By CKPGToday

Justa Monk Passes

Mar 14, 2018 | 2:32 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – A well-known leader in the First Nations community has passed away.  Justa Monk died this morning in Tachie.  He had been in poor health. 

A survivor of the Lejac Residential school, Monk struggled in his younger years.  But with the encouragement of elders and his family, he emerged from his troubled past and became a leader in First Nations politics in the north.  

Monk eventually became first Chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council from 1981 to 1983 and sat as Chief again from 1990 to 1994.  His political career ended last summer when he resigned as the Chief of the Tl’azt’en First Nation after three and a half years. 

He spent most of his adult life fighting for First Nations rights and continued that work into his senior years, nearly right up to his death.

Monk was the subject of late local author Bridget Moran.  She chronicled his life in the 1994 biography “Justa, The Life of a Tribal Chief.”

Evidence of potential unmarked graves found at former site of Lejac Indian Residential School

10h ago

UNBC

UNBC Students host community event to wrap up capstone project on sustainability

11h ago

Rebels 3 Cougars 2

Cougars begin Alberta double-header with 3-2 loss in Red Deer

17h ago

Justa Monk was born January 1st, 1943.