Nicola (also known as Walking Grizzly Bear) was born between 1780 and 1785 and died in 1865.

Nicola (also known as Walking Grizzly Bear) was born between 1780 and 1785 and died in 1865. He was also known as Nkwala or N'kwala. He was the chief of the Nicola Valley Peoples, an alliance of the Nlaka'pamux, Okanagans, and remaining Nicola Athapaskans, as well as the Kamloops Band of the Shuswap People. He was also the grand chief of the Okanagan People.

𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞

Nicolas was given the name by French Canadians working for the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies at an unnamed temporary trading post at the head of Okanagan Lake. First Nations people modified it to Nkwala' while Scottish and English workers for the companies modified it to Nicholas and Old Nicholas.

𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐞

Nicola was one of the four children and chiefly heir of Pelka'mulox ("Rolls-Over-The-Earth"), the third chief in the lineage of Okanagan chiefs who bore that name (which was derived from Spokane), with the first and second being born in the years 1675–1680 and 1705–1710, respectively. The third Pelka'mulox, Nicola's father, was born at an unknown date, but he passed away sometime in the first decade of the 19th century as a result of an arrow shot by a Lillooet (St'at'imc) chief at the renowned fishing grounds near Fountain and Pavilion. The Lakes Lillooet chief instigated a violent argument between the two chiefs by criticising Pelka'mulox, who had hunted buffalo on the plains and encountered North West Company traders Lagace and In what is now Montana, MacDonald describes the existence of white people and their new way of life and declares his tale to be false.

His uncle, Pelka'mulox's brother Kwali'la, who had helped him survive the wars with the Thompson, Shuswap, and Kutenai in his youth, took over the joint Thompson-Shuswap chieftaincy at Kamloops upon his death, while the chieftaincy of the Okanagan people passed to Hwistesmetxe'qen (Nicola). Kwali'la also assisted Pelka'mulox in establishing the Okanagan people in the region around Nicola Lake, which had previously been Shuswap territory (at the time, Kamloops' population was a mix of Shuswap and Okanagan). Pelka'mulox, who was dying, gave his son to Kwali'la as guardian and instructed that he be brought up to exact revenge on his father.

Nicola, who eventually settled in the valley around the lake that now bears his name or in Kamloops, as Kwali'la's title as chief of the Kamloops eventually passed to Nicola upon the former's demise, inherited Pelka'mulox's status as chief of the Okanagan people in the Nicola Valley and the upper Okanagan Lake area. In addition to serving as the group's presiding chief, Tonasket was also the grand chief of the entire Okanagan nation. However, after the border was drawn, a new, independent American chieftain that was founded by Tonasket emerged.

Many people in the Interior of both British Columbia and the neighbouring states of the United States are descended from Nicola because of his 15–17 wives, who were from the Okanagan, Sanpoil, Colville, Spokane, Shuswap, Stu'wix, Thompson, and possibly other tribes, and the approximately 50 living children he had by them (from those who died in infancy or childhood). However, his nephew Chilliheetza (Tselaxi'tsa, spelt by Teit as Chelahitsa), who was his sister's son, was adopted and now holds the hereditary chieftaincy among the local bands.

𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐲

The fur traders trusted Nicola and left him in charge of the trading post for the winter. When the traders returned, they gave him 10 guns and a supply of ammunition in appreciation for how well he maintained the property and gathered numerous furs. The chief of the Kamloops Shuswap (Secwepemc), Kwali'la (Duncan to the traders), who was also his uncle and foster father, reminded him of the need to exact revenge for the death of his father around this time. As a result, he organised an alliance of nearby people to attack the Lillooet (St'at'imc). His ability to create this alliance was in large part due to the web of in-laws and children he had spread throughout the native populations of the Interior.

𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐚'𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐫

The Okanagan, Shuswap, Stu'wix, and Upper Thompson (Ashcroft-Spences Bridge) formed Nicola's alliance against the Lillooet. The Lower Lillooet or Lil'wat people were driven into exile in the woods away from the area's salmon-rich streams for a generation after they swept through the mountainous Lillooet Country all the way to the valley of the Lillooet River. They killed 300–400 people, kidnapped numerous women and children, and occupied the area for a while.

Due to this conflict, the Lower Lillooet is said to have heard a gun for the first time and seen a horse, despite the Upper Lillooet (located in the area of present-day Lillooet) being familiar with horses and possibly owning them at the time. In 1808, Simon Fraser and his men also noticed that the Upper Lillooet had guns that might have been of Russian origin. The town of Lillooet is also described in Fraser's journals as being heavily fortified, with the men being armoured and their hosts being anxious about hostile neighbours and a state of war. However, this would have been before the gift of ten guns, and since the temporary post on Okanagan Lake was established after Fraser's journey, there may not have been a direct connection to Nicola's War at the time.

Since Pelka'mulox was the first of all those present to have seen white men, including the Shuswap upriver and the Nlaka'pamux just downriver, both of whom would have encountered Fraser and, in the case of the northerners, also known to Alexander Mackenzie, the council that resulted in Pelka'mulox's death took place at an unknown time, but undoubtedly before Fraser passed through the Lillooet area.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐄𝐥𝐤 𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬

Nicola organised large-scale hunts for the once-vast elk herds that once roamed the Nicola Valley using tactics borrowed from the buffalo hunt, such as driving them over cliffs or just into enclosures. Elk are thought to have been eradicated from that area due to the effectiveness of these hunting methods.

