The Trials

The famous Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie was on his circuit in the Cariboo when Klatsassin’s party was captured, and so trials were quickly set up. Begbie tried seven of the eight prisoners and convicted five for murder. The seventh was sent for trial in New Westminster but escaped en route.

The following spring two other men implicated in the events, Ahan and Lutas, presented themselves to a special constable out looking for someone else. They thought they could pay compensation for their actions, according to Tsilhqot’in customs, but instead were manacled, taken to New Westminster and tried by Judge Henry P.P. Crease. One of them returned home a free man, and the other was hanged in New Westminster.

Klatsassin + 7 Chilcotins

Colonial Correspondence

• Matthew Baillie Begbie, Letter to Birch, August 18, 1864
• Matthew Baillie Begbie, Begbie to the Governor of British Columbia Including Notes Taken by the Court at the Trial of 6 Indians, September 30, 1864
• William George Cox, Letter to the Colonial Secretary of British Columbia, October 2, 1864
• Arthur N. Birch, Draft Letter to Cox, October 8, 1864
• John Boles Gaggin, Letter to the Colonial Secretary of British Columbia, October 27, 1864
• William George Cox, Letter to the Colonial Secretary of British Columbia, November 8, 1864

Colonial Dispatches

• Frederick Seymour, Letter to Cardwell, No. 69, November 23, 1864
• Edward Cardwell, Letter to Seymour, No. 10, February 24, 1865

Government Documents

• Executive Council, Colony of British Columbia, Executive Council Minutes, October 31, 1864
• Frederick Seymour, Death Warrants for Telloot, Klatsassin, Piell, Tahpit and Chessus, October 12, 1864

Oral History or Interview

• Henry Solomon, The Escape of Chedekki [Ŝumayu] , Nemiah: The Unconquered Country, 1992

Ahan & Lutas

Colonial Dispatches

• Frederick Seymour, Letter to Cardwell, No. 81, June 8, 1865
• Frederick Seymour, Letter to Cardwell, No. 93, July 19, 1865

Court Documents

• Supreme Court of New Westminster, Testimony of Ahan, May 30, 1865
• H.P.P. Crease, Murder Indictment of Ahan and Lutas, May 31, 1865
• Supreme Court of New Westminster, Testimony of Morris Moss, May 31, 1865
• Supreme Court of New Westminster, Testimony of Ach-pic-er-mous, May 31, 1865
• Supreme Court of New Westminster, Testimony of Lutas, May 31, 1865
• Supreme Court of New Westminster, Testimony of Frederick Harrison, June 23, 1865

Newspaper or Magazine Articles

• The British Columbian, The Chilicoaten Murderers, The British Columbian, June 1, 1865
• The British Columbian, The Special Assize, The British Columbian, July 4, 1865
• The British Columbian, The Sentence, The British Columbian, July 6, 1865
• The British Columbian, Royal Clemency, The British Columbian, July 15, 1865
• The British Columbian, Executed, The British Columbian, July 18, 1865