Joe Capilano

Joseph Capilano (* 1854, † March 10, 1910 ), Su -á -pu -luck in the language of his tribe, the Squamish, was from 1895 to 1910 chief and tried to combat the policies of dispossession and forced assimilation. In 1906 he was a leader of the delegation, complained to the British King Edward VII of the Canadian Indian policy.

Youth

Su -á -pu -luck was born about 1854 in Yekw'ts ( in Squamish ). The son of Letekwámcheten was born in a Catholic mission. When he married Mary Agnes Líxwelut on May 21, 1872 he was baptized. They had twelve children. The two lived in the Catholic Mission North Vancouver.

Chief

As Lawa, the chief of the Squamish, 1895 died, the Oblate Father Paul Durieu continued to ensure that Su -á -pu -luck became his successor. However, part of the tribe resisted the Christian chief and moved into the westernmost Capilano Reserve. Su -á -pu -luck converted some of the Squamish and built a church.

Resistance to Canada's Indian policy

He traveled soon on Vancouver Iceland and preached there. At the same time he increasingly struggled against land expropriations and the numerous legal restrictions, hunting and fishing made ​​more severe. But success was low. Therefore, he decided in 1906, at the head of a delegation - along with Basil David of the Shuswap and Chillihitza of the Okanagan - to travel to England to meet with King Edward VII, and to present him with a petition. The three were chosen on joint meeting of the First Nations. Full traditionally was the leader of the delegation the name Capilano ( in the anglicised version ), which is awarded to an outstanding leader in the Squamish and Musqueam. Therefore, he has become known under the name " Joe Capilano ."

The delegation traveled to Ottawa, where she met Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, from there to London. The petition mentioned that, for the right of the Indians had never gone to their land that settlers pushed to their land without asking for permission to make claims on the Canadian government were fruitless, and that the Indian agents Indians - had no right to vote - not even then questioned if it went directly to their affairs.

On his return Capilano received an enthusiastic welcome. Apart from the visibility, the friendly reception by the king, the handover of the petition, but he had to announce that the negotiations with Ottawa had to be done, not with the king. Su -á -pu -luck went out the lack of support of the Catholic clergy the consequence that he told them that they were no longer welcome in his field.

1908 traveled Su -á -pu -luck again to Ottawa, but also campaigned on the Skeena River that the local tribes had to take matters into their own hands. The newspapers in Canada increasingly viewed him as a troublemaker and demanded his punishment. When he died on March 10, 1910, all the tribal leaders of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Iceland appeared to his funeral in the Capilano Reserve.