Xat'sull Heritage Village tours welcome visitors
| Cultural events |
By LeRae Haynes
An open house at Xat’sull Heritage Village on Saturday featured guided tours of the site, lunch cooked in a fire pit, music by the Nenqayni drummers, and the opportunity to learn about things like pit houses, sweat lodges and hide curing.
(Danielle Schultz was one of the visitors to Xat'sull Heritage Village.)
Visitors got to watch vegetables and fish placed in a traditional fire pit, where they cooked for about three hours. The pit was layered with hot rocks, wet boughs, vegetables, dry boughs and fish, covered with a cloth and then tamped down earth. A pipe was inserted into the layers and water poured down it onto the hot rocks, steaming the food.
One of the local volunteers explained that a reed or a bulrush was traditionally used to trickle the water down onto the hot rocks. “Our ancestors lived in underground houses from October to April, eating dried food throughout the winter,” he said, adding that first thing in the spring they would go out and look for fresh food for the elders."
Visitors learned instructions for curing hides: soak the hide, wring the water out of the hide, hang the hide on the scraping post and begin scraping hair off both sides of the hide with a blunt scraper. Hang the hide on the frame, making sure that no nylon rope is used. Begin stretching the hide, keeping it moist with water.
Sweat lodge words and phrases included Spq’ilye scenc or ‘lava rock’, Qwelt’sen or ‘fir boughs’, Kwekwel7ellp or ‘elder’, T’se7ellt’se, or ‘meat’, Spyu7elltse or ‘bird meat’, Sekepe7ellp or ‘rose bush’, Speqpeqellp or ‘saskatoon bush’, Skwenllp or ‘vegetables’, Kwlekwle or ‘grass’, Seqwtsqweqwelqw or ‘red willow’, Kwlekwle or ‘grass’, Qweltsen or ‘boughs’, Munte or ‘tarp/canvas’, Lluqwlucw or ‘earth’, Sectsey or ‘stick’ and Sewllkwe or ‘pour water down stick’.
Special thanks were given to sponsors such as Spectra Energy, Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association, Spanish Mountain Gold, and the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council’s fisheries department.
Guide Mike Stinson explained that the heritage site originated when a couple from Germany searched for a location for a First Nations cultural site to promote culture, history and tourism for the area. “We were lucky that they chose us,” he explained. “Chief and Council were in favour of the idea, but some community members thought that we were selling out our culture.
“This was a big hurdle, but one elder said, ‘How can we sell our culture when don’t have one?’ He said that one of the reasons that the site means to much to the community is that for 150 years the government forbade cultural activities such as drumming, dancing and sweat lodges.
“In the long run, this site became a way for us to learn about our culture and rebuild it for ourselves and our children,” he continued. “Some of us grew up with this site, and our young people have learned so much.”
Mike took visitors this weekend to see the sweat lodge on the site, and explained that beginning next weekend, weekly ‘sweats’ will be run. “Sweat lodges are used for cleansing, giving thanks and for vision,” he explained.
The tradition of the sweat lodge includes giving thanks and praying for others. “In our culture we worry about ourselves last, and the final prayer in this ceremony is for ourselves,” he said. “In our communities everybody helped each other and asked, ‘What can I do for the person beside me?’
“We have friendship sweats, prayer sweats and singing sweats---whatever you need in your life—this can be a detoxifying experience for the soul.”
For more information about Xat’sull Heritage Village, including booking tours, arranging overnight camping or available crafts and activities visit http://xatsullheritagevillage.com/tours-and-activities/
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