Coast Salish Traditional Governance
Coast Salish Territories (boundaries permeable and overlapping). Some names outdated and/or inaccurate. From Brian Thom (2009). "The Paradox of Boundaries in Coast Salish Territories." Cultural geographies Volume 16, Issue 2.
A Stó:lō-Coast Salish historical atlas by Call Number: AF C38 S76 2001ISBN: 1550548123Publication Date: 2001This remarkable atlas is an ambitious in-depth presentation of 15,000 years of natural, cultural, and spiritual history of the Coast Salish people.
Coast Salish Traditional Governance
- In the voices of the Sul-hween/Elders, on the Snuw’uyulh teachings of Respect : their greatest concerns regarding Snuw’uyulh today in the Coast Salish Hul’q’umi’num’ Treaty Group territoryBy Sharon Marlo Paige. MA Thesis, University of Victoria, 2009.
- Snuw'uyulh: fostering an understanding of the Hul'qumi'num legal traditionBy Sarah Noel Morales (Su-taxwiye). Thesis.
- Asserting Coast Salish authority through Si'em Slheni'By Lacy Jones. Thesis.
- Coast Salish Senses of Place: Dwelling, Meaning, Power, Property and Territory in the Coast Salish WorldBy Brian David Thom. PhD dissertation, McGill University, 2005.
- Protecting the sacred cycle: Xwulmuxw Slhunlheni and leadershipBy Qwul'sih'yah'maht Robina Anne Thomas. Thesis, University of Victoria, 2017
- The Battle at Maple Bay: The Dynamics of Coast Salish Political Organization Through Oral HistoriesBy Bill Angelbeck. Ethnohistory 58, no. 3 (2011)
Two houses half-buried in sand : oral traditions of the Hul'q'umi'num' Coast Salish of Kuper Island and Vancouver Island by Call Number: BJ C79 T86 2007ISBN: 9780889225558Publication Date: 2007
The problem of justice : tradition and law in the Coast Salish world by Call Number: H M55 P76 2001ISBN: 9780803201941Publication Date: 2001- Be of good mind : essays on the Coast Salish byCall Number: BJ M55 B4 2007ISBN: 9780774813242Publication Date: 2007
- People of the land : legends of the four host First Nations byCall Number: YG A27 P66 2009Publication Date: 2009
Legends and teachings of Xeel's, the Creator by Call Number: YG W45 L44 2018ISBN: 9781926886558Publication Date: 2018
Tiná7 cht ti temíxw = We come from this land : a walk through the history of the Squamish people by ISBN: 9781774583920Publication Date: 2023
- The Squamish: study of changing political organisationby Behari Lal Verma. Dissertation, UBC, 1956.
- Squamish Indian People : guides byCall Number: BJC N67 1976Publication Date: 1976[Special Collections] "In March of 1974, the North Vancouver School Board authorized the preparation of a Squamish Indian Studies Kit for use in North Vancouver's Grade Four Classes. ... Almost all of the written materials contained in this kit are based on original field notes provided by the BC. Language Project, Victoria, and represent several years of ethnographic and linguistic research on the Squamish language and culture."
- The Squamish and the Lillooet byCall Number: BJ H55 1978 v.2Publication Date: 1978Anthropological text.
"Kamala Todd's short film is a lyrical portrait of Cease Wyss, of the Squamish Nation. Wyss is a woman who understands the remarkable healing powers of the plants growing all over downtown Vancouver. Whether it's the secret curl of a fiddlehead, or the gentleness of comfrey, plants carry ageless wisdom with them, communicated through colour, texture, and form. Wyss has been listening to this unspoken language and is now passing this ancient and intimate connection down to her own daughter, Senaqwila."
- Coast Salish law and jurisdiction over natural resources : a case study with the Tsleil-Waututh NationBy Erin Michelle Hanson. Dissertation, UBC, 2018.
- The Rock Painting/Xela:ls of the Tsleil-Waututh: A Historicized Coast Salish Practice byPublication Date: 2018The article contends that Tsleil-Waututh rock painting is not an essentialized cultural practice but a historically contingent one—a reflection of specific events.
- Land facing the sea : Tsawwassen First Nation : a fact book byCall Number: BJ R67 L35 2004Publication Date: 2004This fact book provides an overview of Tsawwassen history and culture as well as the impacts of settler activity and government control on the Tsawwassen people.
- Reconstructing culture : a traditional use study of the Tsawwassen First Nation byCall Number: BJ T73 R43 1998Publication Date: 1998Study conducted under an agreement between the Tsawwassen First Nation and the Ministry of Forests, British Columbia.
- Environment, development, trust, and well-being in the Tsawwassen First Nationby Allison Ashley Kumiko Takasaki. Dissertation, UBC, 2014.
- Reimagining BC modern treaties: a critical discourse analysis of the Tsawwassen, Maa-nulth, and Tla'amin final agreementsby Joanne Connauton, MA thesis, 2023. This thesis critically examines settler-colonial legal structures, languages, and mapping conventions that underpin the British Columbia (BC) modern treaty process. . To better understand Indigenous reticence, this thesis conducts a critical discourse analysis of the Tsawwassen, Maa-nulth, and Tla’amin nations’ Final Agreements
- A Stó:lo-Coast Salish historical atlas byCall Number: AF C38 S76 2001Publication Date: 2001A remarkable book with maps detailing the historical and current changes to Coast Salish / Sto:lo territory.
