Chad Norman Day

Chad Norman Day is the third-born child to his parents, Norman Day and Janice Anderson. Jan was born in Saskatchewan in 1952 to a Swedish mother, Ruby Anderson (nee Karlson) and a Scottish father, Sandy Anderson. She was the youngest of four siblings with two brothers and a sister.

Sandy served as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a young man and eventually worked for various school boards thereafter. He took education seriously and the family spent time living in different towns within Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia. All of the Anderson children excelled in education and sports, with Jan being a high level speed skater throughout her childhood and adolescence. The Anderson Family is spread out with members living in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Australia. Jan sadly passed away from Leukemia in the summer of 2024.

Chad grew up the youngest grandchild on the Anderson side of the family and had limited interactions with the family growing up. As a result, his identity, memories and cultural experiences were always stronger rooted through the Tahltan side of his family through his father.

Norman Day stems from the Crow Clan of the Tahltan Nation and was born in Telegraph Creek in 1950. His mother was Doreen Dennis and his biological father was Frank Callbreath; both parents were Tahltan from Telegraph Creek.

Norman’s maternal grandparents were Hyland Dennis and Louise Dennis (nee Edzerza).  His mother, Doreen, and her siblings had nearly sixty kids between them, with one of the sisters birthing sixteen children. Doreen’s uncle on her mother’s side, George Edzerza, and his wife, Grace Edzerza, had the largest family in those days with twenty children. These large families helped ensure the Tahltan Nation could rebound from 300 in the early 1900s to about 4000 registered members today.

Large families in the early and mid 1900s were the norm and it was common for the children of sisters to grow up together as siblings. In the Tahltan language there is no word to describe maternal cousins; you simply refer to them as brothers or sisters. The reason for this is because Tahltan culture is matrilineal and upon marriage the husband used to move into his wife’s clan territory. Thereafter, any future children would belong to her clan and raised there amongst her sisters’ children and other clan members. The Tahltan Nation used to be split into several subclan areas, some belonging to the Wolf Clan and others to the Crow Clan.

Frank Callbreath’s parents were Eva and Roy Callbreath, and he was one of several siblings. Roy was a true entrepreneur who had his own store, rented equipment, and he attained a license to captain his own boat to transport people and supplies between Telegraph Creek and Wrangell along the Stikine River. Many of these skills and businesses were eventually handed down to his children.

As a child in Telegraph Creek, Norman was truly raised by a community. When his parents left town for work or cultural purposes, he would often stay with his Aunty Helen Frank, Aunty Dinah Creyke, Aunty Ann Gleason, Grandma Louise, Grandma Eva or his Great-Grandmother Ootheny.

Ootheny was his Grandma Louise’s mother. Norman vividly remembers being tasked to help complete chores at his Grandma Ootheny’s house along with several of his cousins who lived within “Dry Town”, which was an area in Telegraph Creek alongside the Stikine River. Grandma Ootheny used to sit the boys down in a circle after they were done chores and would often feed them treats and speak to them in Tahltan. If they were not listening or did not understand her, she would jokingly poke them with her cane so they would pay attention and improve.

Norman remembers hunting for small game with his cousins when he was as young as six years old. His primary hunting partner was his cousin, Gordon Frank, and together they would shoot ducks, grouse and squirrels with their Cooey Ace 22 rifles. They would also set snares for rabbits and tiny traps for weasels. The grouse, ducks and rabbits would be brought home and eaten by the family. The young boys were able to skin, stretch and dry the small pelts of the rabbits, squirrels and weasels. Aunty Helen, Gordon’s mother, would utilize the rabbit skins for clothing and the boys would sell squirrel pelts for 25 cents and the weasel pelts for 50 cents at the local Hudson’s Bay Store in Telegraph Creek. This store was later renovated and turned into the modern day Stikine Riversong Cafe & Lodge which is still operational along the Stikine River within the community.

Norman and Gordon and their dog, “Bully”, also used to haul water together in different sized tin cans for various locals who would pay them an average of 5 cents. These two were entrepreneurs, business partners and hunting buddies since they could remember.

Norman was eventually taken from Telegraph Creek when he was about eight years old to attend residential school in Carcross, Yukon at Choutla Indian Residential School. He remembers meeting many Tahltan, Kaska, Tlingit and several other Indigenous children from Northern BC and the Yukon during this time. Though his memories from those experiences were blocked out, he vividly remembers feeling remorse for the new kids that showed up at the school who could not speak English and were unable to properly communicate with the white people in charge. This residential school was operational for over 50 years and remained in place until 1969.

