86 June 2), 1989

Postal services are changing in rural Canada. Here’s what many municipal

leaders who have seen the change are saying about it:

“PEOPLE IN MY COMMUNITY
ARE BENEFITING FROM THIS NEW
POSTAL SERVICE. IT’S GOOD FOR

Bu

JANICE BUSH Reeve

HAROLD F. CHAPPLE
jrandora, Sask
Claws Vm
CLAUDE PICARD m
3ts- Anges. Que

FAK

HENRY VOTH = Re
Napinka, Mai

&. Py rtak

JOHN E. MOTIUK
Lavoy, Alta

Lary [5-Cs

GARY COCHRANE § Warde

Surry’s Corner

THE

G

ALAN JOHNSON | Re«

Jentield. Ont

70 aren LhLie Hh

MARVIN ELLIOTT r

LOU BADION

wan Lake. Mai

an ~
MARIE-ANGE LECOURS
Padoue, Que

Gecnae STEVE N Ree
M

ST Te — eee

GUS POWER jerk

Branch. Ntid

DARRELL DENTY — Vice President

Boat Harbour West. Ntid

BENKNUTSON Cha
Farmington. B ¢
Yor? Whom

ROGER WILSON Hee
ampbelicroft, Ont

eon andy Da Soret

LEONARD SABOURIN | Treasurer

bss 7,

ARCHIE MAC ROBBIE

Arkell, Ont

COMMUNITY~-”

whald eel
GERALD HUEL — Mayor
3te-Euphemie. Que

Sth
GERARD DALY
Prince Witham, NB

6 here

JOHN BARRY GRAHAM

East Coulee Alta

Fos
AL dillt~
BOB MCKEE
Nottawa Ont

-
Ede D Ker Qe &
EDWARD KOMADOWSK!
Tyndall Man
Licht fanopict =

ELDON JENNINGS Mayc

sheenboro, Que

ge
DENIS POMMAINVILL
y Albert: Ont

ad. [Smtan

ver SAC Y Jaane R

ALLAN SHORT

Din,

KEVIN GE ‘ORGE |

ver Lance Cc
i

+ Ah

Uy Node

W.S. MILLER

Active
students

Mount Sentinel high
school’s Conscious
Party is putting a young-
er active face on envir-
onmental concerns

Artist Jonn Hodges is
currently exhibiting his
figure paintings; a
change from his
previous landscape
work, at the West Koo-
tenay National Exhibi-
tion Centre in Castlegar

-. C10

Former New Denver
mayor Senya Mori has
combined the best of
Japan and Canada-in
his life and now enjoys
his retirement in the
Slocan Valley village

+ C7

—Attrance)
\ a protests

The Slocan Valley
Watershed Alliance sta-
ged a brief protest in
front of the Arrow For
est District office in
Castlegar to draw atten-
tion to the ailiance’s
concerns over logging
practices...C4

Ca tlégar News

ICE:

CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21. 1989

te Valleys

Serving the Slocan Valley,
Salmo, Ymir and adjacent areas

Societ

By DONNA ZUBER
Special to the CasNews

A tour through the winter settlement site of the Arrow
Lake Indian Band in South Slocan provides rich insight in
to their way of life

Beneath the wide, deep depressions of the earth's sur
face lies evidence of the.pit houses which once provided
warmth and shelter to the nomadic tribe. They built them
into the earth, extending them up using trees to support
layers of mud and moss. They believed in making their
homes fit into the environment, and built them so they
would. The pit houses varied in shape — round, oval, rec-

tering gentry. rin
wate, mee

protects heritage site

tangular — and size, housing from one to several families.

Further up, on a quiet plateau overlooking the Slocan
River, are the graves of their dead. There is an air of peace
and tranquility about the place

Throughout the site, an abundance of edible plants
once served asa major source of food.

For hundreds of years, the land that stretches south
from Revelstoke to Kettle Falls, Wash., and west from
Nelson to the Monashee Mountains, was the territory of the
Lake band.

