@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix dc: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Arts, Faculty of"@en, "Anthropology, Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Hiwasaki, Lisa"@en ; dcterms:issued "2009-05-25T20:04:25Z"@en, "1998"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Master of Arts - MA"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description "In the process of negotiating land claims, First Nations in British Columbia and Canada face the challenging task of presenting a unified identity without trampling on the inevitable diversity within their communities. This thesis explores the perceived conflict between unity and diversity amongst Native populations. It brings together fieldwork in Stó:lō territory in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, performance theory, and contemporary discourse surrounding identity production at this particular point in time. The work examines performance of identity as a form of social action and the variability of identity performances. Data was gathered from interviews with people involved with two sites where educational programmes are being developed for local students: Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre at Hatzic Rock, near Mission, and Longhouse Extension Programme/ Shxwt'a:selhawtxw on St6:l o Nation grounds in Chilliwack. The theme explored in this thesis is that just as unity is politically expedient, diversity and its management is an important facet of the performance of identity."@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/8134?expand=metadata"@en ; dcterms:extent "3584969 bytes"@en ; dc:format "application/pdf"@en ; skos:note "PRESENTING UNITY, PERFORMING DIVERSITY: STO:LO IDENTITY NEGOTIATIONS IN VENUES OF CULTURAL REPRESENTATION by LISA FflWASAKI B.A., CARLETON COLLEGE, 1996 A THESIS SUBMTTED IN PARTIAL FTJLFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Anthropology and Sociology) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA July 1998 © Lisa Hiwasaki, 1998 In p resen t ing this thesis in partial fu l f i lment o f the requ i rements fo r an advanced d e g r e e at t h e Univers i ty o f Brit ish C o l u m b i a , I agree that t h e Library shall make it f reely available fo r re ference and study. I fu r ther agree that permiss ion f o r extens ive c o p y i n g o f this thesis f o r scholar ly purposes may be granted by the head of m y d e p a r t m e n t or by his o r her representat ives. It is u n d e r s t o o d that c o p y i n g o r pub l i ca t i on o f this thesis fo r f inancial gain shall n o t be a l l owed w i t h o u t m y w r i t t e n permiss ion . D e p a r t m e n t o f The Univers i ty o f Brit ish C o l u m b i a Vancouver , Canada Date \\ (o+Vv \\ , DE-6 (2/88) ABSTRACT In the process of negotiating land claims, First Nations in British Columbia and Canada face the challenging task of presenting a unified identity without trampling on the inevitable diversity within their communities. This thesis explores the perceived conflict between unity and diversity amongst Native populations. It brings together fieldwork in St6:l o territory in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, performance theory, and contemporary discourse surrounding identity production at this particular point in time. The work examines performance of identity as a form of social action and the variability of identity performances. Data was gathered from interviews with people involved with two sites where educational programmes are being developed for local students: Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre at Hatzic Rock, near Mission, and Longhouse Extension Programme/ Shxwt'a:selhawtxw on St6:l o Nation grounds in Chilliwack. The theme explored in this thesis is that just as unity is politically expedient, diversity and its management is an important facet of the performance of identity. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 The Research project 5 Theoretical background 5 St6:lo cultural representations: a background 9 Cultural interpretations and representations in St6:lo territory 10 Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre 11 Longhouse Extension Programme/ Shxwt' a: selhawtxw 13 PART II: THE POLITICAL AND UNIFIED S T O L O 15 The presentation and construction of a unified St6:l o 16 The importance of a unified Sto: 1 o 19 PART III: THE VARIABILITY OF S T O L O IDENTITIES 21 Presenting St6:lo as the original inhabitants of the Fraser Valley 24 Expressing St6:lo cultural continuity 27 Changing misconceptions and stereotypes 29 Presenting the cross-cultural experience 31 Working with the St6:l o community and supporting community members 33 PART IV: S T O L O PRESENTATIONS AND IDENTITY PERFORMANCES 38 Analysis 38 Conclusion 41 BIBLIOGRAPHY 47 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Enough thanks cannot be expressed to my advisor Dr. Elvi Whittaker, who helped me greatly throughout the course of my studies, and especially with the theoretical part of my thesis. Thanks are also due to my committee member Dr. Bruce Miller, who advised me on the ethnographic part. I would like to thank everyone at St6:lo Nation who made me feel welcome and who give me an infinite number of smiles while I was there. The Fieldschool project and this thesis could not have been completed without the help of everyone who talked to me and helped me despite their busy schedule and my ignorance: people at St6:lo Nation, Coqualeetza Cultural Education Centre, Longhouse Extension Programme/ Shxwt'a:selhawtxw, Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre, thank you all! I would also like to acknowledge Chief Frank Malloway and others who welcomed me and offered much support during and after the Fieldschool. Special thanks are also due to: my friends Tanya Goudie and Maureen Bracewell for their tireless editing and suggestions; Tad Mcllwraith for brainstorming and great ideas; Brenda Crabtree for constructive feedback. Finally, my parents Ichiro and Toyoko Hiwasaki deserve special thanks, for without their support my studies and this thesis would not have been possible. PARTI: INTRODUCTION Currently the St6:l o, like other First Nations communities in Canada, are endeavouring to represent and interpret their own culture, history, and traditions not only to themselves but also to members of the non-Sto:l o mainstream society. These efforts, often termed cultural revivals or renewals, are more than that. They represent a process of maintenance and transmission of St6:l o culture and traditions, and more importantly, a reclaiming of their own history. Many such efforts in St6:l o territory have been developed by the St6:lo Nation, a political organization which resulted from the amalgamation in October of 1994 of two political entities which had previously served the St6:lo bands, St6:lo Nation Canada and St6:lo Tribal Council. The St6:l o Nation consists of twenty-one bands about one hundred miles along the upper Fraser Valley from Langley up to Yale, and some bands along the Harrison River and Chilliwack River in southwestern British Columbia.1 The Native people who live in this area have not always been called the St6:l o. The people who now call themselves St6:l o have, in the past, called themselves \"Upper Sto:lo\" (Archibald 1983), \"the Indian people,\" and \"the Stahlo,\" as well as by various band and tribal names. Ethnographies of the area show that the St6:l o were, at different times during the history of colonization, called \"Coast Salish Indian\" (Jenness 1955), \"the Chilliwacks and their neighbours\" (Wells 1987), \"the Upper Stalo Indians\" which consists of the Chilliwack, the Pilalt, and the Tait (Duff 1952), \"Upriver Halkomelem\" (Galloway 1984), and \"Mainland Halkomelem\" (Hill-Tout 1978). The St6:l o Nation, however, represents a unified St6:lo with significant commonalties across the St6:l o bands, including historical usage of the Halq'emeylem language and reliance on the Fraser River for subsistence. Homogeneity is emphasized through venues of cultural representations and interpretations; as Mcllwraith wrote, \"the forging and maintenance of personal or group identities are at the heart of cultural presentation\" (1996:50). In the expression of the opinions of people who are professionally involved with St6:lo cultural representations, it 1 The St6:lo Nation see their Solh Temexw [St6:lo traditional territory] as encompassing a much larger area. The Statement of Intent submitted to the B.C. Treaty Commission shows St6:lo territory covering a vast area in British Columbia, nearly 17,500 km2 (1.7 million hectares) of land covering over two hundred miles along the Fraser River from Vancouver to Spuzzum, and from Harrison Lake in the north to the U.S. border in the south (Mohs 1995a). 1 is possible to appreciate efforts to depict a unified St6:lo. Many common themes ran through the interviews conducted. People interviewed wanted to demonstrate first and foremost that the St6:l o are the original inhabitants of the Fraser Valley, and as a result have certain rights to the land and the resources. To show that St6:lo people, their history, and their traditions are unique and different from those of other First Nations in British Columbia and in Canada was considered important. Moreover, it is deemed necessary to make members of the mainstream society aware that the St6:l o have been in the area for a long time and will continue to be in the area for a long time. This is demonstrated by representing and interpreting the St6:lo from the St6:lo's point of view and in ways that are different from the ways mainstream society has previously represented them, by using the hands-on approach and emphasizing the notion of \"living culture.\"2 Such emphasis on presenting a unified and homogeneous St6:l o can be perceived as being politically expedient. These St6:lo presentations are seen here in the sense that Goffman (1959) discussed, as team performances in which certain messages are conveyed to the audience while other facts are downplayed in order to maintain a certain definition of a situation. However, within the unified St6:l o, there are many St6:l o identities. The St6:l o are by no means a homogeneous group of people, and there are variations within the St6:lo such as the different bands, their various locations, sizes, populations, and relationship to the St6:lo Nation, cultural traits and influences, place names and stories attached to them, and access to resources. For example, the twenty-four St6:lo bands vary in population from ten to 790 in the number of registered Indians (as of January 1995). Some of the largest bands are independent from the St6:l o Nation, and while some work closely with the Nation, others do not. Bands, communities, or individual members can affiliate, disaffiliate, and reaffiliate themselves with the St6:lo Nation.3 There have been conflict and power struggles between different bands within 2 Such key themes are not specific to Sto:lo people; for many First Nations groups, these issues are the foremost concerns in their cultural representations and interpretations. See Ames (1990) for discussions on First Nations people who have worked at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; Clark (1997) for the concerns of the Cherokee in Oklahoma; Fuller (1992) for the Ak-Chin in southern Arizona; Issac, Fontenelle, and Kennedy (1997) for the Zuni in New Mexico; Jule (1994) for the Secwepemc in Kamloops, B.C. Lundholm (1995) for the Mohawk near Montreal; and Notzke (1996) for the Blackfoot in Alberta. 3 According to Kew and Miller, Coast Salish social networks allow for \"short-term bouts of disaffiliation\" without \"substantively affecting the long-term social system, disrupting cultural 2 St6:l o territory in the past. Currently, there is tension between Yale, an independent St6:lo band, and St6:l o Nation regarding ownership of fishing grounds in the Fraser Canyon. Some bands are in what a St6:l o Nation employee called a \"convergent zone,\" where cultural traits have been influenced both by interior and coast Salish cultures. There are three or more different sub-dialects of the Halq'emeylem language spoken in St6:lo territory. Stories and legends surrounding places also vary; for example, legends surrounding Mt. Cheam—the highest and the most culturally significant mountain in the Fraser Valley—differ according to the location from which the mountain is observed.4 In the strict sense of identity, there are as many different St6:lo identities as there are numbers of St6:lo people. This diversity can be discerned most noticeably in different expressions of St6:l o identities at venues of cultural representations and interpretations. These various expressions include the St6:lo as opposed to urbanization and development, as \"scientific,\" as archaeological, as historical, as political, as connected to the land and resources, as against \"Indian\" images, as supporters of Pan-Indianism, as against Pan-Indianism, and as creators of culture and technology. Such different St6:lo identities are not dilemmas, conflicts, or contentions, but are manifestations of diversity within an organized structure. St6:l o identities are viewed here as Butler views gender identities. Butler argues that viewing identity as a coherent and united category is problematic because this denies the \"multiplicity of cultural, social, and political intersections\" in which identities are constructed, and assumes that solidarity is \"a prerequisite for political action\" (1990:14). The diverse St6:lo identity expressions are identity performances. In her analysis of gender and sexual identities, Butler discusses the notion that identities are performative. Firstly, gender requires a performance that is repeated, which reenacts and reexperiences the legitimization of the continuity, or dissolving the boundaries of the Coast Salish moral universe.\" Furthermore, groups or individuals can be \"reaffiliated into the political community without penalty.\" Such actions are to be seen as political strategies and not as evidence of \"political collapse or ineptitude\" (1998:23-24). 4 As Sonny McHalsie, the former Yewal Siya.m [community spokesperson] of Ohamil, a St6:lo reserve, and the cultural advisor with St6:lo Nation who has been working for the Nation and the St6:lo Tribal Council for thirteen years observed, there are different versions and interpretations of place-names and the stories and teachings attached to them. As Elders' teaching goes, it is necessary to have respect for other people's beliefs and not to impose ideas on people (interview 1997). 3 socially established and maintained binary system, \"Us\" versus the \"Other\"; and secondly, gender is not stable but \"an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylized repetition of acts\" (1990:141, emphasis original). Similarly, Fuss states that identity is performative because it may be \"less a matter of final discovery than perpetual reinvention\" (1991:7). Paradoxically, the repetition of identity performances establishes \"the instability of the very category that it constitutes... the repetition, and the failure to repeat, produce a string of performances that constitute and contest the coherence\" of an identity (Butler 1991:18, emphasis original). Because identities are social facts, they are fluid, and can be redefined over time: \"as actors attribute subjective meanings to their interactions with others, they begin to develop... 