Tsilhqot'in Nation leaders celebrate after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a statement of exoneration to the Tsilhqot'in Nation and the descendants of six Tsilhqot'in war chiefs in the Commons on Monday.CHRIS WATTIE/Reuters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has exonerated six Tsilhqot’in war chiefs who were hanged for murder in the 1860s after being invited to attend peace talks with the British colonial authorities who had invaded their land.
The story of the deception and execution of the men has been passed down through the generations of Tsilhqot’in and remains a source of pain and anger for the descendants of the dead chiefs who still live in the British Columbia interior.
When the Tsilhqot’in won a landmark ruling at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2014, and were given ancestral title to about 1,900 square kilometres of territory around Williams Lake, B.C., the First Nation refused to engage in broader negotiations to implement that decision until the criminal records of the war chiefs were wiped clean.
So, on Monday, with six current Tsilhqot’in chiefs sitting in a circle on the floor of the House of Commons, Mr. Trudeau said it was time to acknowledge the actions of past governments and to express Canada’s “profound regret” for the treachery of the colonial militia and the deaths of the chiefs during the Tsilhqot’in war.
“As an important symbol of our commitment to reconciliation, we confirm without reservation that Chief Lhats’as?in, Chief Biyil, Chief Tilaghed, Chief Taqed, Chief Chayses, and Chief Ahan are fully exonerated of any crime or wrongdoing,” Mr. Trudeau said. “We recognize that these six chiefs were leaders of a nation.”
Mr. Trudeau’s address was followed by remarks of regret from all opposition leaders and then, for the first time in Canadian history, a First Nations drum song was played in the Commons. When the exoneration ceremony was complete, the chiefs, who had entered Parliament wearing black vests to symbolize death, turned them inside out to reveal red linings symbolizing new life.
The story of slain chiefs is the first thing that Tsilhqot’in people are taught by their mothers, said Chief Joe Alphonse, the First Nation’s tribal chairman. And, he said, the Tsilhqot’in have always said that clearing the names of the chiefs would be a precondition to any discussions that followed the decision of the Supreme Court.
When the colonial militia “executed, they executed based on a murder trial. Lhats’as?in, our head war chief, said, ‘This is not murder, this was war,’ ” Mr. Alphonse said after leaving the Commons. “Our fight has always been to correct that wrong.”
In 1861, settlers in the colony of British Columbia began building a road from the coast to the Cariboo gold fields through the territory of the Tsilhqot’in, without consulting the First Nation. The influx of the foreigners to Tsilhqot’in territory brought a wave of small pox that wiped out an estimated 70 per cent of the First Nation’s population.
After a skirmish with the road crew in 1864, in which Tsilhqot’in women were abused and one of the crew threatened to wipe out the First Nation with disease, the Tsilhqot’in declared war. In April, 1864, they descended on a road crew camp and killed most of the workers, then forcibly removed other settlers from their lands.
The colony responded by sending two militia groups of about 150 men on what it called an “invasion” of Tsilhqot’in territory. When they were unsuccessful in locating the war party, Gold Commissioner William Cox, one of the leaders of the colonial militia, sent the chiefs a gift of tobacco and an invitation to discuss peace.
Five chiefs rode to the colonial camp on Aug. 15, 1864, to begin those discussions. But, instead of being welcomed as leaders of an opposing army, they were arrested, convicted and hanged. The following year, a sixth chief was ambushed as he was on his way to pay reparations for the innocent victims of the war. He too was hanged.