Nemiah: The Unconquered Country and the People of Nemiah Valley

Becky Norman is a Kitchener-based freelance writer.

There has never been a more important time to read this book. With the
earth itself being choked to death by CFCs and drowning in polluted
water, a simple, beautiful culture is asking every one of us to make a
difference. The story of these people, the Chilcotin tribes of the
Nemiah Valley in British Columbia, is a heartbreaking tale of death:
death of a people, death of a way of life, death of a way of thinking,
death of the earth itself.

Glavin has combined a series of ancient legends, historical facts, and
breathtaking photographs to produce one of the best “Indian “ books
of the century. The levelling of vast stretches of forest in the Pacific
Northwest by logging companies is a fear that trickles through this
book. The fear gains momentum as the reader learns the history of the
Xeni gwet’in people, about how they fought in the past to be left
alone, to protect the land they live on. The ancient stories of gods and
goddesses, warriors and legendary maidens, leave the reader sincerely
caring about these tribes and the nature they’re protecting.

A warning from Roger William pertains not only to his own tribe, but to
the rest of the world: “If you clearcut here, it would be really hard
for us to keep the way we live, even to keep our language, even for our
ladies to make moccasins and that, because it’s going to be hard to
get the deer or moose. And I think we want to be self-sufficient. I’m
not talking land claims, because the land’s ours anyway. And the
government’s going to say, ‘You guys don’t even know your
language, you don’t even know the way you live, you don’t even know
how you govern yourselves.’ And we know that now. If you get rid of
the trees, you’re slowly going to lose it.”

If the condition of the earth is ever to improve, people need education
and motivation—two qualities readily at hand in the Chilcotin tribes
and in this book.