First Nations / Sikh /

Other ethnic groups of the Kootenay.

The First Nations:

Ktunaxa

Barnaby Storyteller & his wife, Tobacco Plains, BC Image courtesy of Fort Steele Heritage Town Archives FS 8.136

According to Ktunaxa tradition, the Ktunaxa have lived in this region for hundreds of generations before the coming of white people. In fact, the name Kootenay came from the name that white explorers assigned to this aboriginal group.

The pattern of interaction between these people and Europeans mirrored that of many other First Nations people. The Ktunaxa, like many indigenous people, were placed on relatively small reservations and their children were separated from their families and placed in residential schools. At the same time, the majority of their traditional land was taken over without the formality of a treaty. The nomadic life of the Ktunaxa in the Rocky Mountain Trench and the prairies came to an end.

To make matters worse, the Ktunaxa were not accepted into the new white communities, and were often forced to travel the alleyways and eat in back rooms.

Little more than a hundred years have passed since the Ktunaxa people freely roamed the Kootenays, still practising their traditional lifestyle. In that short time, their culture largely died away. More recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in their traditional ways, and the Ktunaxa have expended a great deal of effort to reclaim their pride as a people.

Kinbasket
The Kinbaskets' lot was as hard as that of their neighbouring Ktunaxa. Having settled on the Ktunaxa's territory in 1825, the Kinbaskets inhabited the area around present day Invermere, BC.

St. Eugene Mission band, St. Eugene Mission. Image courtesy of Fort Steele Heritage Town Archives FS 8.126

With the arrival of missionaries in the region, an effort was made (as with most First Nations peoples including the Ktuanxa) to replace the Kinbasket culture with one that was more European.

Sinixt
The Sinixt or Lakes people had an especially difficult time once white civilisation reached their traditional homeland. Never great in numbers, these people witnessed their land being inhabited by growing number of white settlers. Often the land that was claimed by these settlers included the Sinixt's traditional burial grounds. With little status before the law, the Sinixt had to turn to white Indian Agents to voice their concerns, mainly to little effect.

Disease and other factors caused the Sinixt population to dip so low that they were declared a "dead people" by the government early in the 1900's. Status as an independent band was removed from the few surviving Sinixt members and they were transferred to other local bands in the area.

After the official demise of the Sinixt, their occupation of the Arrow Lakes area in West Kootenay was all but forgotten. Without the status of being an official government "band" the Lakes people watched as new immigrants and developers moved into the land they once claimed as theirs.

The Sikhs

Painting, Hindus on S.S. Kootenay - Lindley Crease, artist. (August 15, 1906) Image courtesy of BC Archives, Victoria, BC

The first Sikhs came to British Columbia in the late 1800's. Many came to work on the railway, especially in the lumber mills supplying raw materials for construction. As subjects of the British Empire, Sikhs and other East Indians enjoyed certain privileges in Canada.

These rights did not mean that Sikhs had an easy time adapting to life in the new country. Dress, speech and their skin colour singled them out for criticism and lampooning by white European citizens. Like many other non-European people, barriers were often erected against Sikhs, including where they could live and work.

In addition, the Sikhs were often designated "Hindoo", a common stock name at the time for anyone from the Indian subcontinent. Understanding of the religious differences between Hindus and Sikhs was often not considered by mainstream Canadians. Ceremonies such as the burning of the body were simply seen as strange and mysterious by the majority of Canadians.