Questions raised about fate of human remains found in park
Three of the 12 human remains discovered at the site of the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park Pavilion as it was being built last summer were quietly reburied early Saturday morning in the park. The status of the other nine remains is unclear. With the pavilion set to officially open next week as part of National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations, not everyone is happy with the development of the pavilion and the lack of information about the remains and their status. One Lheidli T’enneh elder said she was frustrated with the process.
“Not only are chief and council not saying too much, the city is not saying too much either,” said Edie Frederick, who sits on the city’s advisory committee for the pavilion.
Frederick said the silence has brought back a lot of unpleasant memories. She remembers a time in the 1990s when between the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park cemetery and the children’s playground was a walkway.
“A bone burrowed through the asphalt
– it was a human bone – that was back in the 1990s when I was sitting on (Lheidli T’enneh) council, and by law they can’t just take out that bone, there has to be an archeologist doing that, right?” she recalled through tears.
“So, what did they do? They covered the bone up with a great big garbage can... so no dogs could get at it. So all these little pieces of human bones have been found and are being stored in the basement of Exploration Place. And the reason they are finding all these bones is because back in the ’50s the City of Prince George bulldozed our cemetery into the river and what do you see of our cemetery? The circle, the headstone – that’s what’s left of our cemetery – from them bulldozing.” (
Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dominic Frederick said plenty of work and discussion has happened behind the scenes, since the remains were first discovered, including a meeting with elders.
“The point of the meeting was sharing information with them and also looking for some guidance in regards to some plans we had,” he said.
“What came out of the meeting was that we need to meet with the community again as a whole and discuss more about what they want to do. I think the main concern is what to do with the remains, where to put them and I think that’s the first thing that came out of some discussions that were through emails back and forth about what we were doing.”
Chief Frederick said he had a meeting with the City of Prince George representatives about placing the remains in the mausoleum at the city cemetery.
“For the time being just for safe keeping until we come together and decide what we’re going to do,” he said.
“Whether we’re going to build one for ourselves in the park or what.”
The main thing, he said, is the elders wanted the remains out of The Exploration Place basement.
“And that’s what started the meeting and the conversation with the elders,” Chief Frederick said.
“I think it’s not just these remains, there are remains from years before – going right back to the ’60s, I think, or somewhere around there.”
It’s only now the Lheidli T’enneh people are doing something, Chief Frederick said, so that people can feel good about it.
“It’s in my time that we’re going to do something about it,” he said.
“We will move forward and do what we can when we can.”
As far as the city is concerned, the creation of the pavilion has always been in partnership with the Lheidli T’enneh.
“Now when you talk about the remains, when you talk about what will happen, we’re waiting and we’re working with chief and council and the elders,” Mayor Lyn Hall said.
“And the Lheidli T’enneh will let us know what their decision is and as the chief has pointed out we have talked about the current mausoleum as being a resting place and if the choice is to move the remains from Exploration Place to the mausoleum for a temporary period of time – but the ultimate resting place, if the decision is to have that at the park, then that’s what we’ll do.”
There are archaeological reports made on each of the human remains discovered that are
Pavilion timeline
governed by the BC Archaeological branch within the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which are deemed to be released on a needto-know basis, and are restricted to First Nations, property owners (private or corporate), government land use planning agencies (all levels), academic researchers, environmental consultants, lawyers, private industry and realtors, according to the ministry’s website.
When The Citizen asked to see those reports, which Chief The idea to replace the old picnic shelter at the park began in 2007 when a concept was developed.
When Prince George city council changed the name of Fort George Park to the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park in 2015, the B.C. government contributed $25,000 for a structure in the park that would acknowledge the First Nations people. In January 2016, the city invited the Lheidli T’enneh elders to a meeting to discuss the pavilion and in June they partnered and put a proposal together to apply for Canada 150 infrastructure funding to build the shelter. The announcement came in Feb. 2017 that the federal government would contribute $377,000 towards the construction of the pavilion, and the city matched the Frederick said he has seen, Frederick refused to release them. As did Mayor Hall, who said he has not seen the reports. Frederick said he would put it before the elders at the next meeting but he believes the reports will not be released publicly.
“I think to me and to the community, I think it would be best to leave it where it is,” he said.
“I think there’s been enough digging around and bringing up the past and stirring the pot and that sort of thing and we don’t want that to happen.”
funds. Northern Development Initiatives Trust added $30,000 to extend the patio from the pavilion to allow more space for events and performances.
In April 2017, the city consulted with elders to propose a call to artists to submit their work to be installed at the pavilion.
In June 2017, Viking Construction was awarded the contract to build.
When there was no response to the call for art submissions, it was decided in November that the centre pillar would feature logos representing the city and the Lheidli T’enneh, while the other pillars would show photos of Lheidli T’enneh children. In February 2018, the partners submit a proposal to Heritage Canada to present cultural events at the pavilion in late June, beginning with its official opening on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day.