Learning from the natives

When Eric Collier met his wife-to-be, he also encountered her 97-year-old grandmother, a native Indian whom he calls Lala in the book. He says it was she who inspired them to ‘give Meldrum Creek back to the beavers’, with her stories of a time (before the white man came) when the area was rich with wildlife, sustained by the water retained by beaver dams.

Veasy Collier’s great-grandmother (whom he knows as Chesahatna or Nancy Swanson) was a member of the Chilcotin (Tsilhqot’in) nation, who gave their name to a large area of British Columbia.

First Nations chiefs, 1867 (Engraving) Photo: Archives Canada

Veasy Collier talks about his great-grandmother and tells a story of her part in a history which is still raw today – the Chilcotin War and the hanging of five chiefs in 1864.

The Tsilhqot’in First Nation commemorate the execution of the five chiefs on Lhats’as?in Memorial Day (October 26). This war song was recorded at the event held at Riske Creek in 2006.