CHIEF THUNDERBIRD

BRAVES RACE

Drums Call West Saanich Tribe to Poll

Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) · Thu, Dec 18, 1952

Election drums will resound through the Tsartlip Indian reservation in West Saanich tonight.

The drums will call all braves and their wives to elect a chief of the band.

The office of chief has been vacant since the death a year ago of Joe Bartleman.

Nominated to run as candidate is colorful, professional wrestler Baptiste Paul, better known throughout Canada and the United States as “Chief Thunderbird.”

Baptiste is a hereditary chief but has never been head of the band.

Other candidates are Horace Paul and David Elliot.

The elections will be held under the new Indian Act of 1951.

Under the act women have the right to vote and can also run for office. So far no woman in British Columbia has been elected chief of a band or tribe, but many have run as candidates.