Ntytyix

Each time we base our teachings in the oraliture of the Syilx, we acknowledge the origins of the story: Ntytyix ~ food for the “people to be”: providing us with nourishment to get the job done.

Chief Ntytyix (Salmon) is the chief of all things in the water. Ntytyix is symbolic of action/initiative. Chief Salmon stands for sustainability, initiative, perseverance, and resilience (Westbank First Nations, Governance Structure)

For the syilx, Okanagan, water is life. This is demonstrated in the Syilx Water Declaration, from the Okanagan Nation Alliance.

Okanagan Nation Alliance presents Our Salmon Our People

This video, by Okanagan Nation Alliance, tells the story of Our Salmon our People. With art, local syilx storytellers, and a foundation of local eco-history, it is engaging and beautiful. The discussion of the intuition and drive of salmon has potential to leave the viewer with inspiration. It explores the impact of ONA Fisheries’ extensive work on the return of the Okanagan Sockeye Salmon from the brink of extinction.

This collaborative project features original art by Janet Walker, and songs by Richard Armstrong, Salmon Feast Drummers and Jason Burnstick.

Narrators include Delphine Derickson, Treyton Wardenburg, Jordan Coble and Kelly Terbasket.

Additional camera work was done by Will Swite, Brookes Coble-Sagayaden and Chris Mennell.

Learn more about the Okanagan Nation Alliance.

Additional Resources

Children’s connection to water and land helps them to learn about life and the sources of life.

Indian Residential Schools were structured in way that severed the children’s connection to lifelong learnings about the water, the land, their cultures and languages which were built around that.

These resources will help you to understand, and to guide your students in their learning:

• How Coyote Brought Salmon from the Okanagan Nation Alliance site, these teachings help us and our students understand the gift of salmon.

• The story of how Salmon returned to Okanagan Lake, a video of Jeannette Armstrong, made by UBC Studios, discussing the importance of water

• The Okanagan Nation Alliance offer a Fish in Schools (FinS) program where schools can host fertilized salmon eggs until they become frys in their schools. Once the frys are ready, ONA staff will release them.

• Watershed Ecosystems, a video, made by UBC Studios, where UBCO researchers present “their work on applying traditional ecological knowledge and values in the Peachland Community Watershed.”

• Water is life : Follow the Water Series, a children’s illustrated four-book series from the Syilx and Nla’kapamux Nations author, Harron Hall
• Restoring ntytyix (salmon) to the Okanagan and Upper Columbia Rivers, a two-day conference held in 2021 that includes video recordings
• Bringing the Salmon Home: The Columbia River Salmon Reintroduction Initiative, information about the initiative including historical distribution, the types of salmon and the reintroduction needs.