Episode 1: Father Nobili and High Chief N'Kwala

The podcast "Two Lives" explores the history of the Okanagan area, focusing on the 1800s and featuring both settler and Silk Okanagan perspectives. It highlights figures like Father Nobile, an Italian priest who journeyed to North America in 1844, and High Chief Nkwala of the Shuswap people, known for his leadership and diplomacy in the fur trade era. The series delves into their encounters and interactions, shedding light on the complex history of the region. I'm Alex Hawley. This is Two Lives, a series about some of the history of the Okanagan area, the home of the Anishinaabemowin-speaking peoples in British Columbia. This season of the show focuses on the 1800s. This podcast is produced in partnership with the Okanagan Historical Society. They're celebrating their centennial in 2025, with 100 years of reports behind them, full of eclectic detail about people, places, and events. The OHS has always included First Nations perspectives over the years, but it's important to note that its early viewpoint was primarily settler-based. As scholar Jeanette Armstrong points out, few Silk Okanagan voices exist to counterbalance the overwhelming number of settler voices recounting those times. There are excellent Silk resources in the Central East Museum in West Kelowna, the Inelkan Centre in Penticton, at the Silk Language House website, and in Armstrong's work and that of historian Shirley Louis, for instance. Each episode of this show looks at two people, one settler and one Silk Ometi, whose paths crossed in some way. Let's return to the early 19th century. Episode 1, Two Leaders, Father Nobile and High Chief Nkwala Father Giovanni Nobile's name comes up often in the Okanagan Historical Society reports. He is not the very first priest in the Okanagan area, and he is not a huge fan of that man Father Demer whom he calls the liar. But he is the second, and he plans to stay. He's scholarly, described as timid, curly-haired, and small in some way, either thin or short-statured. What makes a young Italian like this set out across the world for a distant, totally unpredictable life. He is born on April 8, 1812, in Rome. At 16, he begins his training as a Jesuit. He has a talent for Latin poetry, and his compositions are read at public exhibitions. In his twenties, he becomes a professor of the humanities, and if that's not enough, he also publishes articles on physics and mathematics. The Jesuits have already had missions set up in North America for some time. In 1843, Father Desmet, superior of the Oregon missions, writes to Rome asking for help, more money and more priests, the better to spread the word among the First Nations people especially. Coincidentally, Father Nobile's ordination takes place that same year. Times are tumultuous in Italy, and Nobile feels the missionary call. In January 1844, he sails from Antwerp on the ship the Nonfatigable. He is with Father Desmet, who is on a visit home, a few other Italian priests, a novice brother, and several nuns. They journey across the Atlantic, around Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and up the long west coast. They finally arrive at Fort Vancouver, what's now Vancouver, Washington, on the Columbia River, a lengthy seven months after they set out. Nobile, who isn't in the best of health after the sea journey, spends nearly ten months at the fort. He performs baptisms and gives sermons, and learns to speak with the local Chinook, Talut, and Klikitat people. Quick to learn, he writes hymns in their languages, and in the Chinook jargon used among different groups and between indigenous people and traders. He's already fluent in Italian, Spanish, French, Latin, and English, although another priest notes that his English pronunciation is, Not all that might be desired. Then, the bloody flux, dysentery, strikes the area around Fort Vancouver. The results are devastating. Nobile estimates that around one-third of the indigenous people die. There's little he can do but pray. With the population there struggling, Fr. Desmet worries about the souls of other First Nations groups. He tells Nobile to go north, into New Caledonia, the interior of what's now British Columbia, which no priest has done in several years. So, in July 1845, Fr. Nobile and Ravalli leave Fort Vancouver. As they set out, their boat capsizes, and Ravalli almost drowns. They make it to Fort Walla Walla, where Nobile is joined by a Hudson's Bay Company agent to lead the way, and a novice brother named Baptiste. Before long, the agent abandons the party, taking their horses, food, and tent. Without him, the priest and the brother are lost. After several desperate days, they're rescued by two Wat Lala men. Thanking God, they carry on. Finally, they meet up with the annual Hudson's Bay Company fur brigade, a great relief, and they follow the pack train into the north. But Nobile has also met someone one degree away from a great leader. At the fort where he joins up with the brigade, he's greeted by the chief of the Shuswap people. This is the nephew of Nkwala, the high chief of the large area from what's now Spokane, Washington to just south of Fort Kamloops in present-day British Columbia. He and Fr. Nobile are about to meet. Nkwala is another name that appears frequently in the Okanagan Historical Society reports. His original name in the Spokane language is Nkwistamikan, which means walking grizzly bear. French fur traders call him Nikola, which turns into Nicholas or Nikola for English speakers, which morphs back into Nkwala to the Sioux Okanagan peoples and to history. The Nikola River and valley are named for