BC First Nations Studies – Chapter 1 Regions of BC The Southern Interior

The Southern Interior - Introduction This region covers southern part of BC from eastern slopes of Coast Mtns to the Rocky Mtns Series of mtn ranges running north to south creates a series of valleys with a network of rivers and lakes filling the valleys Major rivers include the Columbia and Fraser, Thompson and Kootenay Varied landscape and climates combine to create many different habitats Warm and dry in the summer and cold and dry in the winter, very forested with pine trees and grasslands The southern Okanagan is classified as a desert that extends all the way up from the USA and Mexico The western slopes of mtn ranges can be very wet similar to the coastal rainforest

The Southern Interior – Resources (pp 26-27) Climate created opportunities to use plants as food more than in other regions For some groups up to half of the diet consisted of plants such as berries, Camas bulbs (wild potatoes) and bitter root as well as tree lichen, mushrooms, inner bark of trees, and nuts Salmon (which swam upstream from the Pacific each year) and deer were the major source of meat in the diet which was supplemented (added to) by elk and moose. These large mammals also provided materials for clothing

The Southern Interior – The People: languages (pg 27) Most of the people living in this region spoke Interior Salish (4 groups) This included the Nlaka’pamux (Thompson) and the St’at’imc (Lillooet) nations which lived in the mountainous areas surrounding the Fraser Canyon The Secwepemc (Shuswap) nation covers an area that stretches from the Fraser River to the Rocky Mountains The Okanagan nation occupies the Okanagan valley which runs south into the United States The Kutanxa people (South west BC) speak a language unrelated to any other language in the world their territory stretches into what is now Montana and Idaho and east across the Rockies where they would travel across to the eastern slopes to hunt Buffalo

The Southern Interior – People: Seasonal food The people of the Southern Interior relied on a predictable seasonal harvest of plants as well as the return of the salmon at the same time each year Springtime brought green shoots of plants like balsamroot, fireweed, cow parsnip, and ‘Indian Celery’ June – Saskatoon berries could be picked and wild potatoes could be dug, these grew on grassy slopes at higher elevations in moist but shallow soil and could be easily dug with a ‘digging stick’ Many people would gather to harvest this staple item and some groups would replant the wild potatoes

The Southern Interior – People: Seasonal Food cont’d August – salmon began to appear in the rivers, families would gather at the Salmon camps to catch and dry the salmon for winter Summer lodges built of a framework of poles covered with mats By fall the people would hunt for deer, elk, caribou, bear, mountain goat and beaver Winter villages built in lowlands beside major rivers or lakes where it was somewhat warmer Unique ‘pit houses’ built which were well adapted to the land and climate