Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 Re Stsq'ey's-Kucw Volume 90

By Ronald E. Ignace and Marianne Ignace

Secw pemc People, Land, and Laws is a journey through the 10,000-year history of the Interior Plateau nation in British Columbia. Told through the lens of past and present Indigenous storytellers, this volume detail how a homeland has shaped Secw pemc existence while the Secw pemc have in turn shaped their homeland. Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace, with contributions from ethnobotanist Nancy Turner, archaeologist Mike Rousseau, and geographer Ken Favrholdt, compellingly weave together Secw pemc narratives about ancestors' deeds. They demonstrate how these stories are the manifestation of Indigenous laws (stsq'ey') for social and moral conduct among humans and all sentient beings on the land, and for social and political relations within the nation and with outsiders. Breathing new life into stories about past transformations, the authors place these narratives in dialogue with written historical sources and knowledge from archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, earth science, and ethnobiology. In addition to a wealth of detail about Secw pemc land stewardship, the social and political order, and spiritual concepts and relations embedded in the Indigenous language, the book shows how between the mid-1800s and 1920s the Secw pemc people resisted devastating oppression and the theft of their land, and fought to retain political autonomy while tenaciously maintaining a connection with their homeland, ancestors, and laws. An exemplary work in collaboration, Secw pemc People, Land, and Laws points to the ways in which Indigenous laws and traditions can guide present and future social and political process among the Secw pemc and with settler society.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0773551301
• ISBN13: 9780773551305
• Release Date: October 2017
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 3.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 7.0" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Incredible and thorough tome

This book taught me far, far more than I ever expected, and I expected to learn a lot. Although it focuses on Secwepemcúl̓ecw—the Shuswap Country—and the Secwépemc Nation and their relations therein, it gave an incredible insight into approaching Indigenous / Turtle Island legal systems (though, it goes without saying, even their neighbouring nations, like the Ktunaxa and Tŝilhqot'in, engage and interpret their legal systems quite differently). As someone entrenched in academia, this book was at times different to get through and understand, and I am still working to understand it; indeed, I probably will never fully understand it. This being said, it is worth the effort, even if its thick, dense nature seems intimidating! Non academics can certainly appreciate this beautiful tome, and many will certainly take a tonne away from it! Highly, highly recommend!