On May 21, 2025, Si:yémiya, Dr. Sonny McHalsie, who also carries the Hereditary name Naxaxalhts’i, retired from a 40-year career researching Stó:lō history and teaching people about Stó:lō heritage and culture.
As a Sxweyxwiyam, the Halq̓eméylem word for historian, McHalsie has participated in hundreds of projects over his career ranging from public engagements to authoring academic literature on his work with the Stó:lō community. He gave roughly 80 tours a year of the Fraser Valley introducing people to Halq̓eméylem placenames. His work has also helped provincial officials at the BC Geographical Names Office document the Indigenous names of many locations in the provincial government’s official records.
In an interview with the Fraser Valley Current, Chawathil councillor and podcaster Aaron Pete commends McHalsie for his work: “Sonny dedicated his life to preserving that culture so that it could be passed on to individuals like myself and others, so that we can conserve the past and build a better future based on that.”
Mandell Pinder LLP congratulates Si:yémiya for an amazing career and four decades dedicated to preserving and sharing Stó:lō history and culture. Many who have worked at our firm have benefitted from his knowledge and guidance as we endeavour to support Stó:lō communities in our work. We thank him for his generous efforts to elucidate us on Stó:lō history and more and wish him a productive retirement. And hope he has more time to enjoy his favourite hot and sour soup!
For more details on Dr. Sonny McHalsie’s retirement and biography, see Grace Kennedy, “Names of a Sxweyxwiyam: How legendary historian Sonny McHalsie changed the Fraser Valley’s understanding of itself,” Fraser Valley Current, Mary 30, 2205.
Select list of publications authored and co-authored by Dr. Sonny McHalsie:
- A Stó:lō-Coast Salish Historical Atlas, 2001
- “Spoken Literature: Stó:lō Oral Narratives,” in You Are Asked to Witness, 1997
- “We Have to Take Care of Everything That Belongs to Us,” 2007
- Towards a New Ethnohistory, 2018