Indigenous Topics

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Name: Tsx̱álem or Pálapála 

hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ Name: sθχeləm 

English Name:  Sword fern 

Latin Name: Polystichum munitum 

Description & Ecology: 

Sword fern is a perennial evergreen with fronds that arch up from a large woody rhizome. Each frond features a series of dry, scaly, lance-shaped leaves. Sword ferns are common in the moist, rich, lowland coastal forests west of the Cascade Mountains. Butterflies and other smaller wildlife find shelter amongst sword fern fronds, while larger animals such as elk, deer, bears, and beaver forage on them for sustenance. Sword ferns also have beneficial relationships with other flora such as Oregon grape, salal, and vine maple. 

Plant Technology & Uses: 

Fern fronds were traditionally used as a protective layer in pit ovens, in food storage boxes, and for drying berries. They were also used as flooring and bedding and were sometimes woven into mats. The children of various coastal nations, including the Squamish, played a game with sword ferns called Pálapála. Children would see how many leaflets (or ‘pinnae’) they could pull off, calling ‘pála’ for each leaf, while holding their breath.   

During times of famine, some nations, including the Squamish, dug up sword fern rhizomes, roasted them, steamed them, and peeled them before eating. Although sword ferns have tightly coiled crosiers, they are not the fiddleheads typically found in spring markets. Those fiddleheads come from ostrich ferns which are found near the banks of major B.C. rivers. 

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Name: t'áḵa7 (fruit), t'áḵa7áy̓ (bush) 

hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ Name: t̕eqeʔ (fruit), t̕eqeʔəɬp (bush) 

English Name: Salal 

Latin Name: Gaultheria shallon 

Description & Ecology: 

Salal is an evergreen shrub with thick, leathery egg-shaped leaves, small pinkish white flowers, and dark purple-blue berries. Salal is abundant in coniferous forests, rocky bluffs, seashores, and bogs west of the Cascades; they grow at low to medium elevations and sometimes form large thickets. Birds and other animals, including bears, eat salal berries, while deer and elk eat the bush’s twigs. Salal also provides protection for smaller animals and bedding for elk and deer. 

Plant Technology & Uses: 

A staple amongst coastal First Nations, salal berries are picked in late summer and can be eaten fresh or dried and made into cakes. Traditionally, salal berries were mixed with other berries such as elderberries and currants, then traded or sold. The Haida thickened salmon eggs with salal berries, while they were also used for sweetening other foods. Today, they are often used in jams and preserves.  

The leafy branches of salal were used in pit cooks to protect food from direct heat and soil while adding flavour to the dish. Fresh salal leaves are high in vitamin C and can be chewed to suppress hunger. And if you are looking for a natural moisturizer, rub fresh salal flower buds together and apply them to your skin! 

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Name: T’eḵt’ḵáy̓ 

hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ Name: Sic̓əɬp 

English Name: Vine maple 

Latin Name: Acer circinatum 

Description & Ecology: 

Vine maple is a small deciduous shrub or tree featuring leaves with 7-9 lobes which turn from green to scarlet red in autumn. They produce a winged seed and small white clusters of flowers.  Vine maple can be found in moist to wet regions, often in partial sun near the edges of forests and streams, and generally grows at subalpine elevations on the southern coast west of the mountains. 

Plant Technology & Uses: 

Because of its strength and flexibility, vine maple has many uses. Traditionally, it was used by various coastal nations for snowshoes, drum hoops, spoons, dishes, fish tongs, implement handles, fish traps, large carrying baskets, knitting needles, bows, arrows, slat-armour vests, and baby basket frames.In Luschiim’s Plants, Nancy Turner quotes Cowichan Tribe elder and botanical expert Dr. Luschiim Arvid Charlie as saying of the vine maple:  

“[it] likes its toes pretty damp …it is springy, so it’s used for items you want [to be] springy … There’s several things that require something springy …and one of them is … a hanging baby cradle … you have a cord attached to it …[to] your foot …and mothers moving it …Hanging, eh? …When you’re working, every once in a while you move it, if you need to…yeah…” (p. 86)

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Name:  p’ep’elq’máchxw or p’ep’elq’em (‘shimmering leaves’) 

Halkomelem (Upriver Dialect):  t’thəxtíyəłp (‘rattlesnake plant’)

