Man on Horse sculpture at the Nk'Mip Cellars in Osoyoos.

(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca)

Mechanization transformed the European world and launched the Industrial Revolution in the mid 1700s.

At about the same time, 1750, horses made their way into the Okanagan and induced an equally dramatic transformation of the scattered peoples into First Nations.

That’s the view of Thompson Rivers University law professor Craig Jones who is researching the pre- and post-European history of the region with a particular view to legal structures.

“They were scattered communities with head man type governance – such governance as there was,” Jones told iNFOnews.ca. “It was almost all consensual or consensus decision-making. Your influence was, basically, how far could you walk.”

They lived in small groupings of one to two families up to pit house communities of several hundred, he understands.

“The horse changed everything about that and then the appearance of traders radically changed the geopolitics,” Jones said.

He’s working on a “pet theory" that, following the introduction of the horse in 1750, the First Nations' governance structure evolved to the point that, by the time American gold seekers arrived in the Fraser Canyon some 100 years later, there were “recognizable constitutional nations on the European model.”

Before the coming of the horse, the Okanagan (Syilx) people lived mostly at the southern end of their territory, around Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, Jones said.

The Syilx were the first nation to adopt the horse, followed by the Shuswap then the Thompson nations, Jones said.

Did the horse have an equivalent impact on First Nations as machines in the European Industrial Revolution?

“At least as profound as that and probably more profound than any of the subsequent technologies, like the firearm and that kind of thing,” Jones said. “After that, (Syilx Chief) Pelka'mulox II could patrol the borders of a nation the size of Scotland and could visit each of those communities. He could politic and then, when necessary, could pull them together for big hunts or wars.”

It was his son, Pelka'mulox III who moved his people into what became known as the Okanagan and, in turn, Pelka'mulox III’s son Nicola became Grand Chief of the Syilx.

READ MORE: The true story of Grand Chief Nicola, told by his descendant

That unification proved vital when American gold miners were pushing up the Fraser Canyon in 1858, triggering what became known as the Canyon War.

The Europeans worked their way up the Fraser River, destroying Nlaka’pamux (Fraser River First Nations) food caches, raping Indigenous women and disrupting their salmon fishery.

There were an unknown number of deaths on both sides.

This culminated with a confrontation at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers at Lytton.

“Driven by a hunger for gold and a sense of entitlement to Indigenous peoples’ territories and resources, American miners formed military companies and carried out violent attacks on Nlaka’pamux communities,” the Canadian Encyclopedia says. “The war ended on 21 August 1858, when the Nlaka’pamux and miners called a truce."

The Nlaka’pamux were joined in Lytton by hundreds of warriors from the Syilx, Secwepemc and other nations. Many were intent on wiping out the Europeans before they could advance any further.

“Chief Spintlum of the Thompson (Simpcw), along with (Syilx Chief) Nicola and the Shuswap (Secwepemc), because they had become nations, could gather together a force of 2,000 warriors at Lytton,” Jones said. “After a standoff and after negotiations with an almost shockingly enlightened American by the name of (Captain Henry) Snyder, they negotiated the temporary entry into British Columbia of these gold miners.

“There were 2,000 warriors. There were probably 1,000 gold miners backed up by 1,500 American army across the border and there was not a single British soldier, not even a policeman, on the mainland of what is now British Columbia.”

Six “Snyder” treaties were negotiated and the miners were granted safe passage up the Fraser River.

“A month later, (Governor James) Douglas arrives with his flag and 14 marines that he had borrowed from one of the ships in the harbour and said: ‘This is all England.’” Jones said.

That confrontation cemented, in reality, the fact that “quite demonstratively, as a matter of history, these were functioning constitutional nations, not simply Indigenous peoples as the law had always treated them,” he added.

In 1846, more than a decade before the Canyon War, Britain declared sovereignty over what became BC. It established the 49th Parallel as the Canada-U.S. border but it did not give the Crown ownership of the land.

In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada, in the Delgamuukw decision, ruled that Aboriginal title had not been extinguished and title would be based on “sufficient, continuous, and exclusive occupation by a First Nation prior to 1846,” according to an article in Canada’s History.

That’s why, Jones argued, his research is so important because it shows that, with the arrival of the horse in 1750, the structure of Aboriginal governance evolved from what it had been for thousands of years to true nationhood, allowing them to demonstrate that “continuous and exclusive” occupation of the land.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2024