407:
and potshots at natives en route, with some driven back. Nicola confronted one party ) when they arrived at
Kamloops and admonished them, saying they didn't know how close to outright war they were, and demanded the punishment of the guilty men, and invoking his own observance of British law, because without it he had the power to see them all killed. The guilty men, who had been chastised by the main group and its leaders during the journey for their rogue behaviours, were handed over to face justice. Nicola then hosted the party as guests and rode with them to the goldfields by the ancient trail from the mid-Thompson across the Hat Creek-Pavilion plateau into the great fishing grounds at Fountain, which were also at the upper end of gold-mining activity on the Fraser and a hub of activity. This location was also where his father Pelka'lumox had been killed.
458:, Spokane and Fraser Canyon Wars and in mediating an end to the violence of the Okanagan Trail, that without him the history of British Columbia might have been considerably more war-torn and BC's native peoples might have become entangled with American troops (thereby increasing the existing American threat to British control of the Interior). His son Chilliheetza continued his father's policy of loyalty to his father's alliance with the Crown, and as his father had done before him, prevented all-out war against the whites - fomented by the Thompsons and Okanagans - at the time of the
316:
temporary post on
Okanagan Lake was started after Fraser's journey), so there may be no direct connection to Nicola's War. The date of the council which led to the death of Pelka'mulox is unknown - but certainly before Fraser came through the Lillooet area (as the context of the story is that Pelka'mulox was the first of all assembled to have seen white men, and this included upriver Shuswap as well as the Nlaka'pamux just down river, both of whom would have met Fraser and, in the case of the northerners, also known to
387:, south of Yale at the lower end of the Canyon. Within months the lower Fraser was swarmed by up to 30,000 goldseekers of all nationalities, most by way of California where news of the gold had hit a time of depression as well as political turmoil. Many of the 30,000 gave up by the onset of winter but over 10,000 remained to work the bars of the Fraser between present-day Lillooet and Hope. Of those in the upper canyon around Lillooet and the fishing grounds at Fountain, especially early in the rush before the
422:, despite their own bad conduct. This essentially prevented a spreading of the Yakima War across the international frontier and, though exhorted to quash the miners' parties, who had attacked natives and raided and spoiled food caches on their way through Okanagan and Yakima country, he refused to engage them at war and instead, in the case of one party, escorted them from Kamloops to the Fraser at Fountain. Also exhorted to join in the
307:). They swept through the mountainous Lillooet Country all the way to the valley of the Lillooet River, the country of the Lower Lillooet or Lil'wat, killing 300-400 and taking many women and children captive and occupying the region for some time, driving the survivors into exile in the woods away from the salmon-rich streams of the region for a generation.
430:, he demurred on both occasions but apparently was ready in 1858 to join forces with the Thompson against the whites if events in the Canyon War had not turned out relatively peaceably. He felt sorry for the Spokanes that their country had fallen to the Americans but he held fast to his alliance with the
513:
Although they got along with their immediate neighbours, who had given them refuge a couple of centuries or so before after fleeing hostile neighbours in the north, they were wiped out by the late 19th
Century by raids by Thompson and Shuswap, intermarriage with the Scw'exmx and Spaxomin, and also by
406:
The number who came overland through the
Okanagan Valley and other land routes is unknown, but in the case of the Okanagan Trail numbered a few thousands, generally travelling in war parties of hundreds of men. Some of the early parties ransacked native food caches and villages and engaged in battles
361:
from Chief Trader John Tod, but was outwitted , but otherwise lived in harmony with and was highly respected by the fur traders. Among his own people and neighbouring peoples his word was law, and as with the fur traders he was known for "sagacity, honesty, prudence and fair dealing, and was rather a
282:
Nicola became trusted by the fur traders, who left him to be in charge of the trading post for the winter. He kept the place well and collected many furs, and upon their return in gratitude the traders gave him 10 guns and a supply of ammunition. Around this time Kwali'la (Duncan to the traders) the
241:
Pelka'mulox's status as chief of the
Okanagan people in the Nicola Valley and the upper Okanagan Lake area, was passed to Nicola, who came to reside in the valley around the lake that now bears his name or at Kamloops, as Kwali'la's title as chief of the Kamloops eventually passed to Nicola upon the
315:
and his men, they had guns of possibly
Russian make in 1808. Fraser's journals describe also the town of Lillooet being heavily fortified and the men armoured, and their hosts full of anxiety about hostile neighbours and a state of war, but this would have been before the gift of ten guns (the
509:
is also used in ethnology and linguistics to refer to a now-extinct
Athapaskan group who once lived amid the Scw'exmx and Spaxomin, and also in the Upper Similkameen before being driven out by the Similkameen Okanagan; they are also called the Stuwix or Stuwix'emux - "the strangers", "strange
382:
just a few miles upstream from Lytton, the
Kamloops people under Nicola's dominion were already trading for goods at Fort Kamloops using gold from nearby creeks. It was news of these finds which began further exploration and resulted in the find at Nicoamen, and the even bigger find at
238:, which had been Shuswap territory until that time (the people at Kamloops were a mix of Shuswap and Okanagan at the time). With his dying breath Pelka'mulox entrusted Kwali'la with the guardianship of his son, and ordered that he be raised to avenge his father's death.
