Appellants factum - Woodward & Company

13While the term ‘nomadism’ generally implies a high degree of territorial mobilityand little or no reliance on ‘cultivation’ in the Lockean sense, it does not mean‘haphazard’ or ‘unorganized’. Rather, nomadism is properly conceived as a ‘wayof living’ in which individuals or groups are occasionally compelled to altermovements on short notice when conditions demand it, but beyond that inhabitrecognizable spaces, know where they can and or cannot go, and whose daily orseasonal patterns of land use tend to follow the same cyclical trajectories overtime. Put alternately, nomadism is a form of territoriality … that accommodatesthe need of kinship based societies having a relatively low level of technological‘development’ and operating in physiographic or climatic environments that oftenyield their resources grudgingly. 10549. Tsilhqot’in people tended to follow the same seasonal patterns each year. 106They were “semi”-nomadic in the sense that there was a collective regrouping in wintervillage sites for a portion of each year as a respite from the dark and cold. 107In thespring, Tsilhqot’in people would disperse again along well-defined trail networks andwater courses to harvest resources throughout the Claim Area and beyond. 10850. Two kinds of winter dwellings were used throughout Tsilhqot’in territory. Theniyah qungh (or nenyexqungh) is a structure of Tsilhqot’in design and origin,distinguished by its rectangular structure. The lhiz qwen yex (or pit house or kigli hole)is a circular shaped structure dug well into the ground. 10951. The oral tradition evidence of Tsilhqot’in witnesses was that lhiz qwen yex wereused going back to the time of the ?Esggidam (Tsilhqot’in ancestors before contact). 110Tsilhqot’in people living today observed the fresh construction of such structures andlived in these dwellings. 111 As detailed below, the historical record documentsTsilhqot’in communities centred in winter villages of lhiz qwen yex in and around theClaim Area before and at the assertion of sovereignty by the Crown. 112105 Trial Decision, para. 646, quoting with approval from the expert report of Dr. Brealey [underscore added].106 Trial Decision, para. 647.107 Trial Decision, paras..108 Trial Decision, paras. 380, 679-80, 733, 798, 848, 874, 897, 959-60.109 Trial Decision, paras. 365-78.110 Trial Decision, para. 375.111 Trial Decision, paras. 365-78.112 E.g. Trial Decision, paras. 633, 708, 712, 714, 719-23, 727, 761-62, 783, 793, 820, 861-63.