FIRST NATIONS CULTURAL COMPONENT ABORIGINAL / CHINESE CULTURE

Aboriginal Culture

Traditional Fishing in the Chilcotin

Our company is 100% First Nations owned and operated and we run tours through our traditional territories of the Chilcotin Nation. We are Stewards of our traditional lands, maintaining Traditional Native Use sites and ensuring that they will be respected by all users.

Native Painting on Rock

Join us on an authentic First Nations Cultural Tour by Jetboat or with a 4x4 Van Tour. Enjoy native Chilcotin/Shushwap stories, while visiting old villages and archaeological sites (depressions formed from ancient pit houses; these are underground homes and dwellings used long ago.) View ancient rock art in the form of pictographs and petroglyphs, learn about the flora and fauna that was used by native people for medicinal purposes and staple foods. Experience Traditional Native 'dip netting' for wild Sockeye, Chinook , or pink salmon first hand on the World's largest salmon producing river. Eat your freshly caught salmon along with other traditional native foods, drink wild tea and taste an exotic Indian ice cream called "hushum".

Teepee (traditionally used in the Cree culture)

On overnight tours you may enjoy a spiritual sweat lodge (native sauna) in a wilderness setting surrounded only by mother nature and her beauty, try an authentic native drum or rattle as you experience the cleansing one feels from a traditional sauna. Meeting and speaking with a native elder sometimes can be arranged.

Learn how to decipherer different animal tracks, how to spot them, see what they eat and where they live. Follow Mule Deer or California Big Horn Sheep trails on your hiking adventures. Observe Bald / Golden Eagles and other animals that were important to native people. These outings offer excellent photo opportunities.

Chilcotin (Tsilhqot’in) when translated means "River People"

 

Gold Rush History/Chinese Mining History

Chinese Miner Using Rocker Box

There is plenty of scattered reminence of Gold Mining along the Fraser River. The Gold Rush in BC started on the Fraser River and then followed its tributaries. The river was the main transportation route back in the 1800's. In our area, the old gold mining claims of that era are still undisturbed, left as they were by the gold miners. We visit many old Chinese Gold Mining sites. This evidence of their hard work is still visible in the miles of hand- dug ditches that took thousands of hours of backbreaking work. They endured unimaginable hardships mining and labouring to achieve a better life for their families here and in their homeland.

Chinese mining-Washed rock

When the Chinese merchants in San Francisco heard rumors of the gold discovery in the lower Fraser River, they sent a scout to the Fraser region to verify the truth. He returned in May 1858 and assured them of the marvelous richness of the gold mines of that region. This began the Chinese migration north from California. This announcement of gold found up the Fraser River brought thousands to Gold Mountain, the Chinese's term for Canada. Soon after, thousands of Chinese gold-seekers came from Hong Kong by ship. Chinese miners worked their way up the Fraser River as white miners abandoned these sites. Many Chinese immigrants moved to the Cariboo to become miners or set up businesses such as laundries and restaurants. An estimated 6,000 - 7,000 Chinese immigrants had come to B.C.

Gold Panning along the Fraser River

The term "A Chinaman's chance" originated from the white workers who harassed the Chinese miners - it described the slim chance of a Chinese miner of finding gold. Chinese miners often lacked mining experience, or they could only mine on areas left behind by white miners. However, it was the ingenuity of Chinese miners who invented the gold separating machine used by all during the gold rush.

There are still a few active gold mining claims on the river. Our guests' can try their hand at Gold-panning on some of our tours.