#Tahltan

[formlines]

Standing Frog

Dempsey Bob

[coldbloodedkri]

Kedā and Isbā

Tahltan names for moose and goat 🌲

[jasonparis]

“Wolves: The Art of Bob Dempsey” is currently being exhibited until April 16. He is considered the leading carver of BC’s northwest coast. • • • #igerstoronto #kleinbergontario #vaughanontario #ontario #canada #yorkregion #art #carving #mcmichaelartgallery #wolves #indigenous #wolves #bobdempsey #tahltan #tingit (at McMichael Canadian Art Collection) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpD36oHv_4w/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dogpapersnippets]

Etzerza and Quock, tahltan bear dogs, 1944. The breed has since gone extinct.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

An Indigenous First Nation in northwest B.C. is demanding that a Vancouver-based mining company stop operating on its territory.

The Tahltan Central Government said it has informed Doubleview Gold Corp. that the land that it’s operating in is sacred as its ancestors were born and are buried in the area, which is located northwest of Telegraph Creek.

“We’ve basically just been disrespected (and) continually ignored,” said Chad Norman Day, Tahltan Central Government’s president.

“The activities year after year have continued despite a consistent message from us, all levels of our government, and our elders, that it’s not acceptable.

“We’re going to really start digging our heels in now and put a stop to it.” [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[ravings-of-a-mad-scientist]

The Tahltan Bear Dog was a small native dog bred for KILLING BEARS

The Tahltan bear dog was a small dog breed domesticated by natives of Canada for hunting bears.

The Tahltan people would carry several bear dogs in a sack while out on a hunt. Then if they saw a bear they would RELEASE THE DOGS FROM THE SACK.

The bear dogs would then proceed to VICIOUSLY yap at the bear. Like, a lot. They are very yappy little dogs.

Thus the bear would be completely FLABBERGASTED, CONFUZZLED, AND ENTIRELY DISTRACTED, creating an opportunity for the hunters to sneak up behind the bear and ATTACK THEM FROM BEHIND.

Sadly, this breed of dog is now extinct. Not because of the bears, but because of diseases that European dogs brought to north America. The last of them died out in the 1980s. Which is a shame.

Could you imagine me as a supervillain doing gay crime then some superdorks show up and they see me carrying a $ sack, which they FOOLISHLY believe to be a bag of cash, and they’re like;

“Jig's up, Doc, drop the bag!”

Then I’m like “Poor choice of words!”

Then I drop the sack and a dozen tiny doggos pop out and start yapping at them?? I’d be unstoppable!

[telekitnetic-art]

Have you seen the formline art in splatoon? It's present in a variety of salmon run decals and on some of the locker graffiti. Idk if the Devs just googled "salmon art" and got indigenous art and decided to copy it or what. Not sure how I feel about it personally.

Long post incoming, gonna put a break here. Also sorry for the late response, I wanted to take a couple days to formalize my thoughts together before responding fully.

I have, I remember noticing in 2018-2019 (when i first started playing splatoon 2) how much one of the decals/graffiti located on the ruins of ark polaris back in 2 sort of resembled a formline bear and salmon. (near the logo in this screenshot, I couldn't find a clear picture online)

Back in 2019, it was pretty easy to think of it as coincidence or a stretch for a comparison. But with splatoon 3's salmon run decals, the resemblance is far easier to see, specifically with the TS-ORBRS graffiti and the TS-SCHL graffiti.

(also this was the best image size I could find for the graffiti images, sorry)

A couple of the banners have the designs on them as well:

The website Sealaska Heritage has info such as textbooks and an online doc about formline art (specifically geared towards Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian nations' style) with lots of info about formline art, and the Seattle Art Museum website has an info sheet (with credits listed as being from the Sealaska Heritage site as well) breaking down some of the basic shapes of formline art.

with this chart, you can definitely begin to notice the similarities between the Salmon Run graffiti and formline art. the ovoids, crescents, and u-shapes appear noticeably in some of the graffiti such as ORBRS and SCHL.

For perspective, here are some formline pieces featuring salmon or fish from various Indigenous artists from various nations.

"sk’ug sdang" (Two Dog Salmon) by Robert Davidson (Haida)

"metal medallion", by Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl (Tlingit Athabascan)

"Salmon People" by Alano Edzerza (Tahltan)

"Jumping Chum" by Stephanie Anderson (Wet'suwet'en)

"Salmon" by Art Thompson (Nuu-chah-nulth)

And that's literally just the surface of dozens of Indigenous artists from the PNW.

