Born at Spuzzum in 1904, Annie Zechtgo York was an important Nlaka'pamux cultural authority, healer and oral teacher whose explanations of red ochre rock-writings found in the Stein Valley were published in They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever (Talonbooks, 1993), co-authored with Richard Daly and Chris Arnett. With ethnologist Andrea Laforet, Annie York also examined how the Nlaka'pamux people developed their separate sense of history, in comparison to non-Aboriginals, in Spuzzum: Fraser Canyon Histories, 1808-1939 (UBC Press, 1998), and she provided information for books by ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner and Lytton Indian Band ethnobotanist Darwin Hanna. One of seven brothers and sisters, York was educated in Pitt Meadows and moved to Merritt in 1925. A trained nurse, she served as a translator in courts and hospitals. In 1932 she returned to Spuzzum where she later worked with Laurence and Terry Thompson to develop a dictionary of the Nlaka'pamux language. She died in 1991.

Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
Spuzzum: Fraser Canyon Histories, 1808- 1939

BOOKS:

Daly, Richard & Chris Arnett & Annie York. They Write Their Dreams on the Rock Forever (Talonbooks, 1993/2019). New paperback edition (Talonbooks 2019) $24.95 978-1-77201-220-0

Laforet, Andrea & Annie York. Spuzzum: Fraser Canyon Histories, 1808-1939 (UBC Press / Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1998).

[BCBW 2019]