This is the story of the First Nations communities of the Southern Stl’atl’imx Territory, as told by several community members, including Dan Dan, Sonja, Julia, Rita, Len, Faye, Sylvia, Fran, Cedric, Carl and Lucy.

Where are we located?

The Southern Stl’atl’imx Territory is home to several First Nations communities, located along the Lillooet River via the In-SHUCK-ch Forest Service Road (FSR). This story includes five communities from three Nations. They are Sachteen and Q’alatku’7em (Baptiste), part of the Samahquam Nation; Skookumchuck, part of the Skatin Nation; and Tipella and Port Douglas, part of the Xa’xtsa Douglas First Nation. These communities and peoples are culturally connected and share common hopes for the future.

Larger surrounding communities include Pemberton, Whistler, and Squamish which are 1 – 2.5 hours away from Q’Alatku7em and 1 hour and 30 minutes longer when driving from Tipella, making it a grueling journey for residents. There is no longer a southern exit for the FSR.

The region is known for its rich natural beauty including forests, lakes, the Lillooet River, natural hot springs, and cold pools which attract tourists in warmer seasons.

Communities and services

Among the five communities, Sachteen has the fewest homes and services. Tipella and Q'alatku'7em seem to be experiencing population growth, while Skatin's population is declining.

Local employment opportunities include forestry, the Stl'atl'imx Southern Health Society, and band offices and services. Income and finances are a common concern for individuals in the community.

Tipella has some newly constructed buildings, including a fire station, day care, housing and the Douglas Xa’xtsa Band Office and Health Centre. Other services include a community school and Head Start program. The local gas station and convenience store primarily stock non-perishable canned, frozen or processed foods. A local caterer also lives in Tipella and provides food services for community gatherings and events.

Skookumchuck (Skatin) has several amenities, including a food bank, school and gymnasium. There are approximately 30 homes, and five more under construction. Other nearby cultural and recreational sites include campgrounds and the T’sek (T’sik) Hot Spring.

Travel to access market foods

Pemberton is the closest large-scale grocery store to the Southern Stl’atl’imx communities. Despite the distance Southern Stl’atl’imx residents may drive to a larger city where they can get more groceries for their money at shopping centres like Your Independent Grocer Supermarket or Costco; however, there are additional costs associated with travelling further for food.

“$20 only gets you halfway to town. Before, it would take you to town and back,” (Group Conversation participant)

People must weigh the costs and benefits of driving long distances to cities like Whistler, Squamish or even Vancouver to find better deals compared to Pemberton where “the prices are outrageous.”

Most grocery shopping trips take a full day, especially for those in Tipella and Port Douglas. Some stay overnight, adding an additional $100 to $200 to the trip’s cost. When residents return from shopping trips, they are exhausted, and sometimes, non-perishables remain in the car overnight to be unloaded the following morning.

“Sometimes you don’t eat all day – you have to get the kids ready, load the truck and run around all day. You’re beat when you get home.” (Dan Dan)

Young children add complexity because one parent stays home with the children while the other is out shopping all day. Sometimes vehicles run out of storage space and items must be held on passengers’ laps on the journey home, or items like eggs and milk cartons break from the bumpy drive back home.

“I used to try to get everything done in one day: get mail, shop, get groceries. But the car fills up, especially if you bring people with you and everyone goes shopping. Driving back, groceries are everywhere, on our laps, on the seats. We try to get as many people to go or to get stuff for as many people as possible.” (Sonja)

Efficient planning is essential to make the most of people’s time and money.

Additional planning by non-drivers

For those who do not drive or own a vehicle, accessing food is an even greater challenge and they feel dependent on others. Residents estimate that only one third of community members have driver's licenses.

“I worry a lot, maybe not every day but every other day. I try not to worry too much because my body will get sick, but things usually work out. Sometimes they do not, but there is always just enough. I am always reassured by that. But when it does not work out, you have to think about what to do next.” (Lucy)

Non-drivers must plan accordingly and stock pantry food in case fresh food runs out. Lucy explained how she and her family prioritize fresh, nutritious foods for their one-year-old son to ensure he has everything he needs to grow up healthy. Many people, including Lucy, are concerned about this and must learn shopping and budgeting skills early in life.

