turner 2005:135-136). Lorna Thomas identified over-allocation of water licenses, and lack of regulation for water withdrawal, especially during droughts, as significant factors contributing to the low water levels of the river, that harm migrating salmon: “by the time they get down this way they're so bruised

89 [because there is] not enough water. They're getting all bruised up by the time they make it down here, they're half dead and the seagulls are eating them” (09-08-2018 interview).

These accounts by local Secwépemc elders are corroborated by environmental studies that have found that the Salmon River is prone to low flows and high temperatures, which at certain times of year, cannot sustain fish populations and meet agricultural irrigation needs (McPhee et al. 1996:1). During his visit to the area in July and August of 1877, George Dawson made note of the low water levels on the Salmon River (Marshall 2007:33-35). Migration and spawning of salmon in the Salmon River overlaps with the irrigation season, which also happens to be the dry season13 (Summit Environmental Consultants Ltd., 2015, cited in Fraser Basin Council 2016:134-135). Water issues were noted as early as the 1930s and 1940s with the increased need for both irrigation and potable city water (Garibaldi 2003:44). Irrigation has reduced input flows from tributary streams, with one study indicating that only Bolean Creek had flows reaching the main stream, and that the lack of flows in other streams may be due to water withdrawal, with gravity feed pipes and collection pools located up the valley walls (Burt and Wallis 1997:45). Flooding irrigation (ditches and flumes) generally return approximately 30% of the water used back to the river, while sprinkler/drip methods, today the predominant form of irrigation in the watershed, do not produce as high of a return to the river (Gwanikar et al. 1998:40).

Deforestation

Interviews conducted with Neskonlith elders provided accounts of forestry practices, including timber harvesting, as a major cause of environmental damage throughout the Salmon River watershed. Mary Thomas stated that, “I saw the destruction that was going on. I looked at the streams, where they’d logged right down to the streams, and it didn’t hold back the water – it just eroded and filled the little rivers that feed the big rivers” (cited in Turner 2005:136). Her son Louis Thomas described the impact of deforestation to the watershed: “you go up in a plane, [and] you can see it right up and

13 2015 was a particularly bad drought year for many streams in the BC Interior. Heavy irrigation significantly reduced water levels in the river – well below the critical flow threshold for chinook migration and spawning (Summit Environmental Consultants Ltd., 2015 in Fraser Basin Council 2016:134-135).

90 down the valley – all the clear cuts...they learned how to hide it – there's a mountain there, they don't log that part. They go behind it there and clear it all out – they look at areas where you can't see” (29-07-2018 interview). Mary Thomas also indicated that the forested slopes of Mount Ida (Kela7scen) had been impacted by historic mineral exploration, extensive and destructive logging practices, with many leafy trees such as birch, aspen, and alder being deliberately cut down or controlled with herbicides in favour of more commercially-viable conifers (Turner 2005:138-140). During another interview, she added that “removal of birch and other leafy species, has reduced the trees that store water, which has led to creeks and rivers drying up” (Garibaldi 2003:80).

Increased erosion and sedimentation were also identified by Neskonlith elders I interviewed, as having an impact on river flows, and the Salmon River delta. Louis Thomas described this siltation of the delta and the lake: “all the silt is coming down, and they keep trying to dredge it all the time, and it's not really working. My theory is that all the clear-cut logging that's going on, and the fires, you know, when the snow comes in there, it melts and the sun hits it, it just gushes down, and that creates a lot of siltage too” (29-07-2018 interview). Louis also related his grandparent’s knowledge of logging practices in the past: “they'd have log booms come to the mill just below the bridge there – at the highway there, there was a sawmill, and every spring they would float all of the logs down, so that's how they would get the logs to the mill. So, the river must have been fairly deep at that time” (29-07-2018 interview). A sawmill (Figure 28) operated from 1902-1925 in the area where the Salmon River Bridge is now located (Salmon Arm Museum and Heritage Association 1980, cited in Burt and Wallis 1997:4). This mill was a main source of employment for early settlers to the area, and most of the timber that was removed during land clearing activities was processed here (Cooperman 2013).

