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list price: $34.95
edition:Paperback
also available: Hardcover eBook
category: History
published: Jan 1999
ISBN:9780774806671
publisher: UBC Press

Spuzzum

Fraser Canyon Histories 1808-1939

by Annie York

tagged: native american studies, native american
Description

Living on the banks of the turbulent Fraser River, the Nlaka'pamux people of Spuzzum have a long history of contact with non-aboriginal peoples. They watched as Hudson's Bay Company employees hacked a path through the mountains for the fur brigades, and over time they found themselves in the path of the Cariboo road, the CPR, and virtually every commercial and province-building initiative undertaken in the region over the past two centuries. Juxtaposing historical narratives and cultural interpretation from the community of Spuzzum with archival information, this book explores the history of Spuzzum in the light of concepts central to the Nlaka'pamux definition of family, political authority, land, and cosmos.

About the Author
Annie York, an ‘Nlaka’pamux elder of Spuzzum, BC, was a cultural authority, healer and oral teacher who, until her death, imparted knowledge about Native society in the Fraser Canyon of British Columbia. She lived a simple but profound life based on respect for all living things, and a morality which transcended the present century. York’s energetic explanations of rock-writings found in the Stein Valley are published in They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever (1993).
Contributor Notes

Andrea Laforet is director of the Canadian Ethnology Service at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Annie York (1904-91) was born in Spuzzum and lived there most of her adult life.

Awards
  • Winner, Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
Editorial Reviews

A sympathetic re-creation of the native side of that history. This is a model ethnohistory and a superb commentary on the complexities of being both historian and anthropologist ... This finely crafted book boasts good maps, numerous illustrations ...

— Choice

This text is lucid and jargon-free, and the photographs interesting and well placed ... Spuzzum will certainly be of interest to anthropologists, local historians, and specialists who have been following the debate on the writing of Native history.

— Canadian Book Review Annual 4163

This book stands as part of an ongoing awareness of Native cultural persistence, alongside a long history of adaptation to the Euro-Canadian economy and society.

— Western Historical Quarterly

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