Stó:lo
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Stó:lō (also sometimes written Stó:lô or Stó:lõ) are a First Nations people inhabiting the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada. They traditionally speak the Upriver dialect of Halkomelem. Stó:lō is the Halkomelem word for river. The Stó:lō are thus the river people.
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Origins of a people in this region
The first traces of a people living in the Fraser Valley date from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. S'ólh Téméxw, is the Halkomelem word the people use to refer to their traditional territory. These early inhabitants of the area were highly mobile hunter-gatherers. There is archeological evidence of a settlement in the lower Fraser Canyon and a seasonal encampment near the mouth of the Fraser River. Remains of this latter campsite show that in spring and early summer they came here to fish for salmon, stickleback, eulachon and sturgeon, gather shellfish and hunt land and sea mammals (deer, elk and seal). Their social structure was egalitarian and family-based.
Stó:lō elders describe their connection to the land in the statement "we have always been here." They tell of their arrival in S'ólh Téméxw as Tel Swayel ("sky-borne" people) and through the transformations of ancestral animals and fish such as the mountain goat, sturgeon and beaver. Xexá:ls (transformers) fixed the world and the people and animals in it, creating the present landscape. As Carlson notes:
- The Stó:lō walk simultaneously through both spiritual and physical realms of this landscape, connected to the Creator through the land itself as transformed by Xexá:ls (Carlson, 2001, p. 6).
History
Culture
The people today
References
- Carlson, Keith Thor, ed. 2001. A Stó:lō-Coast Salish Historical Atlas. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre.
- — 1997. You Are Asked to Witness: The Stó:lō in Canada's Pacific Coast History. Chilliwack, BC: Stó:lō Heritage Trust.
- Wells, Oliver N. 1987. The Chilliwacks and Their Neighbors. Edited by Ralph Maud, Brent Galloway and Marie Wheeden. Vancouver: Talonbooks.
See also
External links
- Stó:lō nation website (http://www.stolonation.bc.ca/)
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Categories: Articles to be expanded | Ethnic group stubs | Native American tribes | Aboriginal peoples in British Columbia
