Lost Valley, Slala’xen
(as told by the elders)
In the old days Lost Valley with a creek draining into Anderson Lake three miles from the lake’s end was an honored place among the local Tsalalh St’at’imc and by the Nquatqua on the other end. It was a hunting ground set aside by the Scwena7em who came up the valleys from the ocean, and all the ways up the interior. They transformed lands so the St’at’imc can settle and live in the lands. In this way, they set some lands aside for various uses by the peoples who had lived there. Lost Valley, called Slala’xen by the local St’at’imc, was one of the hunting grounds. An Honored place (sacred) that was only accessible through treacherous terrain in the creek valley from the creek’s mouth where it drains into the lake. The head-waters of the creek was a basin where the hunting was good. The St’at’imc of D’Arcy and of Seton and Tsalalh hunt there to this day. The south end was the peaks standing high above D’Arcy’s south-east, right beside the lake, and paralleling the lake, the mountain ridges cradled the basin, then drained into the lake at Three Mile near the lake’s north end. In the old days, the elders would forbid the younger hunters from approaching the grounds from the lake up the hanging valley. It was too dangerous to go up where both sides were steep and there was always danger from boulders that were always rolling down, great big boulders. The Scwena7ems were very concerned about the valley being spoiled by too many peoples entering the place especially with dishonorable intentions, so they made it a hard place to get into, and only honest hunters who had prepared themselves by the native way of cleansing themselves, i.e. g’wezan’tsut, could go there to hunt.
One time at about the end of the 1800’s or the early 1900’s, an outsider asked a young N’Kait native to bring him up the valley from its mouth. When he agreed to go, the elders told him to use the south approach through the high peaks above D’Arcy, but the outsider convinced him to go up from the mouth of the hanging valley. It looked so inviting to approach from such a spectacular way, so they ignored the elders warning. They climbed up the hanging valley and went up. They told the people to expect them back in a few days. After the fourth day the elders began to worry. It could not take that long to go up and back. After a week passed, the peoples gathered a party to go and find them. Mai’ta’ (Mike James), Major (Fidale Major), Tom Adrian and Tommy Bull, all experienced mountaineers, went up to look for the lost pair and went by the creek. On their way up they had to clamber over or go around big boulders and dodge boulders rolling down from above. On the second day they come upon the pair. The outsider was dead and the young native guide had a broken leg. After finishing a make-shift grave for the outsider, using a stretcher made of two poles and a blanket, the rescue party lugged the unfortunate young guide out of the valley. It took four days to get him out, and with very much difficulty. Now after that incident and to this day, the valley called Slala’xen by the D’Arcy and Seton Valley St’at’imc, came to be called Lost Valley.
Lost Valley is still a favorite hunting place for the Nquatqua (D’Arcy) natives. One native, Lloyd Peters, loves to go and always goes up through the mountain pass through the peaks above D’Arcy to go and hunt at Slala’xen, the Lost Valley with this friends. Lately he brought some officials up this valley to do research.
Translated from the St’at’imc language by C. P. Alexander. A story told by late elders Francis (Fraser) Paul and David George. With assistance from Mom Shuteet (Christine Shields).
