Muthkwey

According to Musqueam oral tradition, a two-headed serpent, sʔi:ɬqəy̓, transliterated as seelthkey,{{cite web |last1=LeCompte Mastenbrook |first1=Joyce |title=Envisioning shxwqwәltәn – The Sounds of Musqueam |url=https://jsis.washington.edu/canada/news/envisioning-shxwqw%D3%99lt%D3%99n-the-sounds-of-musqueam/ |website=Canadian Studies Center Arctic and International Relations |publisher=University of Washington |access-date=21 September 2024 |date=31 December 2010}} inhabited a small lake, xʷməm̓qʷe:m (Camosun Bog area),{{cite web |title=Musqueam's Story |url=https://www.musqueam.bc.ca/our-story/?utm_source=agassiz-harrison%20observer&utm_campaign=agassiz-harrison%20observer%3A%20outbound&utm_medium=referral |website=Musqueam A Living Culture |publisher=Musqueam Indian Band |access-date=20 September 2024}} in Pacific Spirit Regional Park. Elders warned the youth of the community to avoid the bog, fearing they would be taken by the serpent. Tradition maintains that when it emerged from the bog and traversed the land, it would kill everything in its path. The two-headed serpent would leave behind droppings from which the məθkʷəy̓ would sprout. The path that the serpent traversed was said to have ultimately become Musqueam Creek, which passed through the Musqueam community,{{cite web |last1=Tattersfield |first1=Kaitlin |last2=Pillai |first2=Manuel |title=Re-conceptualization & Repair: Camosun bog and the manipulation of natural systems |url=https://www.bcsla.org/sites/default/files/Re-conceptualization_Repair_Manuelpillai.pdf |website=British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects (BCSLA) |access-date=20 September 2024}}{{cite journal |last1=Motegi |first1=Natsuko |title=Reconciliation as Relationship: Exploring Indigenous Cultures and Perspectives Through Stories |journal=Journal of Childhood Studies |date=23 October 2019 |pages=82–97 |doi=10.18357/jcs444201919214 |url=https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/19214 |access-date=20 September 2024|doi-access=free }} and stretched from Camosun Bog to the Fraser River.{{cite thesis |last1=Brauer |first1=Celia |title=Paths to sustainability : creating connections through place-based Indigenous knowledge |journal=University of British Columbia Library |date=2017 |doi=10.14288/1.0354701 |url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/24/1.0354701/4 |access-date=20 September 2024}} The Musqueam people considered the plant sacred as it had emerged from the serpent, and thus would refuse to harvest or walk over the plant.{{cite journal |last1=Sparrow |first1=Corrina |title=Reclaiming Spaces Between: Coast Salish Two Spirit Identities and Experiences |journal=Bachelor of Social Work, University of Victoria |date=2006 |pages=50–51 |url=https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/cf7220f6-0e9f-44d5-b906-e5672e41525c/content |access-date=20 September 2024}} The plant was said to inhabit the tidal flats and Fraser River delta.

It was said that the məθkʷəy̓ plant's population fluctuated, at times being abundant and at other times being hardly found. The Musqueam people identified this trait with themselves, as their Musqueam community flourished at times, while at other times dwindled due to warfare or plague.{{cite web |title=National Native Alcohol & Drug Awareness Program (NNADAP) Worker |url=https://www.fnha.ca/Documents/MIB_NNADAP_posting.pdf |website=Musqueam Indian Band |publisher=First Nations Housing Authority |access-date=20 September 2024}}{{cite book |title=Musqueam: A Living Culture |date=2006 |publisher=CopperMoon Communications |url=https://juliegordon.com/uploads/Musqueam_LivingCulture_FINALPROOF.pdf |access-date=20 September 2024 |language=en}} One Musqueam story stated that the times of flourishing and dwindling for Musqueam people would be the same as those for the plant.{{cite web |last1=Point |first1=Susan A. |title=Musqueam Foreshore |url=https://salishweave.com/gallery_items/musqueam-foreshore/ |website=Salish Weave |access-date=20 September 2024 |date=2012}} The cycles of abundance that the plant underwent happened within a short period of time, according to the Charles family, a source of Musqueam oral tradition.{{rp|568}} It is said to have once grown abundantly throughout the Musqueam territory,{{cite web |title=FIRST NATIONS IN THE REGION FACTS AND STATS |url=https://metrovancouver.org/about-us/Documents/first-nations-in-the-region-facts-and-stats.pdf |publisher=Metro Vancouver |access-date=20 September 2024 |date=2024}} but is now considered scarce and no longer grows within the territory. The Halkomelem name for Musqueam, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, roughly translates to "the place where məθkʷəy̓ grows" or "place of məθkʷəy".{{cite web |last1=Grant |first1=Wade |title=Re: Fraser River Tunnel (FRT) Project Participating Indigenous Nation |url=https://www.projects.eao.gov.bc.ca/api/public/document/62c30de12c199b00224281ec/download/2022-06-28%20EAO%20MIB%20Participating%20Nation%20Letter-FRT-Final.pdf |website=Musqueam Indian Band |publisher=Government of British Columbia |access-date=20 September 2024 |date=28 June 2022}}

