Skip to content

First Nations

Texada Island Land Scandal Inspires Historical Murder Mystery Novel

The Texada land scandal was an actual event, and was the subject of the First Royal Commission in British Columbia. It was a circumstance that I felt revealed some of the underlying sentiments that existed then, among settlers and among the people of First Nations. These inclinations also reveal sentiments that underpinned the social and political structures that were in place during late colonial British Columbia. Whether overt or not, by their very nature, these sentiments had a hand in facilitating the calculated transfer of all land in the Province of British Columbia, from the collective First Nations, to the Crown. The form that the land policy eventually took, ultimately resulted in the smothering of First Nations culture – not one culture, viewed collectively, but many individual Nations, that were each unique unto themselves.

An Historical Murder Mystery About British Columbia During The Colonial Era

  • by

The intent with which a thing is acquired is, in some way, the measure of its merit. There is a pretext for what will follow here. That is, much of what is written is historical fact. Some details, like the amorous and vitriolic Amor De Cosmos – the second Provincial Premier of British Columbia, through the mid-Victorian era, are more or less specifically correct. Other facets of the story are accurate clips that are true to the cultural mores and beliefs at the time. It is essentially a view from thirty-thousand feet, but blown out into a vivid, moving tale with accurate descent, down into the lives of those whose fates unknowingly weave and unravel the tale before our eyes.

Purchase Blessed Be The Bones, by Dean Unger

NOW AVAILABLE: Blessed Be The Bones, A Garden of Thieves, Vol II, a new Eve Walker mystery novel

The riders broke into a clearing atop a bluff and, following Heidi’s lead, brought their horses to a halt. Heidi waited for Eve to come to a stop beside her and led her gaze out to the ocean. Eve caught and held her breath at the sight of what lay before her in the bay. There, an armada of Native war canoes surged shore ward, with additional vessels falling in from the west and again to the north. Her eyes trailed to the beach below them, where the shore itself was overflowing with men and women, who stood among the bold family crests from many nations up and down the coast. As they drew near, she could see the Bear of the Cowichan; the Eagle and the Wolf of the Haida. The Penechult, the Comox and the Sishalh, were all represented. At the centre of the beach head, a gathering of leaders – young men from the Sishalh Tribe, stood beside the majestic carved double-headed Thunderbird, adorning a large canoe; beside them were the Klahoose – ancestral brothers and sisters of the Tla’amin.
Though Heidi had brought Eve to demonstrate the point she would make, she too was struck by the power of the scene below. Her heart surged to overflowing at this vast outpouring of support. She was reminded that they might yet win Eli’s freedom.
Heidi snapped her reins and sent her horse onward again to begin the ascent into the bay…

New combined edition of A Garden of Thieves now available

Salish Chief’s Only Son Arrested for Murder of Prominent Leader

Village Lane Press, is pleased to announce the release of the third edition, revised, of A Garden of Thieves, by BC author, Dean Unger. Researched and written over a period of two decades, A Garden of Thieves is an historical fiction that is based, in part, upon the infamous Texada Land Scandal, perpetrated at the hands of a man who called himself, Amor De Cosmos (lover of the universe), and who later became the second Premier of the newly formed province of British Columbia.