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No. 2 record [reel copy]

The item consists of an audio reel recorded by Mildred Valley Thornton around 1953. It contains Bella Coola songs. Summary taken from original box information and accession file:

  1. Indian doctor's song or Medicine Man's song, given to Dr. Whitening.
  2. Alex Pootlass mourning song.
  3. Bark softener song
  4. Bella Coola Echo song
  5. Mrs. Reuben Schooner's dance song
  6. Thunderbird dance song
  7. Chinook love song by Pat Schooner.
  8. Bella Coola love song.
  9. La Halle song.
  10. Mrs. Stephen Siwallis mourning song.

Bella Coola songs : [no. 2]

The item consists of an audio disc (sound disc) of Bella Coola songs, recorded by Mildred Valley Thornton in 1953.
Disc summary: taken from accession file. The songs are introduced by Mildred Valley Thornton.
Side 3:

  1. Indian doctor's song or Medicine Man's song, given to Dr. Whitening.
  2. Alex Pootlass mourning song.
  3. Bark softener song, sung by a woman and danced by a woman always
  4. Bella Coola Echo song, when the music changes Echo always changes the mouth of his mask.
  5. Mrs. Reuben Schooner's dance song, also a mourning song.
  6. Thunderbird song.
    Side 4:
  7. Pat Schooner's love song, in Chinook.
  8. Bella Coola love song.
  9. La Halle song, just a song without words, sung at La Halle game
  10. Mourning song belonging to Mrs. Stephen Siwallis.

Gambling Song

This song was recorded in the home of Ida Halpern, 3707 West 37th, Vancouver, B.C. Halpern's comment: "A game Ata Huoi, the only song for the bone sticks. Chinook jargon, shouting, became interesting. Kwakiutl against sticks. Musqueam, Point Grey, Fort Rupert. Mrs. Martin says that you can never beat the Kwakiutl." There are two songs recorded here: the first song is Ata Huoi Alax̱wa followed by Ala'wala.

Beatrice Day interview

RECORDED: Duncan (B.C.), 1980-03-24 & 31 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: In an interview with Jim Griffin, Mrs. Beatrice Day discusses: family background; parents' arrival in Canada and in Cowichan Bay; mill at Genoa Bay, store in Quamichan, grist mill; her siblin;gs; school and later activities; marriage, 1906; trip to Dawson City; Buena Vista Hotel; trip to England; Robert Service. TRACK 2: Trip to Dawson; husband's trip from Dawson on the "Princess Sophia"; husband's work; his retirement and death; Cowichan Indians; Chinook song; potlatches; gambling; family details. (End of interview)

Nancy Joseph interview

CALL NUMBER: T1715:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1974?] SUMMARY: Mrs. Nancy Joseph, speaking in a Native language which is most likely Carrier; offers various stories about Astace. At the 55-minute mark, Imbert Orchard asks in English when these stories were told,; and a translator tells him that the stories were told in the fall season. Then Orchard confirms which Astace stories she had told, and asks her to tell another, which she does.

CALL NUMBER: T1715:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1974?] SUMMARY: Nancy Joseph continues her dialogue. At the 32-minute mark, Imbert Orchard asks Mrs. Joseph to sing a song in Chinook, which was sung whenever a priest would arrive.

W.L.B. Young interview

CALL NUMBER: T1314:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. "Lewie" Young recalls early memories of Victoria; the visit of the Marquis of Lorne; early schooling; May 24 celebrations; the James Bay Athletic Association; the Gorge regatta; sailors o;f the Royal Navy; saloons; hack stands; express wagons; stores; Wharf Street; Government Street; Yates Street; the chain gang; steamers to New Westminster and Yale; water transportation to San Francis;co and Washington State; Esquimalt; the Skinner farm; Royal Roads; Roland Stewart; Hatley Park; the sealing fleet; his father coming out with the ship called the "Ashelstan" that carried St. John's Ir;on Church; his mother's arrival in 1859; recollections of Lady Douglas; Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie; Harry Wootton; Mayor Fell and Mayor Harris. TRACK 2: Mr. Young continues with his recollections ab;out Richard McBride; Walter Engelhardt; politics; the Davie family; the smallpox epidemic; the depression in the 1890s; the Klondike gold rush; Victoria today; changes in Victoria; beginnings of the James Bay Athletic Association; the famous four-oared crew; fishing and hunting in Saanich; swimming at the outer wharf; the Chinook language.

CALL NUMBER: T1314:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Young sings a Chinook song; talks about living at Port Essington; the Peter Herman cannery; canneries along the Skeena; Cunningham Cannery and Wiggs O'Neill. [TRACK 2: blank.]

