Ntytyix and the Trail
Designed by Syilx artist Emily Pooley, the logo for the Trail of the Okanagans celebrates the intrinsic link between Ntytyix (Chief Salmon in the Syilx language) and the Trail. Salmon are central to the Syilx Nation culture and beliefs and indeed the Syilx people consider salmon to be a relative:
“Salmon are central to a wide range of connections between generations, communities, humans & non-humans, terrestrial and aquatic species and transboundary watersheds within Canadian and American sovereigns including Indigenous Tribes along the Columbia River systems.”*
*Okanagan Nation Alliance
www.syilx.org/fisheries/okanagan-sockeye
For thousands of years the Syilx Okanagan Peoples followed the sockeye salmon as they journeyed up the Okanagan River and lake systems to spawn. The result of the movements of the Syilx Peoples to celebrate, harvest and trade salmon was the “Trail of the Okanagans.” Carbon dated to be more than 6,000 years old, the Trail connected Syilx communities, linked places of ceremony and was a ribbon of trade between the peoples of the Columbia and Fraser river systems.
Emily's design imprints an image of our warm Okanagan Valley full of ponderosa and shining waters onto the back of Ntytyix – much as the memory of this place is imprinted on the instinct of the salmon to return here to spawn. Our hope is that the Trail of the Okanagans will continue to link people along Okanagan waters and teach us the history of this place and its First Peoples.
The Artist
Emily Pooley has been drawing since the age of two, when her artistic talent and ability to draw began to emerge. The 14-year-old's winning design for the Trail of the Okanagans Society's new logo features a male inland sockeye salmon, drawn so it appears to be jumping during the spawning cycle. Emily hopes the logo will generate awareness and appreciation of the salmon's life cycle, and how important it is to our ecosystem. A 14-year-old Syilx Nation artist, Emily has additional heritage from the Secepmuxw, Hopi and Navajo Nations. She lives in Syilx territory that comes under the governance of the Westbank First Nation. She continues to explore her passion in mixed media and digital art under the mentorship of her mother Krystal Lezard, who is also an accomplished Syilx artist. Emily is grateful to the Trail of the Okanagans Society for selecting her artwork and for their appreciation of First Nations heritage and cultural values.