FOR NJOSH ONLY
109
“Into That Country to Work”:
Aboriginal Economic Activities during
Barkerville’s Gold Rush*
Mica Jorgenson
They go north into that country to work,
to work all the time, hard,
horses and wagons, women and children,
and dogs, hiyu dogs, all going
up by Barkerville. 1
I
n 1917, more than fifty years after the gold rush at Barkerville in
the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, Soda Creek resident
Mary Augusta Tappage remembered its effect on the working
lives of the St’at’imc (Lillooet) people, who made an annual migration
to the town. Following the discovery of gold on Keithley Creek in
1860 , Barkerville (founded in August 1862 ) rapidly became the major
economic hub of the central interior of British Columbia. Although
the area is currently considered part of the traditional territory of the
Dakelh (Carrier) people, and despite much documentation of First
Nations presence, Barkerville has long been subject to the myth that no
First Nations lived or worked there. Tappage’s poem and the abundant
contemporary evidence considered here suggest that Dakelh lived and
* This article is based on the first t wo chapters of my master’s thesis, completed at the Universit y of Northern British Columbia under the super vision of Ted Binnema. See Mica Jorgenson, “‘It Happened to Me in Barker ville’: Aboriginal Identit y, Economy, and Law in the Cariboo Gold Rush, 1862 -1900 ” (MA thesis, Universit y of Northern British Columbia, 2012 ). I am grateful to Ted Binnema, Mandy Kilsby, Bill Quackenbush, and Sandy Phillips for their invaluable insight, patience, knowledge, and guidance. I also wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council ( sshrc ), the Universit y of Northern British Columbia, the Canadian Federation of Universit y Women, Daphne Baldwin, and William Morrison for financial support during my studies. 1 Jean Speare, ed. The Days of Augusta (Vancouver: J.J. Douglas Ltd., 1973 ), 15-16, quoted in Richard Thomas Wright, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields (Victoria: Heritage House, 2013 ), 112. Hiyu in Chinook means “many,” or “ lots.” This verse is part of a longer poem. An earlier stanza reads: “There was a big cloud of dust way down / to the south in the spring, yes. / It was the Lillooet Indians coming north, / coming north to the goldfields / Up by Ba rker v i l le.”
bc studies , no. Spring 110
worked in and around Barkerville both before and after the rush and
that Aboriginal nations from all around British Columbia, including
St’at’imc, Tsilhqot’in (Chilcotin), Haida, and Coast Salish, were drawn
there by new economic activities.
Historians have been slow to recognize the existence of First Nations
at Barkerville, though popular historians Bill Hong, Jean Speare, Noel
Duclos, and Richard Wright have touched on Aboriginal packing,
Figure 1. Barker ville and Bowron Lake lie at the southern edge of Dakelh territory.
Cartography by Eric Leinberger.
bc studies 111
cattle-driving, berry picking, and prostitution in early Barkerville. 2
Academic historians, while asserting that the Cariboo gold rush of the
1860 s and 1870 s altered Aboriginal-newcomer economic relationships
permanently in British Columbia, 3 have not yet studied the particulars
of First Nations involvement in the gold rush at Barkerville. Indeed, they
have not even addressed this issue at a regional level for the Cariboo. The
only scholarly work that addresses the topic, a 2005 master’s thesis by
Christopher Herbert, touches on First Nations economies but ultimately
argues that Aboriginal people were absent from the mines and towns
and only economically active in the region’s hinterland. 4
Pertinent academic writing does exist, and in the last forty years
Canadian historians, especially those interested in patterns of work
in the fur trade era, have examined the extent and importance of
Aboriginal trade and labour, in the process providing an analytical
literature that affords precedents and useful models for understanding
First Nations economic lives in the Cariboo Mountains. 5 R e c ent l y,
John Lutz summarized these historical strands to argue that Aboriginal
people “engaged in multiple modes of production at different times of
the day and year: They hunted, fished, gathered, farmed, raised their
children, and exchanged their labour in different combinations, and as
opportunities presented themselves.” 6 These forms of work have often
been dismissed as a transitional phase between pre-contact and colonial
capitalist economies; however, in practice, they were an enduring solution
for many. This mixed capitalist/subsistence production system, referred
2 See Bill Hong, … And So … That’s How It Happened : Recollections of Stanley-Barkerville, 1900 -1975 (Coquitlam, BC: W.M. Hong, 1978 ); Speare, Days of Augusta ; Noel Duclos, Packers, Pans, and Paydirt: Prospecting the Cariboo (Quesnel: Arthur Duclos, 1995 ). Wright obser ves that Aboriginal people “were well aware of the concept of supply and demand.” See Richard Thomas Wright, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields (Vancouver: Heritage, 2013 ), 108-12. 3 Accounts of economic change and First Nations in British Columbia include Robin Fisher, Contact and Conflict : Indian-European Relations in British Columbia, 1774 -1890 (Vancouver: ubc Press, 1992 [1977 ]); Rolf Knight, Indians at Work: An Informal History of Native Labour in British Columbia, 1848 -1930 (Vancouver: New Star, 1996 [1978 ]); James K. Burrows, “‘A Much Needed Class of Labour’: The Economy and Income of the Southern Plateau Indians, 1897 -1910 ,” BC Studies 71 (1986 ): 27-47; John Lutz, Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations (Vancouver: ubc Press, 2008 ). 4 Christopher Herbert, “Unequal Participants: Race and Space in the Interracial Interactions of the Cariboo Gold Fields, 1860 -1871 ” (MA thesis, Simon Fraser Universit y, 2005 ). 5 For pertinent studies of Aboriginal labour, see Sylvia Van Kirk, Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur Trade Society, 1670 -1970 (Norman: Universit y of Ok lahoma Press, 1983 ), 53-73; R ichard Somerset Mackie, Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific, 1793 -1843 (Vancouver: ubc Press, 1997 ), 283-310; Frank Tough, “As Their Natural Resources Fail ”: Native Peoples and the Economic History of Northern Manitoba, 1870 -1930 (Vancouver: ubc Press, 1997 ); and Andrew Parnaby, “The Cultural Economy of Sur vival: The Mi ’ kmaq of Cape Breton in the Mid- 19th Centur y,” Labour/Le Travail 61 (2008 ): 69-98. 6 Lutz, Makuk , 23.
