Xeni Gwet’in Youth Wagon Trip participants and supporters gathered for a healing circle Tuesday evening at a Farwell Canyon campsite to support each other after a runaway with one of the horse-drawn wagons earlier that day sent four women to hospital and claimed the life of one horse.
With hoodoos in the background and the Chilcotin River running below them, community members along with social workers and counsellors stood looking shaken but strengthened by coming together.
The accident occurred at around 2:20 p.m.
The 35 riders and wagons had stopped for a rest at the 25 kilometre mark southwest of the Farwell Canyon Bridge before making the long descent into the canyon.
Suddenly one of the horses in the lead wagon spooked, said Dinah Lulua who was on the wagon but managed to jump off before it plunged down.
It ran to the right side of the road and then veered across to the other side, taking the other horse and wagon with its two drivers and six passengers down a steep embankment on the left side through trees, crashing about 50 feet below.
Three elders and one young woman were flown to the hospital.
One of the drivers, Roy Mulvahill, sustained injuries to his back but declined medical treatment and chose to remain with the wagon group at the campsite.
As of Wednesday morning, one elder and one woman remained in Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops and two elders were treated and released from Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake.
Dinah and her husband James Lulua Sr. warmly welcomed the Tribune at the healing circle and afterwards offered to take Tribune reporters to the site of the accident.
Standing on the roadside above the crash site, Dinah pointed below and said most of the elders were on the left side of the overturned wagon and the team horses were mangled underneath it.
“One of the girls jumped off and was crawling up and I helped her across into the shade before I went down there,” Dinah said.
“This brings back everything,” she said, crying. “We could have lost our elders.”
As she scrambled down a pathway made with freshly cut trees, Dinah said members used chainsaws to make it easier to access the injured people for when help arrived.
Emergency response to the accident was hampered by the Highway 20 washout west of the Sheep Creek Bridge and it was first aid from Tl’etinqox First Nation that arrived first on the scene, followed by helicopters, Dinah said.
Because of the Highway 20 washout west of the Sheep Creek Bridge, some emergency crews were forced to take the Rudy Johnson Bridge, Meldrum Creek Road detour which turned a 45-minute drive into almost two hours along narrow logging roads.
“It felt like time stood still waiting for everyone to get here,” Dinah said.
James said he was almost in the wagon that crashed but had decided it had enough weight in it so he chose to ride in a different one.
When asked if he saw the accident he said he first saw a cloud of dust.
“I thought it was just a saddle horse acting up, but when I came down the road my cousin Jimmy said the wagon had gone down,” James said.
He said he ran down and looked all over for Dinah.
He looked underneath the wagon and couldn’t see her, but then her heard her voice from up on the road and thought “thank God she’s safe.”
James said he loves horses.
“This is our pride and joy, and I love horses, that’s why I went down there and said a few words,” he said pointing back to where the deceased horse lay in the forest.
Praising the Mulavahills, James described them as great people.
“They have done this for Nemiah for the last nine years. Really respectful people. What happened today could have happened anywhere, we just have to move on.”
Nine years ago Jimmy Lulua, who was a youth worker at Xeni Gwet’in at the time, started the wagon trip as a way to connect children with horses and the land.
During the healing circle he described the day’s events as a “freak accident.”
“Roy and Gwen have been doing this stuff for their whole lives and this has never ever happened,” Jimmy said. “My message to you guys is don’t be scared, you live life once. Come tomorrow, it’s going to be the same thing. We are going to be harnessing up and back to the routine.”
The elders in the hospital will recupertate, he said.
“That was a very bad spot where they went off and we were lucky everbody came out of there,” Jimmy said. “Come tomorrow we will carry on, just less one team.”
Xeni Gwet’in Chief Roger William, his daughter and mother Eileen Sammy were on the wagon trip and Eileen was one of the elders injured in the accident.
“We brought this healing circle together because we are family,” William said. “I was so honoured and blessed to see so many people from throughout the Chilcotin — First Nations and non-First Nations, RCMP, First Aid, ambulance and air ambulance come to help.”
William said the purpose of the circle was to check in with everyone because the elders were hurt and the children witnessed that.
“We are going to carry on with the trip because that’s what our elders would want,” he said.
The group departed from Konni Lake in Nemiah Valley on Thursday, June 21 en route to arrive in time for the first day of the Williams Lake Stampede.
Tonight the group will camp at Meldrum Creek before making the final leg into Williams Lake Thursday.
The Ministry of Highways and Transportation will allow the group to pass over the Highway 20 washout repair site, regional manager Todd Hubner said.
Xeni Gwet’in Chief Roger William