Respected Elder mourned

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She could drive a truck, operate a Cat, catch salmon and salt, can or dry them, garden, cook, and run both a family and a successful business.

Edna Douglas, a grand matriarch of the Sto:lo Nation, died in late January, leaving those who mourn her with memories of her militant activism and wealth of cultural knowledge.

Hundreds of people - Native and non-Native from all over British Columbia and the United States Pacific Northwest - attend her funeral at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chilliwack.

Douglas, who gave birth to 20 children and is survived by 14 children who all lived near her on the Cheam reserve or close by, was revered for being a staunch defender of Sto:lo fishing rights, a cultural teacher, social worker, entrepreneur and a generous caregiver.

She passes on her knowledge to her 59 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.

Although her health was failing slowly before her death at age 79, Douglas retained an avid interest in militant fisheries protests on the Fraser River last summer, coaching Sto:lo youth, the Native Youth Movement and her daughter, Cheam Chief June Quipp.

"She gave us direction. Even though toward the last she couldn't get out and fish herself, she often told me, 'Get out there on the river and fight for our fishing rights!" recalled Quipp. "But she was also a generous parent to many - even with so many children of her own to raise after my father died, her door was always open and she always had a bed or a meal for anyone in need.

"She didn't believe in welfare, she believed we had to look after ourselves."

Douglas was one of the last speakers of the Halq'emeylem language and a living link to the rich spirit world of the Sto:lo ancestors. She taught adults and children alike.

She was called upon to testify in all the key Supreme Court Aboriginal fishing-right cases.

"She was an expert on our customary laws and our language and, although she and her husband, the late chief Albert Douglas, played a major role in fighting for our fishing rights, she was also known to be a mother to anyone who needed help," said Sto:lo Yewel Siyam Lester Ned, the Sumas chief who speaks for 19 of the 24 Sto:lo bands.

Her daughter Eleanor Stephenson, a health-care worker, laughed as she recalled her mother's fierce disdain for the federal department of fisheries and oceans, given the task of policing the native fisheries for many combative decades.

Douglas was a social worker who with other Aboriginal women founded the Council of Women, keeping Sto:lo families together with food, clothing or comfort; whatever was needed.

Born Edna Charles, she was raised on the Seabird Island reserve near Agassiz by relatives Josephine Seymour and David and Mary Charles, who taught her traditional cultural ways.

A catholic, she spent eight years in the Kamloops Indian Residential School. She married Albert Douglas of the Cheam band, who was chief for 30 years until his tragic death in 1969 on the CN railway line that was cut through the reserve. She remarried only later in her life.

Courtesy of the Vancouver Province.