'scripts' which guide them in their future... interactions...'scripts' are highly variable and fluid, subject to constant revision and editing (Epstein 1987:14). Moreover, people perform an identity or identities depending on the \"situational advantage, political gain, and conceptual utility\" (Seidman 1994:173). It is important to note that identities such as gender are not a performance that a person decides to conduct; it is a \"compulsory performance\" (Butler 1991:24). Epstein writes that \"people make their own identities, but they do not make them just as they please. Identities are phenomena that permit people to become acting 'subjects' who define who they are in the world, but at the same time identities 'subject' those people to the controlling power of external categorization\" (1987:30). Identity performances have always existed in St6:l o territory, in the form of oral traditions. Current cultural representations taking place in St6:lo territory can be seen as an adaptation of oral traditions which, as will be described in Part IV, are highly individualistic, fluid, creative, performative, educational, and entertaining. Just as in oral traditions, St6:l o identity performances are diverse yet convey a collective St6:lo. Different St6:lo identity expressions are essential for a unified St6:lo to be maintained, because the diverse expressions all contribute to the presentation of the St6:lo as one. Just as unity is politically expedient, diversity—and its management—is seen here as politically beneficial. Ultimately, difference constitutes sameness, and both diversity and unity signify strength. 4 The research project This thesis grew out of a collaborative research project during the UBC Ethnographic Fieldschool in the spring of 1997. Under the authority of St6:l o Nation, I conducted interviews with members of the community and engaged in participant observation in St6:lo community events. To write a report on cultural representations and interpretations in St6:lo territory, most of my time was spent observing cultural education programmes at Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre [henceforth Xa:ytem] and the Longhouse Extension Programme [LEP], also known as Shxwt'a:selhawtxw [House of Long Ago and Today], the name of the building where some of the activities take place. Interviews were conducted with people who are involved first-hand in the presentation of St6:l o to the public, and the people who coordinate the efforts of those people. These interviews gave me an insight into the objectives of the cross-cultural programmes they are involved with, the different problems people are facing in the interpretation of St6:lo to the public, and the personal concerns and goals that people have regarding these programmes. The interviews also reflect deliberate, as well as uncalculated, presentations of St6:lo culture, history, and traditions which arise from and through negotiations of St6:l o identities. My interviews include both St6:lo and non-Sto:lo people working for Shxwt'a:selhawtxw and Xa:ytem. Although most ethnographies on identity formations of a First Nations group only look at those who are \"ethnically\" First Nations, I will not limit my data to just those who are St6:l o, that is, those who identify themselves as St6:l o because their families are from a St6:l o Nation member band or from an independent St6:lo Band. This is because there are many non-Sto:lo people working at these venues. St6:l o and non St6:l o are working together to represent the St6:l o, and as will be shown in Part III, they contribute to the overall representation of St6:l o with their non-Sto:l o-ness. They add to the diversity of St6:l o, which I am attempting to explore. Theoretical background This study falls within the larger literature on the constructions and negotiations of First Nations identities through cultural displays and performances. Myers (1994) and Cruikshank (1997) have discussed identity performances in the context of cultural/ folk festivals. Myers 5 called the sandpainting activities of Aboriginal men at an art exhibit in New York as \"culture making,\" where indigenous cultures are performed and where \"negotiation and circulation of indigenous peoples' identities\" take place (1994:679). These productions and communications of collective identities are always cross-cultural, because \"redefinitions and rediscoveries of identity [are] worked out in the face of challenging interrogations from an 'other'\" (1994:680) and because these performances emphasize cultural difference.5 Cruikshank noted that indigenous storytellers at a cultural festival in the Yukon perform \"to convey themes of identity by linking social institutions, land, and social history\" (1997:58). Storytellers connect with audiences by relating narratives with material objects and with genealogical (or clan) connections to place, ultimately making statements about land ownership. For the theoretical framework of my thesis, I draw upon several theorists. Goffman's literature on presentations (1959) will help elaborate on the notion that unified St6:lo cultural representations and interpretations are presentations through which political means are met. The notion of identity is discussed as it is considered in critical theory, and St6:lo presentations are seen as diverse St6:lo identity performances in ways that critical theorists have considered identity as performative. Blumer's discussions on symbolic interactionism (1969) will complement Goffman's ideas in order to look at presentations as a social process which cannot take place without the interaction between performers and the audience. This study of the venues of St6:l o cultural representations and interpretations to the public could be in the frame of reference of First Nations cultural resource management (Nicks 1992; Notzke 1996; Renker and Arnold 1988; Weiner 1980) or politics of representation in museums (Ames 1990; 1992; Carter 1994; Clifford 1997). In these articles scholars have placed First Nations self-representation in museums and cultural centres in the context of the larger movement among First Nations towards self-determination and cultural empowerment. First Nations people's efforts to take control of their own cultural resource management—including calls for repatriation of burial and sacred objects and asserting their right to display their own culture—are seen as \"part of this much larger claim to exercise more control over their own 5 As Myers noted, this \"Other\" is not homogenous nor monolithic, and is variant (1994:692). 6 history and present conditions\" (Ames 1990:158) so that First Nations people can \"retain self-determination in all areas of on-reservation affairs\" (Renker and Arnold 1988:306) as well as regarding \"land-claims, economic self-sufficiency, control over their own education and welfare\" (Ames 1990:160). This thesis, on the other hand, is an examination of St6:lo identity formation in cultural representations. While noting that St6:lo cultural representations are important tools in their larger struggle towards self-determination, it will not focus on the issues of cultural resource management or politics of representation in museums. Moreover, there is much literature devoted to comparisons between presentations of First Nations culture in mainstream museums and in First Nations-run cultural institutions (Clark 1997; Clifford 1991; Fuller 1992; Haagen 1990; Issac, Fontenelle, and Kennedy 1997; Jules 1994; Lundholm 1995; Mauze 1992; Notzke 1996; Saunders 1995). These are all case studies of different First Nations/ Native American-run heritage/ cultural/ interpretive centres and elaborate on the differences between these institutions and mainstream museums. These studies insist that an aboriginal cultural institution presents \"a local tribal viewpoint on their own history and identity\" (Clark 1997:39). Unlike mainstream museums, it is \"part and parcel of the community\" and is a \"very dynamic, living thing, as opposed to a static thing where you have a repository for artifacts or a lot of material items from the culture that you are trying to preserve\" (Issac, Fontenelle, and Kennedy 1997). Similarly, there is a considerable literature on relationships between mainstream museums and the First Nations communities where artifacts have originated (Ames 1990; Ames and Haagen 1988; Blundell and Grant 1989; gii-dahl-guud-sliiaay 1995; Goforth 1993; Hill and Nicks 1992; Lynch 1993; Nicks 1992; Trigger 1988). These articles condemn museums which have \"unwittingly reproduced negative stereotypes of Native peoples, particularly those that 'freeze' them in the past and fail to depict their contemporary cultural forms\" (Tyler and MacDonald, quoted in Blundell and Grant 1989:13), and the ways in which collections and displays \"reflected the concerns and values of the creators and sponsors of these institutions\" such as \"evolutionary theorizing and unconscious prejudices\" (Trigger 1988:73). These articles stress the importance 7 of increasing First Nations involvement in museum displays and programmes and questioning the authority of museums in representing and interpreting First Nations history and culture. The examination of cultural representations and interpretations in St6:lo territory could be approached by comparing the venues to mainstream museums or in the light of better relationships between St6:lo and museums. Some people involved with these venues had had experience in working at mainstream museums, and the skills they acquired from these experiences played an important role in the process of interpreting St6:lo to the public. Moreover, almost everyone I talked to told me that their ways of presenting St6:lo are different from that of mainstream museums. This thesis, however, is not intended to be a case study of venues of St6:lo cultural interpretations, to be added to the list of the vast literature on politics of representation in mainstream museums and First Nations-run cultural institutions. In so far as this thesis explores First Nations identity formation, it is a contribution to the large literature on First Nations/ Native American identities. Some of this literature discusses constructions of group (and thus uniform) ethnic identities in the framework of \"Indian-White\" relations (Dewhirst 1976; Kariya 1995; MacCannell 1992; O'Neil 1994), while others see different expressions of identities as factions or conflict within a community (Fowler 1987; Strong and Van Winkle 1996). There are examinations of ethnic identities in terms of different degrees of assimilation (more \"traditional\" or not traditional), and pan-Indianism (or \"supertribalism\") as opposed to tribal identities (Learch and Bullers 1996, Mcllwraith 1996). Studies have also looked at constructions of Native identity as resistance or as survival (Nagel and Snipp 1993; Shiell 1990, Segal 1996), or appropriation of the \"Indian\" identity by the mainstream society (Castile 1996; Francis 1992; Hollinshead 1992). This study, however, is different from most literature discussing indigenous ethnic identities which are limited in their discussions of First Nations identities as uniform, as in opposition to one another, as appropriated as tools for resistance, or as appropriated by non-indigenous peoples. This thesis will bring together opinions of people involved with cultural education programmes at Xa:ytem and Shxwt'a:selhawtxw. By placing the St6:lo example in the context of social actions of a wide range of writings on presentations, performances, and social 8 interactions, this thesis differs from other research on First Nations cultural representations and identities which focus on First Nations' cultural representations as \"exhibits\" or \"texts\" to be read and examined separately from everyday life. By bringing these theorists together in this thesis, I explore why different expressions of St6:lo identities can exist while a unified St6:l o-ness is maintained at the same time. Storlo cultural representations: a background Canada is one of the many countries in the world where there have been movements among the indigenous population in the past few decades towards what have variously been called the \"maintenance,\" \"revitalization,\" \"renewal\" or \"reinvention\" of Native cultures. In British Columbia, like elsewhere, First Nations people are making efforts to overcome centuries of colonization, assimilation policies, and systemic racism in order to continue maintaining and strengthening their identity and heritage. In St6:lo territory in the 1960s, several attempts were made for the revival of the Halq'emeylem language and St6:l o culture by St6:l o themselves, as in the work of Richard Malloway and Alec James, and by non-Sto:lo, such as Oliver Wells (Galloway 1988). Furthermore, since the 1970s, an increasing number of First Nations-run museums, cultural centres, and interpretive centres are being established in Canada. These offer cultural and social programmes which are based in and serve the respective First Nations community to sustain or revitalize the traditional culture, to re-learn their history, and as a result have a positive impact on the formation of a First Nations identity. An institution which played a vital role in the presentation of St6:l o in the 70s was the Coqualeetza Education Training Centre [henceforth Coqualeetza]. Coqualeetza was started in 1974 when it obtained cultural education funds from the federal government to serve as a cultural centre for the province of B.C. Galloway noted Coqualeetza was part of a movement to \"revive and preserve native culture\" and undertook many projects in \"preservation, documentation, and dissemination of information about the language and culture and put on a wide range of programmes to help its Indian people function in Indian and/ or White 9 society and to enrich the lives of both Indians and non-Indians\" (1988:293). Coqualeetza was the most active during the 70s, when it served political as well as cultural purposes.6 Cultural interpretations and representations in Storlo territory With the formation of St6:l o Nation, people at the political level became interested in educating predominantly white British Columbians about the St6:l o in order to allow them to make educated political decisions in treaty negotiations. Others were interested in instilling pride in the St6:l o themselves. Moreover, members of mainstream Canadian society have found it increasingly necessary to be informed about the aboriginal population of the area, and thus they became interested in educating their children about the Sto.l o as part of the First Nations curriculum in schools. There are several venues for cross-cultural educational programmes in St6:l o territory; some are currently being created, and others are planned for the future. After consulting with people working in the area of cultural representation under Aboriginal Rights and Title at the St6:l o Nation, I learnt of five major venues: Coqualeetza; Xa:ytem; the Longhouse Programmes, in particular LEP; Wahleach Safety Rest Area7; and Fort Langley.8 There are also 6 For more on the history of Coqualeetza, see Haagen (1990:173-184). Coqualeetza's most prominent political contribution was providing resources and support for the land claims movement. According to Shirley Leon, the manager, Coqualeetza became a vehicle for the lobbying activities of the Native people in British Columbia in the 1970s because Coqualeetza was a legal entity and Indian bands at the time were not (interview 1997). Cultural projects Coqualeetza has undertaken include organizing Elders' Meetings, which provide a place for Elders to socialize and advise Coqualeetza on Native language and culture. Coqualeetza has also produced cross-cultural awareness videos, provided a cultural language programme dedicated to preserving the Halq'emeylem language, photographed and documented place and plant names, and published a St6:lo calendar. Coqualeetza also developed a curriculum for kindergarten through Grade 12 students called St6:lo Site I [basket] which emphasized hands-on teaching. Now renamed Coqualeetza Cultural Education Centre, it has a small archival collection of books, manuscripts, transcripts, and video and audio tapes relevant to St6:lo people, as well as a gift shop, which acts as an outlet for local artists. Currently, they are working with other First Nations groups as well as indigenous people around the world to promote recognition of the rights and freedom of indigenous people (interview with Leon 1997). 