Summary: "They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School" is the first full-length memoir about life in St. Joseph's Mission at Williams Lake, British Columbia. Along with other Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis children across Canada, Sellars was removed from her community and forced to attend a church-run residential school whose aim it was to “civilize” Native children through Christian teachings, forced separation from family and culture, and strict discipline. In addition, beginning at the age of five, Sellars was isolated for two years at Coqualeetza Indian Tuberculosis Hospital in Sardis, B.C. Bev Sellars was first elected chief of the Xat’sull (Soda Creek) First Nation in Williams Lake, BC in 1987. She earned degrees in history and law, and served as adviser for the B.C. Treaty Commission. Chief Sellars has spoken out on behalf of her community on racism and residential schools and on the environmental and social threats of mineral resource exploitation in her region.
