Where the Thompson River split, the Secwépemc fished, hunted and foraged in camps, living in pit houses in winter. When fur traders found the waterway routes into the northwest interior, this ancient lifestyle was transformed. In 1812 David Stuart built a trading post at Tk’emlus (Kamloops), and area the Secwépemc had occupied this area for thousands of years Syilx. The Fish Lake Accord unified them with their enemies, the Silyx, in their support of this trading fort which gave them wealth, prestige, and firepower to defeat their hostile neighbours, the Tsilhquot’in, the St’at’imc, and the Nlaka’pamux.

When Silyx Chief N’Kwala (Nicola) avenged the killing of his father Pelka’mulox, by a St'at'imc (Lilooet) chief, he became a powerful leader and an ally to the British Kamloops Post.  In 1858 the Fraser River Gold Rush miners provoked a war with the Indigenous nations. Governor Douglas used the chaos to claim a huge part of the Pacific Northwest, creating British Columbia. He trampled traditional boundaries, disallowed Indigenous hunting and fishing, and imposed British law without negotiations. Nikola’s death marked the end of an era, but his homeland is still known as Nikola Country.