Elder Bill White | The Lasqueti Local

A FEW WORDS BY BILL WHITE

Artwork from “Visions of Power, Symbols of Wealth: Central Coast Salish Sculpture and Engraving” depicting a Yokwals burning food for the Ancestors 1981 University of British Columbia

The following prayer and article were sent to the Local from Bill White to help us understand the cultural burning that we were priveledged to witness last May. As many of you know, Bill is the Snuneymuxw Sulalewh/Elder who was invited by Hereditary leaders Mark Recalma and Kim Recalma-Clutesi to help oversee the ceremony.

Bill is also the Cultural Advisor to several organizations and we are grateful for his words. Bill shared that, “There are huge regulations about not writing about these things. But at the same time, we must honor the gifts and teachings of the ancestors.”

THE WINDS BLOW, MAKE YOUR MINDS STRONG

A Coast Salish Prayer - Bill White

Creator, we thank you for this day
Ancestors we thank you for walking before us
Ancestors we thank you for walking behind us
Make your minds strong!
Behold it is a time of change!
Behold it is a time of transformation!
It is the old people who have saved
the teachings from ages past
It is the old people who have saved the songs of our ancestors,
of the Creator
It is the words of the Creator, of the ancestors brought forward for a new time and a new place
With great humility we thank you for these gifts
Change for self, Change for the community has been foretold and will like the wind be persistent.
Change and transformation is powerful and can be frightening
Make your Minds Strong!
The Creator has provided songs for such things
The Creator has provided dances for such things
The Creator has provided words for such things
The old people, the ancestors knew of the times of change and the wind blows,
and the teachings and the songs flow
and the winds blow,
hear the wind, hear the songs
Behold it is a time of change!
Behold it is a time of transformation!

“Yo-Kwels - Those Who Help the People, Maintain our contact with the Ancestors, the Supernatural Worlds” William A. White, Coast Salish (Nanaimo – Cowichan) , 2003, 2023

“At night when the streets of your cities and villages will be silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with returning host.”

The quote from Chief Seattle from the southernmost tip of Coast Salish territory identifies several important aspects of ritual and ceremony, for the purpose of this paper assists with providing the cultural context for the healer and specialist known as Yokwels.

Complex ritual and ceremonial rites enacted by Coast Salish who inhabit SW British Columbia and NW Washington State families predated the arrival to xwulanitum/white people to our homelands.

Various elements of Seattles’ speech such as ancestral contact, sacred territories beyond village sites, and being kind to others constitute common themes which traditional leaders consistently reinforce within ceremonial activities today. His speech represents a good example of power associated with talk, words, songs etc. Understood by the Coast Salish as persisting over time and space and eternal Our old people and Ancestors taught that these things represented ‘being in balance’ with the natural and supernatural worlds and each other. Common understandings in which a Yokwels operates. More importantly, words, songs, ceremonies as a cultural phenomena form the basis for consistent interactions with the ancestors, the creator, natural and supernatural phenomena. It is for this reason that words are sacred and that the land too is sacred. Specialists like the Yokwals and others continue to access sites where teachings, training and gathering have been left over thousands of years.

Ceremonial rites brought order and balance to our world and reinforced our relations with all living things, including the natural and supernatural worlds. Ancestors and supernatural and natural beings, including ceremonial and food gathering sites connected to the Qualicum are found throughout the island. Rules associated with being ‘clean and balanced’ continue to exist within families raised in a traditional family, these are in fact when applied constitute being Cowichan, Nanaimo, Saanich, or Qualicum , etc. These teachings are from the beginning of time and are at least 15 generations old. The arrival of the European to the coast constitutes approximately 10 generations.

One of the most powerful ritualists used by the Qualicum has been a Yokwels who is not only a healer but maintains connections with Ancestors and the natural and supernatural beings. A Yokwels does not operate independent of family and other community specialists. From the beginning of time Coast Salish families located in southwestern British Columbia, northwest Washington State and southeast Vancouver Island relied on a number of specialists identified by the anthropologist Barbara Lane as ‘religious functionaries’ to mediate between the natural and supernatural worlds. These were Shaman, Seer, Ritualist, and a Medium whose “power derives from dead people. Mediums see and communicate with the dead. They are ordinarily hired to burn food for the dead. Mediums sometimes also act in a curing capacity.”

You are probably asking why it is that you have not heard anything about Coast Salish healers before? There are at least three reasons for this gap in understanding. The Coast Salish have been described by the Anthropologist Barbara Lane (1953) and Art Historian Norman Feder (1983) as the most conservative Indians on the Northwest Coast. In this regard traditional and or pre-contact institutions such as the Winter Dance Complex and Shaker Church continue to operate. It is likely that this very conservative nature, ie things sacred or xaxa/bad should not be spoken about especially with outsiders. In addition, the impact of systemic discrimination by Church and State to eradicate ceremonial systems only serve to increase lack of knowledge outside of our own communities. Healing, sacred voices, ritual specialists represent phenomena clearly different from western academic training. The ethnographic literature contains very little about Salish healing practices causing the Anthropologist Micheal Kew to observe that curing ceremonies are not well documented.

For the ‘living culture’ of the Coast Salish ‘words’ whether in speech , prayers , or song constitute a vital if not central aspect of sacred activities. In fact, ‘words’ which persist over time and space have ritual and ceremonial power when used in conjunction with sacred activities.

Ritual words associated with songs for healing, cleaning, hunting, gathering foods (berries) and plants for healing, maintaining contact with the natural and supernatural worlds, honour status and or ancestry are the most visible link with ancestry. Often words, prayers and songs are left at various locations throughout our territory.

In his 1855 Speech Chief Seattle spoke about the land of the dead, by saying, “Dead—did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds. ” From the southernmost region of Salish territory Chief Seattle spoke about the traditions associated with ancestral contact.

The specialist called Yokwals are also called upon to provide ritual/spiritual cleansing of individuals who may have inadvertently encountered the dead, or have been overcome with grief, sadness or to intervene when no physical reason can be found for illness within an individual. Their ritual and ceremonial skills are deemed essential to ‘maintaining order and balance” within our communities.

Within the immediate region they are seen as fundamental specialists who are called upon by individuals and families to assist with maintaining order in a very complex social/ritual world. They are often asked to assist Coast Salish families who encounter problems while undergoing rites within the longhouses and for individuals within their homes. They are also called upon to burn food/clothing for the ancestors immediately after a funeral , or prior to a naming in the longhouse, or in some cases in the longhouse itself during a memorial. In other cases they would also provide essential aftercare, ritual cleansing, or healing, of individuals called, “Tsewhaat Tus Musteemuxw ”.

This is deemed essential during periods of change from one state to another such as initiation into dance societies, receiving an ancestral name or during illness, etc. This process is deemed by Sulsalewh/traditional elders as fundamental to maintaining good relations, strong families and to ensure the capacity to work together. The consistent application of complex rules, regulations, songs, prayers ensured the development of a safe, secured, ordered and healthy community.

Traditional specialists such as the “Yo-Kwels” and “Thii Mahtt Shulmuxw-Stus ”and formally trained speakers called “Qwe-Qwal and elders are called upon in various ceremonial longhouses throughout the ritual season (November to March of each year). A Yokwels is a principal player and is seen as essential in terms of assisting individuals, families, and communities to operate in healthy ways. Their teachings are as old as time itself and clearly reflect the teachings of parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc. There is no counterpart for their skills and or training in the western tradition, at least in terms of their formal institutionalized role.

Bill White