Hesquiaht Man Seeks Historic Apology

Date 2008/7/7 0:40:00 |
Topic: News: Alberni-Clayoquot
By Keven Drews Westcoaster.ca

TOFINO — Tim Paul wants an apology, not for himself but for a family member he says was unjustly hanged by the British on a remote section of Vancouver Island in 1869.

The 58-year-old member of the Hesquiaht First Nation says has asked NDP MLA Scott Fraser to help secure an apology from the provincial government for the execution of John Anietsachist, a direct ancestor, and fellow band member Katkinna.

On June 23, 1869, a Victoria court found the Hesquiaht men guilty of killing a man and woman who were found dead and ashore near Estevan Point earlier that winter after their trading vessels, the John Bright ran aground.

After the trial, HMS Sparrowhawk sailed the men back to Hesquiaht Harbour. Carpenters erected gallows and the men were hanged before family and fellow band members.

“He was wrongly hanged,” said Paul. “We need to go for an apology.”

“We look forward to bringing this forward in a way that highlights injustice.”

Paul will also unveil a 6.5-metre-tall totem honouring John Anietsachist during Tofino’s Westcoast Maritime Festival July 14. Members of the Haida Nation, as well as First Nations from southern and eastern Vancouver Island are expected to attend. After a ceremony at Grice Park, on Tofino’s waterfront, Paul will transport the totem to Homis, an area near Estevan Point.

Paul said while he is not angry about the incident, he wants to educate people about history and the 150th anniversary of British Columbia’s founding.

He said other First Nations around BC suffered similar fates.

The shipwreck and hanging are detailed in the book Glyphs and Gallows, written by Peter Johnson and published in 1999.

After leaving Port Gamble, Wash. with a load of lumber in February 1869, the John Bright ran into a winter gale. A sealer named Capt. James Christenson reported the wrecked vessel on the south shore of the Hesquiaht Peninsula in March.

Victoria newspapers began printing reports of decapitated victims, murder by Indians and massacres, and in early May, the colonial government dispatched HMS Sparrowhawk to Hesquiaht.

Upon arrival, the crew exhumed the bodies of the shipwrecked victims and an inquest was held aboard the Sparrowhawk.
The ship’s surgeon Dr. Peter Comrie found no evidence the bodies had been decapitated and wrote in his officer’s journal that wild animals and pounding surf could account for their mutilated conditions.

However, Hesquiaht members testified two people were murdered. The inquest returned a verdict of willful murder.
When the Hesquiaht refused to turn over any suspects, Capt. Henry Wentworth Mist instructed Royal Marines to burn the native’s homes and ordered the ship’s cannon to destroy canoes on the shore.

The Sparrowhawk returned to Victoria with seven Hesquiaht males, including John Anietsachist and Katkinna.
When asked to plead during the trial, Katkinna reportedly said through an interpreter that he shot a large male who was coming ashore from the wreck.

During the next trial, two of John Anietsachist’s friends testified he had shot the young woman. However, they testified he shot her in two different areas: the cheek and the chest. Another band member testified he had heard Anietsachist confess during a potlatch.

Both men were sentenced to death June 23, 1869. John Anietsachist reiterated his innocence.

David Griffiths, executive director of Tofino’s Tonquin Foundation, said the events are a regrettable incident in BC’s history and a good example of its gunboat past.

He said Paul approached the Tonquin Foundation to help organize the coming week’s events.

Griffiths said the maritime festival has helped since its inception promote cross-cultural understanding. In 2005, the foundation played a key role in an apology between a local First Nation and the descendents of a US fur trader who burned a local village.

Meantime, Fraser said he will attend the totem’s unveiling and will try and help Paul obtain an apology from the provincial government.

When the legislature resumes, Fraser said he will likely prepare a private member’s and ask the minister of aboriginal affairs and reconciliation or even the premier for an apology.

“There’s a lot of injustice in the past,” he said. “It’s an essential part of reconciliation.”