7 Wahleach Safety Rest Area has an Interpretive Kiosk which consists of four panels which provide information on St6:lo territories, St6:lo legends and history, and the St6:lo Government. According to Cheryl Coull, the project manager for the panels and former writer/editor for Beautiful BC magazine, the panels were established to take advantage of rest areas as a \"venue for public information and education about First Nations\" (1995:2). The Ministry of Transportation and Highways wanted to provide information about the First Nations who live in the land through which the highways run, and to facilitate public awareness of the different First Nations. The St6:lo Tribal Council, in addition, wanted to \"take travellers beyond stereotypes and misconceptions\" and to be \"presented in a contemporary, positive, and serious manner\" (1995:3). 8 At Fort Langley, in the building that visitors go through in order to go to the reconstructed Fort, there are three interpretive panels with information on St6:lo: 1) \"Xwelitem, 'hungry people,'\" 2) 10 other projects taking place around the territory such as the Halq'emeylem place name tours; cross-cultural awareness talks given at schools and organizations by St6:lo Nation employees; a coffee-table book on the St6:lo; and a Grade 4 curriculum text book. Canoe races and Pow-Wows should also be mentioned here, although they are not formal venues of cross-cultural education.9 Xarytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre, or Hatzic Rock site, is located outside Mission, British Columbia. As \"B.C.'s Oldest Dwelling Site,\" it features an \"ancient village and spiritual site,\" \"5,000-9,000 year old archaeological site,\" and a \"transformer stone\" (Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre). Designated as a National Historic Site in 1992, it was one of the first Native spiritual sites in Canada to be recognized as such. The shed type roof Longhouse— whose building design was overseen by Chief Frank Malloway of Yakweakwiwoose, a St6:lo reserve—was opened in February 1995. Xa:ytem currently holds two kinds of tours run for students, the cultural hands-on and the archaeological hands-on. The cultural hands-on programme, primarily for Grade 4 students, is divided into three stations: Salish weaving, where students weave on a small loom, cedar bark basketry and twining, where they learn about the \"River People,\" and 3) the map of the Northwest Coast. There will be an added display of reproductions of Native artifacts such as baskets, beads, spindle whorls, masks, and working tools used by St6:l o women married to the officers at Fort Langley. These will help the Fort incorporate a St6:lo aspect in the displays and interpretation. Funded by Parks Canada, Tracey Joe and Sarah Eustace with Sto:lo Nation, and employees of the Fort were involved in creating these panels. Joe, from Tzeachten, a St6:lo reserve, and an assistant researcher under Aboriginal Rights and Title, wanted to help the Fort create \"more of a St6:lo atmosphere\" (interview 1997). 9 Canoe races and Pow-Wows are open community events where First Nations cultural representations take place. The aim of these events are less on education and more on cross-cultural interaction. Canoe races are held on weekends in the summer months of May to August and are hosted by different First Nations bands all over southwestern British Columbia and northern Washington. Participants come from all over the Coast Salish area and even some from the Interior Plateau. The canoe races are a central feature of summer festivals, which are much like small country fairs. Other events at summer festivals include dancing, slahal [Indian bone game], \"Indian Princess\" contests, singing, sports competitions such as soccer, baseball, or lacrosse matches, and sales of barbecued salmon, souvenirs, Native handicrafts, and raffle tickets (Suttles 1987; Kew 1970; Lincoln 1990; Dewhirst 1976). As opposed to invitational and closed get-togethers such as Winter Dances and funerals, canoe races and Pow-Wows are community events open to the public. Thus these events are seen as an important point of contact between the Native and non-Native communities (Dewhirst 1976), as well as playing an important role in the continuation of inter-tribal or inter-village ties by establishing and maintaining a pattern of weekend visiting between bands (Suttles 1987; Kew 1970). It is interesting to note that the Pow-Wow sponsored by St6:lo Nation is organized by the Education Department. 11 different kinds of baskets, and woodworking, where they dig a dug-out canoe with D-adzes. The archaeological hands-on tour, designed for Grade 7 students, also consists of three stations: artifact examination, traditional tool technology and art—where the students work with traditional St6:lo technology, including grinding red ochre for paint which is then used by winter spiritual dancers in surrounding Longhouses—and sifting, where students sift for artifacts that are scientifically out of context (due to bulldozing of the site done for the housing development, which will be described in Part III). In both programmes, telling of St6:l o legends takes place, including the story regarding the nature of the Hatzic Rock as a transformer site. During both programmes, students are welcomed to the site by singing and drumming by a St6:lo interpretive tour guide, are presented with background information on the St'6:l o and learn about the spirituality and archaeology of the rock. Activities at the site also include professional workshops for corporations, teachers, and other interested groups; drum-making, basketry, and Salish weaving workshops for the public; \"overnighter\" (where children stay over night in the Longhouse) for elementary classes; summer workshops for students; as well as welcoming public drop-ins. It is worth noting that Xa:ytem offers a large repertoire of workshops, targeted to a diverse range of people. Moreover, the tours are booked not only by schools in St6:lo territory, but also from other areas, including as far away as from Squamish territory. The core funding for Xa:ytem comes from the provincial government (such as from the B.C. Heritage Trust) and from the federal government in the form of Employment Canada; money also comes from school groups who pay at the door, from workshops held for teachers and corporations, and self-generated revenues. A major fundraising project for the expansion of the interpretive centre is currently underway. There are many plans for the future of Xa:ytem. The ultimate goal is to \"build a full-scale, world-class\" Interpretive Centre which would include a bigger, 300 foot Longhouse to accommodate different programmes and a gift shop (Interview with Gordon Mohs 1997).10 1 0 Gordon Mohs is the heritage advisor for St6:lo Nation. Mohs has been working with the St6:lo community for a long time, but he is not a member of the St6:lo. He initially started working for the St6:lo Tribal Council as an archaeologist fourteen years ago, and has been involved with many cross-cultural projects. In recently years Mohs has worked most closely with Xa:ytem. 12 Longhouse Extension Programme/ Shxwt'a:selhawtxw Started in April of 1996, the Longhouse Extension Programme is an extension of the Longhouse Programme—Grade 4 school programme which has been running for five years— designed to provide hands-on programming for high school grades.11 It is run on St6:lo Nation grounds in Chilliwack, B.C. in the Coqualeetza Longhouse and Shxwt'a:selhawtxw. The mandate of the LEP, according to Teresa Carlson,12 is to supplement the First Nations high school curriculum, which was written by the Aboriginal Rights and Title Department in conjunction with St6:lo Curriculum Consortium13 (interview 1997). The Grade 4 programme usually consists of four stations inside the Coqualeetza Longhouse, and four stations in Shxwt'a:selhawtxw. In the Longhouse—which is a gable-style roof—students watch St6:l o resource persons making drums and bead work, hear how cedar bark baskets are made, and learn to play slahal while eating freshly made bannock. During lunch time, the students eat while young St6:lo Spindle Whorl dancers perform several dances. In Shxwt'a:selhawtxw, students weave, learn some words in the Halq'emeylem language, learn the different methods of catching and preserving fish, and listen to a carver explain how woodcarvings are made and stories that go with masks. Students in higher grades do not go through all the stations. Therefore, in Shxwt'a:selhawtxw, there are numerous panels on the walls—consisting of both written material and pictures—which allow the older students to lead themselves through the building. The 1 1 During the time I was there, however, most of the students who participated in the programmes were Grade 4 students; only on two occasions was I able to observe high school students come in. People I talked to about LEP and the Longhouse Programme often did not make a clear distinction between the two. Thus, throughout this paper LEP or Shxwt'a:selhawtxw will be used to point to the programmes for all grades run in the Longhouse and Shxwt'a:selhawtxw. 1 2 Teresa Carlson is the curator and coordinator of Shxwt'a:selhawtxw. Carlson, not a member of St6:lo, has been working for the Sto.lo Nation since 1995. 1 3 Formed in 1993, the St6:lo Curriculum Consortium is made of representatives from St6:lo Nation and members of the six Fraser Valley school districts in St6:lo territory: Hope, Agassiz/ Harrison, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Mission, and Langley. The committee works together to implement strategies regarding First Nations curricula and First Nations students in the school districts. According to Little, the need for this partnership was felt after the Ministry of Education re-issued a policy stating that funding for Aboriginal programming must be spent on curriculum development and on programmes to advance First Nations studies. This had to be done in consultation with First Nations communities and parents of First Nations students. This money, the so-called \"Aboriginal dollars,\" amounts to approximately $1000 of funding allotted to each district for each Aboriginal student enrolled, about $800,000 for the Chilliwack school district in 1994 (1995:16). 13 panels in Shxwt'a:selhawtxw are based on essays which were written for a text book for Grades 10 to 12 called You Are Asked to Witness: The Std.lo in Canada'sPacific Coast History.14 The core funding for LEP comes from the Chilliwack School District—transfer dollars in education which are allocated by the Ministry of Education to each First Nations student going to school in Chilliwack—which provides money for one permanent staff position and a portion of the operating costs. Each school district which comes in to take part in the programmes also provides money for the resource people, overhead, materials and supplies (interview with Teresa Carlson 1997). The school districts obtain such money from the Ministry of Education through what is called \"Aboriginal Dollars\" for cultural awareness programmes (Interview with Gwen Point 1997).15 Any work by employees of St6:lo Nation—for example, to give talks to high school students—is paid for by the Nation. As for the future of LEP, work is currently underway to install an ethnobotanical garden on the grounds behind Shxwt'a:selhawtxw. Moreover, the Longhouse Programmes may also be incorporated into the efforts by St6:l o Nation to work with the Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Business Improvement Association to be part of the larger community \"to get on the map for tourism.\" Point hopes that St6:lo Nation will be one of the places that tour buses visit, so that in the future, tourists can visit not only the Longhouse, Shxwt'a:selhawtxw, and the ethnobotanical garden, but aPow-Wow arbour, gift shop, and a restaurant (interview 1997). 14 You Are Asked to Witness is a curriculum book published as a result of suggestions by the St6:l o Curriculum Consortium: to choose and publish a few from the eighteen essays which had been developed and put into binders for school districts to use (interview with Joe 1997). Published in 1997, the book discusses topics such as history of Sto:I o -Xwelitem [European colonizers] relations, Aboriginal Rights, as well as aspects of St6:lo traditional culture. The essays which were not included in the book can be found on the St6:lo Curriculum Consortium: St6:lo Electronic Library web site: \"http://web20.mindlink.net/stolo/\" 1 5 Gwen Point is in charge of education for elementary and secondary schools under the department of Community Development, St6:lo Nation. She is originally from Chehalis, an independent St6:lo band, and has a post Baccalaureate degree in curriculum development. Her husband, Chief Steven Point, is the Chiefs' Representative for St6:lo Nation and Chief of Skowkale, a St6:lo Nation member band. 14 PART II: THE POLITICAL AND UNIFIED ST6:LO October 21st, 1994, was an \"historic occasion\" in which representatives from different communities gathered to take an oath of office to serve the St6:l o people and to make St6:l o unity happen (Commodore 1995). At a special ceremony which declared the independence of St6:l o Nation to the public the following year, Chiefs' Representative Steven Point was reported as saying: Today is a celebration... The Sto:lo Nation is standing up as a government. We want to be a nation like our ancestors... What we represent today predates the Indian Act... Sto:lo people stand united in their Sto:lo territory by their Sto:lo government. This is what makes us who we are... We rely on you now Sto:lo people... to protect our land and people (Chilliwack Times 1995). Point also remarked on the \"10,000-year history Sto.io people have in the Upper Fraser Valley\" and claimed that \"this is our country\" (Chilliwack Times 1995). My interviews with people involved with LEP and Xa:ytem concur with Chief Point's declaration of what the Sto.l o Nation stands for. The opinions of these people can be seen as presentations in the sense that Goffman (1959) discussed. According to Goffman, a presentation is an \"activity of a given participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in any way any of the other participants\" (1959:15). During performances, \"abstract claims upon the audience\" are presented, which constitute \"one way in which a performance is 'socialized,' molded, and modified to fit into the understanding and expectations of the society in which it is presented\" (1959:34-35). A \"performance team\" is a \"set of individuals whose intimate co-operation is required if a given projected definition of the situation is to be maintained.\" Team members are conspirators in the maintenance of the \"stability of some definitions of the situation and concealing or playing down [of] certain facts,\" and different performances projected by each performer are an integral part of the overall projection. Thus, team members are in an important relationship with one another and even if people from different backgrounds form a team, they group themselves not in relation to their backgrounds but \"in relation to an interaction or series of interactions in which the relevant definition of the situation is maintained\" (1959:104-105). 