Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 re Stsq'ey's-kucw / Copy 2

"Secwe pemc People, Land, and Laws is a journey through the 10,000-year history of the Interior Plateau nation in British Columbia Told through the lens of past and present Indigenous storytellers, this volume details how a homeland has shaped Secwe pemc existence while the Secwe pemc have in turn shaped their homeland. Marianne and Ronald Ignace, with contributions from ethnobotanist Nancy Turner, archaeologist Mike Rousseau, and geographer Ken Favrholdt, compellingly weave together Secwe pemc narratives about ancestors' deeds, and demonstrate how these stories are the manifestation of Indigenous laws (stsq ơey ơ) for social and moral conduct among humans and all sentient beings on the land, and for social and political relations within the nation and with outsiders. Breathing new life into stories about past transformations, the authors place these narratives in dialogue with written historical sources, and knowledge from archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, earth science, and ethnobiology. In addition to a wealth of detail about Secwe pemc land stewardship, the social and political order, and spiritual concepts and relations embedded in the Indigenous language, the book shows how between the mid-1800s and 1920s the Secwe pemc people resisted devastating oppression, the theft of their land, and fought to maintain political autonomy while tenaciously continuing to maintain a connection with their homeland, ancestors, and laws. An exemplary work in collaboration, Secwe pemc People, Land, and Laws points to the ways in which Indigenous laws and traditions can guide present and future social and political process among the Secwe pemc and with settler society."--… (more)