Lake marked by grim tide

The skeletal remains of a child's pelvis and 27 other bones were found washed ashore Tuesday on the beaches of Cheslatta Lake.

The bones, along with many others found this spring and in previous years, are those of long deceased Cheslatta people.

"They are definitely from the old graveyard that was washed away," said Mike Robertson, senior policy advisor for the Cheslatta Carrier Nation. "When the cemetery washed away in 1956 a lot of the caskets and bodies floated away. Their bones have been found, from time to time. We found a number of them a couple of months ago, but on Tuesday that was the most we'd ever located in one place."

Some of the bones were down on the gravel and others were up on the soil where they had been dropped by the fluctuating waters of the dam-controlled lake that feeds the Nechako River. The graves were washed away due to the building of the Ootsa Lake dam to generate power for Alcan's aluminum smelting and hydroelectric generation.

"We will do DNA testing on these bones," said Robertson. "We want to know the age, sex, distinctions of heritage, even the precise family lines with the participation of living people."

Cheslatta Lake is slated to be designated as an official provincial grave site. A "Returning The Spirits" ceremony is scheduled for next Wednesday.