Buyers Be Aware!
Lightning Rock -Sumas First Nation Site
Lightning Rock is an important spiritual site to the Sumas First Nation. According to oral history, a shaman who confronted the Thunderbirds was transformed into a stone and split by lightning.
Over 40 burial mounds have been identified on the property. Oral history suggests the site contains a mass grave dating back to a smallpox epidemic in 1782.
The BC government keeps a registry of First Nations graves and spiritual sites. Still, that information isn’t shown on land title documents when someone buys a property, and there’s no system to inform owners whose land is designated.
Why the conflict?
The province keeps the registry in the land title office of all the First Nation graves and spiritual sites.
But, that isn’t shown on the Land title document when someone buys a property.
There is no system to inform prospective buyers to whom the land is designated to.
Buyers Be Aware!
It’s the owner who pays the heavy bills for archaeological assessments and risks large fines, all the while risking important heritage sites.
We honour the Indigenous values, laws, protocols and principles that inform First Nations LUP—nevertheless, standing against the Provincial Government and their system.
“I’d suggest you be very, very cautious if you purchase any property in B.C.”
Since 2014 various news channels are writing news and articles on the issue of lightning rock site. Click Here to Read Various News
The Government prevents the landowners from using the property and using the property for their intended use, but the Government uses the property for their own needs.
Every year, a property owner who pays property taxes cannot even build a barn on the property. How can Government build a road and put a pipeline through the property.
Justice is long overdue!
Dec 01, 2014 |CBC News
First Nation burial ground halts $40M development in B.C.
A developer bought a piece of land in B.C., looking to make millions with a dream project. However, a local First Nation believes the site is sacred.
Jun 12, 2019 |John Mackie -www.vancouversun.com
Province urged to protect First Nations burial site on Sumas Mountain
“It’s not clearly been modified by people, therefore it doesn’t follow under provincial recognition as a heritage feature,” said archaeologist Dave Schaepe of the Stó:lō Resource Management Centre. “To the province that doesn’t qualify as a form of archaeological site. (And) outside of the individual cultural features or individual artifacts that were found there, they don’t recognize the intangible side of the cemetery, which is the field.”
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