15 The presentation and construction of a unified Storlo In the presentation of St6:lo to the public, people I interviewed found many issues to be worthy of attention. First and foremost, these people want members of the mainstream society to know of the existence of the St6:l o in the Fraser Valley and to realize that the St6:l o are unique and different not only from other Canadians, but also from other First Nations people: ... we have to continue with that cross-cultural education because of the population explosion that is happening here in the Fraser Valley... it's essential that the population is continually made aware of the fact that there are St6:lo people here, and St6:lo have rights... (Interview with Mohs 1997). ... the objectives and goals of the programmes [at Xa:ytem] are to educate every student in our catchment area, about First Nations people in general, and specifically, of course, St6:l o people... I don't know how people can live... in St6:l o territory, and not know who the original inhabitants of the land were (Interview with Brenda Crabtree 1997).16 And I also try to address some of the stereotypical images that people have of First Nations, it seems to be the most important part of my whole job is to let people know about St6:l o... people tend to think that an Indian person is a person who has a flowing head-dress and that's probably riding a horse, and lives in tune with nature and lives in teepees. It's like that... [but we are] different, and we have our own unique history (Interview with McHalsie 1997). People... they don't see St6:lo people, or Nla'kapmx or Musqueam or Coquitlam, or Qw'ontl'en, they see \"Indians,\" you know, and so basically, it's letting them know that St6:l o people are very different from Musqueam and Nla'kapmx, and other Nations. I think that's something in itself (Interview with Point 1997). Keith Carlson wrote in You Are Asked to Witness that \"while some aspects of St6:lo society were necessarily altered, the striking feature was not the changes, but the amazing degree of cultural continuity. This cultural survival is a testimony to the strength, endurance and innovative nature of St6:lo cultural traditions\" (1997:39).17 Similarly, most people I talked to placed an emphasis on St6:lo cultural continuity, stressing in particular that St6:lo people and culture are very much alive today: 1 6 Brenda Crabtree is the education programmer for Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre. She has recently obtained a M.A. in cultural anthropology, and has Spuzzum and St6:lo ancestry. 1 7 Keith Carlson is the historian for St6:lo Nation under Aboriginal Rights and Title department who first started working for the St6:lo Tribal Council five years ago. A non-member of the St6:lo, he is currently working on his Ph.D. in history at the University of British Columbia. 16 The most important message we send out... is that they don't have to go to a museum to learn about the St6:lo people because we're here. We always have been, and we always will be (Interview with Point 1997). ... it's just to inform people who the St6:lo are, how long they've been here, and more importantly... we teach them cultural continuity, that the Sto.lo people are very much here today and will be here forever. So it's not just... a glimpse at the past, it's very much that the St6:lo are here in the present (Interview with Crabtree 1997). Many people were concerned with increasing public awareness of the St6:lo and to create cross-cultural awareness especially regarding land, resources, treaty negotiations, fishing, and other political issues: The work that's been done at LEP is not just providing the curriculum. We're also looking at the larger picture, and because this doesn't exist anywhere else in Sto.l o territory, we're creating an awareness for the larger community as well... creating awareness is one, that's probably the biggest [objective of the Longhouse Programmes] (Interview with Point 1997). [One of] the objectives of the Longhouse Programs, which are the directions given from the Chiefs, [is] to educate non-Native society. In the process of negotiating treaties, it is vital to educate non-Natives about the St6:l o, especially the students, who will be the ones making or affecting the decision-making process (interview with Keith Carlson 1997). ... there's a lot of hot political topics out there... I still find it very troublesome that students are coming out of high schools knowing so little, and yet are maturing into adults and are expected to make decisions to vote on certain issues, that they don't really have the information to base their opinions on adequately... We need to start educating them. And at least whatever opinion they have or whatever decision they make in the future regarding First Nations peoples or hot political issues like fishing rights, like land claims, then at least if it's informed, then they're being fair to First Nations people and true to themselves (Interview with Crabtree 1997). Most people were emphatic that their ways of presenting the St6:lo to the public are different from the ways in which mainstream museums have presented them. This is because what they are involved with focuses on the notion of \"a living culture\": So this place is really a living, breathing, cultural site... My philosophy of letting the students handle the original artifacts that they do is that I believe that these artifacts were made to be handled by human hands, and I think students breathe life into these artifacts. I really do. I really think it's a very sad thing when things are just left in cases in museums and aren't touched by human hands, I don't think they were made to be that way (Interview with Crabtree 1997). 17 Similarly, in a talk given to high school students, Teresa Carlson explained that the LEP is a \"cultural centre\" and not a \"museum.\" This is because in cultural centres cultures are alive whereas museums signify that cultures are gone or has ended.18 Additionally, unlike museums, where artifacts are ordinarily kept in glass cases, at Xa:ytem and LEP, people get to touch and experience things, which is a very effective way of teaching St6:l o culture: A lot of times we feel that we're [at Xa:ytem] different from other places, and it's because the kids actually get to get right in there and they get to do those things instead of... like, when I was younger we weren't allowed to go and pick up things like that, and say, well, that's cool, instead of somebody coming up and slapping us, and say, you can't touch that... it's behind glass. And that's what's so unique about this programme, you get to get right in there and get to do it (Interview with an interpretive tour guide 1997).19 We've seen the need to provide curriculum and hands-on because our Elders tell us it's not enough to talk about anything. It's not enough to read about it. If you really want to teach someone something, you get them to do it. You give them the actual experience. I think what we've been trying to do here at St6:l o Nation is to provide that opportunity (Interview with Point 1997). Interpreting and presenting St6:lo in ways which rectify misunderstandings, stereotypes, and misconceptions that had been represented by mainstream society is significant: ... the main focus of my whole job is cultural advising, is to ensure that accurate interpretation of St6:lo culture and history, and also respectful interpretation of St6:lo 1 8 Although everyone I talked to emphasized their \"anti-museum\" approach, it must be noted that while they are modelling themselves away from museums, they are also modelling themselves on museums. Crabtree, who was responsible for setting up the hands-on programmes at Xa:ytem, told me that these programmes were modelled on programmes implemented at a museum where she had done a museology internship; an interpretive tour guide also said that his interpretive skills coming from the experience in working at a mainstream museum helped in his job at Xa:ytem. Teresa Carlson has a post graduate certificate in museology and has worked as a curator in a country town museum. It is precisely because of mainstream museums—and the fact that non-First Nations have been involved with them—that these cultural interpretations exist today. Museums have come to represent colonialism and suppression and thus so many St6:lo people, like other First Nations people, find the word \"museum\" filled with negative connotations. It is important to note, however, that in recent years, the methods of mainstream museums are changing, decreasingly depicting First Nations as people of the past and increasingly incorporating a First Nations voice. For an analysis of the different approaches taken by museums and cultural education programmes in B.C. using the examples of Coqualeetza and Secwepemc Cultural Education Society, see Haagen (1990:57-83). 1 9 I interviewed five interpretive tour guides at Xa:ytem. Some expressed their discomfort at their real names being used in this thesis. For this reason, I have chosen to put \"interpretive tour guide\" for those working at Xa:ytem and use \"resource person\" for those working at LEP instead of their real names. 18 culture and history [take place]... And also try to address some of the stereotypical images that people have of First Nations... (Interview with McHalsie 1997). [The program at Xa:ytem] just clears up a lot of misunderstandings and that's really important... you get to the kids to... start changing ideas, and it goes back to families... (Interview with an interpretive tour guide 1997). Similarly, a resource person at Shxwt'a:selhawtxw makes it very clear in speeches he gives to the students that teaching them about the St6:lo is about stopping the misunderstandings of the mainstream society, about \"sharing what's left of us.\" When \"Europeans came, they didn't like the way we lived and called us savages... We want to show what we're about.\" For him, the children and the resource people coming together in the Longhouse is an important step in changing these misunderstandings. Working with the St6:lo community and presenting the St6:lo from the St6:lo's point of view is another important aspect of the current cultural representations: The people that we have [working for the LEP] are experts in their own right. Who else can do that kind of work, the weaving, and the carving, and the beading. Who else can explain that kind of understanding or teaching that goes with it. That probably is the biggest message that I send home is that who else can teach about the St6:l o people other than the St6:lo themselves (Interview with Point 1997). We work very closely with the St6:l o community... there is a very close connection with the St6:l o community, we're part of it... St6:lo people on the management committee... guide us (Interview with Crabtree 1997). The importance of a unified St6:lo An employee of the St6:lo Nation mentioned that despite the friction, past and present, between different bands and groups within the Nation, such things do not define who the St6:l o are. It is St6:lo as a collective that matters. The St6:lo Nation and its political unity have been noted as being \"a highly public expression of St6:l o identity meant to gain the attention of natives and non-natives alike\" (Mcllwraith 1995:42). The formation of St6:l o Nation has been seen by some as a step towards political and cultural healing (Commodore 1995). Politically, unity is seen as fundamental to solving issues such as land claims and aboriginal rights and title. Kew and Miller state that one of the motivations to make changes to the formal system of St6:l o governance is to \"create a political solidarity which is isomorphic with cultural identity... for the 19 purposes of negotiating with the federal and provincial governments\" (1998:20). In the opening address of the St6:lo unification ceremony, Chief Point commented on the importance of maintaining unity. People must \"work together as much as possible for the things that lie ahead of us\" in order to move towards \"Self-Government\" (Commodore 1995). As Little noted, the amalgamation of St6:l o Nation has resulted in a \"renewed energy directed towards St6:lo culture.\" She notes that the unity has not only signified resolution of political differences, but also made combined resources available for the St6:l o. This has been an important point in the development of heritage and cross-cultural education programmes which enhance and teach Sto.lo traditions and values (Little 1995:21). Unity is reflected in venues of cultural representations and interpretations. As Chief Point pointed out at the official opening ceremony of the Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre, \"we become stronger as a nation\" through \"uncover[ing] our archaeological past\" and presenting St6:l o culture to the public (Mohs 1995b). Themes portrayed in this section that people professionally involved with cross-cultural education found important to convey to the public together contribute to a unified St6:lo that is often emphasized in public. These are newly managed images of the St6:lo which educate members of the mainstream society. This unified St6:l o serves to reinforce the collective voice, purpose, and position on important issues affecting St6:lo people (Mohs 1995a). 20 PART III: T H E VARIABILITY OF ST6:LO IDENTITIES Despite the unified and homogeneous St6:lo presented, there are diverse St6:lo identity expressions at Xa:ytem and Shxwt'a:selhawtxw. To present the St6:lo as original inhabitants of the Fraser Valley, one man uses his stance against urbanization, an anthropologist points to \"scientific evidence\" which indicates antiquity of the St6:lo, a St6:lo man uses Halq'emeylem place names, and another St6:lo uses educational and political means. To express cultural continuity of the St6:l o people, archaeological evidence is used by some, the modern context of the St6:l o is used by others, while another demonstrates it personally with her grandmother and herself. To change misunderstandings and to deconstruct stereotypes of the St6:lo, one person uses a historical approach while another takes a stance against Pan-Indianism; on the other hand, another St6:lo defends Pan-Indianism. For a St6:lo educator, cross-cultural awareness is about sharing St6:lo culture, while for others it is about showing St6:l o and non-Sto:lo working together. For one man, working with the St6:lo community is about consulting community spiritual leaders, for another it is about getting the Chiefs' support, while for some it is important to involve the Elders. Supporting the St6:lo community is variously about supporting St6:lo traditions, about helping St6:lo adults and children, about providing employment for St6:lo people, about instilling pride in St6:lo people, about teaching respect to non-Sto:l o, and about achieving the goals of the St6:l o Nation. One educator uses the hands-on approach to teach respect to the students while another educator uses it because of a teaching of the Elders. These expressions—which are by no means mutually exclusive—are better seen as identity performances to understand that diverse St6:lo identities are constructed and negotiated by different people. In her analysis of gender and sexual identities, Butler (1990, 1991) discusses the notion that identities are performative. Because identities are social, rather than natural facts, they can shift over time. Identities are continually repeated and evoked, and this very repetition establishes \"the instability of the very category that it constitutes\" (Butler 1991:18, emphasis original). Identity performances can be seen as a \"project which has cultural survival as its end\" 21 and thus \"the term strategy better suggests the situation of duress under which gender performance always and variously occurs\" (Butler 1990:139, emphasis original). Goffman writes that members of the audience are active participants in a presentation because performances take place in social interactions which are dialectic in nature. The performers influence the audience at the same time as the audience influences the performers, and the formation of an identity—or what Goffman calls \"self-production\"—cannot take place without the audience. Thus, identity formations take place in and through St6:lo cultural presentations. Butler discusses that identity such as gender is performative because it constitutes \"the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results\" (1990:24-25). Similarly, Goffman writes that in a \"correctly staged and performed scene,\" the self is seen as the cause of a performance (1959:252, emphasis original). However, the self is, in fact, a product of the performance. It is during a performance with other team members and with the appropriate props that one's \"self will emerge,\" and the \"interpretive activity\" of the audience is necessary for this emergence. \"The self is a product of all these arrangements\" (Goffman 1959:253).20 Interpretive tour guides working at Xa:ytem and resource people at LEP referred to the diversity of their presentations, which they acknowledged as being individualistic. At Xa:ytem, there are two written forms of resources for interpretive tour guides: a manual containing information on how to conduct tours, and an information/ resource guide. The interpretive tour guides all go through the same training, and are responsible for different parts of the tour every day. However, guides have different styles and approaches to the tours, and are often creative. One tour guide commented that although \"there has to be consistency,\" tour guides all learn from each other on how to present the material, and each person's style is unique, showing his or her own individuality. Another tour guide said the different approaches taken by everyone helped 2 0 Not only do members of the audience play an important role in the construction of St6:lo identities, their diverse non-Sto:lo identities are constructed in this process as well. That is, identities of teachers and school children who take part in the education programmes are also constructed in opposition to the St6:lo identities that are presented. Moreover, my own identities— as a non-Sto:lo, as a Japanese, a member of a minority ethnic group in Canada, as a woman, as a graduate student in anthropology—were also constructed. Due to lack of data as well as space, discussions pertaining to the formation of non-Sto:lo identities will not take place in this thesis. The active role the audience play in the constructions and negotiations of St6:lo identities will be acknowledged but not discussed. 