Trickster’s Path to Language Transformation: Stories of Secwepemc Immersion from Chief Atahm School by Kathryn A. Michel B.A., University of British Columbia, 1987 M.A. Ed., Simon Fraser University, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Educational Leadership and Policy) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) March 2012 © Kathryn A. Michel, 2012 Abstract I am a Secwepemc woman. I weave my identity around my land, my nation, and my family. My journey has led me to live my life working to help revitalize the Secwepemc language through immersion education. Through this qualitative study, framed by the oral tradition of stsptekwle, I share stories of my own involvement in language regeneration and stories from community members who worked alongside me to develop an Indigenous immersion school. These stories are set within the village of Sexqeltqin, in the South-Central Interior of British Columbia. They focus on the early experiences of the founding members of Chief Atahm School to help uncover how an Indigenous community, filled with hegemonic beliefs of its own obsolescence, worked to reconnect the self to community, through language. Throughout this research journey, narrative and autoethnographical elements merge with the Secwepemc oral tradition. Through using the oral tradition as a theoretical and conceptual tool, I reframe Aboriginal language revitalization as a journey of reconnecting self to community. The development of the “Restorying” Coyote Research and Theoretical Model not only asserts my rights as a Secwepemc researcher, but also, my responsibility to give back to community. The Trickster and Transformative elements of Coyote help to frame the research findings as a dynamic interplay whereby the self, community, and the colonized world, all compete for the rights to the Secwepemc language. Within the research analysis, the findings from Chief Atahm School loop back to connect to colonial history in my creation of an interactive community game utilizing Coyote’s Path to Language Power. ii As a Secwepemc mother who has raised four children within the loving circle of the Secwepemc language, I join my fellow storytellers in this telling of the Chief Atahm School Creation Story. This story becomes a part of Coyote History, as it jumps forwards and backwards, to link the story of language loss to stories told for over tens of thousands of years. This story tells of how ordinary people become heroes through learning to trust in each other and in the wisdom of their ancestors. iii Preface This work is approved by: • The University of British Columbia Behavioural Research Ethics Board (H08-02139) – on January 23rd, 2009; • Adams Lake Indian Band Chief and Council (BCR 2008/09) – on January 30th, 2009; • Chief Atahm School Tek’wemiple – on February 6th, 2009. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii Preface........................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents........................................................................................................... v List of Tables................................................................................................................. xi List of Figures .............................................................................................................. xii Glossary of Key Secwepemc Terms ......................................................................... xiii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... xiv Dedication.................................................................................................................... xvi Chapter One: The Great Coyote Story......................................................................... 1 Part One: Everything Starts with a Story .................................................................................. 1 Part Two: Introducing Coyote ................................................................................................... 7 Looping Back ..................................................................................................................... 10 Connecting to the Great Coyote Story ............................................................................... 11 Part Three: Jumping into the Story of Chief Atahm School .................................................... 20 The Setting......................................................................................................................... 21 On Collecting Stories ......................................................................................................... 24 The Path of Research ........................................................................................................ 26 Markers Along the Way...................................................................................................... 28 Chapter Two: Searching for Stories of the Trickster................................................ 31 Part One: Making the Connection........................................................................................... 31 The Story of the Disappearing Languages ........................................................................ 33 Globalized Language Loss ................................................................................................ 34 v Loss of Indigenous Languages .......................................................................................... 35 Language as the Soul of a People..................................................................................... 37 The Legacy of Language Loss in Canada ......................................................................... 39 First Nations Languages in B.C. ........................................................................................ 39 Secwepemc Language Loss.............................................................................................. 40 Part Two: Coyote Travels the Secwepemculecw.................................................................... 41 The Secwepemc ................................................................................................................ 42 Traditional Secwepemc Life............................................................................................... 44 The Value of K’wseltktnéws ............................................................................................... 46 The Value of Knucwestsut.s .............................................................................................. 48 Part Three: The Myth Behind the Margins .............................................................................. 51 The Trickster’s First Contact .............................................................................................. 51 Settlement in the Secwepemculecw .................................................................................. 52 The Emergence of the Colonial Trickster........................................................................... 53 Trickster Claims the Souls of the Shuswap ............................................................................ 56 The Trickster Goes to School ................................................................................................. 59 Day Schools and Boarding Schools................................................................................... 62 Coyote transforms into Pteseg........................................................................................... 63 Compulsory School Attendance......................................................................................... 64 The Plan for Integration .......................................................................................................... 69 Coyote Finds Another Use for White Paper....................................................................... 74 From Trickster to Transformer ........................................................................................... 75 Chapter Three: Coyote Transformations................................................................... 77 Part One: Reawakening Coyote ............................................................................................. 81 The Value of Knucwestsut.s .............................................................................................. 82 “Restorying” Self to Power through Knucwestsut.s............................................................ 84 The Value of K’wseltktnéws ............................................................................................... 87 vi Part Two: The Transformation of Indigenous Languages....................................................... 88 Sharing Amongst Indigenous Nations................................................................................ 91 Indigenous Language Within Schools................................................................................ 93 Community Language Development.................................................................................. 95 Indigenous Language Immersion Education........................................................................... 98 Mohawk Language Immersion..........................................................................................