Constructing Indigeneity: Syilx Okanagan Oraliture and tmixʷcentrism Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie der Philosophischen Fakultät der Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald vorgelegt von Jeannette Christine Armstrong Greifswald, im Dezember 2009 Name des Dekans: Prof. Dr. Matthias Schneider Name des Erstgutachters: Prof. Dr. Hartmut Lutz Name des Zweitgutachters: Prof. Dr. Konrad Ott Datum der Disputation: 30 Marz, 2010 ii Preface/Vorbemerkung In this dissertation I have not adhered to the use of the standard font for MLA style. I have used a Lucida Sans Unicode font throughout the work. The Lucida Sans Unicode font has been modified for the Okanagan Nsyilxcen alphabet. Nsyilxcen words, phrases and sentences are a necessary component of the work. The Lucida Sans Unicode font is modified to accommodate Nsyilxcen sounds on the English Standard keyboard. Some letters on the Okanagan Keyboard displaces some of the upper case font letters. As a result, for consistency Nsyilxcen is not capitalized as a standard. Except where ms word had the ability to autocorrect, Nsyilxcen words are in lower case. I have not adhered to the usual style of English grammar. Nsyilxcen is my primary language and English is a second language. Also important to me was the ability to maintain the structural qualities of the ―transition‖ English prevalent in Okanagan Syilx communities to allow greater accessibility to my community peers. The prose is closer to the structural qualities of Nsyilxcen. iii Table of Contents Preface iii 1. Introduction 1.1 Thesis statement 1 1.2 Personal History/Interest 5 1.3 Research Report 9 1.4 Methodology 22 1.5 Selection of Materials: Research Approach 36 2. The Syilx Okanagan 2.1 Syilx: Historical Land Use 48 2.2 Syilx Knowledge: Indigeneity as Social Paradigm 67 2.3 Nsyilxcen Language and Meaning 74 3. Syilx Captikʷɬ 3.1 Syilx Categories of Story 90 3.1.1 World-Before-Humans 93 3.1.2 Coyote-Was-Traveling 96 3.1.3 There-Were-People-Living 99 3.1.4 Sacred Text - ʔ ʔ tə captikʷɬ 102 3.1.5 Historical Accounts or Smaʔmayʔ 103 3.1.6 Found By-Divine-Means or Smipnumpt 105 3.2 Captikʷɬ and Collective Memory 106 3.3 Captikʷɬ Scripts 109 3.4 Captikʷɬ Story Grammars and Genre 114 3.4.1 Story Grammar in ―Coyote Traveling‖ Story 116 3.4.2 Story Grammar and ―People-Living‖ Story 121 3.5 Captikʷɬ and Associative Networks 125 3.5.1 Associative Networks in ―Before Human‖ Story 126 3.6 Captikʷɬ and Animistic Imagery as Analog System 130 3.6.1 Imagery Analog as Captikʷɬ Analogy 131 3.6.2 Imagery Analog as Captikʷɬ loci 134 3.7. Captikʷɬ Selected for Analysis 138 3.7.1 Transliteralization of Martin Louie Story 138 iv 3.7.2 Children‘s Book Version 140 4. Analysis of Four Chiefs Captikʷɬ 4.1 Introduction 143 4.2 Culture Complex Concepts 145 4.2.1 Nsyilxcen as Syilx Mentalese 147 4.2.1.1 Concept of tmixʷ 148 4.2.1.2 Concept of tmxʷulaxʷ 149 4.2.1.3 Concept of ɬʔəlalqʷaʔ 150 4.2.1.4 151 4.2.1.5 Concept of yilyalmixʷm 153 4.2.1.6 Concept of-nʕawqnwixʷ 154 4.2.1.7 Concept of ʔ sqiltks 154 4.2.2 Communing with the tmixʷ 155 4.2.2.1 The Initiative to Lead by Communing with tmixʷ 156 4.3 Syilx Philosophy of Existence 156 4.3.1 Twining/Coiling: Sustainability 160 4.4 ―Chief‖ as Associative Network 162 4.5 Enowkinwixw as Governance Approach 164 4.6 Four Parts Repetition as Captikʷɬ Tautology 165 4.7 Time Delineations in Captikʷɬ 166 4.7.1 Timeframe as story script in the Four Chiefs 170 4.8 Nsyilxcen and ―Active Presence‖ Imagery 171 4.9 Analog Imagery: Principles in Enowkinwixw 172 4.9.1 The Four Chiefs Teach Enowkinwixw 175 4.9.2 Enowkinwixw: The Syilx Dialogic Construct 178 4.9.3 Enowkinwixw: Contemporary Applications 187 4.9.3.1 Traditions: Elder Voice 190 4.9.3.2 Relations: Mother Voice 191 4.9.3.3 Applications: Father Voice 191 4.9.3.4 Innovations: Youth Voice 192 4.10 Conclusion: The Four Chiefs Story: Tutelage in Ecological Sustainability 192 5. Syilx Literature Written in English 5.1 Introduction 194 v 5.2 Mourning Dove: Cogewea: The Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range 195 5.3 Eliza Jane Swalwell: Girlhood Days in the Okanagan 207 5.4 Gerry William: The Woman in the Trees 212 5.5 Catherine Jameson: Zoe and The Fawn 217 5.6 conclusion 219 6. tmixʷcentrism: The Syilx Environmental Ethic 6.1 The Syilx Social Paradigm 220 6.2 Comparisons of Syilx Ethics to Western Views on Environmental Ethics 221 6.2.1 Comparison to Ecocentrism as Proposed by J. Baird Callicott 221 6.2.2 Comparison to Biocentrism as Proposed by Paul Taylor 242 6.2.3 Comparison to Ethics of Place as Proposed by Daniel Berthold-Bond 256 6.2.4 Comparison to Herman Daly‘s Economics of Sustainable Development 262 6.2.4.1 Daly‘s Requirements and Syilx Traditions of Observance 274 6.2.4.2 Qualitative Improvement