Salt Spring Island Archives
| Accession Number | |||
| Date | 2008 | ||
| Media | digital recording | Audio | mp3 √ |
| duration | 99 min. |
328_Historical-Society-AGM_Chris Arnett_2008.mp3
otter.ai
16.02.2024
no
Outline
Unknown Speaker 10:14
won't get woke everybody up, I'd like to call our meeting to order please. As you're aware, this is our annual general meeting. So all of you are eligible to be elected to the executive. Thank you very much for coming out today. I would ask the secretary if we have any correspondence for the AGM
Unknown Speaker 10:37
one letter in response to the letter to the elementary school? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 10:49
Thank you that was the meeting last month down at Fulford which was well attended to over 100 people there that was great. Duncan financial statements, please
Unknown Speaker 11:00
was the AGM so you're gonna get the slightly longer version this time. We're gonna very busy year the cash flow was about $25,000. Overall, you may be aware the archives is under the umbrella of the society. And they had a busy year as well, I got three big grants $1,000 from the Hudson's Bay Company to work on a Kanaka heritage $2,000 in the Saltspring foundation for computer equipment, and $12,000 in the IQ barber foundation to work on more digitization of the resources we have. And of course, we thank them all for those very generous grants. The Archives spent $2,400 More than they brought in last year, but in total about $7,400 expenses. But this was planned for and understood and expected and was in support of the grants. On the society itself. total expenses were about $1,500. And we were up $100. So we're running pretty much flat on that. The overall bank accounts at the moment in checking account is 2909. In terms, term, deposits 8781 for 11,695. And to bring us up to year end, there's 927 outstanding and check still. So our resources at the end of the year are 10 668, which puts us in excellent conditioned to continue to promote history on Saltspring. Thank you. And the details are on the wall there if anybody has a question or wants to look at
Unknown Speaker 12:35
when somebody moves that we received that report, please. Thank you, Candy rush, all in favor. Duncan also indicated to me that our fee will still stay the same next year $10 To join the association Federation. And if you want to get the historical news, that's another $15. Our year runs from September 1 until this meeting, AGM so unfortunately, we cannot take any of your money today. But we hope you'll all come back in September and give us your $10 Thanks very much. Membership reports, isn't.
Unknown Speaker 13:19
It, thank you 73 members, that's about our average annual for the last few years. So that's good that keeps he keeps interest all over the island. Hospitality report. I'll report on that Donna and my wife has been running the the hospitality the tea and coffee this year. And she asked that if any of you are going to be at the September meeting, if you could let her know that if you could bring the goodies for that particular meeting, please. So cookies, cakes are all accepted. So if you see her after the meeting, and what you can set that up with her archives report. Barb last please.
Unknown Speaker 14:13
Thank you, Duncan. I, as many of you will know if you read this wonderful article. It was in the driftwood. Mary Davidson has decided to step down from her role as being manager of the archives. And I've taken over from her and first I want to thank Mary for all that she's done. She's sitting here in the third row. She's done an amazing job over the years. Let's give her a hand
Unknown Speaker 14:42
it's very hard to follow Mary because Mary has been married to the archives and she has been available like that and I'm not quite as available and people are having to get used to that. But I hope that they do. We started off I took over from Mary in January and we started off With a workshop, where we brainstormed what we wanted to make sure that we would keep with the archives, we identified things that we need to do, we discussed new doors that we wanted to open, figured out where we were at and where we needed to go. And out of that, we formulated an action plan, the main one working with our communication internally, we felt we needed to become really strong, because we need to get more new members and new volunteers and the volunteers that have been there for years have done an amazing job. But it's time to get some new people in. So we wanted to get everybody on the same page. And that's what we've been working on. Then we set up a further set of workshops for new volunteers. And some of those are a little bit down the road. But we've been learning FileMaker, from Frank, and learning about all of the ways that we're supposed to be classifying information in a an archives, which is different to a library. We're in the process of trying to get a larger space. As you will have read in the driftwood, again, things have not worked out for the library to date. So we're, we're always keeping our eyes open. So if anybody knows the spot that we can use free, of course, we would be appreciative of hearing about it. We applied as Duncan said for a number of grants last year, and were successful in getting them a lot of hard work has gone on by our volunteers. We also receive some amazing donations this year from the beyond Shawn Tolu phones. We've applied for a salt spring Foundation grant to try to help us store this appropriately. But it's amazing stuff. Paul beyond was maybe perhaps a spy with the French army in the First World War. And he went up in those little planes and took aerial photographs of the trenches. And there are 1000s of these pictures. They are absolutely amazing and a tremendous find. And we're very fortunate to have them. We're going to be making contact with the National War Museum and with the French war museum as well to let them know what we have, if we got a large grant to do digitization this year, and if you want to see something interesting, take a look at the Saltspring Archives website. It is really remarkable. And thanks to Frank Newman, who does a tremendous amount of work on that. And we get comments all the time, one just today from Nelson publishing, saying, Well, what a website, there's so much information on it. Now we're starting to get questions from students who are using the website to do their research. So I was with a student teacher the other day in a classroom, and they were all in the lab, and they were using our website. So it was pretty exciting to see that kind of thing happening with kids. I'd like to express our gratitude for the support that we get from the historical society and a huge vote of thanks to all of the volunteers that come and help us in the archives because without you, there wouldn't be one Respectfully submitted.