22 him \"develop [his] own approach.\" A St6:l o tour guide provided a St6:l o perspective on this: \"Everyone has their own style. And I noticed everybody puts that style to how it fits them the best. Cause... our culture, St6:lo, there's no real right way or there's no real wrong way of doing anything, if you have a certain way of doing it, by all means, do it that [way]\" (interview 1997). At LEP, each resource person is in charge of his or her own station and is seen as an expert in his or her arts. Because there is no formal or standardized training for resource persons to learn how to present themselves, it is inevitable that the performance of each person varies.21 One resource person commented that she had to think of what to say to the students herself because nobody told her what to say or do. She has had to modify her talks according to feedback and thus her \"performances\" have varied over time (interview 1997). Another resource person said \"I present it the way I see it and understand it\" (interview 1997). Such comments by guides and resource persons make it easier to view diverse expressions of St6:lo by different people as performances of St6:lo identities which are unique and which reflect each person's background and experience. Blumer suggested that meanings of things, the basis of which human beings act, arise in the process of interaction between people and are modified through an \"interpretive process\" in which a person engages in communication with oneself, defines an object or a situation, and interprets the definitions. It is through this process of designation and interpretation, which takes place each time even in cases of repetitive actions, that both joint and individual activity are formed (1969:10). In joint actions, participants occupy different points in the network and act at these different points according to how they define the situation, and these meanings are \"formed, sustained, weakened, strengthened, or transformed... through a socially defining process\" (1969:19-20). Each participant brings into the joint action his or her own world of objects, their meanings, and their interpretations; thus, both the functioning and the fate of institutions are determined by the diverse sets of participants. There is always some connection with what went on before, not only in terms of previous joint actions 2 1 Although they do receive some training, such as the NAID (Native Adult Instructor Diploma) programme organized by Aboriginal Association of Post Secondary Institute and Okanagan University College for six months in 1997, some resource people expressed their concerns regarding their presentations. They were not sure whether they are presenting themselves properly or not, and were uncertain of the standard of their presentations. 23 but also in terms of different individual actions of the participants. Moreover, the interaction between people, which amounts to \"complex interlinkages of acts\" that comprise \"networks of interdependency,\" affects the organization and are \"moving and not static affairs\" (1969:58). Presenting St6:lo as the original inhabitants of the Fraser Valley Gordon Mohs was the archaeologist in Aboriginal Rights and Title department for St6:lo Tribal Council when he \"discovered\" the Hatzic Rock site in 1990. He played an important role in the protection of this site from destruction for housing development in the few years that followed. In casual conversations with me, Mohs constantly expressed his concerns regarding urbanization of the Fraser Valley, and it was clear that he had reservations about this phenomenon and the \"development\" (\"if you'd like to call it that,\" in Mohs' words) that accompanies it. In an article in Sqwelqwel, the community newsletter, he wrote that the \"ever-diminishing rural land-base,\" \"logged off mountains,\" and a \"non-native population of 2 million people\" which is expected to climb to 4 million by the year 2025, is very \"depressing\" for St6:lo people (1995a).22 One way in which Mohs highlights his close connections with the St6:lo is by striving to protect \"our rights\" in order to \"ensure the survival of Sto:lo culture, a Sto:lo cultural identity and way of life for future generations\" which will be affected by urbanization (1995a). He recognized that the key to achieving these goals is public education, and saw Xa:ytem as an important venue at which public education can take place (interview 1997). Brenda Crabtree, education manager at Xa:ytem who played an important role in the development of the hands-on programmes run at the site, stressed the importance of the \"cultural or historical information,\" oral tradition, and spirituality to increase awareness of the St6:l o. As an anthropologist, Crabtree also considers the \"scientific evidence\"—archaeological evidence at Xa:ytem—as vital to inform people who the St6:lo are (interview 1997). For her and others, Xa:ytem \"goes beyond traditional heritage interpretation\" because \"science and Native tradition compliment [sic] one another\" (Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre 1997). Run at an archaeological site, with anthropologists Mohs and Crabtree being primary forces behind their 2 2 For a discussion on the effects of urbanization in the Fraser Valley in terms of population, resources, heritage, and transportation, as well as a case study of the Sumas Lake drainage, see Thorn and Cameron (1997). 24 development, it is inevitable that programmes at Xa:ytem use archaeological artifacts to present the St6:l o as the original inhabitants who have been living in the Fraser Valley for a long time. There is a very clear message at Xa:ytem: the antiquity of the St6:l o, which can be proven by archaeological evidence. An information leaflet on Xa:ytem reads \"B.C.'s Oldest Dwelling Site... older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge...\" Throughout the cultural and archaeological hands-on tours, this antiquity is emphasized by the interpretive tour guides who often end their sentences with \"long, long ago.\" Students are shown artifacts found at Xa:ytem, such as a cobble chopper, which is \"about 6,000 years old\"; when the students are taken to the excavation site where a house was uncovered, they are told it is \"about 5-6,000 years old.\" Another way in which the antiquity of the St6:l o is emphasized at Xa:ytem is through story-telling. Tour guides tell myth-like stories that are set in the distant past such as how Mt. Cheam and Bridal Falls came to be formed, and the legends surrounding Xex dls and Xd.is [the Creators], how they taught St6:l o people to fish, and how the three Chiefs were turned into the Hatzic Rock. As cultural advisor for St6:l o Nation, Sonny McHalsie applies his knowledge of Halq'emeylem and St6:lo culture to the Traditional Use Study [TUS] for cross-cultural purposes (interview 1997). McHalsie has built up a vast store of knowledge on Halq'emeylem place names which have been included in official federal government topographical maps and treaty commission documents (McHalsie 1994). Because each place name has stories attached to it which embody teachings and history pertaining to the land, they demonstrate St6:l o's relationship to the land and outline the different resources to which St6:lo people once had access. McHalsie hopes that this will help St6:lo establish policies regarding land and resources (interview 1997). Although he has some archaeological background, McHalsie considers his knowledge of culture and tradition vital for people to have a better awareness of the St6:l o, and their history. He is constantly asked to talk in both St6:l o settings, such as at a canoe launching ceremony on a reserve, as well as in non-Sto:lo settings, such as for government agencies. McHalsie also acts as a consultant in many projects such as the St6:lo curriculum development, the coffee table book about the St6:lo, and museum exhibits such as the Through My Eyes exhibit at the Vancouver Museum, Written in the Earth and Under the Delta exhibits at the Museum of 25 Anthropology. He also responds to calls for help from local schools regarding use of St6:l o traditions and language (interview with McHalsie 1997; with McHalsie and Carlson 1997). Like McHalsie, Gwen Point, responsible for elementary and secondary education for the St6:lo Nation, uses her own knowledge and experience of St6:lo traditional culture for cross-cultural purposes. Point is actively involved with various aspects of traditional St6:l o life and is confident about her identity as a St6:lo. With her own background as an educator, it is natural that her utmost concern is educating people about St6:lo culture and history through the curriculum in schools. As Point put it, the programmes were \"based on education needs\" and she worked very closely with the Consortium (interview 1997). Her goals are very political and she makes it clear in speeches given in public, in conversations with me, and in articles she writes that the cross-cultural programmes help achieve the goals and needs of the St6:lo: 2 3 The [Longhouse] program is extremely popular with the Langley School District who has invested into the future citizens of the Fraser Valley through their support of this program... There are a few important messages that are sent home with the students such as the law against practising the traditional ways that existed from 1927 to 1951 and the residential school era with its planned cultural genocide... Another important message that is sent home is that the Sto:lo People live here in the valley and have lived here since time immemorial... (Point 1995). The political nature of LEP is obvious the moment children enter the Longhouse. In the dark and damp setting, with fires burning in the middle, a resource person welcomes the students. He makes it clear that the students are entering a St6:lo space by telling them that one must be invited to enter the Longhouse, and outlining the code of behaviour inside. Another resource person sings and drums the St6:lo National anthem. During the introduction, and throughout resource people's talks, the ways in which St6:lo culture was lost due to contact and due to the discriminatory ways of the Euro-Canadian governments and churches are constantly referred to. 2 3 It is possible to argue that the presentation of St6:lo identities through educational programmes is, by nature, political. As Mcllwraith put it, \"education is a political force and an agent for asserting St6:lo cultural strengths and autonomy (1996:64). The political nature of presentations at LEP has met with mixed feedback. For some it was considered to be too political. One student wrote in a letter thanking \"Mrs. Point and friends\" for the field trip to LEP: \"It was really hard to sit and listen to you.\" For some it was not considered political; a teacher wrote that \"Mrs. Point's introduction and history of her people was well received. She really held the children's attention.\" 26 The message that is repeated during presentations is clear: \"take home to your family and friends that St6:lo people are here, that we've always been here, and we will always be here.\" Expressing Storlo cultural continuity Demonstrating continuity of the St6:lo is an important aspect when representing St6:l o. For Mohs, the best way to do this is in terms of archaeological evidence found at Xa:ytem, which is \"an incredible archaeology site.\" Scientific evidence unearthed includes \"a 9,000-year radio carbon date\" from a hearth and \"a series of radio carbon dates for an ancient house\" between 5-6,000 years old (interview with Mohs 1997). According to Mohs, Xa:ytem's archaeological findings provide other evidence of St6:lo cultural continuity:24 ...we've got spirit dancing today. Spirituality is represented in the archaeology dig that is there, 6,000 years ago, same spirituality is practised today. We have artistic traditions represented there, in the household, and those are still practised today. We have salmon being utilized 6,000 years ago, and 9,000 years ago, and that is still being practised today. There's woodworking going back to this period in time and there's woodwork today (interview with Mohs 1997). Similarly, both McHalsie and Keith Carlson—who were involved with the setting up of LEP and continue to be involved by giving talks to high school students—emphasize that St6:lo has had, and continues to have, a long cultural presence. However, in comparison to the emphasis placed on antiquity of the St6:l o at Xa:ytem and by Mohs, McHalsie and Carlson noted the importance of being sensitive about the modern context. In fact, in interviews, McHalsie repeatedly expressed his concerns regarding the \"thousands and thousands of years old\" dates promoted at Xa:ytem. McHalsie and Carlson emphasized the word \"modern,\" perhaps to combat the notion that the St6:l o are of the past (interview 1997).25 Unlike the \"Haida Kit\" which continues to be used in First Nations studies in public schools and which depicts the 2 4 This is not to say that Mohs considers archaeology as the only important aspect of the St6:lo. In a paper presented at an archaeology conference, Mohs emphasized the spiritual, not the archaeological, aspect of Xa:ytem, that \"the whole story of Hatzic Rock... is a very long story, a story mostly to do with spirituality. This is what the Hatzic Rock site is really about... From the very first day, concerns for the Hatzic Rock site were spiritual in nature. Archaeology was always a secondary consideration. The fact that the site proved to have considerable archaeological significance was an added bonus...\" (Mohs 1993). Furthermore, in a talk given to St6:lo students going through Xa:ytem, Mohs talked about the importance of spirituality at Xa:ytem. 2 5 This does not mean that McHalsie and Carlson are not concerned with the past. McHalsie, for example, is very much involved with TUS and archaeological records which are demanded in court litigation to demonstrate cultural continuity. 