The Texqa'kallt or Xexka'llt ( Shuswap: "people of the upper reaches") are a division of the

Shuswap people Shuswap may refer to: * Secwepemc, an indigenous people in British Columbia, Canada, also known in English as the Shuswap ** Shuswap Nation Tribal Council, a multi-band regional organization of Secwepemc governments based in Kamloops, British Colu ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

that are historically cited as living in and around the North Thompson, through to the

Robson Valley The Robson Valley is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, comprising the section of the Rocky Mountain Trench that lies southeast of the city of Prince George following the Fraser River to the Yellowhead Pass. The nam ...

. Historic accounts record them as being a mixed peoples speaking

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

and Shuswap, and ethnically of

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

and Shuswap origin. They are known for their participation in the Shuswap-Sekani War, a series of scattered skirmishes and conflicts in and around southern-central British Columbia during the 1780s.

History, culture and language

The Texqa'kallt people were known for being advanced yet nomadic and are known to have ample access to iron well before 1793. They are also known to have usen horses after European contact, like most peoples in the area (but not all). They were mostly a fishing and gathering society, and even with European contact remained nomadic. Between 1780 and 1790, the Shuswap-Sekani War was fought. Their main involvement in the war began around 1781 or 1782, when, while fishing at Peskala'llen (literally Salmon Place, a well-known spot for Texqa'kallt fishing), a large party of

Sekani Sekani or Tse’khene are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in the Northern Interior of British Columbia. Their territory includes the Finlay and Parsnip River drainages of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The nei ...

peoples attacked and killed most, while taking a few women for slavery. In response, the Texqa'kallt requested aid from the people living around modern

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

and the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

, who were both known for being warlike. Many warriors responded, and soon they had swarmed a Sekani camp at night and killed all but one man. Battles continued, and by 1790 the war culminated in a final attack from the Shuswap which crippled the Sekani to the point of surrender. The Texqa'kallt likely took many slaves from the living Sekani, as shown by the presence of enslaved Sekani men & women during the expeditions of Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1793. They knew the waters of the Fraser River very well and the Upper Thompson bands would often fish in the river. Like other

Salish Salish () may refer to: * Salish peoples, a group of First Nations/Native Americans ** Coast Salish peoples, several First Nations/Native American groups in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest ** Interior Salish peoples, several First Nat ...

peoples, they survived mainly on seafood and would often trade it with other tribes, like the

. Texqa'kallt people, along with all of the other Shuswap peoples, spoke their own regional variety of the

Shuswap language The Shuswap language (; shs, Secwepemctsín ) is the traditional language of the Shuswap people ( shs, Secwépemc ) of British Columbia. An endangered language, Shuswap is spoken mainly in the Central and Southern Interior of British Columbia b ...

. Shuswap is a

Salishan The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by ag ...

language and although certain forms of the language have been recorded, there is little known about the variant spoken by the Texqa'kallt. Place names are the furthest extent of known language.

Modern day presence

Little information, aside from the sparse accounts of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

explorers in the area, is known about the change from Texqa'kallt to Simpcw. They were known to exist after the end of the Shuswap-Sekani war, but due to a yearlong

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

outbreak in 1862, and the increasing intensity of Iroquois and Cree presence due to the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

, as of 1909, they had left most of the land. Tait cited them as being "numerous at one time, but had, it seems, no main village ... they were very nomadic". He continues to say, "A large part of the old hunting grounds in Caribou and north of the head of Fraser River are hardly ever used now, owing to the decrease in numbers of the tribe and to the change in manner of living", showing that by the 1910s they had a significantly changed and reduced population. Today, their modern descendants are known as the Simpcw and still mostly inhabit the same area, practicing the same fishing and hunting traditions. The Simpcw are classified as a branch of Shuswap peoples that are also descended from the Texqa'kallt.{{Cite web, title=Swtext Canadian Tribes 1d, url=http://www.hiddenhistory.com/PAGE3/SWSTS/canada.HTM, access-date=2022-12-04, website=www.hiddenhistory.com

References

Shuswap Country Cree people First Nations in British Columbia

History, culture and language

Modern day presence

See also

References