They write their dreams on the rock forever
Subtitle: rock writings in the Stein River Valley of British Columbia
By: Annie York, Richard Daly and Chris Arnett.
Contributors: Daly, Richard Heywood, 1942-; Arnett, Chris.
Publisher: Talonbooks
Published: 1993
Place of publication: Vancouver
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
Subjects: Salish Indians -- Art.; Indian art -- North America.; Rock paintings -- British Columbia -- Stein River Valley.; Petroglyphs -- British Columbia -- Stein River Valley.; Salish Indians -- Antiquities.; Indians of North America -- British Columbia -- Stein River Valley -- Antiquities.; Stein River Valley (B.C.) -- Antiquities.
Other titles: Geddes collection.
Description: In They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever, 'Nlaka' pamux elder Annie York explains the red ochre inscriptions written on the rocks and cliffs of the lower Stein Valley in British Columbia. This is perhaps the first time that a Native elder has presented a detailed and comprehensive explanation of rock art images from her people's culture.

As Annie York's narratives unfold, we are taken back to the fresh wonder of childhood, as well as to a time in human society when people and animals lived together in one psychic dimension.

This book describes, among many other things, the solitary spiritual meditations of young people in the mountains, a form of education once essential to all those who wished to succeed in life with their particular talents. Astrological predictions, herbal medicine, winter spirit dancing, hunting, shamanism, respect for nature, midwifery, birth and death, are some of the topics that emerge from Annie's reading of the trail signs and other cultural symbols painted on the rocks.

She firmly believed that this knowledge should be published so that the general public could understand why, as she put it, "The Old People reverenced those sacred places like that Stein.".

They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever opens a discussion of some of the issues in rock art research that relate to "notating" and "writing" on the landscape, around the world and through the millennia. This landmark publication presents a well-reasoned hypothesis to explain the evolution of symbolic or iconic writing from sign language, trail signs and from the geometric and iconic imagery of the dreams and visions of shamans and neophyte hunters.

This book suggests that the resultant images, written or painted on stone, constitute a Protoliteracy which has assisted, for millennia, both the conceptualization and communication of hunting peoples' histories, philosophies, morals and ways of life, and prepared the human mind for the economic, sociological and intellectual developments - including alphabetic written language - which have propelled human history into the modern era.
Notes: Copy 2 donated in 2000 by Talonbooks through the efforts of Gary Geddes, Distinguished Professor of Canadian Culture, Center for Canadian-American Studies, Western Washington University.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-291) and index.