Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expected to exonerate Tsilhqot'in chiefs hanged in 1864

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected on Monday to exoneratesix B.C. First Nations chiefs convictedof murdering white colonists more than 150 years ago in pre-Confederation British Columbia.

"We'll be in Ottawa on Monday, March 26,with the prime minister to have a statement acknowledging the wrong that was done to us many years ago," the Tsilhqot'in National Government, the tribal council, said in a video posted on their Facebook page.

A press release sent from the office of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said Trudeau would make astatement in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister's Office wouldn't provide further details on Friday.

In 1864, five Tsilhqot'in chiefs were called to what they thought were peace talks to end the Chilcotin War.

Instead, they were accused of massacring 14 members of a road-building party and were then tried, convicted and hanged.

'No form of guilt'

Five of the chiefs were executed, under Crown authority, near the settlement ofQuesnel, B.C., in the province's interior. A sixth chief was later hangednear New Westminster, B.C.,after trying to offer reparations.

The chiefs opposed the construction ofroads to gold-rich lands, and sought to stop theincursioninto their traditionalterritory.

There are also allegations that the road-building crew took some Tsilhqot'in women hostage.

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The prime minister is expected to "let everything go, meaning there's no form of guilt on behalf of theTsilhqot'inin any way, shape or form," said Chief JoeAlphonse.

"The first order of business is to exonerate our warchiefsand then we'll get to work to bring back our lands as they were before contact [by European settlers]. It's time for Canada to step up to the plate," he said.

TheTsilhqot'inhave long objected to the chiefs being tried as criminals, saying the killingof the colonistswas carried out during a warbetween the First Nations and the colonial authority in B.C.

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In 2014, B.C. Premier Christy Clark also fully exonerated the chiefs of any wrongdoing.

The B.C. exoneration came after a landmark decision from the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruledthe Tsilhqot'in peoples had aboriginal title to a large swath oftheir traditional territory over 1,700 square kilometresnot just old village sites as theprovincial and federal governments had argued.

It was the first time in Canada aboriginal title had been confirmed, outside of an Indianreserve.