him. Nkwala is born around 1793 near the mouth of the Sonokameen River, descended from generations of high chiefs. His father is the famed Chief Pilkamula III. His mother is a Shtuik woman, the chief's second wife. Pilkamula witnessed some of the earliest European fur traders and explorers arriving in the area. When he told the Luwat people in the Fraser Canyon about these men with their blue eyes and light hair and strange weapons, he was accused of lying. The argument led to him being fatally wounded by their chief. As he lay dying, he named his young son his successor. Nkwala is probably about 14 years old then. It's quickly apparent that the very young man has the makings of a powerful leader with a charismatic, if contained, personality and excellent strategic skills. He soon draws together a large force from the Okanagan, Sioux Swap, Shtuik and Upper Thompson nations and attacks the Luwat in their fishing grounds, avenging his father's death and taking some 300 captives. In 1811, he himself encounters white traders from the Pacific Fur Company in his own territory. A pragmatist, he sees some benefits to interaction with them. His people can acquire useful European tools, clothes, weapons and other items in exchange for furs and skins. Nkwala oversees most of the Okanagan fur trade from then on, keeping order. He also shows Archibald MacDonald, a Hudson's Bay Company trader and knotmaker, the way along the Thompson River to where it joins the Fraser. This is a canny move. It allows Nkwala to keep an eye on where the Europeans go. As another trader, John McLeod, Of all the Indians residing in this place, Nkwala has rendered the most aid to the whites and is undoubtedly the most manly and the most adred if he turned against us. The chief is also a diplomat. It's said that he marries some of his daughters to Hudson's Bay officials, and traders leave him in charge of their horses and posts when they're away. Then, in 1841, the Scotsman who runs the Fort Camden's trading post, Samuel Black, is murdered. The killer is the nephew of the Sequefem chief Tranquille. Tranquille has died at home after an argument with Black, and the chief's widow believes the Scotsman somehow weakened him. Black isn't generally liked by the First Nations, and uproar threatens to explode. Samuel Black once lent Nkwala a prowl so he could cultivate vegetables, a practice that he soon taught to others. Having this connection, Nkwala manages to stabilize the situation. He makes a powerful speech calling for calm and ensures that the killer is captured. He is managing the tricky position of having to maintain his status among his people, as well as with the Europeans, and to keep peace. It's a few years after this incident that Father Nobile is making his way up into the Okanagan with the fur brigade. He has a tough trip, running out of water, dodging rattlesnakes and getting separated from the group at one point. But somewhere near Okanagan Lake, he meets Nkwala. There's a subtler story about this first encounter. One of the high chief's sons was accidentally killed by a Hudson's Bay clerk earlier this year. Nkwala has shown incredible restraint in insisting there be no vengeance. Learning this, Nobile constructs a makeshift altar next to the son's grave and conducts a mass. Nkwala makes an immediate impression on the priest, who describes him as a big and handsome figure who listens before speaking. Nobile writes, For now, Nobile carries on north with the brigade, and in August 1845 they arrive at Fort Kamloops, scene of Samuel Black's fateful death. But things go well, Nobile says. There is a great cavern to serve as a church, and there's a place to teach them during my stay. Adopted twelve of their children, I was obliged, when they found my fishing commitment, to separate for some months from this dear India and continue my route to New Caledonia. According to the priest, there are 583 Shuswap people and 685 Okanagan people around the fort. His letters describe an agreement Nkwala made with fur traders thirty years before laying out terms for settlement in his territory. Some of the chief's descendants, though, say he never pushed for settlement, but rather allowed these people to pass through and trade on their way elsewhere. Either way, Nobile soon sets off beyond Nkwala's territory with a promise to return. His mind is on his mission to preach and baptize in as many areas of New Caledonia as possible. This year is another hard one, with long and difficult journeys north, illnesses, accidents and an almost obsessive focus on baptizing huge numbers of First Nations people. He performs some 629 such ceremonies overall. Up at Fort Stewart, he proudly describes what he sees as a triumph. Their great medicine hut, where they used to practice their superstitious rites, was changed into a church. It was placed and dedicated to God under the patronage of St. Francis Xavier. The planting of the cross was solemnly performed with all the ceremonies proper to such occasions. Sixteen children and five old men received baptism. When he gets back to Fort Kamloops in October, the people have built four more wooden chapels nearby, which he takes to express further hope that a priest, what they call a black robe, will settle with them. He quotes Nkwala as hoping the same. If this is true, why might a priest be desirable to the people? Some attach their own spiritual beliefs to Christian ceremony, and some are sincere converts. Some reports suggest that the spread of devastating European-carried diseases makes indigenous people believe a European priest might be able to help cure them. There's also a practical aspect to having a