With these pieces, you can begin to see the resemblance that the graffiti designs have. A lot of the heads follow the pattern of utilizing ovoids for both the head and eyes, and u-shapes for the bodies and crescents to fill in specific areas are also common. For example, TS-SCHL has a small school of fish where the bodies are entire ovoids.

However, there are a couple flaws in the graffiti designs too. With a few of the designs, you can see they utilize the u-shape (see the formline shape breakdown from Sealaska again) in designs like TS-WHP and TS-SMFR. I can't speak for every Indigenous formline artist ever, but from how I've been taught to design formline art from my family, the u-shape should connect to the rest of the form instead of free-floating. I drew a quick example here:

you can see similar mistakes with a different kind of u-shape with TS-RLPL and TS-C0HK.

Another very specific mistake that takes a bit of squinting to make out is that ovoids are sort of top-heavy, for lack of a term I can't think of right now. The line or the area should be thicker on the top then the bottom. This mistake is frequent in the graffiti designs utilizing ovoid or ovoid adjacent face or body shapes, like TS-ORBRS, TS-C0HK or TS-SCHL.

Full disclaimer, I am not an expert at formline art. I've been practicing it under the tutelage of my aunt and father for about 3 or so years now, and there are definitely cultural variations that come into play as well. My culture's formline art style can look completely different from someone who is Haida or otherwise. This critique of the graffiti designs is based off my knowledge and skill at formline art, as well as critique and feedback that I've gotten from family. Formline art isn't just something you look at and replicate, there is a specific process of utilizing the shapes and negative space that you need to account for too. Some shapes have their own rules for how they're used as well.

Despite the beginner mistakes, the clear resemblances are pretty definitive proof that a good section of the sticker/graffiti designs for the salmonids are meant to be, or at the very least based off of or inspired by, formline art.

Splatoon's lore has a lot of elements of taking inspiration from real life culture (which is sort of one of the main elements of the story, the squids and octos are basing their society off long dead humans). Hell, Shiver and Frye are two prime examples of Splatoon working in real world culture into their setting and characters.

With that in mind, using an art style that's exclusive to an ethnicity of people as inspiration or baseline reference for the game mode that's all about taking natural resources from a species that in-game dialogue tends to treat as dangerous and lesser-minded is... not a good choice. Especially an ethnicity that has historically been ravaged and attacked by settlers for natural resources.

Now, technically if you do digging into lore for salmon run, you can find out that the salmonid are not as simple-minded as the dialogue in-game (I am staring directly at the deep cut big run announcement dialogue we've gotten so far -_-) makes them out to be. The salmonids do trades and commerce with the octarians for equipment and gear. That's why they have such technically high tech gear, like the scrappers with their shields that actually resemble octarian shields and the flyfish with their missiles and flying aircraft. That's also why power eggs show up in the story mode; they're from the salmonids' trades with the octarians.

So the salmonid could technically be as just as smart as the inklings, which is why the dialogue and some of the portrayals of the salmonid are confusing and contradictory (shiver's dialogue from the first big run, that one promo picture of an inkling walking a smallfry on a leash????). I think a good bit of the fanbase sort of thinks of the little buddy we get during the game as a pet, and I'm sure that much more of the fanbase/playerbase doesn't really care about the lore whatsoever. Salmonids sort of have a similar vibe to me as hilichurls from Genshin Impact, where the lore tells you that they're smarter than people assume while NPCs talk of them as less intelligent monsters. And you're also caught in this paradox where killing/fighting them feels morally wrong but the gameplay loop has you continuously doing that while also telling you on the downlow that you should sort of feel bad about it.

Rassicas did a really good video on translating salmonid lore from various interviews, which is where I learned a lot about the salmonid lore that doesn't really get explained/brought up in the game.

The usage of formline art in Splatoon has me sort of mixed on my opinion, because besides using an Indigenous art style for an enemy species that are considered lesser in intelligence by the NPCs, Indigenous art and culture as a whole has suffered a lot under colonialism. I don't know how much awareness whoever is reading this has about Indigenous history and colonialism, but Indigenous culture as a whole was banned in North America by the respective governments from being practiced by the respective cultural groups. Things such as ceremonies, regalia, and even practicing formline art were banned from being used by Indigenous people. Non-Indigenous people however were free to use it, which is why a lot of bastardized versions of Indigenous regalia and culture exists. You can see it in non-indigenous spiritual practices utilizing Indigenous practices and terminology like spirit animals and dreamcatchers, and sports teams utilizing Indigenous culture in its labelling and mascots. That is where cultural appropriation comes into play. And before I get anybody commenting about this, the salmonid formlines don't count as "cultural appreciation" because as far as the info available is concerned, there wasn't any Indigenous people that were consulted for the designs. And even if there were, I again have mixed feelings about Splatoon utilizing an Indigenous art style as a design piece for an enemy character in the franchise.

