Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS Spirits of Our Whaling enhanced the power of chiefs. The Ancestors: Revitalizing cultural importance of whaling makes it a central theme that runs through these Makah and two books. The people of this area, who Nuu-chah-nulth Traditions along with a few neighbours were the Charlotte Coté only active whalers along the entire British Columbia and Washington Vancouver: ubc Press, 2010. xx, coastline, are generally known as the 273 pp. $24.95 paper. Nuu-chah-nulth (in British Columbia) and Makah (in Washington). A third closely related group, the Ditidaht The Whaling People of the West (and their linguistic relatives the Pacheedaht) are at the southern end Coast of Vancouver Island and of the Nuu-chah-nulth distribution. Cape Flattery One of the books under review refers Eugene Arima and to the “Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth” Alan Hoover throughout, subsuming the Ditidaht in the latter, whereas the other attempts Victoria: Royal British Columbia to avoid the awkward nomenclature by Museum, 2011. 271 pp. $19.95 paper. referring to these related groups as “the Whaling People.” Alan D. McMillan Charlotte Coté, an associate Simon Fraser University professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, haling played a prominent writes from the perspective of a Nuu- Wrole in the traditional cultures chah-nulth person, a member of the of the people who live along western Tseshaht First Nation in Port Alberni. Vancouver Island and around Cape Using this insider perspective along Flattery on the Olympic Peninsula. As with the anthropological literature, well as its importance in the economy, she documents the central role of whaling featured prominently in whaling in their cultures and traces the spiritual, ceremonial, and artistic continuity of whaling traditions into traditions, and whaling success the present. Archaeological evidence bc studies, no. 74, Summer 123 124 bc studies from the Tseshaht origin village in their whaling heritage. As a former Barkley Sound and the major Makah head of the mwc stated regarding the site of Ozette is used to show the importance of whaling to their identity: antiquity and dietary importance “It’s who we are” (206). However, legal of whaling. Even after traditional setbacks and government regulations practices were suppressed through have frustrated further whaling plans. government policies of assimilation The Nuu-chah-nulth watched these and whale stocks were depleted through events with interest and incorporated commercial hunting, the Nuu-chah- provisions for future whaling into their nulth and Makah continued to see treaty negotiations. whaling as central to their identity. Coté also dedicates a chapter to Although whaling had ceased, ties to restoring healthy communities today. “the whaling ancestors,” Coté argues, Traditional foods, including whale were “maintained through songs, meat and blubber, can play a key role. In dances, ceremonies, and religious and addition to their cultural significance, artistic expressions” (68). The work such foods provide health benefits to of the late Art Thompson, a noted communities suffering from high levels Ditidaht artist and Coté’s brother- of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. in-law, is used to show the role of art in The Whaling People, by Eugene transmitting traditions. Two dominant Arima and Alan Hoover, is an updated images in Nuu-chah-nulth art, past and edition of Arima’s 1983 book The West present, are Thunderbird and Whale, Coast (Nootka) People, from the same attesting to the cultural importance publisher. Although much remains accorded whaling. the same, this version, with a new A key event in Coté’s book is the co-author, incorporates such recent successful Makah hunt of a grey whale developments as the Maa-nulth treaty in 1999. Unlike the Nuu-chah-nulth, the signed by five Nuu-chah-nulth nations Makah have an 1855 treaty protecting and the legal decision in the Nuu-chah- their right to whale. After commercial nulth fisheries case (Ahousaht et al.). whaling ceased, grey whale populations As in the earlier edition, much of the rebounded to sustainable levels. A text is taken up with stories and other resumption of whaling was seen as a oral traditions drawn from ethnographic way to reinvigorate cultural traditions sources, particularly Edward Sapir and and reaffirm identity. A Makah Philip Drucker, to present information Whaling Commission (mwc) was from a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective. formed from the families traditionally Once again, drawings by Nuu-chah- known as whalers. Coté documents the nulth artist Tim Paul, some recycled exhaustive efforts to gain national and from the previous edition and some international clearance for this hunt new here, enliven the pages. Numerous and the