Big Bend Country is a term used in the Canadian province British Columbia to refer to the region around the northernmost bend of the Columbia River, where the river leaves its initial northwestward course along the Rocky Mountain Trench to curve around the northern end of the Selkirk Mountains to head southeast between that range and the Monashee Mountains, which lie to the west. The term is the namesake of the gold rush and associated gold mining district that flourished there in the 19th century. Long known to the indigenous peoples of the region, and in fact raided and at times occupied by the Blackfoot, the Big Bend is traditional territory of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) people, but also claimed by the Ktunaxa.  Boat Encampment, near the Big Bend of the Columbia's most northerly point, is the historic site of a long-established fur trading cache and campsite on the annual York Factory Express.