[3] Born the youngest of nine children on November 20, 1942, and raised in Tachie[4] , he grew up on the land and was a fluent speaker of the Carrier language.
[4] In 1967, when he was 24, while drunk, he stabbed his brother John with a hunting knife, killing him, for which he served a prison sentence of two years less a day.
[7] After further education in Dawson Creek he returned to Tachie where he worked for the band, Tl'azt'en Nation, in maintenance,[4] initially driving a snow plow.
[5] In this role he pushed for self-government for indigenous people and for the closure of the Prince George office of the Department of Indian Affairs and for the reassignment of its budget to First Nations.
[4] He played a major role in the ultimately successful opposition to the Kemano Completion Project, which would have further reduced the flow of water in the Nechako River.