The Statimc (), also known as the Lillooet (), St̓át̓imc, or Stlatlimx (), are an

Interior Salish The Interior Salish languages are one of the two main branches of the Salishan language family, the other being Coast Salish. It can be further divided into Northern and Southern subbranches. The first Interior Salish people encountered by Ameri ...

people located in the southern Whale Mountains and

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

region of the Interior of the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. Statimc culture displayed many features typical of Northwest Coast peoples: the

potlatch A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Scienc ...

, clan names, mythology, prestige afforded the wealthy and generous, and

totem pole Totem poles () are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large t ...

s in some communities, especially in the Lilwat First Nation (''Lilwat7ul''), whose tribal lands and trade routes in the Whistler Valley and Green River Valley overlapped with those of the Squamish First Nation, a Coast Salish people. Today they total about 6259.

Groups

The Statimc are divided linguistically, culturally and geographically into two main tribes or First Nations. * The Upper Statimc (Upper Lillooet or Fraser River Lillooet), living near the present city of

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

on the

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

. They refer to themselves as ''STLA'tlei-mu-wh-talk'' and speak ''Statimcets'' dialect. * The Lower Statimc (Lower Lillooet or Mount Currie Lillooet), living in the vicinity of today's Mount Currie in the Pemberton Valley and south to Skookumchuk. They refer to themselves as ''LEEL'-wat-OOL'' – 'The true People', 'The true Lillooet' (of which were the words 'Lillooet' and 'Lilwat' derived) and speak ''Ucwalmícwts'' dialect. * The Lakes Lillooet (''Lexalexamux'' or ''Tsala'lhmec'' – 'Lake People'), a group only sporadically recognized, living between the territories of Upper Statimc and Lower Statimc around

Seton Lake Seton Lake is a lake in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. On the northeast side is Mission Ridge. On the southwest is the Cayoosh Range. By road, the eastern end is about southwest of Lillooet. Name origin In 1827, ...

and Anderson Lake – whose descendants are today's N'quatqua First Nation (also known as ''Anderson Lake Indian Band'') and

Seton Lake First Nation The Seton Lake First Nation, a.k.a. the Seton Lake Indian Band, is a First Nations government located in the Central Interior-Fraser Canyon region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is a member of the Lillooet Tribal Council The L ...

(also known as ''Seton Lake Indian Band''), historically a group at the foot of Seton Lake, near Lillooet, known as the ''Skimka'imx'' were also included in this group.

Lower Statimc

*the Lil'wat First Nation, their traditional territory extended south to

Rubble Creek Rubble Creek is a creek in southwestern British Columbia, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean an ...

in the Cheakamus River drainage, near Garibaldi townsite, north to just below Anderson Lake, east to the Upper Stein Valley and west to the Toba Inlet of the Pacific Ocean, in total approximately 780,000 ha, the current community Mount Currie (or ''Lilwatul'') is the heart of the Lil’wat Nation territory *the Xa'xtsa First Nation (also known as the Douglas First Nation), Xa’xtsa (pronounce: ''ha-htsa'') is made up of two communities: Port Douglas at the northern end of Little Harrison Lake, about 90 km northeast of Vancouver, and their main community Tipella, on the west side of the

Lillooet River The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

, southernmost of the In-SHUCK-ch communities, and also of the entire St’atl’imx linguistic group () *the Skatin First Nations (pron. ), at Skookumchuck Hot Springs on the

, the community is located on the east side of the Lillooet River, on the 19-Mile Post of the old Harrison-Lillooet wagon road (about 35 kilometres from the head of Harrison Lake), before the arrival of European settlers, this community was considered to be the largest on the lower Lillooet River, comparable in size to the pre-contact village of present-day Mount Currie of the Lil'wat First Nation *the Samahquam First Nation () (‘warm place out of the cold’, pronounced: 'shah-MAH-kwum'), returned to their reservation lands in the early 1990s and constructed the Baptiste Smith community, at the southwest end of Little Lillooet Lake (aka ''Tenas Lake'', derived from the

Chinook Jargon Chinook Jargon (' or ', also known simply as ''Chinook'' or ''Jargon'') is a language originating as a pidgin language, pidgin trade language in the Pacific Northwest. It spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to othe ...

''tenass'' – 'little') on the

system. They once occupied both sides of Little Lillooet Lake. The tiny and remote communities of Samahquam, Xa'xtsa and Ska'tin Bands collectively, including the Tenas Lake Band, seceded from the larger Lillooet Tribal Council (now called the Statimc Nation) at the same time to join the N'quatqua First Nation at ( D'Arcy) to form the In-SHUCK-ch Nation. Since the 1980s these First Nations called themselves ''Nsvq’tsmc'' ('In-SHUCK-ch micw'), derived from ''Nsvq’ts'' – 'split like a crutch', the name of the holy mountain, now called In-SHUCK-ch Mountain (also called Gunsight Mountain).

