Salish - Grant Keddie

Disc-Shaped Stones

Originally published in The Midden, 43(4), 8-9. 2011. By Grant Keddie There are a large variety of stone objects in museums often referred to as “Donut Stones” or “Gaming Stones.” Two examples in the Royal B.C. Museum collection are unique and worthy of a detailed description. Artifact DkSf-Y:40 This artifact (Figure 1) was found in 1897 in a “shell-mound” in Comox by Walter B. Anderson, the son of Alexander C. Anderson of the Hudson’s Bay Company. This round, flat-sided, diorite-like stone (77mm by 28mm) has grinding around its edge consistent with the kind of wear patterns produced on a rotated grit stone wheel (Figure 2). The artifact weights 305 grams, and is like other similar shaped stones with a bipolar-pecked … Continue reading “Disc-Shaped Stones”

Bone Body Armour?

Originally published in The Midden, 44(2), 22-23. 2012. Grant Keddie A unique artifact from the collection of the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM), DhRs-1:9482, is made from a ground and shaped piece of whale scapula (Figures 1 and 2 above). It was part of a collection originally donated in 1950 to the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History by P.T.O. Menzies. Menzies had collected these artifacts from the Eburne or Marpole site in 1931. I suggest that this is another example of the unique pair of whale bone armlets (DgRw-4:3012) found at the False Narrows site on Gabriola Island. These armlets were extremely fragmented when uncovered but were meticulously reconstructed by the conservation unit at the RBCM (Figure 4). Before reburial, … Continue reading “Bone Body Armour?”

An Archer’s Wrist Guard

Originally published in The Midden, 42(1-2), 12-13. 2010. By Grant Keddie This unique artifact from the collection of the Royal B.C. Museum has never been identified. The 8cm by 21 cm object is made from a thin one-centimetre piece of whalebone. Dr. Charles Newcombe found the artifact (DcRu-32:22) in 1914, during the construction of the Ogden Point breakwater at the entrance to Victoria’s Outer harbour. An archaeological shell midden (DcRu32), which now lies buried under Dallas Road, was once the location of a small village site at the head of the now filled in Ogden Bay. The small assemble of artifacts, which includes bone tools made using an iron file, and the lack of any oral tradition or other historic … Continue reading “An Archer’s Wrist Guard”

A New Look at Northwest Coast
Stone Bowls

Originally Published in Archaeology of Coastal British Columbia: Essays in Honour of Professor Philip M. Hobler. SFU Archaeology Press. 2003. By Grant Keddie Introduction One morning in the spring of 1969, I went with my field-school professor, Phil Hobler, to rediscover the Bella Coola village of Anutcix (FaSu 10) near the mouth of the Kwatna River. When we located the site and its distinct shell mound features, Phil commented on how each site is different and can tell us different things. His teaching style was to have us ask questions rather than just listen to answers. When I found the first donut stone, Phil asked me to look at the evidence and tell him what it was. Today when I … Continue reading “A New Look at Northwest Coast
Stone Bowls”

Projectile Points from Southern Vancouver Island

Originally published in Projectile Point Sequences in Northwestern North America, 79-86. 2008. By Grant Keddie Introduction Although projectile points can only be fully understood in the larger context of all forms of projectile heads, this chapter will focus on chipped stone points. Unfortunately the lack of enough detailed radiocarbon sequences that include sufficient samples of complete stone projectile points are lacking. Some of the information presented here must of necessity be based on before and after dates. Projectile points of a variety of types are found among the buried cultural debris in First Nations sites on southern Vancouver Island. These include the arming points for spears, harpoons and arrows. Spears with fixed point(s) include types that can be hand-throw, or … Continue reading “Projectile Points from Southern Vancouver Island”

Social Patterning in “Rock Art”
And Other Symbolic Objects of the
Interior Salish

1974. By Grant Keddie When undertaking the analysis of the organizational and symbolic content of rock art one would assume that the first step would be to base such studies on a locally derived ethnographic model. Such is often not the case as one still reads statements to the effect that rock art cannot be interpreted as it is the product of some individual psychic experience. If one takes the time to read the existing literature it is clear that most rock art representation is a product of specific kinds of social conditioning. The imagery of the art is not a random factor but a culturally controlled and cultivated phenomena. Among the Interior Salish spirit identity and the power, which a spirit gave, were associated with visible fabricated … Continue reading “Social Patterning in “Rock Art”
And Other Symbolic Objects of the
Interior Salish”

Petroglyphs, Heaven and Earth

By Grant Keddie For up to thousands of years, figures have been carved in stone along the beaches and in forests stretching around the Pacific Rim from California to China. Some of the human face and animal design elements found in British Columbia show interesting parallels with those found along the coast of Siberia. One of the most common questions I am asked in regard to these rock carvings or petroglyphs is what are they, and what do they mean? Were these designs pecked into the rock by a shaman for a special purpose? We cannot understand these images by trying to analyze them from the perspective of our modern culture. We need to look to traditional aboriginal cultures that … Continue reading “Petroglyphs, Heaven and Earth”

Hunting the Devil

By Grant Keddie Aboriginal peoples, from the central coast of British Columbia to SW Alaska, represent the octopus in their art, myths and ceremonies. All First Nations peoples living along the coast also ate octopuses, which are high in protein. But while there are many historical accounts of skinned octopus arms being used to bait hooks for halibut fishing, there are few descriptions that have been uncovered about where and how octopuses were caught. Some accounts have been found for the south end of Vancouver Island. In 1951, James Fraser of the Songhees told anthropologist Wilson Duff that the “big rock” in Gonzales Bay was called “devilfish rock” and “If you touch that rock, devilfish come up.” It was also … Continue reading “Hunting the Devil”

David Latasse

David Latasse. Of Saanich and Songhees Heritage Piecing together Outsiders Views 2016. By Grant Keddie David Latasse was a Tsartlip (W_JOLELP) First Nation. They are part of the Saanich (W_SANEC) peoples whose territory is centered on the Saanich Peninsula and southern Gulf Islands. Latasse gained notoriety from 1927-1936 as a speaker in his native language at ceremonies, the subject of an early movie maker and as a source of information via translators for newspaper reporters and at least one anthropologist. He was born about 1858-1863 and died May 2, 1936. For most of his life he lived near his mother’s relatives on the Tartlip Reserve located on the Saanich Peninsula north of Victoria. We are fortunate to have letter that was dictated by Latasse himself and addressed to the … Continue reading “David Latasse”

Changing the Weather in Songhees Tradition

2012. By Grant Keddie Special rocks were used in rituals by First Nations to change the weather and ensure safety in venturing out in pursuit of food or to create unsafe conditions for one’s enemy. One of these locations was recorded by Anthropologist, Franz Boas as being “not far” from the military gun batteries at Finlayson Point in Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park. First Nation advisors indicated that: “If a man desires a certain wind he moves one stone a very little from its place, each stone representing one wind. If he should move it too much the wind would be very strong” (Boas1991:578). It is uncertain whether these were special stones used for this purpose or whether they were some … Continue reading “Changing the Weather in Songhees Tradition”