DOCSLIB.ORG

Mcleod Lake Indian Band Community Baseline Amendment Report, and 3

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mcleod Lake Indian Band Community Baseline Amendment Report, and 3 September 27, 2013 Ms. Courtney Trevis, Panel co-Manager Site C Review Panel Secretariat Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency 22nd Floor, 160 Elgin Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0H3 Email: [email protected] Mr. Brian Murphy, Panel co-Manager Site C Review Panel Secretariat British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office 4th Floor, 836 Yates Street PO Box 9426 Stn Prov Govt Victoria, BC V8W 9V1 Email: [email protected] By email Dear Ms. Trevis and Mr. Murphy: RE: McLeod Indian Band Community Baseline Profile Report, Community Baseline Amendment Report and EIS Integration Summary Amendment Table Please find attached the following reports. 1. McLeod Indian Band Community Baseline Profile Report 2. McLeod Lake Indian Band Community Baseline Amendment Report, and 3. McLeod Lake Indian Band EIS Integration Summary Amendment Table On September 9, 2013, McLeod Lake Indian Band submitted the “McLeod Lake Indian Band Baseline Profile” (MLIB Community Baseline Profile) for consideration in the Site C Clean Energy Project (the Project) environmental assessment. BC Hydro received the report after it had submitted the Amended EIS to the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on August 2, 2013. Because the report was received later than anticipated, a placeholder was included in EIS Volume 3 Appendix B Part 5 stating that, “the McLeod Lake Indian Band Community Baseline Report and EIS Integration Summary Table will be submitted at a later date in the environmental assessment process. The information received from the report will be reviewed against applicable sections of the Environmental Impact Statement and additional information will be provided as needed.” BC Hydro has prepared the following two documents as part of the review and consideration of the MLIB Community Baseline Profile: McLeod Lake Indian Band EIS Integration Summary Amendment Table (MLIB EIS Integration Table) which presents a table which cross-references the MLIB Community PO Box 49260 Community Consultation Office Email: [email protected] th Vancouver BC V7X 1V5 9948 100 Avenue bchydro.com/sitec Toll-free: 1 877 217 0777 Fort St. John BC V1J 1Y5 Tel: 250 785 3420 -2- Baseline Profile information with baseline information categories and the related section of the EIS, and, the McLeod Lake Indian Band Community Baseline Amendment Report (MLIB Amendment Report) which presents new key issues and concerns and new baseline information by VC. The three reports attached to this cover letter should be included in Volume 3, Appendix B5 in the EIS as amended. It is my understanding that you will post the documents on your website upon receipt. If you have any questions, or require further information, please contact me at Thank you. Sincerely, Danielle Melchior Director, Environmental Assessment and Regulatory Site C Clean Energy Project Encl. 1. McLeod Indian Band Community Baseline Profile Report 2. McLeod Lake Indian Band Community Baseline Amendment Report, and 3. McLeod Lake Indian Band EIS Integration Summary Amendment Table MCLEOD LAKE INDIAN BAND COMMUNITY BASELINE PROFILE JULY, 20131 MLIB Community Profile, July 2013 Contact McLeod Lake Indian Band MLIB Land Referral Office Governance As set out by the Indian Act, our band is governed democratically by an elected Chief and six Councilors. We hold elections every three years and conduct them according to a strict electoral code. Band Administration Our band administration has a staff of 45 full and part time positions, led by a Band Manager and divided into six departments. Our Band Manager is our main contact with Chief and Council and provides oversight and direction to Administration. She is also the Administration’s contact for the Band-owned companies, governments and the public. She is very active with the membership and ensures that their legitimate concerns are met. Our Administration is considered to be a stable and well run organization by Aboriginal Affairs. 