Shyashyakook

Shyashyakook is a fictional town, but there are a number of towns and communities on Vancouver Island that Shyashyakook may have been based on: any places whose economies rely on fishing, logging, and tourism; whose populations are in the low hundreds; and which have a high First Nations population. Vancouver Island towns are also hot spots for tourists interested in fishing, surfing, diving, camping, bird watching, and other outdoor activities. . Below are some pictures of these small Vancouver Island communities to give you an idea of what Everett’s stay in Shyashyakook might have looked like.
You can also get a virtual tour thanks to Google Maps! Click on the names of these towns to travel there view Google Streetview: Port Renfrew – Bamfield – Ucluelet

Port Renfrew

Bamfield

Ucluelet

Kwakiutl

The Kwakiutl, or the Kwakwaka’wakw, are an indigenous group that lives mostly on Northern Vancouver Island and parts of the nearby Canadian mainland. Traditional Kwakwaka’wakw society is structured around clans and interconnected family units. Their economy is based primarily on fishing, with supplemental hunting and gathering. Their wealth was traded and displayed at potlatch ceremonies. These feasts consisted of rival chiefs competing to give the most gifts– the chief who could give the most therefore held the most power. Although potlatches were made illegal by the Canadian and United States governments, they continued to be held in secret, and have recently been held more often as descendants reclaim their heritage. The Kwakwaka’wakw population today is about 5,500.

A Kwakiutl potlatch, Edward S. Curtis, ~1910s.

The first documented contact between Kwakwaka’wakw and Europeans was in 1792 with Captain George Vancouver. The diseases that arose from further contact diminished the Kwakwaka’wakw population by 75% between 1830 and 1880. The Kwakwaka’wakw were also victimized by the Canadian residential school system, a system of schools meant to assimilate indigenous children in ways that often amounted to torture and required children to be separated from their tribes and families, sometimes permanently.

The Kwakwaka’wakw are renowned for their arts and craftsmanship, which included widely recognizable styles of totem poles and masks. Below are some of these pieces:

A Kwakwaka’wakw tranformation mask made of wood, horsehair, and shell.

A painted house by Mungo Martin surrounded by totem poles.

Totem poles are a complex art form that are dense with meaning. Poles placed outside family houses are composed of symbols representing the family’s crests, ancestors, and social rank. Like other Kwakwaka’wakw art, it places a relatively high emphasis on realism.

Dancers with hamasta masks, Edward S. Curtis, 1914

Thunderbird transformation mask.

 

SOURCES:

“Kwakwaka’wakw.” Wikipedia. 13 Feb. 2016. Web.

“Kwakwaka’wakw Art.” Wikipedia. 13 Feb. 2016. Web.

Tlingit

Yulie identifies as being half Tlingit. The territory occupied by the Tlingit is primarily in the eastern “tail” of modern-day Alaska, shown in the map below. They are a matrilineal society with a wide variety of cultural practices. Their cedar totem poles are their most recognizable art form. They also have a conception of property somewhat similar to modern intellectual property; songs and dances are properties of the clans that create them, and other clans must have permission to perform them. The Tlingit, like the Kwakiutl, held potlatch ceremonies.

Between 1886 and 1895, in the face of an epidemic of Old World diseases including smallpox, many Tlingit people converted to Orthodox Christianity. Russian Orthodox missionaries had translated their liturgy into the Tlingit language. It has been argued that they saw Eastern Orthodox Christianity as a way of resisting assimilation to the “American way of life,” which was associated with Presbyterianism. After the introduction of Christianity, the Tlingit belief system began to erode.

SOURCES:

“Tlingit.” Wikipedia. 13 Feb. 2015. Web.

First Nations

First Nations are the varied Aboriginal Canadian groups who are neither Inuit nor Métis. The Canadian government instituted a number of harsh assimilationist policies against its native population in the 19th and 20th centuries, resulting in drastic population decrease and the criminalization of many traditional practices. Although many modern indigenous peoples have moved back toward a traditional way of life, the damage done by colonizers has had tremendous effect. Here is a list of illustrative facts from the Assembly of First Nations:

• One in four children in First Nation communities live in poverty. That’s almost double the national average.
• Suicide rates among First Nation youth are five to seven times higher than other young non-Aboriginal Canadians.
• The life expectancy of First Nation citizens is five to seven years less than other non-Aboriginal Canadians and infant mortality rates are 1.5 times higher among First Nations.
• Tuberculosis rates among First Nation citizens living on-reserve are 31 times the national average.
• First Nation youth is more likely to end up in jail than to graduate high school.  First Nation children, on average, receive 22% less funding for child welfare services than other Canadian children.
• There are almost 600 unresolved cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.

Canada’s relationship to the 614 First Nation bands by the Indian Act of 1876, which has undergone many amendments since. First Nations govern themselves as a band government that interacts with the Canadian government at the Federal Level.