The accounts of the three Neskonlith elders I interviewed are corroborated by environmental studies that identified the negative impacts of deforestation through timber harvesting, road building, and land-clearing activities on the Salmon River watershed (as summarized in Chapter 4). Land-use estimates suggest that over 20% of the watershed has been logged, which has impacted stream flow, nutrient loading, increased erosion, and landslides. While the removal of tree cover near the river contributes to increased evaporation, and higher water temperatures during summer months, making the water lethal to salmon and trout species (Burt and Wallis 1997:1; Fraser Basin Council 2016:67; Gwanikar et al 1998:35,45,55). These studies also

91 indicated that fish diversity is greater in basins with relatively low timber harvest levels (<25% of basin area harvested) than in basins with high harvest levels (>25% of area harvested) (Department of Fisheries and Oceans 1997, cited in Fraser Basin Council 2016:67).

Land Clearing and Development

Many traditional resource harvesting areas have been destroyed for residential and agricultural development, which has also led to a decline in many of the traditional resources, including plants and animals that once thrived in these 1880s habitats. Local First Nations groups and settlers began clearing a right-of-way along the shore of Shuswap Lake, including the Salmon River delta, for the construction of the railway (Doe 1971; Marshall 1995). Following its completion, settlers began arriving and clearing the land for homesteads and farming, which local Secwépemc people were strongly encouraged to do as well. Mary Thomas’s father worked clearing the land on the delta for his family, and neighbors throughout the 1920s (Garibaldi 2003:71).

Louis Thomas remembers his mother and grandparents telling him about the land clearing that went on throughout the early to mid-20th century: “They cleared farther back – more to the foothills and cleared land for farming, because at that time the government kept pushing us into farming” (29-07-2018 interview). He also related how land-clearing methods changed from before and after World War II: “They used horses and harnesses, and whatnot to...then they dug a lot of the roots up by hand. After WWII, the men would start blasting the stumps out of the ground” (29-07-2018 interview). Mary Thomas talked about draining and filling of wetlands throughout the watershed: “Most of the sloughs along the Salmon River have either been filled in, drained, or dried up” (cited in Garibaldi 2003:81). She also spoke of changes to the beaches along Shuswap Lake, where she used to go to gather wapato and freshwater clams, noting that “most of the sandy beaches are now filled in or have developments built on them” (cited in Garibaldi 2003:76).

A 2013 study by the Fraser Basin Council found that although land clearing for agriculture does have adverse effects on salmonid habitats as compared to the original state of the land, it is ranching, urban, and industrial land development that have a more lasting impact on spawning and rearing habitats (p. 73). The effects of historic land-

92 clearing for conversion to pastures and crops are exacerbated by ongoing livestock grazing and farming, including the loss of riparian cover, bank erosion, and non-point sources of pollution (DFO 1997, cited in Fraser Basin Council 2016:73). Mary Thomas talked about the impacts that pastoral animals have on the land: “Cattle and horses trample the soil and native vegetation, which has reduced the habitat of many native species of plants, including bulrushes and cattails” (cited in Garibaldi 2003:79,81). Land- clearing activities have decreased in recent years as the expansion of existing farm and ranch production is limited due to lack of land resources with agricultural capability and/or water required to achieve irrigated productivity levels (McPhee et al. 1996:34).

Channelization of the River

Another settler activity that has had a significant impact on the Salmon River delta was the cutting of new river channels at the mouth of the river in the late 19th century for the railway, and then twice again in the 20th century, to mitigate sedimentation away from Salmon Arm. A study of aerial photographs demonstrates three distinct channels at the mouth of the river (Figure 30): one is lined with trees, and represents the original channel; a second made in 1885, extends into Shuswap Lake; the most recent was dug between the 1967 and 1980 (Miles 1995:67).

93

Figure 30: Changing river channels on the Salmon River delta. Source: Google Earth; Miles (1995:67)

Mary Thomas discussed two separate instances when the river channel was changed during her lifetime:

People up here [by the wharf in Salmon Arm] were saying they were getting flooded out because the river wasn’t flowing down fast enough, it was backing up. So, what they did was the changed the mouth of the river towards the mud flat. And a few years later the wharf people were saying that the river is pushing silt into their channel. So, without my permission they cut my meadow in half…and that’s where it is today. And I told them it’s over my dead body before you guys ever touch that mouth of the river again! (Garibaldi 2003:81).

