PokeStopped! Indigenous cemetery's PokeStop removed

Two months after complaints Pokemon GO players were trampling on indigenous graves, a PokeStop in a traditional burial ground in Prince George has been been removed from the online game.

Kym Gouchie was visiting her father's grave in July when she encountered dozens of Pokemon GO players traipsing through the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation's cemetery.  

'Absolutely absurd...and very disrespectful'

"To have a PokeStop there and to have people searching around in the burial grounds is absolutely absurd ... and very disrespectful," said Gouchie, one of several people who complained to the game's creator, Niantic.

A PokeStop is an in-game checkpoint, a location where players enter and click on their device to collect prizes and items available at that stop

"It's sacred there.. My dad, my uncles, my cousin, my great grandmother are all buried there," said Gouchie, who noted the game's creators didn't consult with members of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation or ask permission.

The traditional cemetary — home to graves, an outdoor altarm and clan carvings — is located in a popular riverside park where the Lheidli T'enneh once lived, before their village was burned to the ground in 1913 and their community forcibly relocated to reserve land.

"It should not happen. It should not be on their map," Gouchie said two months ago. 

'Players are walking on graves of my community'

Don Bain, a Lheidli T'enneh member and executive director of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, also complained. 

"Players are walking on graves of my community." he wrote in an email to Niantic.

Niantic has now apologized, but only for the delay in responding to complaints.

"It has taken us longer than we would like to review your request," the company wrote in an email Wednesday night.  "We have removed the PokeStop/Gym in question. You should see these changes reflected soon." 

Gouchie said she's happy.

"I just figured it was a matter of time before they would do what was right. And here we go." 

"Some people wanted PokeStops because it brought business," she said.  "We didn't want people traipsing through the ... sacred burial sites. People go there to pay their respects, but not to play a game."