Before the arrival of the first white men the Interior Salish Indians occupied the whole of the Thompson River drainage basin, and in addition extended eastwards to include a considerable part of the Columbia system, and to the northwest to encroach on the Fraser district. Most of the immediate Kamloops area belonged to the largest tribe, the Shuswap, while the Nicola valley was part of the Okanagan territory, and the upper North Thompson was Shinpoo land.