On another note, this isn't the first time Indigenous cultural appropriation has popped up in the Splatoon franchise. There was actually a headgear that was unreleased in the first Splatoon game called "Warrior Headdress", and you can guess what it looked like.

Yeah. That was all levels of yikes and I'm thankful as hell that it didn't make it into the game (technically it's not in the game as a wearable item, but you can spot it at the very back of the headgear shop ingame)

So Splatoon has utilized Indigenous culture as inspiration beforehand with the games, so it's not much of a stretch anymore to think that the salmon run graffiti designs were based off formline art or was an attempt at formline art.

I'm not really sold on the idea that the salmonid are meant to be representative of Indigenous people though, nor do I believe that utilizing formline art for the salmonid was a malicious decision. But it was a slightly ignorant decision at best, because again using Indigenous specific art for a species of enemies that gets fought for their natural resources and is referred to by some of the NPCs as basically being lesser-minded animals is really not a good decision.

This whole thread is not meant as a guilt trip for anyone who likes the salmonid lore, has bought any of the salmonid graffiti stickers, or enjoys salmon run, nor is it an accusation of the devs for maliciously misusing Indigenous culture. I actually really enjoy salmon run for it's PSP and concept, but this design aspect gives me mixed feelings as an Indigenous person. And to be honest it's hard to label intentions or the thought process because there isn't any info available on the development of salmon run and those graffiti designs specifically. So it's hard to know if the devs employed an Indigenous artist for feedback or if they indeed just looked at some formline art of salmon and tried to replicate it or used it as inspiration. I'm inclined to believe the latter judging by the beginner formline mistakes seen in some of the designs. There is an art book coming out soon for Splatoon 3, so maybe that will give more info.

To wrap this all up, I don't think there is really anything to be done about the designs. The game has been out for a while and I don't know if the game would change the designs at this point. I also don't think this should stop people from buying the sticker designs in game or playing salmon run. However, it is important to learn about the context of these designs so that you know why they exist and why they can be harmful, and so devs and creators can avoid making the same mistake in the future, and so Indigenous issues with cultural appropriation can be made more aware in the public space and not be ridiculed by non-Indigenous people. And again, I am just one Indigenous person so there may be other opinions from other Indigenous people on the graffiti designs and how they should be handled or viewed.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading and have a good day!! Be sure to check out some actual Formline art made by Indigenous people, like the ones I listed near the top of the post!

[flagwars]

Flag Wars Bonus Round

This poll is the same as the finals of the flag tournament “Flag March Madness 2024” on the Twitter account Flags That Go Hard. I decided to put out a rematch due to being unhappy with the results of the current poll and to see if the results here are any different.

[sveab]

This week I’m nursing in Tahltan territory ❤️

[formlines]

Long-Beaked raven Mask with Human Ears

Dempsey Bob

[davecottrell]

Tsadu, the #1 Most Photographed Rock Formation in the Tahltan Highlands

Tsadu, the Number 1 Most Photographed Rock Formation in the Tahltan Highlands Tsadu, a striking basaltic rock formation marking the point where the Tahltan River enters the Stikine River is likely the most photographed and iconic natural symbol of the Tahltan Nation of northwestern BC. A Legend in Stone Tsadu Many see a large bird in the pattern of basalt columns across its face. I have been told…

[selachiixiv]

Tsilēdze - Tsiledze Ushyeh on Mateus

Pronounciation/meaning: sort of like see-lehd-zay if you press your tongue up against just behind your front teeth kind of for the s at the start, then Oosh-yay, which is Tahltan for "Ashes, my name is" - properly he'd just use Tsilēdze but I had to make it work with Square and at least with plogon I can just turn his surname off.

