The Lil'wat World of Charlie Mack

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Early in their ethnographic work, Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy met Charlie Mack, born in 1899 on the Mount Currie Reserve. A captivating figure, he embodied wisdom through his skills in trapping and canoe-making, as well as his deep knowledge of Lil’wat history and the living world around him. His storytelling prowess, delivered in both Lil’wat and English, captivated listeners and provided a rich corpus of narratives. These stories were recorded in his native language as part of a government initiative to raise awareness of endangered indigenous languages in British Columbia and Washington State, later published as the popular collection, Lillooet Stories (1977), by the British Columbia Archives. As they spent more time with Mack before his death in 1990, Bouchard and Kennedy discovered that his worldview encompassed a moral code and insights about the environment, intertwined with myth, history, and personal experience. Two decades after his passing, the authors present a selection of his stories in English, drawn from transcribed interviews, correspondence, and field notes, aiming to re-contextualize the narratives he wished to share. This work serves as a tribute to their enduring friendship and reflects a lifetime of listening to a man with profound insights to impart.