Nak'azdli Elders Speak/Nak'azdli t'enne Yahulduk

Keith Thor Carlson is an assistant professor of history at the
University of Saskatchewan.

Nak’azdli Elders Speak is a wonderful resource book not only for
Carrier youth (its primary intended audience), but for anyone interested
in developing a richer understanding of Indigenous history and culture.
A truly collaborative work, it presents the recorded and transcribed
voices of a host of Nak’azdli Elders who were interviewed by two
separate teams of researchers over the past decade.

The stories fall into two broad categories: those that describe the
world the Elders and their close family and friends grew up in (in this
case, historical accounts dating back to the late 18th century); and
those that are perhaps best thought of as origin stories or
legends—ancient histories conveying Carrier perspectives on how the
world came to be. All of the narratives communicate multiple layers of
historical and cultural information. The integrity of those sitting on
both sides of the tape recorder is evident throughout. Controversial
topics (such as intercommunity conflict and domestic strife) that an
earlier generation of paternalistic ethnographers and publishers often
saw fit to omit from publications are here openly shared alongside
accounts of life on the trap line, Indigenous medicinal knowledge,
historical relations between the Nak’azdli and early European fur
trades, missionaries and government officials, and the effects of
residential schools.

The resulting collection provides readers with a sense of what late
20th-century Nak’azdli Elders apparently felt was worthy of
communicating to following generations. Unfortunately, readers are not
told how or why the various stories were recorded, the extent to which
they might have been edited, or how certain tales were selected for (or
excluded from) publication. As a result, Nak’azdli Elders Speak too
often reads more like a typical mid-20th-century salvage ethnography
than an early 21st-century Indigenous anthropology. A more extensive
editorial introduction would have enhanced the book’s value.