The Samson Cree First Nation in Alberta is preparing to receive the remains of its own, which had been the subject of decades of research before the discovery of his murder in California in 1980.
Emotion will be at its peak Friday morning on the tarmac of Edmonton’s international airport where members of the Cree First Nation of Samson are to receive Shirley Soosay’s coffin.
Disappeared from sight since 1979, his family searched for him for 40 years only to learn that he had been stabbed to death on July 14, 1980 in Bakersfield, California.
It was the American state that sent the body to Alberta to return it to its family.
For 40 years, Violet Soosay, a professor of indigenous history, language and art at Maskwacis Cultural College near Edmonton, has returned to every place her aunt saw in the last days of her life. An effort that didn’t allow him to find the last one he saw at 17 at his father’s funeral.
The power of DNA testing and social media
After years of futile research, Violet Soosay is losing hope. Despite this, he did not want to give up, because he was so close to his aunt and promised his grandmother that he would look for her.
In 2020, a Facebook post by DNA Doe project attracts his attention. This non-profit American organization uses genetic genealogy and is trying to identify an Aboriginal woman who was murdered in California forty years ago.
Violet Soosay is in a hurry to submit a sample of her DNA. Tests confirmed his family’s relationship with the victim. However, travel restrictions due to the pandemic prevented him from traveling to California to return his aunt’s remains.
A solemn ceremony awaits
Upon arrival, the coffin containing the remains of Shirley Soosay will be taken to Baker Funeral Chapel in Wetaskiwin and then to the Howard Buffalo Memorial Center in Maskwacis.
The deceased will then rest on the family plot of Riverside Cemetery. He will be accompanied there by a group of 20 to 30 motorcyclists dressed in uniform to pay homage to missing or killed Aboriginals.
This will allow the family to grieve, as Violet Soosay told CBC/Radio-Canada: When it’s all over, I can lose the weight of the world heavy on my shoulders..
Wilson Chouest, the man convicted in 2018 of the murder of Soosay and another unidentified woman, was given a life sentence, it said Violet Soosay.
There is information from Madeleine Cummings
Source: Radio-Canada
