By Steve Hubrecht
A Calgary archaeologist has collaborated with elders from the local Shuswap Band (Secwe’pemc) as well as the Piikani First Nation near Pincher Creek to write a new book shedding light on ancient rock art in the Columbia Valley and nearby parts of B.C. and Alberta.
Author Brad Himour describes the book — Forgotten Dreams: A New Look at Ancient Rock Art Sites — as a combination of Indigenous knowledge and western science, and told the Pioneer the book is meant to help educate Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers alike, as well as to increase cultural awareness, promote reconciliation, and hopefully increase cultural preservation.
The book stems from Himour’s work as an archaeologist over the past 15 years, which involved making images using DStretch technology of remote rock art sites — also called pictographs — in and around the Kootenay region. Indigenous elders from the Shuswap Band and the Piikani First Nation then interpreted the meaning of the pictographs.
“Many of these amazing cultural sites are in very remote locations. Often, they are nearly invisible to the naked eye. By visiting each site and digitally enhancing the photographs, it was possible to give the elders much clearer images to interpret,” said Himour.
Shuswap Band elders Xavier and Marge Eugene were a huge help, explained Himour. “They really contributed a lot to the book . . . they really wanted this knowledge to be passed down to the next generation.”
The rock art sites in Forgotten Dreams recount tales of epic journeys, great battles and spiritual activities, outlined Himour.
As Xavier and Marge told Himour, “Indigenous storytelling, or stseptékwle, includes myths and legends of fairy tales, hunting tales, warrior tales, information on our gathering places and often our ‘spirit stories’ gained from a vision quest or ceremony. There is always a story behind a pictograph.”
Forgotten Dreams includes 20 different pictograph sites, including in Kootenay National Park near the ‘Iron Gates’ of Sinclair Canyon (close to Radium), at Whiteswan Lake, at Armstrong Bay on Columbia Lake, over in the West Kootenay at Kootenay Lake near Creston, and in the Crowsnest Pass in Alberta.
“Many sites are still visited today. You still find offerings there. They are still used and they are very much part of a living cultural heritage,” Himour told the Pioneer. “The entire site area is part of the story that’s being told, and has been told for thousands of years . . . it connects people and landscape intimately. It’s the story of a place as well as of the rock art itself.”
Himour emphasized that the Indigenous knowledge in Forgotten Dreams belongs to the elders that shared it. He said mutual respect was key to successful collaboration, and outlined that he was instructed to leave the sites as he found them, place a small offering of tobacco as a ‘thank you’ for the opportunity to photograph them, and to understand there are many different cultural protocols related to pictographs, even within the same community.
He added it’s important to recognize that other Indigenous cultures, including Stoney Nakoda, Tsuut’ina, Ktunaxa and Metis, have their own cultural stories and traditions related to many of the same rock art sites.
The book came out earlier this year, with an initial print run of 500 copies. Himour is hoping to get Forgotten Dreams into local bookstores, interpretation centres and the museum in the Columbia Valley.
To find out more visit ?forgottendreamspictographs.com
Himour extended a heartfelt thank you to the elders, both named and not named, who contributed to the book.
PHOTO BRAD HIMOUR
PHOTO BRAD HIMOUR
PHOTO BRAD HIMOUR