Unknown Speaker 18:12
Would somebody move we received that report, please. Donna McWhorter. Good thank you. The website is Saltspring archives.com. I think that's all you have to put in to get it if you're in a googling mood, election of officers. This is part of the AGM intergender meeting that we have to do every year. I'd like to thank the executives that served this year and I'll read their names out and if they're here, I'd like them just stand up briefly, because most of them indicated they would like to run again. And that way you'll get a chance to see who you're voting for. Bob McWhorter, Duncan Hepburn, bar boss, Susan good. Dorothy Kyle, Frank Newman, Roberta Stark, Barb Dolan. And Tony Farr. Those people were responsible for our our program this year. So let's give them all a great hand. Of that group, all have indicated they will rerun for election at this meeting today. Except Susan good who is going to step aside. And Susan has been in charge of our membership. At least the last two years, maybe three years. And it's done a remarkably good job. We tried to twist her arm but she's going off to bigger and better things she says so, Susan, on behalf of the Federation society. Thank you very much for all of your hard and dedicated work. Now we have a nominating committee, Duncan Hepburn, myself and Roberta Stark are the members of the committee. And we have two names to place before you and also to ask for nominations from the floor. But the executive would be the people I read out the following names will stand for election. Plus, Duncan will introduce the new. The new names Bob McWhorter, Duncan Hepburn, BB last, Dorothy Kyle, Frank Newman, Roberta Stark, Barbara Mullen, and Tony Farr have indicated they would love their name stand again for next year. So I'll now turn it over to Duncan, who's responsible for the nomination of the new members? Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 20:35
And I think our Constitution allows that with the two names we have that will fill the slate so we don't formally have to elect to but if there is nominations from the floor, yes, we will have an election. First person that's agreed to work with us and Marshall. Hi, Nikki. An old Island name, basically ran a dairy farm in Vesuvius, his parents did for many, many years. He's retired back here and he's been to quite a few of our meetings and I think will be a real asset because he of course, he grew up here and knows a lot of the North in history where some of us on the south end know the South End history. And Marshall is off giving a lecture in Vancouver today, so we can't attend unfortunately sends his regrets, but he will be an active member. I'm sure. The second member is with us today. Mr. Hafeez BMG, at least would you indicate where you are please? Thank you. I finished his wife Rangi also have an island history. They lived here for five years in the 70s. And they were married here and had two children here. So then they went away to other things. So I've been back for about a year now I live down Isabel point. And Hafeez again, has been to many of our meetings and is very interested in what we're doing and agreed to work on the executive. So that's the two people we have to fill out the slate with the names Bob read out. And to make it official I have to ask three times are there permanent on nations from the floor? Are there any further nominations from the floor? Are there any nominations from the floor? See Seeing none, I declare the slate unanimously elected
Unknown Speaker 22:17
moving right along, new business any new business All right, well, we won. The next item of business
Unknown Speaker 22:37
is to nominate any life members honorary lifetime members to our society. I would read out the list of our members from the past and past and present members who are already aren't really life members. That's Agnes Cunningham, Mary Davidson, Tony Farr, Ivan Mowat, Sue mullet, or Stratton, Becky Tolson and Tom Wright. We honor those people at our AGM. And each year, we have a chance at this particular meeting to nominate any other lifetime members we deemed we would like to honor so the nomination today is for this particular person. It gives us great pleasure to nominate Frank Newman for life membership in the Salt Spring Island Historical Society who since coming to the archives in 2001, as a volunteer teacher of computer skills for Agnes Frank quickly became an indispensable member of the staff. With a degree in electronics from the University of Berlin, he really saw the need for the archives to start the digitization of archive photographs and records, which soon resulted in a website of archives collections. It was an uphill battle for Frank to convince staff members of the need to catch up to the 21st century. If you have access Saltspring Island Archives website, you will know what an amazing thing that Frank has done. It has had complimentary comments from many sources, including professional researchers stating that our website is the most comprehensive and easy to access access website that we use comparing it to favorably with university, provincial and municipal websites. And Frank does not sit back and rest on his laurels. At every opportunity he strives to increase his knowledge and remain up to date with the recent technologies. While the website might be Frank's main claim to fame, he does not limit his talents to that project. He has assisted many of the society speakers with PowerPoint presentations enhancements, as well as attending assisting with PowerPoint presentation to the schools organizations, such as the farmer's Institute's 100th Year celebrations, family gatherings and personal tributes. Whenever possible, he assists with church and other community project. Frank works with various authors and publishers requiring photographs for their publications and they are grateful to use the psaltery and archives with ease and small expense. A valuable member of the archives for the website contribute issues in policymaking and educational sessions. Frank does much more than that. He's been on the executive the history Historical Society for several terms his office, representing the archives and offering much of his way of ideas. He tends workshops sponsor the archives Association, and assists our archives and following the criteria set down with the archives Association. Frank is a contributing valuable member of the Historical Society, the archives and the community. We hereby nominate Frank Newman for life membership and Saltspring on a historical society sign Agnes Cunningham, Mary Davidson, Duncan Hepburn, Frank gives me a great deal
Unknown Speaker 25:54
this was happening. I don't know. The very much.
Unknown Speaker 26:16
That's the end of the formal business program. Would somebody like to move adjournment? Oh, everybody should ask. Good. Thank you. We'll take a minute to turn the program over to Chris Chris yet to come up and get what did they call it miked up, and Peter Prince has to come and put his mic up here. He doesn't have to anymore. So all done. We don't need this mic, then I'll turn this one off. Last year at our AGM, Chris presented an excellent presentation on the beautiful collection, which we Barabbas briefly talked about, he has an interest in history, far beyond Saltspring. But he always keeps coming back to the coastal regions. And today, he has come forward to talk to us about some Salish post history. And he's got his books at the back. He's also here to share his experiences with you. And it's a great deal of pleasure to welcome, Chris to our AGM. Thanks very much, Chris.
Unknown Speaker 27:21
This is holy that thing on the internet shows. So I guess we have the lights. Well, thank you all for coming. And I just like to echo Bob's remarks regarding Frank's lifetime honorary membership in Historical Society, I couldn't think of a more deserving person. And Frank's certainly helped me a lot in every one of my presentations, and tonight, you'll see some more his fine work. So today, I'm going to talk about a book that I just just are Talon books just published a collection of writings by barrel Mildred crier. And on the oral traditions of the hall coming from Coast Salish, and it's a book I've been working on for about 10 years, I came across her work in the provincial archives when I was doing research on an earlier book of mine, the terror of the coast. And I discovered this stuff in three archival boxes, they were undated newspaper clippings all yellowed and tape to pieces of full scab, and I said, What's this, you know, and I didn't know where they were from, or who are or who wrote them. And as I started to read them, I was first put off by the journalistic style, you know, being a serious historian and all it kind of, you know, it's taken a bit of back but as I started read the stories, I realized that this was really important material and it resonated with a lot of research I've been doing with First Nations people and, and various archival research, but it was just fascinating stuff. And so I, you know, photocopied all of it, and use some of it in my book, The terror of the coast. And over the years, I've always had this dream of publishing it and, and barrel crier, you know, wanted to have this material published during her lifetime, but was never able to accomplish it. So I feel very privileged to have finally been able to help her bring these stories out from the ephemera of the newspaper to the printed book version. I call the two houses half buried in sand, sort of a metaphorical allegorical title. Referring to the the collaborative nature of the book is the collaboration being barrel Mildred crier, who is sort of an upper middle class British background, and her informants, so people that gave her the stories Who comprised 15 Coast Salish elders from Nanaimo Cooper Island Cowichan and other places Galliano Island and the stories you know originally were given in Holcomb eat them, which is the, the ancient language of this place. But they were given to barrel Mildred crier in English and all of these people you know the most of them were born in the 1860s. And so they've they've grown up with the English language and they were fluent in it. So that's part of the illusion to the two houses. And the house, of course, is the greatest political unit in a native village. And you can see a picture of a house here. This is a photograph at Panella hut on Cooper Island, half buried in sand is a reference to the village of Panella hut, which we see here in this picture, a photograph I took in 1983, showing the last standing longhouse on the beach there originally 15 of these structures along the beach, each one housing, an extended family. This was the last one standing and it blew down about two months after I took this photo. And the name Panella cut refers to the condition of houses being buried half buried in sand, because as you approach this spit from the water in the sand is sort of blown up against the sides of the houses and it looked as though they are kind of half buried in the sand. So and also half the stories in the book are from Cooper Island, which most of you know or should know, is the island or Island neighbor just to the north of us. Are you going to point to that thing? Okay, the hakomi num, which is the reference in the title. This these are the this is the language spoken by the people that live in this area you can see on the map. They