A Tsilhqot’in First Nation chief is renewing his call to have New Westminster Secondary School named after Chief Ahan once the new school is built.
“It would mean a lot to our people. We don’t want Chief Ahan to be down there, but that’s what we got,” Tl’etinqox First Nation Chief Joe Alphonse told the Record. (The Tl’etinqox First Nation is one of six bands that make up the Tsilhqot’in First Nation.)
In 2008, chiefs from the Tsilhqot’in First Nation visited New Westminster after research done by a university student working for then-New Westminster MLA Chuck Puchmayr suggested Ahan’s final resting place could be at the high school site.
Chief Ahan was hanged in 1865 in New Westminster. He was one of six Tsilhqot’in First Nation war chiefs executed following the Chilcotin War between the Tsilhqot’in people in B.C. and European settlers.
At the time, Ahan and his fellow chiefs were considered murderers, but in March, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an apology, saying the six chiefs were leaders of a nation and were acting in accordance with their laws.
Chief Ahan’s final resting place has never been confirmed, with locations near the old courthouse in downtown New Westminster and a former cemetery on the high school site being the most likely places. Alphonse is adamant the chief was buried in the cemetery below the school. Known as the Douglas Road Cemetery, it ran from 10th Avenue and Eighth Street to Dublin Street and made up more than five acres.
It was used between 1860 and 1920 as the final resting place for Chinese, Sikh and First Nations people, and for the poor, prisoners and stillborn babies.
Alphonse said the Tsilhqot’in went back and forth with the city and the school district over the placement of the new school when the district first planned to replace the school. He didn’t want construction to go forward until Chief Ahan’s remains could be recovered, but in the end the two parties came to an agreement. The school would be built at the back of the school site and a memorial park would be constructed once the old school was torn down.
Alphonse says while he appreciates the school district’s efforts to memorialize Chief Ahan’s memory with a plaque, to be unveiled once the memorial park is complete, he wants to see the school district go one step further.
“You guys have Judge Begbie and stuff, and that’s all right, that’s part of our history, but you’re not telling our side of the history, and that’s Chief Ahan and his people and what they stood for. We shouldn’t be hiding our past – we should be embracing our history.”
In an emailed statement to the Record, Qayqayt First Nation Chief Rhonda Larrabee said she was unaware of any plan to change the school’s name.
“I feel that the Minister of Education, school district 40 and the City of New Westminster has been very respectful and has acknowledged the truth of what happened to Chief Ahan. He has been exonerated as being a ‘murderer’ as it has been proven that it was an act of war that caused bloodshed – on both sides,” she wrote.
“It is up to the school district now as to what the school should be named. When it was discussed in my presence, I believe it was decided to keep the school with the same name. If that has changed, I am unaware of it.”
Alphonse sent a letter outlining his request to the school district, and at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, trustees discussed the letter. Most agreed it wasn’t something they could deal with in their final meeting (the new board will be sworn in next week), but to get the process started, trustee Casey Cook put forward a motion to refer the chief’s letter to the next committee meeting.
“This needs a fulsome discussion at committee, and I don’t really want to commit the new board to a direction on this. This is an item that really needs careful consideration, discussion and response,” he said.
Fellow trustees agreed, and also instructed staff to respond to the letter on behalf of the board.
Alphonse told the Record he had yet to hear back from the school district about his request, adding he’d be disappointed if the district did not approve his name-change request.
“We think it would be a huge step forward to do that and acknowledge our history and what we had to face,” he said.
“I hope it all works out.”
