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FIRST NATIONS

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Bianca
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« Reply #45 on: March 14, 2009, 09:24:12 am »











A woodland-style settlement



Known as the Cluny Fortified Village located on the Siksika First Nations reservation, the village may have been home to a small band of normally-sedentary people from North Dakota.

The style of settlement the team found at the site is a departure from the camp style typical to the region: "Tipi camps...were the usual dwelling sites of Alberta for thousands of years," says Dale Walde, a U of C field school director, overseeing the excavation.

He explains that evidence of tipi camps can be found in the rings left behind by tipi-anchoring stones. "This site has no tipi rings."

Instead its occupants left behind evidence of a woodland-style settlement. "It looks more like villages 1,500 kilometres away on the Missouri River in southern North Dakota," Walde says.

And there's more: "The pottery from Cluny is quite unlike other prehistory pottery found in Alberta, but it may be distantly related to ceramics from the Eastern Woodlands and the Middle Missouri region," says Walde. "The big mystery of Cluny is why this village site so different from everywhere else?"

"We're still unravelling the story and this site is like a gold mine," says Jack Royal, president of the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. "This is a very unique and valuable project because everything is uncovered, documented and prepared by the university and then it comes to our interpretive centre to be stored and used to teach the public about our history and culture."

The team now believes the unknown group descends from the Hidatsa culture. 
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« Reply #46 on: March 14, 2009, 09:26:16 am »

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    Magnetic fields used to date Indian artifacts
« on: July 01, 2008, 03:35:09 am » Quote 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Magnetic fields used to date Indian artifacts






Associated Press
REPUBLIC COUNTY

- You might be surprised what you can learn from a campfire. A campfire that has been cold for, say, 300 years.

Stacey Lengyel hopes she can tell, within 30 years or so, when it was used.

Lengyel, a research associate in anthropology at the Illinois State Museum, is the country's leading authority on archeomagnetic dating, a process built around two phenomena: when heated, magnetic particles reorient themselves to magnetic north; and over time, magnetic north is, literally, all over the map.

"They call it a 'drunken wander,' " said Lengyel. "Around 1600, it was real close to Earth's rotational axis. Now, it is around 75 degrees latitude."

Lengyel is one of scores -- mostly volunteers, but also some highly credentialed professionals -- who were enlisted this summer to help uncover new information about a Pawnee Indian settlement in northwest Republic County.

"One of the things we're really hoping to learn is the actual age of the village," said Richard Gould, administrator of the Pawnee Indian Museum.

The museum encloses the floor of an 1820s earth lodge. It is surrounded by the remnants of many other structures. The earth has settled where each of the lodges once existed.

"We have 22 lodge depressions within the fenced area," Gould said. "What we really want to do is pinpoint when it was lived in."

The group also wants to learn more about this Pawnee Nation band's lifestyle.

The Kitkehahki band was one of four Pawnee Nation bands. It also was dubbed the Republican band by French traders, who were impressed by the Pawnee's collaborative culture. The Republican name then was adopted for the river and the county.

Band members were hunter-gatherers, Gould said, but they were moving into a farming lifestyle. They planted crops in the spring, went hunting for buffalo in the summer, harvested in the fall, and then left to hunt buffalo again in the winter.

The two-week archaeological dig is a project of the Kansas Archaeology Training Program, a venture in its 33rd year that involves the Kansas Historical Society, the Kansas Anthropological Association, the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.

Donna Roper, research associate professor at the University of Kansas, is one of the principal investigators.

"Almost everyone here is a volunteer," Roper said, pointing to dozens of people -- young and old, scraping and sifting, pouring and lifting -- swarming around intersecting trenches.

More than 150 volunteers, some of them students enrolled in KU's Kansas Archaeological Field School, participated in the two-week dig.

Whenever potentially significant fragments were uncovered, their location would be charted before they were moved. Dirt shaved from the floor was bagged and then shaken through a series of increasingly fine meshes.

The team was looking for any telltale objects, such as seeds, tools or building materials, that offered insights into the band's daily lives.

In archeomagnetic dating, once potential samples have been identified, their location and orientation are precisely measured, Lengyel said. About a dozen 1-inch cubes are then excised, encased to preserve them, then taken to a lab.

The chunks are then progressively demagnetized until their natural remnant magnetism can be measured, she said. The objects may have been partially magnetized by nearby lightning strikes, for example, or if they were stored near objects with strong magnetic fields. These weaker magnetic fields must be removed.

