Lheidli T’enneh Honour Their Journey
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 @ 4:00 AM
The Lheidli Village as it was at 1900 – photo courtesy Exploration Place
Prince George, B.C. – At least 2200 people will be taking part in today’s celebrations at the CN Centre as the Lheidli T’enneh welcome Elders from all over B.C. to the Elders’ Gathering.
The theme for the Elder’s Gathering is Honour Your Journey, and that is exactly what the Lheildi T’enneh are doing with a special exhibit at Exploration Place.
The Lheidli T’enneh story, has been traced to this region as being at least 7,000 ad 9,000 years old.
This year also marks the 100th year since their village along the west banks of the Fraser River north of the Hudson Bay slough, was burned, and the Lheidli T’enneh moved to IR#2 at Shelley.
Their story is now on display at the Exploration Place. It is one of troubles and triumphs, of culture and colour.
“I think if you look back at the photos from that time, you can see the Lheidli T’enneh were successful” says Barry Seymour, the Lheidli T’enneh Lands Manager. The photos show well dressed young men astride horses that are high quality stock. The tack is impressive. “I think even back then the Lheidli had a good business sense” he adds.
The exhibit pays homage to Granny Seymour, born Margaret Mary Boucher, her baptism record has her baptized in 1852. It isn’t known how old she was when baptized, but she would be an important figure in the Lheidli T’enneh community until the day she died 114 years later. A healer for the community, she was a legend, and the exhibit displays photos of her meeting with Princess Margaret, Prince George Mayor Gavin Dezell and former Prime Minister John Deifenbaker.
Artifacts on display include a moosehide purse and gloves (in photo at right) created by Granny Seymour , a birch basket, and numerous pieces from pestles to spear heads, recovered from a recent dig on the Fraser River.
The exhibit has been open for a couple of weeks now, but it is expected the exhibit will be widely viewed during the three day Elder’s Gathering.
If you ask Barry Seymour which part of the exhibit is most important to him, the answer is simple, all of it. “I think it’s important to share information, the cultural expressions of the Lheidli T’enneh, it gives us the opportunity to tell our story from our perspective which really hasn’t been done before.”
He says as the Elders from other First Nations visit the exhibit , he is sure they will start to reminisce about the history of their own communities “Hopefully it will inspire them to do projects of this nature.”
Seymour says working on the development of this exhibit was very exciting, “I believe we should be doing more of this. There are things I did not know.”
While the Elders Gathering moves to UNBC tomorrow and Wednesday for workshops, the exhibit at Exploration Place is expected to be in place until late October.
Comments
History is important and should never be under estimated.
I think the local college and university should be funded to a level they can offer free history and civics classes to anyone that has the pre requisites. A tuition subsidy of sorts for those going on to earn a degree, and a civics lesson of sorts for the average voter.
Learning about the Lheidli T’enneh, the Prince George, the BC, the Canadian, and the world history all have a place in an equal opportunity society and a functioning democracy.
For those interested in one small aspect of this, a book by the late Kent Sedgwick on the history of the Lheidli T’enneh Cemetery in Fort George Park was published in 2012 by CNC Press. http://www.cnc.bc.ca/Visiting/CNC_Press.htm#2012-sedgwick-lheidli
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