Living on the banks of the turbulent Fraser River, the Nlaka'pamux people of Spuzzum have a long history of contact with non-aboriginal peoples. They watched as Hudson's Bay Company employees hacked a path through the mountains for the fur brigades, and over time they found themselves in the path of the Cariboo road, the CPR, and virtually every commercial and province-building initiative undertaken in the region over the past two centuries. Juxtaposing historical narratives and cultural interpretation from the community of Spuzzum with archival information, this book explores the history of Spuzzum in the light of concepts central to the Nlaka'pamux definition of family, political authority, land, and cosmos.

Annie York
Annie York, an “Nlaka’pamux elder of Spuzzum, British Columbia, was a cultural authority, healer and oral teacher who, until her death, imparted knowledge about Native society in the Fraser Canyon of the province. She lived a simple but profound life based on respect for all living things, and a morality which transcended the present century. York’s energetic explanations of rock-writings found in the Stein Valley are published in They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever (1993).
Chris Arnett
Author and carver Chris Arnett is a fourth-generation British Columbian on his mother’s side and a member of the Ngai Tahu, a New Zealand Maori tribe, on his father’s side. With a life-long interest in the pre-history and history of British Columbia and New Zealand, he has researched the archeology of the Stein River Valley for the “Nlaka’pamux Nation Development Corporation and has worked for the Sooke Region Museum and Archives on a historical survey of logging on Vancouver Island’s southwest coast, which was published in 1989.
Richard Daly
Richard Daly is an independent anthropologist who now lives in Norway.

Annie York's profile page

• Winner, Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

A sympathetic re-creation of the native side of that history. This is a model ethnohistory and a superb commentary on the complexities of being both historian and anthropologist ... This finely crafted book boasts good maps, numerous illustrations ...

Choice

This text is lucid and jargon-free, and the photographs interesting and well placed ... Spuzzum will certainly be of interest to anthropologists, local historians, and specialists who have been following the debate on the writing of Native history.

Canadian Book Review Annual 4163

This book stands as part of an ongoing awareness of Native cultural persistence, alongside a long history of adaptation to the Euro-Canadian economy and society.

Western Historical Quarterly