First their magnetic fingerprint is taken, and then they are slightly demagnetized. The process is repeated several times; eventually all that is left is the baseline magnetic signal, she said. If the material is fired to about 500 degrees Celsius or more, the magnetic field will point to where magnetic north was located at the time.

"The best dates we can get are within a 30-year time period," Lengyel said.



http://www.kansas.com/news/state/story/441912.html
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« Reply #47 on: March 14, 2009, 09:28:50 am »

Red Dawn, Fire People
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    UNBC team unearths ancient First Nation site
« on: August 17, 2008, 06:23:36 am » Quote 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------






UNBC team unearths ancient First Nation site     





 
Written by BERNICE TRICK
Citizen staff     
Thursday, 14 August 2008 

UNBC archeological students have unearthed more than 200 ancient First Nations artifacts along with an "earth oven" believed to have heated and cured rock useful in making tools and weapons.

The dig west of Fort St. James, led by Farid Rahemtulla, UNBC anthropology professor, is an ancient village site of the Nak'azdli Band, whose members selected it based on oral history.

The site on the south shore of Stuart Lake could be from several hundred to several thousand years old, and pieces of charcoal found in various locations will be used for radiocarbon dating to determine when it was an active village, said Rahemtulla.

The 13-member student team, which includes members of the Nak'azdli Band, discovered dozens of stone tools and more than 100 stone flakes that indicate tools were manufactured at the site. A number of cultural depressions dotting the site may have been used for cooking, food storage or heating rock.

"The largest earth oven was excavated to a depth of more than four feet and is believed to be the first ever found in the Northern Interior," Rahemtulla said.

Carrier student Walter Tylee is excited about he find.

"It's important to actually get involved with our past and for the young people to understand where we came from and what we're all about," Tylee said. "In digging we learn a little bit about our past. Even finding something as small as a flake is exciting. It might be just a little flake of rock, but to think that someone was here maybe thousands of years ago and chipped that flake out to make something like an arrowhead is exciting."
Rahemtulla described the three-week project as a "remarkable success" both as a find and training band members and students .

"This kind of experience is very unusual in North America for aboriginal and non-aboriginal student alike."

He added that the northern and interior regions of B.C. have basically been ignored by archeologists with the last excavation on Nak'azdli land being done more than 50 years ago.

"These students have become immersed in history and have gained great personal knowledge, but their work is also making a major contribution to our collective knowledge about people who lived here thousands of year ago."

Last summer Rahemtulla and a 23-member UNBC student team discovered more than 100 ancient First Nations artifacts west of Prince George believed to be more than 400 years old.

The team, working near the confluence of the Chilako and Nechako rivers, recovered stone artifacts probably used for hunting like arrowheads and tools with projectile points.
At that time Rahemtulla said from the remnants of stone discovered, "it seems like the people who lived here brought in raw materials to manufacture stone tools which were then taken away."



http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20080814146551/local/news/unbc-team-unearths-ancient-first-nation-site.html
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« Reply #48 on: March 14, 2009, 09:30:17 am »









                                           Aboriginal relics destroyed by bikes



                           Artifacts near Harewood Mines Road run over by cars, bicycles






Dustin Walker,
Nanaimo Daily News
September 09, 2008

Dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles are grinding away ancient First Nations artifacts in the Nanaimo area.

Geraldine Manson, with the Snuneymuxw First Nation, said several petroglyphs located near Harewood Mines Road have been pounded by both vehicles and hikers over the years. She hopes a barrier will be put in place to protect the relics before they are destroyed.

"To First Nations, they have a lot of significance. It carries history, it carries direction," said Manson.


Julie Cowie, president of the Nanaimo branch of the Archaeology Society of B.C., said not only does vehicle use erode the surface of the petroglyphs, it removes vegetation on top of the stone exposing it to the elements. Vibrations from the vehicles also damage the artifacts. But Cowie thinks many people are unaware that there are even petroglyphs in the area or how they can be damaged.

Although the local archaeology society has been talking to local groups about conservation, there's also the risk of drawing too much attention and too many people to the relics. Popular spots to view similar pieces of history, such as Petroglyph Provincial Park and Gabriola Island, have also been damaged by vandalism and even people removing vegetation covering the stones to get a better look at them.

"It really comes down to the individual, you can educate them as much as you want but it comes down to if they care," she said.

Cowie thinks it's the responsibility of the province to ensure petroglyphs are protected.

The province has erected barriers in the past on several Gulf Islands to prevent vehicle use near petroglyphs, but it's not always effective as people find ways to bypass them. Often, whether or not a barrier is erected depends on whether the land is private and how co-operative landowners are.

