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Tsilhqotʼin

October 21, 2023

The Tsilhqotʼin or Chilcotin ("People of the river", /tʃɪlˈkoʊtɪn/ chil-KOH-tin;[2] also spelled Chilcotin, Tsilhqutʼin, Tŝinlhqotʼin, Chilkhodin, Tsilkótin, Tsilkotin) are a North American tribal government of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group that live in what is now known as British Columbia, Canada. They are the most southern of the Athabaskan-speaking Indigenous peoples in British Columbia.

Tsilhqotʼin
Chilcotin
Tsilhqotʼin man on horse (1901)
Total population
4,100 (2008)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Canada (British Columbia)
Languages
English, Tsilhqotʼin
Religion
Christianity, Animism
Related ethnic groups
Other Dene peoples
Especially Dakelh, Wetʼsuwetʼen, and Babine
PeopleTŝilhqotʼin
LanguageTŝilhqotʼin Chʼih
CountryTŝilhqotʼin Nen
Tsilhqotʼin chiefs pose with new highway signage displaying Tsilhqotʼin community names

For more information about the 2014 landmark court case that established Indigenous land title for the Tsilhqotʼin Nation and demanded that colonial provinces engage in meaningful and prior consultation before engaging in extractive industries on Tsilhqot'in lands, see Tsilhqotʼin Nation v British Columbia.

History Edit

Pre-contact Edit

The Tŝilhqotʼin Nation before contact with Europeans were a strong warrior nation with political influences from the Similkameen region in southern British Columbia, the Pacific coast in the west, and the Rocky Mountains in the east. They were part of an extensive trade network centred around the control and distribution of obsidian, the material of choice for arrowheads and other stone tools.

 
Tsilhqotʼin baby cradle

European trade Edit

The Tsilhqotʼin first encountered European trading goods in the 1780s and 1790s when British and American ships arrived along the northwest coast seeking sea otter pelts. By 1808, a fur-trading company from Montreal called the North West Company had established posts in the Carrier (Dene) territory just north of the Tsilhqotʼin. They began trading directly and through Carrier intermediaries.

In 1821, what was then the Hudson's Bay Company established a fur trade post at Fort Alexandria on the Fraser River, at the eastern limit of Tsilhqotʼin territory. This became the tribal people's major source for European goods.

Disease Edit

Contact with Europeans and First Nations intermediaries led to the introduction of Eurasian diseases, which were endemic among the Europeans. As they had long been exposed, some had developed acquired immunity, but the First Nations peoples were devastated by epidemics of these new diseases.

Infectious disease outbreaks with high fatalities for Tsilhqotʼin populations:

  • Whooping cough, 1845
  • Measles, 1850
  • Smallpox, 1855 (from infected blankets from the Thompson River area)
  • Smallpox, 1862–1863 (reduced BC aboriginal population by 62% – completely destroyed six Secwepemc bands, a total of 850 people; 2/3 of the Secwepemc population died; half of the 14 Fraser River bands became extinct)
  • Spanish flu, 1919 – this epidemic affected European Canadians as well as First Nations, and millions of people died internationally

The geographically isolated position of the Tsilhqotʼin may have protected them from the first of the smallpox epidemics, which spread up from Mexico in the 1770s. They may have been spared the smallpox epidemic of 1800 and the measles of the 1840s. Furniss in The Burden of History states that "there is no direct evidence that these smallpox epidemics reached the central interior of British Columbia or the Secwepemc, Carrier, or Tsilhqotʼin". However, in the epidemic of 1836–38, the disease spread to Ootsa Lake and killed an entire Carrier band.[citation needed] Oral history of the bands has continued to recount the effects of the many deaths in these epidemics.

 
Lhatŝʼaŝʔin (Klatsassin) a chief hanged after the Chilcotin War

Gold rush and European settlement Edit

By the 1860s, miners panned along the Fraser, Quesnel, and Horsefly rivers and their tributaries. Various business operators and merchants followed the miners and business was booming. Farmers and ranchers developed land to provision the mining towns that developed 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.

