Skatin

Skatin
Skookumchuk
Village
Skatin First Nations
Nickname(s): Skatin Nation
Coordinates: 50°4′0″N 122°41′6″W / 50.06667°N 122.68500°W / 50.06667; -122.68500Coordinates: 50°4′0″N 122°41′6″W / 50.06667°N 122.68500°W / 50.06667; -122.68500
Country  Canada
Province  British Columbia
Region Fraser Valley
Skatin First Nations 562
GovernmentSection 11 Band, Election System:Custom Electoral System
 • Type Elected Band Council
 • Governing body Band Council
 • Chief Williams, Patrick
Population (2011)
 • Village 105
 • Density 41/km2 (105/sq mi)
 • Urban 105
 • Metro 105
Time zone PST
 • Summer (DST) PDT (UTC)
Postal code V0N
Area code(s) N/A
Website www.inshuckch.com/skatin.html

Skatin a Village of under a 100 persons in Skatin First Nations,[1] aka the Skatin Nations,[2] are a Band Government of the larger Band of the In-SHUCK-ch Nation, part of the St'at'imc people who are also referred to as Lower Stl'atl'imx. Skatin is the Official New Name, and reverts to the traditional Pre-Colonial / Pre-Columbian Name. The alternate past name, but still commonly used by outsiders Skookumchuck is the St'at'imcets version of the Chinook Jargon Skookumchuckmeaning Strong Waters i.e. Rapids. The small town site is 4 km south of T'sek Hot Spring- alt. spelling T'sik Hot Spring - commonly and formerly named both Saint Agnes Well and Skookumchuck Hot Springs. The community is 28 km south of the outlet of Lillooet Lake on the east side of the Lillooet River. It is approximately 75 km south of the town of Pemberton and the large reserve of the Lil'wat branch of the St'at'imc at Mount Currie. See Skatin First Nations for details about the complicated Band(s) structure.

Skatin is geographically it is an extension of both the Pemberton Valley and Harrison Valley, but by legal fiction officially part of the Fraser Valley for Provincial and Federal administrative purposes.

Population

Skatin community includes about 30 houses, a Church, Band Office, Fire Hall, a new school and gymnasium built in 2003. The population living at Skatin is 65 at the town site -which varies according to season- 74 on other Reserves & 275 off Reserves,.[3] the majority living in the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland including Vancouver.

Language

The Skatin First Nations speak Ucwalmícwts / Lower St̓át̓imc: Fluent Speakers: 7, Understand or Speak Somewhat, 51. Learning Speakers: 51.[4]

European Contact

The town church was built by members of the Douglas, Skatin and Samahquam Bands between 1895 and 1906. The Oblate Fathers established a mission there and encouraged the native people in the surrounding wilderness to settle there. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate instructed the natives in Christianity, and to this day the Church of the Holy Cross, Skatin, stands as a stunning example of the North American architectural style known as Carpenter Gothic/ Wood Gothic. In 1981, the Church was designated as a National Historic Site by Heritage Canada. A community-based group Ama Liisaos Heritage Trust Society is working on conservation of the church. A prominent feature are the simple but elegant stained glass windows, consisting of a checkerboard pattern of bright Red Mercuric glass & alternating bright Blue Cobalt Glass squares. The Glass was imported from Europe & brought in by mule, by a gold prospector who had struck it rich in the Cariboo Gold Rush, on his return to the Goldfields.

The Gold Rush Era

In 1858 the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush began and some 30,000 miners began the trek through traditional Lil'wat and upper St'at'imc territory to the goldfields at Lillooet, then known as Cayoosh Flat. Trail]]. Details: Pemberton

Flood control

In 1947 the Pemberton Dyking District, for flood control in the adjacent Pemberton Valley, lowered Lillooet Lake, permanently altering the character of the rapids and the water level in the Lillooet River too. Conversely Little Lillooet Lake earlier was raised by the Royal Engineers in their improvements to the route to the gold fields, turning it into a lower arm of Lillooet Lake proper, eliminating the portage and resulting in moving south the former Port Lillooet - down to what had been the south end of Little Lillooet Lake. See also Vessels of the Lakes Route & Pemberton.

Telephone Service

No landlines or cellular service, radio telephone & Sat' phones only.

1st nations, Loggers, Road builders & Government officials all rely on extensive use VHF radios.

Possibility to transmit data as VLF, Very low frequency - 10- 100 km wavelengths - using High Tension Transmission lines as both transmitting & receiving antenna. VLF is the ITU, International Telecommunication Union designation[1] for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 3 kHz to 30 kHz and wavelengths from 10 to 100 km. Audio, i.e. voice transmission is highly impractical using traditional old technology. Publicly the military discloses only very low data rate of wireless telegraphy. That is to say coded signals are being used with not much better than the 1909- 1925 old technology. Data rates are extremely low,50 baud,[5] but by combing FM / Frequency Modulation, AM / Amplitude Modulation, & Polarity Modulation low data density of only being able to send Morse Code can be increased by 378 fold exclusive of other data compression techniques ( 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 summation series 27+26+25+23...+1= 378). 378 x 50 baud yields 18.9K baud potential. VLF Signals are in the public domain & not assigned or allocated. Though once used worldwide for Radio Telegraphs now currently only used by larger Navies to communicate with their submarines under water, as the signals at these very long frequencies travel through water as well as air.[6][7] Any long wire over a 1/4 mile can be used as an antenna i.e. rail lines or even Australia's Rabbit fence.