Chris Sholberg, community and heritage planner for the City of Nanaimo, said it's likely that at least part of the land where the Harewood Mines Road petroglyphs are located are on privately owned land.

DWalker@nanaimodailynews.com

250-729-4244




© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2008

British Columbia,
Canada
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« Reply #49 on: March 14, 2009, 09:34:23 am »

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    Archaeological artifacts alone can't pinpoint an ethnic culture
« on: October 02, 2008, 03:19:14 am » Quote 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARCHAEOLOGY









Archaeological artifacts alone can't pinpoint an ethnic culture






Tuesday,  September 30, 2008 2:58 AM
By Bradley T. Lepper

 Cultural anthropologists study living cultures -- from tribes that live in remote areas to ethnic groups that live in the world's largest cities.

Archaeologists study artifacts. By comparing artifacts, as well as architecture, food remains, burial practices and other aspects of daily life that leave traces in the ground, they define "archaeological cultures" based on similarities and differences across space and through time.

Some archaeologists assume that archaeological cultures correspond to the cultures studied by anthropologists. For example, the appearance in Ohio of maize agriculture, along with particular pottery styles, has been argued to signal the migration of Iroquoian people to the region about 1,500 years ago.

Other archaeologists believe Iroquois-speaking groups had been in the region for at least 10,000 years and that the appearance of new kinds of artifacts and changes in farming practices reflect resident groups that adopted those innovations.

In the July issue of American Antiquity, archaeologist Scott Martin of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, argues that communities, both ancient and modern, interact in complex ways. Similar kinds of artifacts can be used by unrelated peoples and, conversely, closely related peoples can use different kinds of artifacts.

In his article on "languages past and present," Martin says there is no way to use artifacts alone as a means of identifying ethnic groups in the past.

Attempts to equate archaeological cultures with ethnographic cultures are problematic from more than just a scientific standpoint.

Martin argues that determinations of where and when Iroquoian groups entered the region have political implications that relate to such modern concerns as American Indian land claims.

He writes that "archaeology's role in society is not purely academic." It can have immediate consequences for a variety of stakeholders.

Archaeologists, therefore, have a responsibility to become more attuned to the social context in which we do our work.




Bradley T. Lepper is curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society.

blepper@ohiohistory.org

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2008/09/30/sci_lepper30.ART_ART_09-30-08_B5_C4BE34S.html?sid=101
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« Reply #50 on: March 14, 2009, 09:35:31 am »












                                                               CITY OF BONES



                               Many in the west ward have no idea what lies beneath their homes







By Colin McKim
Orillia, Ont.
Oct. 1, 2008
 
Lying forgotten under seven city blocks is a vast burial ground where the bodies of men, women and children rested for centuries, each one buried in a sitting position, facing east toward the rising sun.

The graves, believed to contain the remains of Algonquin people, were discovered along the Mount Slaven Creek between O’Brien Street and Westmount Drive in the 1870s, when the area was still a wooded expanse outside the city limits.

Orillia judge J. Hugh Hammond wrote more than a century ago about digging up bodies and artifacts along the creek as a youngster.

“In the early seventies (1870s) as a schoolboy I spent the greater part of some Saturdays and holidays with my playmates in excavating Indian graves on the lots north of the extension of Mississaga Street, on Mount Slaven, near Orillia Town. Our schoolmaster (Samuel McIlvaine) urged us to make available collections of any objects such as beads, wampum and the like.”

Hammond, whose account is quoted by historian Andrew Hunter in his 1903 study of 32 Indian villages in the Orillia area, gave a detailed description of the site.

“The graves were single and extended in long lines from the bank of the creek toward the hillside at the Coldwater Road, in a northwesterly direction. All of the bodies were buried in a sitting position, facing the east or morning sun.”

The lines of graves were about 20 feet apart, said Hammond, who drew a map in a notebook, showing more than 100 Xs where graves had been found running in lines from Mississaga Street northwest across Mary and John streets. The map also indicates the locations of ashpits and notes the character of the soil.

Digging around the bodies, Hammond found bugle-shaped beads, arrowheads, spear points and wampum — coin-shaped discs with holes drilled in the centre. In one grave, a black, bird-shaped amulet was found around the neck of a skeleton of a very large man.

“The lower jaw bone of this body was in place and I tried it over my own head and face and it passed clear of my face without touching it at any place.”