Reserves Edit

Governor James 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 their having no rights to the land. By 1866, BC colonial rule required indigenous peoples to request permission from the governor to use lands. Newspapers supported the preempting of indigenous lands, seeing settlers ploughing indigenous burial grounds. Indigenous peoples who requested redress from a justice of the peace were refused.

Environmental problems Edit

In the 1870s, 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 practicing animal husbandry. Settlers however assumed water rights, making agriculture ever more fragile. Indigenous peoples were huddled in on small acreages, such as in Canoe Creek, 20 acres for 150 indigenous people. Starvation became a threat.

Canadian government set to reallocate land back to natives Edit

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

Catholic missionaries and residential schools Edit

Catholic Missionaries were sent to convert First Nations children to Christianity. By 1891, the first group of students were sent to receive a so-called "formal" education. The program continued for the next six decades until a point when Indigenous children were allowed into the public school system. Ninety years after the start of the residential school program, the mission school closed circa 1981. Throughout that period, Indian agents were empowered to remove children from homes to attend St. Joseph's Mission School in Williams Lake, British Columbia. This led 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, three investigations on the physical abuse and malnutrition were conducted.

Disenfranchisement Edit

Voting rights in Canadian federal elections were denied until 1960, and in provincial elections until 1949.

First Nations communities Edit

Today, some 5,000 Tsilhqotʼin people live in Alexandria, north of Williams Lake, and in a string of five communities accessible from Williams Lake on Highway 20 (from east to west), and south from Highway 20 is the Nemiah Valley, and the Xeni-Gwetʼin.[3]

Aside from the indigenous communities, there are only two small unincorporated towns in the whole region: Alexis Creek and Anahim Lake, the largest, with 522 people. Numerically, at least, the Tsilhqotʼin still dominate the Chilcotin plateau.

Tsilhqotʼin First Nations belong to two tribal councils:

Carrier-Chilcotin Tribal Council (two Carrier/Dakelh bands, one Tsilhqotʼin band, and one mixed Carrier/Dakelh-Tsilhqotʼin band)

Tsilhqotʼin National Government (all Tsilhqotʼin bands without the mixed Carrier/Dakelh-Tsilhqotʼin band)

  • ʔEsdilagh First Nation (Alexandria First Nation)
  • Tŝideldel First Nation (Alexis Creek First Nation)
  • Yunesitʼin First Nation (Stone First Nation)
  • Tlʼetinqox-tʼin Government Office (Anaham Reserve First Nations)
  • Xeni Gwetʼin First Nation
  • Toosey First Nation (Tlʼesqox of the Tsilhqotʼin)

Despite its small population and isolation, the region has produced an impressive collection of literature mixing naturalism with Indigenous and settler cultures. The area is accessed by Highway 20, which runs from the City of Williams Lake to the port town of Bella Coola. Highway 20 westbound from Williams Lake crosses the Fraser River at Sheep Creek - thereby entering Tsilhqotʼin traditional territory. The highway passes over the Chilcotin Plateau, characterized by undulating grasslands, expansive forests of lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, a scattering of lakes, rivers, creeks and ponds, volcanic and glaciated landforms, and a magnificent backdrop of snow-covered peaks.

