About High Bar First Nation
Our Land
Llenllenéy’ten (High Bar) First Nation is located within the powerful landscapes of the Fraser Canyon-Cariboo region—rugged, breathtaking, and deeply storied. Our traditional lands have sustained our people since time immemorial. While colonial systems imposed the High Bar reserve boundaries in the 1860s, our relationship to the land has never been defined by maps or borders.
Today, our designated reserve area near the Fraser River remains largely uninhabitable due to a lack of safe, clean drinking water and infrastructure. Despite this, our community remains strong, with members living across British Columbia, the Yukon, Alberta, Washington State, and as far east as Georgia. We operate out of an administrative office in Clinton, BC, while our hearts, teachings, and stories remain tied to the land that holds our ancestors.
We carry a shared vision of returning to the land—not just physically, but through stewardship, restoration, and cultural practice. The land may challenge us, but it continues to call us home.
Our Background
High Bar First Nation, known traditionally as Llenllenéy’ten, is one of seventeen communities within the Secwépemc Nation. Before the smallpox epidemic of 1862, thirty-two Secwépemc communities thrived across our territories. While colonial government systems established the High Bar reserve in the 1860s, our people have lived on these lands since time immemorial.
We are proud to be one of only four Secwépemc communities that remain independent from the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council. Llenllenéy’ten also shares ancestral and cultural connections with the Tsilhqot’in peoples, and is recognized as part of the Canyon Shuswap.
Our people have always lived in close relationship with the land. Following traditional seasonal cycles, we have fished, hunted, and gathered to care for our families and communities. Pithouses provided shelter during the winter months, while other seasons were spent moving through the territory to harvest and prepare traditional foods and medicines. Today, High Bar continues to rely on key sources of food such as wild game, berries, roots, and salmon. The Big Bar Slide has had a lasting impact on salmon populations and has affected our food security, but it has also strengthened our commitment to environmental stewardship and cultural restoration.
High Bar First Nation remains rooted in Secwépemc values, language, and knowledge. We continue to protect and care for our land, support the well-being of our people, and advance a strong and self-determined future for Llenllenéy’ten.
Our Mission
To strengthen Llenllenéy’ten as a self-sustaining Nation rooted in culture, guided by ancestral knowledge, and driven by the collective well-being of our families—delivering meaningful services, restoring our connection to land, and building a thriving future for generations to come.
