> From a contact in BC. For copyright reasons, only the first few
paragraphs of these three related articles are here. Susan
*****
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Sunday, July 30, 1995
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page A24-25:
HERITAGE CRUISES
Boat tours with a native guide are opening visitors' eyes to the vibrant
way of life led by the Coast Salish as far back as 2,500 years ago.
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TOUCHING THE PAST
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Stories by Suzanne Fournier
Staff Reporter
Coast Salish natives are offering a cruise into a different millenium.
They are running guided boat tours up the Harrison River to
archeological sites containing pit houses and burial mounds up to 2,500
years old; Sasquatch fishing holes; and the sites of native pictographs
and legends.
"The boat tours link together all the most important aspects. The
archeological content is first-rate but it also will stimulate
conservation concerns both for the ecology and heritage," said Dr.
Michael Blake, a University of B.C. anthropology professor.
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`PYRAMIDS' OF THE FRASER VALLEY
Archeologists call the Sto:lo burial mounds the pyramids of the Fraser
Valley.
"They are among the most significant archeological finds of the last 100
years," says Sto:lo heritage adviser Gordon Mohs.
Yet until a 1992 excavation of two Scowlitz burial mounds by Mohs and
University of B.C. archeologist Dr. Michael Blake, no one had explored
them since Charles Hill-Tout excavated one at Hatzic 100 years ago.
"A generation of archeologists dropped the ball on this," says Blake.
New archeological discoveries confirm that the Sto:lo - People of the
River - lived in villages with complex social and political
organization, trade and industry more than 6,000 years ago.
Seventy burial mounds have been discovered at Scowlitz, as well as
numerous well-defined dwellings and pit houses, ranging from 2,500 to
only 200 years old.
NATIVE ELDERS REPLACE NAME ROOTED IN JOKES
It's not Hatzic Rock any more; it's Xa:ytem.
Sto:lo elders felt "Measuring Your Penis" Rock wasn't dignified enough
for a site where their deity touched the earth and turned three chiefs
into stone.
When white settlers named their Mission-area town Hatzic, after the
Indian place name, they had no clue what it meant.
"Hatzic was the name that was given to this area because of roots that
were traditionally gathered there," says Sto:lo heritage adviser Gordon
Mohs.
"The roots were shaped like a penis, and jokes were made about measuring
the penis-like roots, hence the name Hatzic."
With fewer than two dozen fluent Halqemeylem speakers among the 6,000
Sto:lo, the name's meaning went unnoticed.
But opposition coalesced once the elders were consulted.
"The elders felt a name based on measuring genitalia wasn't appropriate,
so they provided the word Xa:ytem, which means `transformed into
stone'," said site co-ordinator Linnea Battel.