While working in Alert Bay BC. in about 1989 I was flown in to Hopetown on the mainland coast to level some houses which had sunk on the soft soil . It was a small settlement of about 15 indigenous peoples which included 2 early teen boys. After work one evening they received permission from their parents to take out their punt and show me their Island where they placed their deceased and generally show me around the coast. We approached the low lying island and temporarily fastened onto the massive iron ring at the landing spot and observed the small cedar houses in which the coffins where placed. We did not go ashore on the craggy igneous shore or stay for any length of time. In due course we left and returned back to the village along the coast. While doing so the steersman recounted how he had heard wild sounds coming from the shore one evening and he surmised it was a Buckwoss or wild man. He was afraid but felt reasonably safe while in the punt at sea. On our return we pulled the punt onto the shelving shore and made it fast. While doing so I commented that on this shore in Precontact time his ancestors would have made cedar canoes. I further said if we looked around we would find evidence of this. I looked down at my feet and there was a broken stone adze made from fine grained igneous rock. He was amazed and I was a little surprised at how quickly I had shown my point. I found further evidence of stones with the conchoidal fracture associated with being worked by man. These two teenagers had a live in teacher on the island whose only job was to educate these boys. I was surprised how little they knew about their environment and their history. The community was well off and I wonder whether the wild man would be the same as the Wendigo in the above article. I do not think the coast environment can be related directly to the interior plains and Barren lands for there was always plenty of fish which were easy to process and keep in time of need.
Great points, Ben. May I say that my research on the Fort Langley journals showed that late winter and early spring were starvation times for the Coast Salish without eulachon and salmon in the river.
I remember reading a long time ago about someone who asked an Inuit woman if life was better after the Europeans arrived. She thought for a while and said that it was better because there were no more famines.
Some of the coffins had fallen over without spilling the occupants. There was an air of unkemptness, no upkeep around the island. When in Kingcome Inlet on the main reserve there I could not go into the cemetery for the masses of blackberry bushes crowding the entrance. Back in Alert bay this year 2024 ,the old main cemetery has extremely bleached totem poles with no paint adhering at all. The official new cemetery at the highpoint of the island is covered with a fantastic array of armature grave poles, festoons of flags and such, all destined to decay rapidly. I was working for the Whe La La Lu, by the upper gravesite in winter with driving sleet when a funeral was taking place. The keening and crying was striking. The casket was lowered into standing water even after bailing. I had been ordered to attend the wake lunch. I protested that I only had on my work clothes but was told it did not matter, I was a member of the community. I duly attended the somber lunch with no conversation but I was accepted with no raised eyebrows I could see. The old cemetery down on the waterfront came in for some excitement around 1990 when the elders declared that the road along the waterfront ran over some graves which were an extension of the old cemetery. They blocked the road and we had to go up and down steep hills to get round it. I recall coming down the hill
and losing control in 6 inches of snow and travelling across the T junction and stopping 3 feet from the building at the base. The BC department of Highways said they could tell if there were graves present with ground penetrating radar which would add certainty to the question. This was declined by the elders { who must not be questioned! }. One million dollars later we had a road around the foot of the Cemetery! These were 1990 dollars. There is a story there Hymie? Did the Namgis Nation bury their dead below high water mark? These were interesting years for me for they gave me an insight into a less than pretty picture of reserve life ,politics, and a culture the white man rarely has to contend with . Ben
Indigenous have indeed chosen to reject economic and social integration for their people. The irony is that the leaders themselves have fully integrated. In fact, they have used all of the gifts “colonization” has given them to become leaders. But instead of counselling the indigenous underclass that remains behind to do the same the leaders tell them to reject integration and follow a dead end “separateness” path that leaves them poor and the “leaders” rich
Interesting. In the context of all those indigenous children missing from Res School is it possible to believe that instead of falling victim to all those murderous nuns and priests that perhaps the "Wendigos" got them. Just saying !!!!
I read the book, "Hamatsa: The Enigma of Cannibalism on the Pacific Northwest Coast" by Jim McDowell recently. It draws the reader into a frightening world permeated by beliefs in terrifying supernatural beings in which BC Indians lived their lives in the not very distant past. It reinforced for me how little native people know about their history, even recent history. This was especially evident to me when I mentioned to origins and meaning of the Hamatsa Winter Dance to a native woman who was very insulted that I would demean the "beautiful ceremony". I am confident that if she understood its meaning she would be appalled. It is no wonder to me that we are told such bizarre stories of torture, etc., about the schools. I believe such stories of monsterous behaviours permeated West Coast culture (at the very least), that children were often the victims of the creatures that made up the world native people inhabited, and this was a feature of these groups, even in recent times.
Please notice the I wrote "the world native people inhabited". That is intended. From my reading, which is broader than Hamatsa, my sense is that humans crept about trying to avoid evil spirits. Humans were not the superior inhabitants of that world. Rather, they existed at the discretion of these evil beings, and could expect with a kind of certainty to be destroyed at any moment, on a whim. It is no wonder to me that they adopted a more benevolent god (Christianity) - comparatively, a relatively benign entity.