Louis Thomas discussed similar events:

it was back in the 60s, somebody dug a trench there and it slowly started eroding and created another [channel], and it didn't come around this way anymore. You can see there's a line of cottonwood right over there? that was the old riverbed, from before...pre-railway, you can see the old riverbed running along that line of cottonwood there” (27-07-2018 interview).

94 Harold Thomas spoke about the consequences of these diversions, “the river course has changed so many times over the years that the [stream flow] got depleted” (09-08-2018 interview). The channelization of the river has undoubtably had significant impacts on native vegetation and has also hindered salmon migration by creating extensive mudflats, and bottlenecks in the river at both the railway and highway bridges (Fraser Basin Council 2016; Miles 1995).

Pollution

Pollution of the Salmon River is considered responsible for the eutrophication of the Salmon Arm of Shuswap Lake (Fraser Basin Council 2016; Gwanikar et al. 1998; Miles 1995). The Shuswap and Salmon Rivers are the main contributors of pollutants and nutrient loading to Shuswap Lake from wastewater treatment plant discharges, seepage and leakage from septic tanks, storm water, agricultural runoff, vehicle and train traffic, improper disposal of garbage, and grey water from boats (Fraser Basin Council 2016:117, 136-137; Garibaldi 2003:81).

Pollutants have had a significant impact on insect, mollusk, fish, bird, and mammal populations (Gwanikar et al. 1998:28-34, 40-41). Mary Thomas recalled one time as a child when the sloughs were filled with oil used to control mosquito populations14, which was common practice at the time, but poses risks to other parts of the ecosystem, especially fish, amphibians, and birds (Garibaldi 2003:81; Lee et al. 2018). Lorna Thomas shared her concerns about the water quality of the river, noting that “it's really awful and then all the pollution in the water from boats, pesticides, waste. I'm scared to even eat salmon and I love salmon” (09-08-2018 interview). Agricultural herbicides and overgrazing by cattle have contributed to the removal of riparian vegetation, which has exacerbated this problem by removing habitat and inhibiting natural filtration processes that this vegetation provides (Garibaldi 2003:81).

14 Mosquitoes on the Salmon River delta were not traditionally a problem for Secwépemc people as they would move into the breezier upland areas during the heavy mosquito seasons (Garibaldi 2003:81).

95 Theme 4: Synthesis of the Approaches

Individually, archaeological, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, Traditional Knowledge, and environmental studies offer unique insights into how the Salmon River delta has been impacted throughout the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. When they are combined, a more holistic picture emerges – one that more fully reveals the impacts to the environment and to traditional-use areas. Archaeology demonstrates that the Salmon River delta has been used by Indigenous people, who hunted, fished, and gathered plants in and around this area for thousands of years. Ethnohistory, ethnography, and Traditional Knowledge show how the delta has continued to do be an important traditional-use area throughout the historical era to the present. Impacts to the landscape, resulting from historical timber harvesting, agriculture, ranching, and urban development, have resulted in the loss of sockeye salmon runs from the river, and of many important plant resources and foods.

The information gathered from the interviews grounded this research by providing a human context, which was juxtaposed with the impacts identified by environmental studies, to the Salmon River delta that are absent from the archaeological record. Traditional Knowledge helps explain the landscape in a different way by demonstrating that traditional-use areas are not just locations for collecting and processing plant and animal resources, but are also reflections of knowledge, values and cultural practices that persist for generations. Mary Thomas was a key source of Traditional Knowledge for community, and her understanding of the landscape spanned a period when the Secwépemc people were experiencing a drastic change in lifestyle (Garibaldi 2003:69). Her eldest children were born during this period and were impacted by educational, religious, and economic systems that discouraged maintaining traditional lifeways and activities. It was only during their adult lives that they managed to reconnect with traditional aspects of their lives, while also reconciling with their indigenous identity.

Settler activities and increased government control from the 19th century to the present have had a profound impact on the Neskonlith people’s traditional-use activities on and around the Salmon River watershed. The reserve system, and the development of large, private farms, combined with the introduction of European crops and livestock, encouraged local indigenous groups to shift from hunting and collecting traditional foods to adopting the foodways of the settler population (Carlson 2006). Despite these

96 changes, they continued to fish on the Salmon River until the collapse of the once- prolific sockeye runs, and subsequent decline of chinook and coho runs. Government intervention in the 1970s banned salmon fishing on the Salmon River in the hope that salmon populations will recover. While coho populations are today seemingly flourishing on the river, chinook and sockeye populations are still low or virtually non-existent (Figure 29) (Table 27).

