HWISTENSMEXE'QEN, Nicola,(1785 - 1859)
Indian chief, warrior, hunter, trader, guide, farmer.

HWISTESMEXE'QEN (Nicola, Nichola, Nkwala, Nickilush), Indian chief, warrior, hunter, trader, guide, farmer; b. c. 1785 probably at Nkama'peleks (Head of Okanagan Lake) or in the area of Nicola Lake, the son of Okanagan Chief, Pelkamu'lox, and his second wife, a Stuwi'x woman; he had fifteen or more wives taken from numerous interior tribes including the Okanagan, Sanpoil, Colville, Spokan, Secwepemc (Shuswap), Stuwi'x, and Nlaka'pamux (Thompson) and about 50 children whose descendents live in southern British Columbia and Washington State; d. c. 1859 and was temporarily buried at Kamloops near the Hudson's Bay Company fort until his people removed his body to Nkama'peleks.

Nicola's father, a noted Okanagan chief descended from the Spokan people, moved to present day British Columbia from a place called Sali'lx, "heaped up stone," at the junction of the Similkameen and Okanagan Rivers, where he had occupied a fortified stone house. Pelkam'lox apparently moved to the Nicola Lake area about 1790 on the invitation of his half-brother, Kwoli'la, the Secwepemc chief from Kamloops. The band spent summers hunting in the open plateau region around Nicola Lake and generally made Nkamapeleks their winter home. Pelkamu'lox, called Grand Picotte by the fur traders and considered a "great partisan of the whites," was killed while on a trading expedition for the Hudson's Bay Company [HBC] to the Fountain on the Fraser River, by a Lillooet chief. The company journal from November 20, 1822 to March 1, 1823 is filled with details of the preparation for war against the "Fraser River Indians." Nicolas, "the principal war leader," would accept none of the gifts sent as propitiation and in his demand for "nothing less than a life for a life" he had the support of the Secwepemc and Okanagan as well as some Nlaka'pamux peoples. He assembled approximately 500 mounted warriors "from all quarters" with considerable guns and ammunition and conducted a successful retaliatory raid, killing or capturing hundreds of Lillooet people.

Nicola "overshadowed all the other chiefs of his time [in the southern interior of British Columbia] in power and influence" and despite the military action against the Lillooet, was known for peacemaking and friendship with the whites. Evidence of his support for Hudson's Bay Company [HBC] traders and his influence among them is widespread in company journals and in the ethnographic record. John McLeod wrote on February 25, 1823 that "of all Indians resorting to this place [he] has rendered the most aid to the whites and [is] undoubtedly the most manly and the most to dread if he turned against us." Company journals clearly illustrate the HBC's dependence on Nicola's knowledge and influence as when Archibald McDonald attempted to explore and gain access to Nlaka'pamux territory and to establish trade relations with that tribe. He or one of his sons frequently guided company horse brigades through Okanagan or neighbouring territory. His influence was important in times of crisis as when Chief Trader Samuel Black was murdered by a Secwepemc youth on February 8, 1841. Nicola made strong representation to the Secwepemc people to support company efforts to capture the youth and Nicola's son was one of the party which eventually captured and shot the murderer. Nicola's goodwill proved important again in 1858 when American gold miners provoked an Indian reaction by an invasion of Okanagan, Secwepemc and Nlaka'pamux territory and by the massacre of unarmed Okanagan people. Secwepemc and Nlaka'pamux Indians attempted to exclude these miners from their territory and war threatened. A miner, Herman Francis Reinhart, recalled that Nicola reprimanded the miners in a manner that revealed the extent and the limits of his authority: "He blamed us for butchering the O[kanagan] Indians in cold blood and the O[kanagan] Indians had sent some messengers to him to avenge the death of his people, but he said he had better teachings from good men and priests, and good advice from Capt. McL[ea]n , head of the Hudson['s] Bay Company, and they advised him and his people to overlook the great crime. But... he had great trouble to quiet and calm down his young warriors, of which, with the Lake O[kanagan] tribe, he could have raised from 1800 to 2000 warriors, and could have surprised our command and cut them off to a man, utterly annihilating the whole of us, and taking all our animals and all our plunder. But he could not have told how it would have gone after, for he would have lost all control of his people, and the war chiefs would have usurped his power and carried on a general war against the whites, Americans and English. Being the massacre had taken place in British Columbia, it would be the duty of the English Queen Victoria to see justice done to her subjects."

Nicola reportedly held great wealth in the form of horses and cattle although evidence about his material wealth is mixed. Wealth was traditionally not a requisite for chiefly prestige although the ability and willingness to redistribute food and other goods was important. Certainly he had sufficient wealth and prestige to acquire and support an extensive personal household including over 15 wives. He frequently travelled with a bodyguard of young men and on occasion with his family. John Tod wrote in January, 1843: "The Chief, Nichola, with his large bodyguard of women and children not less (I suppose) than thirty souls in all, are encamped on the opposite side of the South Branch." Company practice was to provide Nicola and family members with gifts of tobacco, clothes or other items when they visited the Kamloops post, with food supplies occasionally, and with employment frequently. Nicola and other Indians were not dependent on the post economically; they traded furs and horses infrequently and from at least as early as 1841 were substantial providers of potatoes to the company. In some years Nicola and family were reported to be starving and were forced to travel to the Secwepemc or Nlaka'pamux territory with leather to trade for salmon.

The last known written description of Chief Nicola comes from Reinhart who described him in 1858 as "an old man about 65 or 70 years old, [who] wore a stovepipe hat and citizen's clothes and had lots of medals of good character and official vouchers of good conduct for many years." Nicola died in the fall of 1859 and was succeeded as chief by his sister's son, Tsilaxitsa, who maintained good relations with the whites.

DUANE THOMSON
Okanagan University College

The golden frontier: the recollections of Herman Francis Reinhart, 1851-1869. ed. D.B. Nunis, Jr. (Austin Texas, 1962). G.M. Dawson, "Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia," Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, section II, 1891, 3-44. James Teit, "The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateau" in Forty Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology ed. Frans Boas (Washington, 1930). Kamloops Museum and Archives John Tod and Donald Manson, "Thompson River Post Journal, 1841-43;" Paul Fraser, "Thompson River Journal, 1850-52" and "Thompson River Journal, 1854-55;" William Manson, "Kamloops Journal, 1859-60;" Mary Balf, "A Very Great Chieftain" and "Notable Local Indians of the Early Days" (vertical file). PABC John Tod, "History of New Caledonia and the Northwest Coast." HBCA B97/a/1 James McMillan and John McLeod, "Thompson's River Journal, 1822-1823;" B97/a/2 Achibald McDonald, "Journal of Occurrences at Thompson's River, 1826-1827;" D5/16, 1846(1) 466-68 Tod to Simpson, Thompson's River, 20 March, 1846. Bancroft Library, Berkley, Series C, No.25 Bancroft Collection, Pacific Coast Mss. John Tod, "Narrative of A Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company" 1878.

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