When a big wave rises up on the west coast, you have two choices: hide or ride. The story of 'Bad Blood' has been an amazing wave I've been fortunate to ride.

In 2000, CBC reporter Michael Tymchuk was covering the Kennewick Man controversy in Washington State. Through his research, he found a scientific publication by Dr. Ryk Ward that used DNA analysis to show the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples of the west coast of Vancouver Island had been a distinct genetic grouping for 30,000 to 70,000 years.

Tymchuk thought it would be of interest to me as senior reporter for Ha-Shilth-Sa, Canada's oldest First Nations' newspaper, which is published by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council.

I wrote a short piece on the study, and the phone started ringing.

Dr. Harvey Henderson, who worked for many years in the small west coast community of Ahousaht, called to tell me the story of where this DNA material came from. I called Tymchuk, and we agreed to collaborate on what turned out to be a 10-month investigative odyssey.

The DNA was taken from blood samples Dr. Ward collected in the 1980s as part of a $330,000, Health Canada-funded study of the high incidence of rheumatic disease in Nuu-chah-nulth people.

From 1983 to 1985, Ward and his team of researchers collected 883 blood samples from the 1,000 members of the Ahousaht First Nation, one of the groups belonging to the Nuu-chah-nulth confederacy. Unable to find any genetic markers to show a predisposition to rheumatic disease within the Ahousaht people, Ward dropped the study and moved from the University of British Columbia to a position at the University of Utah, where he collected another $172,000 for further study of the blood, this time in the area of biological anthropology. From there it was off to Oxford University, where he was appointed head of the Institute of Biological Anthropology and conducted further research on the blood.

Aboriginal blood is like gold in the genetics community because it is largely uninfluenced by outside genetic groupings. Ward's anthropology research was seen as being important, because it called the Beringia land-bridge theory into question.

However, for the Nuu-chah-nulth people, who believe they have been on the West Coast since time immemorial, the research was irrelevant, and a contravention of the consent forms they signed. Those forms promised their blood would only be used for the research of rheumatic disease, and would be the start of therapy programs to assist those suffering the debilitating effects of the disease.

With the 'Bad Blood' story by Ha-Shilth-Sa and CBC Radio broke in September 2000, academics and native peoples across Canada and the United States were furious.

“It’s a major case and a startling example of how we don’t do a very good job of training our scientists about the basics of research ethics," said Dr. Michael McDonald, chair of the Centre for Applied Ethics at the University of British Columbia. “It has been very important that the Nuu-chah-nulth have shared their knowledge and their experience with the rest of the world, so we can all make sure this doesn’t happen in aboriginal communities ever again,” he said.

Numerous international meetings sponsored by Health Canada, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the National Council on Ethics in Human Research, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization focused on "the case of the Nuu-chah-nulth blood" to discuss what went wrong and how to prevent similar situations in the future.

As a result, many universities and governmental departments tightened up their research guidelines, making unrelated secondary research more difficult.

Repatriating samples

On Feb.14, 2003, after bicycling home from his Oxford office, Dr. Ryk Ward suffered a heart attack and died near the steps of his home. Canadian medical ethicists interested in the Nuu-chah-nulth case saw this as an opportunity to repatriate the blood samples and data.

In January 2004, nine boxes of documents, and hundreds of vials of Nuu-chah-nulth blood serum, arrived at the University of British Columbia via medical courier. The blood was immediately placed into a freezer at UBC, and 12 boxes of supporting documents were put in the corner of an office at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.

The collaboration between Ha-Shilth-Sa and CBC Radio began again, with three more months of research. The concluding story was published and aired on Dec. 16, 2004. In it, we told about the work that had happened to bring the blood samples home, and how the Nuu-chah-nulth Research Ethics Committee was formed to ensure similar situations would never happen again.

“Unfortunately, Ward taught us not to trust researchers, just like the residential school taught us not to trust the church,” said Larry Baird, chair of the Nuu-chah-nulth Research Ethics Committee and former Chief Councillor for the Ucluelet First Nation.

“Hopefully the day will come when we can put it all behind us, but we’ve unfortunately learned a lot about the dark side of scientific research ... Our eyes are wide open now.”

Getting the story

The keys to this story were research and collaboration. Early on in the process, I was fortunate to find the "smoking gun" consent form, in a basement storage area of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council building. From there, it was just a matter of bringing all the pieces together.

As one of the only experienced journalists on the west coast of Vancouver Island, I have the ability to share stories with other reporters and assist them when they come to Nuu-chah-nulth territories. Even in large markets, where reporters need to protect stories, don't be afraid to share story ideas with other "competing" reporters. Regardless of who signs our paychecks, we all work for the same ideal.

Since Michael Tymchuk had sparked the initial story, we worked together on the larger story, dividing research tasks in which he set up interviews with academics, and I set everything up with First Nations leaders and communities. We agreed to a release date where we would break the stories simultaneously, and although we were both covering the same story with the same interviews, the radio and print stories differed from one another.

Through my 20 years in journalism, it has always amazed me how some stories seem to grow legs and take on a life of their own, while other stories you think will create controversy just flop. I did not expect this story to take off like it did, and feel very fortunate to have received a prestigious CAJ award in the wonderfully competitive community newspaper category.

To read the article, Nuu-Chah-Nulth Blood Returns to West Coast.

David Wiwchar is the managing editor of the Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper (www.nuuchahnulth.org/tribal-council/hashilth.html.)