Book Review

Eagle Down Is Our Law: Witsuwit’en Law, Feasts, and Land Claims. ANTONIA C. MILLS. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 1994.

Reviewed by Alx Dark, New York University

The court case of Delgamuukw v. the Queen (1991) was a particularly frustrating moment in the struggle to have aboriginal land title recognized in British Columbia.

Justice McEachern, who presided over the case, dismissed the testimony of Witsuwit’en and Gitksan elders, and the anthropologists who testified on their behalf, in order to cite his own colonialist fantasy that “to quote Hobbs...aboriginal life in the territory was, at best, ‘nasty, brutish and short.’” (p. 15). With the publication of Eagle Down is our Law, anthropologist Antonia Mills makes her report to the court available to a wider readership, along with a prologue and epilogue that place her research in the context of the trial and the history of First Nations land rights in British Columbia.

The Witsuwit’en (Bulkley River Carrier) approached Mills in 1985 and asked her to prepare an expert opinion report for the court. Over the next three years, Mills resided with the Witsuwit’en and worked in partnership with the hereditary chiefs, eventually collecting a wealth of stories and oral histories that fill the pages of her ethnographic report. The Witsuwit’en had been studied only twice before by ethnographers, the last time in 1940. Mills’ study of the Witsuwit’en is particularly interesting because Witsuwit’en culture draws from the lifeways of both coastal peoples, such as the neighboring Nisga’a and Tsimshian, and the Carrier peoples of the interior.

In her prologue, Mills provides a succinct history of First Nations land rights in British Columbia, and places the production of her ethnographic report in the context of Delgamuukw v. the Queen. However, only anthropologists or those involved with land rights adjudication are likely to find the latter section of the prologue of interest, where the author replies at length to the (unjustified) reasons given by Justice McEachern for dismissing the anthropological evidence submitted in the case.

Mills argues that “the feast system” is the “central structure of Witsuwit’en society” (p. 41), but the matrilineal clans certainly provide a foundation for this important political and social event. The Witsuwit’en traditionally held their feasts in summer, after returning from their winter hunting territories to congregate in villages along the Bulkley River, where they took advantage of the summer salmon runs. The Witsuwit’en clans are divided into (usually) three “houses,” each a matriline that once lived together in a single longhouse at the summer village. These houses persist today, with the heads of these houses inheriting the names and their associated territories. Certainly the “potlatch” has been well-described in the anthropological literature, but Mills provides a concise and clear account of its structure that benefits the student of contemporary northwest coast cultures, as well as an account of an “All-Clan Feast” which was held in 1986, when the Witsuwit’en hosted a feast for neighboring tribes to discuss the boundaries of their impending land claim. This is a welcome description of a historic moment in the political process that has occurred in native communities as First Nations have struggled for land claim recognition.

The Witsuwit’en conception of chiefly names combines aspects of both coastal and interior naming practices, and provides an interesting comparison to the coastal use of inherited names. Mills notes that in Athapaskan cultures, individuals do not normally reveal their names, which express the source of their personal spiritual power. On the coast, however, individuals assume inherited names much like a public title which declares and validates chiefly authority. The Witsuwit’en have adopted the use of titular names, but they “infuse hereditary names with spirit power acquired in highly personal and individual ways,” including dreams and songs which the Witsuwit’en “weave into the account of a title” (p. 127). The Witsuwit’en word for oral history, kungax, evokes this association of song and story, since kun means song and kungax means ’own spirit power,’ ’own song,’ or ’personal crest.’ In fact, unlike their coastal neighbors, the Witsuwit’en rarely have a kungax associated with their hereditary names; instead at feasts they perform a song that is associated with and validates the chiefly name. While a fifth of the Witsuwit’en, including many women, inherit a name, we may still be skeptical when Mills asserts that chiefly authority creates something akin to a meritocracy. Certainly in other regions of the coast, an important part of First Nations political discourse involves the assessment of “high” and “low” families. Not all families pass chiefly names on to the next generation. Similarly, Mills describes an instance where two individuals assert the future right to use a territory through the feast, but given the nature of her report, she does not pursue the issue of conflict except to assert that chiefly authority is sufficient to resolve it.

Mills does examine Witsuwit’en expectations about chiefly authority and its responsibilities. Those with a name make decisions about the disposition of fishing sites and hunting territories, but they also draw upon personal spiritual power to balance human relations with the natural world. In addition to examples drawn from her interviews, Mills also tells us that the Witsuwit’en continue to observe the first salmon ceremony, in which the first salmon is honored and asked to encourage its kin to make the summer run. Finally, chiefly authority also requires the maintenance of status, and some chiefs still hold “shame feasts” in order to remove the stigma of a public embarrassment.

In a final chapter, Mills draws on her previous research into religion to discuss the influence of Christian missionaries on First Nations spiritual practices. As in the rest of the report, Mills stresses the continuities in Witsuwit’en society. Even before Christian missionaries arrived in Witsuwit’en territory, the prophet and chief, Bini, received aspects of Christian symbolism from First Nations travelers and wove it into Witsuwit’en religious traditions. Subsequently, the Catholic missionary, Father Morice, and the suppression of the potlatch, failed to put an end to the feast or to the traditional healing society, through which those with a name and its attendant spiritual power continue to heal to this day. The Witsuwit’en did not reject Christianity under the pressure of missionary activity, but they did relate it to their understanding of the spiritual world, emphasizing “a personalized and sometimes visionary experience” (p. 173) of the religion.

In her elaboration of these and other themes in the book, Mills provides us with invaluable examples drawn from her extensive interviews with the Witsuwit’en. The weakest aspect of the book is its organization, which seems partly the result of the purpose of the original report. At times the reader encounters information that raises questions which are not answered until later in the text. Another confusion arises from the accompanying maps, which do not show some of the Witsuwit’en villages which are frequently referred to in the text.

On appeal, the provincial courts overturned part of Delgamuukw v. the Queen, finding that the Witsuwit’en did not lose their aboriginal title upon confederation. In its larger purpose, the court case has been successful in two senses, both by bringing British Columbia to the treaty table to negotiate the extent of aboriginal title, and by providing a context to demonstrate Witsuwit’en culture and governance to non-native society. After a number of publications providing a post mortem of the trial, Mills’ book is a refreshing introduction to the Witsuwit’en themselves. It may reasonably serve as an introduction to land rights from a properly anthropological perspective, it is an important addition to the ethnography of the region, and the book may also appeal to specialists in cross-cultural judicial issues. As Mills says of the kungax that was presented before the court, perhaps with time “a wider audience will come to appreciate what was shown” (p. 177). If so, Mills’ research will surely contribute to such an outcome. It is an eloquent response to the court’s unthinking dismissal of the rich knowledge placed before it.