Salish Audio Files

This book is written
because we respect our ancestors
and the people here today
and the generations yet to come.

So this, that I am telling, when I
thought about it,
I think it is from three hundred snows ago
to four hundred snows ago, and even
beyond that time.
And it's the end, like of what is known.
What I am going to tell is what was
passed on to me by my paternal
grandmothers, my maternal grandfathers,
and my paternal grandfathers, by their
great-great-grandparents,
their great-grandparents...
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Then from there, time passed until it was
closer to our time now,
and the Indians saw the whiteman.
They felt pity for the white people,
because they were white,
and they had beards.
The white men looked as if they were
cold because their faces were white and
red. Then, when the Indian people were
met by the whitemen (because they had
already landed), the Indian people then
spread out their fur blankets and
motioned to the white men to sit on the
blankets. Their chief told them, “Spread
out the fur blankets
so that the white men can sit on them.
Maybe they are cold.” The Indians
thought the white men were cold because
they were white-faced.
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From that time on, it became known
that the white people had laws.
Right then, when the white men were to
come across the ocean for the first time,
they had already taken ownership of our
land for their king or leader. The
whiteman told their leader,
“You give me a ship to go across to look
for some land.
There is land. I will see land."
He told his leader, his king,
“It will be your land.”
They hadn’t even seen our land yet, and
they had already taken ownership of it.
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The whiteman crossed and landed, and he
stuck a flag and pole in the ground. And
then it's like they already won our land.
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The first Indians they saw,
the whites showed them necklaces,
that had been strung.
The people liked them and were glad to
get them. Then from that
we believed and trusted them.
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Today, this land a-a-a-all over,
our land, this island —
had been tied it up for us.
They chased us from our homes.
And the whiteman told us,
“This is to be your land.
It is where you will live.”
Then they set it up, surveyed it
in 80 acres, to be our land, for each of us
to possess what was left over.
We were told, “Here, you can have
what's left for your land.”
It was a vast area of land, and there was a
lot left over after they gave us those
pieces, and the white people arranged it
so that we sold the land;
we sold it, and it was bought by the
whiteman, and they came in
and crowded us out.
It is the truth, all we got was that eighty
acres, for our place to live.
That’s when the whiteman began buying
it, all the lands — we so-o-o-old it, and
now it is almost all gone...

Then that’s when people said
the first whiteman here came
from what you call Columbus.
When he came across and saw this
land, when he got off his ship,
he put his flag in the ground.
I guess same as saying he was glad,
glad to have and own some land.
He did see the Indians
standing in groups
all staring at him,
but I’m not going to say
what was on their minds —
I mean, about the white people.
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Then, just as soon as he was on the
ground, just like he put a brand on this
land. He found the land,
but I don’t think he carried
any kind of important papers about
laws. And to come here
and take away and claim our Indian
land — he didn’t even have permission
from anyone to take our land,
but I guess they thought they’d just
go ahead and use their own laws.

Of course, long ago
the Indian people
who were living
were happy all the time…
You know, that’s how Indians
were a long time ago.
All these animals —
there were many animals.
Plenty of everything,
and this land was good.
And the air here was clean.

You know, a long time ago,
this is the way it is
with the Indian people.
The bitterroot, the camas,
wild onion,
and everything else —
the Indian people are gathering and storing
for the winter months ahead.

Then the following month,
they do something different,
they are working on something.
Things are rotating, going in a circle all the
time, like the berries or things you pick,
the roots and things you dig,
and the fishing,
and the hunting.
They are constantly moving,
gathering things all the time.

What I have seen when I was growing up
was my fellow Indian people,
during some month in the spring,
starting to gather their food.
My parents would dig bitterroot…
After they were done digging bitterroot
then they would start to dig
camas… onions… to be a mixture
in their camas baking.
Then they would pick what we call
šaw̓tmqn (tree moss), this Coyote’s hair.

A long time ago, what is called swiqɫc̓eʔ
— the summer hunt —
just when the wild roses bloom,
our parents and elders
moved to the plains country,
to harvest buffalo.
Towards fall,
they would move back home.
Then they move back again —
this is called es ʔem̓šl̓wi — moving from
camp to camp. When spring came,
they moved back home again.
These were our parents, our ancestors.

From here there are many places,
like ʔAmtqné,
and Snq̓ʷeymncú,
and Snk̓ʷɫxʷxʷem̓i.
This is where Coyote did many things.
Coyote we-e-e-e-e-ent through there,
going all around and getting rid of
all the hu-u-uge animals.

I think it will be good for all of our children
to see this book;
and all of us to learn how the
white people are doing things.
I also think it will be good for them to see
in this book the truth.
And then the children
will learn all of the ways of our
old people, our ancestors.
I hope our children will learn more about
all of our ways.
Then from that, our children’s children,
when they have children, they will learn
the truth about the way the Salish lived,
our old people.

