Skatin is a community of under 100 persons in Skatin First Nations, aka the Skatin Nations, a Band government of the larger Band of the In-SHUCK-ch Nation, part of the St'at'imc people who are also referred to as Lower Stl'atl'imx. Skatin, the official new name, reverts to the traditional pre-colonial/pre-Columbian name. The alternate past name still commonly used by outsiders, Skookumchuck, is the St'at'imcets version of the Chinook Jargon Skookumchuck, meaning Strong Waters, i.e. rapids. The town site is 4 km south of T'sek Hot Spring (alt. spelling T'sik Hot Spring), formerly named both Saint Agnes Well and Skookumchuck Hot Springs. The community is 28 km south of the outlet of Lillooet Lake on the east side of the Lillooet River. It is approximately 75 km south of the town of Pemberton and the large reserve of the Lil'wat branch of the St'at'imc at Mount Currie, British Columbia. See Skatin First Nations for details about the complicated Band(s) structure.
Skatin is geographically an extension of both the Pemberton and Harrison Valleys, but by legal fiction is officially part of the Fraser Valley for Provincial and Federal administrative purposes.
Population
Skatin community includes about 30 houses, a church, band office, fire hall, a new school and gymnasium built in 2003. The population living at Skatin is 65 at the town site, which varies according to season; 74 on other Reserves; and 275 off Reserves; the majority living in the Fraser Valley and lower mainland, including Vancouver.
Language
The Skatin First Nations speak Ucwalmícwts/Lower St̓át̓imc: fluent speakers: 7, understand or speak somewhat: 51, learning speakers: 51.
European Contact
The town church was built by members of the Douglas, Skatin and Samahquam Bands between 1895 and 1906. The Oblate Fathers established a mission there and demanded the native people in the surrounding wilderness to settle there. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate instructed the natives in Christianity, and to this day the Church of the Holy Cross, Skatin, stands as a stunning example of the North American architectural style known as Carpenter Gothic/Wood Gothic. In 1981, the church was designated as a National Historic Site by Heritage Canada. A community-based group, Ama Liisaos Heritage Trust Society, is working on conservation of the church. Prominent features are the simple but elegant stained glass windows, consisting of a checkerboard pattern of bright red mercuric glass and alternating bright blue cobalt glass squares. The glass was imported from Europe and brought in by mule, by a gold prospector who had struck it rich in the Cariboo Gold Rush, on his return to the goldfields.
The Gold Rush Era
In 1858 the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush began and some 30,000 miners began the trek through traditional Lil'wat and upper St'at'imc territory to the goldfields at Lillooet, then known as Cayoosh Flat Trail.
Flood control
In 1947 the Pemberton Dyking District, for flood control in the adjacent Pemberton Valley, lowered Lillooet Lake, permanently altering the character of the rapids and the water level in the Lillooet River. Conversely, Little Lillooet Lake earlier was raised by the Royal Engineers in their improvements to the route to the gold fields, turning it into a lower arm of Lillooet Lake proper, eliminating the portage and resulting in moving south the former Port Lillooet - down to what had been the south end of Little Lillooet Lake.
Telephone service
There are no landlines or cellular service in the area; radio telephones and satellite phones only. First Nations, loggers, roadbuilders and government officials all rely extensively on the use of VHF radios.
Electricity
Ironically, though adjacent to high tension power lines for more than half a decade, Skatin was not connected to the grid until January 2011, when BC Hydro crews disconnected the community diesel generating station.