Can you identify these fish? (_Kamloops Wawa_) (fwd)

[Mike Cleven]

At 05:28 PM 10/21/99 -0700, David Robertson wrote:
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>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 14:47:25 -0700
>From: Deane Osterman <DOSTERMAN at knrd.org>
>To: 'David Robertson' <drobert at TINCAN.TINCAN.ORG>
>Subject: RE: Can you identify these fish?  (_Kamloops Wawa_)
>
>the term mamet in Thompson is corresponds to either mountain whitefish
>(Prospoium williamsoni) or Northern Pike Minnow "Squawfish"
>(Ptychocheilus oregonensis).  The exact fish is not known.

I don't think it matters which "exact fish" it is; probably it would vary
depending on which part of the Thompson/Nlaka'pmx country you were in.
There are (AFAIK) neither whitefish nor squawfish in the Fraser-Thompson
canyon areas from Boston Bar up to Spences Bridge; mostly because there are
no lakes other than a small few in the high alpine, just cataractic streams
as well as the Fraser itself; I don't know about Botanie Lake, but it's a
bit of an anomaly anyway.  In the Nicola-Coldwater Plateau (from the
Coquihalla Summit up over to Quilchena and Douglas Lakes, and down towards
Princeton) there are numerous lakes with a similar habitat; I think I've
heard of squawfish there; don't know about whitefish.  But probably the
term would apply to whichever of these fish were found in a band's
locality, or both (maybe they are similar in appearance or size?).....