Human remains found on pavilion site
Archeological excavation done in Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park ahead of the construction of a new pavilion unearthed the remains of 11 people this summer.
The remains were believed to be associated with the Lheidli T’enneh village and cemetery which previously existed at the park.
“It’s important for us to respect the (human) remains that have been found,” Mayor Lyn Hall said at July press conference about the discovery.
Hall said it was no surprise that remains were found on the site, given its history.
The Lheidli T’enneh voted to sell the 500-hectare Fort George Reserve No. 1 site to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway for $125,000 after several years of convoluted and controversial negotiations, and relocated to the Shelley reserve in September 1913, according to a study by UBC researchers David Vogt and David Alexander Gamble. Department of Indian Affairs reports from 1890s recorded the Lheidli T’enneh village had 124 residents with various livestock living in 29 homes, Vogt and Gamble wrote.
After the relocation the old village near the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort George trading post was burned, Vogt and Gamble wrote. However, some claim the Lhiedli T’enneh were forced out, including Chief Dominic Frederick.
In June, Frederick said a grave site was left behind when the village relocated and was subsequently disturbed by development.
“What they did was they pushed everything into the river,” Frederick said.
“And in leveling the ground and smoothing it out, they scattered everything and then filled it in.”
Frederick said the Lheidli T’enneh have mixed feelings about what’s happened over the years. He said a monument in memory of the ancestors “and where they were found and where we believed they were supposed to be,” is being considered.
“With the ground being disturbed and the graves being disturbed, they ended up over in another area,” Frederick said.
“We don’t want to put them back there, the elders have said you can’t put them back to where they’ve been disturbed.
“From our part we’d like to see them not digging anymore or trying to build more within the park and do the least possible and I think that it’s only proper that they respect that because the more you dig the more you’re going to find.”
Construction of the $809,000 pavilion proceeded, with concrete pouring beginning in late July.