Description
In 1906, the four peoples decided to send community leaders to meet with the King. Their petition drew attention to the structural problems with the Dominion government, noting that “it is made up of men elected by white people who are living on our lands and, of course, we can get no redress from that quarter. We have no vote. If we had it might be different, but as it is we are at the mercy of those that have the vote, and alas! they have no mercy.” They arrived at Euston Station, lodged in officers’ barracks at Buckingham Gate, visited the London Zoo and Westminster Abbey, and eventually met with the King. Although the meeting only lasted 15 minutes S7aplek recounted that “at the end he shake my right hand hard and with his left hand pat my left shoulder three times”and say “˜Chief, we see this matter righted but it may take a long time, five years perhaps.’ The four visitors also met Tekahionwake while in London, a relationship that continued when they returned home to the Northwest Coast.
Bibliographic sources
Thrush, Indigenous London, 19-23; The Graphic, 18 August 1906, 1..