Nancy Tsholiralna Swanson

Nancy Swanson, close to 100 years old in 1928, with her
daughters, Jessie Swanson (left) and Annie Mackill (right).
Photo: Butler/Mackill family

Veasy Collier told the story of his great grandmother Nancy Swanson, whom he also called Chesahatna, as he knew it. One of her great great grandchildren, Phoebe Bailey, contacted this site with more information, based on the 2017 book Chilcotin Chronicles by Sage Birchwater.

The book names her as Nancy Tsholiralna Swanson – Tsholiralna presumably her original Tsilhqot’in name. At the time of the Chilcotin War in 1864, she was the spouse of William Manning who was reportedly killed by Lhats’as?in and his warriors after their attack on the road-building crew, in which 14 men died. It was said that they accused Manning of having spread smallpox among the First Nation population two years earlier.

Nancy fled but was arrested and taken to give evidence against Lhats’as?in and the chiefs at the trial which ended with their execution. Whether she gave evidence is not known. She was then sent to Victoria to escape possible retribution.

Evidence of Nancy’s involvement in the aftermath of the ‘Chilcotin War’ can be found on this page of the extensive site dealing with the whole story.

It was some time later that she met William Swanson and they eventually settled on the banks of the Fraser River on a site still known as Swanson Flats. They had two daughters, one of whom – Annie (born 1877) was Phoebe Bailey’s great grandmother, Annie Mackill.

Annie and her mother Nancy were at Riske Creek in the 1901 census. Nancy spent the rest of her life at Riske Creek, with her other daughter Jessie living nearby. Jessie was the mother of Lillian, wife of Eric Collier and mother of Veasy.

Nancy was buried on crest of a ridge above her little cabin at Riske Creek. Phoebe Bailey said: ‘Nancy and Annie both seem to be very strong women from what I have read and heard stories about, and I am proud to call them my grandmothers. I have been to Nancy’s gravesite a few times and took my husband and daughter recently to see about doing some repairs and maintenance to the site as a way to honor her.’