Tsá7ts7acw aylh ta Nk̓yápa muta Míxalha (Coyote and Bear in shared happiness): Salish-Bear entanglements,transformations and collective stewardship ∗

Abstract

Based on long-term collaborative ethnographic partnership with Indigenous Interior Salish Upper St’át’ímc Elders in the Fraser River region of today's British Columbia, this collaborative paper contextualises a particular Nk̓yáp (Coyote) transformer story and the communal role of Bear(s) in place, time and within a complex kin-based practice of caring for the land. Frequently, this story is employed to educate on trickstery, control, disenchantment and negative reciprocity. Simultaneously, it informs about positive reciprocity, astonishment, respectful, practical and moral conduct in times of radical social and environmental transformation. It highlights a particular St’át’ímc ethos of care and law of the land that humans and non-humans now employ to continuously recreate a ‘land of plenty’ toward a good life and to reclaim areas on a territorial basis also pre-empted by colonial, capitalist and industrial institutions. This particular law of the land is Tśíl in St’át’ímcets, or happiness. Following a key protagonist – Bear – through the story and into land use planning and collective stewardship, we argue for Bear and humans as collaborative stewards of the environment following principles of mutual respect, reciprocity, reverence and responsibility. We present a key comparative lesson for collaborative research, interspecies understandings and enduring entanglements toward the generative politics of storytelling and stewardship relations within an inclusive community-of-life and toward living well.