Colonial Despatches

Chief Sexpinlhemx (Spintlum) was recognized as the Head Chief of the Nlaka'pamux in 1874.1 The Nlaka'pamux Nation stretches from the general area of south of Spuzzum and below the 49th parallel in the south to shTLash and Snapa in the north and between Quilchena and Texas Creek.2 Spintlum was one of the Chiefs who met with miners who wanted to negotiate their entry into the Nation for the exploitation of gold in July and August 1858.3 A treaty was agreed on and Spintlum and other Chiefs escorted the miners back to Yale to report.4 While the treaty has not been found, nor any copy of it, there is an oral record from the Chief Benedict of Inkahtsaph in 1918 who claims that Governor James Douglas ratified the treaty with Spintlum in Yale.5 Douglas wrote about meeting with the Chiefs of Thompson's River in this despatch, from 12 October 1858, while he was in Fort Hope.6 Historian Jim Hendrickson believes it's likely that Spintlum was one of the Chiefs Douglas met with.7

• 1. Nlaka'pamux Ethnography of the South West Nlaka'pamux Territory, Written Evidence of the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, 16 October 2009, 31.
• 2. The NNTC, Written Evidence of the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, 16 October 2009, 2.
• 3. Nlaka'pamux Ethnography of the South West Nlaka'pamux Territory, Written Evidence of the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, 16 October 2009, 27.
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Ibid.
• 6. Douglas to Lytton, 12 October 1858, 12721, CO 60/1, 213.
• 7. Ibid.