Dear Editor:
In response to a letter in the last edition of The Pioneer I must disagree with some of the statements made by the writer. Deer were never plentiful in this valley until perhaps after WW II but local hunters did make an effort to bring home at least one animal per year to feed their families. A long-time resident told me that during her school years starting in 1927, she walked from her home on the pipeline (13th Avenue) to the school
located on the present Sobeys parking lot and never saw a deer. It was an event of major proportions when a deer appeared in the village, and this was corroborated by Jim Frater, born and raised in town.
David Thompson with his family and men nearly starved to death at Kootenai House until two local Kootenai families came upon them and gave them food. Refer to Jack Nisbets book The Mapmakers Eye, pages 42 to 45, and you will discover there was no game and no salmon until David hired three young Kootenai men who brought the occasional mule deer to camp.
Dried bison and berries were also provided by the natives and so Thompsons party was saved from starvation. So much for dining usually on venison! If some of our local excess deer were disposed of humanely during hunting season and properly butchered, we might all dine occasionally on venison.
Eileen Fiell
Invermere
