Literature

Stories or legends in (or translated from) the okanagan language are called "ceptikw", and consisted of tales told through the point of views of the animal people. Stories using Coyotes, Bears and Eagles as their main characters. These stories were teaching tools and had meanings and life lessons that the Okanagan people needed to live and survive. Histories and teachings were passed orally from generation to generation.

Everything Okanagan or in the Okanagan has a story behind it. The plants, water, life and even creation. How things came to be, how they got to where they are, why they are there, where to find them, what it means to us and why we need them. It tells us everything about everything. So the ceptikw is more than just a story or a legend- it is more of an Okanagan encyclopedia. The ceptikw is what the people use to prove that this is or was a part of the Okanagan and/ or the Okanagan life. The ceptikw can tell us land marks outlining our traditional territories-not those set for us by government organizations centuries later.

Okanagan people, and all Aboriginal people, have learned to adapt to the way the world evolves around us. The Okanagan people started using new technology to start where they left off years ago. They began writing books, recording tapes, photographing and filming their work and stories, recording music and designing web sites. Creating an issue that is still heavily debated amongst traditionalists, knowledge keepers, elders, fluent speakers and storytellers.

Debates that rise questions such as this- information is sacred-and there was a protocol that Okanagan people followed to learn this information. So how do we protect ourselves and our land from those who do not wish to follow the protocols that come with privy information? An example: If there were a book or film that was meant to teach Okanagan people about a medicinal plant, food or animal in the Okanagan and where to find them, what they looked like, when to pick them and how to prepare them, how would it be used?

Without the proper teachings of protocols (only pick what you need, don't over harvest, don't destroy the surrounding habitat, saying the prayers, etc..) that came with the responsibility of gathering and preparing medicines one individual could easily aid in the extinction of that medicinal source to that area. So, who's to say that a business minded individual looking to make a few buck-or to heal a global problem-would take the time to understand the importance of conservation for future harvesting and make a commercially viable product? Viable concerns and questions that don't get answered but get rhetorical questions and comments-thus creating more concern.

On the flip side-If the one person who has all the information and isn't sharing the information with those wanting to learn it, that also aids in the extinction of that medicinal source. If no one knows its there, what it looks like, where to find it, how to pick it, the prayers/ stories and how to prepare it-it is still being lost to the Okanagan people-thus creating more concern-a viable concern and a viable question.

So producing the films, writing the stories, recording the stories and music and designing the web sites-though still in deliberation, is one small step the Okanagan people are doing to preserve its culture, language, stories and history. From pictographs to books & murals and from mouth to paper, film, tapes, CDs and MP3s- Okanagan's are creating the literature. Literature non-Aboriginals and Aboriginal peoples today-believe is necessary to prove and confirm (beyond the "unreliable human recollection") the existence of Okanagan peoples, places and things. For examples of Okanagan literature visit Theytus Books web site.