“My mom showed me life skills about how to shop for a household and for myself, how to budget, how to be mindful. I probably thought about it from 12 years old. I feel like I grew up quickly in that way,” (Lucy).

Additional stress comes from coordinating a ride and finding the means to compensate the drivers for helping them. Usually, this compensation is made by helping pay for fuel or trading.

Road conditions and vehicle maintenance

The unpaved narrow and rough roads, are sometimes covered with loose rocks and gravel pose a challenge. Residents travel with radios to ensure the routes are clear because the FSR routes are shared with forestry and industry trucks and equipment. During peak tourist season, residents find it more difficult to travel along the FSR due to the added convoys of vehicles often slowly traversing or pulling over on the long stretch of road.

The rough roads lead to the burden of expensive vehicle maintenance. Carl from Port Douglas, mentioned needing to replace his vehicle’s tires only six months after purchasing it, a huge expense that would only be necessary every 4-5 years in less remote communities with better quality roads. Others in the Southern Stl’atl’imx communities estimated they replace their tires due to wear and damage every 6 to 12 months. Vehicle breakdowns or other emergency situations can leave residents stranded and without cellular reception, causing worry for those making the trek out of community.

Weather conditions and climate-change related events

Weather can cause challenges in these communities. Winter brings piles of snow that residents have to dig their vehicles out of, and even the snowplows often have to wait for storms to pass before they can plow the roads. Seasonal storms bring more frequent power outages.

A resident recalled a power outage in Q’Alatkú7em that lasted a week and led to the evacuation of Elders living there. Newer homes are built with electric heating instead of wood stoves, which is a problem when the power goes out in the winter. Residents rely on freezers for long-term food storage, but worry about food spoilage, especially for traditional food and meat.

Lately, the region has experienced more severe rainstorms and washouts. The atmospheric river of November 2021 led to the most destructive washout the area has experienced in years. This event caused devastating washouts along the FSR and other community roads, as seen in the picture on the right, disrupting connectivity between the five communities and to their shopping destinations.

“Washouts are becoming worse. In the Fall 2021, there were big washouts all over that cleared out a bunch of trees and closed many of the roads until April. In some areas, it completely changed the landscape and views.” (Sonja)

Climate change impacts on wildlife and traditional food availability

Climate change impacts the wildlife in the region. Residents stated that the fish seem more beaten up or “have worms” and that now, one can travel from Tipella to Pemberton and back “without seeing a single squirrel, chipmunk, grouse, rabbits, deer or bear, when these animals were once all over the roads,” (Julia, Baptiste).

“The deer used to be big enough to feed an army, but now are so small and you do not know if they have diseases.” (Fran)

Residents remember countless berries, such as huckleberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and soap berries, growing throughout the forest which has now declined.

“My dad and I used to go out [up in the mountains] all the time, some of the bushes there would be as high as the ceiling – huckleberries and blueberries… There were so many berries up there, and they were all a good size.” (Len)

Seasons for plants and berries have drastically changed.

“There is too much rain in a short amount of time, and then the summers are too long, dry and hot for berries to grow .” (Sonja)

Several people said it feels like winter and summer are the only seasons now because “spring and fall keep getting shorter and shorter.” By the time people can get out to pick berries or harvest mushrooms they are all gone.

“I blinked and the season went by for Xúsum and saskatoon berries. Nobody even said the word cherry and the season was gone.” (Elder Sylvia)

Others thought about how the bears must have been starving this past year since there were so few berries out there.

Health related to nutrition and food

Many people opt for more processed foods because of the lower costs and ease of access. Residents expressed the desire for healthier food options, especially to help children and youth learn how to nourish their bodies.

Many residents said they have diabetes. It is difficult to manage their condition when appropriate foods are often more expensive or harder to get. A Skatin resident living with diabetes shared his experience:

“3 or 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes, too. I wasn’t getting advice on what I was supposed to eat. I was taking two pills and I didn’t like being a diabetic, so I stopped for 3 months. Then I ended up in the hospital in Vancouver, so I had to take those pills again and they gave me a sheet on what I’m supposed to eat.” (Cedric)

Residents feel that health services, supports and education about health conditions need improvement.

