#Ktunaxa history BritishColumbia GoldenBC

[outdoorsgolden]

Q: Tell me about yourself and how the outdoors Golden project came to be.

I guess the story begins in 1975 when a friend and I decided to hitchhike from San Francisco to Michigan and then go back by way of Canada. The pivotal ride was when a guy in a bus picked us up outside of Brandon Manitoba and we rode all the way to Golden where he was just starting the building of a log house. Of course the story is much longer than that but I returned the next winter and soon adopted Golden as my home town.

Now 40 plus years later as I began to reflect on that time and where Golden is now with a well-developed outdoor scene, I realized that it might be important to capture that history beyond whatever a person might be able to dig up in old newspaper archives or the very few published books about the area.

There are rich stories waiting to be mined, like that of the first person to take a raft down the crazy rapids of the Kicking Horse River or the community members who dedicated themselves to creating Whitetooth ski hill which is now the world renowned Kicking Horse Mountain Resort or the first person who jumped off Mt. 7 with a hang glider. These are not even the tip of the iceberg and I feel like if I get this started, others will jump on board and take the project to amazing heights.

Q: Explain for the listeners the role you see for the podcast to the bigger project?

The podcast is really about hearing the stories directly from those who were part of the development of the outdoor scene, especially from the early 1970’s but hopefully from a few old-timers who were doing things like skating and ice fishing on the Columbia Rivers sloughs or trekking on foot or with horses into the back country. Many of those people are still around and their stories are valuable historical resources.

Q: You have told me that you wanted to highlight the First Nations tenure on the land early in the project, why is this important to you?

As is true in so many other places in Canada and throughout North America, people in Golden like other settler communities and newcomers, have little to no knowledge of the local First Peoples, their knowledge and active care for the land or for the original and ongoing influence on how we behave on the land in this day.

Most of us who now call Golden home are only a minor blip in the celestial record of this place but are immeasurably influenced by those who know the stories that name the land.

Drones, peeps, oxygen tanks, helicopters and satellite GPS along with many more technological gadgets are things that have become essentials for adventuring in the outdoors in the extreme terrain and climate around the Golden, British Columbia. So as we partake in this beautiful and daunting place we can always be thinking with respect of the ways that the Ktunaxa and the Secwepemc peoples continue to care for this land, and did long before European explorers and newcomers came. We can honour what we as settlers had, and have to learn in order to survive here as the First Peoples always have. We are still strangers in this place we call home.

There is no doubt that the First Nation’s tenure in, and knowledge of this place has an impact on all our common outdoors uses to this day. Some of the activities that come easily to mind are exploring, guide/outfitting, travel, search and rescue, trapping, use of waterways, berry-picking, food and herb gathering, outdoor games and skills, soaking in hot springs, and general enjoyment of both back and front-country. There are other activities such as spiritual ceremony and social connections that may not be first thoughts but are very much a part of this land.

Q: What are your visions for the future of the project?

Right now the Outdoors Golden project has a website with links to a variety of social media platforms where the public can find links to articles, books, photographs, museums, videos and websites where bits and pieces of Golden Outdoors history can be found.

As is the nature of who gets to tell the history, many links identify the first Europeans encroachment such as the travels of David Thompson or the mapping and surveying by James Hector and Walter Moberly (all of whom were guided, assisted, and often had their lives saved by First Nations peoples).

These links are by no means exhaustive and I hope that anyone interested and anyone who might have a story to tell will contact us through the website outdoorsgolden.ca.  

Ultimately and ideally there will be a whole team of people tracking down and recording stories that need to be remembered so if this sounds like fun, we want to hear from you.