local priest, a way to attract traders, especially in this period when food is sometimes scarce. The very first priest in the Okanagan, Fr. Maudet de Merde, is the one who became known as The Liar, when he failed to make good on a promise to return. Whether this nickname was born of real disappointment or jest, Nobili doesn't want to be a liar. The next spring, Nobili does have to leave on another trip. He's ordered south to report on his activities to Fr. Desmet, who along with the Jesuit leadership in Rome, is now concerned about him working alone in a relatively unknown area. So, when Nobili returns again to the Okanagan, he has several laborers, a dozen horses, and farming and carpentry tools with him. The plan is to build a permanent mission. The party stops somewhere on Okanagan Lake. The Residenza de San Giuseppe, or St. Joseph's Station, is established, known as the first non-indigenous settlement in the area. There's still some debate over exactly where it was. At the north end of Okanagan Lake, an area called Head of Lake, or Mkhnapalach, which was where the High Chiefs usually lived, or somewhere close to the other end of the lake, near what's now Summerland, then known as Mkwala's Prairie. We do know that plans call for a house, church, and farm at the mission. A Jesuit archivist at the Vatican notes that the house was painted white, and there was a cedar cross 50 feet tall at the entrance to the garden. We do know, too, that the mission is on Mkwala's land, in fact close to his lodge and beside his crops. Nobili says, I selected for the residence Mkwala's most beautiful garden, luxuriant with potato plants and corn, at the end of the great lake. He adds that, Grand Chief himself has even built me a spacious room to live under cover of the beautiful stars. The settler story goes that there, Father Nobili gathers Mkwala and his people and proposes that if he builds the mission, the Okanagan people have to give up polygamy, a traditional practice to create bonds between families and nations here. This is a problem. Mkwala is married to at least 15 women from various nations. Together they have some 50 children. But in this story, Chief Mkwala apparently agrees to the terms. You have to wonder if this is true, and if so, is it just words to appease the priest? Again, as the settler story goes, Mkwala himself helps Father Nobili and the laborers to erect the mission house and raise that cedar cross. Eighty Okanagan warriors from the adjacent village guard their chief and this new building site. Mkwala has what the story claims he wants. A priest, a symbol of permanence for the relations he's established with the Europeans and their gods. Meanwhile, Nobili soon leaves again on a journey north as per his latest orders to reach further First Nations. He spends the fall of 1846 in the Fort Alexandria area. By early 1847, he's working between Fort St. James and Fort Kilmars near Alaska. By now, disease carried by Europeans is again widespread. Nobili writes, The phrasing of this is startling, although it reflects Jesuit beliefs about the urgent need for baptism to save souls. It also demonstrates just how terrible were the effects of these illnesses. Smallpox had killed two-thirds of the Sioux Okanagan people before 1811, and would kill half of them again in an 1860 outbreak. As well, it's an example of how some of Nobili's letters describe the First Nations people in disparaging terms, and state that their deaths are God's judgment on them. Despite Nobili's own belief in his work, a later missionary, Fr. Maurice, says Nobili isn't seen as an especially good priest in the North. The indigenous people call him Petit Père, Little Father, for his short height and fearful ways. Fr. Maurice says, At any rate, he gets back to St. Joseph's Station without drowning. He begins to feel quite at home in Inquila's lands. But in the spring of 1847, more correspondents from the Jesuit leaders arrive. They've decided to direct their attention to the South, and they're worried about Nobili's poor health. In fact, they're abandoning the mission to New Caledonia. Fr. Nobili is told to leave St. Joseph's Station. He is anxious and upset about becoming another black robe, breaking a promise to the Okanagan people. In a letter, he says that when he sets out for Fort Vancouver, he will leave some things at the mission, to give the impression that he'll be returning. Nobili is also concerned that if the Jesuits abandon the station, other religious orders can take over and spread their beliefs among the people. This was a common fear. A Wesleyan preacher at Rocky Mountain House was very worried when Fr. Desmet appeared there. Afterwards, he writes in relief, He did not interfere with my Indians at all, though he had an opportunity of doing so. Despite more desperate letters from Nobili, the leaders are unmoved. St. Joseph's Station will have to close. Another priest is sent there to wind it up, and Nobili takes to the road. On the way south in 1848, Nobili writes to that priest, saying he expects there to be a good harvest at the mission farm. He says he'll soon be back. In a postscript, he hopes the priest plants red beets at St. Joseph's. I am extremely fond of him. Reports suggest Nobili also leaves behind some of his priestly garments, as some First Nations people are seen wearing them around Head Lake after he's gone. Meanwhile, further building work on the station has stopped. That year, gold is discovered in California, and thousands hurry west to make their fortunes. The Jesuits decide more priests need to be sent there. In December, Nobili and another Italian priest leave Fort Vancouver on a ship for