School children often come to city hall to learn firsthand about their local government process and it happened again this week.
But for the first time in known memory, the chief of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation was invited to be there as well as a governance equal.
"I didn't think of doing it any other way, it was the only thought that occurred to me," said Pinewood elementary school teacher Valerie Reimer who brought along 23 students from her Grade 3 class on the field trip.
"It's never happened before," said Lheidli T'enneh First Nation chief Dominic Frederick.
He has met with school classes in the past, he said, but never at city hall as part of a field trip, where mainstream municipal government and aboriginal territorial government was put on the same table of discussion for the kids.
The kids began their study of local government by taking a city bus from the school to city hall.
They were greeted by municipal staff and Mayor Lyn Hall, who talked with them about the things done by local government and showed them around the place.
"Local schools, usually at the elementary level, book these tours of council chambers and city hall once every few months. They are at the request of individual classes and occur roughly three to six times per year," said Michael Kellett, senior communications officer with the City of Prince George.
"I can tell you that everyone involved at the city loves hosting the students and looks forward to these events."
He explained that the typical field trip includes:
A tour of council chambers;
An introduction to the mayor who describes what the mayor and council do (he shows them the chain of office, tells them how a council meeting is run, etc.);
An introduction to how city bylaws work and are enforced by bylaw officers (a bylaw officer makes this presentation);
An introduction to the various community events, activities, and facilities offered by the city, presented by one of the city's community co-ordinators;
Each presenter, including the mayor, takes a number of questions from the students in attendance
In this case, a public meeting room was booked by the school and Frederick was invited to independently offer the views of the First Nation on whose territory Prince George sits.
"It is especially important to hear the perspective of the Lheidli T'enneh government because the history of residential schools will now be part of the regular curriculum, so this makes that more personal," said Reimer.
Frederick explained how, for decades, almost all local aboriginal children were taken away from their families during the school year and forced into Lejac Residential School where they were cut off from their parents except for Christmas and summers. The students gasped at the idea.
Then Frederick explained how they were bombarded with Euro-Canadian learning material, and were treated to corporal punishment if they ever expressed themselves in their mother language.
"Now we have only elders who speak our language fluently and teach it to our members," Frederick said.
The chief also gave the young students a local geography lesson.
"All this land here, all the way to the Fraser River, all the way to the Nechako River, all the way to Carney Street used to be our community," he said. "Our main village was where the park is. That's why they changed the name this year to Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park."
Most of the kids indicated they knew about the cemetery there, the last clear indication of the thriving aboriginal town it used to be before.
Frederick also explained that the incoming railroad and the government of the day conspired on a shady deal to expel them from their town and move them far away upriver. Those who were reluctant had their homes set on fire.
Again, the children's jaws dropped at that dramatic chapter of local history.
Frederick told them, too, about daily life in ancient Lheidli culture - fishing for salmon using basket nets or weir channels, snaring rabbits, how there used to be herds of caribou right in the immediate region, and it was the moose they had to travel far afield to hunt. Those populations are reversed, these days, and the caribou are on the verge of extinction.
Frederick and other Lheidli observers in the room also gave the kids some fun by doing drum beats on the desks, saying a few words in the Dakelh language, and learning how to say the name of their culture. European writers produced a complicated word for what is a simple thing to say: Klate-Lee Ten-ay. If you wanted to add a subtle H sound at the beginning, that would be more accurate still.
Once the kids were finished taking selfies with the mayor and the chief, they walked across Dominion Street for a passing visit to the library, Civic Centre and a couple of hours of activities at Two Rivers Gallery before they boarded another city bus for the ride back to school, completing their civics circle.
