Origins of A People in This Region
The first traces of people living in the Fraser Valley date from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The Stó:lō called this area, their traditional territory, S'ólh Téméxw. These early inhabitants of the area were highly mobile hunter-gatherers. There is archeological evidence of a settlement in the lower Fraser Canyon (called "the Milliken site") and a seasonal encampment ("the Glenrose Cannery site") near the mouth of the Fraser River. Remains of this latter campsite show that in spring and early summer, they came here to hunt land and sea mammals, such as deer, elk, and seals and, to a lesser extent, to fish for salmon, stickleback, eulachon, and sturgeon and to gather shellfish. Their livelihood depended on their success at harvesting the resources of the land and the rivers through fishing, foraging, and hunting.
Stó:lō elders describe their connection to the land in the statement "we have always been here." They tell of their arrival in S'ólh Téméxw as Tel Swayel ("sky-borne" people) and through the transformations of ancestral animals and fish such as the beaver, mountain goat, and sturgeon. Xexá:ls (transformers) fixed the world and the people and animals in it, creating the present landscape. As Carlson notes:
- The Stó:lō walk simultaneously through both spiritual and physical realms of this landscape, connected to the Creator through the land itself, as transformed by Xexá:ls.
Read more about this topic: Sto:lo People
Famous quotes containing the words origins of a, origins of, origins, people and/or region:
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“The world is eaten up by boredom.... You can’t see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn’t even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands. To shake off this drizzle of ashes you must be for ever on the go. And so people are always “on the go.””
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
“Alvina felt herself swept ... into a dusky region where men had dark faces and translucent yellow eyes, where all speech was foreign, and life was not her life. It was as if she had fallen from her own world on to another, darker star, where meanings were all changed.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)