2 MLIB Community Profile, July 2013 Departments Information about the following departments can be found at www.mlib.ca. • Education and Training • Health and Social Development • Public Works and Housing • Natural Resources • Finance • Personnel Culture and History Traditional Culture McLeod Lake people are Tse’khene (also spelled Sekani) which means people of the rocks. Traditionally our people have been semi-nomadic. We lived and flourished by hunting and gathering seasonal resources in family groups from multiple landscapes in and around the Rocky Mountain Trench and the upper Peace River region of northeastern British Columbia. Our Tse’khene language belongs to the Beaver-Sarcee-Tse’khene branch of the Athapaskan language family which is spoken by First Nations people in northern Canada. Our Band has kinship and cultural ties to the other two Tse’khene groups, the Kwadacha First Nation (at Fort Ware), and Tseh Kay Dene First Nation (at Ingenika); and to western Dane-zaa (Beaver) groups such as the West Moberly First Nations and the Halfway River First Nation. European Contact and Colonization Although we had already heard of Europeans and had acquired some steel knives 3 MLIB Community Profile, July 2013 through trade, the first non-Native person our people encountered was Alexander Mackenzie during his journey to the Pacific Ocean in 1793 as he passed through our territory.2 Some of our people recall meeting French fur traders on the upper Parsnip River in the early 1800s and this has become part of our oral history about our first white contact. We fed them moose, caribou, beaver and other foods, as they were starving, and directed them to set up a trading post at McLeod Lake which was already a traditional gathering spot and travel hub for our people. Subsequently in 1805, the French men, representing the Northwest Company, erected a trading post at our traditional Tse’khene settlement at the north end of McLeod Lake by the head of the Pack River.3 Another group of our people, the Yutuwitchan band’s first encounter with white men is also recorded from oral histories told to Diamond Jenness in 1924. The Yutuwitchan band first met white men closer to the Peace River at a creek a little west of Moberly Lake. As Jenness was told, There were five white men and one Tsatene (Beaver) Indian, dragging two toboggans, one laden with food, the other with clothes, knives, files, tobacco, and trade goods of various kinds. The Yutuwichan Indians thought the white men must be Jadjene, “dead men”, because of their colour, and would have fled. But the Beaver Indian, running ahead of his companions, told them that the whites were friendly and wished to trade with them; probably they would give them guns. 4 These oral histories about white contact show that our people were using the full extent of our current traditional territories during the contact period in a traditional manner – following our seasonal rounds in family groups and sharing our experiences of meeting people from distant cultures through oral histories. Our participation in the fur trade extended our seasonal settlement at and around McLeod Lake as well as other trading posts in the region. However, we continued with our seasonal rounds which included trapping in the winter and spring months to harvest fur-bearing animals when their pelts are the thickest. The Omineca Gold Rush which began in 1869, and the Klondike Gold rush which followed it, brought competition for game animals in McLeod Lake territory. The gold rushes also brought competition for trapping areas because some miners had 4 MLIB Community Profile, July 2013 decided to settle and trap for a living instead of going after gold. In 1898, the Klondike Gold Rush brought thousands of prospectors into the Peace River region on their way north. During the fall of that year, some 500 Beaver and Tse’khene peoples refused passage through their territories. Fearing violence, the Government of Canada promised Aboriginal peoples in our region a treaty. Missionaries and Residential School While many of our people became familiar with and adopted the Catholic religion early in their contact history we also continued to maintain Tse’khene indigenous beliefs that were strongly linked to our lands. Our people continued to maintain a balance between themselves and their plant, animal, and spiritual resources. Catholic missionaries came to the interior regions of British Columbia in the 1860s but visits to our territory were not frequent until the 1900s. This missionary contact changed with the cultural assimilation