Notes on Manaimo Ethnography and Eumohistory
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NOTES ON NANAIMO ETHNOGRAPHY AND ETHNOHISTORY 1.0 INTRODUCTION This report has been prepared as part of the Departure Bay Indian Village Archaeological Project. The purpose of this report is to provide an ethnographic and ethnohistoric context that will assist in the interpretation of the archaeological excavations at Departure Bay. The following introductory section discusses the terminology and format used in the present report, outlines the study schedule, and reviews the sources of Nanaimo ethnographic data. 1.1 Terminology and Format "Ethnography" is a description of a particular culture based on observation, participation, and interviews with members of that culture. "Ethnohistory" describes Native life and events in early historic times, based on written records. "Archival" documents deposited in various institutions are sources of both ethnohistoric and ethnographic data. Examples of this documentary material include fieldnotes compiled by past ethnographers and observations by such people as explorers, missionaries and local pioneers. other archival sources include newspapers, the voluminous files of government agencies, and nonprinted materials such as maps, paintings, photographs and sound tapes. The data presented here have been obtained both from published and unpublished sources (see the References section) and from the author's interviews of Nanaimo Indian people. Wherever information from these ethnographic interviews is cited, the Native contributor's initials are provided. These Native consultants are identified in the Acknowledgements section. Native terms appearing here have been transcribed by the present writer using the Halkomelem version (Bouchard and Paul 1973; ) of his practical orthography that has been put into use for numerous British Columbia Indian languages. Those Indian terms that it has not been possible to re-elicit are transcribed using the original writing system in which each appeared. Such terms are indicated with quotation marks. Translations of Native words are given in single quotation marks. 1.2 Study Schedule This study began with a search of both published and unpublished sources relating to Nanaimo ethnography and ethnohistory. The literature search was undertaken on March 18th-20th, 27th- 30th, and April 6th, 1992, mostly in the files of the B.C. Indian Language Project. Between April 7th-10th, interviews of Nanaimo Band members were conducted by the author. Some interviews were conducted in the Nanaimo Band Cultural Centre; others were undertaken while traveling by car to locate specific named sites throughout Nanaimo territory; and still others were conducted at the home of one of the interviewees. A further interview on April 13th, 1992 was undertaken jointly by the author and Dorothy Kennedy of the B.C. Indian Language Project. On this same date, a brief review was made of pertinent materials held by the Nanaimo Community Archives. Archival research was conducted on April 15th, 20th and 21st, 1992, at the British Columbia Archives and Records Service in Victoria and at the Surveyor General Branch of the B.C. Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, also in Victoria. 1 NOTES ON NANAIMO ETHNOGRAPHY AND ETHNOHISTORY The present report was written between April 22nd-May 11 th., 1992. Because of the limited time available to the author to undertake this study, the research results presented here should be considered as preliminary. 1.3 Sources of Nanaimo Ethnographic Data Very little has been published concerning the culture of the Nanaimo Indians. France Boas, on the basis of his November 1886 ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork at Nanaimo, published a brief overview of Nanaimo ethnography (Boas 1889) as well as several Nanaimo legends which were part of a much larger collection (Boas 1895:54-56). The Nanaimo were included in the ethnological article and map published as a result of Boas' 1886 field research (Boas 1887). Boas' Nanaimo linguistic work, also based on data collected in 1886, remains unpublished (Boas n.d.a; n.d.b). It was not until the 1930s that further ethnographic research was undertaken among the Nanaimo people. Both Homer Barnett and Diamond Jenness conducted fieldwork here in the mid1930s. The results of Barnett's Nanaimo research were published as part of his larger study of Coast Salish (Barnett 1938; 1939; 1955). Jenness' study also involved other Coast Salish groups in addition to the Nanaimo. But with the exception of one published article (Jenness 1955) relating to the Katzie, a lower Fraser River Coast Salish group, Jenness' work remains unpublished (Jenness n.d.; 1934-1936a; 1934-1936b). It was likely throughout the 1930s that Beryl Cryer made numerous visits to elderly