Salute to the Sockeye Continues Through Oct. 25 at Lee Creek

Salute to the Sockeye continues at Lee Creek, B.C., through Oct. 25, according to Indigenous Tourism BC’s event listing. The Adams River Salmon Society, which lists the festival at Tsútswecw Provincial Park, says it opened Oct. 9 and is held in the dominant year of the sockeye’s four-year cycle.

The society’s event page says BC Parks has co-hosted the celebration of “the largest Sockeye Salmon run in North America” since the park’s creation, and that the Province works “in collaboration with Little Shuswap Lake Band” to maintain the area’s natural and cultural integrity.

The society’s page on sockeye in the Secwépemc Nation says the Adams River sockeye, sqleltenuw̓i, have held an important place in the lives of Secwépemc people of the Shuswap Lakes and Adams Lake for thousands of years. The large run provided a main source of food, with many fish smoked and dried to be eaten over the winter, the page says. It credits Grand Chief Felix Arnouse and Elders James August and Ralph Mc Bryan, among others, for that account.

Festival offerings include interpretive guided tours, cultural entertainment and education sessions, First Nations ceremonies and trail hikes to watch the sockeye spawn, the society says. Opening day included a welcome ceremony and Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw cultural events. The society and Indigenous Tourism BC both point visitors to the Winter Home, reached by the Wade Road trails above the Adams River Bridge. Interpretive guides are stationed along park trails, and an interpretive tent beside the Interpretive Cabin, which is closed during the festival, has life-cycle storyboards and volunteers to answer questions.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has partnered with the festival since the 1970s, according to the society, which says that with the department’s support it anticipates serving 7,000 B.C. elementary students in grades 2 through 5 free of charge. Schools must pre-register. The artisan and vendor market includes First Nations art such as carvings, birch bark and cedar baskets, birch bark biting, beaded items, drums and rattles, alongside local food vendors.

The site is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with vendors and activities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $15 per personal vehicle, and the society says the fees support its education and stewardship work in the Shuswap. Gates lock at 4:30 p.m., all vehicles must be off site by 5:30 p.m., and the Wade Road and Beach Access roads are closed during the festival, the society says. It lists 2030 and 2034 as the next dominant years in the cycle.