Welcome to SCIDES Aboriginal Education
We are a Distributed Learning School that provides quality education for:
- School aged students K - 12
- Adults seeking graduation
- Graduated Adults
We encourage you to explore our courses which feature excellent print resources with the added flexibility of electronic support. Our courses are tuition-free with a refundable resource deposit. We pride ourselves in our dedication to addressing the needs of individual students.
Native History of the Nicola Valley
The Nicola people are a historic First Nations political and cultural alliance in the Nicola Country region of the Southern Interior. We are mostly located in the Nicola River valley around the area of Merritt and are an alliance of Scw'exmx, the local branch of the Nlaka'pamux (Thompson) people, and the Spaxomix, the local branch of the Syilx or Okanagan People. The name Nicola is not a derivation of Nlaka'pamux or its variants but is taken from the name of the chief who forged the alliance, which then included the native communities surrounding Fort Kamloops. Today, surrounding First Nation bands include Upper Nicola, Coldwater, Lower Nicola, Shackan and Nooitch. A "nativized" adaptation of Nicola in common use today is N'Kwala.