Current forestry, agricultural, and ranching activities, and the steady population growth of Salmon Arm continue to affect the river system through nutrient loading, removal of riparian vegetation, increased erosion, and water withdrawal, all of which reduces the chances of native species returning to the watershed. In recent years, the introduction of cattle-exclusion fencing, bank stabilization, and water withdrawal initiatives have helped mitigate some of these environmental impacts (Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada 2012; Fraser Basin Council 2016; Garibaldi 2003).

Chapter Summary

This chapter explored four questions that emerged from comparing different approaches to studying the impacts of settler activities on the Salmon River delta. The first question examined the formed tools and made suggestions about subsistence activities they represented, and the temporality of diagnostic artifacts. Next, it compared archaeological data with ethnographic and ethnohistoric data, and Traditional knowledge data to discuss hunting, plant harvesting, and pit-cooking activities, in and around the Salmon River delta. The second examined the evidence for settlement activities within the archaeological sites, which indicated that timber harvesting and land clearing were the main disturbances to the area. Soil profiles demonstrated the impacts of various settler activities and revealed that many of these sites were capped with imported fill material that contained both historical debris and archaeological materials. The third question examined the environmental impacts to the Salmon River delta by comparing Indigenous perspectives with data from environmental studies, relating to the decline and disappearance of sockeye salmon in the Salmon River. It also examined the impacts of land clearing and development on traditional use areas. The final question examined how the combination of these different approaches promoted a greater understanding of how the Salmon River delta was used in the past, how it has been impacted, and

97 continues to be impacted by ongoing land development, and potential challenges it faces in the future.

98 Chapter 6.

Conclusions

The goal of this thesis was to study how a combination of archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic research, coupled with traditional knowledge and environmental studies, can help us understand the type, intensity, and long-term impact of 19th and early 20th-century settler activities on and around the Salmon River delta. The different approaches I employed in this study indicate that settler activities, from the 19th century to the present, have negatively impacted the local Neskonlith people’s traditional-use areas by removing many native plant species, and destroying the sockeye salmon population, and outright destruction of other areas. Similarly, archaeological investigations in the southern section of the study area demonstrate that portions of the delta have been impacted by land-clearing activities, the construction of transportation corridors, and subsequent urban and rural developments. This chapter revisits my research objectives and discusses how successful each was, as well as the limitations and challenges I encountered.

Research Goal and Objectives Revisited

To address my research goal for this thesis, I had developed three research objectives: 1) to assess the level of environmental impacts to traditional use areas on the Salmon River delta caused by settler activities; 2) to document the range of subsistence and non-subsistence activities on the Salmon River delta that occurred in pre-contact, historic, and modern times; and 3) to study the intersection of archaeological and environmental data, with ethnohistoric, ethnographic and Traditional Knowledge data to understand the complex human-environment interactions on the Salmon River delta. This section discusses how each objective was achieved, as well as any limitations encountered.

99 1) To assess the level of environmental impacts to traditional-use areas on the Salmon River delta.

This objective was achieved by compiling and evaluating information gleaned from an extensive literature review that began with environmental impact studies and reports. These studies indicated that the main environmental impacts to the Salmon River watershed were due to forestry and agricultural activities, construction of transportation corridors, and urban development. These have resulted in increased erosion, low water flows partly caused by unregulated irrigation and water withdrawals, removal of riparian vegetation, and loss of spawning and rearing habitat for anadromous salmonids.

These activities have disrupted the habitat of many traditionally important plants and has resulted in the loss of the sockeye salmon runs to the river. The settlement of the Salmon River valley and implementation of the reserve system and property ownership for settlers limited the Neskonlith’s access to traditional-use areas, and in other cases, eliminated them entirely. Additionally, increased governmental restrictions of First Nations’ rights, limited, or prevented them from partaking in certain traditional-use activities, such as fishing or hunting on their traditional lands. My interviews with three Neskonlith elders corroborated many of the results of the environmental studies. These interviews also provided insight into different plant species that have been impacted by land clearing and development throughout the 19th and 20th-centuries – many of which are not mentioned in these environmental reports, and so prove to be absent.

