National Museu m of Man Musée national d e l'Homme National Museum s of Canada Musées nationaux du Canada Board o f Trustees Conseil d'Administration Dr. Sea n B. Murphy Chairman Juge Ren é J. Marin Vice-président M. Roge r B . Hamel Membre Mr. Michae l C.D . Hobb s Member M. Pau l H . Lema n Membre Mr. Richar d M.H . Alwa y Member Mr. Rober t G . MacLeod Member Ms Jane Thompson Edwards Member Dr. Bohda n Bociurkiw Member Mme Michell e Nolin-Raynauld Membre Dr. Larki n Kerwi n Member (E x officio ) Mr. T . Porteou s Member (E x officio) Mr. Ia n C. Clar k Secretary Genera l Secrétaire généra l Dr. Willia m E . Taylor, Jr. Director Directeur National Museu m of Man Musée nationa l d e l'Homme A. McFadyen Clark Chief Chef Canadian Ethnolog y Servic e Service canadie n d'Ethnologi e Crown Copyright Reserved © Droits réservé s au nom de la Couronne NATIONAL MUSEUM MUSÉE NATIONAL OF MAN DE L'HOMME MERCURY SERIES COLLECTION MERCURE ISSN 0316-1854 CANADIAN ETHNOLOGY SERVICE LE SERVICE CANADIEN D'ETHNOLOGIE PAPER No.84 DOSSIER No.84 ISSN 0316-1864 OOWEKEENO ORAL TRADITIONS As Told by the Late Chief Simon Walkus Sr. Taperecorded by SUSANNE STORIE HILTON Transcribed and Translated by EVELYN WALKUS WINDSOR Edited by SUSANNE HILTON and JOHN C. RATH NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF CANADA MUSÉES NATIONAUX DU CANADA OTTAWA 1982 OBJECT OF THE MERCURY SERIES The Mercury Series is a publication of the National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada, designed to permit the rapid dissemination of information pertaining to those disciplines for which the National Museum of Man is responsible. In the interests of making information available quick­ ly, normal production procedures have been abbreviated. As a result, editorial errors may occur. Should that be the case, your indulgence is requested, bearing in mind the object of the Series. The opinions expressed by the authors do not necessari­ ly reflect those of the National Museum of Man or the Federal Government of Canada. BUT DE LA COLLECTION MERCURE La collection Mercure, publiée par le Musée national de l'Homme, Musées nationaux du Canada, a pour but de diffuser rapidement le résultat de travaux qui ont rapport aux disciplines pour lesquelles le Musée national de l'Homme est responsable. Pour assurer la prompte distribution des exemplaires imprimés, on a abrégé les étapes de l'édition. En conséquence, certaines erreurs de rédaction peuvent subsister dans les exemplaires imprimés. Si cela se présentait dans les pages qui suivent, les éditeurs réclament votre indulgence étant donné les objectifs de la collection. Les opinions exprimées par les auteurs ne reflètent pas nécessairement celles du Musée national de l'Homme ou du gouvernement fédéral du Canada. i i ABSTRACT This work contains 15 texts in the Oowekyala Wakashan language with interlinear English translation. Editorial comments are given in the form of footnotes. General remarks on the author's language and culture are given in a brief in­ troduction to the texts. The texts were taperecorded in Rivers Inlet Village on the coast of British Columbia, not far south of Bella Coola. RESUME Ce travail contient 15 textes en Oowekyala, langue du type Nord-Wakashan, ainsi que leur version anglaise inter­ linéaire. On donne des commentaires éditoriaux sous forme d'annotations; d'autre part, les textes sont précédés d'une brève introduction contenant quelques observations sur la langue et la culture de l'auteur. Les textes ont été enregistrés au magnétophone au village de Rivers Inlet sur la côte de la Colombie Britannique, près de Bella Coola. Les personnes désireuses de recevoir en français de plus amples renseignements sur cette publication sont priées d'adresser leur demandes à*. Service canadien d'Ethnologie, Musée national de l'Homme, Musées nationaux du Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0M8. COVER ILLUSTRATION: Walkus Pole from Rivers Inlet, B.C. Now standing in Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C. iii CONTENTS iv v PREFACE In 1968 the then British Columbia Indian Advisory Committee initiated a project to record native stories and songs from the coastal villages of Rivers Inlet, Bella Bella, Bella Coola, and Klemtu. The committee employed Susanne Hilton to implement the project; she was joined one year later by an associate, Jennifer Gould. The objective was to make edited transcripts of the recordings available to the villages for possible use in the local schools. Chief Simon Walkus Sr. was one of the elders cooperating with the project. Partly in response to Susanne Hilton's request and partly upon the requests of his children, he told twelve stories and sang three songs in his native language, Oowekyala, some before a small audience at his home in Rivers Inlet Vil­ lage. These texts were part of Chief Walkus' final attempts to preserve Oowekeeno oral traditions before his death in 