Field reports from nineteenth-century ethnographer Charles Hill-Tout are collected in this four-volume series, The Salish People. Volume II deals with the people of the Squamish and the Lillooet. It includes an account of the Origin Myth as told by a 100-year-old blind storyteller whose mother saw Captain Cook sail into Howe Sound in 1792. Hill-Tout’s “asides,” too, are uniquely informative.
These four volumes, edited by Ralph Maud, are rich in stories and factual details about the old customs of the Pacific Coast and Interior Salish in British Columbia. Each volume covers a specific geographical area. Volume 1 deals with the people of the Thompson and Okanagan. It includes stories told to Charles Hill-Tout by Chief Mischelle of Lytton in 1896.
Volume IV of The Salish People deals with the Sechelt and the South-Eastern tribes of Vancouver Island. This four-volume series collects for the first time field reports (circa 1895) written by ethnographer Charles Hill-Tout, who studied the anthropology of British Columbia, in the Pacific Northwest.
Previously ignored or misunderstood by historians, the war between the Hwulmuhw or “People of the Land” and the colonial government of British Columbia remains of utmost significance in today’s world of unsettled First Nations land claims. Chris Arnett reconstructs the fascinating account of the events of 1863 using newspaper editorials, letters, and articles; government and police correspondence; and navy logs.
Boas, Teit, Hill-Tout, Barbeau, Swanton, Jenness, the luminaries of field research in British Columbia, are discussed herein, and their work in Indian folklore evaluated. Other scholars, amateurs, and Native informants of the past and present are given consideration, making this book a comprehensive survey of myth collecting in B.C. a valuable reference tool for beginning or advanced students of anthropology.
Volume III of The Salish People deals with the Mainland Halkomelem, the people of the Fraser River from Vancouver to Chilliwack, and includes the earliest account of B.C. archaeological sites. The Salish People collects for the first time field reports (circa 1895) written by ethnographer Charles Hill-Tout.
Many of the stories in Okanagan storyteller Harry Robinson’s second collection feature the shoo-MISH, or “nature helpers” that assist humans and sometimes provide them with special powers. Some tell of individuals who use these powers to heal themselves; others tell of Indian doctors with the power to heal others. Still others tell of power encounters of various kinds.
Johnson’s savagely funny [book] is a grunt’s-eye view of fear and loathing, arrogance and insanity in a dysfunctional, dystopian closed community. It’s like M*A*S*H on ice, a bleak, black comedy.”— The Times of London