bitter battles that followed as photographs also enhance the text. opponents questioned Makah cultural The organization is almost identical to and treaty rights, occasionally raising the first edition. Four chapters present racist stereotypes. The hunt required ethnographic information, including lengthy preparation, including training, the economic base, social organization, spiritual cleansing, and consultation and the spirit realm, while one (“The with elders. Its aftermath was a joyous Long Past of the Whaling People”) event in the Makah community of Neah provides a sense of history, from the Bay as they celebrated the survival of time before Europeans to recent events. Book Reviews 125 Although much of the historic arrival four years later as “first contact” information is valuable, the treatment (103). Finally, placing precise group of Nuu-chah-nulth and Makah life boundaries on maps may be inadvisable prior to European arrival is inadequate, as such territories are contested. In The showing little knowledge of recent Whaling People, the Tseshaht are denied archaeological research. The discussion, all their traditional territory along which is little changed from the Alberni Inlet and the Somass River, first edition, is largely restricted to where their community is located today. a summary of the archaeological Both books are “good reads,” sequence at Yuquot in Nootka Sound. intended for a general audience. Both Differences in excavated materials are attractive, well-illustrated, and to the south, with implications for reasonably priced. Numerous stories cultural change or movements of and myths (Arima and Hoover) or people, are ignored. Nor is there any accounts of personal experience (Coté) discussion of Ozette, despite the unique add interest to the text. These volumes insights into late pre-contact Makah should do much to bring the fascinating life offered by its excellent preservation cultures of these whaling people to of organic materials. Unlike Coté, these wider public attention. authors seem unaware of archaeological information relevant to whaling practices and antiquity, particularly from sites in Barkley Sound, despite the These Mysterious People: whaling theme of the book. Shaping History and A few errors and problems are Archaeology in a Northwest evident. British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, not 1868 as stated Coast Community (181). The Ahousaht are mistakenly Susan Roy placed in Effingham Inlet in Barkley Montreal and Kingston: McGill- Sound (20), when a now-extinct group with a similar name was meant. The Queen’s University Press, 2010. 240 authors name “a tribe of whalers just pp. $29.95 paper. 116 east of Cape Flattery” ( ), apparently Madeline Knickerbocker without realizing that the transcription refers to Ozette (a spelling they use Simon Fraser University elsewhere) on the open coast directly south of Cape Flattery. They accept n the summer of 1968, my without comment the claim that Chief grandmother would sometimes Mokwina of Nootka Sound “ate a slave takeI my young aunt and uncle to each month” (165), despite considerable the northern bank of the outflow of uncertainty regarding the presence or the Fraser River to dig for “Indian extent of cannibalism. Similarly, they treasure” at the Marpole Midden. state that, in 1592, Juan de Fuca was “the My aunt, then a pre-teen, remembers first European to visit the territory of these sunny afternoons as leisurely, the Whaling People” (160), when there educational outings, and, like many is little evidence for an initial encounter of the other pot-hunting groups of until Spanish ships reached western white, middle-class children and Vancouver Island in 1774. Coté also parents sifting through the soil in the errs on this point, describing Cook’s area, my family members certainly 126 bc studies did not know the site as ćəsna:m, an remains. Beginning in this period, ancient Musqueam village, nor did Musqueam peoples increasingly used they connect the items they found archaeology to establish unifying with the contemporary Musqueam symbols, foster a sense of historical people living in Vancouver. This non- consciousness, and facilitate legal recognition of ongoing Musqueam victories, thus promoting Musqueam connections to local territories through nationalism. material culture is precisely the type of Though this narrative is well disconnect that Susan Roy explores in executed, it supports a pre-existing These Mysterious People. understanding in the field that early Roy’s book, coming out of her PhD colonial archaeology and anthropology dissertation, is a strong contribution produced knowledge about colonized to the field of Aboriginal history. peoples in ways that dispossessed Roy successfully engages with older them and distanced them from that and more

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