Ahousaht nation refuses to give up on their own as search for Travis Thomas continues
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 01:15:46 +0000
Dozens of friends and family of Travis Thomas — an Ahousaht First Nations man sent to tiny Bartlett Island to overcome the loss of his wife and a growing addiction problem — scoured moss-covered logs, clambered over lichen branches and scaled dense rocky terrain Wednesday in a desperate bid to bring this one-time champion athlete and rising community leader home.
This is the third major search undertaken for Thomas, who was sent to the island by family in July 2018 as part of a strategy to help him reconnect with his culture and spirituality after a series of setbacks, the worst of which was the loss of his young wife several months prior. Thomas has four children.
“Family members had reached out to other resources to have Travis brought to the island because of the lifestyle at the time that he was living,” band Chief Greg Louie told Postmedia News. “They wanted him to make some positive change in his life. It wasn’t banishment from the chief and council or from our hereditary chiefs.”
Bartlett Island is about half the size of Stanley Park, with steep rocky terrain and dense forest, and surrounded by small islets. It can only be reached by boat, which takes about 30 minutes travelling south from the Village of Ahousaht on Flores Island, north of Tofino. It’s an island traditionally used by the Ahousat (part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council) for members to seek solitude.
Louie said that during the first few weeks of Thomas’s isolation, family members and resource workers checked in on him to see how he was doing and to provide food and water.
However, on Aug. 7, 2018, Thomas disappeared. He was 40 at the time. After the family searched the island as best they could they notified the RCMP on Aug. 9, and a full-scale search was initiated that involved Tofino and Ahousaht Search-and-Rescue teams, the RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard. No one was found. Another large-scale search was conducted last October, but family and friends have regularly visited the island in search of Thomas.
As recently as last week, Thomas’s mother Jean set up a tent for him on the beach he was last seen at, including food and a sleeping bag. According to Curtis Dick, who heads Ahousaht Search-and-Rescue and is behind the latest mass search, the food was taken and the sleeping bag had been used. Dick said that footprints had been found and that there had been several unconfirmed sightings over the past year.
Louie said there was still a strong belief among his community that Thomas was alive. Among the reasons, Louie cited Thomas’s athleticism — he was the band’s top basketball player, as well as a coach and mentor to younger players — his traditional knowledge of the local territory and that he had attended survival courses. The call for volunteers for the three-day search now underway was open to family and friends and experienced First Nations search-and-rescue workers, plus those who had played on Thomas’s basketball teams or who had attended survival courses with him.
Louie said the search began Tuesday with 30 people, then 60 on Wednesday and more were expected for the final day Thursday. The search also included locally trained Ahousaht First Nations Coast Guards, Ahousaht first-responders and the Ahousaht Emergency Response Team.
He said that last Friday the RCMP had brought a dog team to the island without any luck, adding that Emergency Management B.C. (EMBC) were reluctant to activate West Coast Search-and-Rescue and issue a task number to assist because, “from their perspective there’s not enough, or no solid evidence (he is alive).” EMBC were involved in the previous searches.
“But there is still a sense of hope and belief from community and family,” Louie said. “If there wasn’t, people wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing today.”
—With files from Denise Titian of Ha-Shilth-Sa