policies that were incorporated into Indian Residential Schools. In 1921, the Lejac Residential School at Fraser Lake was established and run by Oblates. While some of our people did attend this school early on, the Department of Indian Affairs did not force our children to attend the school until the late 1940s and early 1950s. Many of our families refused to comply by remaining on the land with their children. However, this became more and more difficult as trapping became less economically viable. When families were forced to seek seasonal employment to supplement their hunting and gathering, very often their children were seized and taken away to Lejac Residential School first by airplane and later by bus once roads were built. At Lejac Residential school, our people were banned from speaking our language and banned from practicing our Tse’khene cultural traditions. They lived with children from other First Nation communities in BC and were expected to conform
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Burning of Kitsegukla, 1872 R.M.GALOIS
    The Burning of Kitsegukla, 1872 R.M.GALOIS Early in June 1872, Constable Robert Brown of the British Columbia Provincial Police left his post at Port Essington to head up the Skeena River. He intended to travel by canoe to Hazelton, then overland to Babine Lake before returning to the mouth of the Skeena: in all a round trip of nearly 500 miles. As the only representative of provincial authority in this considerable territory, Brown was making his journey "to collect Revenue etc." from the few white residents and transient miners in the area.1 But Brown never completed his trip. At Kitsegukla, a Gitksan village over a hundred miles up the Skeena, his progress was halted by a group of angry natives. Their village had been destroyed by fire a few days earlier, and now they refused Brown passage up the river. This paper is concerned with Brown's encounter at Kitsegukla and its consequences. Reconstruction of these events on the basis of contemporary records is a fairly straightforward task. It offers an account seen, primarily, through the eyes of white participants. But such a unilateral description of a clash involving people of two very different cultures has clear limita­ tions. Native actions are diminished and, as a direct consequence, white actions decontextualized. A more balanced view calls for serious con­ sideration of the Gitksan perception of the "burning of Kitsegukla." This is no simple matter, raising both interpretative and empirical problems. Of the former, one rather obvious, but essential, point needs to be made at this juncture: Gitksan responses to the burning of Kitsegukla were based on the logic of their own cultural universe.
    [Show full text]
  • Bchn 1990 Summer.Pdf
    MEMBER***** ********SOCIETIES Member Societies and their secretaries are responsible for seeing that the correct address for their society is up-to-date. Please send any change to both the Treasurer and the Editor at the addresses inside the back cover. The Annual Return as at October 31st should include telephone numbers for contact. Members dues for the year 1988/89 were paid by the following Members Societies: Alberni District Historical Society, Box 284, Port Alberni, B.C. V9Y 7M7 Atlin Historical Society, PC. Box 111, Atlin, B.C. VOW lAO BCHF - Gulf Island Branch, c/o Marian Worrall, Mayne Island, VON 2JO Burnaby Historical Society, 4521 Watling Street, Burnaby, B.C. V5J 1V7 Chemainus Valley Historical Society, P0. Box 172, Chemainus, B.C. VOR 1KO Cowichan Historical Society, P0. Box 1014, Duncan, B.C. V9L 3Y2 District 69 Historical Society, PC. Box 3014, Parksville, B.C. VOR 2SO East Kootenay Historical Association, P0. Box 74, Cranbrook, B.C. V1C 4H6 Golden & District Historical Society, Box 992, Golden, B.C. VOA 1 HO Kootenay Lake Historical Society, Box 537, Kaslo, B.C. VOG 1 MO Kootenay Museum & Historical Society, 402 Anderson Street, Nelson, B.C. Vi L 3Y3 Ladysmith Historical Society, Box 11, Ladysmith, B.C. VOR 2EO Lantzville Historical Society, Box 501, Lantzville, B.C. VOR 2HO M.S.A. Museum Society, 2313 Ware Street, Abbotsford, B.C. V2S 3C6 Nanaimo Historical Society, P0. Box 933, Station A, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5N2 North Shore Historical Society, 623 East 10th Street, North Vancouver, B.C. V7L 2E9 North Shuswap Historical Society, P0.
