The Fallen
Every once in a while, Iain Lawrence’s blog comes to life again. I always notice; Iain’s writing is worth noticing. Tonight you should go look at his most recent blog post, The Fallen.
Filed in First Nations,history No Responses yet
Archive for the 'First Nations' Category
Snuneymuxw chief worried about Enbridge Gateway pipeline
From the Daily News: Snuneymuxw chief worried about effect of Enbridge Gateway pipeline. Snuneymuxw First Nation chief Doug White fears for the First Nations and other people along B.C.’s coast if the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline proceeds.(…) White said the possibility of a dramatic increase of an activity in the area that could have devastating [...]
Filed in environment,First Nations,Gabriola Island 5 Comments so far
Culturally modified trees
Did you know that there’s an official manual published by the BC government, explaining how to identify and describe culturally modified trees? (If you’re not sure what those are, see Gabriolan’s past post on the subject, Gabriola’s culturally modified trees.) You can download the guide (as a honking big pdf of more than 38 megs, [...]
Filed in First Nations,Gabriola Island,history 3 Comments so far
Dog hair used in Coast Salish weaving
The University of York has published an article about the dog hair the Coast Salish used in weaving: Researchers from the University of York have produced the first clear evidence that textiles made by the indigenous population of the Pacific coast of North America contained dog hair. In recent years, scientists have hotly debated whether [...]
Filed in First Nations,history 7 Comments so far
Behold! The Mighty Herring!
It would be hard to ignore the presence of herring on Gabriola beaches, especially when the herring spawn. Now here’s an article on that important little fish from The Tyee: Behold! The Mighty Herring! It’s all about the herring, an anthropological researcher named Iain McKechnie said to me at a dinner party about a year [...]
Filed in First Nations,food One Response so far
My Big Fat Diet
A while ago I came across the term diseases of civilization: those diseases that were not present in aboriginal populations before the arrival of European settlers and the introduction of European foods like flour and sugar. That got me thinking about the traditional diet of BC’s coastal First Nations — a diet that included fish [...]
Filed in First Nations,food,history Comments Off
Snuneymuxw burial site found
Gabriola Island is part of the Snuneymuxw First Nation‘s traditional territory; so is Nanaimo. And in Nanaimo, the Snuneymuxw news today is what some geocachers found. A group of geocachers found more than they were searching for on the weekend. Nanaimo RCMP confirmed Monday that a group of people on an afternoon geocaching foray discovered [...]
Filed in First Nations,Nanaimo Comments Off
Archaeological site on your land? Uh-oh!
Remember when you bought your Gabriola property, and your realtor or lawyer insisted on an archaeological record search? (Oh, what is the correct term for it?) The idea is that, before you buy land, you check to make sure that there’s no archaeological site on that land. Because if there is such a site on [...]
Fish traps almost 1400 years old
Here’s archeological news from a site not too far from Gabriola. From the Comox Valley Echo: Fish traps ‘almost 1400 years old’. Some of the ancient fish traps in the Courtenay Estuary are way older than first imagined. Radiocarbon dating of the remains of wooden stakes pounded in to the mud has revealed some date [...]
Filed in First Nations,history Comments Off
Rescuing native languages
Following on from some earlier conversations on this blog about disappearing languages (not just native ones), I recommend this article to those interested in learning more about the subject. About BC’s native languages, the article says:
Filed in First Nations One Response so far
Saved by Oregon Grape
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning is in the news again. That reminded me of this story from October 1888. It’s from the Gabriola Edition of the Nanaimo Free Press: Charlie Peters, a Penelecut Indian, sworn, deposed: "Last Friday, I and my klootchman, Tsameston, and another Indian eat a kettleful of mussels. When we had done so our [...]
Filed in First Nations,history,native plants 4 Comments so far
The Lekwungen summer of many years ago
The Songhees Nation isn’t far from Gabriola, so many of their traditions were probably ones practiced on Gabriola, too. On their website you can read about the Lekwungen summer of many years ago: This is a time when the bountiful crops of the year (including the sweet camas bulbs and clams) have been gathered from [...]
Filed in First Nations,Gabriola Island Comments Off
Archaeology students sift for Coast Salish relics
Sidney Spit isn’t too far from Gabriola, and has a Coast Salish heritage similar to ours. So perhaps you’d like to read about archaeology students sifting for Coast Salish relics at Sidney Spit. From the Times Colonist: Along a spit of sand on Sidney Island, archeologists are racing rising tides and the wear of the [...]
Filed in First Nations,history Comments Off
Gabriola’s clam gardens
A year ago I blogged about clam gardens, and asked Were there clam gardens on Gabriola beaches? Now we have the answer: yes. From the Daily News: Ancient clam gardens a window on the past. The Snuneymuxw First Nation hopes to conduct aerial surveys that could provide more insight on ancient clam gardens that have [...]
Filed in First Nations,food,Gabriola Island Comments Off
Salish weaving
I came across this wiki on Salish weaving while looking for information on nettles. This is what the article had to say about their use of nettles: Twine made from the bark of nettle stems was used extensively in the manufacture of items requiring strength through a firm, sturdy warp strand. Dried nettles were damped [...]
Filed in First Nations Comments Off
Protecting native plants
From Canadian Geographic: Protecting our natives. For Cheryl Bryce, the month of June has become a time to interact closely with her ancestral lands. She spends many of her early summer days kneeling on cool black soil, surrounded by a picturesque carpet of wildflowers and shaded under a canopy of craggy Garry oak branches. She [...]
Filed in First Nations,food,native plants Comments Off
Fire for meadow management
Did the Snuneymuxw use fire as a land management technique on Gabriola? I wonder about that when I read things like this Garry Oak meadows page: Garry Oak meadows were once common throughout southeastern Vancouver Island. They take the form of open stands of stately gnarled oak trees, often carpeted with billowing drifts of wildflowers. [...]
Filed in First Nations,food,history,native plants 2 Comments so far
The writing of Hul’q’umín’um’
[Let me begin by thanking Gabriolan for the invitation to contribute to this blog. I expect any future contributions will likely follow the model of this one: infrequent but fairly lengthy coverage of a specific topic related to some human cultural aspect of Gabriola and nearby areas. I claim no expertise in most of these [...]
Filed in First Nations,Gabriola Island,Nanaimo 4 Comments so far
