"Lillooet Stories"

[Mike Cleven]

At 07:11 PM 3/11/99 -0800, David Robertson wrote:
>Edited and revised by Randy Bouchard and Dorothy I.D. Kennedy.  _Sound
>Heritage_, volume VI, number 1 (Victoria:  Aural History, Provincial
>Archives of British Columbia).  1977.
>
>This volume includes superb tellings of traditional Upper and Lower
>Lillooet (Salishan) stories.  Quite a bit of interest to the Chinook
>Jargon student is contained as well.  It would be good to hear a retelling
>of some of these stories in Chinook Jargon; for example, Baptiste
>Ritchie's account of the Flood of 10,000 years ago.  This is a story held
>in common with many Northwest cultures, such as the Spokane, and that's
>why I think it would make a wonderful subject to talk about in ChInUk
>Wawa.
>
>It's a true story, by the way.  Baptiste tells it with exact personal
>names of people involved ("one of my ancestors, whose name was
>In-CHEE-nim-kan") and caps it off with a simple, powerful note ("I,
>Baptiste Ritchie from Mount Currie, now have the name In-CHEE-nim-kan").
>
>You'll enjoy this book.  A cassette was issued with the same stories on
>it, I understand.
>

Yes, it was.  I've got a copy of the book, although the tapes are somewhat
rarer (certainly in the Univ. libraries).  As far as Jargon versions of the
same stories go, there may be some re-tellings extant but to date I have
not been able to get a catalogue or transcription (or even find out from
_whom_ to get them) of the Jargon audiotape collection of the Stl'atl'imx
Nation.  There may be SOME parallel stories, but I suspect that the Jargon
was not used for storytelling in quite the same way as St'at'imcets; rather
for trade, intertribal affairs, etc.  I'm thinking of going up to Lillooet
in the next week or two, so maybe I'll actually be able to bang on some
proverbial doors and see if I can get access to their audio archives.....as
well as put their linguists in touch with SALISHAN......


Mike Cleven
ironmtn at bigfoot.com
http://members.home.net/ironmtn/

The thunderbolt steers all things.
                           - Herakleitos