Part of the ongoing Gold Country GeoTourism Program. All the fun of geocaching with an added tourism twist; discover tales of our pioneers, unearth geological wonders or reveal magnificent sites of beauty. If you enjoyed this adventure look for more in this series.
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The History of Logan Lakes Grasslands
The word Secwépemc means ‘to spread out’ or, ‘the spread-out people’. It is estimated that the pre-contact population was any where from 8,000 to 40,000 people. (Ignace, 1995)
These lands around are the Traditional Territory of the Nlaka’pamux, the Secwépemc people. Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (TteS) and Skeetchestn Indian Band (SIB), jointly are known as the Stk’emlupsecme te Secwépemc Nation (SSN). The Lower Nicola Indian Band and Ashcroft Indian Band are part of the Nlaka’pamux Nation.
Europeans were recorded in the area as representatives of the fur trade between the 1820’s and the 1860’s to establish the Thompson’s River Post. There the Secwépemc people could trade hides, fish, roots, nuts, and berries. The fur traders were reliant on Secwépemc people to supply important food sources such as wild game and salmon, necessary to maintain the Thompson’s River Post.
The SSN had a Cultural Heritage Study drafted in 2014 by Marianne Ignace and in this report she identifies five major harvesting seasons or rounds observed by the local Indigenous people; early spring (snow melting), mid-to-late spring (root gathering), summer (berry and high elevation root and medicinal plant gathering), late summer to early fall (salmon season) and mid to late fall (hunting season). The Secwépemc people relied on an intimate connection to the land, an understanding of how animals and plants behaved in correlation to seasons and locations. (National Energy Board: Oral Presentation from Chief Ignace, 2014).
The Chiefs of the Interior wrote to Sir Wilfrid Laurier on August 25, 1910, describing how the people of each tribe were supreme in their own territories, and tribal boundaries were known and recognized by all. Each tribe’s ‘country’ was just like a massive farm or ranch belonging to all the people of that tribe. The Chiefs explained how they would gather their food, clothing, and technology resources with in it, each in their own ‘season’. This maintained the sustainable harvesting practices and they were handed down from generation to generation by the oral tradition of elders.
In Ronald Ignace’s thesis from 2008 titled Our Oral Histories are Our Iron Posts: Secwepemc Stories and Historical Consciousness touched upon the Secwepemc notions of governance, stating that the people looked after the land and the animals and plants. Everything. That was why there was always plenty. They had to learn about everything first for a long time and practice, then they knew how to look after everything. It was crucial for the elders to share each others’ knowledge, and this was how their knowledge grew. The knowledge shared had to be exact.
Historical maps from 1872 and 1884 published by Fullerton, A. & Co. and the Alaskan Tribunal Boundary show little to no colonization to the area we now know as Logan Lake, BC. This area is shown on both maps as a pristine grass land area with some mountains and rolling hills that the Southern Interior of BC is well known for. The Fullerton, A. & Co. map simply has the outlines of the mountain ranges and grasslands, while the 1884 map produced by the Alaskan Tribunal Boundary, has the area labeled as “Bench Grass Country”. In 1903 Rand McNally and Company produced another map of the region, again only showing the mountains and bench grass lands of the area with no specific names to be had.
Joseph Guichon, a miner with few lucrative strikes, recognized the grasslands potential while wintering pack horses in the area in 1866-67 working for Jean Caux as a packer. In 1868, before the Indian Act of 1876, he obtained a homestead in the area of Savona’s Ferry (Savona) and eventually took up land at Mamit Lake. Joseph Guichon had previously worked in the Basque area close to 89 Mile with a rancher by the name of Minnabarriet (Antoine Globe Victor Joseph Minnabarriet and Mary Jijiatko Minnabarriet.)
Along with ranchers came the Land Surveyors, notably Frank Cyril Swannell. He surveyed much of the Interior of BC and remote Northern BC. Swannell is not only remembered by his work as a surveyor in the early 1900’s, but as a photographer, but he took over 5,000 photos while on his expeditions also keeping a journal. Of his photos, most notably were those of the people he met along the way, including a photo of Chief David Basil of Bonaparte in 1908 with an Indigenous surveying crew. He surveyed regions of the province that were so remote and difficult to reach, including the area of Highland Valley, now known as the District of Logan Lake.
Researched and written by Lana Rae Brooks
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/guichon_joseph_15E.html
myheritage.com/names/percy_minnabarriet
https://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/documents/p62225/104503E.pdf
http://www.firstnations.de/development/secwepemc.htm
http://www.surveyingbc.ca/ssbc.htm