See also Edit

References Edit

  1. ^ Linda Ruth Smith (2008), Súwh-tŝʼéghèdúdính: the Tsìnlhqútʼín Nímính Spiritual Path. A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts, In the Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria
  2. ^ "First Nations Peoples of British Columbia". Government of British Columbia – Ministry of Education. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
  3. ^ Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada - Indigenous peoples and communities - First Nation Profiles - Council Detail

Bibliography Edit

  • Nemiah: The Unconquered Country by Terry Glavin
  • Chilcotin Cowboy by Paul St. Pierre
  • Smith and Other Events by Paul St. Pierre
  • Caruso of Lonesome Lake by Ralph Edwards
  • Chiwid by Sage Birchwater
  • The Chilcotin War by Mel Rothenburger
  • High Slack: Waddington's Gold Road and the Bute Inlet Massacre of 1864 by Judith Williams

External links Edit

  • Tŝilhqot'in National Government
  • Tŝilhqot'in Language
  • Tsilhqot'in Nation


October 21, 2023
tsilhqotʼin, chilcotin, people, river, chil, also, spelled, chilcotin, tsilhqutʼin, tŝinlhqotʼin, chilkhodin, tsilkótin, tsilkotin, north, american, tribal, government, athabaskan, speaking, ethnolinguistic, group, that, live, what, known, british, columbia, c. The Tsilhqotʼin or Chilcotin People of the river tʃ ɪ l ˈ k oʊ t ɪ n chil KOH tin 2 also spelled Chilcotin Tsilhqutʼin Tŝinlhqotʼin Chilkhodin Tsilkotin Tsilkotin are a North American tribal government of the Athabaskan speaking ethnolinguistic group that live in what is now known as British Columbia Canada They are the most southern of the Athabaskan speaking Indigenous peoples in British Columbia TsilhqotʼinChilcotinTsilhqotʼin man on horse 1901 Total population4 100 2008 1 Regions with significant populationsCanada British Columbia LanguagesEnglish TsilhqotʼinReligionChristianity AnimismRelated ethnic groupsOther Dene peoplesEspecially Dakelh Wetʼsuwetʼen and BabinePeopleTŝilhqotʼinLanguageTŝilhqotʼin ChʼihCountryTŝilhqotʼin NenThis article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia s layout guidelines Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure June 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Tsilhqotʼin chiefs pose with new highway signage displaying Tsilhqotʼin community namesFor more information about the 2014 landmark court case that established Indigenous land title for the Tsilhqotʼin Nation and demanded that colonial provinces engage in meaningful and prior consultation before engaging in extractive industries on Tsilhqot in lands see Tsilhqotʼin Nation v British Columbia Contents 1 History 1 1 Pre contact 1 2 European trade 1 3 Disease 1 4 Gold rush and European settlement 1 5 Reserves 1 6 Environmental problems 1 7 Canadian government set to reallocate land back to natives 1 8 Catholic missionaries and residential schools 1 9 Disenfranchisement 2 First Nations communities 3 See also 4 References 5 Bibliography 6 External linksHistory EditThis section includes a list of references related reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations Please help to improve this section by introducing more precise citations May 2013 Learn how and when to remove this template message Pre contact Edit The Tŝilhqotʼin Nation before contact with Europeans were a strong warrior nation with political influences from the Similkameen region in southern British Columbia the Pacific coast in the west and the Rocky Mountains in the east They were part of an extensive trade network centred around the control and distribution of obsidian the material of choice for arrowheads and other stone tools nbsp Tsilhqotʼin baby cradleEuropean trade Edit The Tsilhqotʼin first encountered European trading goods in the 1780s and 1790s when British and American ships arrived along the northwest coast seeking sea otter pelts By 1808 a fur trading company from Montreal called the North West Company had established posts in the Carrier Dene territory just north of the Tsilhqotʼin They began trading directly and through Carrier intermediaries In 1821 what was then the Hudson s Bay Company established a fur trade post at Fort Alexandria on the Fraser River at the eastern limit of Tsilhqotʼin territory This became the tribal people s major source for European goods