Follow up on Stuwix......

[Mike Cleven]

I haven't gotten it together to track down the Similkameen and Sce'exmx
language people yet, but I did happen to buy "The Canadian Encyclopedia"
from McLelland & Stewart the other day (on sale); it's fairly recent and
I seem to recall trading correspondence with them about Chinook and
other matters; I'll quote their Chinook Jargon article later plus some
comments....

In the meantime since raising the issue of the Stuwix a while ago I
heard back from Terry Glavin about what he'd heard, but I'm not sure he
posted it to the list; that they were an Athapaskan-speaking people
whose journey from their up-Fraser homeland is recorded in the oral
histories of the communities they passed through (down the Fraser to
Lytton, then back up the Thompson to Spences Bridge, thence up the
Nicola to Douglas Lake).  This is borne out by the article from "The
Canadian Encyclopedia" which follows, in which it's clear that they
spoke to local linguists in the area who apparently have determined that
the placename list in question turns out to be a dialect of Athapaskan
that's very close to Ts'ilhqotin.  They choose to name the group
"Nicola-Similkameen" even though this is somewhat inaccurate, being more
a description of the region they're in than a tribal name.  What became
of the Wascos or Wishrams brought up by some of you others, I don't
know; it's true that the Okanagan/Similkameen people consider the
"strangers" as having come from the south, so maybe there _were_ two
groups.  It's further of interest historically as it was the chief of
the Douglas Lake people who warred on the Lakes Lillooet, suggesting
that the Stuwix were part of the hostilities, perhaps even the Stuwix
chief was the protagonist of the story rather than the Nlaka'pamux
chief; I've previously quoted it as "chief of the Nicolas" but in fact
the confederacy of Spaxomin and other Okanagan bands with the Sce'exmx
(and I think also the Kamloops-Chase Secwepemc) that took the name of
Chief Nicola/Nicholas happened at least a generation or two later.  No
one's ever said who it was that led the final attacks on the surviving
Stuwix in the 1850s, but I wouldn't be surprised if it may have had to
do with kinship reprisals for the near-extinction of the Lakes Lillooet
seventy or so years earlier.....

I actually found the article by trying to find a biography of Nicola,
the famous chief of that region, which was not to be found; of course
the Encyclopedia has to make a judgement call on who's in and who's out;
Nicola's at least as important as Maquinna (who's in the book, though
his brother Callicum is not) politically, if not moreso, but he has less
of a profile in the "usual" histories because of white historical bias
so the authors of the Encyclopedia just hadn't heard of him.  There are
other omissions and bowdlerizations - the Chilcotin War is "the
Chilcotin uprising", the Lamalcha War is not mentioned at all, although
coverage of the Riel Rebellions is excellent.  This is a first edition
of this encyclopedia, and I know they tried hard, but many subject areas
and people who should be covered are just not to be found; it's
published in Edmonton so this isn't the usual Torontoid bias common in
Canadian reference publications; they also occasionally mis-name things,
such as in this case, but it's still a pretty good volume to have
around; probably a good starting-point for anyone south of the border or
overseas to have as a Canadian issues resource.....it's not just history
but also on current events, policies etc.

Anyway, here's the article:

"Nicola-Similkameen were an enclave of Athapaskans living in the Nicola
and Similkameen river valleys of south-central BC (and, marginally,
north-central Washington state), surroundedby Interior Salish (see
Salish, Interior).  One theory about Nicola-Similkameen settlement in
this area suggests they originated from a Chilcotin Athapaskan war party
that stayed and intermarried with the Thompson and Okanagan Interior
Salish in the mid-1700s.  Another suggest that the Nicola-Similkameen
had a long history in this area, having moved from a more northerly
Athapaskan homeland many hundreds of years ago, but archaeological data
have not supported this theory."

