From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Aboriginals: Salish/Bruce Granville Miller
Before white contact, education was accomplished by the regular recitation of oral narratives (familiar stories, histories, genealogies, mythologies, and legends), through careful observation of the work of elders, by instruction of young women in menstruation huts, and sometimes by mentorship, as in the training of shamans. Of particular importance was the responsibility of grandparents to instruct grandchildren. Children were chosen to become family and tribal historians, and they regularly recited a repertoire of narratives to perfect their craft. The first schools were established by missionaries as day schools, but industrial, or residential, schools predominated in the late nineteenth century and through the first half of the twentieth. While the federal government became responsible for funding the schools, missionaries retained the management for many years.
By the late twentieth century, residential eschools had been closed and bands began to develop their own schools. Communities such as the Sto:lo band on Seabird Island established their own culturally specific program, in their own facilities, and with some instruction in Halkomelem. Great emphasis is now placed on the retention of traditional languages. In the 1990s attention became focused on abuses in the residential schools, and many bands documented this history and sought redress. Admissions to colleges and universities increased dramatically in the 1990s, and the First Nations House of Learning, a resource centre for native students, was established at the University of British Columbia. More women than men have sought out post-secondary education, and many rely on federal funding provided to their bands for tuition money. A native law program at the University of British Columbia has produced a strong cohort of lawyers, and others have focused on education training to staff the new band-operated schools.
The decline in the number of speakers of Coast Salish languages reached a critical point by the 1990s. Some communities have only a few fluent speakers, despite efforts at training native-language teachers. Salish languages on Vancouver Island are in slightly better shape and not in danger of extinction, and Interior Salish languages are stronger still, with some viable school courses. However, English is the language of everyday use. Salish phrases are retained for ceremonial purposes in all communities.
There are several band and tribal newsletters and a regional journal, Khatou (Sechalt, B.C., 1982– ), published at Sechelt by a Coast Salish band. There is evidence that coded radio transmissions were used to send information concerning potlatches during the period of their prohibition, and radio has long been used as a medium of communicating First Nations perspectives. Programs such as The Native Voice started in the 1940s. In the 1970s Raven became the “official Indian communications network of B.C.” Several program serve the native community today, although diminished by federal funding cuts. The media are now regularly used to publicize Salish political viewpoints. For example, in 1993, Sto:lo chiefs blocked a railway line into Vancouver, and media coverage prompted an immediate visit by the federal fisheries minister to address Sto:lo issues. Members of the Lil’wat Peoples Movement, an Interior Salish political group that has repudiated elected leadership, have also used the media to communicate their views.