live between the noose Bay and the North to around Malahat and Holcomb ETOM is a dialect of the greater Holcomb Eylem language which is spoke from this area all the way up to hope all the way up the Fraser Valley and there's many different dialects. You can see some of them here, all these little segments are different dialects of the languages. But linguists now are beginning to think that halt comete num, which is only spoke on the east coast of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands has sort of reached a status of its own language. And it is very similar to the mainland Holcomb aylen. But there's a lot of sound shifts, and there's a lot of different words. And so yeah, it's a distinct language. Unfortunately, there's only about 100 fluent speakers today, and maybe 300 People who are partially fluent, but things are changing, you know, they they there's a program in place amongst the Cowichan tribes to revive the language. And they finally got to a computer friendly way of spelling it those of you who study English or Indian languages, you know, it's been in the hands of linguists for so long, and they've upside down sevens and backward letters. I mean, nobody can read this stuff. But now the couch and tribes have developed a computer or a keyboard friendly way of writing the language. So I think it really bodes well for the preservation of the language. And here you can see the three main dialects of Holcomb ETOM, which is Nanaimo. shininess and Cowichan. And so all the stories in this book is about 60. Stories all originated from this area. Oops, don't zap anybody here are very well. Like, some of you may have heard of this language Shinnok. And people say Oh, this Chinook was this lingua franca that everybody had to learn. So they could communicate that this is false Chinook was invented by non Indian speakers for the purpose of communicating with Indian people because they, you know, it was too hard to learn the Indian languages, native people learn each other's language. It's the same way. Europeans, you know, someone who spoke lived in Germany would learn French and Italian, you know, they, they were quite proficient and learning each other's languages. Chinook was a, you know, a white man's invention. This is the village of Panella, which you saw on the cover of the book, which is at the north end of keeper Island. I forgot to mention the whole communities people, you know, they have a long tradition up until only you know, as recently as 1950. Archaeologists Western trained scientists believe the native people had only lived on the coast here for about 500 to 2000 years ago. But since that time, just in the last 50 years, there's been a lot of archaeological work, and they've pushed back the boundaries to about 8000 years. The oldest archaeological the oldest data site in the Lower Mainland is on the Fraser Valley at the Glenrose Cannery and it's 8000 years old. And I'm sure that there's a lot of older sites in this area, we could I think we could confidently say that people have been living in this area for 10,000 years. And these people, the culture that was encountered by the The first white explores was the was the product about 5000 years of continuous development, beginning with the stabilization of sea levels and whatnot and the creation of clam beds and, and annual salmon streams, we have the development of the what they call the Coast Salish culture. And these people, like the political units were based on families that occupied you know, these large houses and this would be a political unit and then the house next door would be a separate family and they would have connections with families all over the area on different islands over on the mainland down in Washington State. In the interior, they had widespread networks of families and this was done to provide greater access to the seasonal exploitation of resources which was the basis of their economy, you know, that the annual runs of salmon on the Fraser River the seasonal coming and going of nature, they had a very sophisticated elaborate, you know, technology to deal with the you know, the procurement of this stuff, which led to you know, quite a quite a good life over the millennia Oops. Okay, getting to a barrel crowd. So this is the town of chumminess on Vancouver Island, which most of you know about.
Unknown Speaker 36:23
I just want to point out here, the word chumminess is based on the Indian village up here the whole community and village known as submenus, summon us, which means something like bite out of the breath, which refers to the the indentation of polluted Cooley Bay, so the original should semanas is up here. And when the whites first came to this area, they settled in the they actually established the first sawmill on the east side of Vancouver Island right in this bay here was called Horseshoe Bay. And it's a felony mask, you built a mill there in 1862, with a great water wheel. And so it was Horseshoe Bay, but over the years, you know, the name of Simonis, which was a large village here, and it's still there. It's when it's the largest Indian reserve in the, on the east side of Vancouver Island. Gradually the name of you know became corrupted to the name chumminess So this area became known as chumminess. And the ASCII mill in 1862, was the first of four mills and here I think is the latest version. There were four great lumber mills on this site. This is where HR McMillan sort of got his start when he took over the van Victoria lumber manufacturing company. And over the years, you know, the middle just grow bigger and bigger, and it's always been a mainstay of the chumminess economy. Now, the barrel crier who collected these stories from the native people in this area, her fat, she came from a family called haul heads, and they moved here in the 1890s. Now in the 1890s, chumminess was in the middle of a huge boom, not only did they have one of the largest lumber mills in the British Empire operating down here in the harbor, the Copper Mountain mines on Mount Sychar were happening, the Croft and smelter was in full, you know, going full bore. And so it was a really booming time for this area. And this is when a lot of people moved here from sort of upper middle class ancestry from Britain particularly moved to Vancouver Island to you know, just you know, start off a new life in a in a so called new land. And the hall heads came originally to Victoria but ended up settling down here and purchasing about 50 acres on on chumminess Harbor on a large house that stood here on the edges of the harbor, but it's now covered over by the ever expanding mill operations. This is a hall had family and the hall heads came from horrible done near Canterbury in Kent, England, and they're from an old established British family and they had very close connections to the East India Company. So, you know, well off, folks, and this is an interesting picture. This was taken in 1910. They originally, as often happened in England, you know, the, these sort of landed the landed gentry, these large families had lots of sons and only one son could inherit the family mansion, and the rest of the sons were sort of given a stipend and sent off to various parts of the world. So this son Richmond here, was sent to he and his wife, Gertrude went to New Zealand in the 1880s, where they had two sons. One of them's here, Frank and Arthur, and one daughter, Beryl, who was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1887. With the death of Richmond's father, they returned to England inherited even more money from the estate, and then Richmond decided that the family wouldn't Move to British Columbia. Because if you study the newspapers in Europe in the 1890s, there was a lot of publicity about BC and Western Canada. It was very attractive to people all over the world. Actually, the Dion's that were mentioned earlier, were part of this wave of sort of wealthy, upper middle class people, families that moved to this neck of the woods. So they came here in 1890, settled in germaneness, around 8090. And had another daughter Maisel, and Richmond here was appointed to be a constable in the British Columbia police force. So he was sort of the head constable of humaneness and took on the duties of a policeman because they were members of the sort of the the upper class they, you know, created the first tennis court and Gimenez and they had lots of parties. Gertrude here was always organizing events she was a musician and organized an annual hospital ball to raise money to create a tremendous his first hospital so they're very much involved in the sort of the the social activities of humaneness, especially associate with the Anglican Church of St. Mark's, or is it st angels, the church anyway, in Gimenez and Richmond here had a very famous cousin, Lord Baden Powell, who's shown here, who is of course, everybody knows is founded the Boy Scout movement, and he was a frequent visitor to their state. And they had quite an estate, they had a big house, tennis courts, a giant picnic table, that's, you know, seated 100. And, you know, we're well known socialites, and this is the sort of atmosphere that barrel and her her, her good looking sister here Maisel grew up in. And if you go through the society notices that the paper you're always hearing about the balls, and you know what barrel was wearing, and maydel, you know, and all this, you know, they were members of high society, this picture was taken around 1910. And a few years later, she was Botros, to some dashing lift tenant and the Royal Navy. And it was a notice in the London illustrated, or the London or whatever it is the major newspaper in London, you know, announcing the engagement, but nothing ever came of it. So. So anyway, life went on. It's interesting, these young man here, one of these, this young fella here died in World War One. Anyway, I won't get into all the particulars. So Richmond and during the course of their residence and chumminess they came into contact with a lot of native people because chumminess, like a lot of rural BC towns. You know, there were large Native populations in the area. And, you know, the white population wasn't so large. And so there was a lot of interaction. And Richmond during the course of his duties as a police constable would go to various native events. Now, it's interesting. This is a photograph that Richmond took in about 1912 of a Potlatch at chromogen. Now, technically, the Potlatch was made illegal in 1884. But it was still being conducted and he was attending them. So there was some sort of, you know, negotiation going on between the local law enforcement and the Native people, which was kind of interesting, because technically, this was all banned activity under the Indian Act, but it shows sort of the degree of cooperation and friendship that was that was shared between the town residents of chumminess and the native population. Okay, this is in the 20s showing, and this is barrel here. And her family, there's Richmond again, and her mother, Gertrude and other family members, that's maple. There's her brother Frank, and her other brother Arthur. Now, by this time, barrel, had married a local man being Bill crier, who was a buddy of Frank, they both served in World War One together. And after returning from the war, barrel, married William prior in 1920. And they had one daughter, Rosemary. So they settled down to life and chumminess and barrel.
