The relationships of place : a study of change and continuity in Stó:lõ understandings of I:yem
Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Building out of recent scholarship that examines the way colonialism has altered Aboriginal people's relationships with the land, this thesis employs the theories of historical anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, historical philosopher R.G. Collingwood, and historical consciousness with ethnohistorical methods to explore the ways Native people have worked to protect and regain their connections with certain places.In particular, it examines change and continuity in the ways that the Stó:lõ Coast Salish in South Western British Columbia have understood and continue to understand a place called I:yem, located four kilometres north of Yale in the Fraser Canyon.Following a historiographical chapter, two case studies are used to access past and present Stó:lõ understandings of I:yem.The first case study examines the 1938 erection of a memorial there (which incorporated and blended aspects of Roman Catholicism with an articulation of a distinct Stó:lõ identity and assertion of rights) to see how I:yem was understood at the time.The creation of the I:yem Memorial illuminates those aspects of Stó:lõ relationships with I:yem that were considered non-negotiable in the face of rapid change and conflict, namely the continued importance of fishing and ancestors.The second case study, based on oral interviews that I conducted during the joint University of Victoria/University of Saskatchewan Stó:lõ Ethnohistory Fieldschool in June 2007, focuses on the current significance of I:yem and its memorial.Today the Stó:lõ place a greater emphasis on the importance of reestablishing personal connections with the Fraser Canyon in general, rather than in identifying those specific aspects of the relationships that are collectively and communally non-negotiable and in need of being preserved.Over the past seventy years the Aboriginal people of the Fraser Canyon and Valley have employed innovative means to regain and preserve attachments to their places.This thesis explores these processes, fundamentally demonstrating the importance Stó:lõ people attribute to maintaining relationships with place in the face of change xi Aboriginal understandings of I:yem.I also incorporated other theorists to deal with specific issues I was facing.Although terms like historical consciousness, event/structure dialectic, hybridity, post-modernism and post-colonialism, and the concepts behind them, inform my discussion, I chose to apply terms such as change, continuity, relationships and understandings.This terminology provided a way to incorporate and combine what I felt were the general ideas influencing my work, but more importantly, I wanted to write a thesis that engages with Aboriginal understandings of place that are recognizable to those that I have interviewed, and to whom those places belong.The idea of relationships is especially central to this project.Clearly, it deals with relationships between people and places, but it also looks at relationships between Natives and Newcomers, relationships within and between Aboriginal groups themselves, and those between the past, present, and future.Most importantly, the work itself was dependent on my own relationships with informants and other community members.It was these relationships that challenged my own understandings and shaped my interpretation of other sources.My third and final trip to the Fraser Canyon and Valley was in the spring of 2008, when I hoped to conduct interviews with members of the Yale First Nation.As I had not been able to meet with anyone representing that community during the fieldschool, it was important that I do so now.This was especially necessary due to the dispute between the Yale and the Stó:lõ over territory, and because Yale is the nearest Aboriginal community to I:yem.I attempted to meet with some members of the Yale First Nation, and had a very positive informal conversation with some people that emphasized their different understandings of I:yem as well as certain commonalities with information that I had gained from my Stó:lõ informants.This raised questions as to how I could include the perspectives of the Stó:lõ and the Yale while remaining xii critical and respectful to both groups.Rather than choosing one interpretation, I attempted to historicize both claims to explore why they were different.I also attempted to turn the critical gaze on myself, to look at my own biases and what I was taking for granted in my analysis.Although there was some initial interest from members of the Yale First Nation, I was unable to conduct formal interviews with anyone belonging to that community.In response to my letter of introduction to Chief Robert Hope of Yale, I was told that the First Nation was presently very involved in treaty negotiations and would not be able to consider my request until their negotiations were completed-a timeframe that would not facilitate a timely completion of this project.Still, it was essential that my thesis include the perspective of the Yale First Nation.I attempted to do this using alternative sources such as earlier interviews with Yale elder Lawrence Hope, newspaper articles, court statements and affidavits, and the Yale Agreement In Principal from their ongoing treaty negotiations.This use of a variety of sources resulted in a fuller discussion, as I was able to look for consistency and track change over time.For balance, I also looked at newspaper articles, affidavits from legal battles fought with the Stó:lõ, and earlier interviews involving those Stó:lõ people who I personally interviewed.The following meditation on relationships between the Aboriginal people of the Fraser Canyon and Valley and I:yem is not the thesis I anticipated writing, but one that needed to be written.As I learned about I:yem and those with connections to it, both in the past and the present, my own understandings of this seemingly forgotten place changed.I:yem is a place of many layers of meaning and identities.I now imagine I:yem as a transformer site, an ancient village, a busy fishing spot, the location where a monument created by the Stó:lõ was publicly blessed by an Archbishop, and a place that is politically contested today.It is a place of continuity and change that some people remember.Writing this thesis has been a process, and xiii over time my ideas changed and developed, often with the help of others.My initial proposal transformed to a fieldschool project which itself evolved into something quite different, as I responded to specific scholarly questions and incorporated perspectives beyond those of Stó:lõ political groups.I intended to explore Aboriginal understandings of place, and see this microhistory, which explores some aspects of Stó:lõ and Yale relationships with I:yem, as a beginning.
Author: Amanda Beth Fehr
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1573653498