By Cheryl Jahn

New Lheidli T’enneh display part of Truth and Reconciliation

Jul 6, 2023 | 3:57 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “In July, it’s the first run for the Salmon Run. Sockeye. And that goes up on the Nechako on the Stuart Lake run. They went through the Nechako because all the fish, all the salmon, they brought it here and smoked, canned it, dried it.”

That’s elder Clifford Quaw describing a portion of one display in a series at the Prince George Public Library, showing the fish cache in a photo of the original village on the banks of the Fraser River in 1891. It is one of four displays at the library depicting Lheidli T’enneh history.

“I do lectures at School District 52 schools, CNC. I did one of the UN telling about the history of how we became, how we became or how we lived here a long time ago,” says Quaw. ”

And what’s amazing is that from Grade One to Grade to Grade Seven, they actually listen.”

New Awards Program

Prince George City Council to discuss Citizen Recognition Medal Program Monday

Nov 17, 2024

Missing Trio

Fort St. John RCMP looking for missing father and two children

Nov 17, 2024

Caledonia Nordic Ski Club

Caledonia Nordic Ski Club prepare for another big national biathlon competition

Nov 16, 2024

It is one more in a long journey toward Truth and Reconciliation. In 2019, the Lheidli T’enneh made history as part of the process, hosting a potlatch, or balhats, for the first time in this century.

“What it does, is it unites the community big enough to the hereditary chief to accumulate wealth and what happens at a balhatz, or a potlatch, all he has accumulated gives him back to the community. Yeah. And each one gets whatever they want.”

For Clifford Quaw, this display and others are not only about creating awareness within the broader community but within.

“So what now? Now is to trying to reunite the whole community as a whole like it was once before, when the community was a community.”

The display will remain at the library until the end of this month.