French iron axes from the 1600s indicate the site was inhabited after Samuel de Champlain and French priests arrived in the area, beginning in 1615. Copper kettles and knife blades and hatchets were also unearthed.

Hunter concluded the site, roughly 68 acres in size, was an Algonquin settlement, probably used in the winter when the community migrated south from hunting grounds north of the Severn River.
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« Reply #51 on: March 14, 2009, 09:36:27 am »











The creek would have provided plentiful fresh water and the hill rising to the northwest protection from the wind.

Most of the 500 native settlements identified between Orillia and Midland are Huron, but the Algonquin territory to the north and east merged with the Huron lands in the Orillia area.

The Hurons grew crops such as corn and beans and tended to be more sedentary than the Algonquins.

Hurons typically placed their dead on scaffolds and later buried the bones following Feasts of the Dead in large pits called ossuaries.

Algonquins, a more nomadic people, were more likely to bury their dead in individual graves. Two bone pits were also uncovered on the site. The first was found in 1870 at the base of a pine tree and the other, containing 10 skeletons, was exposed in 1902 when a lot on Mary Street was being levelled.

The combination of individual graves and bone pits could mean Hurons and Algonquins occupied the same site at different times or the burial customs were blending through the association of the two allied nations.

“There would have been cross-cultural influences,” says John Raynor, an avocational archaeologist from Midland.

“Just like we eat Chinese food and enjoy pizza today.”

Raynor agrees with Hunter the site would have been more typical of the Algonquin people who lived in low areas closer to lakeshores while the Huron preferred high plateaux for their settlements.

The Algonquin built small altars on top of each grave containing a carved figure of the deceased.
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« Reply #52 on: March 14, 2009, 09:37:28 am »



The Area of interest is in the middle of the map, on the left.









While archaeologists and historians are aware of the Mount Slaven site, it was largely forgotten as the city grew out over the site, block by block. There are no markers or plaques and the burial ground is not identified in the city’s official plan or defined on municipal maps. In fact, none of 32 sites inhabited by the Huron and Algonquin in Orillia and the immediate area have been located on municipal maps or marked with historical plaques.

Since digging up graves and making off with the artifacts was common practice for decades through the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900s and no effort was made to preserve the integrity of each site, it’s impossible to know how many burials escaped the predations of curiosity seekers.

What became of most of the pottery, pipes, jewelry, stone and metal weaponry, kettles, axe heads and other artifacts unearthed over the years is also unknown. There were no local museums and no one to place private collections into any kind of historical context.

Marcel Rousseau, a local history buff, wonders if the Mount Slaven site was the lost village of Contarea.

This native community somewhere near present day Orillia repelled the Jesuits in the early 1600s, spurning Christianity as the work of the devil. It was attacked by the Iroquois in 1641 and disappeared from the historical record, said Raynor.

Fraser Irvine, whose Mary Street home backs onto the creek, was astonished to learn the Algonquins had a settlement literally in his backyard and buried their dead where lawns and gardens now slope down to the water course.

“That’s amazing. Just amazing,” said Irvine, looking at Hammond’s hand-drawn map from 1904.

“I’m right smack dab in the middle of it. Nobody said anything about it.”
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« Reply #53 on: March 14, 2009, 09:38:44 am »










For most of its length, the creek now travels in buried pipes, but in the centre of the block bounded by Mississaga, Douglas, Mary and O’Brien streets, it emerges into the open air, trickling through a small ravine before entering another pipe and disappearing.

“It runs clear all year round,” said Irvine, who works in the city’s parks and recreation department.

In the four years he’s lived beside the creek, Irvine has never dug down very far anywhere in the yard.

“I’d like to get a team in here and root around,” he says.

“That stuff fascinates me. You never know what you’d find.”

The urge to satisfy curiosity is a double-edged sword, says Gloria Taylor, curator of the Orillia Museum of Art and History.

While the careful and respectful exploration of historic native settlements can yield valuable historical information, there is a risk sites can be ransacked by novelty seekers.

And often it has been the wish of First Nations that burial grounds be left undisturbed.

So the location of many archaeological sites has been kept under wraps somewhat, said Taylor.

“The province didn’t want places identified too closely for fear of grave-robbing.”

But the protective secrecy can result in communities such as those in the old west ward of Orillia living in total ignorance of the history literally lying under their feet.

There needs to be better communication between the province where archaeological finds are registered and municipalities where many of these sites are found, says Taylor.

Craig Metcalf, director of the city’s culture and recreation department, was not aware of the Mount Slaven site, but knows the area is dotted with the sites of former aboriginal villages, primarily along creeks.

