Legendary hero to the Tsilhqot’in, Klatsassin was hanged for murder
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Klatsassin? Or was it Klatsassan? Or KIatasine? Even rendered in Tsilhqot’in — he was perhaps a chief, or maybe a war leader — there is uncertainty. Lhats’as?in — which means: “We do not know his name.”
Place and date of birth remain unknown. Colonial bureaucrats who hanged him and five others — including his 15-yearold son — after a war party killed 14 men at a work camp on the Homathko River in 1864 didn’t record such details. He was described as athletic, handsome, with great intelligence and a bold, commanding personality. It is thought that two wives and two daughters survived him.
What is known is that Klatsassin was a hero to the Tsilhqot’in. His fate represented betrayal of a truce to parley for peace in a territorial war, and even the judge expressed dismay. But Klatsassin’s death secured his people’s resolve. Even 150 years later, his testimony that “We meant war, not murder” was presented as evidence in the landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision affirming Tsilhqot’in title to 1,700 square kilometres of land southwest of Williams Lake. In 2014, Premier Christy Clark apologized for the “wrongful hanging” and promised the province would exonerate the chiefs to the extent of its ability.
In 1862, a smallpox epidemic ripped through the coast and parts of the Interior. How many died isn’t certain. The usual estimate is about 20,000. Mortalities were high among the Tsilhqot’in. Hostilities commenced when a foreman supervising road-building through Tsilhqot’in territory threatened to send smallpox. The threat ignited instant defensive retaliation. The road was to stop. It didn’t. Klatsassin’s war party killed a ferryman, most of the Homathko River work crew, three packers, a settler at Puntzi Lake, and legendary fur trader Donald McLean.
The militia pursued him in vain. Then the war chiefs agreed to parley for peace. Instead, five were hanged before 200 people in Quesnel. A sixth was hanged in New Westminster. A seventh escaped, hid out in the Snowy Mountains, and died an old man in the Nehemiah Valley.
“If Canada is ready to acknowledge the wrongs of the past, and build real and respectful relationships today, we can move from pain into opportunity, from a dark history into a future we can all be proud of. Together we can transform this province and this country,” the Tsilhquot’in said in response to the province’s apology.