Annie York and Arthur Urquhart interview

CALL NUMBER: T0678:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-10-25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Miss Annie York describes her grandfather, Joseph York (1868?-1951), who attended Anglican schools at Jackass Mountain; his lifelong work for the CPR; several anecdotes about things that happened to him during his lifetime; his character; Spuzzum Indians; Indians in Lytton; how Spuzzum got its name; Harry James; events in Spuzzum; Indians of Spuzzum; basket weaving; Spuzzum Indian chiefs; the Chinook language; languages used in church; she recites the Lord's Prayer and some hymns in her native tongue, Thompson Indian. TRACK 2: Miss York sings a bit more and discusses the hymns; Reverend Higgs; anecdotes about family; her great grandmother; her grandmother; her mother; her partner, Mr. Palmer; Chief James; Thompson Village. She tells the story of the Lytton Indians and Simon Fraser as told to her by her grandmother, who was ten years old at the time of the meeting, and sings the song that was sung to Simon Fraser when he left the Indians. More on Simon Fraser; more on hymns and prayers; teaching.

CALL NUMBER: T0678:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-10-25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Miss York continues by discussing how Indians prepare food. Then Arthur Urquhart, who was born in Yale and moved to Spuzzum, describes his earliest recollections about his family; his father; people in the area; Chinese people; what people wore; what Spuzzum was like. TRACK 2: Miss York comes back on and tells stories that Chief James told her, and describes his life; bridges and settlements in the area; customs of the Indians; more on cooking; more stories about social customs; her father; Indian religion and beliefs; the origins of the river and the moon.

Arthur Mayse interview

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Birth at Peguis Reserve, Manitoba; early memories of Swampy Cree people at Peguis Reserve; memories of father, Reverend A.W. [Amos William] Mayse; father's tales of the Boer War; fraternizing with the enemy; father emigrated to Canada; worked as a carpenter, became minister; father was in WWI; war wounds; was in Boer prison camp; earlier release by Jan Smuts; YMCA rep in WWI; back to Winnipeg; refused commission in Black and Tans; rural ministry in Manitoba; took salary partly in trade and had first pick of charity clothes; Mr. Mayse hated school; his father was self-taught and had a good library; read everything, including religious material; moved to British Columbia. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Living in [Port] Hammond BC; first work experience; father's church in Nanaimo; primitive conditions in the coal mines; clothing and equipment of miners; many beer parlours in Nanaimo; father's popularity; favorite fishing spots; anecdote of hazardous fishing trip; Turner rowboats prized; commercial fishing; early commercial fishing methods and boats; memories of Sointula fishermen; Sointula pukka fighting; Nanaimo miners fished for trout, not salmon; early trout fishing equipment; social consciousness; father never was a union miner; lied to get into army; South Africa; Reverend Mayse went underground in Nanaimo mine accidents; panic in town; miners invited Reverend Mayse underground, managers didn't argue; dynamite misadventure. TRACK 2: Continuation of dynamite misadventure with Rev. Mayse; vegetable garden; powder bosses; Reverend Mayse destroyed cars; pit ponies on islands; Italian miners; soccer important in Nanaimo; library; Millstream Park; rugby versus soccer; holidays with father; Chinese persecuted in Nanaimo; Chinese accused of taking jobs; few Chinese women or children; fight between Chinese and Haida boys; Chinese cooks; idyllic but racist town; Mr. Mayse and friends made a water cannon to frighten Chinese; backfire; collecting cascara bark for money; cruel pranks; fights with air guns and crossbows made from umbrellas; good shot with slingshot; gangs racially mixed; miners lived in southern Nanaimo; some of the cottages still there [as of 1984].

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Nanaimo childhood; Guy Fawkes day was celebrated as Bonfire night; Hallowe'en destructive; Nanaimo's tamale wagon; miners' children; fishing and writing at Cowichan Bay; Reverend Mayse sided with the workers; holidays at Cowichan Bay; acquiring a dugout canoe; shaman procured canoe by threats; Indian fishing methods; most gear was cedar; old style Cowichan sweaters described; Padre Cook of Cowichan; Queen Victoria medal; John Page and the medal; shaman had grape arbor and soul box; healing and hurting with soul box; rite of boys purification among Cowichans; Wolf Song was stolen from the Haida after the Battle of Sansum Narrows circa 1820 to 1840. Haida blamed for other raids; Haida slaughters and weapons used. Reverend Mayse left Mr. Mayse to his own way on holidays. TRACK 2: 38; pound salmon won prize; Bruce McKelvie; first sale of fiction; principal angry but kept on; Oyster River with Reverend Mayse; memories of old-timer James McIvor; washed ashore from sloop; McIvor ran cattle; threatened loggers; tea with McIvor; McIvor's customs; McIvor angry when offered help; McIvor's nephew visited briefly; tried to buy wife; McIvor fishing with haywire; hated cities; died in Comox in 1940's. Walter Woodiss, Oyster River old-timer, storyteller; tall tale of salmon; Woodiss's feud with a black bear and accidental killing of same; Woodiss's Inn; Percy Elsie "mayor of Oyster River"; fried chicken known as fried seagull; ghost at Comox; WWII airman at Comox rode his bicycle through "Dancing Annie".

