And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 21:58:58 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: James Alexander Teit: anthropologist BC
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Anthropologist fondly remembered

July 19, 1999 Kamloops BC 

           James Alexander Teit, a leading anthropologist of the Interior
Salish people, was remembered Friday at Spences Bridge.

Seventy-eight years after his death, about 100 people -- both white and
native -- filled the Chief Whistemnitsa Community Centre to salute Teit’s
efforts to explore, record and promote the culture of the Nlaka’pamux nation.

The afternoon ceremony opened with a song by the Morning Star drum group,
the national anthem and a prayer by Mary Anderson, an elder from the Cook’s
Ferry Indian Band.

“Today is a good day. Today is a powerful day,” said David Walkem, chief of
the Cook’s Ferry band. “Even now we are relearning the songs he recorded
and trying to bring them back into our culture.”

Teit, whose ethnological classic The Thompson Indians of British Columbia
was published in 1900, will be honoured with a plaque at the Five Nations
campground. His published works remain one of the primary written sources
of information about southern B.C.’s Interior Salish tribes, as well as the
Dene and the Kootenay.

Cook’s Ferry band member Bill Walkem, 85, shared memories of Teit with the
audience. Having met the Scottish scholar in 1919, he was able to draw on
personal and family tales.

“Jimmy Teit started the Indian meetings at Spences Bridge and formed the
Allied Indian Tribes of British Columbia,” he said. “This was known as
Teit’s country. ... and at the last, big meeting a Vernon chief did this
great war dance. Teit said ‘you dance very well but that will never win
your country back’” from the federal government.

“We have heard of the achievements of James Alexander Teit and his role in
helping to preserve, through recording, the traditions and lifestyle of our
First Nations culture,” said Arlene King, manager of heritage programs at
Parks Canada.

Although he is credited with 42 publications during his lifetime, Teit was
also an outspoken advocate for aboriginal lobby groups. He represented
numerous bands in Victoria and Ottawa and was appointed to a special
committee when the Kwakiutl were persecuted for potlatching in 1922.

Also in attendance was Teit’s 84-year-old son, Sigurd Teit, curator of the
Nicola Valley Museum Archives Association.

King noted the need for Canadians to identify the people, places and events
that deserve recognition as historic sites. “The Parks Canada vision. ...
requires the involvement and support of others (such as) volunteers,
community groups, provincial and municipal governments and other agencies,”
she added.

Reflecting on Teit’s legacy, Chief Walkem said the Parks Canada monument
“is only the first step in recognition. He was taught by our people. ...
and we should also recognize all of the people who helped him get those
songs and stories.”



            
              "Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
               A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
                    1957 G.H. Estabrooks
                www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html

                   FOR   K A R E N  #01182
                  who died fighting  4/23/99

                  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
                      www.aches-mc.org
                        807-622-5407

                           
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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