The Chilcotin War Today

If you go into Tsilhqot’in territory today, you will find that the Chilcotin War is as fresh in people’s minds as if it happened last year. It is not just about the past; it is also about the relationship between today's Tsilhqot’in and the immigrant population.

The province of British Columbia had its own questions about the relationship between the province and the Aboriginal people of the area. Numerous complaints about the treatment of the Tsilhqot'in by the police, the justice system, and the government more generally, prompted the government to initiate the Cariboo-Chilcotin Justice Inquiry in 1993. One of the responses of the province to the inquiry's findings was an apology for the hangings of the Tsilhqot’in chiefs.

This apology and the dedication of an accompanying monument at the site of the hangings on their anniversary date in 1999 sparked the annual Klatsassin Memorial Day, a holiday and ceremony among the Tsilhqot’in which rotates annually among the Tsilhqot’in communities.

Chapters in Books

• Anthony Sarich, Recommendations of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Justice Inquiry, 1993, Report on the Cariboo-Chilcotin Justice Inquiry, 1993

Miscellaneous

• B.C. redresses wrongful hangings of Tsilhqot'in war chiefs, 2014
• Apology and Exoneration of the Tsilhqot'in Chiefs by the Premier of British Columbia, 2014
• Supreme Court Decision on Tsilhqot'in Nation v. British Columbia, 2014
• Summary of the Tsilhqot'in Aboriginal Title Case (William Case) Decision, 2014
• Provincial Government of B.C. and the Tsilhqot'in National Government, 1864 Tsilhqot'in Chiefs Memorial, 1999

Multimedia

• John Lutz, Tsilhqot'in War Song, 2003