The day began well before sunrise. Early risers could hear the prisoners’ monotone death chant drifting through the British Columbia darkness. Careful listeners could distinguish Lhatsassin’s deep voice in their common prayer.
October 26, 2014 will be the 150th anniversary of B.C.’s martyrdom of the “Chilcotin Chiefs.” The “Chiefs” were hanged at Quesnel. The attending official estimated the mostly native crowd at 250 making this one of the largest mass executions in Canadian history. Why did B.C. hang the “Chilcotin Chiefs” in 1864/65?
Tell the truth. Hold conferences in good faith. Exonerate “The Chilcotin Chiefs.”
I am writing to correct some factual errors and misleading inferences contained in a Dec. 20th Globe and Mail article, “Chief executed in 1864 grouped in with the wrong crowd.” And to offer some constructive suggestions. Alas, it seems rather it is your writer who has grouped with the wrong crowd. Namely, those who deny Canada’s colonial legacy and then distort the record regarding the indigenous experience. Why otherwise would The Globe and Mail so gratuitously and callously denigrate the Tsilhqot’in People’s proud history of its noble and far-sighted heroes for so little effect?
During the recent Prosperity Mine hearings in British Columbia, an indigenous spiritual leader, Cecil Grinder, appeared with a painted face. What should one read into this body language? Did he mean to strike the fear of violence into non-indigenous hearts?
During the Oct. 26 Lhatsassin Memorial Day ceremonies at Puntzi Lake, Chief Byron Louis of the Okanagan First Nation presented the Tsilhqot’in with a golden eagle’s feather. This feather symbolizes the ongoing continent-wide struggle to have Canada honour with good faith both its treaties with the indigenous Peoples and its own constitutional recognition of indigenous rights.