Thomas Forsyth Mcilwraith Anthropology This Dissertation Is
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Thomas Forsyth McIlwraith Candidat e Anthropology Departmen t This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: , Chairperson Accepted: Dean, Graduate School Date ‘BUT WE ARE STILL NATIVE PEOPLE’: TALKING ABOUT HUNTING AND HISTORY IN A NORTHERN ATHAPASKAN VILLAGE BY THOMAS FORSYTH MCILWRAITH B.A., English and History, University of Toronto, 1992 M.A., Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 1995 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2007 © Iskut First Nation (Stories, verbatim speech, and traditional knowledge are the property of the speaker and/or of the Iskut First Nation.) © Thomas McIlwraith (The ideas contained herein and the structure of this dissertation are the property of Thomas McIlwraith.) iii DEDICATION To my Grandparents: Pearl and Lionel Bell Beulah and Thomas McIlwraith iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to a large number of people who made my research possible and who offered me the intellectual support needed to write this dissertation. The people of Iskut Village have been incredibly welcoming and kind to me throughout several years of visiting and working in their community. Throughout my writing, I have tried to be true to the people who shared their time and lives with me; in turn, I am trying to share something of myself with them with my writing. This dissertation is evidence of my efforts to reveal myself, my interest and ignorance, to Iskut people. All mistakes and misinterpretations are mine. I can only hope that they will allow me to continue learning about their culture. Thanks go to the village elders including Ellen Dennis, Gertie Dennis, James Dennis, Mabel Dennis, Mathew Henyu, Agnes Hunter, Louis Louie, Morris Louie, Regina Louie, Rita Louie, late Philip Louie, Arthur Nole, Loveman Nole, Sarah Nole, Jenny Quock, Peggy Quock, and late Robert Quock. Many other people helped me, accepted me into their family, or took me under their wings at Iskut Village. I thank Chief Louis Louie and the members of the Iskut First Nation Council in 2002 that supported my work. Current Chief Marie Quock and her Council have continued that support. Thanks also to the Band Staff who ‘tolerated’ my bad coffee and my presence in their offices for so many months. Sally Havard helped facilitate my work and has been a good friend over several years. I thank also Theresa Abou, Erma Bourquin, Jim Bourquin, Huey Carlick, Jackie Carlick, Judy Carlick, Bertha Louie, Amanda Dennis, Angela Dennis (who helped with the Tahltan-language transcriptions), Odelia Dennis, Wayne Dennis, Misty Jakesta-Louie, Alec Joseph, Andy Louie, Feddie Louie, Floyd Louie, Heather Louie, Paul Louie, Penny Louie, Father J.M. Mouchet, Annabel Nole, Connie Nole, Doyle Nole, Jim Nole, Maggie Nole, Marie Quock, Mary Quock, Ramona Quock, and Pauline Wall. I thank the children and teenagers at Iskut for teaching me about their home and their passions for hunting, fishing, and traveling. Wade Davis gave me time and took considerable interest in my project. Janice Sheppard offered insights into her Iskut fieldwork and shared her Athapaskan library with me. Matthew Weymar provided constructive comments on dissertation introduction and has been a sounding board on many occasions. Thank you all. My graduate experience at the University of New Mexico has been stimulating and rewarding thanks in large part to my committee chair and mentor David W. Dinwoodie. David challenged my thinking at every turn, supported me in the field, and maintained a productive relationship with me as I wrote up even though I was not living in Albuquerque. I could not have asked for more. Keith H. Basso and Sylvia Rodriguez offered exciting courses and provided important and detailed feedback on the dissertation text. Working with them was a pleasure in large part because they never stopped pushing me to think harder and to write better. My outside reader, Robert Brightman (Reed), noted logical flaws in my arguments. He encouraged me to think about the connections v between my data and broader scholarship on aboriginal hunting and history in ways I had not previously considered. Other faculty at UNM contributed to the success of my time in Albuquerque and to the dissertation. I thank in particular Les Field, Louise Lamphere, and Suzanne Oakdale for their interest in my work. Graduate school would not have been nearly as fascinating, intellectually rewarding, or fun without my graduate student colleagues. Thanks particularly to Jill Ahlberg, Steve Gooding, Lars Kuelling, Philip Laverty, Mariann Skahan, Sarah Soliz, and Patrick Staib for