Full Description
Secwépemc 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
Note on Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights xi
Tables and Figures xiii
Spelling and Formatting Conventions Used in This Book xxiii
Yeri'7 re sqweqwentsi'n-kt An Opening Prayer xxv
Acknowledgments xxvii
Foreword xxxiii
Bonnie Leonard
Colour Section Following Page 380
1 YYeri'7 me7 re Scnese'ps-kucw Introduction 3
2 Le Q'7es te Tellqel'mu'cw The Time of the Ancient Transformers 31
3 Re Tsu'wet.s le Q'7es te Stete' x7e'ms-kucw What Archaeology Tells Us about the Initial Peopling and Life of SSecwepemcu'l'ecw 73
Mike K. Rousseau and Marianne Ignace
4 Secwepemctsi'n The Shuswap Language 121
5 Re Styecwmen u' le' cws-kucw How We Look(ed) after Our Land 145
with Nancy J. Turner
6 Le Q' 7e'ses re Scwescwese't.s-kucw ell re S7eykemi'n'ems-kucw Trade, Travel, and Transportation 220
Marianne Ignace and Kenneth Favrholdt
7 Re Stslexemúle' cwems-kucw Secwépemc Sense of Place 234
8 Re Stsqe' yu' le' cwems le Stete' x7éms-kucw The Secwépemc Nation and Its Boundaries 260
9 K'wseltktenéws-kucw How We Are Relatives to One Another 318
10 Re Kuku'kwpi7s-kucw ell re Tk'wenm7íple7tens Secwépemc Chiefship and Political Organization 364
11 Re Tyegwyegwténs-kucw ne Tmicws Secwépemc Spirituality and How It Was Hidden in the Church 381
12 Telrí7 re Semséme7 m-Neq'wcit.s te Tmicws-kucw The Unfolding of Dispossession during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 425
13 Tse' lílcstem re Stsqe' ys' -kucw The Indian Rights Movement of the Early Twentieth Century 462
14 Re Stsq'ey's-kucw Wel Me7 Yews Stories from the Past, Laws and Rights for the Future 490
\qj Notes 503
Bibliography 533
Index 557
