Description
Voices from the Skeena is a collaboration between oral historian Robert Budd and artist Roy Henry Vickers. The Skeena River, the second longest in British Columbia, and called the Xsien or Water of the Clouds by the Tsimshian and Gitksan for the role it plays in their lives, is also the focus of voices of other past inhabitants of the region. In this respect, by the 1800s the river was also home to gold seekers, traders, salmon fishers and other settlers drawn to the region by the area's beauty and natural resources. Using the River to weave the narrative, Voices from the Skeena is organized through 40 pioneer 1960s interviews from CBC radio producer Imbert Orchard. Topics such as the arrival of the Europeans, the fur trade, Omineca gold rush and building the Grand Trunk Pacific railway are complimented by Roy Henry Vickers' illustrations showing the rich history of the Skeena River.