March 21st 2023
J,SIṈTEN’s visit to SḴŦAḴ / Mayne Island
:”ÍY, ȻNES QENOṈE ṮÁ - it's good to see you all.”
On March 21, W̱SÁNEĆ elder J,SIṈTEN Dr John Elliott spent the day on SKTAK/ Mayne Island sharing cultural knowledge with a few islanders. J,SIṈTEN spoke about village sites, called Á¸LEṈ¸EN in SENĆOŦEN, the W̱SÁNEĆ language. “When we talk about these places, we really look at the food and resources in the area that made them good places to live.”
At Village Bay he noted that “ fresh water stream made this a good place for our people. There are clam beaches around here. And lots of birds around here.”
He pointed out the bluish coloured grasses growing at the shoreline that the people used to make reef nets for the SXOLE (shkw’ala) – reef net fishing. The grasses were tied to the nets and floated up – “the tides would make the grasses look like a false bottom – that kind of grass sparkles a bit in the water – it created a false bottom which calmed the salmon as they swam into the net.” He told us that there was an important reef net fishing site at Helen Point - “All of those reef net sites should be marked with a carved pole. We put one up on the American side on STOLȻEȽ – near Friday Harbour on San Juan Island. All those places need to have a pole so it is marked and protected as an important fishing station.”
“Anywhere there were MO¸EḰ (máʔəqʷ ) - birds, like ducks, was a good place. Ducks were a big part of people’s lives. Their feathers are something we use throughout the winter ceremonies. They were sacred; their feathers were used in ceremony.” Duck feathers were also used for making blankets, pillows, and bedding. “To hunt them we made night torches – we made them for hunting ducks and deer. We would wait for a really rainy night and we would go out in the canoes with the torches. The ducks flew to the light and we would scoop them out of the water with a TEḴESTEN (təqə́stən) dip net.”
He talked about making and transporting fire. “See that rotten fir stump? It just looks like a dead old stump. We used that rotten wood for fire-starter. We call it SMONEĆ (smonech). You can hardly put it out. We made night torches from sticks so saturated with sap that you just light it, and it stays lit. That punky wood would keep a spark which was carried from place to place in our canoes.”
During his visit, J,SIṈTEN lunched with Agricultural Society Board members, spoke with Conservancy volunteers and the Ethnobotany horticulturist and visited Family Place, where he did a blessing ceremony with the children, parents and grandparents. “We did good work today,” he said as we left.