Unknown Speaker 44:12
And maicel began to write stories for the couch and leader. And they were called legends of the kitchens. And they were very flowery kind of romanticize stories that were based sort of on the writings of Pauline Johnson. And they they had, you know, the goal of becoming, you know, famous writers, you know, of Indian lore, but they figured that the editor of the paper wasn't paying that much. So they gave up doing it, and tried to get these stories made into a book. They sent it off to various publishers. Nobody was interested because, as you know, the depression was looming, and places like chumminess were particular hit particularly hard, you know, its lumber industry came to a standstill, and lots of people unemployed, and barrel managed to get work as sort of the social correspondent for The Times colonists, the daily colonist just sort of wrote a week The gossip column now who was getting married? Who is doing what in chumminess, you know, very exciting column. And then, but but she took a lot of pride into it. And you know, even though it was a small call, I mean, they got paid by the inch. So it provided some family income, and then all of a sudden she was fired from the job. And it's because the editor had given her position to somebody else. And she said, Well, how can you do this? She was really indignant and went off, you know, looking for the editor of the paper or the publisher, you know, and he just happened to be passing through chumminess, like, the day after she was canned. And so she got ahold of them. And he said, Okay, you know, I promise I'll find you a position on the paper. She said, Oh, great. And then he went off to Nanaimo, and then he died. He had a heart attack or something. And so she said, Well, you know, that's it for my writing career. But lo and behold, she got a letter or some notification A few days later, or a few weeks later from the new editor. Instead, the dying wish of the publisher was the UV reinstated some way to the daily call. And so he said, I'm here to offer you a job. Could you write maybe a weekly column or something or bi weekly column on Native Indian, Indian history for the paper? Because I think our readers would like it. And this was Bruce McKelvey, who was the assistant editor and some of you may have known Him or know Him as, as a sort of an amateur historian who did a lot of writing in the 30s and 40s. And so he encouraged her to write stories, which he did, she did and that was the genesis of this book. Now, this is a photograph of Mary rice or Indian names Holland, Ahmet, Now Mary race, made the acquaintance of barrel crier years ago. Mary was born in Panella hut in one of those long houses, on the beach. And from a noble family, it was the house of hahaha Collison. And she, so grew up in this noble family. And she married a man and they lived on the north end of Galliano for a while, but he died in 1879. And then she remarried another man in 19, in 1888, by the name of George rights, and George White's Rice was half Irish, and half Swinomish. He was from the US. And so they settled together on rice Island, which is some of you may know is Norway, Ireland. It's a little island off of the, off the coast of between Cooper Island and Galliano, and they began to raise a family. And they have four young children. And then George rice is up fishing and he gets a massive heart attack falls in the water and drowns, leaving her with these four young children all under the age of 10. And because she had married this man who is technically a white man, according to the laws of the day, she was denied her Indian status. And so she was not able to live back on the reserve she couldn't live on on rice island. So she basically lived in a shack on the beach on chumminess with her four young children and went to work right away as doing whatever she could. And she began to build up a business as a village washer woman. And so that's what she was known as in the early part of the 20th century. And she means she was the village washer woman. She was also the village house, White House or midwife. And she delivered hundreds 1000s of babies during her lifetime. She I talked to her granddaughter, Ellen White, some of you may know who said, Mary always used to tell her, you know, I've delivered 1000s of babies black, white, yellow, red, doesn't matter what color they are, they all come out the same. And so many of the early citizens of Jamaica so you know, oh, their lives to this woman's midwifery practices. She was also a healer, and a FIFA, which is a woman who can see events in the future and events in the past, you know, and and had an incredible knowledge of herbal medicines. And she was also a cultural tradition bearers. She was a recognized authority on the cultural on the traditions of her tribe. And so she lived on the harbor chumminess for a while but after a while, she moved to a little shack right on the edge of the hall had property where barrel crier grew up. And so they made an early acquaintance. And there's references in some of her stories about going down to the beach at night and Mary would have a fire going, she'd have her grandchildren around her and began just telling stories. Of course, the hall had girls were just fascinated by this. And you know, being you know, sort of nieces or whatnot of the Lord Baden Powell, they were very much involved in the Girl Scouts and all this stuff. So Mary's stories really stuck it or struck a nerve with the young women so fast growing as a depression. This was battle cry when she got this this gig as a writer for The The Times columnist, this was her informant. She immediately went to Mary rice, of course, Mary rice and I got stories. I'll tell you stories, and the first five installments of this of her works. Were based on I'll just go forward here. This is all just before I get to Through stories, this is a photo taken by barrel crier of Mary rice in wearing this schmuck cloth, which is a mound of blanket made a mountain goat wool and this is only worn by the high ranking people. And she's holding her small squid sis, which is a special copper rattle it was only used by certain families. And so Mary, you know, obliged barrel crier with all these incredible stories and, you know, barrel wrote them down and submitted them to the paper. And at first, they only appeared in small little areas sort of scattered throughout the various, you know, during the week, but after a while they became, they became so popular just within a month that they were, they appeared every second Sunday in the Sunday News Magazine, and were given quite a prominent place. And one of the most significant things about these stories from an anthropological point of view is that they're based from the perspective of a woman, like there are a lot of male anthropologist working in this area during the 30s. And a lot of them said, Oh, the old culture is dead. You know, we'll be lucky if we can grab any kind of remnants, and they worked exclusively with male informants, whereas the majority of the stories barrel Cryer collected or from the female perspective, they're collected from female informants, and to give a view of the woman's experience as a Coast Salish woman. But the first batch of stories of six or seven or more, were based on the stories of her grandfather how Koleston and how Koleston has a lot of connections to Saltspring island. He is the granddaughter or that he was the grandfather or the father of Lucy pizza and who married to Henry Samson. And little little Irwin is in here. This is their great great grandfather. And so he is a patriarch of the Samsung family, and his Indian name connects him to how Khalistan connects that name is connected to Ganges harbour and Cooper Island and all kinds of different places. And this man This photo was taken in the 1880s. He was almost 100 years old. He died a few years later. And you know, he was an incredible man. He suffered a lot from arthritis and frostbite that he had. He he suffered in his early days, but he was a notable warrior. Back in the day in the 1840s and 50s. This guy was one of the most feared powerful men at Panella. He actually led raids back he defeated Haida attacks on Cooper Island, and led raids back into the northern parts of Vancouver Island against people who were the enemies of the Panella hit. And so Mary rice, you know, grew up in his longhouse and was privy to a lot of his stories about his life and times, you know, from the early 19th century, invaluable stuff, because, you know, no, nobody else collected any of this material ever. It's not clicking here. Oh, here we go. For example, people like this. This was a man named Crump College, who is the chief at ko mocks. And one of the stories in here, he talks about a raid where he'll colistin goes on a raid up to Quadra Island, and gets separated from the rest of his man, and has to make his way back on foot down Vancouver Island, through the bush and he gets he finally makes it to komak sarees assisted by this man who's shown here, this picture was probably taken in the 1860s and he's wearing a top hat, which is was very common amongst the leaders of the Coast Salish on the coast and they dressed in European clothing, you know, we have this sort of, you know, image that was, uh, that anthropologists like to give us of native people wearing bark and stuff and I mean, they did wear that in the 18th century, but by the 1900s most native people dressed like Europeans