Disease Edit Contact with Europeans and First Nations intermediaries led to the introduction of Eurasian diseases which were endemic among the Europeans As they had long been exposed some had developed acquired immunity but the First Nations peoples were devastated by epidemics of these new diseases Infectious disease outbreaks with high fatalities for Tsilhqotʼin populations Whooping cough 1845 Measles 1850 Smallpox 1855 from infected blankets from the Thompson River area Smallpox 1862 1863 reduced BC aboriginal population by 62 completely destroyed six Secwepemc bands a total of 850 people 2 3 of the Secwepemc population died half of the 14 Fraser River bands became extinct Spanish flu 1919 this epidemic affected European Canadians as well as First Nations and millions of people died internationallyThe geographically isolated position of the Tsilhqotʼin may have protected them from the first of the smallpox epidemics which spread up from Mexico in the 1770s They may have been spared the smallpox epidemic of 1800 and the measles of the 1840s Furniss in The Burden of History states that there is no direct evidence that these smallpox epidemics reached the central interior of British Columbia or the Secwepemc Carrier or Tsilhqotʼin However in the epidemic of 1836 38 the disease spread to Ootsa Lake and killed an entire Carrier band citation needed Oral history of the bands has continued to recount the effects of the many deaths in these epidemics nbsp Lhatŝʼaŝʔin Klatsassin a chief hanged after the Chilcotin WarGold rush and European settlement Edit By the 1860s miners panned along the Fraser Quesnel and Horsefly rivers and their tributaries Various business operators and merchants followed the miners and business was booming Farmers and ranchers developed land to provision the mining towns that developed 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 Reserves Edit Governor James 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 their having no rights to the land By 1866 BC colonial rule required indigenous peoples to request permission from the governor to use lands Newspapers supported the preempting of indigenous lands seeing settlers ploughing indigenous burial grounds Indigenous peoples who requested redress from a justice of the peace were refused Environmental problems Edit In the 1870s 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 practicing animal husbandry Settlers however assumed water rights making agriculture ever more fragile Indigenous peoples were huddled in on small acreages such as in Canoe Creek 20 acres for 150 indigenous people Starvation became a threat Canadian government set to reallocate land back to natives Edit In contrast to the 160 to 640 acres per family set aside in other treaties at the time in the prairies the federal government opted for 80 acres per indigenous family to be set aside in reserve while the provincial government was keen on 10 acres per family Catholic missionaries and residential schools Edit Catholic Missionaries were sent to convert First Nations children to Christianity By 1891 the first group of students were sent to receive a so called formal education The program continued for the next six decades until a point when Indigenous children were allowed into the public school system Ninety years after the start of the residential school program the mission school closed circa 1981 Throughout that period Indian agents were empowered to remove children from homes to attend St Joseph s Mission School in Williams Lake British Columbia This led 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 three investigations on the physical abuse and malnutrition were conducted Disenfranchisement Edit Voting rights in Canadian federal elections were denied until 1960 and in provincial elections until 1949 First Nations communities EditToday some 5 000 Tsilhqotʼin people live in Alexandria north of Williams Lake and in a string of five communities accessible from Williams Lake on Highway 20 from east to west and south from Highway 20 is the Nemiah Valley and the Xeni Gwetʼin 3 Toosey First Nation Tlʼesqox of the Tsilhqotʼin offices are located at Riske Creek Tsilhqotʼin community Tlʼesqox Toosey Tsilhqotʼin band name Tlʼesqoxtʼin Tlʼesqox Gwetʼin People at on Tlʼesqox registered population April 