North of the Border
June 2007

Land Under Water
by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes

In spring, 2005, after the water of the Arrow Lakes reservoir had been drawn down but before the melted snows filled it up again, a few people walking along the beaches of the reservoir north of Castlegar, B.C., came across two skeletal remains poking above the silt. As the remains were removed by authorities, it was clear that they had been buried in a flexed position, a unique tradition of the Lakes Indians (Sinixt). Before the international boundary existed, Lakes traditional territory once stretched from Kettle Falls north along the Columbia River to just beyond Revelstoke, B.C.

The creation of Lake Roosevelt in 1941 and then Arrow Reservoir in 1968, destroyed countless archeological sites of these people and other tribes living along the river in North Columbia Country. Hasty surveys were completed immediately prior to the reservoirs being filled. It was clear in the aftermath that not enough care and attention had been taken. Subsequent studies in the 1970s -- by David Chance in the U.S. and Gorden Mohs in Canada -- redressed some of the disregard that had occurred in the race to complete the dams for wartime power needs and post-war prosperity. Unfortunately, the function of reservoirs now limits forever what archaeologists might have been able to understand about how the Lakes people lived on the Upper Columbia River for thousands of years.

All the same, the cycling of the water up and down still sometimes exposes a secret or two. The flooded land beneath the reservoir is constantly scoured by the water's action. This scouring exposes archaeological material. In the U.S., members of the Colville Confederated Tribes survey the exposed beaches in springtime in an attempt to protect and preserve any remains or cultural artifacts that work loose along the Columbia at the many sites of Lakes traditional villages in the U.S.

In Canada, the lack of official tribal status for the Lakes (declared "extinct" in 1956 by the Canadian government) limits the ability of this tribe to oversee and protect exposed village sites north of the border. A handful of amateur collectors (none of whom are not Lakes Indians) scour the beaches of the Arrow Reservoir between Castlegar and Revelstoke. While it is illegal to actually dig in British Columbia without a permit, there is no law against this strange form of beachcombing. Some remarkable lithic material is being gathered. Even 30 to 60 years later, the land reminds us of the truth of history in the shards of stone, finely worked points, smoothed pounders and, sadly enough, sometimes disturbed skeletons.

Disturbed remains are serious business for Lakes Indians, who have deep obligations to the protection and care of their ancestors. The return of the two skeletons to them was not a straightforward process. The Canadian government "extinction" has resulted in a bizarre form of purposeful ignorance in which government officials here are instructed in a situation like this to contact not the "non-existent" Lakes living in Canada, nor even the Lakes representatives of the Colville Confederated Tribes, but members of neighbouring Canadian tribes instead: the Ktunaxa in the east or the Okanagan Nation Alliance in the west. In the case of the recently loosened remains, local people circumvented the government process, allowing the remains to be quietly returned to the small group of Lakes living in Canada.

Lakes cultural law states that when a spirit is finished with its physical being, the remains should be returned to the Earth. Reburials are an attempt to set things right. The reburial service for these remains was extremely simple, since the Lakes were taught no traditional practices around returning a body to the Earth. As I watched a handful of Lakes Indians place the remains in a protected burial ground, I was reminded of the tragic consequences of valleys being flooded without care and attention to preserving and honouring history.

While the Roosevelt and Arrow reservoirs will be full all summer long, it's still possible to engage in some of the riches of Columbia River history. The Colville Museum has a wonderful display of local artifacts. The walking paths and displays of the Kettle Falls Interpretive Centre can enliven the old stories, too. For those venturing north of the border, the new museum in Nelson offers another look into the flooded past.

Eileen Delehanty Pearkes is the author of Geography of Memory and The Inner Green, coauthored by K. Linda Kivi. She lives in the West Kootenays of British Columbia.

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