Unknown Speaker 53:58
not everybody. Some people continue to just you know, wear blankets. This is a, an old couple of tauchen and tall clicked a brother and sister who lived on the couch and river and this is one of the another one of the stories that Mary rice gave Meryl Cryer, this man here had the ability to charm fish in the river using his rattle. And one day some people, you know, upset them. And so he used his rattle to draw the fish away from all the the nets and weirs and these guys couldn't catch any fish because this guy pulled them all in some areas. He's using this rattle to charm the fish. He apparently had this ability. Other stories that Mary rice gave, you know, talked about the the Potlatch, the Stronach, which was a you know, a great, the call it a party a good time. It's where people came to recognize ancestral names, marriages, the bestowing of ancestral names, particularly The point to make here is about oral traditions like this is my book is called oral traditions of the whole communion. And in our culture, old traditions don't have a lot of cachet. People don't know oral traditions, you know, there's, everybody's reminded of that story, we put everybody in a room and you tell this guy over here, his story in the past that around the room, by the time it gets to this person, it's totally different. You know, that's just, that's the white man's version, that would never happen in a native culture, any oral traditions, oral histories, they were all given in front of the community, they were not, you know, they were all validated by the community at at events like this, if this Potlatch may have been given to bestow an ancestral name on a child, and when that before that name was given, everybody be told about the name, the history of the name, the places where that name was associated with the rites and ceremonies associated with the name. And all the traditions would would be, you know, witnessed by everybody and understood by everybody. And so we tend to kind of privilege the written word, but oral traditions in this context, are just as strong, if not stronger, and anyway. But this is another there's a great account in there of a splenic by Mary rice, she also gave accounts of the SNAM, the Indian doctors, I was going to read an account of the book, but I'll just keep going along here. You'll have to buy it, read it yourself. But they're excellent accounts, she claimed, you know, she said, our doctors, no more than your doctors. And she gives a wonderful account in here about a man who has a couple of gross bones stuck in his throat. And you know, he's choking to death, you know, and, and so they call a white doctor, and the guy comes in, and he's got metal tongs, and he's sticking them down the guy's throat, and, you know, causing these bones to get even more stuck. And so the guy's lying on the table, you know, and they're saying, Well, what he's done for he's going to die. And then a woman comes in to snom, an Indian doctor, a female Indian doctor, who takes over, and the white doctor says, What's this woman doing in here, and she says, I'll show you and, and there was a white man there saying, I'll bet you $10 That she can fix this guy. And the white doctor takes the bet. And of course, the Indian woman goes to work removes the bones through sucking, they had a technique where they she sucked on the afflicted area, and drew the bones out through the skin, and they could see the marks it's all described in this book. And needless to say, the white doctor paid up and left quickly. But this picture, originally didn't want this in the book because it was too old a photo this is taken from the 1860s. So this was a phenom from 1860. And of course, by 1930 the the Sean's were the drafts of everyday, you know, Canadians, you know, suits, ties, hats, that sort of thing. But they were they were and still are important members of the native communities in Duncan and Cooper island I guess any questions? Well, before while this little intermission no written language? No, there were just a few anthropologists that develop their own kind of writing system but nothing you know, consistent. Okay. No, Mary also gave stories about the the origins or the the names associated with different villages. And here, you will hear I'll just show you a everybody I don't know if everybody knows but Willie island off the coast of off at the entrance of chumminess Harbor, used to have a large Indian village called hull off, which means painted houses. And it's not there anymore. The village the people have moved now to the current halt reserve, which you pass on the way to Duncan, and Nanaimo. But this is a grave house on the village showing the type of grave house they use in 1860s, with glass windows, and the bodies would lie inside. And there's accounts in here describing these houses. There's also detailed accounts of the native use of the land. This is a duck poll that was standing at the mouth of the chumminess River. In fact, there's Willie island here, and these are the flats at the mouth of the chumminess River, which you can see on if you're if you're vigilant on your way to the shininess. And these nets were incredible. They were maybe these polls are about, I don't know, 80 feet high. And they'd be you know, set at intervals along the flats, and a huge net would be strung up made of metal fiber, and they would string this up during the early hours of the morning while the ducks are kind of swimming around and you know, sleeping there and then it would make a great noise and the ducks would fly up in the air and get caught in these huge nets and then they'd lower the nets, club the ducks and then process them and this way they would collect hundreds of ducks. And this just shows you the value of this stuff that she collected because of nowhere I've I read a more detailed account of, of this kind of duck hunting technique. And I've read a lot of the anthropology that was done in the 30s. But in here you get a very detailed description giving the names of the different parts of the nets and the pool and description of this very poll, and this poll stood until recently down in chumminess.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:27
So Mary race, contributed about half the stories in this in this book, there's about 60 stories in here. But after a while, she decided, you know that, that barrel needed to widen her group of informants, so she began sending her to various relatives of hers. And this is shows a group of this is taken in the 1930s. And many of these are some of the storytellers in the book are shown in this picture. This is Tommy PL, who is a brother of Mary Rice, who contributes some stories. This is Jenny wise and Nanaimo. Her husband, Joe wise, and these people down here, all from Nanaimo. These ones are from Cooper Island. And what's interesting, this man here, and this woman were from Salt Spring Island, this these are the pop and burgers. This guy his name is Sofia Aniston. And his wife, Keith, better known as Johnny pop and burger and Marianne papen. Burger. They lived at Beaver point. And she was a sister of Mary writes. So there's a lot of connections to Saltspring Island, and there's references to Saltspring Island and some of the stories. So anyway, there was a there was there was an agenda behind these, this this idea of Mary's to expand this, this group of informants because in 1927, the federal government forbade the any research into Indian land claims. And it was made illegal to do any kind of research that would promote, you know, non native awareness of land ownership by Native people. And so I believe that these people seized on this chance to, to have their stories told by a woman they trusted barrel crier, and they even stated so in their stories, when barrel crier first meets suggestin Jo y is in Nanaimo. He gives us long speech, in the Nanaimo dialect. And it basically translates he says, you know, he was saying, Thank