Fred Quilt's Death in 1971

[my5cents]

In 1971, an incident occurred near Alexis Creek, in BC's Chilcotin area. Alexis Creek is about 115 Kms East of Williams Lake, along Hwy 20.

Quilt was investigated by a couple of RCMP members from the Alexis Creek Detachment for impaired driving. I'm not sure what happened with Quilt, after the investigation, but I think he and passengers from his vehicle were transported back to their reservation.

At home, Quilt apparently complained about stomach pain. His family said he was injured by the RCMP. A couple days later, after initially refusing to go, Quilt was taken to hospital in Williams Lake, where a day or so later he died.

The family maintain the RCMP members had kicked him during their impaired driving investigation.

There was a huge uproar, two Inquiries, mostly championed by a volatile Vancouver lawyer, Harry Rankin. Through it all the members maintained they did not hurt Quilt and the Inquiries supported this. They, of course, got to experience police work, I think, in Northern areas for a while.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Quilt_inquiry

NOW my reason for this.... I am positive that I read, in an Okanagan newspaper, in and around 2000 +/-, that Mrs Quilt, Fred's widow, confessed, basically on her deathbed, that she had actually hit Fred with the family truck the day before the RCMP incident, and didn't want "to meet her maker with a lie on her lips"

The interesting part, there absolutely nothing anywhere on the internet about the confession. Tons on the initial allegations, the Inquiries, etc, but nothing on the clearing of the members.

Of course, the general thyme being that the members "got away with killing Quilt".

Does anyone recall this ? Especially Mrs Quilt's confession.

[KL3-Something]

I do.

I heard the story a few years ago when I was working in Northern BC. I didn't remember a lot of those specifics, but I do remember the confession that you mentioned because of its peculiarity. Given the time frame you mention I would have heard about the story not long after the confession.

[my5cents]

I do.

I heard the story a few years ago when I was working in Northern BC. I didn't remember a lot of those specifics, but I do remember the confession that you mentioned because of its peculiarity. Given the time frame you mention I would have heard about the story not long after the confession.

Thanks KL3-Something

What's your guess of the year of the confession ?

Since starting this subject, I discussed the incident with a friend, who is a retired member. He says that the confession came about when a member, who knew of the incident heard that Mrs Quilt was likely to pass and approached her to finally get the truth out after all the years, before she died, and she told the story. That made a lot of sense.

He has no idea what year it was.

It is so strange that the last piece of this story, the most recent development, isn't anywhere to be found on the internet. All the negative stuff sure is, every small detail of the two Inquiries.

Maybe a newspaper archive would have it. I know I was living in Lake Country or Kelowna, so the paper would have been the Province, the Kelowna Courier or whatever they call the weekly in Lake Country.

I know it was a small article buried in the bowels of the paper (typical).

[Iamsomeone]

Christine Quilt (Fred's wife) died September 25, 1976.

It seems odd that you would read something about it in 2000 though.

[grammafreddy]

Iamsomeone, have you got a link for that?

In 1976 I was living in Williams Lake and I remember the Quilt name but no details at all.

[Iamsomeone]

Here you go. It's from her death registration.

http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum ... 52f7b37e90

[my5cents]

Christine Quilt (Fred's wife) died September 25, 1976.

It seems odd that you would read something about it in 2000 though.

Thanks Iamsomeone

You're right.

The piece I read was post 1989, because I was in the OK. I'm sure it was in the area of 2000, 2001 or so.

I would have sworn the article stated it was his wife making the confession. Perhaps someone else was telling that they had received the confession from her and were just then (2000 +/-) telling of it.

Sure wish Fred's surname wasn't "quilt", every search engine wants to link me to bedding :)

[Iamsomeone]

Yes, I've learned a lot about bedding too!

Here's a link to Fred's registration. Interesting that in Section 26, it says cause of death was due to an accident that occurred the same day he died, November 30, 1971. Although, it should be noted that the coroner didn't sign off on his death until Feb. 21, 1972 after the first inquiry. http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum ... 3290208b84

Gramma, it looks like there were quite a few Quilts living at the Alexis reserve. They must have had a large family.

[grammafreddy]

Yes, I've learned a lot about bedding too!

Here's a link to Fred's registration. Interesting that in Section 26, it says cause of death was due to an accident that occurred the same day he died, November 30, 1971. Although, it should be noted that the coroner didn't sign off on his death until Feb. 21, 1972 after the first inquiry. http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum ... 3290208b84

Gramma, it looks like there were quite a few Quilts living at the Alexis reserve. They must have had a large family.

and many generations, too. Looks like Fred was born on the reserve and so were both his parents. There's also a maiden name for his wife, Christine Myers.

[KL3-Something]

I do.

