Tsilhqot'in - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Tsilhqot'in are a Northern Athabaskan First Nations

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

people that live in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. They are the most southern of the Athabaskan-speaking aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

peoples in British Columbia.

The name Tsilhqot’in, also spelled Tŝinlhqot’in is the Chilcotin

Chilcotin language

Chilcotin is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqot’in people....

name for themselves "people of the red-ochre river" ("Chilko

Chilko River

The Chilko River is a 75 km waterway in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, connecting Chilko Lake to the Chilcotin River. Its main tributary is the Taseko River....

" meaning "red ochre river"). The name also refers to the Chilcotin region

Chilcotin District

The Chilcotin District of British Columbia is usually known simply as "the Chilcotin", and also in speech commonly as "the Chilcotin Country" or simply Chilcotin. It is a plateau and mountain region in British Columbia on the inland lea of the Coast Mountains on the west side of the Fraser River....

, the territory which they traditionally inhabited, and which still numerically dominate the Chilcotin Plateau

Chilcotin Plateau

The Chilcotin Plateau is part of the Fraser Plateau, a major subdivision of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. The Chilcotin Plateau is physically near-identical with the region of the same name, i.e...

. It consists of the inland lea of the coast ranges on the west side of the Fraser River

Fraser River

The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...

. It is the name of the river draining that region. The Chilcotin district is mostly a wide, high plateau

Chilcotin Plateau

, stretching from the mountains to the Fraser, but also includes several fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

-like lakes which verge from the plateau into the base of the mountains, the largest of which is Chilko Lake

Chilko Lake

Chilko Lake is a 180 km² lake in west-central British Columbia, at the head of the Chilko River on the Chilcotin Plateau. The lake is about 65 km long, with a southwest arm 10 km long. It is one of the largest lakes by volume in the province because of its great depth, and the...

. The Tsilhqot’in people live today in Alexandria

Alexandria, British Columbia

Alexandria or Fort Alexandria is a National Historic Site of Canada on the Fraser River in British Columbia, and was the end of the Old Cariboo Road and the Cariboo Wagon Road...

, north of Williams Lake, British Columbia

Williams Lake, British Columbia

Williams Lake, is a city in the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the central part of a region known as the Cariboo, it is the largest urban centre between Kamloops and Prince George, with a population of 11,150 in city limits....

, and in a string of communities westward from Williams Lake on Highway 20

British Columbia provincial highway 20

Highway 20, also known as the Chilcotin Highway, and officially dubbed the Alexander MacKenzie Highway, is one of the two main East-West routes in the Central Interior of British Columbia...

. such as: Toosey Reserve, Nemiah Valley, Stone Reserve, Anaham Reserve, and Redstone Reserve. The access road was paved only in recent years.

Pre Contact

There was an extensive trade network, which included Salmon traded from the coast of BC to Cree territories in the East that the Chilcotin were involved in. Fish oil was also a commodity of interest.

European Trade

The Tsilhqot’in first encountered Europeans trading goods in the 1780s and 1790s when British and American ships first came to the northwest coast seeking sea otter

Sea Otter

The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...

pelts. By 1808, a fur-trading company out of Montreal called the North West Company

North West Company

The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...

had established posts in the Carrier

Dakelh

The Dakelh or Carrier are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada.Most Carrier call themselves Dakelh, meaning "people who go around by boat"...

(Dene) territory just north of the Tsilhqot’in and trade began face to face and through Carrier intermediaries. A fur trade fort established by what had become the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821 at Fort Alexandria on the Fraser River, at the eastern limit of Tsilhqot’in territory, and which became their major source for European goods.

Smallpox

The isolated position of the Tsilhqot’in may have protected them from the first of the European smallpox epidemics which spread up from Mexico in the 1770s. Likewise, they may have been spared the smallpox epidemic of 1800 and the measles

Measles

Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...

of the 1840s. Furniss in "The Burden of History" states that "there is no direct evidence that these smallpox epidemics reach the central interior of British Columbia or the Secwepemc, Carrier, or Tsilhqot'in." However, in the epidemic of 1836-38 the epidemic spread to Ootsa Lake, which killed an entire Carrier band. As stated evidence is lacking as to how it effected these groups.

