Mountain Goat Rock
If you’ve been around Westbank, you might have noticed a large open field behind the snyatan Shopping Centre. Give it a closer look and you’d notice a large mountain goat shaped rock.
But this rock is more than it’s shape. It’s an important way-marker, a significant part of syilx culture, and a lesson to all those who live in the Okanagan. The story, as told by Jordan Coble in our Mountain Goat Rock Video, goes as follows:
A long time ago, there was an old goat and a young goat. They were part of a big herd of mountain goats. The young goat grew tired and bored of old goats old ways and so he hatched a plan…
Young goat was good looking; he used this charm to round up a bunch of female goats.
“When old goat goes to sleep tonight, let’s sneak off and make our own herd!” Young goat boasted
Young goat took this new herd from Summerland, trekked over the mountains, and came through the valley. This journey was long and the goats he rounded up began growing restless. They were upset that young goat wasn’t respecting the herd. He would hurry them along not letting them rest, eat, or drink.
One by one, his herd began returning to old goat. When they found their way back to old goat, they would tell him how young goat was treating them - though old goat had already caught wind of what was happening. Old goat began making his way toward young goat. Young goat, still hurrying his herd, came across what is now known as Smith Creek. Even with the creek right there, young goat would not let his herd stop and drink. Young goat continued his journey to Mount Boucherie but was stopped short by old goat. Old goat and young goat got into a fight. Old goat beat the youngster up and explained to him that what he did to the herd and how we was treating them was wrong.
“Breaking off from the herd isn’t the worst thing but there’s a way to go about it” explained Old Goat. “By talking about it we can support one another and maintain our sense of community.”
Old Goat knew young goat needed to be taught a lesson and so he turned young goat into a rock - Mountain Goat Rock.
This rock is a reminder to respect one another and our community. We have to respect those that who aren’t as fit or able as others. As a community, we have a responsibility to make sure that when we are moving forward we’re bringing everyone along with us.
This rock also speaks to the importance of water. We’re not able to fish in many of the areas we used to because we haven’t been taking care of the water, it’s been destroyed and polluted. We owe it to the water to take care of it as its a part of our community as well.
This story also highlights the importance of respecting our women. It’s always been our way that we gather resources as a community for the community. When we gathered these resources, they were given to the women to distribute to the community. Our women were responsible for making sure everyone was fed, cared for, and protected - which is the most important and hardest work to be done in any nation.