BOOK SEPASS POEMS ANCIENT SONGS OF Y-AIL-MIHTH

CHIEF WILLIAM K'HHALSERTEN SEPASS

 William K’HHalserten Sepass (circa 1840–1943) was chief of the Skowkale First Nations people and a hereditary chief of the Chilliwack Tribe. As a keeper of the tribal knowledge, he had been taught the Coast Salish tradition of storytelling by memorizing ancient songs. Recited in Halq’eméylem, the native Coast Salish language, the songs were part of an epic cycle traditionally recited at special gatherings, especially during the sun ceremonies held in Chilliwack every four years in precontact time. The songs are creation stories and legends of X á:ls, the Great Transformer, who “walked this earth in the distant past to put things right.” Chief Sepass was seventy years old when he began to preserve the songs of Y-Ail-Mihth for his people by working with Sophia White Street, the daughter of one of the first missionaries sent out to the Pacific coast by the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Mrs. Street was fluent in both English and Halq’eméylem, having been raised by Stó:lō nannies. Between 1911 and 1915, Chief Sepass recited the songs to her, and they translated the work into English. The songs were published in 1963 and again in 1974 by Sophia’s daughter, Eloise Street. In 2009, Longhouse Publishing issued a commemorative edition of Sepass Poems: Ancient Songs of Y-Ail-Mihth, which included a “missing” sixteenth poem. The Longhouse publication marks the first time the poems appear under the copyright of the Sepass family— through his grandson, Gerald Sepass. Chief Sepass’ people in the Fraser Valley continue to cherish these works, and he remains an honored ancestral figure. The following are two of the poems in the cycle.