news | Monday November 6, 2023

Hot Off the Press: Lha yudit'ih We Always Find A Way: Bringing the Tŝilhqot’in Title Case Home Is Here!

We are delighted to announce that Lha yudit’ih We Always Find A Way: Bringing the Tŝilhqot’in Title Case Home by Lorraine Weir with Chief Roger William is here! Eight years in the making, Lha yudit’ih We Always Find a Way is a community oral history of Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, the first case in Canada to result in a declaration of Aboriginal Rights and Title to a specific piece of land. Told from the perspective of the Plaintiff, Chief Roger William, joined by fifty Xeni Gwet’ins, Tŝilhqot’ins, and allies, this book encompasses ancient stories of creation, modern stories of genocide through smallpox and residential school, and stories of resistance including the Tŝilhqot’in War, direct actions against logging and mining, and the twenty-five-year battle in Canadian courts to win recognition of what Tŝilhqot’ins never gave up and have always known.

An excerpt from Lha yudit’ih We Always Find a Way:

“By the time we found out that they were doing a bridge expansion at Henry’s Crossing so the big logging trucks could cross the river and go into Tachelach’ed and the Trapline, they’d taken the deck of the old bridge off. My older stepbrother, Gene Cooper, was on Council at that time, and we were both at the Tŝilhqot’in National Government office on May 6, 1992. We found out about the bridge when one of the operators at Henry’s Crossing messaged us at TNG about what was happening. They wanted to get heavy equipment like logging trucks over, and they needed to replace the centre beam of the bridge to do that. It’s amazing that they removed it without telling us. …So we said we were gonna roadblock. Like it or not, we’re gonna go, we’re gonna move to Henry’s Crossing and roadblock.”

Order you copy of this vital and incredible work here.