I heard the story a few years ago when I was working in Northern BC. I didn't remember a lot of those specifics, but I do remember the confession that you mentioned because of its peculiarity. Given the time frame you mention I would have heard about the story not long after the confession.

Thanks KL3-Something

What's your guess of the year of the confession ?

Since starting this subject, I discussed the incident with a friend, who is a retired member. He says that the confession came about when a member, who knew of the incident heard that Mrs Quilt was likely to pass and approached her to finally get the truth out after all the years, before she died, and she told the story. That made a lot of sense.

He has no idea what year it was.

It is so strange that the last piece of this story, the most recent development, isn't anywhere to be found on the internet. All the negative stuff sure is, every small detail of the two Inquiries.

Maybe a newspaper archive would have it. I know I was living in Lake Country or Kelowna, so the paper would have been the Province, the Kelowna Courier or whatever they call the weekly in Lake Country.

I know it was a small article buried in the bowels of the paper (typical).

The earliest I would have heard about it was 1997.

[my5cents]

With the revelation of Mrs Quilt's death in 1976, (thanks lamsomeone) and our recollection of the confession coming to light in the later 1990's early 2000's, I can only surmise that her confession was made to perhaps a family member before her death and then revealed years later.

If the fact that she accidentally hit him with the truck can be verified, sites like Wikipedia will be advised. They've got enough info on the witch hunt for the members, time they give some "ink" to their (if true) vindication.

[grammafreddy]

Are the two members traceable? Maybe they know something about her confession?

[my5cents]

Are the two members traceable? Maybe they know something about her confession?

One has passed away, not sure about the other, he may be as well.

I also have some contacts, just can't do much right now, I'm in Maui for another couple of weeks.

[Glacier]

Gramma, it looks like there were quite a few Quilts living at the Alexis reserve. They must have had a large family.

When small pox moved through the Chilcotin, half the families were wiped out. This was not long after surnames were started in the area, thus there are very few surnames within the community, though there are a lot more today than their used to be thanks to intermarrying.

Note: This reservation in question, Anaham (Tl'etinqox-t'in), is near Alexis Creek. This is not to be confused with the Alexis Creek First Nation (Tsi Del Del), which is actually located at Redstone (near the white community of Chilanko Forks which is often also called Puntzi Mountain, some 60 km to the west of Alexis Creek), which in turn is not to be confused with the white community of Redstone located between Redstone (the reservation AKA the Alexis Creek First Nation) and Alexis Creek, the white community. In addition, Anaham is not to be confused with Anahim Lake, 200 km to the west, where the local first nation is actually the Ulkatcho First Nations of which Carey Price is a descendant. Both Anaham and Anahim were named after Chief Anahim (pronounced differently than both spellings because there are no English letters to make the correct sound), but First Nations at Anahim Lake are mostly Carrier, not Chilcotin, even though they live in the Chilcotin. They live at Anahim Lake, but are called the Ulkatcho people despite long since abandoning the isolated Ulgatcho Village located much further to the north. Clear?

[Iamsomeone]

Note: This reservation in question, Anaham (Tl'etinqox-t'in), is near Alexis Creek. This is not to be confused with the Alexis Creek First Nation (Tsi Del Del), which is actually located at Redstone (near the white community of Chilanko Forks which is often also called Puntzi Mountain, some 60 km to the west of Alexis Creek), which in turn is not to be confused with the white community of Redstone located between Redstone (the reservation AKA the Alexis Creek First Nation) and Alexis Creek, the white community. In addition, Anaham is not to be confused with Anahim Lake, 200 km to the west, where the local first nation is actually the Ulkatcho First Nations of which Carey Price is a descendant. Both Anaham and Anahim were named after Chief Anahim (pronounced differently than both spellings because there are no English letters to make the correct sound), but First Nations at Anahim Lake are mostly Carrier, not Chilcotin, even though they live in the Chilcotin. They live at Anahim Lake, but are called the Ulkatcho people despite long since abandoning the isolated Ulgatcho Village located much further to the north. Clear?

Surprisingly Glacier, after rereading that a few times, it DOES make sense!

my5cents, I wish you well on your search for info. There's nothing like good mystery. It certainly does seem strange that you can't find anything on the internet about the confession. You would think that if there was a confession, it would be big news in light of all the press the original incident got. Like you said though, it could have been buried and forgotten on back pages since so much time had gone by. It would be quite something if you were able to find it.

Just in case this helps you - I found that if I add a minus sign and words to my google "Quilt" searches, i.e. "-sew" and "-fabric" to my searches, it will return about 50% less items with quilt in it. Still leaves lots to go through though. Apparently, there are a lot of quilt makers out there writing about their confessions!