The WSÁNEĆ and Their Neighbors: Diamond Jenness on the Coast Salish of Vancouver Island, 1935 ed. by Barnett Richling (review)

i have to admit that while I was reading the preface of The WSÁNEĆ and Their Neighbors I was not looking forward to reading and reviewing the book. I thought this was going to be another dusty compilation of old journal notes about the weather, how many miles the author traveled each day, and critiques of the various Natives whose paths he crossed. Or, worse yet, it would be another dry, academic anthropological tour of Coast Salish country.

I am happy to report this book is everything but what I was fearing. Barnett Richling, Jenness's biographer, has compiled Jenness's only unpublished notes with minimal editing into a book that is immediately engaging and highly readable. Jenness's narrative is packed full of information about the lives of the WSÁNEĆ and five other Coast Salish bands. (Native groups in Canada are referred to as "bands," as opposed to "tribes" in the United States.)

With a keen ear, genuine interest in, and a high regard for Native cultures, Jenness immersed himself in the WSÁNEĆ culture and formed close relationships with a dozen Elders, giving him inside access to both the mundane and ritual lives of these Indigenous people. He recorded information from six Coast Salish First Nations bands from Vancouver Island and the Fraser River Valley, with his primary focus on the WSÁNEĆ, known today as the Saanich of lower Vancouver Island.

Diamond Jenness was one of Canada's earliest and premier anthropologists in the early part of the twentieth century. A contemporary of the "father" of "American" anthropology, Franz Boas, and other early anthropologists, including Margaret Mead, Edward Sapir, and Ruth Benedict, Jenness diverged from the rigors of academic anthropology that pertained in the infancy of that field. He typically immersed himself in the culture he was studying, participating in daily tasks and rituals, learning the language, and becoming a productive community participant. His ability to meld into these groups helped him create important connections and bonds within First Nations communities, which in turn led him to being privy to things restricted from outsiders.

Forming relationships with Coast Salish Elders, Jenness learned everything from mundane daily tasks to traditional knowledge and practices, to rituals and cosmological conceptions. He learned how the simplest to most complex tasks were accomplished, but not just the mechanics of the task itself; he was taught the importance of "being of good mind" when performing every task and for everything undertaken, there is a spirit who guides how the thing is to be done, or a spirit who guides the process. For example, Jenness relates not only the process of fishing, but how to properly make fishing equipment and tools, how to ensure a good catch, and how to treat the fish properly after catching them. He came to understand the reasons for the complex relationships formed among community members, their antecedents, and the intricate and intimate relationship people had with the natural world, as well as their cosmos.

Laid out in twelve chapters, a section of Coast Salish myths, and five appendices, this book is neatly organized. Richling's preface gives us background on Jenness and his work and sets the stage for the book. Part 1 is a compendium of everything from economics through social structure, ritual activities, daily tasks, warfare, medicine, and more. Part 2 is a collection of Coast Salish mythological tales. The five appendices include Coast Salish vocabularies, how to play a popular children's game, place-names, and orthography.

Jenness does not impose on either his subjects or his readers his interpretations, analysis, speculations, and suppositions. He reports. Jenness simply, concisely, and thoroughly reports what he is learning in an engaging and interesting manner; thus, The WSÁNEĆ and Their Neighbors feels as intimate as if we are sitting at the kitchen table with Jenness over coffee.