San Francisco. By the spring, Nobili is ministering to the Spanish section of the city, mainly caring for sick people. But he continues to fret over having had to abandon St. Joseph's. My mission would not have died, and I would rather have died with my mission. But the good God has only allowed my mission to last three years, and that I should not die, as I hoped, in the midst of my dear India. Perhaps to distract himself from his memories, Father Nobili returns to his educational roots. He founds what becomes the University of Santa Clara. He's the first president there, teaching arts, mathematics, and physics. During construction of a campus chapel in 1856, he steps on a nail. The wound develops tetanus. After terrible suffering, he dies two weeks later. He's 44. We don't know exactly what Nkwala thinks, if anything, of Nobili's broken promise and his disappearance. Likely he has other concerns, such as diminishing wildlife and food supplies, and the Hudson's Bay Company traders needing him less as the fur trade declined in the Okanagan. Traders at Fort Camlin start to show him more disrespect. Chief trader Paul Frazer notes a visit from Nkwala at the end of 1851 in the following terms. Arrive to Nicholas, from the Grand Prairie, as is usual, begging for supplies. This old man's a complete nuisance to the establishment. Yet the High Chief's power hasn't entirely dimmed. In the mid-1850s, he decides not to involve his people in the wars south of the border between Indigenous peoples and American settlers. According to a descendant, Nkwala meets with some fellow chiefs in Osoyoos, close to the border, to smoke a pipe on a hill where the wind blows. They say if the smoke goes straight up, they won't go to war with him. If the smoke curves, they will. When the pipe is lit, the smoke goes straight upward. Nkwala sees the way things ought to go, and he stops the war from spreading into his territory. But more change is coming. Gold is in Nkwala's territory as well. His people have been retrieving small amounts from rivers and trading it at local posts for some time, and when a large find is made near the Thompson River, many more people rush in. In 1858, some of these white miners kill several unarmed Okanagan people. Nkwala tells his warriors not to retaliate despite their greater numbers, referring the crime instead to the colonial government to deal with. This stops immediate violence, but relations continue to deteriorate. Nkwala is now an elder. His position is increasingly difficult trying to balance his people's lives with the gradually more overbearing and destructive settlers flooding into the area and changing everything. One German-born miner describes him then. An old man, about fifty-five or seventy years old, who wore a stovepipe hat and citizen's clothes, and had lots of medals of good character and official vouchers of good conduct for many years. The miner also reports what Nkwala says of the killers. He did not get much of Americans, who do they like? The following year, the Hudson's Bay Company reports High Chief Nkwala's death in the winter. His great-great-granddaughter, Marie Houghton Brent, later writes. His body was taken to camp by a great carton of Indians and temporarily buried in the Hudson's Bay people. During the winter, a large number of Indians remained with the body, and either the Indians or Hudson's Bay men kept a guard of honor over it military style. In a sprint, the body was exhumed and carried on horses to Iqamahpura, where he was finally buried in solid metal. His grave is next to his father's. His headstone is engraved with a cross and an English spelling of his name. There is a story about Nobili and Nkwala's last meeting. It tells that before Father Nobili leaves St. Joseph's Station, he removes his condition for building it. Nkwala and other Okanagan chiefs can have multiple wives after all. Nobili writes. Nkwala looked shocked. He stared at me, and finally he said that he was surprised to hear me talking so differently from what was said last summer. Perhaps the priest realizes the importance of the practice for keeping peaceful alliances and family units together. Perhaps he sees the irony of the fact that plenty of traders are involved in what they call country marriages to indigenous women, even if they have white wives back home. Or perhaps Nkwala's oratorial skills have finally won the argument. Thanks for listening to Two Lives. This episode was written and edited by me, Alex Holley. You heard the voices of Chloe Alex, Peter Bunyan, Aaron Saunders, Adam Schroeder, and Jimmy Schroeder. Our theme music is by Gabriel Douglas. Some of the information on Nobili and Nkwala is from articles in the Okanagan Historical Society's 62nd, 79th, and 86th reports by Summerland historian David Gregory, and in the 88th report by Kamloops professor Craig E. Jones. More information on Nkwala is in the OHF's 30th report, which includes an article by his descendant, Marie Houghton Brent. Further background comes from Shirley Louise Cassapy, a history of Okanagan people as told by Okanagan families, and Duane Thompson's study of the Queen's people. Some other details are from an interview between Georgina Whitehouse and Nkwala's descendant, Siaka Bruce Manuel. Further quotations are from some of Nobili's recently discovered letters in the possession of sage birch water, and quoted at Jim Cooperman's Shoeswap Passion website. With thanks to the Okanagan Historical Society, Okanagan Museums, and the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Special thanks to Tarek Hussain, Donald Ranjoo, Adam Schroeder, and Shelley Wood for production assistance. music