Chilko Lake Off The Beaten Path

Until 1973 there was no road access to the Nemiah Valley.

This biggest surprise is that Nemiah is inaccessible rather than remote.  Physically, it lies less than 200 kilometers northwest of Vancouver, but with the Coast Mountains looming in between, the only road access from BC's largest city is through the Pemberton Valley or up the Fraser Canyon to Williams Lake and then west into the mountains.  Figure eight or 10 hours by car, but preferably truck.  This is not a nice road.  For most of the last 100 kilometers, it is not even up to the standard demanded by the Ministry of Forests for logging roads.  You bounce and slide and pray (pointlessly, it turns out) that you don't get a flat tire.  But the most important thing about the road is that until 1973, it didn't exist at all.  While that made life difficult then, today the road brings new problems as well as opportunities which the Xeni Gwet'in hope to maximize.

Henry Solomon was the Xeni Gwet'in chief in 1973 and he remembers the wrenching effort required to get the road finished.  The project was started by an entrepreneur trying to improve transportation to a nearby fishing lodge.  He ran out of money, however, leaving the Xeni Gwet'in scrambling for resources to finish the job.  Solomon and band members lobbied the federal government for aid and support until, finally, the Army Corps of Engineers stepped into the breach.  Life changed overnight, Solomon says in his native Tsilhqot'in, his daughter translating.  "Before, no one wanted to help the Indian. We never got welfare or anything and we had to make our own money," he said.

Earning a living in this isolated valley was no easy feat.  The Nemiah ran cattle and trapped through the winter, gardening and fishing in the finer months.  Once a year, they hitched up their horses, loaded the wagons and journeyed into Williams Lake, driving cattle for sale and buying seeds and dry goods for the coming year.  The trip took a week, one way.