Now, 20acres of protected land is all that is left

They travelled about, sustaining themselves mostly on

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ROSS MC LEAN - Ree EDWARD SeAROW Co ANDRE LEDUC CECH. ie} pons D Warden o AYTON MONAGHAN Ree

diet Bem Ai bt ehld Eh. "f Heorcah

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DEL om eae
Int Sandridge, Man
Cath finch Ahr BE. ce ZA
COLETTE LACOURSE = May

PAUL SEMESCHUK BILL MUHLBACH Re MICHEL DUFOUR — Mayor WILLIAMC E IRWIN Ree
Danbury. Sask t-V € a Jue G Alta te-Anne-des-Lacs, Que Har

4 DD a , ?

W nd Laue May Lane Arad 717 achler aS dow ac Racket famel eh

BILL STRAUSS RAY GOULET - Mayc GERALD MACDONALD DAVID J. MC NICHOL - Reeve HERMEL GALLANT - Ma’
Heidelberg Dollard, Sask 3lack k Siding, Ntld Heathcote, Ont an de Matar c

horn’ Mpiomy Mud 4) hllweybot heaps a4 Cal Bd bens

RAYMOND MALONEY CLARK D. GLA SSFORD ( JACQUES GIGNAC BRUCE DAVIS - Reeve BERKLEY K re RGUSON
Duntara, Nfid Belto: 3I-St-Gilles, Que Maple Leaf. Ont Perry

Ih (aus +B Name fain dtiho~ Ca.ba Herff, untae E

GERRY VAN BEERS O JAMES BIRSS LLOYD ATCHISON - Cour DAVID A. NEDERHOFF — Reeve QUENTON BULLOK - Reeve

Whitelaw. A Congress, Sask Belleview, Man Hearne, Sask Warsaw
: y) Pie ay
Chaikhi <Leger « Y
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LAURIE DUNCAN CHARLES GREGOIRE Ma CLERMONT LAPOINTE Fi LEO SAUVAGEAU - C ANDRE CHENAIL Mayo

hb tg ia ale wronll whe Ohh. hucte 7 Larond Bngonael
perbuedea J KJARGAARD Re

ROBERT PAQUET Ma DIANA HOUNSELL Ma GILLES CHARBONNEAU Ma Sek AMOFFATT Counc
F and Ntid

Fugerevile St-Didace, Que jreka River Alta ask
RD Gove Le Vol ctl ton f Lake Dantas Ohi Yul, Lyn
LORNE TAYLOR - Mayor

ROY S. MERAIPIEL D MEL WILKINSON ISIDORE CHAREST - Mayor VALOIS SEGUIN - Reev
, ar Or Clavet, Sask 31-Andrée-de-Restigouche, Que Mor je. Ont

MICHEL MORRISSETTE JAMES R. CHRISTENSEN Reeve FRANK RUSSETT  Re« PAULINE DAWSON lerk ROEL OF HE ING N Ree
Fai

quier, Or t A White Lake, Ont North Valley, Nild ar

CAorecee eweZe

and there are many more municipal leaders* who agree

and have endorsed this new service!

*We apologize to those municipal leaders whose names we could not include here due to lack of space

Canada Post Corporation is delivering on its promise.
We’re in rural Canada to stay

MAIL SPOSTE

ociéte canadienne des postes

Our commitment: better service for you.

Talking about heritage

pir Gunn (left),

salmon. When they moved on, the took care to leave a spot
as they had found it. In leaving, they were allowing nature
to replenish what they had taken. It was often three years
before they would return toa site

In the early 1800s, however, many Lakes fled the area
fearing diseases such as influenza and small pox brought in
by the white man, and settled in Kettle Falls.

By the late 1800s, 85 per cent of the remaining tribe was
dead from those diseases

By that time, The Canada-U.S. border was established
and those who had fled south were discouraged from
crossing it.

ity, discusses

he heritage site with ost weg ot the Arrow Lakes Naturalists and the Nakusp

it torical Society during a recent tour of the site which contains artificats and human
remains of the Arrow Lake Indian Band dating back over 3,000 years, —casnewspnotoby Donna Zuer

ive views to Dirks

By CasNews Staff

Concerns about possible clear-cut
logging of Slocan Valley hillsides, a
warning that the voices of the valley’s
general population as well as its more
articulate residents must be heard on
local issues, and views on other subjec
ts ranging from using fill from the
$16.2 million Slocan Bluffs highway
project for a marina breakwater to
provincial government funding for
solid waste disposal were, aired at a
town hall dinner meeting in Slocan
June 12.

Arranged by Minister of State for
Kootenay Howard Dirks to provide an
update on the regionalization initiative
in the Kootenay Development Region
and to discuss activities resulting from
recommendations of various regional

task forces, the meeting also provided
an opportunity for Slocan Lake area
residents to raise issues of local con-
cern.

Ald. David Smith of Silverton
acknowledged the forest industry is a
“major player’ in the valley, and
described Slocan Forest Products’
modern sawmill as a ‘‘great’’ area
asset

CLEARCUTTING FEARED

He warned, however, that the
“strongest view” of the public is that
the ‘‘ pristine and scenic quality’’ of the
Slocan Valley is threatened by clear-
cut logging.

