To See Ourselves As The Other's: Nlaka' Pamux Contact Narratives

Topic Critical Paper Review
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Introduction
The following essay takes a critical review of the article, ‘ To see ourselves as the other’s: Nlaka’ Pamux contact narratives’, by Wendy C. Wickwire (1994). The article provides an account of the first meetings between the early European explorers and the Nlaka’ Pamux in the Fraser River Canyon of the South-Central of the British Columbia Canada in June 1808. The article looks at the events which happened at the Fraser River and why it is symbolic of the early struggle for civilization by native Canadian against the British rule.
From the first journeys of Simon Fraser to the building of the Canadian Pacific railway to the establishment of the first relief camps during the great depression, the first Canadian people of Spuzzun found themselves in one of the common commercial and province-building initiative that was undertaken in the South-West interior of what was known as the British Columbia back in the 1800s. Wendy provides a good narrative of the Spuzzum and the people who lived in the country during this time. According to geographical history, the southernmost village associated with Fraser explorations the Nlaka’ Pamux is located at a narrow part of the Fraser Canyon in the southwestern part of the British Columbia. It is just among the many Canyons between two mountain ranges, the Cascades to the East side, the coastal mountains heading to the Western side and the Fraser River standing between them, green-brown, narrow and fast. The mountainsides are also forested and rocky.
The origins of the Fraser River begin in 1808 with Simon Frazer, who is the man that the river was named after as he was the leading Europeans that traveled to the most regions within the Fraser River. During this time there was a fur post of trading that was initiated in the town of Fort Langley on the worse part of Fraser in 1827, still, according to Wendy as the writer, the higher side of the Fraser had remained explored previously where a trading post was established along the Fraser lake in between the year 1806 and in fort George the year 1807. Reading the article, one discovers that there was little use of the central Fraser as people feared to explore its turbulent currents. However, after the discovery of Gold, many people began exploring the area through the north. At this, the first constricted road was formed which enjoined to the Canyon areas and later became what is now known as the Canadian Pacific Railway and the incision of the Thompson Fraser Rivers as the single low-level path.
According to the writer, this shows that the first European settlers to Canadian Pacific were not settlers, but people with a specific agenda to make vast unexplored wealth, territorial claims and to some instance spread the faith of Christianity around the world. According to Wendy (1994), the first European settlers came with their own priorities, perceptions about the native Indians and understandings. They were so determined to change the way of life of the North Pacific people and make it part of their colony. In the first arrivals as narrated by Wendy, these settlers had to adapt the way of ...