This geocache is part of the Gold Country GeoTour – The Prequel: Be A Guest. This GeoTour focuses on a step back in time to learn about before the Gold Rush ensued: languages of the region’s culturally diverse families, handed down traditions such as recipes, flora and fauna, historic sites of significance, and points of interest. These stories will help preserve the oral languages and traditions of the region as well as assist in educating visitors and locals alike to the cultural diversity and environmental sensitivity of the region.
Relocation
Clinton, BC is rich with family history and many branches of these family trees that span across Secwepemcúl’ecw (territory of the Secwepemc people) are intertwined with this specific geographical area. Big Bar Creek and Kelly Lake are located west of the Village of Clinton and hold many traditional stories of the Pellti’qt which means People of the White Earth (Kelly Lake) and Steke’7us which means People of the Little Hanging Bridge (Big Bar Creek). At a location known as 8-mile, approximately 15 km west of the Village of Clinton, the valley and meadows are abundant with history and memories for those people from Pellti’qt.
During the 1800s when the Federal Government implemented the reservation system across the country, First Nation people from Pellti’qt and Steke’7us residing in the area lived on Clinton Indian Reservation 1, 2 and 2A of which IR 2A is an area known as 8-mile. During the mid 1900’s BC Hydro commenced further work on their hydro towers in the vicinity of Clinton and obtained an easement through the Clinton Indian Reservation. Jerry LeBourdais tells stories of how his late father, Joe LeBourdais, was hired as part of the blasting crew run by Bill Tresierra and would bury the dynamite in order to blast the holes for the hydro towers seen in the area today.
During the 1970’s, the Federal Government and BC Hydro expropriated the Clinton Indian Reserve 2A in order to build what is seen today as the Kelly Lake Substation located on Kelly Lake Road, west of Clinton. This expropriation of land required the population of the Clinton Indian Band to relocate. The land obtained during that time became what is now known as Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band Reserve No. 4 which is located on the North Thompson River, north of Kamloops, BC.
The Kelly Lake Substation sits on 8-mile where many families originated from. The area originally held houses, corals for horses, rodeo grounds, cow pastures and hay shacks. The generation of people from Pellti’qt who were raised at 8-mile and currently reside in Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band are Knowledge Keepers and continue to pass on stories, traditions and memories of what life was like in the Clinton area. Despite an entire generation being born and raised on the current IR No. 4 (Whispering Pines) the people from Pellti’qt hold Clinton, Kelly Lake, Pear Lake and Big Bar Creek dear to their hearts and spend a significant amount of time up in the mountains hunting, gathering, and on the waters to fish throughout the year and are Yucwmenúl’ecw (caretakers of the land).
Researched and written by Krystal McKay