ONE OF MY FAVOURITE places in all the world is the
Rocky Mountain Trench in the East Kootenay region of B.C.
There is a great concern here because the Shuswap Nation has claimed their traditional territory deep into the Rocky Mountain trench and as far south as Columbia Lake, which encroaches traditional Ktunaxa territory.
The oral history is that the Kinbasket family of Shuswaps, of which I am a direct descendent, immigrated to the Rocky Mountain trench after they were sent away in exile approximately 150 or so years ago.
The transition occurs in the vicinity of the southern
Rocky Mountain Trench (Fig.
DAD AND I had been invited up to Brisco, B.C., about 100 miles north of where we lived in the
Rocky Mountain Trench. Dad had a friend there who had a ranch, a herd of good horses, a couple of good-looking daughters and a boy about my own age of 12.
Perched in the pine tree was a bird I hadn't seen since I was a juvenile delinquent harassing the wild citizens of the bunchgrass hills in the
Rocky Mountain Trench. I used to spend a lot of time on horseback then and I will never forget the way that a flushing mourning dove could put the wind up my quarter horse.
So ended the generous salting of the economy for the whole East Kootenay region nestled in the splendour of British Columbia's
Rocky Mountain trench. So ended the tradition of family member after family member working in the mine, many of them for four generations.
The picturesque scene took my mind back to when I was about 12 and living in the
Rocky Mountain Trench in southeastern British Columbia.