Ts’elxwéyeqw (Chilliwack) is renowned for its natural beauty, and its access to recreation opportunities, including, hiking on the many trails or fishing on the Vedder River. The Chilliwack Museum and Archive’s 2018 temporary exhibit, “Mountaineers: Community Experience in Chilliwack’s Mountains,” emulates the diverse stories, in the ways in which people have experienced the mountains.
The exhibit on early cross-cultural relations between Sepass, “[t]hrough his friendship with the Wells family, he helped blaze some of the first horse trails in the mountains”. (Mountaineers Exhibit, 2018). Thus, we can see that Sepass’ knowledge of the land was valued in community projects, like development trails. In the Chilliwack Progress’ newspaper article, “Playground of Absolute Grandeur,” which describes the history of the Luimchin Trial, where trail construction started in 1926. The Chilliwack Museum and Archives share as related by Wells, “[t]his was an old Indian berry trail used by the natives for generations in their annual gathering of berries. It led up to their finest hunting grounds.” Thus, we can see how spaces transform from food gathering places or of cultural significant to places of recreation. Furthermore, the traditionally Indigenous spaces become shared space to enjoy activities like hiking can be viewed, today as a bonding activity, like between Ed Wells, Chief Billy Sepass, Ed Thornton and many volunteers during the early trail building days.
What do we learn from reflecting on these relationships? As examine the interactions, we can see a broad sense of what it was like during the time. Furthermore, it helps understand the influence of Sepass, as we in the next page on how Sepass faced problems.
References
Chilliwack Archives. The Chilliwack Progress. February 23, 2001. “Playground of Absolute
Grandeur”
https://theprogress.newspapers.com/image/81585623/?terms=sepass%2Band%2Btrails
The Chilliwack Museum and Archives. Mountaineers: Community Experience in Chilliwack’s Mountains. May 17, 2018-April 18, 2018. Accessed June 2018.
Feinberg, Jennifer. The Chilliwack Progress. New exhibit in Chilliwack explores the world of local mountaineering. May 27, 2018.
Suggested Readings
The Chilliwack Progress.