Excerpt in Jargon re CJ literacy; "KW", March 1894

[Mike Cleven]

>COMMENT:
>This would have been in late winter in B.C. Interior Salish country.  One
>thing I wonder about, and may never know, is whether the boys who stayed up
>for several nights in a row had been brought up to go without sleep while
>absorbing important knowledge.  Particularly my thought is that these
>Nke7lhepmx (Thompson) people perhaps still had the custom of all-night
>winter storytelling sessions, like countless other ethnic groups of the
>region.  I've been told that kids were expected to try to stay awake in
>order to learn all the traditional knowledge that the elders were telling.
>Maybe an interesting parallel or carryover.  Your opinions?

I'd go with your notion about all-night learning being traditional; there's
no mention of this in the Annie York book on Spuzzum, is there?  Otherwise
the comment in question is without context; the young men staying up must
have _some_ kind of pertinence, apparently to show dedication.  One thing
that struck me here is the usual bias against natives vis a vis literacy; if
the _men_ had taken it upon themselves to learn the Duployan I think it
really says something; my previous reads of KW material seemed to make it
sound like it was all the parish women doing the actual study and
propagation; the other side of this coin is exactly how well-known the
Duployan really was; as I've noted before I'm sure I've seen it on
ranchposts and maybe even on (ranch) brand designs......

One quick comment/aside to Lisa P here; that cafe in Spuzzum we stopped at
those times on your trip up through the canyons with me burned down a month
ago; that was the whole of downtown Spuzzum, only the residential areas
being left (which are much more extensive than they appear from the highway,
actually).

Dave - one comment on your use of Nke7lhepmx; to me that looks a bit more
like the form used in Ashcroft; the Lytton-Siska bands use Nlaka'pamux (give
or take a vowel) in their own preferred spelling; this would include the
Spuzzum Band, I think.

Spuzzum in late March ain't so bad, weather-wise; it's just above the exit
from the Canyon (Yale) and is a bit milder than just upriver at, say, Boston
Bar or north of there.  Still rainy and cold, but not (necessarily)
frostbitten).  Definitely in the "winter country", though.....

MC
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