Unit 6
The Ktunaxa and the Secwepemc of the Plateau

Over their history, the First Nations peoples of the Plateau developed a rich and vibrant culture in the varied environment of the Pacific Northwest. While the fur trade had a relatively minor impact on these Aboriginal societies, Euro-North American settlement was a major factor in their disenfranchisement. We will discuss two cultures here: the Ktunaxa1 and the Secwepemc.2

The Plateau cultures are highly diversified, yet they share common characteristics. They establish semi-permanent villages for summers or winters; the kinship groups collectively manage resources; and they share the existence of kinship groups and marital ties to larger groups (Hudson and Ignace, 2004, 344–3463).

Objectives

When you have completed Unit 6, you should be able to

  1. describe the environmental and geographic characteristics of the Plateau.
  2. identify the geographic home of the major cultural groups of the Plateau region.
  3. describe the three defining characteristics of Plateau culture.
  4. compare Secwepemc and Ktunaxa societies with regard to
    • economy (resources, technology, division of labour, seasonal mobility);
    • social organization (group membership, marriage rules, non-kin relations);
    • political systems (leadership, social control, warfare); and
    • ideological systems (rituals, beliefs, worldview).
  5. explain the impact of Simpson’s beaver conservation and beaver eradication policies on Native economies.
  6. outline the development of the mixed cash-subsistence economy on the Plateau.
  7. describe the effects of Euro-Canadian settlement on Plateau societies.
  8. discuss how life experience interacts with anthropology for Aboriginal anthropologists.
  9. describe how Aboriginal fishing has been affected by state laws and economic development.
  10. discuss differences and similarities in First Nation/government relations between American and Canadian Ktunaxa.
  11. outline the anthropological debate over cultural change and continuity in the Plateau Prophet Dance.

1The Ktunaxa are also called the Kootenai. Your AU course materials will refer to them as the Ktunaxa.

2The Secwepemc are also called the Shuswap.

3Hudson, Douglas, and Marianne Ignace. 2004. “The Plateau: A Regional Overview.” In Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience (3rd ed.), edited by R. Bruce Morrison and C. Roderick Wilson, pp. 342-352. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.