OSOYOOS, BC — Deep in the heart of Canada's Okanagan Country, nature's paintbrush has created a multicolored masterpiece. A half-mile-long lake that, toward the end of summer when the water level drops, features hundreds of individual, brightly-colored pools from end to end.
To local indigenous people, the stewards of this special place, it is called kłlilx'w.
"My ancestors have lived here since the beginning of time," said Syilx Okanagan elder Leon Louis, who often goes by his chosen traditional name, cewelna. (Words are generally not capitalized in nsyilxcən, the Okanagan language.)
"We've used this lake for thousands and thousands of generations," cewelna said.
Commonly referred to as Spotted Lake, this is one of the most mineralized bodies of water on the planet.
"There are seven minerals here that are only found in seven different parts of the world," cewelna said. "They're never found all together. But here they are."
The lake fills with water during the rainy season, then evaporates over the long, hot summer, revealing its precious jewels: Pools rich with magnesium, silver and other minerals. We couldn't count every spot, but the locals say they number 365.
"One to represent each day of the year," said cewelna.
Each pool is said to harbor a unique medicinal property.
"One of the circles will talk to you and tell you 'I am the one.' The one that will help heal you," cewelna said, "It's like my aunt, she had cancer. And so she got into that circle and she bathed, and then she took some of the mud home and she put that on her face. That's where the cancer was. And it healed the cancer."
cewelna's aunt is alive and well more than a decade later.
"It'll heal just about anything but a broken heart," he said.
This place of healing was kept out of reach of its ancestral owners for more than a century, as descendants of white settlers claimed it for themselves.
"We had to buy it back," cewelna said.
In 2000, this sacred space was finally returned to the hands of healers and knowledge-keepers like cewelna. People who visit with open hearts, hopeful prayers, and heaps of gratitude.
"That's one of our most important parts of our culture, is respect," cewelna said.
This place and its people look after each other.
"We are a part of the land and the land is a part of us."
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Email.