More recently, many residents expressed concern over how isolating and damaging COVID-19 was for community and cultural connections. The culture is very family-oriented and centres around gatherings with traditional food, however this was disrupted by COVID-19.

“COVID distanced us – we need something like [this project] to lift us, reenergize us, reconnect us. We want community wholeness to be one again.” (Dan Dan)

Effects of colonialism on food access

First Nations communities have been navigating the effects of colonialism on community wellbeing and food access long before the onset of COVID-19. Residents noted that colonialism has deeply affected community wholeness, food systems and overall wellbeing.

Residents of the Southern Stl’atl’imx territory do not feel like they are in control of their own lands, and that government organizations hold these communities back from being self-sufficient. Carl, a Knowledge Keeper from Port Douglas spoke to this saying:

"Under the Indian Act, we are held down. We’ve got to get outside, see the land, feel the land and touch it.” (Carl)

Community members spoke of being removed from their communities and taken to residential schools as children. This had an immeasurable physical, emotional and cultural impact on their own and their families’ lives, separating some from their homes and families for decades

Traditional food access and caring for one another

Some residents recall going on hunting trips up in the territory’s mountains, where they would find plenty of deer, grouse and other wildlife to bring home to butcher and prepare for meals or storage. They would share pieces of meat with as many households as they could.

“Years ago, with my dad, we used to can quite a bit and there was plenty of deer. Whenever we drove any place and shot one, we’d save it for ourselves, can it, do whatever we needed to do with it. Otherwise, we’d take it to some older folks at Mount Currie and swap or trade it because we had plenty of it.” (Len)

Traditionally members of these communities do not take more food than they need, and if they have excess food, it is usually gifted or traded. The gifting and sharing of traditional foods are important ways to ensure that everyone in the community has enough to eat and is taken care of, especially for those in community who do not or cannot hunt or forage themselves. It addresses some of the challenges and local concerns regarding availability, affordability and access to foods by having circular sharing of local and nutritious food among family, neighbours and other community members. Sharing is also a way to respect the animals and plants that help sustain Southern Stl’atl’imx peoples.

“Traditionally, the first deer caught by a person is completely given away, then in future years parts of each first deer of the season is given to other people. This is to respect the spirit of the deer that has given their life to feed not just one family, but many. When I go fishing, I give the first fish away, and if it is a good run I usually give half of the fish away right away to take care of the ones that do not fish or don’t have fishing spots. Throughout the year all produce that we gather, fish, and hunt is also shared in community gatherings or gifted as giveaways. The animals and plants take care of us so that we can take care of each other.” (Dan Dan)

Sylvia, an Elder from Sachteen, mentioned how she has supported her community over the years by preparing gift packages for community members in need, full of home-made food, easy-to-prepare food boxes, such as taco kits, and other useful household items she would craft or buy.

“You’ve got to give. If you don’t give, you don’t get. If you give something, you better love it because then the love goes through to people.” (Elder Sylvia)

Group participants experienced this giving nature during a gathering when Carl, a Traditional Knowledge Keeper, shared traditional foods included birch bark, wind-dried salmon, elk jerky, frozen, canned, and smoked fish and soaked Xúsum (soap berries) which he had hunted, caught and harvested.

Barriers to traditional food access and gathering

Local fishing and hunting are declining, in part to the accessibility and affordability of licenses and permits and external pressures on wildlife populations. This includes urban hunters, climate change and extreme events, such as forest fires, droughts, washouts and flooding, and logging that destroys wildlife habitat. The loss of traditional hunting and fishing practices threatens traditional knowledge and culture that has helped keep the communities fed, resilient and holistically healthy for millennia. Maintaining these connections to culture through traditional food and traditional methods to food access and processing is a priority for residents of the Southern Stl’atl’imx territory.

Some children are introduced to traditional foods early and are taught traditional hunting and fishing methods by family members, but there is an overarching generational education gap. Many young people prefer the cheaper, more easily accessible processed foods. Many who hunted did so without adequate cultural education and shot many female and pregnant deer which led to “a few bad years” where the deer populations declined, affecting others’ ability to hunt.