27 Haida as people of the past, it is vital that curriculum provided by Shxwt'a:selhawtxw represent the St6:l o in the present tense (interview with the Carlsons 1997). Likewise, the language of the panels in Shxwt'a:selhawtxw , as well as the presentations during the LEP, are careful to note the St6:lo of today and show the different ways in which aspects of St6:l o culture adapted to technological change. For example, the resource person in charge of teaching students slahal tells students the difference between traditional and modern ways of playing the game. At the weaving station the women tell students of different animals which provided wool for weaving traditionally and how wool is dyed for LEP today. During an exercise at the language station, the resource person is careful to tell the students that changing students' names to the way they would be pronounced in Halq'emeylem is \"a fun thing, it's a new thing,\" and the man in charge of the carving station shows the different blades used for carving before and after steel was introduced. The stories that resource people tell students are personal in nature. They are either about resource peoples' families or are about the past but related to the children in the present. This is very much reflected in the very name of the building and the programme—Shxwt'a:selhawtxw, meaning \"house of long ago and today\"— whose focus is \"to exhibit Sto:lo culture and history as it was, and as it continues to be\" (Joe 1996). Crabtree enriches her St6:lo identity by showing that she herself is part of St6:lo culture. She demonstrates St6:lo cultural continuity by talking about her grandmother who had taught both St6:l o and non-Sto:lo people basketry, and that Crabtree herself works with bark. Although she does not appear in front of school children during tours, Crabtree's presence can be felt everywhere at Xa:ytem. Many things at the site came out of her own home: ... I built the twining boards in my garage... we built the looms, and we're very lucky in that the head interpretive tour guide and myself have a very strong arts and cultural background... we both weave, so we were familiar with working with looms, we both spin... I have quite an extensive collection of Northwest Coast basketry, and different items... so I and also Linnea [executive manager of Xa:ytem] brought in some of her own, like a lot of stuff here is from our homes... and then as the last couple of years have progressed, we've actually made our own samples, and of course, everyone here makes baskets, we all work with bark, we all work from the initial stages of harvesting it, to processing it, to making a finished product. So this place is really a living, breathing, cultural site... (interview with Crabtree 1997). 28 For Crabtree, Xa:ytem is not only an archaeological site, a sacred site, and an interpretive site, but it is a dynamic \"working site.\" Xa:ytem is a living site not only because culture continues there but also because of its adaptability (personal communication 1997). Crabtree works very closely with the First Nations Education Coordinators of different school districts. Unlike Point, who tells the school districts the needs of the St6:lo Nation, Crabtree tries to respond to the wishes of First Nations educators and be as flexible and as accommodating as possible: ... what makes us receive a lot of the phone calls that we do, is that we're very flexible and we're very open, and we really appreciate the interest of students or public... our doors are very open and we do our best to accommodate any sort of interest groups of research that we physically possibly can... (Interview 1997). Changing misconceptions and stereotypes Keith Carlson attempted to deconstruct stereotypes of the St6:l o by emphasizing aboriginal agency in the relationship between Europeans and St6:l o throughout the chapters he contributed to You Are Asked to Witness. He said in an interview that we must not say that Natives were simply exploited by the \"Evil White Men.\" During a talk given to high school students, Carlson gave a historical overview of the relationship between St6:l o and Europeans. He emphasized the different groups of Europeans such as the traders at Fort Langley and miners of the Gold Rush, and the different nature of their relationship with the St6:lo. He depicts the multiple nature of \"White-Indian\" relations and deconstructs Europeans as a homogeneous category. Carlson attempts to change misconceptions about the St6:lo through an historical approach. McHalsie acknowledges that the most important part of his job when he is imparting his knowledge during his place-name tours or presentations in schools is to ensure that St6:lo culture is interpreted accurately and respectfully, and to deconstruct stereotypes : ... people tend to think that an Indian person is a person who has a flowing head-dress and that's probably riding a horse, and lives in tune with nature and lives in teepees... [but the St6:lo are] different... as St6:lo, I also don't like to go out and say that, you know, that we're the most spiritual... we're the oldest, things like that... [I want] people to have a better awareness of who the St6:lo people are, and the territory that we live in, importance of our history. And my work ties in with others as well (interview with McHalsie 1997). 29 McHalsie defends his St6:lo identity in opposition to Pan-Indianism, which he sees in a negative manner perhaps because he believes that it leads to perpetuation of stereotypes: ... if you're taught in schools that being Indian is wearing a flowing head-dress and riding on a horse and being in tune with nature and all that kind of stuff, you tend to kind of absorb that, and then so where do you look then, when you go looking into your past to look for your identity, because mainstream society believes that that's what you are and those are the areas that you look at. Too many people, our own people, tend to look at themselves as generally as \"Indian,\" so when you say \"Indian,\" it's all North American Indians. No one takes a close look at themselves as to well, where am I as an Indian here? That's what I have done and I don't know if it's good or bad, but kind of look at, trying to understand, who are St6:lo? And I don't try to be involved with Pow-Wow myself... I've been there. When Mission Pow-Wow started, you know, and I, already back then, kind of had an understanding of identity (interview with McHalsie 1997). For McHalsie, Pan-Indianism is not relevant because of what he has achieved in his own \"voyage of self-discovery\": a voyage which everyone goes through in order to look back to one's past, understand where the culture comes from, and to see where the culture fits into contemporary Canadian society. McHalsie has achieved his own understanding of the teachings of the Elders and his ancestors, and what it means to be St6:lo. His knowledge of St6:l o culture, teachings, and Halq'emeylem—which he stresses came from Elders—has enriched his St6:lo identity and thus he personally sees no need for Pan-Indianism, because when he looks at St6:l o culture, McHalsie \"look[s] beyond that\" (interview 1997). On the other hand, Point and her family are a primary force behind the promotion of Pow-Wows and other Pan-Indian activities being held in Sto.l o territory. Unlike McHalsie, Point considers Pan-Indian activities essential in facilitating community involvement and personal healing for members of the St6:l o community.26 She and other people working under the Education Department at St6:l o Nation have been responsible for the organizing of the Annual Chilliwack Pow-Wow (the sixth one was held in April of 1998), and Point enthusiastically told me about her plans of building a Pow-Wow arbour on the St6:l o Nation grounds (interview 1997). 2 6 Lerch and Bullers (1996) define Pan-Indian activities as \"cultural patterns that cut across traditional tribal boundaries to unite people in a wider, regional or national identity... Pan Indianism is also a social movement creating the ethnic group of 'American Indian,' which has become a 'nationality' in North American society\" (390-391). For an in-depth discussion on Pan-Indianism as opposed to St6:lo tribal identity in St6:lo territory, see Mcllwraith (1995; 1996). 30 Presenting the cross-cultural experience Point's involvement with Pow-Wows in which non-Natives can experience St6:l o culture and interact with Sto.l o people demonstrates her commitment to develop cross-cultural experiences. In a presentation to Grade 12 students from Chilliwack Senior, Point talked about bringing people to the sweat lodge, to participate in naming ceremonies and other traditional ceremonies, and even to winter dancing in order to incorporate more experience into their learning. This is due to a fundamental teaching of St6:l o people: ... the other objective [of the LEP is]... Sharing those traditions. I guess our Elders would say that you can be a traditional person or you can know the St6:l o traditions but if you don't use them, it doesn't mean anything. You know, it's sand in your hands, because it's not something you can hold on to, you're not supposed to hold on to things, you're supposed to share it. That's probably one of the most fundamental teachings that our people have, is the sharing (Interview with Point 1997). According to Point, students coming to the St6:l o Nation in itself makes a difference. Another important aspect of the cross-cultural experience is people doing research with the Nation. Introducing me to the Grade 12 students in her presentation, Point said that it is important to educate students to do research with the St6:lo \"so that they'll come back to help us.\" Furthermore, Point talked to me about the importance of inviting the larger community, including people from different levels of government and school districts, to open houses at St6:lo Nation and to different ceremonies (interview 1997).27 Although committed to cross-cultural experiences, Point is very insistent that people working for Shxwt'a:selhawtxw be St6:lo. The resource people and the dancers at LEP are part of the close social network in the St6:lo community, in particular the Point family. Even though non-St6:lo people do work for the LEP, this fact is downplayed, and their strong connections to the 2 7 The St6:lo Nation uses both traditional—such as the opening ceremony and naming of Shxwt'a:selhawtxw—and non-traditional ways to facilitate interaction between St6:lo and non-Sto:lo. During May of 1997, for example, the Sto:lo Nation held a conference in which St6:l o and non-Sto:lo, scholars and non-scholars presented papers on topics ranging from governance issues, other political issues such as aboriginal rights and fisheries, to spirituality, education, family services, and archaeology. A traditional St6:l o feast and giveaway was held during the conference at which representatives from corporate sponsors such as CN Rail and BC Hydro were honoured. The political nature of these ceremonies, to show people what the St6:lo are doing, should not go unnoticed. Kew and Miller has noted that such actions are \"an incorporative act which draws members of the mainstream political community into the Coast Salish world\" (1998:28). 31 St6:lo community are highlighted.28 This is perhaps inevitable because LEP is on St6:l o Nation grounds and is run directly by the Nation. On the other hand, at Xa:ytem, non-Sto:l o work at the site and this fact is emphasized, rather than downplayed. Among the interpretive tour guides that I interviewed, there were two St6:lo, two Euro-Canadian, and one Tsimshian. Both non-Native tour guides said that although they sometimes feel uncomfortable about appropriating St6:lo voice, they consider it important to show St6:l o and non-Sto:lo working together in order to bridge the gap between the two: ... as a [non-Native] interpreter here, I think that people seeing that there's the Native and non-Native working together is very important (Interview 1997) I think it's important to have a non-Native voice, just to get across. It's a cross-cultural experience... and it just relaxes people, I think, to see two different cultures working together... (Interview 1997). With their non-Sto:l oness, the two interpretive tour guides are redefining St6:l oness. This sentiment is shared by St6:lo tour guides: ... I think it's pretty important that... to come in here and to see that anybody can work here... because it really shows the diversity and that people can actually work together, and that we don't have to segregate ourselves... You know, it's pretty important for society to see that interaction of the different cultures, cause it says something from the outside, when you come in, and you see different people working in here, you know, and I think that's a pretty important... thing. It's a statement in itself (Interview 1997). Moreover, the St6:lo interpretive tour guides come from all over St6:l o territory. As Mohs pointed out, Xa:ytem is \"very cosmopolitan in St6:lo terms... people from all over the Nation come to work here\" (personal communication 1997). These different attitudes are better understood in the light of the background in which Xa:ytem developed. Hatzic Rock was first brought to public attention in 1990, and three years later, the provincial government took action to preserve the rock \"for its archaeological and cultural significance to the Sto:lo people and the people of the world\" (Fraser Valley Record 2 8 At the time that I was observing the LEP, there was a Tsimshian man and a Carrier woman working as resource people; Teresa Carlson is non-Native. Both Carlson and the Tsimshian man expressed in different situations their participation in community events and their strong connections to the community. Moreover, You Are Asked to Witness and the panels displayed around Shxwt'a:selhawtxw were written mostly by Keith Carlson and Brian Thom [a former researcher for the Nation], who are both non-Sto:lo. However, whenever people at St6:lo Nation talked about the book, they emphasized that the book is \"about the St6:lo and written by the St6:l o.\" 32 1993). During the media hoopla that followed—local, national, and international newspapers and magazines reported about the site, such as the Globe and Mail (1991), Wall Street Journal (1991), The Province (1993), and Abbortsford Clearbrook Times (1993)—many newspapers reported on the cooperation of St6:lo and non-Sto:lo. As a reporter for the Wall Street Journal wrote: \"many Mission residents who had never paid much heed to Indian matters suddenly wanted to help save Hatzic Rock. The rock brought two cultures together in common enterprise\" (1991) and the site was \"the first spiritual site recognized by Ottawa as being of national historical significance\" (The Province 1993). The site developed because the mainstream society decided it was important to be protected; the moment the site became protected under the provincial law, it was no longer solely St6:lo's. Moreover, core funding for the site comes from the government, and little money has been directly put in from St6:lo Nation. Mohs has also noted this cooperation across cultures in a paper presented at an archaeology conference: To the St6:lo, the Hatzic Rock site, in the summer of 1991, was a place of sharing, a place of understanding, a place where two worlds could meet without prejudice. It proved to be a place where non-Indians could come to learn something of St6:lo culture and St6:lo spirituality (Mohs 1993). Working with the St6:lo community and supporting community members Although the core funding for Xa:ytem comes from the government, this is not to say that it does not work with the St6:l o community. A way in which Mohs highlights his and Xa:ytem's connection to the community is by repeatedly mentioning St6:lo spiritual leaders' support: A big impetus for doing this [developing an interpretive site at Xa:ytem] actually came from our spiritual people, and key in that area was Nancy Phillips... and Buster Joe... So the dream that Uncle Buster had of having a centre like this, and the dream that Nancy Phillips had of doing this has come true. Now it's happening... the focus of Xa:ytem is you know, it's a spiritual place... We're always asking them, what do the spirits, the ancestors, think of what we're doing? Kenny Moses was the first one that said that the spirits are very pleased with what you're doing here. And that's what we've followed in terms of the advice in dealing with the site (interview with Mohs 1997). On the other hand, for Point, working with the St6:lo Nation and the Chiefs is extremely important. Through their support, LEP can help the St6:l o community as a whole: 33 I think the strength [of the programmes] is that we're doing it. I think the strength is that we have the support from the Chiefs, and the directors here at St6:l o Nation. I think the strength is that our resource people come from our communities, and they are experts in their own right... I think our strength is that as we're moving ahead, we're honouring our Elders and we're paving the way for our children and our grandchildren. I think our strength is in our people and we're standing up (interview 1997). For Tracey Joe, assistant researcher for the St6:lo Nation who has worked on many cross-cultural projects including Shxwt'a:selhawtxw, working with the community is about always going back to the Elders: To me, what's important is the cultural sensitivity on how [St6:lo culture is] presented. I think it's very important for people to get approval of the Elders who are still alive. Let them know what's going on. You know, they have certain rights too, and I think they should be heard. So in doing anything with the St6:l o and culture, I think Elders should be advised (interview with Joe 1997). Keith Carlson also emphasizes Elders, saying that what the LEP has done is to listen \"to the Elders, Chiefs, and communities.