In the Halkomelem language, the məθkʷəy̓ plant was described as a saχʷəl, a term which broadly means "grass" or "plant",{{cite news |last1=Wood |first1=Stephanie |title=A blossoming partnership pursues 'biocultural diversity' at the UBC Botanical Garden |url=https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/17/news/blossoming-partnership-pursues-biocultural-diversity-ubc-botanical-garden |access-date=20 September 2024 |work=National Observer |date=17 June 2019 |language=en}}{{rp|544}} and was described as "unlike any other".{{cite web |last1=LeCompte-Mastenbrook |first1=Joyce |title=CANADIAN STUDIES CENTER Summer / Fall Quarter Report 2008 |url=https://jsis.washington.edu/canada/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/2008-Fall.pdf |website=Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies |publisher=University of Washington |access-date=21 September 2024 |date=Fall 2008}} Wayne Suttles noted that the "plant for which the village is named has been described variously,"{{rp|568}} and called it "a plant no longer identifiable". The Charles family described the plant to Wayne Suttles as "grasslike, with an edible root" and noted that it no longer existed due to the presence of cattle which grazed on the plant.{{rp|568}} James Point described the plant as having thorns and small violet flowers, and said it had been eradicated due to burning and dyking in the area.{{rp|568}} Arnold Guerin, a native speaker, identified the plant as a "coarse grass". məθkʷəy̓ was originally transcribed into the English language as "grass". Later descriptions of məθkʷəy̓ identified it as another variety of flowering plant.{{cite web |title=Indigenous Peoples and Reconciliation |url=https://www.portmoody.ca/en/arts-culture-and-heritage/indigenous-peoples-and-reconciliation.aspx |website=Port Moody City of the Arts |publisher=City of Port Moody |access-date=20 September 2024 |language=en |date=10 July 2023}} As a result of the initial translation, the Musqueam people were referred to as the "People of the River Grass". It was later known by Vanessa Campbell and her team that saχʷəl denotes several varieties of plant, rather than referring only to grass.

File:Rubus leucodermis 410182884.jpg)]]

Kinkade (1986) notes his examination of the phrase {{lang|hur|məθkʷəy̓}}, and removal of the affix -m and -əy̓, resulting in {{lang|hur|mə̀θkʷ}} or {{lang|hur|mə̀t̓ᶿkʷ}}, which he identified with the Proto-Salishan word for "blackcaps": *məcə́kʷ. In consideration of the resulting change due to stress shift and regular changes, this form is noted to have reflexes from the Comox language to Tillamook language and from the Quinault language and Coeur d'Alene language. In the Lillooet language, Nuxalk language, and "all but two Central Salish languages", the term is replaced. In the Kwakʼwala language, it was borrowed into the lexicon. Thirteen languages keep the reflexes of məcə́kʷ, while nine languages replaced the term. Note the similar terms "mə́cəkʷ" in the Thompson, "məcúkʷ" in Shuswap, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene, "mcákʷ" in Okanagan, and "mə́ckʷ" in Columbia-Moses.

The current term for blackcap raspberries in the Halkomelem language is cəlqáma, derived from the reconstructed root word *čəlq- of uncertain independent meaning. Additional languages that use the aforementioned root include Chilliwack, Nooksack, Lummi, and Lushootseed. The suffix -əy̓ denotes ‘plant, tree, wood’ according to Suttles (2004). For example: sə̀k̓ʷməy̓ "birch tree" is a combination of sák̓ʷm "whole bark" and the suffix -əy̓.{{cite book |last1=Suttles |first1=Wayne P. |title=Musqueam Reference Grammar |date=2004 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-1002-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RRmLFaCyRcC&q=musqueam+reference+grammar |access-date=20 September 2024 |language=en}}{{rp|312}} The Halkomelem language name for Musqueam, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, consists of the prefix xʷ- and suffix -əm, which is a typical structure for location names which incorporate plants or animals.{{rp|500}}

At times it is referred to as "river grass",{{cite web |last1=Craig-Sparrow |first1=Zoë |title=Unveiling the River's Secrets: A Musqueam Woman's Journey of Environmental Stewardship |url=https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/unveiling-the-rivers-secrets-a-musqueam-womans-journey-of-environmental-stewardship/ |website=Science World |access-date=20 September 2024 |date=27 September 2023}} stemming from the original English translation. The book Musqueam: A Living Culture, a publication by the Musqueam First Nation, refers to it explicitly as a "grass". Wayne Suttles in the Musqueam Reference Grammar describes it as a "rush-like plant".{{rp|566}} Xwei’;ya Deanna Marie Point refers to the plant as "bullrushes"{{sic}}.{{cite web |last1=Hilton |first1=Carol Anne |last2=van der Woerd |first2=Kim |title=Indigenous Reconciliation and Connectivity Report 2022 Edition |url=https://downloads.ctfassets.net/1izjqx4qtt8c/730r2QheKsbWIap5hcJ9uq/f21e682c86f4b1d17b6848cc817ee042/Indigenous_Reconciliation_Connectivity_Report_EN_11212022.pdf |website=Telus |publisher=Telus Corporation |access-date=21 September 2024 |date=2022}} Dale Kinkade identifies the plant as blackcap raspberry (Rubus leucodermis), citing the expected language shift from the Proto-Salishan root word *məcə́kʷ.{{cite journal |last1=Kinkade |first1=M. Dale |title=BLACKCAPS AND MUSQUEAM |journal=International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages |date=1986 |pages=60–62 |url=https://lingpapers.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2018/03/1986_Kinkade.pdf |publisher=University of British Columbia}} He notes that the Musqueam do not associate the plant that is mentioned within the place name with the blackcap raspberry. In 2019, Vanessa Campbell, a Musqueam educator, was working alongside the University of British Columbia to determine the identity of the plant.

• Silphium

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{{Coast Salish}}

Category:Mythological plants

Category:Coast Salish

Category:Coast Salish culture

Category:Plants in culture

Category:Plants in mythology