Tsilhqot’in National Government demands role in St. Joseph’s Mission investigation
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WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — The Tsilhqot’in National Government says it has been shut out of the decision-making process around the future of the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School site in Williams Lake.
In a news release, Chief Joe Alphonse says investigations into the former residential school have involved the Province of B.C., RCMP and Williams Lake First Nation. Those three parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June to guide future investigations at the site.
But Alphonse says children from six Tsilhqot’in communities were also taken to St. Joseph’s Mission, and not involving the Tsilhqot’in Nation in the investigations is “disrespectful and a breach of human rights.”
“The decision about whether to exhume Tsilhqot’in children lost to the horrors of St. Joseph’s Residential School is for the Tsilhqot’in Nation and our families alone. Yet our people learned about planning for exhumations through the media,” said Alphonse. “Our Nation has consistently called for a meaningful and direct decision-making role in the investigation and our calls have been ignored. This cannot and will not continue.
