IN EACH VILLAGE WERE GREAT HOUSES SOME SEVENTY FEET BY FIFTY FEET OF CLEAR ROOF SPAN, WITH GRACEFULLY FLUTED POSTS AND BEAMS, IN THE HOUSES THERE WAS WEALTH — NOT GOLD OR PRECIOUS STONES — BUT TREASURES THAT ONLY GREAT TRADITIONS, TALENT, AND SOMETIMES GENIUS, WITH UNLIMITED TIME AND DEVOTION, CAN CREATE…THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTHWEST COAST WERE RICH. THEIR SEA EVEN RICHER; THEY WERE ENORMOUSLY ENERGETIC, AND THEY CENTERED THEIR SOCIETY AROUND WHAT WAS TO THEM THE ESSENCE OF LIFE: WHAT WE NOW CALL “ART”.
—Out of the Silence by Adelaide de Menil and William Reid
The library is dedicated to the memory of Secwepemc Chief George Manuel (1921-1989), to the nations of the Fourth World and to the elders and generations to come.
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