24.207.71.9 at 02:11, 3 June 2025

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{{Refimprove|date=November 2006}}
'''Spuzzum First Nation''' ({{langx|thp|'''Spô’zêm'''}}) is a [[Nlaka'pamux]] [[First Nations in Canada|First Nation]]s government located near [[Spuzzum, British Columbia]]. It is a member of the [[Fraser Canyon Indian Administration]], one of three [[tribal council]]s of the [[Nlaka'pamux]] people. Other members of the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration are the [[Kanaka Bar First Nation|Kanaka Bar]], [[Skuppah First Nation|Skuppah]] and [[Nicomen First Nation]]s (the Nicomen First Nation is also a member of the [[Nicola Tribal Association]]).

The Spuzzum First Nation reserve community and offices are located at [[Spuzzum, British Columbia|Spuzzum]] in the lower [[Fraser Canyon]], near the [[Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park#Alexandra Bridge (original)|Alexandra Bridge]] and about 10 miles north of [[Yale, British Columbia|Yale]].

Other [[Nlaka'pamux]] governments belong either to the [[Nicola Tribal Association]] or the [[Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council]].

==History==
The chief of the Spuzzum in 1858, [[Kowpelst]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Spuzzum |date=2007-10-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.59962/9780774852395-006 |work=Spuzzum |pages=23–37 |access-date=2024-01-16 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |isbn=978-0-7748-5239-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Iredale |first=Jennifer |date=2019-10-29 |title=Mali Quelqueltalko: The Writings of a Nineteenth-Century Nlaka’pamux Woman |url=https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/191480 |journal=BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly |language=en |issue=203 |pages=83–109 |doi=10.14288/bcs.v203i203.191480 |issn=0005-2949}}</ref> ("White Hat") was one of the first to work [[Hill's Bar]] at the onset of the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] and was considered a "friendly Indian" during the [[Fraser Canyon War]] of that fall, which took place between the [[United States|American miners]] and the upstream Nlaka'pamux of [[Camchin]]. He was appointed as a magistrate by Sir James Douglas During the [[Fraser Canyon War]], a few thousand miners from bars farther up the canyon thronged at Spuzzum in terror of the upstream Nlaka'pamux, and some villages and food caches of the Spuzzum people were destroyed by armed parties of miners coming up from Yale, even though relations with the Spuzzum were considered friendlier than with their Nlaka'pamux kin farther upriver.

==Reserve lands==

Spuzzum First Nation has sixteen different reserves ranging greatly in size, and totaling {{convert|648|ha|sqmi}}. The largest two (Spuzzum 1 and 1a) stand on the West Bank of the [[Fraser River]] near the mouth of Spuzzum Creek.<ref>[https://fnp-ppn.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/fnp/Main/Search/FNReserves.aspx?BAND_NUMBER=708&lang=eng Reserves/Settlements/Villages], Spuzzum Profile, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name
! Hectares
|-
|Chapman's Bar 10
|2.80
|-
|Long Tunnel 5
|2.60
|-
|Long Tunnel 5a
|35.90
|-
|Papsilqua 2
|16.60
|-
|Papsilqua 2A
|27.70
|-
|Papsilqua 2B
|20.30
|-
|Saddle Rock 9
|32
|-
|Skuet 6
|4.70
|-
|Spuzzum 1
|125.30
|-
|Spuzzum 1A
|126.50
|-
|Spuzzum 7
|46.10
|-
|Stout 8
|47.90
|-
|Teequaloose 3
|7.70
|-
|Teequaloose 3A
|60.40
|-
|Yelakin 4
|26.80
|-
|Yelakin 4A
|64.70
|-
|'''Combined area'''
|648
|}

==Spuzzum people==
*[[Annie York]]
*[[Carl Stromquist]]<ref>
Shawn J. Bobb (Lawyer)
[http://www.deschutesgallery.com/stromquist.html Carl Stromquist], an accomplished artist of aboriginal descent, is descended from the Spuzzum first nation. His ancestry can be traced back to Xem't'sene, who was not a chief per se, but noted as a "man of power" within the community and is recorded to have had 42 children with numerous wives.</ref>
*[[Brenda Crabtree]], a Spuzzum weaver at the [[Emily Carr University of Art and Design]], <ref>[http://www.sfu.museum/time/en/panoramas/long-chief/brenda-crabtree/ Brenda Crabtree], "A Journey into Time Immemorial"</ref>

==Chief and Councillors==
Councillor Diana Stromquist, and Interim Chief - Janice Kuester.

==Treaty Process==
{{Empty section|date=July 2010}}

==Demographics==
The 1878 Reserve Commission census found 237 people living in Spuzzum and neighbouring villages.<ref name="York2011">{{cite book|last=York|first=Annie|title=Spuzzum: Fraser Canyon Histories 1808-1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TNI1g_h-LBcC&pg=PA23|access-date=14 October 2015|date=2011-11-01|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=9780774841887|page=23}}</ref><ref name="Harris2011">{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Cole|title=The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dCKaRDfg_cC&pg=PA119|access-date=14 October 2015|date=2011-11-01|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=9780774842563|page=119}}</ref> The 1881 census listed only 146 people, but the number is dubious since that era (during construction of the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]) would likely have been the community's peak population. Other estimates places the Indigenous population at the time around 400.<ref name="York2011" />

As of September 2015, the community had a registered population of 274, though only 46 lived on reserve.<ref>[https://fnp-ppn.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/fnp/Main/Search/FNRegPopulation.aspx?BAND_NUMBER=708&lang=eng Registered Population], Spuzzum Profile, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada</ref>

==Economic Development==
{{Empty section|date=July 2010}}

==Social, Educational and Cultural Programs and Facilities==
{{Empty section|date=July 2010}}

==See also==
*[[Thompson language]]

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last=York|first=Annie|title=Spuzzum: Fraser Canyon Histories 1808-1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TNI1g_h-LBcC|date=2011-11-01|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=9780774841887}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
*[https://fnp-ppn.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/fnp/Main/Search/FNMain.aspx?BAND_NUMBER=708&lang=eng Indian and Northern Affairs Canada - First Nation Detail]

==External links==
*[http://www.spuzzumnation.com/ Spuzzum First Nation]

{{Nlaka'pamux First Nations}}

[[Category:Nlaka'pamux governments]]
[[Category:First Nations governments in the Fraser Canyon]]

Spuzzum First Nation - Revision history

24.207.71.9 at 02:11, 3 June 2025