    [Show full text]
  • Timeline: Cheslatta Carrier Nation and “Southside” Community 5000BC
    Timeline: Cheslatta Carrier Nation and “Southside” Community (Updated to March 3 2021 by Mike Robertson) Please contact me for additions and/or corrections [email protected] 5000BC Archaeological evidence confirms 7000 years of human occupation in the Cheslatta Territory 1763 British Royal Proclamation reserved undefined North American land for Aboriginal people. 1770 est “Grandmother Cheslatta” born 1774 Juan Perez Hernandez claimed the Northwestern coast of North America for Spain. 1791 Spanish explorer Esteban Jose Martinez traded copper sheets to Nootka Sound Chief Maquinna for sawn timber. 1793 Alexander Mackenzie became the first white man to travel through Carrier and Sekani territories while looking for fur-trading areas for the North West Company. 1805-1807 - Simon Fraser established four trading posts in Carrier and Sekani territories: Fort McLeod, Fort George, Fort St. James and Fort Fraser. Until the Hudson Bay Company and North West Company joined together in 1821, Fort St. James was the centre of government and commerce in British Columbia (then called New Caledonia). It claims to be the oldest established white settlement on the B.C. Mainland 1807 February 10th Simon Fraser wrote a letter to express what he witnessed in Stella (Stellaquo). “Almost all Natlians are gone over to Steela.. to grand feast to burn and exhume a couple of chiefs that died of late. When they return from there they will go to the mountains to kill Caribou.” 1828 Chief Kwah captured James Douglas at Ft. St. James, whom he held until his release was negotiated. The incident lead to conflict among different Carrier Nations. Douglas went on to become the first governor of the united colony of British Columbia.
    [Show full text]
  • Freight Wagons Ascend the the Great Bluff on the Thompson River Eight Miles Above Spences Bridge
    THE GREAT BLUFF Freight wagons ascend the the Great Bluff on the Thompson River eight miles above Spences Bridge. This photograph shows the poles and wires of the the Collins Overland Telegraph, an ambitious attempt to lay an electric telegraph line from San Francisco, California to Moscow, Russia. Although the project died on the vine, the telegraph did connect New Westminster with Barkerville. the bluff was 88 miles above yale. 170 BRITISH COLUMBIA & YUKON GOLD HUNTERS: A HISTORY IN PHOTOGRAPHS BRITISH COLUMBIA 171 HISTORICAL PHOTO #000763 ROYAL BC MUSEUM & ARCHIVES PHOTOGRAPHY BY FREDERICK DALLY, 1868. INSTALLING CRIBBING ON THE CARIBOO WAGON ROAD This painting by Rex Woods shows a party of Royal Engineers installing cribbing on the Cariboo Wagon Road above Spences Bridge. Dress for the officers was a scarlet tunic with dark blue trousers featuring a scarlet strip along the seams; yellow cord on the shoulder straps, collar and sleeve cuffs; blue collar and cuffs; yellow cord on the shoulder straps, collar and sleeve cuffs; blue collar and cuffs; blue pill-box with a yellow band and red piping; and a buff white belt. The sappers wore grey shirts with their uniform. A wall of rock has been breached and a cleft is being cribbed and filled as horses drag heavy logs from below the limber-line on "goboy" skids or sleds. Sappers and Chinese toil in the background. Their assignment completed, the detachment of Royal Engineers was disbanded in 1863. Many remained as 172settlers BRITISH in the COLUMBIAexpanding & west. YUKON GOLD HUNTERS: A HISTORY IN PHOTOGRAPHS BRITISH COLUMBIA 173 PAINTING & DRAWINGS MG-6068 REX WOODS ROYAL BC MUSEUM & ARCHIVES TWENTY-SIX MEMBERS OF THE NINCCHUMSHIN FIRST NATIONS GATHER FOR A GROUP PHOTO NEAR SPENCES BRIDGE ON THE Twenty-six members of the Nincumshin First Nations gather for a group photograph near Spences Bridge on the Thompson River THOMPSON RIVER.
