Kamloops author says decision to exonerate First Nations chiefs disavows history

The Tsilhqot’in have long disputed the decision to execute the chiefs as criminals, instead describing the confrontation as an altercation between warring nations.

“This is part of an ongoing lobbying effort over a past many years to try to rewrite the history of what’s known as the Chilcotin War in order to resurrect the images of the chiefs who were invovled to make a politcal point and to serve a political purpose,” says Mel Rothenburger, who authored a book on the Chilcotin War in 1978.

He says the pretext of the war was that, in 1864, a road building party was attacked by a handful of Chilcotin warriors “for the purposes of plunder.”

“They were attacked while most were sleeping. They were slaughtered and mutilated. A number of others were killed, including a homesteader.”

Rothenburger says after that attack, the government of the time sent out an expedition to apprehend the warriors, noting the single combatant killed in that whole incident was his great-great grandfather Donald Mclean, who was scouting for the search party.

“Otherwise these people were basically innocents. There were certainly issues at the time with the incursion into Chilcotin territory but the ranking chief disowned those who did the killing. But what is happening through this whole process is that these chiefs who were then caught and hanged for their crimes are being made to appear as the defenders of the territory of the Chilcotin people.

“There obviously are things that were terrible about colonialism. It created a lot of victims, it was a bad thing, it was racist, it was misdirected, it was cruel. But this idea that we can rewrite history makes it difficult in my mind to reach true reconciliation — how can we reconcile and move forward if we don’t admit to each other and discuss with each other the true facts of history? I think this is a bad way of going about it.”

Rothenburger doubts the full story will ever be told.

“I have no hopes that will ever happen, it’s just not in the political cards. I would just like people to have a proper discussion of what actually happened back then and not gild the lily and make assertions that simply did not occur.”

The provincial government apologized for the executions in 1993 and installed a commemorative plaque at the site of the hangings.

by Greg Fry with files from Canadian Press

Kamloops author says decision to exonerate First Nations chiefs disavows history

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