Upper Statimc

The tribal territory of the different groups of the Upper Státimc extended west of the Fraser River from the mouth of the Pavilion Creek (′Sk'elpáqs′) to the Texas Creek in the mountains above the Bridge River and westward through the valleys of Seton Lake and Anderson Lake to Duffey Lake. The territory of the Upper Státimc east of the Fraser River included the Three Lake Valley (also known as ''Fountain Valley'') and the adjacent mountains and stretched towards the Hat Creek, a tributary of the Bonaparte River. The Upper Státimc settled in several main settlements on the banks above the Fraser River and on the banks of the Seton and Anderson Lake — probably the word 'Státimc' is derived from a former village ''Tatlh'' on Keatley Creek. Previous there were the following communities: ''Sk'ámqain'' on the shore of Seton Lake, ''Sat'' at the site of present-day city of Lillooet, ''Nxwísten'' at the mouth of the Bridge River, ''Xáxlip'' (′Fountain′), ''Slha7äs'' and ''Tsal'álh'' along Seton Lake and ''Nk'wátkwa'' on the western shore of Lake Anderson. Beside those significant settlements there have been several smaller villages. In

Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

(Tsk'wáylacw), a mainly ethnically and linguistically Secwepemc settlement in the 19th century, since the beginning of the 20th century this community speaks usually Statimcets, but their particular dialect is a hybrid of Statimcets and Secwepemctsin, because there had been many mixed marriages between Secwepemc and Státimc, know forming the Tsk'weylecw'mc or Pavilion Indian Band. * N'quatqua in D'Arcy. Also known as the Anderson Lake Band and one of the original members of the breakaway In-SHUCK-ch Nation, although now on its own from that organization and from the Lillooet Tribal Council, despite close family ties to the various bands of that organization. Located at the head of Anderson Lake, northeast of Pemberton. Historically the N'Quatqua and Tsalalh bands were one group, the Lakes Lillooet or Lexalexamux, and included a group at the foot of Seton Lake, near Lillooet, known as the Skimka'imx. * Tsaľálh ( Shalalth), Skeil, Ohin, Lh7us (Slosh) and Nquayt (Nkiat). Lh7us and Nquayt are at Seton Portage, Skeil, Ohin and Shalalth farther east along Seton Lake. All of these are collectively self-governed within the Lillooet Tribal Council as the

. * Sekw'el'wás in

(Cayoose Creek/Pashilqua Reserves) * Títq'et in

, also spelled Tl'itl'kt (Lillooet Reserve) * Nxwísten in

( Bridge River Indian Band) * Cácl'ep near

(pron. and also spelled Xa'xlip) Fountain Indian Band. * Tsk'weylecw (in an older spelling used in Statimcets called ''Tsk'waylaxw'', also known as the Pavilion Indian Band and located at

, which is between

and Cache Creek on the lip of the

and at the outlet of the

karst landscape Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

forming Marble Canyon, beyond which are the territories of the Bonaparte Band of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) peoples, who are part of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council.

History

They had several types of dwellings—long plank houses, winter earthlodges, and summer bark- or mat-covered lodges, not unlike those at the Keatley Creek Archaeological Site. Salmon and other fish were the basis of the economy, and numerous animals (bear, sheep, caribou, deer, and small mammals) were hunted and trapped, and berries and fruit were gathered. Warfare with other groups was unusual, with intensive intertribal trade the more typical state of affairs. The Tsilhqot’in-St’at’imc war was one brutal war for the St’at’imc and threatened their survival as a nation. The Tsilhqot’in raided all 11 bands of the Statimc and took women and children as slaves. Both nations met at many roots (Graveyard Valley) in the St’at’imc territory at which the Statimc were victorious. Chief In-Kick-Tee (Hunter Jack) was the warchief in that battle and made a peace treaty in 1845.

Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe

The declaration of the Lillooet Tribe was made in 1911 in Spences Bridge and is the nation's declaration of ownership over lands that had been seized by non-native settlers at Seton Portage at the onset of the 20th century, and is considered a general statement of principle regarding ownership of all traditional territories of the Statimcets-speaking peoples. The Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe is the Lillooet Tribe's first formal declaration to the world of the tribes status as a Country, in International terms, as they understood them at that time. The Declaration is mentioned as the foundation document of all the various organizations of the Lillooet Tribe in place today, such as the Statimc Chiefs Council, Lillooet Tribal Council and the In-SHUCK-ch Nation. The Declaration brings the tribe together at the grassroots level as a Country.

Language

The ancestral language of the Státimc people is

(also known as Statimcets, also spelled ''St̓át̓imcets'' or sometimes even ''Sƛ̓áƛ̓imxəc'', pronounced �ʃtɬʼætɬʼɪmxətʃ, a member of the

group which includes the languages of the neighbouring Secwepemc (Shuswap) and

Nlaka'pamux The Nlakaʼpamux or Nlakapamuk ( ; ), also previously known as the ''Thompson'', '' Thompson River Salish'', ''Thompson Salish'', ''Thompson River Indians'' or ''Thompson River people'', and historically as the ''Klackarpun'', ''Haukamaugh'', ''K ...

(Thompson) peoples.

References

Bibliography

* Joseph, Marie. (1979). ''Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for beginners''. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN. * Larochell, Martina; van Eijk, Jan P.; & Williams, Lorna. (1981). ''Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Lillooet legends and stories''. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN. * Smith, Trefor. ''Our Stories Are Written on the Land A Brief History of the Upper Státimc 1800–1940''. Lillooet, BC: Upper Státimc Language, Culture and Education Society, 1998. * van Eijk, Jan P. (1991). ''Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícʷts: Teach yourself Lillooet: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for advanced learners''. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN. * van Eijk, Jan P. (1997). ''The Lillooet language: Phonology, morphology, syntax''. Vancouver: UBC Press. ISBN. * Williams, Lorna; van Eijk, Jan P.; & Turner, Gordon. (1979). ''Cuystwí malh Ucwalmícwts: Ucwalmícwts curriculum for intermediates''. Mount Currie, B.C.: Ts’zil Publishing House. ISBN.