In the world before this world, before there were people, and before things were like they are now, everyone was alive and walking around like we do. All creation talked about was the coming changes to their world. They had been told that soon a new kind of people would be living on this earth. Even they, the Animal and Plant people would be changed. Now they had to decide how the People To Be would live and what they would eat (We Are The People: A Trilogy of Okanagan Legends, 2004).
Chief Skəmxist (Black Bear)
The Chief for all creatures of the land.
Chief Skəmxist relates to the planning phase of getting ready to
plan as we root our process in our culture, traditions and all our
knowledge and experience from our planning history.
Chief Spitlem (Bitter Root)
The Chief for all things growing underground.
Chief Spitlem represents our engagement process where we
draw on Spitlem’s values of relationships, compassion and
inclusion and gather to share, listen, discuss and collaborate.
Chief Siya (Saskatoon Berry)
The Chief for all things growing on the land.
Chief Siya relates to the planning phase of creating our vision,
principles, directions and strategies. Here we draw from Siya’s
values of innovation and creativity as we gather to imagine,
explore, envision, innovate and create our vision together
based on our understanding of the current situation.
Chief N’tytyix (King Salmon)
The Chief for all creatures in the water.
Chief N’tytyix relates to the planning phase of implementation
by drawing on N’tytyix’s values of self-discipline and getting
things done as we strategize, coordinate and mobilize.
Ntamtqen Community Garden & Food Hub 