The Chilcotin District, usually known simply as "the Chilcotin" is a plateau and mountain region on the inland lea of the Coast Ranges on the west side of the Fraser River, and also is the name of the river draining that region. The Chilcotin district is often viewed as an extension of the Cariboo District, east of that river, although it has a distinct identity from the Cariboo. The vast majority of the population are First Nations people, members of the Tsilhqot'in First Nations people or its subdivisions, while others are non-native settlers and ranchers.

The Chilcotin district is mostly a wide, high plateau, stretching from the mountains to the Fraser River, but also includes several fjord-like lakes which verge from the plateau into the base of the mountains. The largest of the lakes in the region is Chilko Lake, which feeds the Chilko River, the main tributary of the Chilcotin River. Other major lakes are Tatlayoko Lake (pron. "tatlako") and Taseko Lake; the area of the lakes, in the southern part of the district, is now the Xeni Gwetin Provincial Wilderness (the Xeni Gwetin are the local subdivision of the Tsilhqot'in people). The forested plateau area just northeast of the park, between the Chilko River and Taseko Rivers, is known as the Brittany Triangle and is currently under hot dispute between preservationists and logging interests. East of the Xeni Gwetin Park is Big Creek Provincial Park and the Churn Creek Protected area, while to the southeast is the Southern Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park, which despite its name is mostly in the basin of the Bridge River, part of the Lillooet district. Jump to: navigation, search The Tsilhqot’in (also Chilcotin, Tsilqotin, Tŝinlhqot’in, Chilkhodin, Tsilkótin, Tsilkotin) are a Northern Athabaskan First Nations people that live in British Columbia, Canada. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Bridge River is, or was, a major tributary of British Columbias Fraser River, entering that stream about six miles upstream from the town of Lillooet. ...

Despite its small population and isolation, the region has produced a small but very readable literature mixing naturalism with native and settler cultures and memoirs. The most well-known Chilcotin authors are Ralph Edwards and Paul St. Pierre; the latter was formerly Member of Parliament for Coast Chilcotin and a noted Vancouver journalist. St. Pierre's writing encapsulated Chilcotin folklore and daily life and are written in a crisp, ironic and often humorous style; the best-known is "Smith and Other Events" and "Cariboo Cowboy", while Edward's writings focus on the wildlife of the area on the western rim of the district, adjacent to Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. His "Caruso of Lonesome Lake" concerns his work with protecting the trumpeter swans which migrate through the region; his wife Frances' "Ruffles On My Longjohns" documents her tribulations as the wilderness wife of a wildlife advocate. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Coast Chilcotin was a former federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons, and located in the province of British Columbia. ... This article refers to the city in British Columbia, Canada. ... Binomial name Cygnus buccinator Richardson, 1832 The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) is the largest native North American swan. ...

Other notable book from more recent times are "Chiwid" by Sage Birchwater of Tatlayoko Lake, documenting eyewitness reminiscences of a First Nations eccentric-cum-spirit person, Lilly Skinner, and "Nemaia: the Unconquered Country" by Terry Glavin, which recounts the story of the Chilcotin War of 1864 and the flavour of the Nemaia Valley today (the Nemaia is the main residence of the Xeni Gwetin, who were the main instigators of the war).

Edwards' cabin, and the trumpeter habitat, are world heritage sites although his cabin was burned out in large forest fires in the summer of 2005. Another Chilcotin author is Ted "Chilco" Choate, a hunting guide at Gaspard Lake in the southeastern part of the district who writes about animals, hunters and the wilderness lifestyle. Choate is one of the main advocates for combining the Tweedsmuir, Xeni Gwetin, Southern Chilcotin Mountains, Big Creek and Churn Creek wilderness areas into one large national park spanning the Coast Mountains and plateau between the Fraser and the spine of the Coast Mountains.

The Chilcotin is also known for its large population of mustang horses, which have contributed to the bloodlines of domesticated horses in the regions, including a variety known as the cayuse pony or, in some local spellings, cayoosh (the old name for the town of Lillooet, which lies just outside the Chilcotin to the southeast, near where the plateau meets the Fraser River. Still "controlled" today due to their competition with cattle herds for forage, they were once so overpopulated - even before put into competition with the feed demans of large-scale ranching - that a high bounty was set on them and they were hunted out, and nearly exterminated. They are believed to be stock brought in during gold rush times, as according to contemporary records the Chilcotins did not have horses until then. Author and guide-outfitter Chilco Choate, however, points out that forage patterns and the adaption of the breed to the area, it is more likely that they entered the area, already wild prior to domestication by local natives and being perhaps offshoots of the large horseherds acquired by the Okanagan and Nez Perce and other plateau peoples several decades before. Despite their controlled status, their population survives today, though imperilled by expansion of ranching and logging. Mustang is a hardy, naturalized (feral) horse of the North American west. ... Jump to: navigation, search Cayuse & Sahaptin Tribal Representatives to Washington D.C. (1890) Cayuse Umapine (Wakonkonwelasonmi), a Cayuse chief, September, 1909 The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. ...

The area is accessed by Highway 20, which runs from the port town of Bella Coola, at the head of South Bentinck Arm, a coastal fjord piercing into the heart of the Coast Mountains, across the mountains and plateau to the city of Williams Lake, the principal town of the Cariboo. Near Highway 20 in the southern end of Tweedsmuir Park is Hunlen Falls, at 1226 feet Canada's highest, plunging into a canyon at its bottom so deep it is impossible to make a precise measurement. Bella Coola may refer to several things, all closely related to a geographic area within British Columbias Central Coast. ... The Coast Mountains range begins just north of Vancouver, British Columbia and stretches along the Pacific coast of Canada into southeastern Alaska. ... For other uses, see Williams Lake, British Columbia (disambiguation) Williams Lake is a city in British Columbia, Canada. ... Cariboo was a former federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons, and located in the province of British Columbia. ...

The largest towns in the Chilcotin are Alexis Creek, Anahim Lake and Hanceville, which are all First Nations communities. Other localities are Towdystan, Nimpo Lake, Nemaia Valley and Tataloyoko Lake, though settlers (usually small ranchers) are scattered across the backcountry. There is a Canadian Forces artillery and tactics range on the eastern edge of the plateau, in the vicinity of old Fort Chilcotin (this land was originally set aside for military purposes following the Chilcotin War.

Also of major importance in the Chilcotin is the Gang Ranch, once the world's largest and still among the major beef suppliers in British Columbia. Dating to the 1860s and covering nearly all terrain south of the Chilcotin River and east of Taseko Lake and the Fraser River, and skirting the [[Bridge River}Bridge River Country]] to its south, "the Gang" is vast terrain, more wilderness than pasture, it is mix of natural plateau and alpine meadowland and vast forests and swamps, verging up into the foothill area of the northeastern flank of the Coast Mountains as they approach the Fraser River from the west, meeting it between the Gang Ranch's main house and the town of Lillooet.. Similar ranching conditions are found from the Burns Lake and Smithers area in northwestern Interior BC all the way south to the US border, including the famous Douglas Lake Ranch south of Kamloops, but the Gang is by far the largest, and the most wild.