National Indigenous History Month

Q'sapi, meaning "long time ago," is a book that traces the history of the Okanagan People. The People of the Okanagan Nation are located in the interior valley of British Columbia and all the way down past the border into the United States. Containing conversations with Elders and other members of the community, this book shares their personal experiences with respect to their family stories, ancestral lines and family photographs. This unique book captures the oral tradition of the Okanagan by linking these memories through family trees.

This book is a photo journal of the special relationship between the horse and the Okanagan people. Included are stories from Okanagan oral tradition, Okanagan Elders' statements, and stories about the people and events depicted in the photographs.Photographs date from the late 1800s to the 1990s; most date from the first half of the twentieth century. All photos are from Okanagan collections. With the exception of some rodeo photographs, virtually all pictures were taken through the lenses of cameras operated by Okanagan Nation members.

We Get Our Living Like Milk from the Land is the first historical overview of the Okanagan Nation. It starts with the Creation Story, moves through the first contact of colonization and ends in the present.

"For Syilx (Okanagan) People, the ways of knowing siwłkʷ (water) are embedded in our language and bequeathed to us by our ancestors. Maintaining the integrity of siwłkʷ is essential to our identity and is entrenched in our responsibilities to our homelands. siwłkʷ is our most sacred medicine. This booklet is both a celebration of the relationship that we share with siwłkʷ and an invitation to others to reflect on their relationship with this vital gift."--Page [3].

A vital collection of writings about First Nations people and culture as it existed on the island coasts of the Depression-era Pacific Northwest and originally published in the pages of Victoria's oldest newspaper, the Daily Colonist, the sixty stories included here are the result of a unique collaboration between a middle-aged woman, Beryl Cryer, of upper-class British ancestry, and well-known Hul'q'umi'num'-speaking cultural elders, keenly aware of the punitive anti-land claims legislation passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1927, and therefore eager to have their stories told and published. Mary Rice from Kuper Island, who lived next door to the Cryer family home in Chemainus, BC, is well remembered even today for her storytelling abilities; she taught Beryl Cryer, with whom she became close friends, countless aspects of indigenous culture, particularly as experienced by women. An elder in a thriving native culture, she introduced Cryer to the many other authorities from whom these stories were gathered for the newspaper. Although she was not a trained anthropologist, Beryl Cryer was an honest observer and careful recorder. She embellished the material she collected with minor anecdotal introductions that give the reader a vivid sense of the person telling the story. The accounts themselves are valuable documents of Coast Salish oral traditions dealing with a wide range of subject matter from known sources, almost all of whom were well-versed in English.

The Audio for v. 4-7, can be downloaded at www.thelanguagehouse.ca click Elder Recordings.
Text in Nsyilxcn and English.

A 7,711 word dictionary translating English to the Secwepemc language.