long chats, good visits, and shared meals on so many occasions. I was fortunate to receive funding for my research. I was the recipient of a graduate fellowship from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Fellowship Number 752-2001-0338). The Endangered Languages Fund, Yale University, gave me with monies to document animal stories in the Tahltan Language (2002-2003). The Jacobs Fund of the Whatcom Museum also provided monies to document animal names and stories (2002-2003). Likewise, several groups at the University of New Mexico contributed financially to my studies and research. The Anthropology Department awarded me an entrance Binford Fellowship and tuition waiver. I was also given the Basehart-Broilo Fellowship, various graduate assistantships, and travel money. The Office of Graduate Studies awarded me a Research, Project, and Travel Grant (RPT). The Graduate and Professional Student Association also gave me travel money under the auspices of the ‘Student Research Allocations Committee’ (SRAC). I am thankful for all of that support. I presented early drafts of some of these chapters various academic meetings or lectures. I spoke about guiding stories at the Ethnohistory Meetings in Chicago, IL, in November 2004. The Maxwell Museum Association of the University of New Mexico also sponsored a lecture in April 2005 at which I presented much of what now forms Chapter 5. I also presented a paper on hunting stories at the American Anthropological Association Meetings in Chicago, IL, in November 2003 (now Chapter 4). That paper benefited from editing and comments by David Dinwoodie, Julie Cruikshank (University of British Columbia), Sally Havard, Robert N. Diaz, and Thomas F. McIlwraith (University of Toronto). Eugene N. Anderson (UC Riverside) and Leisy Wyman (University of Arizona) took special interest in the paper, offering comments, additional references, and general support for the topic. I thank Robert N. Diaz, my longtime friend, business and academic colleague for unfailing interest in my work. Without our conversations during drives around British Columbia my dissertation would be much the worse. I appreciated discussions about life at Iskut, academia, and archaeology with Bjorn Simonsen. Conversations about Tahltan linguistics and academics with John Alderete (Simon Fraser University) have been invaluable. My colleagues at Douglas College, Capilano College, The University College of the Fraser Valley, and Langara College also provided a stimulating environment for thinking about aboriginal British Columbia. vi My entire academic career owes significantly to conversations with my father and mother, Thomas F. and Duane McIlwraith. I would not have come this far without their interest and continuing encouragement. And, finally, I thank my wife Mariela for putting up with all of this – including more than a year apart while I pursued this project. That is a remarkable gift. vii ‘BUT WE ARE STILL NATIVE PEOPLE’: TALKING ABOUT HUNTING AND HISTORY IN A NORTHERN ATHAPASKAN VILLAGE BY THOMAS FORSYTH MCILWRAITH B.A., English and History, University of Toronto, 1992 M.A., Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 1995 ABSTRACT Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2007 ‘BUT WE ARE STILL NATIVE PEOPLE’: TALKING ABOUT HUNTING AND HISTORY IN A NORTHERN ATHAPASKAN VILLAGE by Thomas Forsyth McIlwraith B.A., English and History, University of Toronto, 1992 M.A., Anthropology, University of British Columbia, 1995 Ph.D., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2007 ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of hunting in the northern Athapaskan village of Iskut, British Columbia, Canada. Hunting serves as a cultural system uniting Iskut people in a place where ethnic identity is not as easy to identify as outsiders might expect. Moreover, non-natives sometimes suggest that Iskut hunting activities reflect cultural and economic poverty. Still, interest in Iskut knowledge about animals and the land persists in and outside of Iskut. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is in demand in bureaucratic settings, for example, but Iskut knowledge about food and animals resists easy interpretation. I turn to the ‘ethnography of speaking’ as a way of learning about hunting and of moving beyond the fact-finding often associated with bureaucratic TEK projects. I attend to hunting stories and group history to understand why Iskut people talk about hunting with such passion. Studying talk of hunting and its etiquette reveals a wide range of lived experiences and practices at Iskut Village. It shows how Iskut people draw their history into contemporary resource conflicts. And, it illustrates a