Conversations with Khahtsahlano, 1932–1954 (Massy Books / Talonbooks) is a reissue in photographic facsimile of a publication originally produced in 1955 in “five bound and indexed transcript copies.” These copies were intended to preserve conversations that took place over two decades between Major J.S. Matthews, Vancouver’s longtime city archivist, and “August Jack Khahtsahlano, born 1877, six feet tall, … the son of Khay-tulk, and grandson of Khatsahlanogh, a chief of the Squamish tribe of Indians, and from whose name the suburb of Kitsilano is called.” Reading this book is like travelling back through time. As Matthews notes in his cover letter to Public Archives of Canada (now called Library and Archives Canada), “[Chief Khahtsahlano’s] recollections go back to about 1881, about five years before Vancouver was named. … At that time potlachs [sic], attended by as many as 2,000 Indians, were sometimes held in Stanley Park.” Reading through these conversations, the patience and the dignity of Chief Khatsahlano shine through despite his having witnessed the gradual disappearance of a way of life, as many of the villages of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and the səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, situated along the shores of Burrard Inlet, were slowly but inexorably impinged upon and displaced by newcomers to the area. In response to Matthews’s questions, Chief Khahtsahlano recalls traditional burial practices: “There was a lot of Indian graves all along the first narrows. They did not bury their dead; they put them on the ground with the blankets, and put a shelter over them, just slabs of wood.” He describes (with the aid of a simple sketch) how sturgeon had once been fished for at the far end of False Creek using ropes made of cedar bark and hooks made of bone. While the words and tone of the text occasionally reflect the prejudices of the day, this is nonetheless a fascinating and important document, and I'm grateful to Talonbooks and to Massy Books for having made it available to a general readership.

—Michael Hayward