Stanley Sam

To me it is always important to recognize our own government that was there for thousands of year's way before the arrival of the Europeans. (NCN word meaning governing of the chiefs.) Today, I think it's time to make the people recognize where our history comes from, to set up the government that we had and to recognize what our chiefs had. First of all the chiefs selected the most knowledgeable people to be advisors for the chiefs. Each chief had advisors who were picked out by the (a-eh-pit) he can do it because he has the knowledge of the history. It was really strict who they picked out because they wanted their speakers and advisors to support the chiefs, the ruling of the chiefs, the high ranking names of the chiefs and their songs. The songs tell of the entitlement and ruling of a chief. What the chiefs had was called hoopukunum it is similar to the European government's crown land. For example, our a-eh-pit picked out who is going to be the fisheries and he was picked out as one of the warriors to guard the rivers. The chief's were the one's to give permission called dak-wee-ik. Once permission was granted something was given to the chiefs.

Klukwana is a spiritual thing it's not really made by a human it comes from the Creator. Human beings get there message through the animal world. Klukwana was a very important part of Nuu-chah-nulth governance.

  • Governance