Camchin, also spelled Kumsheen, is an anglicization of the ancient name for the locality and aboriginal village once located on the site of today's village of

Lytton, British Columbia Lytton is a village of about 250 residents in southern British Columbia, Canada, on the east side of the Fraser River and primarily the south side of the Thompson River, where it flows southwesterly into the Fraser. The community includes the ...

, Canada, whose name in Nlaka'pamuctsin is ''ƛ'q'əmcín''. It also refers to the main

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

community of the

Lytton First Nation The Lytton First Nation (), a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government, has its headquarters at Lytton, British Columbia, Lytton in the Fraser Canyon region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the largest of all Nlaka ...

adjacent to the Village of Lytton and is found in the form "Kumsheen" in local business and school names. The name means in general "rivers meeting" but has also been translated "crossing over" and "the great fork." It is the ancient Nlaka'pamuctsin name for the confluence of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers, in the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada. The meaning refers to the location as the heart of the Nlaka'pamux Nation, and a creation story that accounts the Nlaka'pamux hero "Coyote" being disemboweled by a giant shape shifting spirit-being known as "the

Transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

" involves his heart being thrown into the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers. The area is one of the longest continuously inhabited areas in North America. It’s believed that First Nations have inhabited the area for the past 10,000 years.

References

{{coord, 50, 14, 00, N, 121, 34, 00, W, display=title Nlaka'pamux Fraser Canyon