Nicola Athapaskans

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Nicola Athapaskans
Total population
assimilated
Regions with significant populations
Nicola Country, British Columbia, Canada
Languages
Nicola

The Nicola Athapaskans, also known as the Nicola people or Stuwix, were an Athabascan people who migrated into the Nicola Country of what is now the Southern Interior of British Columbia from the north a few centuries ago but were slowly reduced in number by constant raiding from peoples from outside the valley (mostly Secwepemc), with the survivors, the last of whom lived near Nicola Lake, assimilated to the Scw'exmx-Syilx Nicola people by the end of the 19th century. The term Nicola for them is a misnomer, though a common one used by ethnologists and linguists - it commemorates a famous Okanagan chief who once held sway over the valley and its peoples as well as over the Kamloops Shuswap).

Contents

First appearing in the Bonaparte River valley and at Spences Bridge, they came into conflict with the Secwepemc and Nlaka'pamux peoples of that area, the Thompson Canyon, after journeying south to get away from "bad neighbours". At first in conflict with the Nlaka'pamux, peaceful terms were come to and they were invited to settle in the area of Nicola Lake and the upper Similkameen Country and lived alongside the valley's mix of Okanagan and Nlaka'pamux-speaking groups. The latter's name for them is the only indigenous name that exists for them, stuwix ("strangers"), as their own language, known as Nicola, did not survive and very little is known about it, as only a very little was recorded before it became extinct. At one time the Stuwix had also lived in the upper Similkameen and are credited by historian Mark S. Wade as being the first known inhabitants of that area until they were driven out by the group today constituted as the Upper Similkameen Indian Band and retreating to the area of Douglas, Stump and Nicola Lakes, where they were sheltered by Chief Nicola and the Scw'exmx and Spaxomin who lived under his rule. Despite friendly relations with their immediate neighbours, they were subject to repeated raids by hostile tribes, notably the Secwepemc (Shuswap) and by the later 19th century only a handful survived. Very little is known of them as by the mid-19th century they were nearly extinct due to constant raiding by Thompson and Shuswap from outside the valley, and their surviving members were largely absorbed by the surrounding Scw'exmx, a branch of the Thompson people by the time of European contact, and also partly by the Spaxomin, a branch of the Okanagan people also in the valley who are also known as the Spahomin Band. Some family lines are thought to survive among the Scwe'exmx, and a handful of placenames in the Merritt-Princeton area are believed to be from their language, which some linguists believe may be closely related to, or simply a dialect of, the Chilcotin language.

Another account

Although the anthropological and linguistic consensus is that the Nicola people were Athapaskan, an account in Okanagan Mourning Dove's writings says that they were a Chinookan group who had travelled up the Columbia River to escape bad neighbours there, finally finding refuge up the Okanagan River and beyond the upper Similkameen around Nicola Lake.

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau</span> Regional culture in North America

Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, also referred to by the phrase Indigenous peoples of the Plateau, and historically called the Plateau Indians are Indigenous peoples of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, and the non-coastal regions of the Northwestern United States.

Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc, abbreviated TteS and previously known as the Kamloops Indian Band, is a First Nations government within the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council, which represents ten of the seventeen Secwepemc band governments, all in the southern Central Interior region, spanning the Thompson and Shuswap districts. It is one of the largest of the 17 groups into which the Secwepemc (Shuswap) nation was divided when the Colony of British Columbia established an Indian reserve system in the 1860s.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secwépemc</span> First Nations people in Canada

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The Thompson Plateau forms the southern portion of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada, lying to the west of Okanagan Lake, south of the Thompson River and east of the Fraser River. At its most southern point the plateau is squeezed by the mountainous terrain of the Cascade Range abutting closer to the Okanagan Valley. Its southwestern edge abuts the Canadian Cascades portion of that extensive range, more or less following the line of the Similkameen River, its tributary the Tulameen River, and a series of passes from the area of Tulameen, British Columbia to the confluence of the Thompson River with the Nicoamen River, a few kilometres (miles) east of Lytton, British Columbia, which is in the Fraser Canyon. Its northeastern edge runs approximately from the city of Vernon, British Columbia through the valley of Monte Creek to the junction of the same name just east of the city of Kamloops. Northeast of that line is the Shuswap Highland.

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The Scwʼexmx ( Scw̓éxmx), meaning "people of the creek(s)", are a branch of the Nlaka'pamux (Thompson) people in the Nicola Country of the Canadian province of British Columbia. Together with the neighbouring branch of the Okanagan people the Spaxomin, who live in the upper, eastern reaches of the Nicola Valley, they are generally known in English as the Nicolas. They also share governmental institutions, and their alliance dates to before the time of Chief Nicola, for whom the river was named and whose father had led the Okanagan migration into the valley in the late 18th century. The Scw'exmx intermarried with the Okanagans, and also with the Nicola Athapaskans (Stu'wix), a now-extinct Athapaskan-speaking people who migrated into the valley in the 17th century.

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The Upper Nicola Band is a First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located near the town of Merritt in the Nicola Country at Douglas Lake. They are a member of both the Okanagan Nation Alliance and the Scw’exmx Tribal Council, which is a joint government of Okanagan and Nlaka'pamux bands.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nlaka'pamux</span> Ethnic group of British Columbia

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