Many of the ways of our people of long
ago, it is like they are being forgotten. . . .
Those ways have, like, like separated
from us as time went on. It is like our
ways is going the wrong way.
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Not all of us are like that. There are still
some of us who still hold on to the real
ways of the people. . . . That is how our
culture will become strong again.
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A long time ago, when we were met by
the white people, from there on, our
culture changed. We were chased until
we came here. Here, in this area, is where
we stopped. Our land is no longer big. A
long time ago, when the white people
came across the water, all of this land
was ours, from island to island, from the
south to the north.
It was all Indian land.
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Then, we knew how to do all of our own
ways. We were not without food. We did
not go without anything. Whatever we
needed, we had it all…
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All of our stories were told; when the
white people came they called it
“History”; we call it “Sm̓im̓iʔ” (our news).
Everything they wrote is not right.
That is why now we are working, making
a book. The words of the Indian people are
written in it; the Indian people’s thoughts.
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This is how the people will learn about
our land, by reading this book.
They will learn the real history from a
long time ago to the present.
The people will learn that the books that
were written by others were lies; what
they wrote was not the truth. Now, in
our book, everything that is taught is
straight.
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The book would be even thicker if
everything was written in it.
Then if my fellow elders
older than fifty years old,
sixty years old,
seventy years old, if they
would tell what they remember about the
land, it would all be really nice, and it
would be the true stories about that.
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That is why we are teaching our
language—because our language has
strength. It is strong and it has value. We
do not say many words, but much is said.
We do not say many words and already
what we want to say is known.
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That is why our language has
strength. That is why at the present time
we are teaching our children to take back
our language…
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That is why now we say, “I hope
somehow all our fellow tribesmen will turn
around and take back our ways. It will be
put back in the middle. We would become
strong again. We would be able to make
our living again. Nothing would bother us
if only we could take back all of our
ways.”
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Now this that I am telling about, this
news, a while ago I said “History”, it is
not right. I was already in school when I
looked at the writing of the white people,
it was wrong. Maybe it was dreams or
maybe someone’s thoughts that was
written. . . .
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When our people spoke,
told the stories
that we knew of long ago, the stories
were right. If someone listens to these
stories, when someone looks at this
book; they will say, “That is the truth.”
That is why now we are doing our best to
write this book. It is our peoples history,
our stories that we are going to put in
writing. That will be first. Then the white
people will learn. “Yes, that is how it was.
That is right.”
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The people of long ago were abused. It
is like they were being pushed around.
Then they would write history and it
would turn out wrong. At the present
time we will straighten it out. I hope, I
hope the stories will all get straightened
out, so that everyone will know that the
white people’s writing is wrong. They are
going in the wrong direction.
The people still know the stories.
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Myself, when I was growing up I listened
to the story telling. What was told to me
I will give to my children. All of it to
my daughters’ children, my sons’ children,
my great-grandchildren. I will give it all
to them so they may learn all of our
ways, our medicines…
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We are straightening the history, the
people’s history from a long time ago to
the present. I hope that all of our elders
of our people would tell their history and
how it was, the real truth. At the present
time, we are doing our best with this
book, so that everyone will learn what is
right, the truth. Not the white people’s
history…
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So today, thank you that I have
something to say. I hope, hope that my
fellow tribesmen will listen to what I
have said. When we went to sweat I
have prayed that if my road is good, my
sweats were good and my prayers and
ways were good, it will go-o-o and
someday I will look around and see —
hayo! The people are lined up, doing the
good things of this earth. We hope it will
go in a real good way. That is my prayer.
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I hope that it will be that way.
I hope all my fellow tribesmen will turn
back to our ways.

At this time the land has changed…
So long ago, of course, there were
not any land measurements done. All
over the land, there were not any lands
measured…
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Now, there are fences around lands
that have been measured out…
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Something happened to the Indian
lands when the white people arrived
here…
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Then in later years, when the white
people arrived, the people were told,
“This is where you will live,” even
though it was not their aboriginal land
where they were put.

It is good when things are written down.
Maybe it will be our children, our
people…
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From this they will know and learn
about our language… It is known
that that our culture will become known
again.
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In that way it is possible that our
language and culture will not be
forgotten.
________________________

When I was growing up, I was told by
my elders, “Do not forget your
language.”
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I was told “Do not forget, do not let go
of your language, or your culture.”

It’s for my ancestors, that is why I’m trying
hard at this present time.
That is why we are doing the work that we
do now. It’s not for me, it’s not for us,
it’s for, for our children,
for our ancestors’ ways.
That is why we are working hard today.
That is what we think: I hope our children
will re-learn the real ways of our ancestors.
If the children will take back those ways,
everyone will go and get strong again on
this land.