\" The LEP serves a political purpose because of the directions given from the Chiefs at St6:lo Nation: to educate the non-Native students so that they can make educated decisions regarding treaty negotiations (interview 1997). For Carlson, going back to Elders and Chiefs is important in a different way from Joe's concerns. Joe considers it important to involve the Elders in everything the Nation does. For Carlson, getting Elders' feedback is his way of defending and validating his St6:lo connections. Similarly, Teresa Carlson is careful to see that exhibits at Shxwt'a.selhawtxw are \"approved by Sto.lo people\" (interview 1997) and stresses the importance of \"maintaining a Sto:lo perspective and ownership\" (Teresa Carlson 1996). Both Carlsons make it clear that as non-Sto:l o employees of the St6:l o Nation, the purpose of their jobs is supporting the community by achieving the Nation's political goals. Another important objective of the LEP is to revive cultural traditions among the St6:lo (interview with the Carlsons 1997). For Point, too, supporting St6:l o traditions through the LEP is important. The stations set up for the school children have also been used for parenting programmes for St6:l o families. The parents tell Point \"how can we be proud of who we are, when we don't know who we are. How can my children be proud of who they are, when I don't even know who I am.\" Learning aspects of St6:l o culture help the parents and their children. 34 Through programmes such as LEP, Point tries to send a message to teachers that St6:lo people and children think and live differently, and at the same time it's important for the St6:lo children to be successful in public schools, they must also maintain their identity (interview 1997). Similarly, Xa:ytem holds workshops for First Nations adults to experience traditional St6:lo culture and technology, to learn about Salish weaving, and to work with bark (interview with Crabtree 1997). Providing employment is another way in which Xa:ytem supports the community and its members. Explaining that her grandmother works with cedar root, a St6:l o tour guide said that she wanted to learn to work with cedar bark as well as to learn more about herself by working there. For another St6:lo tour guide, who is an active participant in the smokehouse, Xa:ytem provides a way to affirm his St6:lo identity daily by singing traditional St6:lo songs which he learned from his grandfather to the beat of his own drum at the beginning of each tour. Moreover, when high school students from the Seabird Island Community School came to Xa:ytem, Mohs told them that with the expansion of the Interpretive Centre, there will be jobs for them, and will be \"a neat place to work down the road.\"29 For resource people, too, working for LEP has helped them, but in different ways. A woman told me that working in the Longhouse has got her up on her feet and has given her something to do after having gone through a mentally and physically devastating surgery a few months earlier. For another resource person, talking to students and teachers about the residential schools and how the Europeans \"killed us and destroyed our language\" may help him heal. Although it is extremely intimidating for her to have to talk to teachers, another resource person said that to let people know \"where we're coming from\" and that \"we had our own ways\" is important. During a talk given to high school children, a resource person said that although it is hard for people to talk about the loss of culture, \"it's time people stand up and take back what's rightfully ours.\" Joe said that supporting traditions is supporting the St6:lo community because pride is instilled in St6:lo people: 2 9 Mohs has been interested in linking heritage with economic development, and has endeavoured to promote cultural tourism in order to provide young St6:lo people with culturally meaningful economic alternatives as well as taking advantage of the opportunity to educate non-Natives about St6:lo culture and history (interview 1997). From 1993-1994, he was involved with developing and teaching St6:lo Cultural Tourism Program offered through St6:lo Tribal Council (Mohs 1994a). 35 I can remember growing up and feeling almost ashamed of being Native, because people didn't understand, or people didn't know who we were... I was ashamed of who I was. But now that more and more people are understanding St6:lo people, understanding, you know, the things that our ancestors have been through, and the rights and the wrongs that have been done to them, it's... it gives back a sense of pride, [of] who you are again. You can admit that yeah, I'm St6:lo, and I'm proud of being St6:l o, I'm proud of who I am, and where I come from. I think that's a very positive change (interview with Joe 1997). Related to instilling pride, Joe mentions respect as an important outcome for cross-cultural awareness (interview 1997). Respect is something that many workers are concerned about, and tour guides at Xa:ytem mentioned respect both during tours and in interviews. A St6:lo tour guide told students to \"have an open mind and have respect\" for the stories told about Hatzic Rock while another explained the sacred nature of an activity and asked the students to \"have an open mind and open heart.\" Crabtree is also concerned with teaching students respect, especially for the \"artifacts from the past,\" for the \"people that made those artifacts,\" and for \"the spirituality and the energy that's still in the artifacts\" (interview 1997). For Crabtree, allowing the students to handle the original artifacts at Xa:ytem is precisely for teaching respect. That is the why she has developed hands-on programmes which educate students in an enjoyable manner: ... we sat back and looked and thought, how are we going to interpret St6:l o culture, how are we going to make it educational, interesting, and more than anything, fun... how are we going to educate these kids without them realizing that it's a learning experience. How are we going to teach them and make it fun at the same time. So we developed the hands-on programme... (Interview with Crabtree 1997). The emphasis at Xa:ytem is on immersing the students in the culture by providing a unique presentation, making programmes fun, and utilizing all the senses of the students: It really gives [the students who go through Xa:ytem] an opportunity to experience traditional St6:lo culture and traditional technology. And it's unique in that sense... we pretty much utilize all their senses. They walk in and they smell the cedar, they see the cedar, they hear [the] welcome song... I think the opportunity for someone to come into a Longhouse to smell it, to see it, to handle it, and to learn from the lectures that we also present is just a really unique opportunity (Interview with Crabtree 1997). Head interpretive tour guide at Xa:ytem concurred: 36 [The feedback has been] very positive... And that's because of the type of tour that's been given, it's... a tour that... really utilizes all the senses. And I think that is really popular with teachers. They love that. They want to come to a place where their kids are going to have a good time, or they get to touch and understand, where they get to do things on their own, because there are places where you can go and read till your heart's content about all these different things, but when it comes to kids, I think doing activities is really beneficial (Interview 1997). Another tour guide commented that these activities are beneficial because giving the students the hands-on experience is an \"ever-lasting experience\" with them (interview 1997). Point, on the other hand, notes the importance of hands-on curriculum but attributes this not to making education an experience that is fun and lasting but because \"our Elders tell us\" it's not enough to talk or read about things, but in order to really teach someone, \"you give them the actual experience\" (interview 1997). 37 PART IV: STO:L0 PRESENTATIONS AND IDENTITY PERFORMANCES Analysis Interviews and observations of different venues of St6:lo cultural interpretations and representations demonstrated that there are certain issues that people involved wanted to convey to the public. Interpretive tour guides, resource people, and their coordinators together assert and construct a unified and common St6:l o, and this is seen as presentations in the sense that Goffman discussed. Through these presentations, a common St6:lo is maintained while certain realities about the St6:lo—such as the destitute life many St6:lo people lead on the reserves, the substance abuse that takes place among youth, the domestic abuse which occurs in many households, and the numerous difficulties St6:lo people face everyday—are downplayed.30 Attempts are made to eliminate negative and stereotypical images of St6:lo people (and \"Indians\" in general) prevalent in mainstream society as well as Haida images, Plains images, and \"Walt Disney Indian\" images popular in people's minds.31 By presenting a single St6:l o culture through these venues of cultural representations, identity, power, and tradition are articulated and messages of collective identity are directed to the audience (Clifford 1997:218). This collective identity is flexible and adaptive, which is used to \"fit into the contemporary British Columbia political and economic environment\" (Mcllwraith 1995:1). Despite the presentation of a unified St6:lo, interviews and observations indicate that there are diverse and multiple St6:lo identity expressions. This is because people from different backgrounds have come together for this presentation. Moreover, because Xa:ytem and Shxwt'a:selhawtxw were developed for different purposes, identity expressions differ in the two 3 0 For an account on domestic abuse and other issues in St6:lo communities, see Bierwert (1986). 3 1 However, throughout my observations I was reminded of the difficulties of eliminating dominant \"Indian\" images. For example, in letters that school children wrote to the LEP thanking the resource people, many students drew totem poles, even though nowhere during the tours should they have seen totem poles. Moreover, despite the LEP's emphasis on the modern context, many students thanked the resource people for showing activities from \"a long time ago.\" These cross-cultural programmes educate but whether they achieve the goals that those involved have in mind is not clear. As an Aboriginal Programme Manager for a lower mainland school district noted, the impact the programmes have on students depends on what kind of work teachers have done beforehand. I observed one teacher saying that her students have been studying \"Plains Indians.\" Another teacher wrote \"[the LEP] was a wonderful way to start a new unit on the Haida.\" Unless those teachers briefed the students very well, it would be difficult for the children to distinguish between the St6:lo that they observed and the Plains or the Haida that they learn in the classroom. 38 venues. The history of the different programmes reflects internal politics, friendships, associations, people's position within the St6:l o Nation, and people's background in academics as well as sources of funding. Thus, in the sense that Blumer discussed, the background of each performer is important because the diverse definitions and interpretations of meanings that each person brings into a presentation and the interaction between these people play an important role in the presentation and maintenance of St6:lo identities. By viewing the presentations which take place in venues of cultural representations in St6:lo territory as repetitive compulsory identity performances which are strategic yet unstable, a better understanding of St6:l o identity expressions is facilitated. Butler wrote that the foundational categories of gender identity—female and male—create \"identity\" as natural and inevitable. The presumption of a binary gender system assumes the universality of a female or male identity, and this suppresses the subversive multiplicity of sexuality (1990). Similarly, by avoiding binary oppositions which are frequently used in the literature of First Nations identities—that is, the focus on \"White\" versus \"Indian\" identities—it is possible to examine the diverse range of St6:lo identities that exist. In this thesis, I have intentionally avoided making clear racial distinctions of people involved with St6:lo cultural representations except in places where this was necessary, in order to explore the multiple expressions of St6:l o identities. Additionally, it is important to note that although one's membership with the St6:lo is important, other factors play just as an important role in identity performances, and each person's position in the community is quite complex. St6:lo cultural presentations and identity performances are dialectic. As performances of St6:l o identities are repeated, they are negotiated in and through interactions with the audience. The social interactions amongst the performers and between the performers and the audience are crucial in the definitions, interpretations, and constructions of St6:lo identities. Thus, as Butler and Goffman elaborated, identity expressions are products of the performances, not causes of them. St6:lo identities emerge from the process of representing and interpreting St6:lo to the public, at the same time reaffirming previously performed identity expressions. 39 Through performances of identity, ethnic boundaries—between St6:lo and non-Sto:lo, between St6:lo and other First Nations people, between First Nations and non-First Nations, between indigenous people and colonizers—are reinforced. The St6:lo is only stable and unified when these binary systems are produced and maintained by different identity performances. I suggest that just as binary oppositions are used to affirm identities, these dichotomies are also necessary for one to perform identities. That is, the \"Us/Them\" distinction is vital for one to perform these multiple and contradictory identities. By communicating difference in identity performances, St6:lo performers clearly outline the boundary between themselves and the audience in that particular setting. For example, when talking about discrimination against First Nations people during a presentation to high school students, Point looked at the two First Nations students in the class, and referred to them often. When resource people at LEP spoke, most of their sentences began with \"our people.