The Response of Okanagan Indians to European Settlement

Abstract

BRITISH COLUMBIA NATIVE INDIAN ADAPTATION tO the intrusion of a capitalist economy and European institutions in the nineteenth century is not well understood by ethno-historians. The roles of external agents such as the colonial government, missionaries, and white settlers in this process have been examined, as has the response of particular Indian families to new economic opportunities. But few historians have examined the response of particular Indian communities to the range of economic and social pressures exerted by European contact. The Okanagan tribe, in the southern interior of British Columbia, faced the challenge and opportunity of the new political and economic order with a remarkable willingness to adapt to the new circumstances. However, the Natives failed to successfully integrate into the European socio-economic order in large part because of the institutional discrimination of the British Columbia settler society. The complex traditional economy of the Interior Plateau involved seasonal hunting, fishing and gathering, and trading with other families or tribes to obtain a range of products. The resources on which the Okanagan Indians depended were widely scattered and available