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Husband and wife Rick and Jeanie McLean’s day trip to the beach turned into a kind of archeological dig when they uncovered stones that hold a connection to histories, treaties and diplomacy between two neighbouring nations.
The McLeans are both members of the Tahltan Nation. Rick is a former chief for the nation and Jeanie is a former Yukon cabinet minister.
They were spending the day at one of their regular spots in the Shakes Creek area in northern B.C. when they discovered rocks with carvings like fish and what appears to be a shield inside a bear paw.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience,” Jeanie said. “When you’re uncovering them, you know, thinking ‘who are the last people that saw these and how long ago.’”
Growing up in the Telegraph Creek area, Rick said people from there knew about one rock with markings and suspected there could be another.
Rick said the area is a place of major cultural significance for the Tahltan and the Tlingit nations. He remembers stories from his great-grandmother about the land, wars and the treaty between the nations at Shakes Creek.
He said members from both nations would fish for salmon there and it acted as a hub for trading and gathering each summer.
Jeanie said finding these types of treasures are important on many levels, and it starts a conversation about culture and history that goes beyond borders.
“Just imagining all the people that would come to do that work and then to do those etchings at that time,” she said. “[I’d] love to know more about what some of them mean because that bear paw shield is something I’ve never seen.”
Jeanie said they’ve been getting lots of attention since posting their photos and videos to social media, including from universities and from a clan leader in Alaska.
Richard Jackson is chief of the Tahltan Band Council. He said he knew of petroglyphs, images carved directly onto rock, near Telegraph Creek, but not in the Shakes Creek area.
Jackson said the petroglyphs didn’t come from the Tahltan, but said that they were significant for the Tlingit as part of the peace treaty between the nations and an indication of where they could fish.
“I’ve never seen any others throughout the [Tahltan] territory,” he said. “I’ve never seen markers like that.”
Jackson said he hopes people respect the cultural significance of the stones and not disturb them, despite the attention they’ve been getting.
CBC News also reached out to the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Atlin, B.C., to comment on the historical significance of the petroglyphs.
In an emailed response, a representative from the nation’s communications department wrote their cultural protocols require them to speak with elders and the appropriate knowledge holders before speaking further.