    [Show full text]
  • Duncan Lake): a Draft Report
    Tse Keh Nay Traditional and Contemporary Use and Occupation at Amazay (Duncan Lake): A Draft Report Amazay Lake Photo by Patrice Halley Draft Submission to the Kemess North Joint Review Panel May, 2007 Report Prepared By: Loraine Littlefield Linda Dorricott Deidre Cullon With Contributions By: Jessica Place Pam Tobin On Behalf of the Tse Keh Nay ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was written under the direction of the Tse Keh Nay leaders. The authors would like to thank Grand Chief Gordon Pierre and Chief Johnny Pierre of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation; Chief John Allen French of the Takla Lake First Nation and Chief Donny Van Somer of the Kwadacha First Nation for their support and guidance throughout this project. The authors are particularly indebted to the advisors for this report who took the time to meet with us on very short notice and who generously shared with us their knowledge of Tse Keh Nay history, land and culture. We hope that this report accurately reflects this knowledge. We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Grand Chief Gordon Pierre, Ray Izony, Bill Poole, Trevor Tomah, Jean Isaac, Robert Tomah, Chief John Allen French, Josephine West, Frank Williams, Cecilia Williams, Lillian Johnny, Hilda George and Fred Patrick. We would also like to thank the staff at the Prince George band and treaty offices for assembling and providing us with the documents, reports, maps and other materials that were used in this report. J.P. Laplante, Michelle Lochhead, Karl Sturmanis, Kathaleigh George, and Henry Joseph all provided valuable assistance and support to the project.
    [Show full text]
  • Mackenzie Biodiversity Chapter
    Mackenzie Phase 1 Sustainable Land Use and Resource Plan Mackenzie Biodiversity Chapter Background Report: The plan area for this document is made up of the following Landscape Units: Gaffney / Manson River Gillis / Klawli Parsnip Twenty Mile Connaghan Creek-Eklund-Jackfish-South Germansen-Upper Manson Misinchinka-Tudyah B Kennedy July 2010 Prepared by: Assistance by: Tonianne Mynen, Land Use Planner and Desiree Louie, Land Use Planner (Auxiliary) Analyst (Auxiliary) Suzanne Kobliuk, Spatial Data Analyst Lyndsay Sahaydak, Land Use Planner Sean Barry, Spatial Information Analyst (Auxiliary) Wayne Giles, Spatial Data Analyst (Auxiliary) Anna Regnier, Land and Resource Specialist Kris Hayne, Spatial Data Analyst (Auxiliary) Beryl Nesbit, Land Use and Habitat Planner Integrated Land Management Bureau Omineca sub-Region Mackenzie Phase 1 Sustainable Land and Resource Plan July 2010 Table of Contents Page 1.0 Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 2 2.0 Business Case / Purpose …………………………………………..…………... 5 3.0 Summary of Benefits and Impacts ……………………………….…………… 6 3.1 Benefits and Impacts of OGMAs……………………………………….. 6 4.0 Landscape Unit Objectives for OGMAs ……………………………………….. 7 4.1 Old Growth Management Areas………………………………............... 7 5.0 OGMA, Planning Considerations and Rationale……………………………….. 7 5.1 Ecosystem Management ………………………………………………. 7 5.2 Timber Supply and Mitigation …………………………………………. 8 5.3 Assessment Process and Selection Criteria …………………………… 9 5.4 Monitoring and Review ……………….………………………………. 11 5.5 Boundary Mapping …………………………………………………….
    [Show full text]
  • Fort St. James Land and Resource Management Plan
    Fort St. James Land and Resource Management Plan File: 31090-25-03 March 30, 1999 Dear Reader: Re: Approval and Direction to Implement The Fort St. James Land and Resource Management Plan On behalf of Cabinet, we are pleased to approve the Fort St. James Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) and direct participating ministries to implement the plan. The LRMP is intended to guide ongoing resource management activities including designation of new provincial parks and planning for forest development. The Omineca- Peace Interagency Management Committee is charged with ensuring that the plan is implemented, monitored and reviewed. We would like to thank members of the LRMP table for the considerable dedication and effort that they brought to the table in developing this plan for the management of land and resources in the.Fort St. James LRMP area. The table has demonstrated that diverse interests can work together to develop consensus on future management of land and resources. Their cooperative approach and commitment in negotiation at the community level are exemplary for other Land and Resource Management Planning processes. We encourage table members to continue to participate in plan monitoring. Your ongoing interest and involvement will ensure that the Fort St. James LRMP continues to guide resource management activities and provide sustainable development in the Fort St. James LRMP area. ORIGINAL SIGNED BY ORIGINAL SIGNED BY ORIGINAL SIGNED BY Dan Miller Cathy McGregor Minister of Energy and Minister of Environment, Lands David Zirnhelt Mines and Parks Minister of Forests Executive Summary The Fort St. James Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) officially began on October 21, 1992.