you, white lady, for coming to visit me for so long. I've wanted to tell the white man what I know, but no one would listen. But she would listen. And so he and his wife, Jenny, give a whole whack of stories about the Nanaimo beginning, you know, from the early origin histories of the tribe to various accounts in the 19th century. This is a great painting, this was done in 1858, showing the village of follow Hall, which stood in downtown Nanaimo, the Bastion would have stood around here. And these people moved, they signed a Douglas treaty. And in that treaty, they were obliged to move their village a few miles up to the harbor, so that the white man could build the mine, the first coal shaft was sunk right in the village, of Salah Hall, here, and Joe wise gives an account of the finding of coal there and an account is a Douglas treaty, he was actually present at the signing of the Douglas treaty as a child. So it's an invaluable account of now this is a famous photograph that you see in practically every second history book of BC. And these people have never been identified. But barrel crier and their stories through their interviews with Joe wise, you know, he's talking about this, this famous carving that his, his father had a commission and it says, some unusual carving here. We'll go to the next shot. This is an earlier photograph is one of the oldest photographs in British Columbia 1858. This was taken of that village we just saw in Nanaimo. And in the account in the book, there's no photograph. But Joe Wyse gives an account of this remarkable sculpture and his painting that was erected in the front of his father's house. And it's interesting in the same story, he asked her Oh, you know, I really wished you could find a picture of my father. I don't have any picture. But through her work, we've been finally able to identify, you know, a photograph of his father, Mrs. Sadness, then with his daughter, in front of this remarkable piece of art that shows I won't get into story, but it shows the story is given in detail in the book. It shows the origin story of the softball Hall, those families that lived in Nanaimo, and it's illustrates a story about how they were born out of the sky and a huge thunder and lightning storm. And it's it's great story. That's detailed in the book. This is a picture of cat's cousin, who is known as cold Tai Chi. He His claim to fame is that he was the one that attracted the white man to the incredibly rich coal deposits in Nanaimo. By visiting, he visited Victoria one day and went to the blacksmith. And he saw the blacksmith working with his coal and said, Oh, wow, there's tons of this down in Nanaimo. And so he went, showed the white man where it was. And of course, one thing led to another. And, you know, establishment of the coal mines, the incredibly rich coal mines in Nanaimo soon followed. So there's stories about history in this book, Jenny wise gives an incredible account about the petroglyphs and Nanaimo. Many of you have probably seen petroglyph Park, on the outskirts in Nanaimo. That place is known as talk when it was named after an Indian doctor who lived there and created these carvings which are known as halt halls, which is the Indian name for writing. And in the Indian Indian language, they make no distinction between these pictures, and the writing system we use. And so it's a proto literacy that is showing here all these, these images relate to stories, many of which are lost, but some are still still known. I worked in a book in the early 1990s, where we worked with a native elder in the interior, a woman related to these people who could understand this form of a picture writing. Other informants that she met in Nanaimo barrel crier she was introduced again through this family network, to this man here with James was a famous athlete of the day, his Indian name is quote, Kamath. And he was a well known athlete and an artist and also an authority on the history of his tribe. And he was unique for being a an artist. And he carved this with Chaka Chaka Khan, which just means a carving and it's a totem pole. Now, the Coast Salish people did not carve totem poles, traditionally, they carved house posts, which are about this size. But this is a poll that he did, because he was you know, by this time, they were familiar with the totem pole carving of the North. And so he wanted to do one. And this poll was raised in honor of his father top comment. And it's a poll that shows the origin of the Nanaimo people in this particular pool. It's not there, it's it stood for many years. I bet some of you remember this poll. If you came from the ferry terminal into Nanaimo is usually on the left there in front of the park, and sue for many years now. It's lying in a decay condition on the Nanaimo Indian reserve, but I do believe they're carving a replica of it. But I remember this poll, and I'm not that old. Another famous informant of hers with John Peter, select, select sulla. of north end of Galliano. This man had a reputation amongst some of you may have low I know some of you know of him may have even known him as children. He lived to be over 100 and 100 years old, I think 125 He claimed to be died in the late 40s. And he was an incredible cultural authority who was late related to Mary rice. And he gave her the lowdown on the the the Salish calendar, there's a great story in here where she barrel crier gets in your head, she wants to learn about the Salish calendar, she hears about it, you know, the, the native people had a calendar and it was based on the moons it was a lunar calendar, you know, depending on the moon came, they had a name for the moon, and the name of the moon usually was associated with the type of resource or that was showing up at that time, like we've just gone through the month of Lemus lemurs, which is refers to the lien which is the which is the flight of geese. So it was a month when the geese appear and sure enough, Lemus the moon shows up and the geese start flying back up here. But John, Peter gave me the lowdown. And at the end of the story says, Write that in your newspaper and tell her that I told you this, this is the law as it came, or this is the the months of the Indian calendar as dictated by Indian law. So he was an authority, and he knew that these stories would be published and wanted them published so that the white people would know.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:29
Although how many people remembered it, being in the newspaper that, you know, the ephemera, the newspaper, you know, the stories would appear in the weekend edition, people might read it disappear. So Barrow continued. You know, she she worked in the news, these articles between 1932 and 35. And often was with a lot of difficulty because, you know, often the paper would run her stories, they wouldn't pay her. The daily colonists almost went under they had to fire most of their staff. And it's remarkable that she was one of the few Colin minutes that they kept on, even though you know, she often wouldn't get the money, of course, she needed the money. And she was paid by the column inch. And which is, you know, another one one benefit of that is that her stories are so long, they take up a whole page. And, you know, she didn't she didn't do any padding. And this, this was great because what she would basically do or technique was to go in there and just, you know, talk for the people a bit. And as always a beautiful description in each one of these stories about, you know, usually visiting the person talking about events of the day. So you get a sense of what's going on in the 30s, you get descriptions of the people the homes they live in, and then they launch into the stories and she just let some roll, like the story from beginning to end. And the remarkable thing is, you get the complete stories, like Franz Boas who was a famous anthropologist who worked in this area 50 years earlier, and had no knowledge of the language and few people spoke English. And he communicated with his informants with chin up. And so he got these tiny little fragments of stories, you know, very, they're like a paragraph or something barrel crier would get, like pages of stuff, the same story, but in way more detail with the names. And you know, she was amazing, she, she was very meticulous about recording Indian names. And, you know, very interested in, in authenticity. And you're very much aware of it, you know, she was a woman, she was not a scholar, you know, but she was from a family of scholars, you know, her one of her great great uncle's, you know, was a linguist who compiled dictionaries of Sanskrit. So she came, you know, she had a lot of this sort of family heritage that she