Close your eyes, and imagine a desert. Where does your
imagination take you?
You might be thinking of the Sahara in northern Africa right now, or maybe the Arabian Desert between the Red Sea and
the Persian Gulf. The United States’ Mojave
or Sonoran Deserts could come to
mind. Other exotic names you may have heard of could include the Atacama (in Chile and Peru), the Taklamakan or Gobi (in China and Mongolia), or the Kalahari (in southern Africa).
Hey everyone, how about Osoyoos,
British Columbia?
That’s right – there’s a bit of desert (technically a shrub-steppe) right here in my home
province. Osoyoos (pronounced “oh-soo-use”) gets less than 30 centimetres of
rain annually. With over 2,000 hours of sunshine each year, and average summer
temperatures around 38°C, the Osoyoos
Arid Biotic Zone is considered by many a northern extension of the Sonoran
Desert.
A desert sounds a long
way from the coastal rainforest where I grew up! Osoyoos is just a five-hour drive
east from Vancouver along the Crowsnest Highway (#3), though, or about a one-hour
drive south along Highway 97 from the Okanagan city of Kelowna. Almost on the
border with Washington State, Osoyoos sits at the southern end of British
Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley.
My friend Bartlett
is from the Okanagan Valley.
Irrigation makes her home perfect for all kinds of
crops, like pear trees, peaches, apricots, plums, apples, and cherries.
Like many deserts, the Osoyoos area is famous for its dark
skies. At the Mount Kobau Star Party
every August, amateur astronomers bring their telescopes to marvel at the night
sky.
Osoyoos Lake is
warm, with good fishing for bass and rainbow trout. Its name means “narrowing
of the waters” in the Okanagan language. The lake is rimmed with beaches,
parks, picnic areas, hotels, and restaurants.
Across the lake from the town of Osoyoos, the Osoyoos Indian Band run the beautiful Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre. It’s a wonderful
place to learn more about this arid region of B.C.
Nk’Mip is pronounced “in-ka-meep.” It means “in the bottom of [the valley].”
The Desert Cultural
Centre is part of the Nk’Mip Resort,
a serene, desert-hued complex that includes the Spirit Ridge hotel and spa, a
convention centre, a nine-hole golf course, three restaurants, timeshares, a campground, RV park, horse-riding stables, and a
winery called Nk’Mip Cellars.
This
is the first aboriginal-owned winery in Canada. They began growing grapes here
in 1968.
The resort covers
85 hectares. The
complex is the vision of Chief Clarence
Louie, who wants to ensure prosperity and economic independence for the
community. The Band own twelve businesses outright.
Seven bands form the Okanagan Nation Alliance. The Okanagan
Nation stretches from the international boundary toward Revelstoke and as far
west as Hope, B.C., covering over
600,000 hectares. There are five dialects, and children
are nowadays taught their own language in school. The Osoyoos Band itself has
450 members, and holds
some 13,350 hectares.
The Desert Cultural
Centre’s sunset-tinted walls are made of layers of
rammed earth.
Bob Etienne, the
Centre’s head interpreter, took us for a wonderful walk on some of the trails
that extend from the Centre into the desert.
An artist named Smoker Marchand created metal sculptures
that stand among re-creations of buildings to depict wildlife and traditional hunter-gatherer activities.
Hunting and gathering
is how all human beings lived until farming was invented, in several different
places, starting about 10,000 years ago. Hunter-gatherers
get their food from wild plants and animals. Where natural resources are
abundant, it’s a really good way to make a living. In fact, back in the day, many
cultures around the world chose not to take up farming.
Bob explained how Spotted Lake has chemicals that would relieve
my grandma’s rheumatoid arthritis. Its surface has 365 little pots, or “lakes
in lakes.” Osoyoos has always been a crossroads of trails, and Spotted Lake may
have been one reason. Archaeological excavations suggest that people have lived
here for about 9,000 years.
Bob had me crush a bit of fragrant
sage in my paw to release its
wonderful scent. Big sage is used for smudging. Bark fibres were woven into
bags and other goods.
We walked among abundant small
purple flowers: long-leaved phlox.
There was prickly pear cactus
everywhere! Bob said that his ancestors called the prickly pear “starvation
food” — the needles would be roasted off, and the buds could then be eaten. And
no, he added with a smile, “I’ve never had any!”
We paused beneath an enormous Ponderosa
pine tree. The cambium layer of
Ponderosa pine used to be roasted as a snack rich in Vitamin C. The tree’s bark smells like vanilla.
Bitterroot would be
harvested before the third week in May, the first food of the season. Also
called desert rose or rock rose, the heart of the plant would
be reburied out of respect. “And no,” Bob laughed, “I’ve never eaten any of
this either! But I’m told it really is
bitter.”
He pointed out the thorns of black hawthorne, which have a natural
antiseptic useful for piercing ears. Bears love the berries.
There are wild black bears in the Okanagan, though
grizzly bears are rarely seen. Every year, hungry bears are tempted by
fruit-laden trees and grapes in vineyards. Alert humans always try to manage
their trash, compost, barbecues, and bird feeders carefully, and to pick fruit
up from the ground around fruit-trees, before wild bears get too interested.
As we approached a re-created
village, Bob pointed out a shallow dip in the ground. This was an
archaeological site: the remains of a pit
house. He asks all of us to report to local authorities any such
depressions we might find while hiking in the area, as they would likely be
archaeological sites.
We entered one re-created pit
house, and sat while Bob described it. The floor is nearly 1.5 metre below
ground level. Earth is a natural insulator in this hot climate, where summer
temperatures regularly exceed 40°C. The wooden beams are made from lodgepole
pine. Traditionally, the ladder through the roof’s smoke hole was used only by
men — women and children would use a side-entrance.
People can live very
well in desert climates. I learned even more about deserts on a recent trip to Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale lies
within the main part of the Sonoran Desert … and I’ll tell you more about it in
an upcoming post.
Story © S. Clouthier
Photos © S. Clouthier and D. Wei
Video of Spotted Lake courtesy jpreel
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