| Feature Type: | River - Watercourse of variable size, which has tributaries and flows into a body of water or a larger watercourse. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | Flows NE and SE into Similkameen River, E of Hope (Municipality), Similkameen Division Yale Land District |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 49°27'46"N, 120°30'12"W at the approximate mouth of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92H/7 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Adopted 30 June 1910 in 9th Report of the Geogrpahic Board of Canada, 1910, as labeled on Reference Map 2B "New Westminster & Yale" (1914). Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff. |
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"'Tulameen' is the [Indigenous] word for 'red earth.' From the banks of the Tulameen River [Indigenous peoples] got the red ochre which they used for pictographs and face paint. The community of Tulameen was earlier known as 'Campement des Femmes' or 'Otter Flat.'" (p. 173). Source: Akrigg, Helen B. and Akrigg, G.P.V; "1001 British Columbia Place Names"; Discovery Press, Vancouver. 1973. p. 173 |
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The name is recorded as meaning red earth, which is recorded as being derived from the practice of Indigenous peoples used to smear the earth or ochre from this place on their faces and paint pictures on rocks. The material is said to have been much in demand, and Indigenous peoples came long distances to trade for it at Allison Flat (east of Princeton). Alliston flat is recorded as being called YAK-TULAMEEN, which was said to translate to "the place where red earth was sold." (John C. Goodfellow, Princeton Place Names, 7th Report of the Okanagan Historical Society; and Fur & Gold in Similkameen, BC Historical Quarterly, Vol 2., p. 10) Source: included with note |