Spinning sp‘its‘n into Rope!

Coralee, Nathan, and myself (Kayt) were lucky enough to join Okanagan College’s sp‘its‘n harvest!

sp‘its‘n (otherwise known as Indian Hemp) is native to the Okanagan. sp‘its‘n has a number of purposes but we, the syilx people, primarily used it to make rope!

Once harvested, the seeds, leaves, and offshoots are removed and returned to the land. The rest is hung to dry. After being dried, the plant fibers are carefully extracted from the inner bark (these bits of inner bark make great kindling!) After some fluffing and prep work (that’s very hard on the hands!) the sp‘its‘n fibers are turned into the rope pictured below!

Did you know? Rope was one of our, the syilx peoples, primary exports!