- N'quatqua
:"This article is about the community and location of N'quatqua, British Columbia. For the First Nations government of N'quatqua, see
N'quatqua First Nation .N'quatqua, variously spelled Nequatque, N'quat'qua, is the proper historic name in theSt'at'imcets language for the location of the community of D'Arcy, which is at the upper end ofAnderson Lake about 35 miles southeast of Lillooet and about the same distance from Pemberton.The village and its beach were at the end of pavement northeast of Vancouver and Whistler until the opening of the
Duffey Lake Road stretch of Hwy 99, which runs on the south side of theCayoosh Range which rises above N'quatqua on the south and east. Beyond D'Arcy towards Seton Portage, at the other end ofAnderson Lake , there is only a rough powerline road thousands of feet above the lake, known as the High Line Road, that is not recommended for the unwary or unsure, or the feeble of engine or nerve.First Nations people have resided at N'quatqua "since time immemorial" and there is little doubt that there has been human habitation at this sheltered, food-rich spot soon after the catastrophic collapse of theCayoosh Range 8-20,000 BP that created Seton Portage and separated Anderson andSeton Lake s (the catastrophe would have created a huge wave - seemegatsunami - wiping out all human populations in the valley). Prior to the diversion of theBridge River into the Seton watershed, the salmon runs coming up the lake were as typically large as on other tributaries of the Fraser.There were other villages in the Gates Valley, southwest from D'Arcy and up Blackwater Creek towards Birkenhead Lake, as well as at Birken but between the ravages of smallpox, an early 19th C. war with the
Tsilhqot'in , the effects of the gold rush and Oblate evangelization and theIndian Act , today there is only N'quatqua.The N'Quatqua people were part of the Lakes Lillooet group of the
St'at'imc , which included today's Seton Lake Band as well as other villages and single residences along Anderson andSeton Lake s. In the 19th Century, the paramount chief of the Lakes Lillooet, or the closest thing there was to such a title, wasChief Hunter Jack ("Tash Poli" in St'at'imcets, poorly transcribed), whose principal residence was at D'Arcy, although he often lived at Shalalth and was a habitue of theBridge River goldfields over which he claimed suzerainty.During the gold rush N'quatqua was busy as a shipping and transference point on the
Douglas Road and went by the name Port Anderson. The name D'Arcy was conferred in honour ofThomas D'Arcy McGee when thePacific Great Eastern Railway was built, and that name was also applied to the alpine peak just south of "town".N'quatqua/D'arcy today has a mix of non-native housing and there are large recreational subdivisions in between D'Arcy and Birken. At Devine, two miles from D'Arcy, a sawmill operated in
World War II by a Frank Devine employeedJapanese Canadians who had been relocated from the coast to a relocation centre at McGillivray Falls, a few miles farther northeast along the north side ofAnderson Lake .ee also
*
D'Arcy, British Columbia
*N'quatqua First Nation
*Chief Hunter Jack
*St'at'imc (Lillooet people)
*St'at'imcets (language)
*In-SHUCK-ch Nation
*Lillooet Tribal Council
*Lil'wat Nation
*Anderson Lake
*Douglas Road
*Mount Currie, British Columbia
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