Hul’q’umi’num (Island Dialect): Qw’iiqw’i’yul’ushulhp (‘little dancing tree’) 

English Name: Trembling aspen 

Latin Name: Populus tremuloides 

Description & Ecology: 

Trembling or quaking aspen is a slender deciduous tree with whitish bark and pointed, egg-shaped leaves which turn golden yellow in autumn. The tree’s flat, vertical leaf stocks make it shake in even very mild breezes. Male and female varieties both produce flowers which grow in catkins while seeds are dispersed in the wind. Aspens also reproduce vegetatively through their root systems and form contiguous forest stands. 

Trembling aspens grow in meadows, mixed coniferous forests, ravines, and ridges throughout B.C., but only grow sporadically on the southwest coast and Vancouver Island, and do not grow on Haida Gwaii. They grow from near sea level to montane zones in clay-rich soil and improve humus with their litterfall. Moose, deer, and elk find shade in aspen groves and consume the bark of the tree, while ruffed grouse also rely on the tree for food and nesting. 

Plant Technology & Uses: 

The whitish wood of trembling aspen is soft, brittle, and not durable. Traditionally, coastal First Nations used aspen for a variety of purposes including canoes, scraping implements, whistles, tent poles, drying racks, saddles and as fuel for fires. The Carrier Sekani First Nations used rotted aspen to line baby cradles and diapers while the Nlaka’pamux cleaned guns, traps, buckskins and their bodies in a solution made from boiled aspen, which is said to remove odours.  

Quaking aspen and cottonwood were used as weather indicators by First Nations such as the Okanagan. If the leaves were shaking when there was no perceptible wind, it indicated that a storm was coming. According to Cowichan Tribe elder and botanical expert Dr. Luschiim Arvid Charlie in Luschiim's Plants, this type of observation was traditionally important for survival: 

"One of the things that’s kind of missing, we’ve lost in this fast world, is we’ve lost the ability to be observant, [see] everything that’s going on. In the past it was, part of it, was a matter of survival. So you watched the weather, the clouds, the wind, the way the birds behaved, how they sound, what kind of talk they were doing. The way the grass is standing or not standing. You put all of these together, you had to be observant, so you know what the weather’s going to be like a few days from now. So you know if it’s safe to go across the water, four days from now. You plan accordingly, you hunt accordingly, you harvest accordingly. (January 23, 2011)" (p. 107-108)

A Note on Coastal First Nations Languages:  

hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ language resources are scarce, as are speakers of the language, and we were unable to find a hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm translation of trembling aspen. So, if you, or someone you know, happens to know the hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm name for trembling aspen, please let us know! 

hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ is the downriver dialect of Halkomelem¹, spoken by the Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Tsleil-Waututh, and other coastal First Nations. The other two languages in the Halkomelem family are Halq’eméylem, or upriver dialect, spoken by the Stó:lō Nation, and the island dialect, Hul'qumi'num, or ‘Cowichan’ spoken by several separate but related Nations on the east coast of Vancouver Island.² The other language spoken by our host nations is Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, spoken by the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, or Squamish peoples. 

Language is a vital part of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures, and, indeed, all Indigenous cultures. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognizes the importance for Indigenous peoples to provide education in their own languages, and for revitalizing their languages and “designat[ing] and retain[ing] their own names for communities, places and persons” (United Nations, Articles 13 and 14). Languages preserve cultural ways of knowing, including ecological knowledge, knowledge of place and worldview, as well as cultural traditions such as oral storytelling.  

Turtle Island, and particularly so-called British Columbia, hosts a rich variety of Indigenous languages. However, these languages are only spoken by a small percentage of the population. Every year we lose more of this vital cultural knowledge, largely due to colonial state policies.³

In recent years, important efforts have been made to revitalize Indigenous languages. This includes work done by Indigenous nations, including the Stó:lō and Cowichan nations; organizations such as First Voice and the First People’s Cultural Council; and universities such as the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.4

Footnotes:

1. The word Halkomelem is an anglicization of Hul'qumi'num
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halkomelem#cite_note-8 
3. https://en.unesco.org/courier/2019-1/indigenous-languages-knowledge-and-hope
4. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indigenous-language-revitalization-in-canada