BCGNIS Query Results

Knockan HillOfficial Name
Feature Type:Hill
Latitude:48°28'13" Position at: CENTRE
Longitude:123°25'04"
Gazetteer Map:92B/6
Relative Location:Just N of Portage Inlet, NW of Victoria, Lake Land District
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Origin Notes and History

Adopted 1 May 1934 on National Defence sheet 415a, Victoria, as labelled on J.D. Pemberton's 1855 map for the Hudson's Bay Company "South Eastern Districts of Vancouver Island" and on subsequent Dept of Lands & Works maps, and on Geological Survey sheet 20A, Victoria, 1911, and as identified in the 1930 BC Gazetteer.
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

From the traditional name, meaning "rock(s) on top" (December 1981 advice from Randy Bouchard, BC Indian Language Project, file V.1.38)
Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

The following story, The Wives of the Stars, explains the appearance of the rocks on top of the hill: There once was a chief who had two daughters. During the summer the people had moved to a camp where they fished for salmon. One day the girls went into the forest. At night they lay down among the trees and looked at the stars. The elder sister said, "I wish the big star up there (Jupiter) would be my husband." And the younger one said, "I wish the red star there (Mars) would be my husband." Then they fell asleep. When they woke up again they saw that they were men. The shiny star had sick eyes. And what they had wished for came to pass. The stars became their husbands. The following day their husbands told them to go out and collect [wild] onions. But they forbade them to dig up the bulbs as is done on earth; instead, they were allowed to cut off the stalks only. To start with the women obeyed, but one day the elder sister said, "I simply must eat an onion again." She dug one up and to their amazement they were looking down upon the earth through the hole. They didn't say anything about this when they got home. They still went to the forest as before to gather onion stalks. But now they made a long rope there, without anyone knowing about it. When they thought that it was long enough, they made a big hole in the ground and the oldest daughter crawled down. She said to her sister, "You wait here. When I've arrived down there safely I'll shake the rope, then follow me down. Otherwise assume that I've fallen into the sea." The younger sister then lowered the rope. At last the woman landed on Mount Nga 'k 'un (some miles above the upper part of Victoria Harbour). There, she walked back and forth over a long stretch and pulled the rope to and fro. Thus, she was able at last to shake the rope a little bit and her sister up in the sky felt very weak movements. She tied it to a tree up there, clasped the rope with hands and legs and climbed down. The elder sister sat down below and looked up. Finally, she saw a small moving dot. It grew bigger and bigger and then she recognized her sister. Her legs had become quite crooked from climbing so long. She had scarcely arrived at the bottom, when the rope fell down. The people in the sky had missed the women. When they discovered the rope, they cut it. Then the women went to their home. Their mother had quite forgotten them because they had been away for so long. Her hair had become grey and her eyes dim from weeping so much. They hid close to a pond [seems to be the pond near the intersection of Interurban and Wilkinson Road]. Soon, their youngest sister arrived to fetch water. Her hair was cropped because she still mourned for her lost sisters. So they stroked her hair and it was long again immediately. The girl ran back and said "My sisters are sitting out there by the pond." The old people said, "Don't be so silly," and forbade her to say this. She went out once more and, after she had seen her sisters again, she ran back and repeated that her sisters were by the pond. When she said it for the third time, her mother beat her. So she went out again. Each time she came to the pond, her sisters stroked her hair and it became longer and longer. Then she ran back the fourth time, pointed to her long hair and said that her sisters had made it so long. So the old people thought that she might be telling the truth after all. They went to the pond and found the women. They stroked the hair of their mother and at once it became long and black again. A young man who obeys the laws scrupulously, bathes frequently and has never touched a woman is able to see the rope on Mount Nga 'k 'un [anglicized as Knockan]. It is invisible for other people." (Songish Indian Legends collected by Franz Boas c1890, translated into English by Dietrich Bertz for the BC Indian Language Project, copy received December 1981, file V.1.38)
Source: included with note