Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 6.1 The Sacred Water
© Tom Sampson (ttesaLaq)
Introductory Address and Welcome from Coast Salish leader, Tom Sampson
at the Transboundary Water Workshop, Vancouver, British Columbia (2008).
(Tom Sampson served as Chief of Tsartlip First Nation for 24 years, Chairman
of the South Island Tribal Council for 22 years, vice Chief of the British
Columbia Assembly of First Nations, Chairman of the Assembly's Constitu-
tional Working Group for Status Indians and chair of the Douglas Treaty
Council and continues to be an important leader throughout Coast Salish
communities)
(Reprinted with permission from Tom Sampson)
It said by our ancestors that when the Creator gave life to the First Nations
of the Coast Salish Nations and their land; it is said that the Creator also gave
them the language in which they could communicate with all of the other
creations with which the First Nations would share the land, water, and air.
It is then that the Creator gave us our names known as NE,HI,MET; from
this name would come our right to land ownership, and spiritual rights called
XAXES,KAL sacred belief. This would include our sacred teachings called,
SNI,NU. The SNI,NU includes our sacred ceremony called TEXTAN and the
sacred song for each ceremony. Each ceremony had and still has its own
discipline. It is the elder women who transfer these ceremonial songs to the
daughters and granddaughters. The sons and grandsons dance the sacred
masks of the family. Each of the families train their own children within their
own lodge/big house. It is always the responsibility of the Heads of the Family
to train and teach their own children and their families.
The ceremonies as it pertains to the water are a sacred belief. We know
through the Grandmothers, that the water contains and holds the baby in place
within our mothers. The Grandmothers taught us how to drink the water by
way of blessing the water before we were allowed to drink it. The water had
to be protected at all times because of this sacred belief. The water that came
from the mountain is considered sacred and these mountains had to be
protected, they are now called watersheds. The water was also used to bless
our children, the boys and the girls as they changed from children to young
adults.
The water is also used for the winter dancers and spiritual healers called
FIFE. Water is used to give special blessing to the people at special
ceremonies. The water provides us with our songs from the mountains, the
 
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