The convoy of vehicles following Yvonne Lattie’s cremated ashes stretched for more than a kilometre up Highway 16, slowly winding along the swollen Skeena river, as millions of baby salmon travelled in the opposite direction, downstream.
All the way from the funeral home in Terrace to the Feast Hall in Hazelton, drivers pulled over to show respect for the family. A former B.C. cabinet minister stood by the rumble strip, hands clasped, head bare. Children stood on the roadside, holding up red paper hearts in her honour. Chiefs and politicians came from all over the region to say farewell.
Yvonne was Sim’oogit Gwininitxw, a widely-loved leader in the Gitxsan Nation. Laying a Chief of her calibre to rest, and transferring the vast territories, crests, songs and responsibilities that come with the name, is an intricate, multi-step process that takes at least a year.
For four nights and four days, all through her homecoming, Smoke Feast, celebration of life, funeral and Death Feast, firekeepers guarded a sacred portal between worlds, a glowing fire in the back yard of the modest home she shared with her husband, Wiis Tiis.
At her celebration of life, emcee John Alexander compared Yvonne to Ts’in, the hummingbird: tiny but full of boundless energy, with a special fondness for majagaleehl (the Gitxsan word for both flowers and children). The following night, a hummingbird flew into the packed Feast Hall.
“I always knew her as a warrior,” said Spookw, a fellow Wolf Clan Chief, who was arrested alongside Gwininitxw and other leaders at a rail blockade in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en clans fighting Coastal GasLink. “But I’m realizing she had a whole other side.”
Indeed, Yvonne was a grandmother and great-grandmother who spent most of her time caring and advocating for children. A fluent Sm’algyax speaker who loved hunting, fishing and picking berries, Yvonne was a teacher, provider and protector for generations of Gitxsan youth.
In 2022, at a Feast where she gave away home-baked bread, fish from her smokehouse, preserves and vegetables from her giant garden, Gwininitxw and her Wilp (house group) members declared the whole of their Lax yip (territory) protected from industrial development, forever.
This 1,700 square kilometre fortress in the upper Skeena watershed encompasses some of the healthiest salmon ecosystems left in the world. Yvonne once rode into the territory on horseback with her brother, Art Loring, to kick out mining prospectors who had helicoptered in.
“As the Head Chief of the House, it's my responsibility to ensure that I do everything in my power to protect the lands and resources for the future generations,” Yvonne said in 2024. The Gwininitxw Protected Area is her gift to her descendants, and to all of us.
“Through the eyes of my grandmother I have looked into the past. Through the eyes of my grandchildren, I look into the future,” Yvonne said. “My whole life has been devoted to the many generations to come.”
That work now passes to all those who learned from her.
