Powell River RCMP and the Tla’Amin (Sliammon) First Nations community are asking for the community’s help in identifying an individual suspected of vandalizing Tla’Amin burial grounds in Desolation Sound.
Tla’Amin Guardian Watchmen Program coordinator Erik Blaney is upset and angered by a string of recent disturbances and destruction to sacred burial sights, an act he sees as disrespectful and disgusting. Three sites in Desolation Sound and one on Texada Island have been tampered with in the past two years. Sites have been vandalized, damaged and in some cases ransacked for cultural items and even bones. Blaney said that skulls in particular seem to be a target for looters.
“Its brutal, absolutely terrible,” said Blaney. “I don’t know how someone can sleep at night...It’s sick.”
According to Blaney someone camping in the Desolation Sound area chopped up a burial box which contains the bones of the dead, to use as kindling for a fire and used scaffolding that elevates the burial box as a means to suspend a pot over a campfire. In the same area two rock burial cairns were dismantled to make room for a camp site. Blaney estimates the site to be between 150 and 800 years old.
A member of the Tla’Amin community previously saw a man camping in the area and approached him. The man introduced himself as “Dominick” and said that he was from Ontario. The man is described as around six feet tall, Caucasian, with dark hair and bad teeth, in his mid-30s. The woman who talked to the man told him that he is not welcome in the area, but recent patrols observed evidence that suggests the man is still using the sites for camping.
Blaney said that enforcement is the issue and that not nearly enough resources are spent monitoring these sites. Some in the community are looking to BC Parks to increase monitoring and enforcement for sites that are within BC Parks land and are protected by the Heritage Conservation Act, such as those in Desolation Sound.
“It’s ridiculous. They’re the ones that are mandated to be protecting these cultural heritage values within their boundaries that they set and they just can’t do it because they don’t have money,” said Blaney. “Tla’Amin’s just fed up and I think we need to pound the table a little harder.”
Tla’Amin Chief Clint Williams sent a letter to BC Parks on August 4 detailing the community’s concerns with the protection of heritage sites within park boundaries and asked BC Parks to devote more resources and increase their presence in these areas.
“Our Nation has long expressed concerns with enforcement issues,” wrote Williams. “If we cannot resolve this issue through a dispute resolution process, we will have no choice but to pursue other measures.”
Tla’Amin representatives met with BC Parks’ Sunshine Coast area supervisor on Wednesday, August 17 following a tour of the sites in question to discuss the current situation. Williams said he has yet to receive any official reply to the letter from BC Parks.
“We’re hoping that we could do something working together with BC Parks because we’ve talked about it for a number of years and that’s as far as it’s gotten, is a lot of hot air,” said Williams. “We want to work together to make sure that everybody can enjoy the great outdoors here and at the same time just not ruin any of our ancestors’ burial sites.”
In an email to the Peak the ministry of environment responded that officials are “deeply concerned about recent impacts to cultural sites” and that BC Parks is “leading an ongoing investigation into recent events.” The email also states that the ministry is reviewing the letter from Tla’Amin and is developing an “action and response plan and will continue to work collaboratively with [Tla’Amin] on the planning.”
Anyone with information on “Dominick” or any other vandalism to burial sites is asked to call Powell River RCMP at 604.485.6255.
