North West Coast Territory
Spanning from Alaska to California
Kwaligalitte’sa naxwa.
KhushiPatel Prof SRuffandJHogrefe MappingLinesofFlightArch581A PrattInstituteFall2022
Generational trauma and cultual genocide, caused by the reckless actions of European exploitation in the Americas, has displaced Indigenous people. Today’s America is known to be “the land of thefreeandhomeofthebrave.”However,isittrulyfreedom, when the natives of the land were stripped of theirs? Forcefully displaced andbannedfrompracticingtheirtraditionsforthesakeofa so-called “progressive” and “modernized” nation. One of the most horrendousexamplesofcompulsoryassimilationofIndigenousyouth into western society is the Residential School System. This was a government funded boarding school system that took indigenous children from their families and placed them into abusive environments. Children could not partake in anythingrelatedtotheir indigenous roots when attending these schools. Speaking in their mother tongue, dancing, ceremonial practices, and much more were banned. The stripping of one’s identity began on the day of arrival, when hair was cut and the body was touched by unknowns while bathing. This is merely the tip of the emotional and physical abuse endoured.
Begining with themappingofAmerica,itcanbenotedthat it was, “generally de-picted as a binary staging of master-slave or settler-Indigenous relations.”1 According to Tiffany Lethebo King(author and professor of the black diaspora and native studies), today’s America has been written with the markings of European intrusionratherthannativeterritories.Theexistenceoftheland,prior to colonization, has not only been concealed but hasn’t even been consideredaspartofthemappingsystemsweseetoday.Similarlythe cultures and belief systems have been erased by residential schools. This history of attempted erasure cannot be completely forgotten because ithasleftmanyindigenouspeoplewithpermanentemotional and physical damage. However, the residential school systemcanbe
1 TiffanyLethaboKing, The Map(Settlement) and the territory(The Incompleteness of Conquest)
remapped in such a way to reveal the dark histories on which this country was built, hopefully sparking demand for change intheway we choosetomoveforward.Choosingtomoveforwardinadirection whichbringsforthareemergenceofindigenousculture.
North America in the eyes of indigenous people was not viewedthroughconcreteborders,butratherterritories,throughwhich communities could migrate according to habitual needs.
Mesoamerica, Southwest, Plains, Southeast, Northeast, Great Basin, California, Northwest, Subarctic, Arctic, and Plateau are the eleven territoriesencompassedinthelandmassofNorthAmerica.
Stretching from Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California, the Northwestterritoryconsists of a plethora of tribes. Eachwithdistinctculturesandtraditions.The Kwaiutl people, native to the south coast of British Columbia, including the north of Vancouver Island, were victim to the assimilation at St.Michael's Residential School. One of the 140 government funded residential schoolsinCanada,thatranfrom1894 to 1974 and was demolished in 2015. The Kwakiutlwereknownfor their totem poles, wooden houses, and log canoes. Here was where the abrupt prohibition of speaking native languages, led to the gradual declineofKwak-walaspeakingindividuals.Aschildrenwere taken away from their families, they were unable to progress their vocabulary As generations of St.Michael's attendees passed, the language disintegrated. Now only 200 Kwak-wala speakers are accounted for in the area, which makes up less than 4% of the Kwakwaka'wakwpopulationtoday.
Methods of communication are constantly evolving.
However the disintegration of languagesandtheirdialectscanreveal much about the direction in which humanityisheaded.Forexample, it is predicted that the last standing languages in the world will be English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Of course this will take years to
occur, but what does this say about our society? Why are we regressing in diversity of languages and culture by falling victim to thegrandspectacleofAmericanculture?
Marlene NourbeSe Philip(Canadian Poet)usesmanuscripts from the Zong massacretonotonlycreateabstractpoetry,buttoalso question why we even continue to use a language expandedthrough colonization. Particularly by bringing forth the murder of African slaves on the Zong ship in November of 1781. Theexcursionacross the Atlantic Slave Trade ended withtheAfricanslavesmalnourished to the point of death. The court ruled that the slaves were murdered by the European crew and demanded compensation to the insurers. Despite the continuation of slave trade, thecasewasthefirsttoview the enslaved as living beings, rather than simply just property
Philip’s abstractions inherbook Zong!,remapstheuseoftheEnglish language.2 Can interpreting the experiences of the enslaved through the slave master’s language, trulytellthestoriesofslaveswhospoke adifferentvernacular?
Redirecting back to the assimilation of Kwiutl people at St.Michael's Residential School, the reemergence of Kwak-wala is vital to the remapping of their culture. Modern text methodssuchas mapping can be used to rewrite the stories of Kwakiutl childrenand survivors. It may take decades to fullyabolishthesegregatedmapof Canada, The USA and Mexico from classrooms,andsubstitutethem for theindigenousterritories,butbysurfacingthismappingmethodit canstartaconversationaboutwheretogofromhere.
Aside from the demolition of the school, the government of Canada had established the Truth and Reconciliation Act in 2008 as part of theIndianResidentialSchoolAgreement.The goal oftheactwastorecordthesurvivors,families,andcommunities which were affected by the system. Recording of uncovered burial
2 MarleneNourbeSePhilip,2008 Zong!
grounds of the many who were killed as well as the trauma and mental health issuesamongsurvivorsandindigenousyouthareapart of the act. Incentives to aid the generational affects of a cultural genocide must be donebyacommunalabasesduetothediversityof tribes around the country. The reemergence of Kwak-wala inBritish Columbia is an ongoing objective for the Kwakiutl people. Through adult literacy incentives at local community centers, forexamplethe Mount Waddington Family Literacy Society in BC, Kwakiutl youth can begin to learnthelanguageagain.Teachersandstudentsincrease the visibility of the language by wearing shirts with key Kwak-wala words writtenonthem. Hitumala meaning“tomakethingsright”and ik’akela meaning to “feel good-often used tosaygoodbye,similarto have a great day.” Other incentives to increase the visibility of the Kwakiutllanguagewouldbethroughpoetry
The Vancouver Art Museum displayed a piece called The House of the Ghosts in2008byMariannaNicolson:
Giga, Lilo'linuxw!
Suma'as ganutłida 'nala dłuwi' 'nalida ganutłe', lax gada 'Walas Gukw
Wosida gaxanu'xw, Ha'yaliligas kas wa'xidage'os ka
kwaligalitte'sa Naxwa!
Come, Ghosts!
You, whose night is day and whose day is night, in this Great House.
I beg you, Great Healer, to take pity on us and restore us to life!
Let us remember that this is a community of individuals who lost chunks of their culture and in turn their identity. Alengthy road ahead of us lies, in order to fully restore the lost languages, dances, rituals, stories, etc. However, itisnevertoolate.Byretelling the story of indigenous North Americans, specifically the Kwakiutl community and their loss of language at St.Michael's Residential School, we can move in a new direction of restoration and reconciliation. Hopefully wecanrebuildanationthatentailsfreedom for all. Freedom meaning, freedom from the shackles of our past,as wellasfreedomfromthespectacleofmodernAmericanculture.