Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will today exonerate six B.C. First Nations chiefs convicted of murdering white colonists more than 150 years ago in pre-Confederation British Columbia.
Trudeau will deliver a speech on the matter at roughly 3 p.m., after question period. Following the announcement, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and modern-day Tsilhqot’in chiefs will speak to the media. CBCNews.ca will carry these events live.
In 1864, five Tsilhqot’in chiefs were called to what they thought were peace talks to end the Chilcotin War.
A tradition native drum with a symbol remembering the six chiefs who were killed more than a 150 years ago is pictured during a ceremony to commemorate their deaths in Quesnel, B.C. Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
Instead, they were accused of murdering 14 members of a road-building party. They were then tried, convicted and hanged.
Five of the chiefs were executed, under Crown authority, near the settlement of Quesnel, B.C., in the province’s interior. A sixth chief was later hanged near New Westminster, B.C., after trying to offer reparations.
The chiefs opposed the construction of roads to gold-rich lands and sought to stop the incursion into their traditional territory.
There are also allegations that the road-building crew took some Tsilhqot’in women hostage.
The Tsilhqot’in have long objected to the chiefs being tried as criminals, saying the killing of the colonists was carried out during a war between the First Nations and the colonial authority in B.C.
Trudeau will absolve the Tsilhqot’in of guilt “in any way, shape or form” related to the killings in 1864, Chief Joe Alphonse said in a video posted on the Tsilhqot’in National Government’s Facebook page.
Tl’etinqox Chief Joe Alphonse said Trudeau will absolve the Tsilhqot’in of guilt ‘in any way, shape or form’ related to the killings in 1864. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
“The Chilcotin War is what defines us,” Alphonse said.
“If you come into Tsilhqot’in territory you had to have Tsilhqot’in permission. And when the Waddington road-building crew came in, they didn’t get that permission. And when they took our women, abused our women, we declared war on them.”
In 2014, B.C. Premier Christy Clark also fully exonerated the chiefs of any wrongdoing.