"By the spring of 1926, fifteen-year-old Simon Baker had been away from North Vancouver's Capilano Reserve for a long time. He had left home for St. George's Residential School in Lytton at the age of six, and now he was an eighth-grade student. Three important events would occur during that year. The young Simon would organize a strike among the older boys at school. Baker's brother Jim would die of meningitis. Finally, Simon would leave the residential school for good, but not in bitterness. Despite the hardships there, he would take lessons with him: confidence and leadership, a love of learning and a love of teaching. Since those days, Chief Simon Baker - whose Squamish name Khot-La-Cha, means 'Man with a Kind Heart' - has never stopped learning, listening, and teaching. Nor has he stopped working for the good of his people, and for the good of the First Nations people worldwide. 

Khot-La-Cha is a compelling first-person account of growing up Native in British Columbia during the rapidly changing twentieth century. Through Simon Baker's reminiscences about his work as a fisherman and longshoreman, readers catch glimpses of a vanished time. Central to his story is Chief Baker's ongoing involvement in the social, cultural and political life of First Nations communities. As a kind of international ambassador of his people, he has travelled throughout the world speaking and presenting songs and stories. His autobiography has many lessons for us all"--dust jacket.