There is a variety of traditional wildlife here, including deer, moose, elk, and grouse. Hunting for meat has been a culturally important source of food for the people in the area. Elk hunting is currently illegal in the area because they were re-introduced, and conservationists want to see the population grow before hunting is allowed. Community members, who have longstanding traditional knowledge on hunting practices that preserve wildlife populations, disagree. Two residents had their elk meat taken away.

“[Conservation] took our meat we hunted away. This is our right. We should not need the Possession and Acquisition License, hunting or fishing licenses, or approvals to hunt on our own lands.” (Carl)

Residents feel this is limiting their own ability to carry out culturally important practices and is adversely impacting their ability to self-regulate and govern in their territory. There was a strong feeling that the people of this territory should be able to access traditional food from their own lands without the bureaucratic interventions that lead to so many barriers for cultural practices and community wellness.

The costs of accessing traditional foods are also a factor, and people often have to travel further, for example to the northern St’at’imc territory, to hunt and forage traditional plants and berries. Many people here use expensive equipment to preserve and store food, but this may not be an option for families with limited finances. Equipment like dehydrators, vacuum packing machines, freezers, and canning jars are valuable for food preservation, but are costly, and further strains residents’ finances.

Food programs

Many of the Southern Stl’atl’imx communities’ past and present food programs stem from the overwhelming desire from residents to help each other access nutritional and adequate food they need while promoting cultural wellbeing throughout the communities. Many programs started as volunteer-driven or ground-up initiatives spearheaded by residents who envisioned improved access to healthy and culturally important food.

Some of the past programs include the following:

A shuttle service was available to take Elders to shopping destinations for free, but maintenance costs were high, and funding ran out. The Southern Stl’atl’imx Health Society (SSHS) ran a food bank in Tipella and a COVID-19 food delivery program at the beginning of the pandemic, which have both stopped. One resident suggested the food bank’s “take what you need” system was, at times, taken advantage of. Since 2019, Tipella has two greenhouses with plans to sell to nearby workcamps and grow fresh food for the community. Unfortunately, these greenhouses were not made with the correct plastic materials and the program is halted.

One person started a mobile food market before COVID-19, but food and fuel costs became too expensive, so this service was discontinued.

The Southern Stl’atl’imx communities have other programs that continue to operate, largely through community-driven leadership and initiatives including nutrition support programs offered through the bands; sporadic farmer’s markets; school food programs in Tipella and Skatin; community gardens associated with the schools; a new food bank in Skatin; and community catering.

Sonja of Skatin spoke about how many of the projects and programs in these communities are disrupted or ended due to challenges like COVID-19, a lack of funding or labour, or program leaders leaving the communities:

“Often projects start, something happens where the people running them leave or funding runs out and the projects end. Sometimes this makes it a larger issue because people get used to having that support and then it can suddenly be gone.” (Sonja)

This can make things more challenging for residents because they last just long enough for people to become reliant on them and then the programs suddenly end.

Hopes for the future

Through having conversations with residents about their hopes for the future of food access and affordability in the Southern Stl’atl’imx region, the following thoughts and ideas emerged:

• Reliable and safe communal transportation, like a community taxi or shuttle. The vehicle must be adequately sized for the intended number of users and resilient to the rough road conditions.
  
• Cultural Centre, with space for Elders, a locally sourced supermarket, childcare, cultural ceremonies and community events. This could also be a place for cultural education and teaching to pass knowledge along to younger generations.
  
• Larger community market where people can bring in traditional and local foods to share and/or sell. This might require an agreement with regulators to ensure food safety while promoting the selling of local, traditional foods within the communities.
  
• Integration of traditional knowledge and skills in schools to address the generational gaps around traditional food system education and reconnect community members with their culture and each other.
  
• Childcare would help families find more time to go shopping which often takes a full day.
  
• Changes to the system must be community-driven, and leadership can come from one person with an idea. The challenges lie in making sure there is continuity and that the necessary resources and supports are in place for these initiatives to keep moving forward.