Other Disease

The Burden of History goes on to explain the major diseases that struck periodically:
Whooping cough 1845
Measles 1850
Small Pox 1855 (From infected blankets from the Thompson River area)
Smallpox 1862-1863 (Reduced BC aboriginal population by 62% - completely whiped out six Secwepemc bands 850 people, 2/3rds of the Secwepemc population died, half of the 14 Fraser River Bands became extant.

Gold rush and European settlement

By the 1860s, miners panned along the Fraser, Quesnel, and Horesefly Rivers, and their tributaries. Various business operators and merchants followed the miners, and with them farmers and ranchers to provision the mining towns that built up around the merchants. This led to competition for resources between the Chilcotin and Europeans, leading to a stream of events known as the Chilcotin War

Chilcotin War

The Chilcotin War, Chilcotin Uprising or Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in people in British Columbia and white road construction workers...

The Reserves

Douglas supported a system of reserves and indoctrination to "civilized" practices such as subsistence agriculture up until his retirement in 1864.
Joseph Trutch the chief commissioner of lands and works abandoned the reserve policy, and set Indian policy as them having no rights to the land. By 1866 BC colonial rule required natives to request permission fromthe Governor to use lands. Newspapers supported the preempting of native lands, seeing settlers ploughing native burial grounds. Natives who requested redress from a Justice of the Peace were refused leave.

Environmental Problems

In the 1870's the loss of hunting territories, and crashes of the Salmon runs placed more dependence on agricultural produce such as grains, hay, and vegetables. Activities migrated to cutting hay, constructing irrigation ditches, and animal husbandry. Settlers however assumed water rights making agriculture ever more fragile. Natives were huddled in on small acreages, such as with Canoe Creek, 20 acres for 150 natives.
Starvation became a threat.

Canadian Government Set to Reallocate Land back to Natives

In contrast to the 160 to 640 acres per family set aside in other treaties at the time in the Praries, the Federal Government opted for 80 acres per native family to be set aside in reserve, while the provincial government was keen on 10 acres per family.

Catholic Missionaries, and the Residential Schools

Catholic Missionaries arrived to convert the Natives, and by 1891 the first group of students were sent to receive formal education. This education included, "humiliation, beatings, and physical punishment", perhaps what might be seen in non native schools of the time. The program continued for the next 6 decades up until the point natives were allowed into the public school system. 90 years after the start of the program the mission school closed circa 1981. Over the period Indian agents were empowered to remove children from homes to attend the mission school. This lead some to attempt to hide their children by sneaking out to hunting grounds or fields. Children fled the schools, and within the first 30 years 3 investigations on the physical abuse and malnutrition were conducted; however, the Natives were said to be "wild", deserving the treatment.

Disenfranchisement

Voting rights in Canadian Federal Elections were denied until 1960, and in Provincial Elections until 1949.

Communities

Toosey [Tl’esqoxt’in]
Stone [Yunesit’in]
Anaham [Tl’etinqox]
Redstone
Redstone, British Columbia
Redstone is an unincorporated settlement and First Nations community of the Tsilhqot'in people, located in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Located at the confluence of the Chilanko and Chilcotin Rivers, it includes Redstone Flat Indian Reserve No. 1,...

[Tsi Del Del]
Nemiah Valley [Xeni Gwet'in]
Ulkatcho at Anahim Lake (mixed Tsilhqot’in-Carrier community)

Aside from the aboriginal communities, there are only two small unincorporated towns in the whole region: Alexis Creek

Alexis Creek

Alexis Creek is a creek in the Chilcotin District of British Columbia, Canada, flowing southeast from its source in Alexis Lake into the Chilcotin River a short distance upstream from the town of Alexis Creek.-Name origin:...

and Anahim Lake.
Despite its small population and isolation, the region has produced a small but very readable literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

mixing naturalism with native and settler cultures. The area is accessed by Highway 20, which runs from the port town of Bella Coola

Bella Coola, British Columbia

Bella Coola is a community of approximately 600 at the western extremity of the Bella Coola Valley. Bella Coola usually refers to the entire valley, encompassing the settlements of Bella Coola proper , Lower Bella Coola, Hagensborg, Saloompt, Nusatsum, Firvale and Stuie...

, at the head of a coastal fjord in the heart of the mountains, across the mountains and plateau to the city of Williams Lake