Stories and Images About What the Horse Has Done for Us

Nora D.S. Robins is co-ordinator of Internal Collections at the
University of Calgary Libraries.

Stories and Images is a photo journal that focuses on the special
relationship between the Okanagan Nation and the horse. The Okanagan
word for horse is as ancient as the language itself. Tradition tells of
a “time before this” when Snk’lip (Coyote) brought Snklc’askaxa
(Horse) and Kikwapa (Dog) to the People. The stories in this book are
drawn from Okanagan oral tradition, the Elders, and family
reminiscences.

The book began as a classroom project by the students of the En’owkin
Centre Qwilmist High School Program. The students are all aboriginal
(about 60 percent Okanagan and the rest Anishnawabe, Cree, Métis,
Blackfoot, and West Coast peoples). The students soon involved the
Elders and other community members, the Canadian Museum of Civilization,
and Theytus Books. They did a lot of reading in the fields of Western
archaeology, ethnology, and anthropology to help them put their work
into perspective. The result is history from the point of view of the
Okanagan People.

The black-and-white photographs cover the period from the late 1800s to
the present and are arranged into themes: logging, farming, ranching,
rodeo, companions. Like the stories, the photographs are of Okanagan
origin.

The word Okanagan or Suqnaqinx translates as “the ones who stand on a
hill and are seen and heard from far away.” This book’s student
authors can stand tall in the knowledge that they have done a
commendable job in bringing the story of the horse and the Okanagan
People to us.