Bodies from park interred in ‘places of honour’
The pavilion at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park is a new structure for the community and a symbol of a new relationship between the area’s primary First Nation and mainstream culture. It is an eye-catching open air structure of concrete, steel and wood that covers a picnic area with a wide jaggedline roof.
It also had a jagged pathway to completion as 12 full bodies were discovered plus one bone of an additional person, buried long before there was a picnic area or a park on that spot. All of those remains were interred this past Saturday in compartments of two enlarged caskets that were lowered into “places of honour” in the official on-site cemetery, according to Lheidli T’enneh First Nation chief Dominick Frederick. This was the consensus wish of the elders who met last week to discuss what to do with the people of history found in that spot.
Once the 13 were properly laid to rest with respect and ceremony, the picnic structure could be officially opened with the consent of all parties.
Officials from the City of Prince George, the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation and Exploration Place met with the public Thursday to unveil what is now a showpiece of the park.
“While it has all the features of a picnic shelter, it also has unique attributes,” said Mayor Lyn Hall, indicating, for example, the map stamped into the concrete that outlines the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers and the places where photos will soon be placed to forever symbolize the youngest and oldest generations of the Lheidli people who once called this park their full-time home.
“It features the logos of the city and the Lheidli T’enneh and there is no other civic facility in our community that does that,” Hall said.
“We do have the flags in front of city hall, and the Lheidli T’enneh flag in council chambers, but no other logo co-mingling exists on other municipal structures yet.”
The reason this joint affiliation is so important here of all places, said the officials present, is in deference to the ages-old history of that location. It is where the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation was based for thousands of years prior to the arrival of European colonists.
It is where Simon Fraser built a North West Company trading post in 1806-07 (it was transferred to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821 as part of a forced merger between the two companies) so as to be able to conduct business buying and selling furs and other exchanges of commodities and services in the 1800s.
The Lheidli people were reputed to be hospitable residents of this territory, and it was an area said to be, prior to colonial arrival, a hub of travel and trade for other civilizations dating back immeasurably.
In the early 1900s, however, the relationship changed. The Canadian federal government and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, among other interests, struck a deal with the Lheidli people to buy the land on which the City of Prince George now sits.
It was a deal that smacks now of fraud and even then was consciously duplicitous, by admission of the so-called Indian Agent of that time.
Instead of a fair deal, obtaining the area now known as the park became an expulsion that added another chapter to the book of trauma colonial Canada tried to write across the human rights of the Aboriginal cultures of that day.
Today, the echoes of those abuses still cut the Lheidli T’enneh people of today.
Many Lheidli people have publicly asked why it was OK for white-dominated mainstream culture to play frisbee and volleyball or have concerts and picnics atop the bones of their ancestors.
The discovery of the historical remains only made that point literal.
Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dominick Frederick admitted his own mixed emotions in the park.
“I probably have the same feeling,” he said about disliking frivolity happening where his forebearers were laid to rest.
But there was also the side of him that was drawn to the beauty and the activities of the place.
“I do come to the park,” he said. “I come down here to listen to some of the stuff that goes on during Aboriginal Day and sit down and relax. I’m not running around or anything. But people don’t know. That’s the thing. People don’t know what happened here. They don’t know the history of the park. They don’t really have an understanding of it. We don’t blame. People have to understand. We don’t want people to get the wrong message that we don’t want them here. It’s the history of Lheidli T’enneh that’s important to us. There is going to be messaging put up along the trails. Some of the history is going to be put up (in the form of signs), and that’s good. We’re working together with the city to keep everything on a level playing field.”
Mayor Hall agreed that mean- ingful steps towards reconciliation with the Lheidli people were being taken, but it wasn’t finished yet.
“It’s very difficult,” Hall said of the modern dilemma of having a beloved recreational area in the same place where a forcible expulsion happened and where ancestors were buried beneath the surface in places far outside the formal cemetery on the eastern side of the park.
“One of the things that’s been talked of is signage along the walkways that talks about the history of the park,” Hall said.
“We’ve done it elsewhere. We’ve renamed other parks and put up information about that park. So we will have a conversation with the Lheidli people and city staff and see what’s appropriate.”
What Hall was hopeful of was a sense in the general public of what Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park means beyond the most recent decades.
“When you come to the park, you recognize the history that’s here,” Hall said.
“You recognize that throughout the park there are remains. When I look over your shoulder and see all the children playing (on the swings and slides beside the new pavilion) and enjoying the spaces, what I think of is let’s be respectful. When you have a park of this nature, and you have people who want to utilize it as most parks are, it’s difficult to say no to that. One of the things we’re trying to do in partnership with the Lheidli is to make sure the history is identified here in this park. I think that’s what this does (respecting the protocols for the remains found during pavilion construction), that’s what renaming the park does, and I think you’re hearing more in the community now about what this park really means to this city. It’s part of the fabric of our history. And when councillor (Murry) Krause brought forth the motion to rename this to Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park I think that was behind his idea of how do we identify and recognize that history?”
The pavilion’s grand opening will coincide with four days of events to bring that recognition to the front of the public mind. The commencement of the opening ceremonies will happen June 21 which is National Indigenous Peoples Day and will continue through to Saint Jean-Baptiste Day on June 24.
On June 21, the pavilion’s opening will officially occur with a celebration at 10 a.m. followed by a slate of family-friendly celebratory activities going on at the park’s bandshell until 5 p.m.
On June 22 and 23, there will be performances at the pavilion of the play Blue Beads & Blueberries, an interactive drumming workshop, and storytelling.
On June 24, the French and Metis communities of the city will combine forces from 2-6 p.m. for more food and festivities rooted in their shared cultural traditions.
We don’t want people to get the wrong message that we don’t want them here. It’s the history of Lheidli T’enneh that’s important to us. — Chief Dominick Frederick