Requirements 277 6.2.4.3 Philosophical Clarifications on Alternative Strategies 281 6.3 tmixʷcentrism: The Syilx Environmental Ethic 6.3.1 Abstract 291 6.3.2 Universalisabilty of Syilx tmixʷcentrism 292 6.3.3 System of Rights: Basic Social Institutions 296 6.3.4 Normative Presuppositions of Good Practice 300 6.3.5 Scope of Moral Community 303 6.3.6 Inherent Limits 306 6.3.6 Conclusion 307 7. Conclusions 7.1 Conclusions on Syilx Oraliture 308 7.1.1 Indigenous Language as a Medium vi Conveying Indigeneity 310 7.1.2 Oral Story as Documentation System 311 7.1.3 Oraliture as Its Own Aesthetic 313 7.1.4 Indigeneity in Story Voice as Ecomimicry 314 7.1.5 Indigenous Oraliture as Environmental Ethic Lexicon 315 7.2 tmixʷcentrism as Indigeneity 317 7.3 Relevance of tmixʷcentrism as Contemporary Environmental Ethic 321 7.3.1 Contemporary relevance of Indigeneity as Social Paradigm 322 7.3.2 Relevance of tmixʷcentrism as a Global Force 324 7.3.3 Sustainability and Global Re-Indigenization 325 7.3.4 Implications for Indigeneity Scholars 328 7.4 Concluding Statements 329 7.4.1 Concluding Statement on Contribution to Literature 330 7.4.2 Concluding Statement on Contribution to Environmental Ethic Discourse 332 Research Bibliography 335 Appendix 1 Bilingual Versions Four Chiefs Story 358 Appendix 2 Eliza Jane Swalwell-Out of Print Source 367 Appendix 3 Glossary of Significant Nsyilxcen Terms 375 Figure 1. Salishan Territory Map 49 Figure 2. Enowkinwixw Nested System Model 174 Figure 3. Enowkinwixw Oppositional Dynamics Model 181 Figure 4. Tmixʷ Economics of Place Model 290 vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Thesis Statement The Syilx Okanagan environmental ethic is a philosophy expressed in the practice of Indigeneity as a social paradigm. Indigeneity as a social paradigm is identified by an inter-reliant experience in the land as demonstrated in their land-use practice and shaped in the way the land‘s realities are observed, learned and communicated to succeeding generations. Indigeneity from that perspective is not a delineation of human ethnicity but an attainment of knowledge and wisdom as a part of the scheme of perfect self-perpetuation that nature is. Syilx Okanagan Indigeneity reflects an epistemology that optimum human self- perpetuation is not human centered but must be consistent with the optimum ability for the environment to regenerate itself. Nsyilxcen, the Syilx Okanagan language, communicates through an ―Indigenous‖ construction of meanings reflecting interaction in the Syilx Okanagan territory as a knowledgeable interdependent facet of the land as a self-perpetuating system. Syilx Okanagan stories, in Nsyilxcen, convey the social experience of Indigeneity as a documentation system to preserve and maintain the experience of the land. The unique qualities of Syilx oral stories, or captikʷɬ in the Syilx Okanagan language, evolved as a scheme addressing the concerns of memorization and communication in an oral format. 1 Syilx Okanagan oral story, on one level, contains essential specific environmental knowledge as an oral documentation method, while on another level, as literature, captikʷɬ reconstructs the ethos of interdependency specific to the ecology of the Syilx Okanagan territory through reenactment of nature‘s interactions. Syilx Okanagan captikʷɬ in the Nsyilxcen language mimics the dynamic aspects of nature‘s required regenerative principles. captikʷɬ, when communicated to each succeeding generation, acts as a feed-back loop reconstructing the social paradigm as an environmental ethic. captikʷɬ might be seen as a distinctly Indigenous human adaptive response scheme within a natural system. The way captikʷɬ, as social instruction, constructs the Syilx Okanagan world, results in behavior with a direct sustainable outcome in the environment. Syilx Okanagan captikʷɬ is a distinct oral artistry utilizing a layering of meanings from within a Syilx Okanagan Indigenous context that must be read through a literary framework cognizant of Syilx Okanagan oral memory device and structure. Syilx Okanagan captikʷɬ device and structure articulates and mimics the Syilx Okanagan tmxʷulaxʷ or land animated by tmixʷ - the land‘s life forms, referred to as ―relatives‖, embodying the dynamics of the interrelationship between the flora and fauna of the Okanagan land. captikʷɬ expresses and demonstrates a concept of tmixʷ which translates better as life-force. The concept extends to the Syilx Okanagan understanding of the land as 2 the tmxʷulaxʷ, which translates better as a life-force-place, rather than of land as location or ecology type. The tmixʷ are understood to be many strands which are continuously being bound with each other to form one strong thread coiling year after year always creating a living future.