A 2nd possibility to bring telephony & data to isolated small towns like Skitin is to transmit data over the actual power in the High Tension Power Lines. There is worldwide though limited use of this tech. Modulations of Frequency, Amplitude, Polarity, & combinations of all 3, of the actual power in the lines can be used to transmit much even higher data density.[8][9] [10]

Electricity

Ironically, though adjacent to High Tension Power lines for more than ½ a decade it wasn’t till Jan. 2011 that BC Hydro crews disconnected the community diesel generating station and then connected to the town to the grid.[11]

Agriculture

There were several Native & European Homesteads with mixed farms with live stock, small orchards, groves of Nut trees including Hazel C. avellana & C. sieboldiana / Filbert C. maxima, Walnuts & Northern Pecans, & small vineyards ranging from 3 to 15 acres. These farms were very abundant because of rich alluvial soils in a sheltered valley system, that runs in a general East West direction, so the north shore of the River & Lake have full sun year round & minimal shading. The waters also moderate the climate towards more temperate conditions with warm summer nights: i.e. able to grow Tree Fruits: Peaches & Apricots as the Okanagan Valley & Niagara Peninsula, & traditionally almonds Fleshy Almond / Northern Almond / Hungarian Almond var. Balaton / Sweet Kernel Apricot Prunus armeniaca var. Balaton .[12] Oral tradition holds that BC Hydro removed all the soil – i.e. stole - from all the farms along & south of Lillooet Lake, for building the service road used to install the High Tension Power lines to feed California.

Several raised vegetable beds having been successfully started at the nearby Hot springs. Discussions have been begun about using the Geothermal source for District Heating & Green Houses.

The area has the potential to supply all temperate fruit & Hot-house needs extending to Whistler. [13]

Transportation

No Rail or Public Transit Buses.

Daily school bus for children.

Band's Mini-Buses for transport of Seniors & others needing medical & other services in Pemberton & beyond.

Roads

Work is slowly proceeding on the 7 Nations Highway re-connecting Harrison Hot Springs to Pemberton. The last 20 miles at the head of Harrison Lake leading to Port Douglas are in very poor repair ever since the Saw Mill closed at Port Douglas, around 1995. Work on the Harrison Lake Section was disrupted by the Wood Lake Wildfire Summer 2015.[14] The Western most section of Road was improved in the Spring of 2015 In-SHUCK-ch Forest Service Road / FSR was widened from 1 to 1 1/2 lanes to 2 lanes + two 1/2 lane shoulders (i.e. 3 lanes en toto ) for the length of Lillooet Lake. Take a basic Back-roads tool kit including flares, flashlights, shovel, jacks, tire iron, at least 1 spare tire - 2 is better, water for people & vehicle, refillable water cans, & several cans of run flat aerosols to re-inflate tires. In the winter add an axe, shovel, studs &/or chains &/or other traction devices to the list Check latest up-dates before heading out.[15]

Air

Charter helicopter flights weather/visibility permitting. Closest Airport Pemberton Regional Airport. Seaplanes can be chartered out of Whistler/Green Lake Water Aerodrome & "land" nearby at the south end of Lillooet Lake.

Education

Elementary and junior high school (grades K-9), known as the Head of the Lake School, for the children of In-SHUCK-ch members, the majority of which are from Skatin and Tipella. 44 students currently attend this school.[16]

Xit'olacw School in Xit'olacw Village (Mount Currie New Site); 244 students K- 12. .[17]

School District 48 Sea to Sky operates public schools in Pemberton.

Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique operates one Francophone primary school in Pemberton: école de la Vallée-de-Pemberton[18]

References

  1. ↑ Archived June 21, 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ "First Nation Detail". Pse5-esd5.ainc-inac.gc.ca. 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  3. ↑ "Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada : Registered Population : Skatin Nations" (PDF). Pse5-esd5.ainc-inac.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  4. ↑ "Skatin Nations". Maps.fphlcc.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  5. ↑ "Very Low Frequency (VLF) - United States Nuclear Forces". Fas.org. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  6. ↑ "Very Low Frequency (VLF) Stations". Smeter.net. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  7. ↑ "LF/VLF Installations". Contelec.com. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  8. ↑ "Date Communications Via Powerlines" (PDF). Nsa.gov. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  9. ↑ "High-Voltage Transmission Lines to Act as Antenna in First-of-its-Kind NASA Space-Weather Project | NASA". Nasa.gov. 2014-04-23. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  10. ↑ "Whatever happened to Broadband over Power Line? - E & T Magazine". Eandt.theiet.org. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  11. ↑ "GRID Connection : Project Update : BC Hydro Remote Community Electrification Program" (PDF). Inshuckch.com. January 2011. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  12. ↑ "The Almond and the Sweet Kernel Apricot". Songonline.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  13. ↑ "Tree Nut Species, Varieties and Cultivars for Canada". Treenuts.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  14. ↑ Tarannum, Farah. "Public access restricted near Harrison Lake wildfire". Globalnews.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  15. ↑ "Road Information - Sea to Sky District - Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations - Province of British Columbia". For.gov.bc.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  16. ↑ "Xit’olacw Community School Newsletter" (PDF). Lilwat.ca. January 14, 2011. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  17. ↑ "Welcome to the Lil'wat Nation, Mount Currie B.C. - Education, Xit'olacw Community School". Lilwat.ca. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  18. ↑ "Carte des écoles." Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britanique. Retrieved on 22 January 2015.

Sources

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Skatin.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Pemberton (British Columbia).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 24, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.