One of my favourite things to do on a road trip is stop at museums. This photo is from the Nicola Valley Museum and Archives (NVMA), a place I recently visited in Merritt, BC. I was in the region to acquaint myself with the land and the people for a historical novel set in Nlaka’pamux territory. My novel — still a work in progress — is about two Métis boys who end up working on a ranch near Merritt in 1868. There, they meet a formidable Nlaka’pamux girl who teaches them (among other things), how to do equestrian stunts.
When I saw this photo in the museum, I felt like I had stumbled upon a slightly older version of my badass female character. There she was with two of her friends, kicking up the dust as they charged across the finish line.
I’m a novice when it comes to Indigenous history in BC; I’m Métis, live in Ontario and have spent much of my career researching Indigenous peoples my side of the Rockies — so looking at a photo with the title “Kloochmen’s Race,” I didn’t know what Kloochmen were — or why they were having a race. But not knowing can be the fun part of history, as it sets you on a course of investigation.
I took a picture of the image on my phone, and didn’t think of it again until I landed in Vancouver for the next part of my research trip – visiting with Nlaka’pamux Elders and language speakers Dr. Marie Anderson and her husband Ross Albert.[1] As I write this blog, I’m wrapping up that trip, reflecting on the necessity of talking to Elders for historical research, and how rich and fun oral history can be. Visiting with Marie and Ross this week has involved lots of laughter as we told one story after another.
When I got around to asking Marie about the photo, she confirmed what I had found out from my quick search online –that Kloochman was a Chinook term meaning woman, or wife. Marie told me she used to race herself, as did her grandmother, and that she, too, wants to find more stories about horse racing in the past.
I decided to use the photo as the archival anchor for my Shekon Neechie blog, and contacted Cameron Bridge, the Museum Manager of NVMA. He told me that races were part of Dominion Day celebrations, and that Indigenous women had their own category – hence the “Kloochmen’s Race.” He identified the woman on the far left as Minnie (nee Earnshaw) (MacAvoy) Turner and shared a brief biographical sketch that described her as born in 1874 in Canford to Byron Earnshaw and Amy Raphael, daughter of Chief Don Raphael. Cameron’s information included the following:
[Minnie] was known as a highly intelligent and very hospitable woman; she was an expert horsewoman, even winning first prize for horsemanship at the first fall fair in Merritt. She was also an experienced trapper who owned her own trapline for lynx and other fur bearing animals. She was also very musically talented. Byron Earnshaw [her father] made her a violin when she was quite young out of the local wood. She would often play dances and even was sought for Joseph Castillou’s wedding, so she rode from Minnie Lake to Coldwater to play for the newlywed couple.
I learned that “Minnie Lake” as well as “Turner Avenue” in Lower Nicola are named after her. Cameron generously looked up and sent more photos of a “Kloochmen’s footrace.” I love the smiles on these women.
These are the things that make my heart sing: a trip to a museum in which I come across Indigenous history (other than what feels like the compensatory extended land acknowledgement about First Nations people being, well, the first) — and then, wow — 20th century Indigenous women’s history that shows them moving at breakneck speed.
Kim Anderson
University of Guelph
June 6, 2025
[1] I have been greatly inspired by Marie’s doctoral thesis, Nlakapmux grandmothers’ traditional teachings and learnings (UBC, 2011) for what it offers to Indigenous women’s history.