OUR ORAL HISTORIES ARE OUR IRON POSTS: SECWEPEMC STORIES AND HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS by Ronald Eric Ignace (Stsmel'ecqen) M.A., University of British Columbia, 1979 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of Sociology and Anthropology © Ron Ignace, 2008 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY SPRING 2008 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. 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Canada APPROVAL Name: Ronald Eric Ignace (StsmeTcqen) Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Dissertation: Our Oral Histories are our Iron Posts: Secwepemc Stories and Historical Consciousness Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Wendy Chan Associate Professor of Sociology Dr. Noel Dyck Senior Supervisor Professor of Anthropology Dr. Dara Culhane Member Associate Professor of Anthropology Dr. Jo-ann Archibald Member Associate Professor, Educational Studies University of British Columbia Dr. Andie-Diane Palmer External Examiner Associate Professor of Anthropology University of Alberta Date Defended: April 15,2008 u SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Declaration of Partial Copyright Licence The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. 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A NOTE ON COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS While the copyright of this dissertation rests with myself as the author, I declare that the Secwepemc people, as represented by the seventeen Secwepemc Communities of the Secwepemc Nation, have inherent cultural rights and ownership of all oral histories and cultural information on the Secwepemc contained in this volume, and further claim first rights to any intellectual property arising from the cultural knowledge as derived from Secwepemc elders and other Secwepemc cultural specialists. I also respectfully acknowledge that the oral histories and cultural information from other Aboriginal nations that I cite in this thesis in the same manner represents the intellectual property of these respective Nations. m ABSTRACT This dissertation is about the history of my people, the Secwepemc. I treat the concept of history here as more than a chronological ordering of events in the lives of our people; my purpose is to construe the sense of history, or historical consciousness, of my people as it emerged during the last 10,000 years. Relying on multiple sources that include converging lines of evidence between geological, archaeological and oral history sources for the early period, and increasingly, written - explorers' and traders' - sources, and most importantly, my own ancestors' recorded narratives, I trace my people's motivations and interests in the unfolding of events, along with the meanings, from the vantage point of our culture, that we ought to employ to read such sources. Among the important stories that my people tell are the narratives that deal with our perception of the early newcomers, and of missionaries and the new religion they were imposing on us. In addition, it is worthwhile to listen to the ways that my people reflected on the relationship with the Crown as it emerged in the late 1800s, and early 1900s. As I argue, such "stories," ultimately, need to be connected to our sense of land, livelihood, title and autonomy as an Aboriginal Nation. Our people's stories, as I will show, defy the colonizers' attempts to separate us out into small portions of our land and livelihood, and bring back our sense of nationhood as a people, Secwepemc, connected to Secwepemculecw, our land. Keywords: Aboriginal history, Secwepemc, First Nations of the Plateau DEDICATION Yi7ene re suscwen le q'7es te stet'ex7em, len kye7e7uwi Julienne ell len xpe7e7uwi, Ettwa Eneas. Tikwemtus yiri7 re sxyemstulmen. Xwexweyt re stet'ex7em te spetekwlentsems, yiri7 re skukwstsetselp! Yiri7 re suscwen ell xwexweyt ren stsmemelt: Fara, Danielle, le Gabriel Ettwa, Jessica, Meghan, George T'exesq'et, Julienne Melmenetkwe, Lizzy Tselpits'e7, Joe- Thomas Stsmelecqen, ell re Katie Xyemetkwe, ... ell ren sem7e7em, Marianne Ignace Kukwstsetselp wel me7 yews! I dedicate this work to my elders, especially to my great-grandmother, Julienne Ignace, and to my great-grandfather, Ettwa Eneas. I will always honour you. To all the elders who told me stories, I thank you all! I also honour all my children. Like my ancestors, they have taught me much! And I thank my wife, Marianne Ignace, for all her love and support! v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis had a long process of growth, of neglect, and of near failure as life dealt me some blows in the last several years. Writing about one's own people is a hard task, and it is even harder as time passes and many of those who gave their time and knowledge to this work are no longer with us. First of all, I wish to thank all the elders who shared their knowledge with me as I grew up, who taught me our language, the ways of our ancestors, and our history. These include my great- grandparents, Ettwa and Julienne Eneas; my grandparents Francis Ignace and Meleni Paul; and my parents, Lizzy Ignace and Francis Jules. I thank my aunts and uncles, especially my aunt Mona, who has been kye7e to all my children. And I thank the other elders who raised me, among them Selina Jules, Katie Humphrey and old Alice Celesta. And I thank Nels Mitchell and Seymour Pitel - I knew them in my younger days, but I have only come to appreciate their great contributions to understanding our songs and stories as I carried out this research. These elders' words and thoughts are in these pages. I thank the Secwepemc elders who agreed to be recorded and thus specifically contributed their knowledge and stories to my enquiry into Secwepemc history. They include the late Clothilde Thomas from Williams Lake; the late Laura Harry from Esk'et (Alkali Lake), the late Rose Phillip and Bill Porter from St'uxtews, Sarah Deneault from Neskonlith, the late Mary Thomas from Salmon Arm, and vi from my own community, Skeetchestn, the late Nellie Taylor, Theresa Jules, Sam Camille, and also Christine Simon and James Peters.