He said the general consensus is that
the forestry industry in the area is in a
state of decline, and that the next step
is to. cut main valley walls not by selec-

tive logging, but by clear-cutting
specific sites.

Harkening back to earlier remarks
describing the regionalization
initiative as a good one because of the
involvement of people, Smith said
community input has been provided
and he asked what the minister can do
to help

Responding that much of the area’s
economy is dependent on forests,
Dirks, the Nelson-Creston MLA,
replied that how that resource is
managed ‘‘will determine if we stay in
that industry or not.””

Thirty per cent of the region's forest
“is in somebody's watershed,’’ the

VOICING VIEWS... Silverton resident Blair Nelson told
Dirks the voice of the

minister noted, that com-

continued on page 3

of State for

“general populace” must be heard in deciding the future of the

alley. —castiews Proto

With the growing settlements throughout the Lakes’
original territory, the surviving members were given a 240-
acre reserve across from Burton on the Upper Arrow Lake

As time went on, more and more of the Lakes left the
reserve to either go to school or work. Only the elderly
members remained

In 1954, Annie Joseph, the last Lakes Indian on the
reserve, died. She had willed the reserve to the Okanagan
Indians, who were relatives of the Lakes.

The provincial government, however, got to the land
first. It reverted to the province and the Arrow Lake Indian
Band was declared extinct

Then, in 1972, elder Charlie Quintaskett of
Washington, approached the provincial government,
asking why there weren't any Lake reserves in the provin-
ce. When he was told the band was extinct, he began resear-
ching Lakes’ history with Randy Bouchard, an
ethnographer. Together, they put together some history
and revived much of the Lakes’ distinct dialect. However,
there were still several holes.

But, as fate would have it, archaeological evidence of
the band turned up in Vallican during a road survey. At that
time, the road was planned to run directly through the site
providing a direct link between Passmore and Vallican

In 1984, a more thorough archaeological dig was con-
ducted by Morley Eldridge. Numerous artifacts and human
remains were discovered. They were sent to the B.C
Provincial Museum in Victoria where they still remain

A report of Eldridge’s dig says, in part,,“*(this is) one
of the last heritage resources which can resolve inconsisten
cies and gaps in the ethnographic record of (these) people.

Also in 1984, the Vallican Archaeological Park Society
formed, to act as stewards of the site and protect its future
He is now working with Lakes descendants on its plans for
the site.

The society negotiated with B.C. Heritage Trust, and
in 1987, BCHT bought 20 acres of land in Vallican where
the ancestral evidence was found.

Meanwhile, the road was re-routed to run adjacent to
the site. The project was once again put on hold, however,
this time due to provincial financial restraints.

In March, work started on the road in its new location,
much to the surprise of the society

Coordinator Celia Gunn had contacted the Ministry
of Highways in 1988 when talk was circulating that the
project was about to start up again. She was told at that
time by the ministry that work wouldn’t be started for at
least a couple of years

“+1 just let it go,”” she says

When she found out the ministry was working on the
road in March, she again contacted the ministry. She said
she was told the ministry didn’t know a heritage site was
there. Upon further investigation, it turned out the
problem was in the name of the project: the society was
referring to it as Vallican, whereas the ministry had labelled
it the Little Slocan Bridge project. A new bridge is part of
the project

The ministry agreed to flag the project until more in
formation could be gathered. While the new route is not a
direct threat to the heritage site, it is still undesirable for
what the society has planned

Gunn has written numerous letters stating the society's
opposition to the road. Excerpts describing its plans read

“The Vallican Archaeological Park is an extensive
Native Indian winter settlement and burial grounds located

continued on page 2

Mayor’s
job
open

By CasNews Staff

The Village of New Denver is accep:
ting nominations for mayor and two
aldermen

Mayor Ken Casley‘has announced
he is resigning for health reasons. Ald
Nick Antifaeff is being transferred in
his job and Ald. Gary Wright is
resigning torun for mayor

The terms of all three were to expire
Dec. 1

Nominations for the positions close
June 26 at noon, returning officer Vera
Hamilton said.

Ifan election is necessary, an advan
ce poll will be held at the Village Hall in
New Denver Wednesday, July 12 from
8a.m: 108 p.m. The regular election is
scheduled for Saturday, July 15 at the
Village Hail from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. A
mobile poll will be opened at the
Pavilion July 15 between 10 a.m. and
hoon,