Archaeological investigations demonstrate the extent that these activities had on the southern section of the study area throughout the past 130 years. These sites are adjacent to the TransCanada highway, and have been capped by imported fill material that contains both artifacts and historical debris. The presence of artifacts in this fill material demonstrates that many of these sites likely represent a secondary depositional context. I was not able to determine where this fill came from; it would be interesting to find out how much more of the delta and the valley to the south is capped with fill. It is, of course, impossible to know how many archaeological sites in and around Salmon Arm were disturbed or destroyed during its initial settlement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

100 2) To document the range of subsistence and non-subsistence activities on the Salmon River delta that occurred in pre-contact, historic, and modern times.

This objective was achieved by utilizing information obtained from ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources, through both interviews with Neskonlith elders and information obtained from archaeological reports. The ethnohistoric sources provided a snapshot of the delta prior to, and just after the railway was completed and indicate that this area was abundant in plants and wildlife – many of which are scarce or absent today. These sources described local Secwépemc people going about their lives, engaging in hunting, trapping, and fishing activities, and using the Shuswap Lake as their main transportation route throughout the area.

Both the ethnographic sources and interviews provided insights into the type and range of activities that occurred both in the past, and on the delta today. Traditional hunting and trapping activities (Table 16) are no longer done on the delta due to proximity to residential areas, and “white trappers taking possession of the Indian’s trapping grounds and cleaning them out of most mink and otter populations” (Mitchell 1925:10). White settlers also shot many of the local eagles, ospreys, herons, and loons, resulting in their decline throughout much of the historic period (Mitchell 1925:10). Plant resources continue to be important to the members of the Neskonlith community, especially bulrushes and birch bark, both of which are used for making baskets and other utilitarian items that can be sold as crafts. Many, if not all of the plant species mentioned by the Neskonlith elders (Table 17) can still be found on the Salmon River, albeit some are not as plentiful due to extensive land clearing, inadequate water flow, and the use of herbicides.

There were several benefits and limitations to relying on data from CRM reports, . One was having stratigraphic profiles for the southern sites, which provided subsurface information regarding the level and type of disturbance throughout this section of the study area. A second was having access to the summary information on the lithic artifacts from the CRM testing that had been already been analyzed and catalogued. The recovered lithic tools are informative of some of the subsistence and non- subsistence activities that occurred in the past, although those found in the study area are no different from other assemblages found almost anywhere else in the Interior

101 Plateau. The tools reflect general subsistence tasks, including hunting, cutting, scraping, and chopping, which are consistent with activities related to butchering animals, and processing their hides, but also many other tasks. The presence of two graver tools suggests carving activities. The microblade core is associated with the production of small blades likely used for different purposes.

A major limitation is that the data from the archaeological reports are restricted to the area being tested, which is typically adjacent to the highway – leaving much of the delta uninvestigated. Another limitation is that there were a very small number of artifacts recovered from the recorded sites. Additionally, many of the lithic artifacts recovered from the study area were found in either disturbed or unknown contexts, which restricts what can be said about past land-use on the delta. Another limitation was having incomplete information about faunal remains, beyond a count, and generalized assessment of their state (i.e., burned, calcined, unmodified), and identification of species, but other details were sparse, such as the quantity of bones for each species.

3) To study the intersection of archaeological and environmental data, with ethnographic, ethnohistoric and Traditional Knowledge data to understand the complex human-environment interactions on the Salmon River delta.

Indigenous traditions can provide researchers with information, explanations, and insights that can help contextualize scientific data (Bruchac 2014:3814). Implementing Traditional Knowledge with archaeology can be done by comparing and combining oral traditions with archaeological methods (Simons 2017:13). Nicholas and Markey (2014) point out that although local knowledge has long been sought to support archaeological interpretations, when the situation is reversed, and Traditional Knowledge challenges archaeological “truths,” its utility is questioned (p. 299). The tension that exists at the intersection of Western and non-Western ways of knowing offers a rich but challenging arena in which to examine the scientific nature of indigenous knowledge and oral histories (Nicholas and Markey 2014:288).