1969. Because of limited funding, texts recorded in native languages, such as those told by Chief Walkus, were never translated as part of the original project. Consequently, the contents of the recordings from Chief Walkus remained in­ accessible to anyone unfamiliar with his native language. Then in 1975, Simon's daughter Evelyn, who had married into the Windsor family of the neighbouring Bella Bella Indian Band, became a permanent consultant on the linguistic staff vi at the Heiltsuk Cultural Education Centre in Bella Bella. Here, in cooperation with the resident linguist, John Rath, she developed the expertise to transcribe Oowekyala. This led Susanne Hilton to take the initiative of organizing a project in the summer of 1980 to prepare the recordings from Simon Walkus for publication in Oowekyala and in English. Evelyn Windsor worked for several months on the transcription and translation of the tapes, after which a workshop was held, first in Rivers Inlet Village and then in Vancouver. Parti­ cipants were Susanne Hilton, as anthropologist; Evelyn Windsor, as transcriber and translator of the tapes; John Rath, as linguist; and Ian Hilton, who had worked at Rivers Inlet and Owikeno Lake in fisheries conservation and biology over eight years and who had knowledge of local ecology. The results of this workshop were subjected to a final review at a second workshop held in Vancouver at the end of the same year with the same participants. The text translations pre­ sented in this book are those approved of at this last work­ shop. In order to make the texts available as soon as pos­ sible to the native community at Rivers Inlet and more parti­ cularly to its recently developed Oowekyala Language Programme, no extensive linguistic or anthropological analysis is included. The phonetic guide preceding the texts was written first of all to assist the local community. For the hospitality shown us by the Oweekano Indian Band during our stay in Rivers Inlet and for the special as­ sistance provided by Mrs. Dorothy Walkus in making her house available for the workshop, we give our thanks. We also thank vii Mr. and Mrs. James D. Storie of Vancouver for making their house available for our workshop; Mr. David Stevenson of Rivers Inlet for his assistance, particularly for sharing with us the results of his research on native place names; Mrs. Hilda Smith, the Oowekyala language teacher, and members of the Walkus, Johnson, and Hanuse families of Rivers Inlet for their encouragement and assistance; and the National Museum of Man for the contract that made the preparation of this work possible financially. We extend special thanks to the British Columbia Indian Advisory Committee for initiat­ ing the project that led to the recording of Oowekyala oral traditions and to the limited text publications listed in the bibliography under Storie and Gould. Inclusion of a text in this volume does not necessarily imply that it belongs to the one from whom it was recorded. viii PART I - INTRODUCTION 1. THE OOWEKEENO PEOPLE AND THE OOWEKYALA LANGUAGE 2 QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND LOCATION OF RIVERS INLET ON THE BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND PACIFIC OCEAN VANCOUVER ISLAND MAP OF THE RIVERS INLET AREA. 5 tended sense. The Oowekeeno had a subsistence economy based on fishing, hunting, and gathering. They moved seasonally to a series of family-owned resource sites to procure and pre­ serve a wide variety of foods for the winter. Their annual round began in early March and continued into the late fall. For the remainder of the year, they spent the mid-winter months in permanent and semi-permanent villages where life was organized according to an elaborate ceremonial cycle, the best known features of which are the potlatches and the secret society dances. The Oowekeeno controlled territories and re­ source sites which ranged from the coastal islands inland into the Coast Range Mountains, and thus were able to combine ma­ rine, fresh water, and forest-based resources for their daily subsistence needs. These resources included substantial runs of all five species of Pacific salmon— spring, sockeye, coho, pink, chum or dog salmon - that migrate up Rivers Inlet to spawn in the Wannock River and in the numerous salmon pro­ ducing rivers and streams flowing into Owikeno Lake. In addi­ tion, the Wannock River is one of the few coastal rivers that carry major runs of eulachon, a highly valued food resource and exchange item among people on the coast. The history of the Oowekeeno people over the past 200 years has been characterized by major changes resulting from contact with Europeans. The latter introduced not only new economic patterns such as the fur trade, and commercial fish­ ing and logging, but also inherently destructive elements such as foreign diseases and alcohol that contributed to a drastic reduction in the native population.