Muthkwey

What it is

Məθkʷəy̓ is a plant named in Musqueam oral history. Its botanical identity is not settled. One account calls it a coarse grass, another a rush-like plant, another a grasslike plant with an edible root, and another a thorny plant with small violet flowers. In Halkomelem it is called a saχʷəl, a broad word for a plant or grass. Musqueam tradition holds that it sprouted from the droppings of a two-headed serpent, so the plant is sacred. People would not harvest it or walk over it. It is also the plant in the Halkomelem place name for Musqueam.

Where it comes from

The plant belongs to Musqueam oral tradition. Elders warned young people away from a small lake, xʷməm̓qʷe:m, in the Camosun Bog area of Pacific Spirit Regional Park, because a two-headed serpent, sʔi:ɬqəy̓, was said to live there. The serpent was said to kill all it passed and to leave droppings from which məθkʷəy̓ grew. Its path became Musqueam Creek, running from the bog to the Fraser River. The plant was said to grow in tidal flats and the Fraser River delta. The Halkomelem name for Musqueam, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, is roughly 'place where məθkʷəy̓ grows'.

What it is for

The plant is held sacred rather than used as an ingredient. Its place in the tradition is as a marker of Musqueam identity and territory. Because it was said to come from the serpent, it was left alone. Its changing abundance was read alongside the community's own fortunes: Musqueam people saw their flourishing and dwindling reflected in the plant. One story said the times of abundance and scarcity for the plant and for the people would match. The Halkomelem name of Musqueam ties the place to the plant.

Who does it

Knowledge of the plant is held in Musqueam oral history and passed on by elders and families. The Charles family is named as a source of Musqueam oral tradition. Elders warned young people about the serpent. Later, a Musqueam educator, Vanessa Campbell, worked with the University of British Columbia in 2019 to identify the plant; she and her team established that saχʷəl covers several plant varieties, not grass alone. Linguists and anthropologists, including Wayne Suttles, Arnold Guerin, James Point and Dale Kinkade, recorded and discussed descriptions.

Peoples and places

The plant belongs to the Musqueam people, whose Halkomelem name for their home, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, refers to where it grows. The tradition names the Charles family as a source. The plant was said to grow in Musqueam territory, in tidal flats and the Fraser River delta, and around Camosun Bog and Musqueam Creek. It is now described as scarce and no longer growing within the territory. English records first rendered the name as 'grass', and because of that the Musqueam were called the 'People of the River Grass'.

What people believe

The tradition places the plant within a landscape of named beings and places. A two-headed serpent, sʔi:ɬqəy̓, is said to have lived in a small lake, xʷməm̓qʷe:m, and to have killed everything in its path as it crossed the land. The plant is said to have sprouted from its droppings, which is why the Musqueam people held it sacred. The serpent's route is said to have become Musqueam Creek. The plant's cycles of abundance were linked to the community's own cycles of flourishing and loss through warfare or plague.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Wayne Suttles called it 'a plant no longer identifiable' and noted that descriptions vary. He described it as rush-like. Arnold Guerin called it a coarse grass; the Charles family described a grasslike plant with an edible root; James Point described thorns and small violet flowers; Xwei’;ya Deanna Marie Point called it bullrushes. Dale Kinkade identifies it as blackcap raspberry, Rubus leucodermis, through a Proto-Salishan root, but notes that Musqueam people do not link the place-name plant with that berry. In 2019 Vanessa Campbell and a University of British Columbia team were working on the identity.

Compare and confuse

The name appears in English as muthkwey, malkway, mexwthi or muthkwuy. Early English rendering as 'grass' produced the name 'People of the River Grass'; later descriptions called it river grass, a rush-like plant, bullrushes, or blackcap raspberry. Halkomelem saχʷəl is broader than grass and covers several plants. The Musqueam name xʷməθkʷəy̓əm is built with a plant suffix.

Today

The plant is described as scarce and no longer growing in Musqueam territory. Knowledge of it continues in Musqueam oral history and in the Musqueam First Nation publication Musqueam: A Living Culture, which calls it a grass. In 2019 Musqueam educator Vanessa Campbell was working with the University of British Columbia to establish its identity. The Halkomelem name for Musqueam, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, keeps the plant in the name of the community.

Questions people ask about Muthkwey

Good reading and sources

• Muthkwey on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data