Church of the Holy Cross, Skatin

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The Church of the Holy Cross is a National Historic Site, located on reserve at Skatin First Nation, in southwestern British Columbia. It is located on the east side of the Lillooet River on BC's first inland Gold Rush trail the Douglas Road.

Missionaries from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Oblates had first traveled through the Lillooet River valley starting around 1860. They established missions at Port Douglas and Skookumchuck Hot Springs and encouraged the native people of the area to settle together in small villages. Earlier churches are no longer standing. There has never been a resident priest assigned to the village; priests travelled through on their way north, or came down from Mount Currie. Sometimes they came only once a year, and there are many examples of five or six couples all being married on the same day, when the annual visit of the priest took place.

Local aboriginal craftsmen laboured for years on the elaborately carved altar and finely worked wood details of this remarkable building, which was completed about 1905. Many generations have been baptised, married and buried from the Church which continues today as a place of worship and ceremony for people in the surrounding communities of Samahquam, Douglas First Nation and Mount Currie. The Church was blessed by the Catholic Archbishop in 1908, but the building belongs to the people of the communities who built it. Some restoration work was carried out in 1982 to 1984, and the church was blessed by Archbishop Carney. At that time, elders Henry Peters and Margaret Ann Peters (Williams) celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary, and baptised a great-grand daughter, Jessica.

The Church was designated by the Canadian National Historic Sites Board in 1981 because of its unique Carpenter Gothic architecture and hand-carved interior features. The church builders were commemorated with a bronze plaque erected on June 22, 2006.

The Ama Liisaos Heritage Trust Society is raising funds for the conservation of the building. A local elder explains that the people did not build this church because they were devout Catholics. "They were devoutly spiritual people. Originally, they would have prayed on the land, wherever they were. It was the priests who taught the people to pray in a church. This building has become a central focus for our culture and our communities. Our ancestors built this church by working together. It can bring our people back together once again."