"The few words of Nicola-Similkameen that have been recorded [this may
not be the placename list but words recorded from the last Stuwix in the
early 20th C.] suggest that this language was related to Chilcotin,
about 250 km to the north, but analysis of artifacts from archaeological
excavations indicates that Nicola-Similkameen prehistory is closely
linked with that of the neighbouring Lillooet, Thompson and Okanagan
areas.  By the early 1900s few people remainedwho spoke the
Nicola-Similkameen language, as it had become secondary to the language
of those who now occupied their territory - the Thompson and Okanagan."

"The Nicola-Similkameen language is now extinct.  The last person who
had even a partial knowledge of this language died around 1940.
However, there are still some geographical placenames both in the Nicola
and Similkameen river that are recognized by Interior Salish as being in
the Nicola-Similkameen language, and some Thompson and Okanagan people
are aware of their Nicola-Similkameen ancestry."

"Very little information about Nicola-Similkameen culture has been
recorded.  They, like their Interior Salish neighbours, generally lived
in semisubterranean dwellings (pit houses) during the winter and in
tule-mat lodges at other times of the year.  The Nicola-Similkameen
subsisted primarily on lake fishing.  Salmon were obtained mainly
through trade, as anadromous fish were not available either in the upper
Nicola River or along the entire length of the Similkameen River.  The
Nicola-Similkameen diet was supplemented by elk, deer, small game and
vegetal foods."

"Thompson and Okanagan encroachment into Nicola-Similkameen territory
was the result of several factors, perhaps the most important being the
introduction of the horse to the Plateau area in the 18th Century [NB
before 'exploration' and colonization].  The horse extended travel for
the purposes of trade and food harvesting, with the result that Thompson
and Okanagan peoples came to use areas occupied by the
Nicola-Similkameen.  By the mid-1800s the Nicola-Similkameen were under
the influence of the Thompson and Okanagan.  Epidemic diseases,
intermarriage with the Interior Salish and the incrasing presence of
non-native peoples further hastened the demise of the Nicola-Similkameen
in the latter half of the 19th Century". - Dorothy Kennedy and Randy
Bouchard.

Comments: I'm not sure about the lack of salmon, although obviously the
Encyc's authors got that from some local anthropologist/traditional
historian.  Most Plateau peoples had allotted fishing spots on the
Fraser and Thompson; even the Okanagan from Okanagan Lake had fishing
stations at Six Mile Rapids and the Bridge River Rapids; I can't see why
the Stuwix wouldn't have similar rights, although maybe in the wake of
the Lakes War (to coin a name) they lost those privileges.....

The horse thing seems fairly logical; it also happens that the
Coldwater-Nicola-Douglas Lake-Similkameen country is pretty fine horse
country; and horses being probably typical for brideprices and dowries
or whatever, intermarriage was probably an intrinsic part of the
cultural adsorption of the Stuwix in part as a result of such horse
trading.......not that anybody's daughters were horse-faced or anything
;=-).  The idea that the Stuwix have a greater antiquity there than the
1700s-arrival thing is interesting; maybe what happened is that a new
party of Athapaskans joined up with others already in the area at that
time....

About that lake fishing - excellent country if you like small lake
fishing!!!!!!  North of the TransCanada's a bit better, maybe, but any
of the plateau lakes are full of fish, stocked if not natural......bring
bug repellent though.....

The "increasing presence" of non-natives in that region was marginal,
even in the latter half of the 19th Century; there were a few dozen
non-native settlers but no major settlement encroachments as there were
closer to the transational rail line such as affected the Nlaka'pamux
and Secwepemc along the Thompson.  The Douglas Lake region is pretty
high up and isolated, although its mountains are by no means barriers;
just big high range.  Sounds like the last few Stuwix were part of the
Douglas Lake operation, since that's where they lived and it's a truism
that the big ranch hired Douglas Lake native locals for its
cowboys.......

Had another comment but it'll come back to me.

Question for you Washington people/Boston tillikums again about the
Nlaka'pamux territories in Washington State; are there any American
Nlaka'pamux or have there ever been, or is this just a hunting/landclaim
territory?