Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe
(May 10, 1911)
To Whom It May Concern:
We the underwritten chiefs of the Lillooet tribe (being all the chiefs of said tribe) declare as follows:
We speak the truth, and we speak for our whole tribe, numbering about 1400 people at the present time.
We claim that we are the rightful owners of our tribal territory, and everything pertaining thereto.
We have always lived in our country; at no time have we ever deserted it, or left it to others.
We have retained it from the invasion of other tribes at the cost of our blood.
Our ancestors were in possession of our country centuries before the whites ever came.
It is the same as yesterday when the latter came, and like the day before when the first fur trader came.
We are aware the B.C. government claims our country, like all other Indian territories in B.C.; but we deny their right to it.
We never gave it nor sold it to them.