    [Show full text]
  • Archbishop Depencier at ]Party Leaders Anniversary Services in I
    ' i 'im': "/,~,.;'J.~,• .t " i "i f'• • vor is ....... NEW HAZELTON, B. C., OCTOBER 9, 1925 ' - ~ ~,~ .tt Archbishop dePencier at ]PartyLeaders ]Joy Riding Mishap Will Make Big Anniversary Services in I Tall Vancouwr[ l¢uzts Police • .... .- t,ourt appearances Drive for $1800 Hazelton All Thin Week AboutTheir Po,-[ • To • iciesand How They I Early on' Sunday morning, His Grace, Archbishop dePen- ago last Wednesday, October 7th, Will do Things labour four o'clock, Alfred Russell and Mmntatii~:'~i~ ii•. eier, MetroDohtan of British Col- that B~shop Ridlev arrived in the Vancouver has been getting its suffered a broken-leg, arm he is You umbia, and Mrs. dePencier, had town of Hazelton, at the time the at the Hospital. He owns a Ford A drivehas been launched to Omineca gold rush was at its fill o~f Dominion politics the past a very busy week•in Hazelton, week. First Pt*emier King was car. With sevez'al others he was raise $1800 to furnish the nurses where they visited Rev. T.D. peak. There was a population residence and to provide funds of 3000 people, including China- there and addressed ten thous- joyriding. The car st0pve& Proctor, rector of St. Peter's. and people in tile arena. He is Russell got out and cranked it for the first years maintenance. The particular feature of ~the men to the number of 500. The The board of directors expect to first missionary to Hazelton was reported has having given a very without thrnwing it out of gear visit of the distingttished Church- masterly ex'position of the plat- and, being a Ford, the car went have this money on hand by the man was to participate in the Archdeacon Coliison who raid a visit three years before Bishop form of the Liberal party.
    [Show full text]
  • Document Layout
    Packing in British Columbia Transport on a resource frontier Roderick J. Barman University of British Columbia he material culture that the Spanish and Portuguese brought to the New TWorld included a distinctive system of land transport – the carriage of goods on the backs of mules and horses. In terrain which was mountainous, or where travel by water was impossible, packing by horse or mule became the principal form of transport and continued to be significant even during the railway era. Not until the coming of bush aviation and all-terrain vehi- cles was packing abandoned. In its organisation and methods packing was standard across the western hemisphere from 40° S (in modern Argentina) to 60° N (in British Columbia). Historians have paid little attention to packing. Few scholars possess the The Journal of Transport History 21/2 command of Spanish and Portuguese needed to study the institution as it existed in Hispanic America, and packing was not part of the material cul- ture of the Northern European settlers in the New World. In what is now eastern and central Canada the layout of rivers and streams facilitated the car- riage of goods by sailing ship and canoe, while the density of the forests dis- couraged the use of horse and mules. Along the eastern seaboard of what is now the United States carting provided the most common form of transport, as the development of the Conestoga wagon attested. By contrast, packing was the main form of transport in what are now Mex- ico, Peru, Bolivia and central and southern Brazil.