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Indian rancherees; shaman Cultus Tommy; Chinook trade jargon terms; Padre Cook well loved; friend at Cumberland; stories of Ginger Goodwin; Cumberland memories of Ginger Goodwin and hostility to trial and government; Dominion police were hated, man hunters; no shame in evading the draft; met Cougar (Cecil) Smith; Mr. Mayse now lives in Cougar Smith's house; Cougar Smith's peculiarities; Roderick Haig-Brown, great Canadian writer; friendship with Haig-Brown; dam on the Campbell River broke his heart; last meeting with Haig-Brown; last impressions; better known outside Canada; Haig-Brown a fine and pioneering fisherman; fished steelhead. Mr. Mayse disliked high school; paid for clothing with poetry prize won at UBC three years in a row. TRACK 2: Mr. Mayse paid UBC tuition by logging in the summer under a false name; BC loggers and equipment; railroad logging; unions; woods accidents; logged Upper Vancouver Island; logging camp cooks; anecdote of 'foul feeder'; fight between logger and foul feeder; logging camp cook; flunkies, bed makers, logging camp pump tenders; eccentric and proud train men; high riggers; Harold Larson would post on a spar; woods near-misses; spark catchers jobs; bunkhouse moving accident; Paddy the straw boss; Paddy nearly caught in a blast; lemon extract mad man incident; bringing out man lost in the woods; gone mad, tried to escape his friends; wild Great Dane dogs abandoned in woods; harassed spark catchers; Mayse had to shoot one.

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0005 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Great Danes hunted in Pike's Peak area; shot one; partner Paddy Gorman; Paddy attacked by a cougar while snoozing; scraps of loggers songs; never wrote them down, always regretted it; logging; company owners were remote; unions starting camps; decision logging versus writing; went to the Vancouver Province; space writing for Province; offered staff job; clannish and proud reporters; story of ascent of Mount Waddington; two expeditions at once; Mr. Mayse carried homing pigeons in a basket to file the story; rough country; beauty and tragedy of the pigeons; walking out to tidewater hungry; a ghost story at Leefall Point, Mount Waddington, where a climber had fallen to his death. TRACK 2: Worked at the Vancouver Province as Torchy Anderson's junior man; they covered a huge forest fire that threatened Campbell River and Courtenay on Vancouver Island [Sayward fire, 1938]; Torchy was Mr. Mayse's mentor and friend; longshoremen riots; Torchy was fearless; Torchy squealed when angry; his grandfather saw a Sasquatch; the Rum Tum Club and the Sonofabitch Club; creating a story on injured trapper at Mission. Mr. Mayse wrote police constable's report while drunk; cop demoted; Torchy and his wife Marion; moved to Saltspring Island; memories of Province newspaper women in 1930's Vancouver; wild party on Grouse Mountain; Christmas cheer and story of upside down reindeer; camps for single unemployed men; joining the American Newspaper Guild; had BC union card number 3; union's failure; left holding the bag; not fired but put behind the eight ball; refused marrying raise.

CALL NUMBER: T4133:0006 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-28 & 30 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Mayse quit the Vancouver Province and joined the Vancouver Sun. The Sun was tougher and wilder; front page exclusives as revenge; union succeeded later; hostility to union. Mr. Mayse drafted and discharged for TB scars; army lost files; returned to the Sun as military writer; Mr. Gallagher, an alleged spy; moved to Toronto with no job, $100, a wife and a dog. Selective service twits said there were no jobs; walked into a job at Maclean's. Toronto run of luck; sold short stories to the Saturday Evening Post; break fiction editor of Maclean's; a few good Canadian writers; editor bought fiction; Calvinist, liked gloomy tales, had to trick him; Canadian writers were "cry-babies"; Americans were pros. TRACK 2: Canadian writers resented criticism; Mayse emulated American writers; today's market poor for short stories; in the 1940s and 1950s the stories were not literary but a good product; wrote serials for Saturday Evening Post; later published as novels; approached by an agent; returned to the coast; end of fiction markets; never seen as a serious writer; writing is lonely work; Jack Scott criticized Mr. Mayse's success in the U.S.; considered a move to the U.S.; writer's; work should speak for itself; but book tours are necessary; dislikes writer's grants except for poets; many writers are poseurs; major literary figures in Canada; dislikes commercial versus literary distinction; Mr. Mayse now writes a newspaper column; wrote for "The Beachcombers"; column is a good platform; a lucky and happy man; importance of luck.