Bradley Yuxwelupton Dick, Coast Salish/Lkwungen Artist, guides us on the correct (2016) name for the nation and clans.
“Lkwung means smoked herring; lkwungen means place where the people smoke herring; lkwungen’athun means the language of our lands. Lkwungen was a general name for Songhees and Esquimalt nations; Chekonien was a family name, the people of kle’chess (discovery island) used this area as well, stang’iis is also within that area and referred to an area where our ancestors put our enemies heads on a stake and displayed in the beach.
Anthropologists and historians have mistaken this for Songhees which is incorrect. “Songhees” traditionally was “Songish” which meant to gather, referring to where our people gathered in what is now call the Songhees development.
From my understanding that area where Cattle Point is, was more commonly used for shellfish, and red snapper caught between Discovery and the island. Some say this headland was the burial ground for the Sitchanalth community.
Back in Victoria harbour, the herring ran through the gorge water way in their millions. Today, we know this area as swang’shwung, kosapsum, and camosung lands referring to the Esquimalt nations ancestors.
There were two large herring runs that once thrived there. You are absolutely correct. They are endangered”.
The Great Flood at Sitchanalth
“A story about the flood” as told by Bradley Yuxwelupton Dick, Coast Salish/Lkwungen Artist to W. Smith on 13-2-2016.