198:), the first and second being born c.1675-1680 and c.1705-1710 respectively. The date of birth of the third Pelka'mulox, Nicola's father, is uncertain but his death was sometime in the first decade of the 19th century, caused by an arrow fired by a chief of the
332:
herds that once roamed there, using techniques adapted from the buffalo hunt by driving them over cliffs, or simply driving them into enclosures. The efficiency of these hunting techniques is believed to have led to the extermination of elk in that region.
265:
and maybe others, and the about 50 surviving children he had by them (from those who died in infancy or childhood), many people throughout the
Interior of both British Columbia and the adjoining regions of the United States are descended from Nicola. His
221:
Upon his death, the chieftaincy of the
Okanagan people passed to Hwistesmetxe'qen (Nicola), while his uncle, Pelka'mulox's brother Kwali'la, who had helped him survive the wars of his youth with the Thompson, Shuswap and Kutenai, assumed the joint
242:
former's death. In addition to being presiding chief of that group of Okanagan, he was also grand chief of all the Okanagan nation, although since the drawing of the border a separate, independent American chieftain emerged, founded by
310:
The Lower Lillooet are said to have first heard a gun and seen a horse because of this war, although the Upper Lillooet (around today's town of Lillooet) were familiar with horses and may have owned them at this time, and as seen by
498:". The ongoing alliance of Thompson and Okanagan peoples in the Nicola Valley today are colloquially also called "the Nicolas". Their Nlaka'pamux component call themselves the Scw'exmx, while the Okanagan component are the
493:
The region of his reign became known as Nicola's Country, with the river that ran through it named for him, and the largest lake and the valley it flows through named for the river, still called in regional English today
514:
attrition. Only a handful of placenames from their language remain in the area, and are all that is known of their language, other than it was Athapaskan, although outside of official ethnology an account by
403:. The Similkameen Trail is sometimes marked on maps as the "trail to the Couteau Country", meaning the country of the Thompsons, who were also called the Couteau Indians - "Knife" Indians.
608:
466:, whose wife was one of the Kamloops Shuswap and a near relation) during their attempt to transform their own murder of rancher Johnny Ussher into a full-scale Indian uprising.
341:
Like his father, Nicola travelled widely and was well-known and also visited the Prairie for buffalo hunts. He is credited with being on the winning side in a battle with the
287:(Secwepemc), who was also his uncle and foster-father, reminded him of the need to avenge his father's death, and he formed an alliance of neighbouring peoples to attack the
713:
703:
450:
Nicola was the most important and influential chief in the Interior of British Columbia in the time period spanning the opening of the inland fur trade to the time of the
708:
683:
291:(St'at'imc). In no small part his power to form this alliance resided in the web of in-laws and offspring throughout the native peoples of the Interior.
210:. The argument between the two chiefs had begun when chief of the Lakes Lillooet provoked a violent argument by denouncing Pelka'mulox, who had hunted
395:
territory to the west was opened up, many or perhaps most came overland via the Okanagan and Kamloops, or else by a more southerly cutoff via the
469:
Because of the boundary treaty partitioning Okanagan territory, Okanagans south of the line became organized under a new chieftaincy founded by
728:
510:
people", because they were recent arrivals in the territory and spoke an unrelated language). They are also called the Nicola Athapaskans.
423:
345:
while there. It was also he who came to Nicola Lake to bury the Thompson and Stu'wix victims of a Shuswap raid on their settlement at
142:
67:
304:
435:
632:""They Made Themselves our Guests": Power Relationships in the Interior Plateau Region of the Cordillera in the Fur Trade Era"
693:
442:
of 1864 and may have used his influence to keep some of the Chilcotin chiefs neutral; this was in the year before his death.
317:
194:("Rolls-Over-The-Earth"), third chief in the lineage of Okanagan chiefs to bear that name (which was by linguistic origin
346:
502:(older spelling use Spahomin where the 'h' represents the glottal stop for what is now commonly rendered as the '7').