had to live up to. But she was an amazing writer. And this is what captured my attention when I came across her writings. And this is a picture that I think she took, and there's her vehicle, her husband here, Bill would often have to drive her to remote areas where she would interview people, and often she would interview these people. And you know, it was just in time, like often or not often, but in several instances, these people died like a month or two later. And if she hadn't visited them got the story, we wouldn't have these detailed accounts. She could understand it, but she couldn't talk it. In fact, as she says so much in one of her letters, I was able to draw on quite a lot of correspondence that she made between between herself and William Newcomb, who was the curator at the BC Museum. And she she asked him for dictionaries and stuff, but there was nothing but but she had an ear for it. And when I wrote the book, or transcribed her the original text, I changed her transcriptions because she had her own way of writing the language. But it wasn't consistent. You know. And so, I worked with some informants in my own some native scholars like Arvid, Charlie Florence, James, Ellen White, who, who gate who showed me the proper way to write these names. So most of the names in the book are the current transcriptions as understood by the native people. But she, you know, in that regard, she was she was more meticulous than any of the anthropologists working in the day. This is another man that she wrote a story about, she visited the daughter of this man, this is loha, who figured prominently in the history of the Cowichan Valley. In various military campaigns in the Cowichan. Valley, I won't get into the details, because they're in the book, but it's just another valuable. You want to know about the medal he's wearing, they're in the uniform, and even the crucifix, it's all explained in this book, through the words of his daughter. And it's interesting, because this man was probably the richest man amongst the Cowichan in the 1860s, up to the 1890s, when he died, but his daughter lived in poverty. You know, wealth wasn't sort of inherited, it was, you know, distributed. And, you know, there was no kind of hierarchy of rich people, it was all dependent on who you were at the time and, you know, your family connections, and yeah, no inherited wealth at all. And so her daughter was always complaining about that. She also gave a detailed account of the squeak way mask, and the dance. And this is a sweet way masks. The native people don't like these photographed or published anymore. In fact, there's kind of a restriction against it, but this was carved by a white man, so I figured it's okay, and appeared in my book. And this is a man who visited or he was a well known, visited barrel crowd because barrel crowd began to gain reputation as a cultural authority on the Coast Salish people by other leading anthropologists, in this case, George Emmons, who was a well known collector of clean, good art. And so he visited or when he was in his 80s, and he was really I want you to collect me some Choi masks I really liked when here's what they look like I had some guy make a copy of one. And so barrel crier showed this to Mary rice and she immediately noticed recognize it is a fake. So what's this? You know, who the hell made this? And, you know, immediately recognize it as not being a native manufacturer. But there's a great account in there about the origin sway sway mask, and the traditions associated with it. And they're not secret traditions, I mean, they're, they're well known to people, but if to get gain a proper understanding of it. Barrel crier gives a great explanation in there through the words of the native people and this is another thing about her work is that she didn't paraphrase anything. Unlike a lot of anthropologists, you know, the paraphrase with the people tell him put it in their own words, not barrel, like I said, you get paid by the call an inch, just let people go. And we're the beneficiaries of that, you know, methodology. Eventually, however, it kind of went against her. In 1935. She She visited a Schmidt Club, which is the winter dance of the Coast Salish people. And it's, it's a secret of dance in the sense that it deals. It's only held during the wintertime. And it's a time when native people gain possession of their garden of their spirits. And they actually have you know, they, they congregate in the long houses, and all night long, and people get possessed by their spirits and perform dances is one woman explained to me we dance who we are. And, you know, it's not uncommon for guests to be invited to this, she was actually invited to this performance. But she may have taken notes and recording equipment, and this is absolutely forbidden. And this was general knowledge. At the time, there were I have accounts from anthropologists who were forbidden to make any sort of recordings, or bring any kind of writing materials into the longhouse. And I have a feeling that this is what she did, because this was the last story that she wrote that had sort of a, you know, a native informant that was, you know, sort of contemporaneous with her position as a Times columnist, immediately after this appeared in the paper, the story about the Sheetla. No one else would talk to her. And, you know, she, her stories continue to appear in the column this for about another year and a half or so. But they were all older stories, some of which she had done with her daughter with her sister in the 20s. They weren't the same wasn't the body of work that she did from 1932 to 1935. So even though she had gained the confidence of all these people, there came a point where she crossed the line in, in gaining their trust, or broke that trust. And she never wrote any more. She She published one book that came out in 1949, a year after Mary rice died, and it was a collection of the more sort of child or childhood stories that she co wrote with her her sister back in the 20s. They're still very good stories in that they're authentic in the in the subject matter. But again, there's a flowery kind of Pauline Johnson ish romanticize accounts that she wrote in the 20s, none of the real,
Unknown Speaker 1:17:50
genuine kind of authentic material that she wrote for The Daily colonists in the 30s. But she continued her interest in native culture, she joined this organization, BC Indian and Arts Council, I believe that's the name. It was mostly a group of mostly women that kind of promoted native arts and culture. And she continued to take pictures and, and collect information on Native people. Here she is shown in a long or she took this picture in the late 30s. There's your husband, Bill, and a friend inside one of the long houses that then standing at the original short submenus on what is now better known as Cooley Bay, on Vancouver Island. a barrel crier. Her husband died in the 60s. And then at an older age, an elderly age, she moved back to Welland Canal to be with her daughter, rosemary, who had a family in Ontario. And she moved back there and she she didn't like well in. She said she despised the place, and wanted to move back to the coast, but but she was too old. And shortly before she died in the night, in 1980, she sent a copy of her all all of her columns that she had collected, she'd cut out of the colonists and tape them on these pages, this full SCAP, and she sent them in this big pile, to the curator of the BC Museum, asking him if he would want if you could help her put it into a book. And of course, there's this big pile of stuff. And he said, and he read through it, and he wrote back and said, You know, I love these stories, but I'll see what I can do. And he contacted Michel press, he actually did a bit of work, but nobody would take it on. And so he wrote back to her said, you know, I can't find anybody to make a book out of this. And she said, Well, I'm giving it to you. I give the copyright to throw it to the BC Museum, consign it to the incinerator if you want and of course, he wrote back and said, you know, there's no way I'd have any, you know, I've never think of consigning it to the incinerator. Instead it was it was it was divided into three boxes and put into the The BC provincial archives and access only by a few scholars, and I came across your work in a master's thesis on the island place names for the hell come Eylem. It was written in 1985 by a man named David Rosen, who did a lot of really good work and introduced me to the language of the culture and to her work. And when I found it, it was so important that I just spent the last 10 years slowly getting it together. And finally has come out in the book and I feel incredibly privileged to have been a part of getting barrel crier and her the people she worked with, you know, a greater audience. And thank you for your time. And thank you for coming out to this presentation.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:50
