Annie McQueen letter, Nicola Valley BC

[Theresa Kishkan]

The McQueen letters are fascinating. Jean Barman has written a book about 
Annie and her sister Jessie, using the letters and other relevant material. 
The book, published a couple of years ago, is called Sojourning Sisters -- I 
don't have my copy at hand to give you the precise date and publisher. But 
certainly worth reading for its meticulous reconstruction of a time and 
place and the sisters' position in the current of British Columbia history.

Theresa Kishkan
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Robertson" <ddr11 at COLUMBIA.EDU>
To: <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 9:47 AM
Subject: Annie McQueen letter, Nicola Valley BC


> The "Nicola Valley Historical Quarterly" distributed by the fine museum in
> Merritt, BC whose benefactors include the Teit family, ran excerpts of the
> McQueen family's correspondence several years ago.  In the April 1979
> issue, on page 9, is part of an 1887 letter from Annie to Jess.  It
> includes the following bits about going on a date:
>
> "Next morning, Mr. Carpenter came tearing in to say that there was to be
> cultis pot-latch at the rancheree above Quilchena, and to ask Nellie Riley
> and I to go with Andy Derby and himself.  Now as you are uninitiated I'll
> explain, a cultis pot-latch is an Indian festival, where the Indians 
> gather
> from all directions to give each other gifts, make speeches, and make 
> fools
> of themselves generally.  The rancheree is the reserve where the Indians
> dwell."
>
> [An entertaining anecdote about finding a "dude" by the side of the road
> follows.  Then tea at the Quilchena Hotel.]
>
> "Then went on to the potlatch.  Ed O'Rourke tried to coax us not to go, he
> was afraid that the Siwashes would be noisy, but we were not to be 
> daunted,
> we went straight on and when we got there, the scene was picturesque 
> enough
> for fairyland itself.  There were the tents with fires gleaming from the
> doorways all surrounding one enormous tent with two doorways and the roof
> open to the sky, a large fire reached almost from doorway to doorway and
> all around the tent was the Indians and the Klootchmen, while the elderly
> Klootchmen on their knees baked and cooked at the big fire and passed the
> food as fast as they could to the crowd behind them."
>
> --Dave R
>
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