482:
267:
79:
656:
Salishan Tribes of the Plateau, pp. 263-275 (Genealogy of the Okanagan Chiefs), Papers of the Jessop Expedition
473:, who was not of chiefly lineage but rose to prominence because of his campaigns against the miners travelling the
463:
300:
207:
203:
688:
538:
75:
438:, which he had struck before the boundary was created. It is believed he remained staunchly neutral during the
71:
274:(Tselaxi'tsa, spelled by Teit as Chelahitsa) who was his sister's son, and continues today amid local bands .
516:
312:
155:
631:
718:
698:
218:, for describing the existence of white people and their new civilization, and calling his story a lie.
462:
and also in resisting the call by the "Wild McLean Boys" (the sons of celebrated Fort Kamloops trader
723:
191:
271:
159:
91:
299:
Nicola's alliance against the Lillooet comprised Okanagan, Shuswap, Stu'wix and Upper Thompson (
589:
499:
451:
427:
396:
667:
581:
478:
415:
254:
195:
113:
533:
258:
250:
151:
83:
45:
392:
288:
199:
399:
through what was by then known as Nicola's Country, and came in time to be known as the
548:
474:
459:
431:
419:
411:
379:
375:
371:
262:
234:. Kwali'la also had helped Pelka'mulox establish the Okanagan people in the area round
223:
211:
677:
506:
439:
384:
358:
214:
on the plains and met North West Company traders Lagace and MacDonald in what is now
163:
87:
609:""Mission to New Caledonia": the letters of John Nobili, S.J., 1845-1848"
544:
495:
410:
In 1858, Nicola used his power and influence to protect those miners coming to the
400:
570:"First Nations Perspectives on the Grasslands of the Interior of British Columbia"
569:
17:
388:
235:
455:
593:
661:
585:
521:
342:
284:
227:
95:
485:, where they are intermingled with other Salishan peoples of the region.
470:
243:
231:
215:
166:. The Scots and English in the employ of the companies adapted this to
328:
Nicola organized great hunts in the Nicola Valley of the once-vast
329:
162:
who worked at a temporary unnamed trading post at the head of
90:, an alliance of Nlaka'pamux and Okanagans and the surviving
366:
The Gold Rush, the Okanagan Trail and the Fraser Canyon War
134:
128:
122:
190:
Nicola was one of the four children and chiefly heir of
150:
in approximation of the French) was conferred on him by
568:
Blackstock, Michael; McAllister, Rhonda (2004-01-01).
143:
125:
119:
131:
202:(St'at'imc) at the historic fishing grounds around
116:
454:. It is safe to say, because of his stance in the
249:Because of his 15-17 wives, drawn from Okanagan,
78:(early 19th century to 1858) as well as into the
551:in which the young protagonist is named Nkwala.)
547:(not named for Chief Nicola, but for a novel by
663:Notes on the Shuswap people of British Columbia
270:passed, however, to an adopted son, his nephew
8:
636:BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly
477:. Most American Okanogan people reside at
714:Pre-Confederation British Columbia people
704:First Nations history in British Columbia
630:Thomson, Duane; Ignace, Marianne (2005).
174:while First Nations people adapted it to
709:People of indigenous conflicts in Canada
560:
94:, and also of the Kamloops Band of the
82:(1858–1871). He was grand chief of the
684:Indigenous leaders in British Columbia
7:
574:Journal of Ecological Anthropology
370:Before the discovery of the major
25:
362:peacemaker than a fighting man".
112:
353:The Fur Trade and Fort Kamloops
357:Nicola attempted to take over
1:
729:18th-century Native Americans
607:Elliott, Marie (2014-01-01).
