Williams Lake mayor and councillors plan to attend the Lhatŝ’aŝʔin Memorial Day in Quesnel on Thursday, Oct. 26.
Each year the day honours Tŝilhqot’in War Chiefs that were wrongfully tried and hanged in Quesnel, B.C. in 1864.
Tŝilhqot’in National Government (TNG) executive director Jenny Philbrick invited city council to the event through a letter, noting the TNG would be honoured if they attended.
TNG chiefs, elders and community members will also be there.
“It has been 159 years since the wrongful arrest and hanging of our War Chiefs during the Chilcotin War of 1864́. We would like to formally invite you to this occasion as we take time to remember the sacrifices made by the six Tŝilhqot’in War Chiefs in order to protect our families, way of life and lands,” Philbrick noted in a letter to council.
This year’s memorial will be held at the site where the chiefs were hanged beside what is now the GR Baker Memorial Hospital.
Mayor Surinderpal Rathor said all members of council attending the event will be travelling together in one vehicle.
Since 1999, the Tsilhqot’in Nation has recognized the day as a national holiday, encouraging members to honour the war chiefs who were hanged in Quesnel - Chief Lhats’as?in, Chief Biyil, Chief Tellot, Chief Tahpitt, Chief Chayses - and Chief Ahan, who was hanged in New Westminster on July 18, 1865.
The chiefs murdered road crew members in an effort to protect their territory against further cases of small pox, which had decimated an estimated 70 per cent of the Tsilhqot’in people between June 1862 and January 1883.
READ MORE: Indigenous communities unite for 158th Annual Lhats’as?in Memorial Day in Williams Lake
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