While working in Alert Bay BC. in about 1989 I was flown in to Hopetown on the mainland coast to level some houses which had sunk on the soft soil . It was a small settlement of about 15 indigenous peoples which included 2 early teen boys. After work one evening they received permission from their parents to take out their punt and show me their Island where they placed their deceased and generally show me around the coast. We approached the low lying island and temporarily fastened onto the massive iron ring at the landing spot and observed the small cedar houses in which the coffins where placed. We did not go ashore on the craggy igneous shore or stay for any length of time. In due course we left and returned back to the village along the coast. While doing so the steersman recounted how he had heard wild sounds coming from the shore one evening and he surmised it was a Buckwoss or wild man. He was afraid but felt reasonably safe while in the punt at sea. On our return we pulled the punt onto the shelving shore and made it fast. While doing so I commented that on this shore in Precontact time his ancestors would have made cedar canoes. I further said if we looked around we would find evidence of this. I looked down at my feet and there was a broken stone adze made from fine grained igneous rock. He was amazed and I was a little surprised at how quickly I had shown my point. I found further evidence of stones with the conchoidal fracture associated with being worked by man. These two teenagers had a live in teacher on the island whose only job was to educate these boys. I was surprised how little they knew about their environment and their history. The community was well off and I wonder whether the wild man would be the same as the Wendigo in the above article. I do not think the coast environment can be related directly to the interior plains and Barren lands for there was always plenty of fish which were easy to process and keep in time of need.
Great points, Ben. May I say that my research on the Fort Langley journals showed that late winter and early spring were starvation times for the Coast Salish without eulachon and salmon in the river.
I remember reading a long time ago about someone who asked an Inuit woman if life was better after the Europeans arrived. She thought for a while and said that it was better because there were no more famines.
Interesting story, particularly how they deal with the dead.
Some of the coffins had fallen over without spilling the occupants. There was an air of unkemptness, no upkeep around the island. When in Kingcome Inlet on the main reserve there I could not go into the cemetery for the masses of blackberry bushes crowding the entrance. Back in Alert bay this year 2024 ,the old main cemetery has extremely bleached totem poles with no paint adhering at all. The official new cemetery at the highpoint of the island is covered with a fantastic array of armature grave poles, festoons of flags and such, all destined to decay rapidly. I was working for the Whe La La Lu, by the upper gravesite in winter with driving sleet when a funeral was taking place. The keening and crying was striking. The casket was lowered into standing water even after bailing. I had been ordered to attend the wake lunch. I protested that I only had on my work clothes but was told it did not matter, I was a member of the community. I duly attended the somber lunch with no conversation but I was accepted with no raised eyebrows I could see. The old cemetery down on the waterfront came in for some excitement around 1990 when the elders declared that the road along the waterfront ran over some graves which were an extension of the old cemetery. They blocked the road and we had to go up and down steep hills to get round it. I recall coming down the hill
and losing control in 6 inches of snow and travelling across the T junction and stopping 3 feet from the building at the base. The BC department of Highways said they could tell if there were graves present with ground penetrating radar which would add certainty to the question. This was declined by the elders { who must not be questioned! }. One million dollars later we had a road around the foot of the Cemetery! These were 1990 dollars. There is a story there Hymie? Did the Namgis Nation bury their dead below high water mark? These were interesting years for me for they gave me an insight into a less than pretty picture of reserve life ,politics, and a culture the white man rarely has to contend with . Ben
Indigenous have indeed chosen to reject economic and social integration for their people. The irony is that the leaders themselves have fully integrated. In fact, they have used all of the gifts “colonization” has given them to become leaders. But instead of counselling the indigenous underclass that remains behind to do the same the leaders tell them to reject integration and follow a dead end “separateness” path that leaves them poor and the “leaders” rich
Interesting. In the context of all those indigenous children missing from Res School is it possible to believe that instead of falling victim to all those murderous nuns and priests that perhaps the "Wendigos" got them. Just saying !!!!
I read the book, "Hamatsa: The Enigma of Cannibalism on the Pacific Northwest Coast" by Jim McDowell recently. It draws the reader into a frightening world permeated by beliefs in terrifying supernatural beings in which BC Indians lived their lives in the not very distant past. It reinforced for me how little native people know about their history, even recent history. This was especially evident to me when I mentioned to origins and meaning of the Hamatsa Winter Dance to a native woman who was very insulted that I would demean the "beautiful ceremony". I am confident that if she understood its meaning she would be appalled. It is no wonder to me that we are told such bizarre stories of torture, etc., about the schools. I believe such stories of monsterous behaviours permeated West Coast culture (at the very least), that children were often the victims of the creatures that made up the world native people inhabited, and this was a feature of these groups, even in recent times.
Please notice the I wrote "the world native people inhabited". That is intended. From my reading, which is broader than Hamatsa, my sense is that humans crept about trying to avoid evil spirits. Humans were not the superior inhabitants of that world. Rather, they existed at the discretion of these evil beings, and could expect with a kind of certainty to be destroyed at any moment, on a whim. It is no wonder to me that they adopted a more benevolent god (Christianity) - comparatively, a relatively benign entity.