Kla Ah Men:
As Far Back as the Story Goes

Evan Tlesla Adams/Jan Padgett/Grace Adams
Sliammon Treaty Society
87 minutes • 2004

Includes discussion guide
Also available on DVD

Acclaimed actor Evan Adams (Smoke Signals) debuts as a filmmaker in a documentary about his people, the Sliammon First Nation (Coast Salish). Elders and tribal leaders voice their concerns on issues facing the community, their struggle to regain themselves and their place, and most urgently, the history-making treaty process being undertaken with the government of British Columbia. Now, more than ever for the Sliammon people, their insight into land usage must be astute and well-developed. How does day-to-day living involve their vast territories? How do memory, story, dance, and politics affect their relationship to the land now? What is it like to be out on the land today, carrying with them both traditions and modern experiences and concerns? This film is a tribute to Aboriginal stewardship of ancestral territories.

Subject(s): British Columbia, Environmental issues, Indigenous people–Coast Salish, Indigenous people–Sliammon, Politics, Treaty rights