[3] According to legend, Coyote turned an indigenous hunter by this name into stone or the mountain represents a transformed maiden.

The Similkameen River mouth (in the US) was an important winter village site[7] for the Okanagans (living in Canada).

[9] In 1878, Gilbert Malcolm Sproat set aside the land for the reserves, which were amended and increased by his successor Peter O’Reilly in the 1880s.

The Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway (VV&E) expropriated 47 hectares (117 acres) across several reserves for a right-of-way in 1905.

[2] In 1995, the Lower Similkameen Band submitted that the VV&E had paid inadequate compensation and that the abandoned right-of-way should revert to reserve status.

[17] In 2008, the Commission determined the assessment per acre was grossly disproportionate to non-reserve lands and recommended adequate compensation be negotiated.

[18] Since the VV&E easement terminated no later than 1985, the Commission recommended that this strip be legally restored to being fully reserve land.

[28] To address the predicament when high water made crossing the river impractical, a road was constructed in 1911 on the west shore to the border, which provided the Armstong family and other residents with an outlet.

[29] The reconstruction and paving of BC Highway 3A north from Keremeos, which was completed in 1948,[30] largely diverted traffic away from Similkameen.

[35] If not already more narrowly defined as a location, government funding for the Similkameen school construction made it more precise by the early 1890s.

[36] The one room 7-by-11-metre (24 by 36 ft) school was built about 1.6 kilometres (1 mi) north of the settlement on the southern boundary of the McCurdy ranch.

Armstrong's ranch, 19 kilometres (12 mi) south of Keremeos, formed the southern boundary of the Similkameen school district.

[37] For lengthy periods, the school was not open, either unable to attract a minimum number of pupils[43] or a teacher.

[46] Similkameen was also one of the earliest border outposts in the interior and Daniel McCurdy was for four years customs officer in the 1910s.