38:
31:
483:Colville Indian Reservation
745:
539:Nicola Tribal Association
76:British Columbia Interior
70:political figure in the
586:10.5038/2162-4593.8.1.2
541:(Nicola Tribal Council)
517:Okanagan Mourning Dove
434:and, originally, with
283:chief of the Kamloops
268:hereditary chieftaincy
154:in the employ of the
88:Nicola Valley peoples
520:says that they were
257:, Spokane, Shuswap,
56:Walking Grizzly Bear
378:, which enters the
324:The Great Elk Hunts
318:Alexander Mackenzie
294:
160:Northwest Companies
66:, was an important
694:Nlaka'pamux people
613:Historical Studies
496:the Nicola Country
92:Nicola Athapaskans
666:, pp. 26–28
460:Sproat Commission
452:Cariboo Gold Rush
428:Fraser Canyon War
416:Fraser goldfields
397:Similkameen River
374:gold find at the
86:and chief of the
18:Nicola's War
16:(Redirected from
736:
689:Secwepemc people
668:George M. Dawson
644:
643:
627:
621:
620:
604:
598:
597:
565:
479:Omak, Washington
152:French-Canadians
146:
141:
140:
137:
136:
133:
130:
127:
124:
121:
118:
51:Hwistesmetxe'qen
43:
40:
36:
35: 1780–1785
33:
21:
744:
743:
739:
738:
737:
735:
734:
733:
674:
673:
658:, James A. Teit
652:
647:
629:
628:
624:
606:
605:
601:
567:
566:
562:
558:
530:
491:
448:
426:as well as the
368:
355:
339:
326:
297:
280:
230:chieftaincy at
188:
183:
144:
115:
111:
104:
84:Okanagan people
80:colonial period
41:
34:
23:
22:
15:
12:
11:
5:
742:
740:
732:
731:
726:
721:
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672:
671:
659:
651:
648:
646:
645:
622:
599:
559:
557:
554:
553:
552:
549:Edith L. Sharp
542:
536:
529:
526:
490:
487:
475:Okanagan Trail
447:
444:
420:Okanagan Trail
401:Nicola Country
376:Nicoamen River
367:
364:
354:
351:
338:
335:
325:
322:
305:Spences Bridge
296:
293:
279:
278:Trust and Duty
276:
187:
184:
182:
179:
103:
100:
96:Shuswap people
24:
14:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
741:
730:
727:
725:
722:
720:
717:
715:
712:
710:
707:
705:
702:
700:
697:
695:
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679:
669:
665:
664:
660:
657:
654:
653:
649:
641:
637:
633:
626:
623:
618:
615:(in French).
614:
610:
603:
600:
595:
591:
587:
583:
579:
575:
571:
564:
561:
555:
550:
546:
543:
540:
537:
535:
534:Nicola people
532:
531:
527:
525:
523:
519:
518:
511:
508:
507:Nicola people
503:
501:
497:
488:
486:
484:
480:
476:
472:
467:
465:
464:Donald McLean
461:
457:
453:
445:
443:
441:
440:Chilcotin War
437:
433:
429:
425:
421:
417:
413:
408:
404:
402:
398:
394:
390:
386:
381:
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365:
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359:Fort Kamloops
352:
350:
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321:
319:
314:
308:
306:
302:
292:
290:
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233:
229:
225:
219:
217:
213:
209:
205:
201:
197:
193:
185:
180:
178:
177:
173:
172:Old Nicholas,
169:
165:
164:Okanagan Lake
161:
157:
153:
149:
148:
139:
109:
101:
99:
97:
93:
89:
85:
81:
77:
73:
69:
68:First Nations
65:
61:
57:
53:
52:
47:
29:
19:
719:1780s births
699:Syilx people
662:
655:
639:
635:
625:
616:
612:
602:
580:(1): 24–46.
577:
573:
563:
545:Mount Nkwala
515:
512:
504:
492:
481:, or on the
468:
449:
409:
405:
369:
356:
340:
327:
313:Simon Fraser
309:
298:
295:Nicola's War
281:
272:Chilliheetza
248:
240:
220:
189:
175:
171:
167:
156:Hudson's Bay
107:
105:
63:
59:
55:
50:
49:
27:
26:
724:1865 deaths
436:King George
424:Spokane War
389:Lakes Route
236:Nicola Lake
192:Pelka'mulox
74:era of the
42: 1865
678:Categories
650:References
489:Other uses
385:Hill's Bar
594:1528-6509
522:Chinookan
505:The name
393:St'at'imc
343:Blackfoot
181:Biography
106:The name
72:fur trade
619:: 29–43.
528:See also
500:Spa7omin
471:Tonasket
418:via the
412:Thompson
391:through
380:Thompson
301:Ashcroft
289:Lillooet
263:Thompson
255:Colville
244:Tonasket
232:Kamloops
224:Thompson
208:Pavilion
204:Fountain
200:Lillooet
176:Nkwala’.
168:Nicholas
58:), also
670:, 1891?
347:Guichon
337:Travels
285:Shuswap
259:Stu'wix
251:Sanpoil
228:Shuswap
216:Montana
212:buffalo
196:Spokane
186:Lineage
108:Nicolas
64:N'kwala
592:
456:Yakima
446:Legacy
372:placer
60:Nkwala
46:Spokan
28:Nicola
642:(35).
556:Notes
432:Queen
147:-ə-lə
590:ISSN
414:and
206:and
170:and
158:and
102:Name
582:doi
330:elk
320:).
145:NIK
62:or
44:) (
680::
638:.
634:.
617:80
611:.
588:.
576:.
572:.
524:.
349:.
261:,
253:,
246:.
98:.
54:,
48::
39:c.
37:–
32:c.
640:3
596:.
584::
578:8
494:"
303:-
226:-
138:/
135:ə
132:l
129:ə
126:k
123:ɪ
120:n
117:ˈ
114:/
110:(
30:(
20:)
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