Vancouver Island Halkomelem-speaking Indians to collect "stories" for newspaper publication. In the course of these visits, Cryer recorded a substantial amount of ethnographic data, including information specific to the Nanaimo. Although it has not been determined just how many of these "stories" were actually published, undated typescripts of the newspaper articles, themselves, exist (Cryer n.d.a-n.d.o). Wayne Suttles briefly undertook ethnographic research at Nanaimo in 1949 (Suttles 1992:pers. comm.). Some of the data that Suttles gathered at this time were incorporated into several subsequent publications (eg. Suttles 1987; 1990). Wilson Duff collected some Nanaimo ethnographic notes in the 1950s; these data remain unpublished (Duff n.d.; 1953-1956). Sarah Robinson's fieldwork among the Nanaimo between 19571959 resulted in her unpublished doctoral dissertation concerning social history and spirit dancing (Robinson 1963). In the 1970s, David Rozen collected place names and site utilization data from Nanaimo people. This information was included in Rozen's larger study of Vancouver Island Halkomelem place names completed as his unpublished Master's thesis (Rozen 1985). Similar data gathered from the Nanaimo by school teacher Ted Little around 1980 were incorporated into his unpublished Master's thesis which was an educational resource unit on the Nanaimo Indians (Nanaimo 1981). In addition to these above-noted works, there have been several other published and unpublished studies relating to various aspects of Halkomelem ethnography. These include published works concerning the Mainland Halkomelem along the lower Fraser River: Suttles (1955) on the Katzie; Duff (1952) on the Upper Stalo; Hill-Tout (1903) on the Kwantlen and Chilliwack; Hill-Tout (1904) on the Chehalis and Scowlitz; and Maud, Galloway and Weeden (1987) focusing on the Chilliwack. Turner and Bell's (1971) published ethnobotanical study contains Vancouver Island Halkomelem data. Other studies include: Lane's (1953) unpublished doctoral dissertation focusing on Cowichan religion; Bouchard and Kennedy's recent (1991) report on Tsawwassen (Mainland Halkomelem) ethnography and ethnohistory; Rozen's (1978) report on Cowichan ethnozoology; 2 NOTES ON NANAIMO ETHNOGRAPHY AND ETHNOHISTORY and Kew's (1970) unpublished doctoral dissertation centered on the social and ceremonial life of the Musqueam (Mainland Halkomelem). 2.0 THE NANAIMO PEOPLE This section discusses the linguistic and ethnic affiliations of the Nanaimo, defines their territory, outlines their social composition, identifies the local groups and the villages they occupied on the lower Nanaimo River, summarizes their seasonal movements and subsistence activities, and describes Nanaimo houses. 2.1 Linguistic and Ethnic Affiliations "Nanaimo is an Anglicization of the term Sneneymexw, the name by which the Nanaimo Indian people are known collectively. The Nanaimo, together with the Nanoose, Chemainus and Cowichan, speak the Island dialect of the Halkomelem language. Another dialect of this same language is spoken along the lower Fraser ,from the river mouth up to the vicinity of Yale. The Halkomelem language comprises part of the Coast Salish division of the Salishan Language Family. Speakers of Halkomelem, together with those of Squamish, Nooksack, Northern Straits and Clallam comprise the Central Coast Salish. Across the Strait of Georgia from the Nanaimo are the Sechelt who comprise part of the Northern Coast Salish (Suttles 1990; Thompson and Kinkade 1990; Kennedy and Bouchard 1990). 2.2 Territory According to Boas (1887: map; 1889:321), Nanaimo territory extended from Five Finger Island and Horswell Bluff in the north to the vicinity of Dodd Narrows in the south, including Gabriola Island and other adjacent islands and reaching west as far as the inland mountains. This inland boundary, more specifically in the Nanaimo Lakes area, had earlier been indicated on Trutch's (1872) ethnological map. Both Duff (1953-1956) and Rozen (1985) placed the southern boundary of the Nanaimo at Boat Harbour which is about three miles south from Dodd Narrows. Independently, the Nanaimo people interviewed for this report also identified Boat Harbour as the southern extent of Nanaimo territory. They placed the northern boundary in the vicinity of Neck Point (MJ; EM) which is about two miles northwest from Horswell Bluff, the place that Boas (1887: map; 1889:321) had given as the boundary. One of those interviewed, CT, specified this northern boundary is at a place called sk’olem which is about a mile and a half west from Neck Point. According to those who were interviewed, Gabriola Island and the other islands adjacent to Nanaimo are part of their territory. CT denoted the Nanaimo Lakes area as the inland extent of Nanaimo territory. 2.3 Component Groups and Villages The Nanaimo