\" Letters written by school children who went through the LEP show the results of this distinction. Students clearly distinguished between \"you\" and \"us,\" for example: \"your stories were wonderful and showed your ways\" and \"it [the programme] teaches us how you lived before we had cars, school, and other stuff.\" Public performances of cultures must be seen as part of \"social action\" and not apart from the everyday activities of the performers (Myers 1994). These social actions, the performances of St6:lo identities which take place at Xa:ytem and at Shxwt'a:selhawtxw, are part of the activities that these performers conduct in everyday life. Performers are also members of the society which the audience is in, and interact with them in different settings in everyday life. A St6:l o person living on a reserve will go to the local Safeway and interact with non-Native people and buy foodstuff just as everybody else. Tour guides have told me of experiences in which whilst walking in a shopping mall, they were accosted by children who had remembered them from their visit at Xa:ytem. A St6:lo person may interact with non-Native people in a Native setting, such as in a Pow-Wow. In that setting he or she will be wearing a Pan-Indian dancing outfit, performing an \"Indian\" dance with other \"Indians\" to a Native and non-Native audience. The next weekend, that same St6:l o person may go to the canoe races being held at a nearby community. There, she or he is representing a specific band in the area, competing in 40 sports events with other St6:l o and other First Nations communities. The same person will go to work the next day as a tour guide, imparting his or her knowledge of St6:l o to a non-Sto:l o audience. As can be seen from above, identity expressions are multiple, and identities can be chosen. When we consider the pragmatic nature of identity, the advantage of performing identities become apparent. In the above cases, a St6:l o person uses his or her performances for economic, social, and political advantages. Performing St6:lo in venues of cultural representations, imparting knowledge about St6:lo culture, history, and traditions, provides him or her with income and results in increased pride of his or her St6:lo identity. Representing his or her own band in the setting of canoe races, dancing as an \"Indian\" in Pow-Wows, or performing St6:l o in cultural representations all contribute to cross-cultural activities which increase awareness of St6:l o to non-Sto:lo peoples in the Fraser Valley. This is believed to be advantageous for future treaty negotiations. As Mcllwraith has noted, these venues are \"used as part of identity formation and as a means of reasserting a recognized political image,\" and the \"ways in which people choose to present themselves follow a cultural and a real world logic: These identities make sense for them in their navigation of local, provincial, and national politics (1996:50). The presentations and performances of St6:lo identities which take place at these venues of cultural representations can be seen in a similar manner to what Clifford (1997) has termed \"contact zones\" in museums. In contact zones, groups establish ongoing relations which are power charged and not equal, \"even though processes of mutual exploitation and appropriation may be at work\" (1997:194, emphasis original). These relations are established through \"reciprocal movements of people, not just of objects, messages, commodities, and money\" (1997:195). By focusing on relationships between people, it is possible to see St6:lo identity performances as part of the larger social interaction between St6:lo and non-Sto:l o people. Conclusion In this paper, using ethnographic data on two venues of cultural representations—Xa:ytem and Shxwt'a:selhawtxw—I explored different expressions of St6:lo identities which exist within St6:lo territory. I suggest that it is possible to view St6:lo cultural representations as different 41 presentations and performances on two levels. The first level is one in which the meanings of St6:l o-ness, what it means to be St6:lo, and what aspects of St6:l o should be presented to the public are constructed and maintained. This is a collective and unified St6:lo that is utilized for political, economical, and social purposes. On another level are the individual performances which take place in these different venues, one in which the presentation of the collective St6:lo manifests in different ways. The performances are products of the political, academic, social, and ethnic background of each performer, as well as differing over time in response to various circumstances and situations. This is perhaps most emphatically expressed to me by Point, who said that it is important to know that people, such as Point and McHalsie, have different opinions, but such differences should not be seen as conflicts; rather, they are simply different opinions which can change over time: \"it's just like one day you feel great and some days you don't\" (personal communication 1997). The above quotes and observations were brought together to show the manifestations of different identities at the point of time when my interviews and observations occurred. The diverse and complex expressions and performances of St6:lo identity are seen not as conflicts, dilemmas, or tensions within the community; they are manifestations of diversity which co-exist with the maintenance of a unified St6:l o-ness. Different identity expressions are changing constantly and should be seen as diversions within a managed unification of St6:l o. That is, these different identities construct different components of the St6:lo. The public presentation of unity and performances of diversity, however, should not be seen as seamless. They arise out of an informal system of kinship and social networks which make up the St6:lo Nation (Kew and Miller 1998). The redefinitions and clarifications of group and individual identities take place in a social backstage, away from the formal public presentations and performances. In order for a particular identity to emerge, certain historical, political, and social conditions must be met. That is, a person's (or a group's) identity must be considered in its historically variable conditions, the politics at the time, and the public sentiment towards them. It is important to note that currently the St6:lo are striving towards increasing political 42 empowerment, just as other First Nations communities are in B.C. and Canada. It is through this struggle that these particular St6:l o identities that I have outlined above have emerged in its form. It is also during this time that St6:l o identities are the most fluid. For example, the St6:lo are currently forming alliances with the larger world-wide indigenous movement and are continually exposed to other indigenous groups asserting their rights and expressing themselves in different ways. Some members of the St6:lo community have connected with groups such as the Zuni and are learning from management of cultural resources from the Maori in New Zealand (interview with Leon 1997). Some members have attended academic conferences and other gatherings to connect with Native American and First Nations groups in North America (interview with McHalsie 1997). Other members have gone to places such as the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre in Alberta and the Pacific Islands Cultural Centre in Hawaii to learn about how other indigenous groups interpret and market their culture for tourism (interview with Mohs 1997). Through these experiences—which are also diverse—the St6:l o negotiate their identities, and more importantly, the performances of their identities. Likewise, St6:lo cultural interpretations change due to factors which are beyond their control, such as the changing politics of mainstream society. In ten or twenty years, it is likely that the cultural representations seen today will be dramatically changed, along with identity expressions. I suggest that St6:l o cultural representations on two levels—as a presentation on one level in which a collective and unified St6:l o is presented and as performances on another level in which different expressions of St6:lo identities occur—will continue to take place in the future in further different forms. Different communities in St6:lo territory such as Sumas, Cheam, and Chawathil are beginning to look at their own interpretations, and realizing that there are certain aspects of St6:l o culture that they can interpret best. With the imminent emergence of other venues of representations in St6:l o territory, people at the St6:lo Nation are voicing the need for an overall plan where different interpretations can be coordinated. McHalsie told me that he would like to see \"interpretations happen throughout the valley and not at one site\" so that people could travel to all interpretive sites. The vision he sees is a large museum, \"one large central location\" in which artifacts which are not owned by a particular community can be stored 43 and from which exhibits can be coordinated (interview 1997). Joe also said that she would like people to visit interpretive sites throughout the Fraser Valley to get a full understanding of who the St6:l o are. This is because there is so much information available. The St6:lo, their culture, and their history are diverse, and one or two sites cannot cover everything (interview 1997). Teresa Carlson talked about all the bands having their own interpretive centre or programme \"to do their own thing\" and linking them together by coordinating a tour where a comprehensive understanding of St6:l o culture and history can be obtained (interview 1997). If successful, this may facilitate better communication and cooperation between different venues, which would enhance the total representation of St6:l o. It may further allow diverse St6:l o expressions to co-exist while maintaining a unified St6:l o at the same time. In conclusion I would like to point out that identity performances have always existed in St6:lo territory, in the form of oral traditions. The traditional St6:l o way of teaching, story-telling and oral narratives, is something which St6:lo people have been doing for generations. Sxwo xwiyam, or oral narratives, are myth-like stories set in the distant past which express, among other things, the fundamental values, the way of life, and accepted behaviour of the St6:lo, the relationship between resources and the St6:lo communities, and the origins of geographical features, animals, and plants. Sqwelqwel, or \"true stories or news,\" are usually set in contemporary times and describe people's experiences (Carlson, Carlson, Thorn and McHalsie 1997). Because Halq'emeylem had been an unwritten language, Sxwo xwiyam is a means through which the \"'living' connection between the St6:lo past, present, and future\" is expressed, and conveys multiple and textured meanings (1997:187). Both speakers and listeners bring their own knowledge and life experience to the stories, and thus sxwo xwiyam is highly individualistic, situational, and fluid. Current cultural representations taking place in St6:lo territory can be seen as an adaptation of this, the modern story-telling, of s xw o xwiyam and sqwelqwel.32 Just as oral traditions are creative, educational, and entertaining, so are the identity performances and presentations described above. Moreover, oral narratives are a performative-dynamic, interactive, individualistic, and situational—way of conveying meanings. Cultural 3 2 Mohs noted when discussing cultural tourism that he was interested in stimulating \"the whole idea of modern-day story tellers\" through places such as Xa:ytem (interview 1997). 44 education programmes which were described above are also performative in that sense. Just as culture had been transmitted within St6:lo communities through story-telling, through cultural representations and interpretations at Xa:ytem and LEP, culture is handed down to St6:lo children as well as non-Sto:lo children and teachers. Just as sxwo xwiyam provides a \"means through which St6:l o existence in, and relationships with, the world are explained within a historical context\" (Carlson, Carlson, Thorn and McHalsie 1997:185), by examining St6:lo presentations it is possible to see the St6:lo's relationship to the people around them at this point in time and history.33 This has been recognized by members of the St6:lo community. For example, a speaker at a ceremony acknowledging graduates of the Cultural Tourism Program said that these cultural interpreters are \"carriers of our culture\" who will serve as \"a link between this generation and the next\" (Mohs 1994b). The importance of oral history cannot be emphasized enough, in particular to current political claims of the St6:l o. This is especially the case in the light of the Supreme Court of Canada's Delgamuukw ruling of 1997, which allows oral history to carry the same weight as written history.34 The diverse St6:lo identity performances reflected in cultural interpretations and representations will continue to be negotiated and contribute to the overall presentation of the St6:lo. The diversity of St6:lo identity performances and the unity of St6:lo presentations will no doubt play an important role in the political, social, economic, and cultural empowerment of the St6:l o in the future. Through this thesis, it has become clear that just as unity represents strength, diversity can also represent strength. As important as the united St6:l o Nation is, 3 3 Blumer wrote that the historical linkage of human actions is important, and in the study of symbolic interactionism, we must not ignore the historical linkage of what is being studied. Perhaps St6:lo cultural interpretations can be seen as the temporal linkage to past actions, sxwo xwiyam. They both represent the different ways in which St6:lo as a group had previously, and continues to, present themselves and perform their multiple identities. 3 4 In 1987, the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en-Gitksan went to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to claim ownership and jurisdiction of their traditional territories and resources in northwestern B.C. This Delgamuukw v. The Queen case was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 1991 and it was concluded that aboriginal rights had been extinguished at the time of colonization. The Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en appealed this decision and took it to the Supreme Court of Canada (Cameron 1997). In December 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that aboriginal title exists and is protected under the constitution, and that governments need to respect native tradition and history as evidence in land claims (Purvis 1997; The Vancouver Sun 1997). 45 tribal and individual identities and their differences also constitute strength. Through oral and written accounts of people involved with cultural representations in St6:lo territory, it was shown that various performers at Xa:ytem and LEP demonstrated to the audience that there are numerous ways of achieving the same goal. As paradoxical as it may sound, difference can equal unity. 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Information leaflet. 1997 Booklet: 9,000 years of History in the Valley of the Stone People. 52 "@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; vivo:dateIssued "1998-11"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0088484"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "Anthropology"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "Presenting unity, performing diversity: Sto:lo identity negotiations in venues of cultural representation"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8134"@en .