The W̱SÁNEĆ and their neighbours : Diamond Jenness on the Coast Salish of Vancouver Island, 1935

Summary: Now, with publication of The W̱SÁNEĆ and their Neighbours, the words and insights of those elders, written down eighty years ago, are available to a general readership for the first time. Drawing on Jenness' notes, editor Barnett Richling has completed the book as originally planned, supplementing the material with annotations, illustrations, and a collection of Salish myths and legends the anthropologist recorded during the same field trip. The result is a highly readable account, a blend of ethnography and oral history favouring description over analysis, and plain language over jargon. This body of WSANEC traditional knowledge comprises a valuable addition to scholarship on Coast Salish peoples, and also forms an excellent companion piece to Richling's recent edition of Jenness' Three Athapaskan Ethnographies.