“Where there’s water, there’s generally a hot spot.”

Recently attention has been focused on Orchard Point, where a developer wanting to build condominiums is being required to conduct an archaeological assessment of the property.

“Orchard Point is an area rich in archaeology,” said Metcalf.

In light of the limited information on file at the city, the Municipal Heritage Committee is recommending the city undertake an archaeological master plan, said Metcalf.

Such a plan, cataloguing sites of archaeological interest, would be a valuable planning tool in both established neighborhoods and areas of new development, alerting prospective developers of new projects and homeowners planning extensions or other work that might disturb the soil, said Metcalf.

“The Mount Slaven site could make sense as part of the overall mapping.”

Council will discuss undertaking an archaeological master plan at the city’s pre-budget meetings next month.

Taylor thinks further research into the Mount Slaven site and others within city limits could provide the material for historic plaques and a walking tour.

“People love historic signs. It makes them think about the history of the land. It helps kids understand where they belong.”

The Packet & Times was unable to get comment from Chippewas of Rama First Nation for these stories.





cmckim@orilliapacket.com

Article ID# 1226597 
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« Reply #54 on: March 14, 2009, 09:39:55 am »

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« Reply #55 on: March 14, 2009, 09:40:51 am »

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« Reply #56 on: March 14, 2009, 09:41:50 am »

             






                                       








                                                CHIPPEWAS OF RAMA FIRST NATION






5884 Rama Road, Suite 200
Rama, Ontario
L0K 1T0

Phone:     (705) 325-3611
Toll-free:   1-866-854-2121
Fax:          (705) 325-0879

Hours of Operation:

The Government Offices operate from:

Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
unless otherwise posted.

Government Offices are closed on Satuday, Sunday and Statutory holidays, including First Nations Day celebrated on June 21st each year.

General Contact Information:

Offices of Chief and Council
Phone:       (705) 325-3611
Facsimile:  (705) 325-0879
Toll-free:   1-866-854-2121

Email for Chief and Council:
Chief and Council
Chief Sharon Stinson Henry
Councillor Ron Douglas
Councillor Rodney Noganosh
Councillor Robert(Mush) Stinson
Councillor Byron Stiles
Councillor Brenda Ingersoll
Councillor Andrea Simcoe-Williams

Email: Administration
Email: Communications                 For information about the community, newsletter and events
Email: First Nation Manager (Dan Shilling)

Emergency services:

Chippewas of Rama Fire and Rescue
Chippewas of Rama Police
EMS (Emergency Medical Services)
Are available on a 24-hour call basis by calling 9-1-1.

For non-emergency service, please call:

Chippewas of Rama Fire and Rescue  (705) 325-3611
Chippewas of Rama Police Service     (705) 325-7773
EMS                                                (705) 325-3611 ext. 1717

Miigwech. Thank you for visiting our site. Please check back as our site is Under construction and will change often. Your input is important, please email any comments or suggestions to our Communications Department.



http://www.mnjikaning.ca/contact.asp
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« Reply #57 on: March 14, 2009, 09:43:09 am »

             






                                       








                                                CHIPPEWAS OF RAMA FIRST NATION






5884 Rama Road, Suite 200
Rama, Ontario
L0K 1T0

Phone:     (705) 325-3611
Toll-free:   1-866-854-2121
Fax:          (705) 325-0879

Hours of Operation:

The Government Offices operate from:

Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
unless otherwise posted.

Government Offices are closed on Satuday, Sunday and Statutory holidays, including First Nations Day celebrated on June 21st each year.

General Contact Information:

Offices of Chief and Council
Phone:       (705) 325-3611
Facsimile:  (705) 325-0879
Toll-free:   1-866-854-2121

Email for Chief and Council:
Chief and Council
Chief Sharon Stinson Henry
Councillor Ron Douglas
Councillor Rodney Noganosh
Councillor Robert(Mush) Stinson
Councillor Byron Stiles
Councillor Brenda Ingersoll
Councillor Andrea Simcoe-Williams

Email: Administration
Email: Communications                 For information about the community, newsletter and events
Email: First Nation Manager (Dan Shilling)

Emergency services:

Chippewas of Rama Fire and Rescue
Chippewas of Rama Police
EMS (Emergency Medical Services)
Are available on a 24-hour call basis by calling 9-1-1.