So if anybody has any questions, I could ask them. Yeah. All right.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:00
So on our way up, when the when the stories ended,
Unknown Speaker 1:21:04
I think she was, you know, just going on a peek. I mean, you know, I was wrong, and that she did right, one more thing that came out in, I don't know, some of you may be familiar with the volume published by the humaneness Historical Society, in 1978. It's called memories of the germaneness Valley. And because she was a, you know, from a pioneer family, and she made it, they contacted her, and she wrote a wonderful biography on that, which, you know, used quite extensively in my book, on the hall had family. And it's interesting in this whole book, there was nothing about the native history. In fact, the editor said, you know, we'll leave that to the natives, you know, we don't feel you know, confident to do their history. So that was just sort of all about the pioneers and stuff. But she her contribution as a big chunk on Mary rice, because she said, I feel I have to mention, you know, this person because she was so important to the early days of shininess. But, and it's a beautifully written night. You know, when you read the book, you'll see, you know, what a gifted writer she was, I think she was incredibly talented. And that's what stands out. I mean, not only the the content of the stories, but it's her literary ability that really capture mine, and people who've read this, you know, of all walks of life. You know, I've really enjoyed her stories, her accounts. But yeah, I think she could have done awesome things. Yeah. Yeah, basically all cedar and basically a post and beam kind of thing. Infrastructure, then planks, cedar planks on the outside, and they could all be dismantled, like all these buildings used to move the houses like the from the village here, that house there. I mean, that's a more of a modern long house, but in the old days, you'd be able to dismantle the whole thing, put it on two canoes, and ship it over to the Fraser River and rebuild your house. Just yeah. Yep. They Yeah, they. It was quite handy. Sort of a years. Oh, that they will the earliest plank houses on the coast. They figure the probably about a 2020 500 year old tradition. Because, yeah, because, you know, the cedar tree only got established around around 5000 years ago. And this is when you see the beginnings of heavy woodworking tools in the archaeological record. So they figure well, once cedar trees are a certain size, you're probably building big plank houses before that the people here lived in Pitt houses. Hey, Charles.
Unknown Speaker 1:23:50
Oh, yeah, no, Bob. Yeah, grand grandchild. Yeah. He helped me with some of the stuff in his book. awesome guy. Very knowledgeable man. Oh, yeah. He's the guy I got to interview more because
Unknown Speaker 1:24:06
I was very Indian yeah
Unknown Speaker 1:24:22
yeah. Yeah, I do know Bobby's cool guy. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:24:30
I guess it would be like the 30s or 40s. The native women used to come and get very, my parents are really cool. And most of them can pretty much myself but that was when was the friend of mine. Who was this is Right. And she was on her way to our farm during the 40. During or when a plane went down. And she had her son, who was about nine or 10 years old. came over and and brought the airman to shore. My parents take them. But yes, ma'am.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:41
What? Yep. Well, they'll I'll tell you it's, I'm so glad you brought that up, Nancy, because that's Bob race was the young man, a guy that tuck just mentioned. And his mother was Hilda, who is the daughter of Mary. Yeah. Yeah. And he got recognition for that, because they wrote in their canoe or something. And his plane went down. And he rest they rescued him. Yeah. Yeah, that's Bobby. Pretty cool. Thanks. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:11
Going back earlier to when she was a young woman, and her father was the constable. In that part of the narrative, you said that the law said then that Anglos could not mix with First Nations people. Could
Unknown Speaker 1:26:28
you talk about that? What was it that they couldn't mix? It was the I mean, they did mix. They were just they were community members. But it was the, it was the Potlatch ceremony, that the the, it was an 1884 that it was outlawed. But the law was on the books, but it wasn't really, you know, prosecuted too much. Until both both the 1920s when they started coming hard coming down hard, especially on the clock, a lot of people the clock util, folks, but you know, these guys like Richmond, lived in the community, and they were gonna go bust their friends. And then they knew that these things weren't sort of the diabolical ceremonies that the people in Ottawa thought they were. They were, you know, really important parts of the whole native social structure. You know? Yeah, no, they all got along pretty good. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:27:27
Interviewing stories from they
Unknown Speaker 1:27:29
never gone. Oh, yeah. No, she always pay them she. Yeah, yeah. Sorry to mention that, but yeah, it's in the book. She, yeah, she got, you know, whatever, I think it was 11 cents an inch, or whatever. And she always paid them a little something. But I don't even know if most of them would not, I don't even think expected payment, I get the sense that a lot of you know, as I mentioned, the people were anxious, you know, amongst the network of native elders, they were anxious to have their stories get out there because they were forbidden to do it through legal channels. And these people were knew what was going on, like 1927, just before that, a group of BC Indian chiefs had approached the Canadian government, the parliament for permission to take their land claim to the Privy Council in London, this is detailed in the book, and Parliament denied them it they said, you know, we've been in a let them do this. And so pass the law, making it illegal to research any land claims, because these guys had the evidence, and they all knew that they were in possession of the land, and that there had been no treaties. You know, these are people that knew they were born in 1860s. They knew their parents, they were fluent in their language and in English. And the Canadian government effectively stopped that. And for 30 years, it was only until I think 55, where it was made legal to once again, do the kind of research I'm doing. And it wasn't just Canada, you know, same thing happened in New Zealand as well. You know, it's just those times. Yes. Well, because people didn't understand it. And it was also I think it was a way to destroy the native form of government, because that's basically what the Potlatch ceremony was, it was how the natives practice their self governments, governance, it's how people, you know, rights and privileges were recognized in the communities. And so the Canadian government saw that as a threat. And also there were a lot of missionaries who thought that there were diabolical ceremonies, you know, they was just a lot of misunderstanding. But I think it was done for political reasons, mainly, just to kind of, you know, do away with the native system of governance.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:42
Yes, one last question. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:47
Hearing drums when I was about 14 or 15. The last night I was playing first wave Burning anybody with filmmaking?
Unknown Speaker 1:30:10
Yeah, yeah, I used to hear him in the 80s over Galliano over at Cooper and they still I mean Cooper is remarkable because it's a place where the the native culture is really strong. In fact it is in all this area, you know, it's not visible but it's very strong, the longhouse tradition continues
Unknown Speaker 1:30:34
thanks very much Chris. Very enjoyable presentation if you would like more information you can look at this look at the back side. Don't forget if you couldn't bring to the first meeting of September to see Don over in the corner there. And your clock and have a cup of coffee or tea with this where you go thanks very much for coming. We'll see you in September.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:58
Pretty good at drawing. Hey Jenny.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:07
Remember those readings You
