It’s been nearly a decade since archeologists working with the shíshálh Nation came across an extraordinary discovery, now recognized as “one of the most significant chiefly burial finds in North America.” Now, the story it tells will be featured in the new Canadian History Hall at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa.
Shíshálh Chief Warren Paull was part of a delegation that travelled to Ottawa last week for a preview of the exhibit, which opens July 1. Paull was joined by Raquel Joe of the Tems Swiya Museum, cultural coordinator Steven Feschuk, elder Jamie Dixon, and Jasmine Paul from the rights and title office.
Paull said it’s impossible to overstate the emotions the group felt on first seeing the exhibit.
“Everybody got choked up when they first saw it, including myself. You come around the corner and you’re looking into the faces of people… You can see portions of different [shíshálh] family members in the facial features of every one of those renderings.”
Paull said he’d hoped to have Coun. Keith Julius along as well, because Julius – who works as an archeological technician – played a key role in the original find, but he had family obligations and couldn’t go.
Terence Clark of the Museum of History, director of the shíshálh Archeological Research Project, aided by shíshálh students and other members of the team, excavated the site over several seasons. They eventually found the remains of five people, believed to have been buried some 4,000 years ago: a man thought to be about 50 years old; a woman between 19 and 23; male twins aged 20 to 25; and one infant. They had been buried with hundreds of thousands of stone and shell beads, indicating they were a family of great wealth and power.
It’s taken nearly three years to preserve the finds and create three-dimensional animated facial reconstructions of the adults using advanced forensics – a first for a North American museum.
Paull said pictures released by the museum struck a chord within the Nation and the wider Sunshine Coast community.
“When we returned on Friday, it was like we brought back the Stanley Cup or something,” he told Coast Reporter. “There were a lot of high-fives and a lot of happy people. It was a great and wonderful thing. It’s unifying … and I hope it’s unifying for everybody on the Coast.”
Paull said that any stories or oral history that could provide clues about the ancient chief’s life were lost as a result of the near-destruction of the shíshálh people and their culture in the years following contact with Europeans.
“The lion’s share of the people who had those memories weren’t with us any more,” Paull said. “Back in the 1900s after that last wave [of smallpox and influenza] there were only 200 of us left out of 20,000… It basically knocked us back to [being] hunter-gatherers without any memory of who we were.”
Paull said the work being done by the shíshálh Archeological Research Project is helping the Nation regain those memories. “Everybody wants a piece of the past so they can understand their future,” Paull said. “Forty-five hundred years ago our people were here, and they had a vibrant, rich culture. It’s a compelling piece.”
The work of the shíshálh Archeological Research Project has spanned the terms of four modern-day chiefs: Stan Dixon, Garry Feschuk, Calvin Craigan and Paull.
In a video that will be part of the exhibit Craigan said, “To be able to have our original chief represented in that hall is truly an honour for us, and we’re very proud of that fact.”
Elder Lori Dixon, wife of Stan, is also featured in the video. “I remember when these people were found and my little nephew came home and told me about it, I got goosebumps, because this is something that we will be able to point to and say, ‘Here is the past truth.’ That means we will own our future.”
Paull echoed those thoughts this week. “We had a rich, vibrant culture before contact and there’s no ifs, ands or buts,” he said. “I call it a watershed moment. Long before there were pyramids we were here, and we were practising our culture then.”
While the excavation continued, Feschuk and the shíshálh council of the day pushed to gain ownership of the site from the province in order to protect it.
A reconciliation agreement announced last summer includes the transfer of up to 100 hectares in the Salmon Inlet area, which Paull said would help ensure protection for the site. “The province is well on side with that; they see the value in it as well.”
Paull said the remains have been returned, and could eventually be reburied at the original site. “We have them in bentwood boxes sitting in the [Tems Swiya] Museum and we’re just trying to decide where to repatriate them… We want to consult with our elders and with the community at large about where we should put them. Where’s the safest spot where the remains won’t be disturbed.”
A version of the Museum of History exhibit is being constructed for display at the Tems Swiya Museum in Sechelt. It’s also set to open July 1.
“This was the shíshálh Nation’s remarkable story to tell, and we are honoured to have been able to work so closely with them to bring it to life,” said Mark O’Neill, president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of History, in a release marking last week’s special preview. “To be involved in research that brings the shíshálh Nation face-to-face with their ancient ancestors for the first time was a very meaningful project for us, and we were honoured to have been asked to collaborate.”
Paull said the shíshálh Nation’s work with the Museum of History means they’re now a permanent part of the origin story to be portrayed at the Canadian History Hall for visitors from around the world.
He also said he’s looking forward to having the same story told in Sechelt, and hopes that people will take one thing with them when they see the exhibit: “Just a greater understanding that this land was inhabited [before European contact]. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
– With files from Christine Wood