For non-emergency service, please call:

Chippewas of Rama Fire and Rescue  (705) 325-3611
Chippewas of Rama Police Service     (705) 325-7773
EMS                                                (705) 325-3611 ext. 1717

Miigwech. Thank you for visiting our site. Please check back as our site is Under construction and will change often. Your input is important, please email any comments or suggestions to our Communications Department.



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« Reply #58 on: March 14, 2009, 09:49:23 am »



             

              Petroglyph

              Courtesy Snuneymuxw First Nation










                                              Petroglyph returned to first nation


                           Carving on boulder had been in museum for more than 30 years






Derek Spalding,
Nanaimo Daily News
Thursday,
October 30, 2008

NANAIMO -- The Snuneymuxw people officially celebrated the return of their salmon petroglyph this week, more than three decades after it was removed by the City of Nanaimo and hauled to a museum.

Snuneymuxw First Nation archeologist Lorraine Littlefield said the petroglyph, carved into a boulder, sat at Jack Point near the mouth of the Nanaimo River, marking a ritual that guaranteed the annual run of chum salmon.

Unlike most petroglyphs, the Jack Point petroglyph has a strong oral history attached to it.


A shaman would perform the ritual, singing a ceremonial song and marking male and female salmon with paint and down feathers, according to Homer Barnett, who wrote down the oral history. The Snuneymuxw could not smoke fish for winter until after completing the ritual, his account said.

City councillors and the Snuneymuxw gathered at the long house kitchen hall Monday to honour the petroglyph's return. Nanaimo Mayor Gary Korpan held open a red cape as elder Ellen White slipped inside. She buttoned up and slid on a braided cedar headband, traditional gear she wears to honour the creator.

"I'm happy that you are all here. This is an important day for us," White said before the feast, which took three people all day to prepare. "We need to protect the salmon and all our wildlife. There will soon be nothing left."

Korpan said the two communities have made significant progress in recent years, learning to work together "even if that means ganging up on upper levels of government."




© The Vancouver Sun 2008
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« Reply #59 on: March 14, 2009, 09:50:57 am »










                                                         Petroglyph






The Snuneymuxw First Nation has many stories associated with Jack Point (100 Kb) and the petroglyph that once stood there.

In one of the oral histories, the animals depicted on the Jack Point petroglyph are named. They are: Flounder, Spring Salmon (has a long hooked nose), Humpback Salmon (Pink), Coho Salmon, and Dog Salmon (Chum). A design of a bird that may be Great Blue Heron can also be discerned amongst the fish. The same story explains the petroglyph designs and how the petroglyph was used by the Snuneymuxw people.

"One day a man, who was a priest or spiritual person, caught a strange looking fish on the Nanaimo River. Later in the presence of the priest's daughter, the fish turned into a young man who asked the daughter to marry him. The man who was really a Dog Salmon took her away to his home. When the priest went looking for his daughter the next spring, he found her with the Dog Salmon. She would not return with him, but promised to return to Nanaimo with her husband and his family each year in the fall."

At the time of their return, the priest's family would be able to eat as many Dog Salmon as they liked. The day the daughter returned with her husband marked the first time the Dog Salmon entered the Nanaimo River for spawning. Another version of this story tells of the daughter and her husband leaping out of the water side by side, making themselves known to the Snuneymuxw people. In a ritual each year, to welcome the return of the daughter and Dog Salmon, the priest would paint the petroglyph at Jack Point in ochre, a type of red earth, and make offerings into a fire. The people were not to eat the first Dog Salmon that came back to the river, as they were believed to be the daughter and son-in-law.

In the 1930s, Albert Wesley from the Snuneymuxw First Nation, told ethnographer Diamond Jenness the following creation story about the Jack Point petroglyph:

"Afterwards Haals(Xe.ls) [The Creator] came. Who he was, whence he came, and whither he went, no one knows. He changed people in many different places to rocks, why no one knows. Two persons accompanied him in his travels. Raven (spal) and Mink (tetceq.an). Around Snuneymuxw he performed these wonders. Off Snuneymuxw he made a long point 'Jack Point', at Spal's (Raven) bidding, so that women would have a long way to walk around and could say all they wanted to say during the journey."

That this creation story includes Jack Point confirms the significance of the Nanaimo estuary and River to the Snuneymuxw people. Raven, the Elders say, is always trying to spy on women and listen in on their secrets. That is why he made Jack Point such a long piece of land - would have longer to hear women talk as they walked the length of the Point. For this reason, Jack Point is linked to Snuneymuxw women.



http://www.snuneymuxwvoices.ca/english/petroglyph_elders.asp
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