- Digital Sq’éwletsAn online portal for the Sq’éwlets nation. Orginally created as a repository for information about the ancestral site Qithyil, it contains sxwōxwiyám (origin stories) and sqwélqwel (true news), as well as territorial maps with names and other cultural information.
- Law's hidden canvas: teasing out the threads of Coast Salish legal sensibilityBy Andrée Boisselle. Dissertation, University of Victoria, 2017
- Ethnohistory Field School with the Stó:lōField school reports and research resulting from UVic and SFU's Sto:lo research partnership.
"The Victoria (Matoolia) area was divided into five territories. These lands essentially belonged to settlements that were made up of extended families. Though some overlapped in places, they were as follows: Tsuli’lhchu, around Mount Douglas (P’q’a’ls); Cheko’nein, around Cadboro Bay; Chikowetch, around Oak Bay; Swenghwung, around James Bay; and Xwsepsum (sometimes spelled Kosapsum) in what is now called Esquimalt. Though each sche’chu (family) had its own territory, they all spoke the same language, Lekwungen. Lekwungen, which used to be called Songish, is similar to the Saanich, Lummi, Samish, and Sooke languages. They are dialects of what linguists call the Straits Salish language."
- Songhees pictorial : a history of the Songhees people as seen by outsiders, 1790-1912 byCall Number: BJJ K43 S66 2003Publication Date: 2003Thorough analysis of archival materials related to the Songhees/ lək̓ʷəŋən history interacting with outsiders.
- Makúk : a new history of Aboriginal-white relations byCall Number: FBB L88 M35 2008Publication Date: 2008History of Lekwungen/settler relations. Great resource.
To share, not surrender : Indigenous and settler visions of treaty making in the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia by Call Number: MBD C66 S43 2021ISBN: 9780774863827Publication Date: 2021
- A human history of Tl’chés, 1860-1973Masters thesis, Elise Gabrielle Forest-Hammond. 2020. This thesis represents a human history of Tl’chés (Discovery and Chatham Islands) roughly between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. It presents Songhees and Settler life on the archipelago, as well as the dispossession of Songhees lands.
- To Fish as Formerly: A Resurgent Journey back to the Saanich Reef Net FisheryBy Nicholas XEMŦOLTW Claxton. According to W̱SÁNEĆ oral history, the W̱SÁNEĆ people have lived on their territorial homelands back to the time of creation. The W̱SÁNEĆ way of life has been passed on to each succeeding generation through an educational way, centered in large part on the W̱SÁNEĆ Reef Net Fishery. This fishing practice formed the backbone of W̱SÁNEĆ culture and society.
- WSÁNEĆ law and the fuel spill at GoldstreamBy Robert Justin Clifford. Dissertation, University of Victoria, 2014.
- Saltwater people : a resource book for the Saanich Native Studies Program byCall Number: BJJ E45 1990Publication Date: 1990
- The SWELSWÁLET of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation: narratives of a “nation (re)building process”Master's thesis. University of Victoria, 2017.
- M'i tst t'akw': the tellings of Dr. Sam ; text and Coast Salish oratory.By Andrew Cienski. Thesis, University of Victoria, 2011
- “Unsettling Landscapes: Applications Of Ethnobotanical Research In Defining Aboriginal Rights And Re-affirming Indigenous Laws In T’sou-ke Territory, Vancouver Island And Beyond.”By Pamela Spalding. PhD dissertation, University of Victoria, 2022.
"In this dissertation, I explore how, in Canada, Indigenous people’s relationships with culturally-significant plant species are an expression of Aboriginal rights, and I ask how these rights can be affirmed and exercised using a form of intersocietal law within and between First Nations and state governments. I examine how my own and others’ ethnobotanical and ethnoecological research can help to decolonize the Crown legal systems that limit Indigenous peoples in regenerating their relationships with native plant species and the ecosystems within which they are situated."
- Those who fell from the sky : a history of the Cowichan peoples byCall Number: BJJ M37 T46 1999Publication Date: 1999
- Legal Entanglements in Place: Hul'q'umi'num' law, provincial jurisdiction and the protection of Hw'teshutsun, a Hul'q'umi'num' cultural landscapeBy Jennifer Argan. Thesis, University of Victoria, 2022
Written as I remember it : teachings (ʻäms taʻaw) from the life of a Sliammon elder by Call Number: YS P38 W75 2014ISBN: 9780774827119Publication Date: 2014- Yax utchw Kootegan Yix meh towlt = Reflecting on traditional governance byCall Number: KHA W37 Y38 2004Publication Date: 2004In Xwi7xwa special collection (non-circulating but accessible in-branch)
- Duwamish history in Duwamish voices: weaving our family stories since colonizationBy Julia Anne Alain. PhD dissertation, University of Victoria, 2014.