Newcomers Arrive
Traders at the meeting of the rivers
In the early 1800s, fur traders came to the interior of the territory that is now British Columbia. They built a trading post where the rivers meet, which became known as Fort Kamloops. It was later run by the Hudson's Bay Company.
Trade, not a new beginning
For a time, the Secwépemc and the traders exchanged furs and goods, and the Secwépemc remained in their own lands and followed their own ways. The post was a place of contact between two very different societies. Even so, the arrival of outsiders brought new goods, new diseases and a first sign of the changes to come.
A turning point
What began as trade would not remain so. In the decades that followed, many more newcomers came, and they came to settle and to claim the land. The next chapter tells how.