A culturally significant message tree has called UNBC home for the last 16 years, but on Oct. 22 it’s returning to its roots in the Nadleh Whut’en community.

The tree, that’s been on loan to UNBC from the Nadleh Whut’en Nation since 2000 and displayed in the atrium of McCaffray Hall, will be featured in the new Administration and Health Centre complex in the community near Fraser Lake.

“This tree is a stunning exhibit that has served to educate and enlighten staff, faculty, and local and international students and visitors about this incredible aspect of Nadleh Whut’en culture,” said Erica Hernandez-Read, Access & Digital Initiatives Archivist at UNBC’s Northern BC Archives.

The Carrier “message tree” was originally located at a junction on the Cheslatta Trail where a winter sleigh trail branched off on the south side of Klez Lake, 6 km south of Fraser Lake.

The message is written in pencil on a cambium-stripping scar that dates to the 1870s.

Three Elders who could read the Carrier syllabic language inscribed into this tree – Nick Prince of Nak’azdli, Peter George of Nadleh, Edward Ketlo of Saik’uz and Bill Poser, a linguist, deciphered the writing which (with slight variations) reads: “There is a body, Pierre, Hello, I am saying this, Antoine”. It is not clear whether the message was referring to a human body or perhaps to the body of an animal that had been shot.

The tree had been killed by mountain pine beetles in 1993 and was discovered by a First Nations forestry crew member mapping the beetle-killed area. The tree was examined by local community members and the Ministry of Forests and recorded as an archaeological site in 1995 by Arne Carlson of Traces Archaeological Research and Consulting.

During the restoration of the Cheslatta Trail in 1999 by the Nadleh Whut’en and Cheslatta Nations, it was discovered that the tree had blown down and the trail crew transported this section of tree to Nadleh where it was temporarily stored.

The Nadleh Whut’en Nation generously placed the tree in the care of UNBC until such time as they built their infrastructure for its display.

The UNBC Arts Council, including UNBC faculty members Drs. Maryna Romanets, Antonia Mills (now a Professor Emerita) and Rob Budde who are all pictured above, was involved in the original loan and installation of the tree.