Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 re Stsq'ey's-kucwSecwépemc People, Land, and Laws is a journey through the 10,000-year history of the Interior Plateau nation in British Columbia. Told through the lens of past and present Indigenous storytellers, this volume detail how a homeland has shaped Secwépemc existence while the Secwépemc have in turn shaped their homeland. Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace, with contributions from ethnobotanist Nancy Turner, archaeologist Mike Rousseau, and geographer Ken Favrholdt, compellingly weave together Secwépemc narratives about ancestors’ deeds. They demonstrate how these stories are the manifestation of Indigenous laws (stsq'ey') for social and moral conduct among humans and all sentient beings on the land, and for social and political relations within the nation and with outsiders. Breathing new life into stories about past transformations, the authors place these narratives in dialogue with written historical sources and knowledge from archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, earth science, and ethnobiology. In addition to a wealth of detail about Secwépemc land stewardship, the social and political order, and spiritual concepts and relations embedded in the Indigenous language, the book shows how between the mid-1800s and 1920s the Secwépemc people resisted devastating oppression and the theft of their land, and fought to retain political autonomy while tenaciously maintaining a connection with their homeland, ancestors, and laws. An exemplary work in collaboration, Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws points to the ways in which Indigenous laws and traditions can guide present and future social and political process among the Secwépemc and with settler society. |
Contents
1 Yerí7 me7 re Scnesépskucw Introduction | 3 |
2 Le Q̓7es te Tellqeĺmúcw The Time of the Ancient Transformers | 31 |
3 Re Tsúwets le Q̓7es te Stete̓x7émskucw What Archaeology Tells Us about the Initial Peopling and Life of Secwepemcúĺecw | 73 |
4 Secwepemctsín The Shuswap Language | 121 |
5 Re StyecwmenúÌe̓cwskucw How We Looked after Our Land | 145 |
6 Le Q̓7éses re Scwescwesétskucw ell re S7eykemín̓emskucw Trade Travel and Transportation | 220 |
7 Re StslexemúÌe̓cwemskucw Secwépemc Sense of Place | 234 |
8 Re Stsqe̓yúÌe̓cwems le Stetéx7émskucw The Secwépemc Nation and Its Boundaries | 260 |
Colour section following page | 381 |
11 Re Tyegwyegwténskucw ne Tmicws Secwépemc Spirituality and How It Was Hidden in the Church | 381 |
12 Telrí7 re Semséme7 mNeq̓wcits te Tmicwskucw The Unfolding of Dispossession during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries | 425 |
13 Tse̓lílcstem re Stsqe̓ys̓kucw The Indian Rights Movement of the Early Twentieth Century | 462 |
14 Re Stsq̓ey̓skucw Wel Me7 Yews Stories from the Past Laws and Rights for the Future | 490 |
Notes | 503 |
| 533 | |
| 557 | |
9 K̓wseltktenéwskucw How We Are Relatives to One Another | 318 |
10 Re Kukúkwpi7skucw ell re Tk̓wenm7íple7tens Secwépemc Chiefship and Political Organization | 364 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal addition ancestors animals appears arrived band became boundaries British Columbia brothers called camp century changes chapter Chief communities connected continued Courtesy Coyote Creek cultural early elders evidence existed Father fish Fraser River give ground groups harvesting Horizon human hunting Ignace Indian Indigenous Interior involved Jules Kamloops killed knowledge Lake land language late laws lived look Marianne Ignace means memories mountain names Nlaka’pamux North North Thompson noted Okanagan oral past person plants Plateau population powers present recorded refer relatives remembered Reserve rock root Salish salmon Secwépemc Secwepemctsín settlers shows Shuswap side Skeetchestn Skelép social spirit stories Teit term territory things Thompson River throughout told took trade traditional tri7 Tribes Valley village Yerí7 young