    [Show full text]
  • Harbour Publishing FALL 2019
    harbour publishing FALL 2019 including and Contents New Books from Harbour Publishing 1 New Books from Nightwood Editions 9 Recent Releases from Harbour Publishing 15 Recent Releases from Nightwood Editions 18 Books in Print 20 Author Index 27 Information for all books in print including book description, author information, cover, and up-to-date price and availability is listed on our website, www.harbourpublishing.com. All prices equivalent in US dollars unless otherwise noted. All prices and specifications subject to change without notice. COVer image: by Roy Henry Vickers, from Voices from the Skeena, by Robert Budd and illustrated by Roy Henry Vickers. HP: Harbour Publishing NE: Nightwood Editions LM: Lost Moose Books Harbour Publishing acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays. We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Government of Canada and from the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit. Voices from the Skeena An Illustrated Oral History ROY HENRY VICKERS AND ROBERT BUDD In this collaboration with oral historian Robert Budd, celebrated artist Roy Henry Vickers is inspired by voices from the past to illustrate the rich history of the Skeena River. The Skeena, Second longeST river in The province, remains an icon of British Columbia’s northwest.
    [Show full text]
  • Crossing the Divide: Northern Approaches to New Caledonia
    Western Geography, 12 (2002), pp. 290–318 ©Western Division, Canadian Association of Geographers Crossing the Divide: Northern Approaches to New Caledonia J. Kent Sedgwick Prince George, British Columbia European exploration and settlement of mainland British Columbia originated from the northeast, cross- ing the Arctic–Pacific continental divide. Four aborigi- nal routes were followed, beginning with Mackenzie’s historic journey in 1793 through a pass on the headwa- ters of the Parsnip River. Twelve years later, fur trader Simon Fraser developed the McLeod-Stuart Lakes trail, used until 1880. The short portage between Summit Lake (Peace River headwaters) and Salmon River, a Fraser River tributary, was used infrequently until 1872. Finally, Giscome Portage between the Fraser River and Summit Lake was identified by gold prospec- tors in 1863 and constructed as a government road in 1871. After 1905, Giscome Portage became the primary route across the divide with a road built directly from Prince George to Summit Lake in 1919. After 1952, a highway, railway, pipelines and electric transmission lines were built across Giscome Portage, forming the primary transportation corridor linking northern and southern British Columbia. Introduction Historical studies of British Columbia often ignore the fact that the first European exploration and settlement of mainland British Columbia was overland from the northeast. The initial approach was made in 1793 by Alexander Mackenzie of the North West Company. The settlement, which defined the fur trade district of New Caledonia, consisted of four North West Company trading posts established by Simon Fraser in the first decade of the nine- teenth century. A few years later, from a base on the Columbia River, other fur posts at Kamloops and Alexandria were additions to mainland settlement.
    [Show full text]
  • COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS: the Worlds of Arthur Wellington CI Ah, 1855-1881
    COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS: The Worlds of Arthur Wellington CI ah, 1855-1881 R.M. GALOIS Book bought Jul 20,1869 at F.S. Writing by Dahmaks Clah a man of tsimshen to keep Account everything what going and what Come. Sale or Bought Trad Buy Sell or Something good or bad. The Baid Pook for Labour Tsimshen The writing By Arthur Wellington Clah. The North old History reported Arthur Wellington Clah. The Same man knows all about Old and New people he start reported History the all our ways in this Book old and new reported by Arthur Wellington clah writed by him to let all new people about old People. Before Christ Borne in this world or after Jesus was Borne in this world1 Plate 1: Arthur Wellington Clah, UBC Special Collections, A-2833. n his biography of William Duncan, published in 1909, J.W. Arctander included a photograph of "Clah, Mr Duncan's I Language Teacher." It shows a confident-looking, white-bearded elder, holding a staff, dressed in Euro-Canadian clothes, with a large 1 The first quotation is found inside the front cover of vol. 4 of Clah's diaries, the second at the end of vol. 50 (1890). See footnote 4. Be STUDIES, no. 115/116 105 Autumn/Winter 1997/98 io6 BC STUDIES document or newspaper sticking out of his coat pocket.2 This was Arthur Wellington Clah (1831-1916), born at Laghco (Map 1) in the year that the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) opened a post at the mouth of the Nass River, the company's first permanent trading establishment on the northern coast of British Columbia.3 Clah died at Port Simpson, where the HBC had moved its post in 1834 and where the Tsimshian had relocated their principal settlement a few years later.
    [Show full text]