Fernie & Elk Valley Culture Guide Fernie & Elk Valley Cultural Guide - Winter 18-19 | Page 28

THE KTUNAXA NATION
LIVING CULTURE,
LIVING TRADITIONS
For more than 10,000 years, the
Ktunaxa people (pronounced ‘k-too-
nah-ha’), also known as the Kootenai or
Kootenay, have occupied a traditional
territory that spans what is now known
as southeastern British Columbia,
Southwestern Alberta, and parts
of Washington, Idaho and Western
Montana. For thousands of years the
Ktunaxa people enjoyed the natural
bounty of the land, seasonally migrating
throughout their traditional territory to
follow vegetation and hunting cycles.
The Ktunaxa obtained all their food,
medicine and material for shelter
and clothing from nature – hunting,
fishing and gathering throughout their
Territory, across the Rocky Mountains
and on the Great Plains of both Canada
and the United States.
The Ktunaxa used the Elk Valley
as a trade and travel route through
the Rocky Mountains. Twice a year,
bison hunts were coordinated on the
prairies east of the Rockies until the
bison population was decimated in the
mid-1800s. The Elk Valley area was
the primary home of the easternmost
branch of the Ktunaxa people, who are
closely connected to families living at
what is now Tobacco Plains. The Michel
Prairie people, after whom the old town
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of Michel was named, used the area
near Sparwood to plant tobacco. Their
Ktunaxa name is aqawakanmituqnik
and means “river running into and out
again” (the Michel Creek into the
Elk River).
Despite being subjected to 120 years of
living on Indian Reserves, and decades of
forced attendance at a residential school
at St. Eugene Mission near Cranbrook,
the Ktunaxa Nation continues to be
a strong and thriving community and
transformed the Mission into a world-
class resort. Visitors to the region can
learn more about the Ktunaxa by visiting
the St. Eugene Resort Interpretive
Centre and the Fernie Museum. A
pull-out near Michel Creek at the
former townsite of Michel offers visitors
further information about the Michel
Plains people.
Visit www.ktunaxa.org and
www.steugene.ca