A major challenge to integrating multiple lines of evidence together was striking a balance between the different approaches, especially when one (environmental) was more fully detailed than the others. It was interesting to note how consistent archaeological reports were with identifying impacts from historic and modern land

102 clearing and development within sites. I found the same with ethnographic studies and Traditional Knowledge interviews. This was not the case with environmental reports; there was seldom mention of Indigenous land use (Fraser Basin Council 2016; McPhee et al. 1996; Werk 2017), and, with one exception (Werk 2017), no mention of archaeological sites.

By and large, the data from the environmental studies were more plentiful than from the other approaches. One problem that I found with some reports was that many of them were over 20 years old, which raised concerns about how relevant they were. Thankfully, I had access to later studies that provided updated data for impacts of certain activities like forestry or agriculture, but not for the salmon populations. Information from these studies was typically focused on resource-based concerns, especially those associated with the Salmon River, and the dwindling salmon stocks. However, I was unable to find data for salmon counts in the Salmon River from the 2000s onward. Other studies focused on the timber supply for the watershed, where impacts of forestry activities were considered. If these reports mentioned plants, they either focused on commercially important tree species or invasive species, with little to no mention of indigenous plants (Table 17) – with the exception of berry species.

Ethnohistoric sources were limited to a few first-hand accounts that provided a small glimpse into the lives of local First Nations groups in the late 19th century. They generally describe subsistence activities such as hunting, fishing, and trapping, but made no mention of plant gathering, dwellings, or spirituality. Both the ethnographic literature and interviews were limited to the Thomas family: Mary Thomas, and three of her eldest children. Although a single family of informants may be problematic in some regards, as all information is from the perspective of a single family and may reflect only their specific experiences, it also provides a relatively cohesive and connected narrative. This speaks to the fact that many members of the community did not live there for extended periods of time as they moved their families to other communities for better job opportunities. Many of the key knowledge-holders of Mary Thomas’s generation, and her parent’s generation have passed away. It is possible that the knowledge from these elders, in the form of audio recordings or written transcripts, are in the Neskonlith Band Office archives, but I was unable to access them due to factors previously mentioned.

103 Finally, the archaeological information available was largely limited to reports produced by CRM firms, with few academic sources to draw upon. Archaeological investigations were limited to a small area overall, and much of it is likely comprised of redeposited material, which can tell us that a location has been impacted by settler activities. Based on the artifacts recovered from the study area, I can make inferences about the types of activities they represent, but overall, the total number of artifacts recovered for the quantity of sites is comparatively low. The subsurface data and observations about disturbances to the sites did prove useful in determining levels of settler activities throughout the delta.

Future Directions for Archaeological Research

The total area of the delta that has been investigated by archaeologists is very small. The impacts by settler activities in areas of the delta further away from the highway and adjacent urban developments is currently unknown. In order to develop a better understanding of the archaeological significance of the Salmon River delta, further investigations should focus on surface surveys of plowed farmland, historical channels, and river banks exposed by erosion activities, with subsurface testing in areas adjacent to where the river used to flow, including oxbows and relict channels. Methods such as coring and ground-penetrating radar could be effective means of locating deeply deposited cultural materials, while also providing geomorphological data about the extent of impacts to the delta from settler activities, and formation processes of the delta through time.

Current Cultural and Heritage Education Initiatives in the Neskonlith Community

In 2020, the Neskonlith community near Salmon Arm established a website http://shuswapcentre.org/ that compiled and shared information drawn from the teachings of Mary Thomas, with a focus on traditional-use areas, culturally important plants, and environmental restoration initiatives. This website provides a wealth of Traditional Knowledge that both members of the Neskonlith community, and the public at large can use to understand the importance of protecting and promoting the

104 reintroduction of indigenous species of plants and animals to the area for the maintenance of cultural identity, and ecosystem productivity.

A second initiative spearheaded by Louis Thomas is to create an interpretive trail that connects Switsemalph Indian Reserve No. 3 to the city of Salmon Arm. This has been approved by the Neskonlith Band Council, and the Salmon Arm City Council. This trail will contain placards that emphasize the importance of many traditionally important local plants and animals, while also providing a safe path between the communities. Future educational initiatives could benefit from the incorporation of archaeological data, which can add to the rich cultural continuity of land use on the Salmon River delta.

This thesis illustrates how archaeological and environmental data can be integrated into cultural education projects. While the Salmon River delta was the focus of this thesis, it is not the only traditional use area for the Neskonlith people, or other Secwépemc groups in the Shuswap region. Those areas need to be identified and studied in order to help manage and protect them. The methodology I implemented could be applied to other areas in the Shuswap to help develop a regional synthesis that includes archaeology, environmental studies, ethnography, and Traditional Knowledge.

