In 2004, Bridge River Indian Band began a tour business called Xwísten
Experience Tours and a concession stand called Bearfoot Grill at the
confluence of the Fraser River and Bridge River located on Bridge
River Indian Reserve #1. Both businesses continue to be 100% owned and
operated by Bridge River Indian Band.
In the first year of operation there were only two employees and a small
shack with BBQ equipment. In 2006 a new concession stand was built with
full kitchen facilities, covered concrete seating area, and picnic tables
and 4 employees were hired for the summer. In 2010 we open the season with
new prominent road and information signage, a new tour demonstration area
with platform seating, outdoor toilets, a replica pithouse (s7istken),
and a viewing platform, and employed six aboriginal employees from the
Bridge River Community employed from June to September.
Xwísten Experience Tours highlights two historically significant sites
to the Xwísten (Bridge River) people, our fishing grounds still used by
the St'at'imc people today to harvest salmon, and the archaeological village
site which contains over 80 depressions and was inhabited as recent as
200 years ago.
The Tour of the fishing grounds allows us to teach visitors about our rich
culture and history, and highlight the importance of fish to our people.
It allows us to show that the practice of preserving salmon for food and
trade is still practiced today as our ancestors did, as well as show what
has changed. In the recent years we have also shared how the decline in
the number of fish has been detrimental to our people.
The University of Montana has been studying the archaeological village
site since 2003 and has provided us with a lot of information on the history
of the site and its importance to our people. The Tour allows us to share
this information with not only the tourists who take our tour but also
with our own people (through community tours, classroom visits, and stories).
From 2012 to 2017 they completed a full excavation of housepit 54 which
taught us much more of our rich history.
This is a community business and thus we strive to employ our own community
members each season and in all our construction projects. For example,
the S7istken (pithouse) project in Winter 2009 employed two elders, two
adults, and two youth so the elders could teach the younger generations
how to construct the S7istken. And we had four community members participate
in the excavation of housepit 54 with the University of Montana.
