Photo: GVMA
Looking south from Middleton Mountain over what was once the Long Lake Reserve # 5 around 1950.
It is surprising to many that one of Vernon’s most popular summer destinations, Kal Beach, is located in what were once First Nations reserve lands.
Needless to say, the ancestral territory of the Syilx people of the Okanagan nation comprised much of Lake Kalamalka.
The lake, which bore the name of Long Lake until 1953, is named after Cape Kalamalka after all.
In addition, members of the OKIB still reside on land around the lake where there were formerly historic villages.
However, little evidence remains to mark the boundaries of the Long Lake Reserve # 5, which formerly stretched from approximately Kal Beach to what is now the Kalavista subdivision.
The reserve was assigned in 1877 by the Joint Indian Reserve Commission, established two years earlier by the federal and provincial governments to establish the boundaries of the reserve lands in BC.
In 1909, Hlakay (also known as Pierre Nequalla), leader of the Nk’maplqs (head of the lake) gang, opposed the sale of the land, suggesting that there had been serious irregularities in obtaining permits. of adequate surrender.
This was later confirmed by the federal government and the sale was set aside. However, in 1913, the land was “cut” under the Royal McKenna McBride Commission.
The stated goal of the commission (named after the two men who signed it into force, Federal Commissioner Joseph McKenna and BC Prime Minister Richard McBride) was to adjust the area of reserves in BC, based on evidence collected from both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. as to its adequacy.
As a result of the commission, an additional 87,000 acres of reserve land was added to most bands, while 47,000 acres of much more valuable land were removed from 54 bands.
This included the 128 acres of Long Lake Reserve # 5.
This “cut” land was later sold to Mr. John Kennedy, who later handed over parts of it to the town of Vernon to access the beach and the Canadian National Railway Company.
The beach is now part of Coldstream.
– Gwyneth Evans is the research and communications coordinator at the Vernon Museum and Archives