After a year at residential school Norman’s extended family worked together to have him brought back to Telegraph Creek. He remembers traveling to Lower Post where he spent time with his uncle Thomas Dennis, followed by traveling to Good Hope Lake with others before the final journey back to Telegraph Creek.

Upon his return to Telegraph Creek, Norman’s mother and stepfather, Fletcher Day, had a growing family. They went on to have nine children together. Norman became the eldest of Doreen and Fletcher’s ten children and his last name was permanently changed. The well-known “Days Ranch” outside of Telegraph Creek was purchased and cleared by an Irishman named Ira Day, who was Fletcher Day’s stepfather. Ira and Fletcher’s mother, Amy Day (nee Jackson), went on to have several more children together.

Fletcher and Doreen Day purchased a guide outfitting business they named “Tahltan Outfitters” in 1963 from Doreen’s uncle Vernon Carlick, who had married her aunty Minnie Carlick (nee Dennis). This hunting area included many sacred lands in the Sheslay and Nahlin regions. Norman and his siblings became wranglers and hunting guides for the family business over the years and know the area very well. This knowledge, experience and family tradition of working for the guide outfitting business continues through the younger generations of the Day Family today.

Norman never had a relationship with his biological father. However, he was always embraced by the Callbreath Family and grew up close to his Grandma Eva and many of his uncles, aunties and cousins on his father’s side. In fact, after Norman moved with his parents to Cassiar, BC for a few years in the 1960s, he had to relocate for high school and ended up living with his Aunty Lorna Callbreath in Dawson Creek. He successfully graduated here and then pursued trade school in Victoria, BC to become an Electrician.

Norman and Jan met in Cassiar in 1973 when he was a first-year Electrical Apprentice working for the Cassiar Asbestos Mine. They became a couple and eventually had two girls, Stacey and Robyn, who were both born in the Yukon in 1976 and 1977 respectively. Chad was born a decade later in 1987 after the family had moved from Cassiar to Whiterock, BC in 1983.

Every summer the family lived outside Telegraph Creek on the Days Ranch, which Norman and Jan officially purchased in 1982 from some Americans who purchased it from the Day Family decades prior. The property acted as a hub for many gatherings and events of the local Tahltan people, and for working on the horses for the family’s guide outfitting business.

When Norman and Jan separated in 1995 the family permanently moved back to Telegraph Creek for a couple years, followed up by Chad and his mother moving to Smithers, BC. This relocation was prompted by the family wanting Chad to have more educational and sports opportunities. Jan returned to working in the mining industry at Huckleberry Mine while Norman continued working in the Tahltan communities and throughout his homeland at various industrial projects, primarily those in the mining industry. Chad lived in Telegraph Creek with his father during the summer months and other holidays. Norman had two additional children, Gavin and Nikita, in the late 1990s.

Chad was a natural born leader and entrepreneur. He began buying, trading, selling and sending hockey cards away to NHL teams in the mail for autographs when he was 12 years old; he treated this passion like a small business for several years. Chad began working at the local Subway at 14 years old and was the youngest Crew Trainer at the local McDonald’s by the time he was 16 years old. He believes these experiences and team sports is where he learned leadership, how to motivate others, and how to be successful in a team environment.

Chad attained his first job in the mining industry in the summer of 2003 working as a Core Cutter at the BC Metals Exploration Camp, which later became the Red Chris Mine. Upon returning to Smithers for his Grade 11 year, he decided to move into his own apartment where he remained until graduating high school in June of 2005.

Chad excelled in sports and school throughout his time in Smithers. He attended soccer camps throughout BC when he was younger, but eventually focused exclusively on basketball during high school. He went on to play for Basketball BC on the Northwest Team which required him to take Greyhound buses to Prince Rupert every weekend for multiple months each year. He played All Native Basketball for the nearby Gitxsan villages, usually for Kispiox or Hazelton. Chad was offered multiple basketball scholarships for smaller colleges in BC and Alberta, but decided to focus exclusively on his education after high school.

Chad attended Thompson Rivers University for a semester in Kamloops, then moved back to Smithers for family reasons where he began taking online courses through Athabasca University. He and his spouse moved to Edmonton in 2006 after he won a five year bursary to attend the University of Alberta through a mining company, Copper Fox Metals, who had created this opportunity for a Tahltan student.

Chad pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Native Studies, followed up by attaining his Juris Doctorate in Law at the University of Victoria (UVIC) in 2014. Throughout his educational journey Chad had five children, four sons and a daughter. He was employed every summer in the mining industry in Tahltan Territory to support his growing family and worked at multiple law firms in Kelowna, Victoria and Smithers during work semesters under multiple internships. Chad also served as an elected council member for the Tahltan Band Council during this time from 2012 to 2014.