Sarah Holland
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 01/99) - More than 50 years ago, a group of Northern tuberculosis victims were buried in unmarked graves just outside Edmonton. Their families didn't learn where until the late Chief John Tetso did some checking.

Bernice Neyelle's grandfather was one of them, and she finally visited his grave in the remote spot called Anthony Henday Hill.

Neyelle, who is from Deline, brought along her mother, Jane Taniton, whose dream was to visit her father's grave.

The sight that greeted them was both emotional and distressing.

"There are about 12 to 15 Northerners buried there," Neyelle said. "The site is in a field, with long grass and twigs scattered around.

"When you see it, you know people are buried there, but there are no markers, nothing. Nothing to show who these people were."

But Neyelle has an idea who they are.

"In 1994 or '95, I believe, a Deline Band council chief requested that research be done to find out who was buried there."

"The woman who did the research is Betty Benard. It turns out the people are from the Sahtu. I know there are people from Tulita and Fort Good Hope there."

The Dene people traditionally bury loved ones with a picket fence around the grave site, she said.

"We call that their house," Taniton said. "If they have no house, they wander."

The visit to Edmonton at the beginning of August to see the area where the Dene were buried was the first for Neyelle and her mother.

"When we visited my grandfather's grave, we put up a cross to signify where he is," Neyelle said.

"This has been really hard on my mother. She has been yearning to see the site for so many years."

In the 1930s and '40s, Northerners afflicted with TB were sent to Edmonton, usually to the Charles Camsell Hospital, for treatment. They spoke no English and there were no translators. As Bernice points out, perhaps they were lonely and longed for their homeland and families.

She also said that some of the elders tell stories of the Indian agents, who were like the "bosses" of communities. These people would tell the ill that they had to be sent to the hospital down south. Some of the sick were so adamant about not going south that they would hide out in the bush.

When the people that ended up going south died, they were quietly buried in this small plot.

"They didn't ship the bodies home like they do today," says Neyelle.

"We had thought about exhuming my grandfather's body to have a proper burial, but you don't know who is who at this site because there are no markers."

But Bernice hopes to change that.

Her goal now is to raise funds in order to create a plaque containing the names of all those buried in the field and have a ceremony to place the plaque near the graves.

She has a lot of work ahead of her.

"We don't even know who owns the land, if it's the city or a farmer. I've written to the City of Edmonton, but nothing has come of it yet. We have to wait and see."

Neyelle has even recruited the assistance of Jennifer Duncan, a University of Alberta student, to help figure out who owns the land. Although Duncan has no answers yet, she continues to work on the project.

"This is such a sad thing. We haven't found the records of these people yet. What was the cause of their death, the death of my grandfather? I know many people died of TB, but we wanted to know for sure," says Neyelle.

"Some of the relatives of those buried are getting old and they don't even know where their mother, father or child is buried. It's so emotional."

But Neyelle remains determined, "this won't stop here."