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬

Like his father, Nicola was well-known, travelled extensively, and frequented the Prairie to go on buffalo hunts. While there, he is credited with coming out on top in a conflict with the Blackfoot. He also travelled to Nicola Lake to bury the Thompson and Stu'wix people who had died in a Shuswap raid on their Guichon settlement.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐬

Despite being defeated in her attempt to unseat Chief Trader John Tod from Fort Kamloops, Nicola nonetheless coexisted peacefully with the fur traders and earned their respect. As with the fur traders, he was renowned for "sagacity, honesty, prudence, and fair dealing, and was rather a peacemaker than a fighting man." His word was law among his own people and neighbouring peoples.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐫

The Kamloops people under Nicola's control were already exchanging goods for gold from nearby creeks at Fort Kamloops before the discovery of the significant placer gold finds at the Nicoamen River, which enters the Thompson just a few miles upstream from Lytton. The discovery at Nicoamen and the even larger discovery at Hill's Bar, south of Yale at the lower end of the Canyon, were both made as a result of further exploration that was sparked by word of these discoveries.

Within a few months, up to 30,000 gold-seekers of all nationalities descended on the lower Fraser, the majority coming from California where news of the gold had spread during a period of economic depression and political unrest. Over 10,000 of the 30,000 continued to work the Fraser River bars between modern-day Lillooet and Hope while many of the 30,000 gave up when winter set in. Many, if not the majority, of those in the upper canyon near Lillooet and the fishing grounds at Fountain, arrived by land via the Okanagan and Kamloops, or else by a more southerly cutoff via the Similkameen River through what was then the St'at'imc territory to the west It was already known as Nicola's Country and eventually adopted the name Nicola Country. On some maps, the Similkameen Trail is labelled as the "trail to the Couteau Country," which refers to the territory of the Thompsons, also known as the Couteau Indians or "Knife" Indians.

Unknown, but estimated to have been a few thousand, they arrived by land via the Okanagan Valley and other land routes, typically in war parties of several hundred men. Some of the early parties drove some of the natives back by pillaging native food caches and villages, fighting and shooting at them along the way. When one party arrived in Kamloops, Nicola confronted them and warned them that they were on the verge of going to war. He demanded that the guilty men be punished and invoked his own adherence to British law, threatening to have them all executed if they did not. The guilty men who had received punishment during the journey, by the main group and its leaders for their rebellious behaviours, were turned over to face justice. The group was then welcomed by Nicola as guests, and she rode with them to the goldfields along an old trail that led from the mid-Thompson through the Hat Creek-Pavilion plateau and into Fountain, which was also the uppermost point of the Fraser River's gold-mining activity and a centre of activity. Additionally, his father Pelka'lumox had been murdered here.

Nicola, despite the miners' own bad behaviour, used his position and influence in 1858 to defend those travelling to the Thompson and Fraser goldfields via the Okanagan Trail. This effectively stopped the Yakima War from spreading across the international border. Despite being urged to put an end to the mining parties that had attacked natives, raided, and spoiled food caches while passing through the Okanagan and Yakima country, he chose not to wage war with them and, in the case of one party, escorted them from Kamloops to the Fraser at Fountain.

He was urged to take part in both the Fraser Canyon War and the Spokane War but declined on both occasions. However, it appears that in 1858, he was prepared to team up with the Thompson against the whites if the Canyon War's outcomes had not been largely amicable. He felt bad for the people of Spokane that their nation had been taken over by Americans, but he remained steadfast in his alliance with the Queen and, initially, King George, which he had made before the boundary was established. In the year before his passing, it is thought that he steadfastly remained neutral throughout the Chilcotin War of 1864 and may have used his clout to help keep some of the Chilcotin chiefs neutral.

𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐜𝐲

Nicola was the most significant and powerful chief in British Columbia's interior during the time from the start of the inland fur trade to the Cariboo Gold Rush. It is safe to say that without him, British Columbia's history might have been much more conflict-torn, and the native peoples of BC might have become entangled with American troops (increasing the already-existing American threat to British control of the Interior). He also played a key role in mediating an end to the violence on the Okanagan Trail and in the Yakima, Spokane, and Fraser Canyon Wars.

His son Chilliheetza carried on his father's policy of loyalty to the Crown, preventing an all-out war against whites - fomented by the Thompsons and Okanagans - during the Sproat Commission, as well as resisting the call by the "Wild McLean Boys" (the sons of celebrated Fort Kamloops trader Donald McLean), whose wife was a Kamloops Shuswap and a close relative) during their attempt to turn their own murder of rancher Johnny Ussher into a full-fledged Indian uprising.

Because of the boundary treaty that divided Okanagan territory, Okanagans south of the line formed a new chieftaincy led by Tonasket, who was not of chiefly lineage but rose to prominence through his campaigns against miners travelling the Okanagan Trail. The majority of American Okanogans live in Omak, Washington, or on the Colville Indian Reservation, where they coexist with other Salishan peoples from the region.