Formerly a Landsguard, Tsilēdze wound up on the train to Yyasulani Station at the worst possible time, and what started as an earnest young adult's urge to do his best by his people and the Dawnservants landed him in another shard, gradually moving into fighting in the Arcadion before, in the wake of losing a partner and realizing something was deeply amiss, removing his regulator and leaving the city to work against Sphene and Zoraal Ja. Now he finds himself, much older, in a world that is almost the same as when he left - now the same age as his own parents, significantly older than his siblings, and with many fewer years ahead of him.

[rabbitcruiser]

Bob Quinn Lake/Eddontenajon Lake, BC

Eddontenajon is an unincorporated settlement in the Stikine Country of the northwestern British Columbia Interior in Canada. It is located along the Stewart-Cassiar Highway on the northeast side of Eddontenajon Lake and comprises a small commercial centre as well as the community. It should not be confused with the original Eddontenajon Post Office, now renamed Iskut which is a few miles farther north at the north end of the lake.

The name means "child walking in the water" in the Tahltan language.

Source: Wikipedia

[meret118]

Some of the manmade possessions are 7,000 years old, and they belonged to the Tahltan First Nations. Mount Edziza, a volcano located in northwestern British Columbia, has remained a significant hunting ground for the Tahltan nation for thousands of years. With this discovery, archaeologists are now able to gain more insight into what life was like for people here since around 5,000 B.C.

[afranciscomiradiezblr-blog]

El deshielo en Canadá permitió que científicos descubran artefactos de 7.000 años de antigüedad - Infobae

[papa-j]

To Telegraph Creek

Day 8 -

We left Meziadin Lake around 8:30 am to continue north to Dease Lake.  The road along this stretch is in rolling hills between high mountains with long straight stretches. The views are pretty along the down hill whereas on the flats and uphill we saw mostly trees and bush on either side of the road.  

We drove along rivers and marshy areas and many smaller lakes, typical moose country. Very little wild life to be seen so far on this trip. Beautiful vistas around Bob McQuinn Lake and near Hankin Peak.

Bell2 is a winter heli ski resort and during the summer it's a supplydepot for several mines and exploration companies in the area. It was built during the 90's by our friend Joe Gex-Collet (RIP), a builder trained in Switzerland.

Mount Edziza is seen to the west, it’s a large extinct volcano with a 40 km rim and with hiking trails through the crater for the ‘hard core’ and the stampeders.

We arrived at Dease Lake to fill up with gas and then drove west for 120 km of dirt road to Telegraph Creek. This side trip has a special meaning to me as I travelled this road 50+ years ago with my old friend Jim and it revived some fond memories.

The first half of the road was in very good condition, I could comfortably drive at 80k/h trough the Tanzilla river valley. We are travelling on a high plateau between mount Edziza to the south and the Tuya mountains to the north. The road took us across the 19 mile flats, devastated by a massive fire some 60 years ago. This area is now overgrown with popular.

Half way to Telegraph creek the fun begins. We are now driving along the north edge of the Stikine River Grand Canyon (SRGC) with the river a thousand feet below us. The road still continues on west, but every time we have to cross a river or creek, the road takes us down to river level and across a one way bridge to the other side.

First there is a smaller steep 10% grade up, then across a short plateau with a 12% grade down to a lower plateau. For 2km it’s flat and a few curves and a short decent to another lower plateau. This took us along a ridge just wide enough for the road with both sides dropping down to river level several 100m below, then a 16% grade down to a one way bridge across the Tuya river. Sharp left turn and up 14% grade to the plateau above. 2 km later is the next decent at 20% grade to cross the Hackett river and the town of the Tahltan people.  On the other side of town, the road climbs up again at an 18% grade and only wide enough for one vehicle. Thank god, there was very little traffic.

We climbed the cliff road to the next plateau and drove along the SRGC.  The next steep pitch down to river level was to Telegraph Creek.  There are a few newer houses just above the old town.  Old Telegraph Creek is almost a ghost town with only 2 or 3 habitations.

Next was a steep uphill climb to a lower plateau before we got down to Glenora.  We turned around a 1-2 km west of Glenora and made our way back.  

Halfway up from the Tuya river, we stopped at a rest area overlooking the SRGC and the Stikine river several 100m below us. In the distance we could see the town of the Tahltan people. We decided to camp here overnight with a beautiful view.  Being on this point of the ridge in the centre of the valley made it very windy, it kept the bugs away.

There was a very massive forest fire during 2019 in this valley that covered this whole valley from peak to peak, up and down as far as we could see and for 60+ km west to east. tahltan.ca tells a very good story of the natural tragedy and the recovery, very positive community powers. 

Little wildlife to be seen.