2020 377 Yunesitʼin First Nation Stone First Nation offices at the town of Hanceville B C Tsilhqotʼin community Yunesitʼin Stone Stoney original place name Gex Natsʼinilhtʼih Tsilhqotʼin band name Yunesitʼin Yuneŝitʼin Gwetʼin registered population April 2020 491 Tlʼetinqox tʼin Government Office Anaham Reserve First Nations offices east of the town of Alexis Creek Tsilhqotʼin community Tlʼetinqox the river flats Tsilhqotʼin band name Tlʼetinqox tʼin Tlʼetinqox Gwetʼin People of Tlʼetinqox registered population April 2020 1 631 Tŝideldel First Nation Alexis Creek First Nation offices are at Redstone on the main Redstone Reserve Tsilhqotʼin community Tsi Del Del Red Stone Tsilhqotʼin band name Tŝideldel Tŝi Deldel Gwetʼin registered population April 2020 703 Ulkatcho First Nation offices at Anahim Lake mixed Dakelh Tŝilhqotʼin community mostly of the Ulkatchotʼen Dakelh subgroup with intermarried Nagwentlʼun Tsilhqotʼin subgroup and some Nuxalkmc registered population April 2020 1 065 ʔEsdilagh First Nation Alexandria First Nation historic Tsilhqotʼin band name ʔElhdaqox tʼin People of the Sturgeon River i e Fraser River Tsilhqotʼin community ʔEsdilagh where the land meets the water or Peninsula Tsilhqotʼin band name ʔEsdilagh tʼin ʔEsdinlagh Gwetʼin People of the Peninsula registered population April 2020 256 Xeni Gwetʼin First Nation offices at the wilderness community and reserve in Nemaia Valley Tsilhqotʼin community Xeni Gwet Tsilhqotʼin band name Xeni Gwetʼin People of Xeni Village registered population April 2020 454 Aside from the indigenous communities there are only two small unincorporated towns in the whole region Alexis Creek and Anahim Lake the largest with 522 people Numerically at least the Tsilhqotʼin still dominate the Chilcotin plateau Tsilhqotʼin First Nations belong to two tribal councils Carrier Chilcotin Tribal Council two Carrier Dakelh bands one Tsilhqotʼin band and one mixed Carrier Dakelh Tsilhqotʼin band Kluskus First Nation Red Bluff First Nation Toosey First Nation Tlʼesqox of the Tsilhqotʼin Ulkatcho First NationTsilhqotʼin National Government all Tsilhqotʼin bands without the mixed Carrier Dakelh Tsilhqotʼin band ʔEsdilagh First Nation Alexandria First Nation Tŝideldel First Nation Alexis Creek First Nation Yunesitʼin First Nation Stone First Nation Tlʼetinqox tʼin Government Office Anaham Reserve First Nations Xeni Gwetʼin First Nation Toosey First Nation Tlʼesqox of the Tsilhqotʼin Despite its small population and isolation the region has produced an impressive collection of literature mixing naturalism with Indigenous and settler cultures The area is accessed by Highway 20 which runs from the City of Williams Lake to the port town of Bella Coola Highway 20 westbound from Williams Lake crosses the Fraser River at Sheep Creek thereby entering Tsilhqotʼin traditional territory The highway passes over the Chilcotin Plateau characterized by undulating grasslands expansive forests of lodgepole pine and Douglas fir a scattering of lakes rivers creeks and ponds volcanic and glaciated landforms and a magnificent backdrop of snow covered peaks See also EditTsilhqotʼin language Chilcotin War Carrier Chilcotin Tribal Council Tsilhqotʼin Tribal Council Tsilhqotʼin Nation v British ColumbiaReferences Edit Linda Ruth Smith 2008 Suwh tŝʼeghedudinh the Tsinlhqutʼin Niminh Spiritual Path A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In the Department of Linguistics University of Victoria First Nations Peoples of British Columbia Government of British Columbia Ministry of Education Retrieved 2013 05 14 Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Indigenous peoples and communities First Nation Profiles Council DetailBibliography EditNemiah The Unconquered Country by Terry Glavin Chilcotin Cowboy by Paul St Pierre Smith and Other Events by Paul St Pierre Caruso of Lonesome Lake by Ralph Edwards Chiwid by Sage Birchwater The Chilcotin War by Mel Rothenburger High Slack Waddington s Gold Road and the Bute Inlet Massacre of 1864 by Judith WilliamsExternal links EditTŝilhqot in National Government Tŝilhqot in Language Tsilhqot in Nation Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tsilhqotʼin amp oldid 1181191471, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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