SNARE

SNAKE

 

Snare Territory: Jasper National Park area in Alberta.

 

Portals
.

 

Aseniwuche Winewak Nation : part of whose membership is Snare
Grand Cache, Alberta

 

Canim Lake / Tsq'escenemc Band : part of whose membership is Snare
100 Mile House, British Columbia

 

Simpcw First Nation : part of whose membership is Snare
Barriere, British Columbia

#59

 

Snare Population
Canada (2015) - 110

S A L I S H INTERIOR SECWÉPEMC

 

COMMENTS

 

The Snare were the original inhabitants of this region. With coming of the fur trade era, Mohawk Iroquois moved in to hunt. Northwest Company's (later H.B.C.) Jasper House and Kootenay Plains seasonal rendezvous were established to enable business. Cree, Ktunaxa, Metis, Tse Keh Nay, and Stoney followed the Mohawk Iroquois to participate in the commercial hunt. In time, all these groups (including the Snare) merged and adopted Cree culture thence becoming the foundation for the new Rocky Mountain People or Asseniwuche Winewak Nation. Simultaneously, with overhunting leading to food shortages, many Snare fled south to live amongst their more prosperous relations, the Secwépemc of British Columbia.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
According to one of the last known members of the Snare tribe, they were neither Secwépemc, Dakelh, or Tse K'hene, but more closely related to the Secwépemc than to any other group, and speaking a language akin to Secwépemc. (Joachim Fromhold P.433)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Snare maintained little contact with other Secwépemc groups. (Rootsweb)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The first European to encounter the Snare was Alexander McKenzie in 1793 as he was making his trek to the Pacific Ocean. Aaron Arrowsmith's 1814 map, showing the Snare, is based on information gathered by McKenzie. (Note: "Atnah" is what the Dakelh called the Secwépemc.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This 1906 Government Atlas of Canada map shows "Iroquois" territory. ie. which lands were taken over from the Snare by the Iroquois. The Mohawk were able to move right on into Snare Territory because they had guns. The Snare did not. Also, at that time in the early 1800's, the numbers of Snare may have been severely weakened by the smallpox epidemic of 1781 making them less able to resist the Mohawk. Certainly, tribes in the vicinity such as the Athapuscow Cree, Keskachewan Cree, and Sinixt had lost huge percentages of their populations. [Note: Early 18th Century Snare population must have considerably greater for the them to develop their own dialect, identity, and to hold on to a significant sized territory in the face of hostile neighbours.]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Snare 1820 Population: 300 persons (2/3's of the them were in the larger Valemount region.) (Joachim Fromhold P.437)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Kane's second hand description of the 1840 massacre of the Snare by the Stoney. (Wanderings of An Artist P. 155)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
After the massacre, Capote Blanc and some Snare People flee to British Columbia. (Joachim Fromhold)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Asseniwuche Winewak Nation, including it's Snare Tribe component, were evicted from Jasper are when Jasper National Park was formed in 1906. They now reside at Grande Cache to the north.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Asseniwuche Winewak Nation verifies it's Snare heritage

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the Simpcw Band's perspective on the Snare: "The SIMPCW are a division of the Secwépemc, or Shuswap, whose traditional territory encompasses approximately 5,000,000 Ha in the North Thompson region. The area extends from slightly North of McLure to the headwaters of Fraser River near McBride, to Tête Jeune Cache, over to Jasper {and south to the headwaters of the Athabasca River} ---This last section has now been deleted from their website. Archaeological studies have identified winter home sites and underground food cache sites at a variety of locations including Finn Creek, Vavenby, Birch Island, Clearwater, Litte Fort, Chu Chua, Barriere River, Louis Creek, and Tête Jeune, and Jasper. Many ancestors of present band members lived in these winter villages or camps. Evidence of life in earlier times can still be found at these ancestral village sites." [It is important to remember that the Simpcw Band received Snare refugees in the 1840's and is legitimately speaking for that component of it's population. Note: Were an 18th Century hunter to travel from Simpcw Band's core region at Barriere, B.C. to the easternmost frontier of Secwépemc Territory in Alberta's David Thompson Country via the Yellowhead Pass and then back again, it would entail an 1100 kilometer walk.]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

An elder in the Stoney Wesley Band in the South Saskatchewan River valley, states the Snare were a travelling people who followed the rivers and used nets to catch both fish and animals. The Snare people were of short stature, ie. 4 foot 6 inches. The Stoney called them "Tamongun" or "Snaring People".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Hector writes: The Snare, a tribe who lived near the Snaring River, dwelling in holes dug in the ground, and living on animals they captured with snares of green hides.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Father Pierre-Jean de Smet: He believes they originated in British Columbia and migrated east to Jasper in search of food. They were regarded as a feeble tribe.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
A Jasper Town Museum staff member remarked the facial features of the Snare were "fine boned"...
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Canim Lake elder indicates that when the Snare fled southward into Secwepemc Territory in the early 1800's, the bulk of the them moved beyond the Simpcw Band in the North Thompson Valley to reside amongst the Canim Lake Band in the south Cariboo region.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The last paragraph of this Royal B.C. Museum article makes reference to the Snare: "An other band of Shuswap once occupied the area of Jasper National Park, known as the Snares."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Lisette's Journey focuses on the Snare....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Jasper Local 2017 newspaper article on the Snare.