Conclusion

This study aimed to develop a synthesis of different approaches to study how a combination of archaeological, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, traditional knowledge, and environmental studies can help us understand the type, intensity, and long-term impact of 19th and early 20th-century settler activities on and around the Salmon River delta. It demonstrated that this is a complex topic that no single approach could completely explain. It also showed that while historic-era activities such as land clearing and timber harvesting had profound impacts to the delta, modern forestry, agriculture, ranching, and urban development continue to impact the delta. Despite ongoing pressures to continue to develop the land in around the delta, it remains an important traditional-use area for the local Neskonlith people, who have used it for thousands of years.

In British Columbia, growing populations are placing increasing demands on natural resources, which continues to impact many traditional-use areas of First Nations communities. Land use and right to land issues are at the forefront of many conflicts

105 between Indigenous groups, governments, resource sectors, and the energy industry, all of whom have a stake in how the land is used, and by whom (Budhwa 2005:20; Klassen 2013:1; Klassen et al. 2009:200). Research into how traditional-use areas have been impacted by past settler activities can be used to inform how future developments and resource extraction activities will impact other traditionally important areas throughout the province. Ultimately, how these challenges are overcome will have to come from communication between all parties involved, where commercial interests do not automatically supplant the concerns of those who have lived and used the land for millennia.

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118 Appendix.

Interview Framework

Introduction to respondents: I am interested in learning about what you know about the Salmon River Delta, and the surrounding area.

• How would you describe your relationship with the land? Especially your relationship to the Salmon River area?

• Did your ancestors live in this area? where did they live before? And why did they decide to relocate to the Salmon Arm area?

• Did they get to choose where they wanted to live in the Salmon Arm area? If so, how did they decide to live in that area?

• What did your grandparents and parents tell you about the delta and the Salmon River?

• Did you ever hear about what the Salmon River and Delta were like in the past, especially before the arrival of the white settlers?

• What kinds of changes in the Salmon River and Delta did your parents and grandparents talk about?

• What types of activities did your grandparents and parents do on the Delta and the surrounding area?

• Did your grandparents ever talk about early interactions with white settlers? If so, what were these interactions like?

• What kinds of interactions did your family and you have with government agents?

• Did your family ever talk about changes to the delta area?

• Were the changes quick, or more gradual?

• What were these changes, and how did they affect your family’s use of the land?

• How has the delta changed in your lifetime?

• Plant Life • Animal Life • Flooding • Residential and commercial development

• How have these changes affected your use of the delta?

• How have these changes impacted your life?

119 • You mentioned that you used to go fishing in the area?

• Did your family use the area for fishing?

• Did other families use the area for fishing?

• Where along the river did/do you prefer to go fishing?

• Did your parents or grandparents ever talk about gathering and collecting plants in the area?

• What kinds of plants were gathered?

• What were the plants used for?

• Food • Materials • Medicine

• Who collected these plants?

• Do people still collect these plants? If so, who?

• Are there plants that used to be collected that are no longer collected?

• What do you think caused these changes?

• When did these changes occur?

• Did the introduction of European crops and vegetables impact this?

• How did the introduction of livestock/ranching impact your family’s use of the land?

• Did your family ever hunt in the area?

• What kinds of animals did they hunt?

• Where did these activities usually take place?

• Do they still hunt in the area?

• If not, when did they stop?

• Was the area ever used for trapping/traplines?

• Who used the area for trapping?

• What animals were trapped?

• Does anyone still use the area for trapping?

• What kinds of stories did your grandparents or parents tell you about the area?

120 • Are there any spots that are considered important spiritual areas?

• If so, where?

• What are the stories about?

• Are you aware of any pictographs or petroglyphs (rock art) in the area? If so, where are they located?

• What kinds of traditional activities happen on the delta in recent years?

• Who does these activities?

• Are these limited to a specific generation? If so, older, younger, middle?

• Are the younger generations engaging in traditional activities?

• If so, which ones?

• How is traditional knowledge being taught to younger/future generations?

• How many people speak your traditional language today?

• What kinds of settlement activities impacted the land, and traditional use areas?

121