Into That Country to Wor 112
to by Lutz as “moditional ” labour, is a useful framework for Barkerville’s
Aboriginal histor y. 7 In the following analysis I show that First Nations
at Barkerville worked at a variety of occupations at different times of
the year and filled particular economic niches provided by the gold
rush. Starting in 1862 , Aboriginal people of various origins participated
actively in the gold rush economy in Barkerville by mixing subsistence,
commercial, and wage work.
“Few Indians Survived”: Pre-contact Use,
Disease, and Gold Rush Migration
The near-absence of Aboriginal workers in histories of early Barkerville
reflects Elizabeth Furniss’s observation that a powerful “frontier myth”
in British Columbia involved the marginalization, displacement, and
even erasure of First Nations people from the historical narrative. 8
Scholars who acknowledge Aboriginal people at all cite the prevalence
of mid-nineteenth-century disease to argue that they were gone before
the miners arrived. 9 This oversight exists despite the rush’s importance
to the development of British Columbia, its position within the larger
context of nineteenth-century global gold rushes, and research showing
that Aboriginal people were active in other gold rushes in western North
America. 10 Archaeological reports suggest that the Dakelh people
occupied the Barkerville region before the gold rush; and documentary
evidence, including Tappage’s poem, local newspapers, mining records,
and government reports, suggests that Barkerville was a location of
economic activity for various other First Nations groups.
7 Ibid., 23, 169. 8 Elizabeth Furniss, The Burden of History: Colonialism and the Frontier Myth in a Rural Canadian Community (Vancouver: ubc Press, 1999 ). Furniss’s work focuses on Williams Lake in the Cariboo. 9 For example, Christopher Herbert’s research on ethnicit y and social power in Barker ville ultimately argues that Aboriginal people were a “missing presence” in economic centres (like the town and its mines) due to exclusionar y labour policy and the mining season’s incompat - ibilit y with seasonal rounds. See Herbert, “Unequal Participants,” 100 . 10 See Ronald Genini, “The Fraser-Cariboo Gold Rushes: Comparisons and Contrasts with the California Gold Rush,” Journal of the West 11 (3) (1972 ): 470 -87; Jacqueline Baker Barnhart, “ Working Women: Prostitution in San Francisco from the Gold Rush to 1900 ” (PhD diss., Universit y of California Santa Cruz, 1976 ); Douglas Hudson, “Traplines and Timber: Social and Economic Change among the Carrier Indians of Northern British Columbia” (PhD diss., Universit y of A lberta, 1983 ); Daniel Patrick Marshall, “Claiming the Land: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to British Columbia” (PhD diss., Universit y of British Columbia, 2000 ); Michael Kennedy, “Fraser River Placer Mining Landscapes,” BC Studies 160 (2008 /09): 35-66.
bc studies 113
Miners selected the Barkerville townsite because of its proximity
to gold-bearing creeks, but the steep, narrow gullies and extreme
temperatures made it a difficult place to live. 11 Twenty kilometres east
of the town and three hundred metres lower in elevation, Bowron
(previously “Bear”) Lake has a more temperate climate than elsewhere
in the Cariboo Mountains, an enormous network of easily accessible
waterways, an annual salmon run, big game, and plentiful edible plant
life. 12
The study of the pre-gold rush era began in 1976 , when Nancy Con -
drashoff prepared a detailed archaeological report on First Nations
sites within Bowron Lake Provincial Park. Drawing on Ken Martin
and Mike Robinson’s 1972 surveys of pre-contact sites and on a broad
reading of secondary literature, including the work of Diamond Jenness,
Adrien-Gabriel Morice, and G.R. Willey, Condrashoff argues that pit
houses and salmon storage pits on Bowron Lake and at the headwaters
of the Bowron River indicate “considerable use of the area” and year-
round occupation rather than simply seasonal use for salmon fishing. 13
Projectile points found near the storage pits appear to show attributes
of the Kamloops Phase, dated approximately 1250 to 1800 CE, which
suggests occupation of the site during the contact period and fur trade
era and its possible abandonment shortly before or during the gold rush.
Such an abandonment fits with the impact of broader demographic
shifts noted by Cole Harris in connection with the fur trade and the
subsequent emergence of wage economies. 14 Although Condrashoff
speculates that Secwepemc (Shuswap) and Dakelh might have shared
the lakes during “periods of good relations,” 15 more recent research
11 An 1863 report by the Royal Engineers stated that “the mining creeks are generally narrow, rocky, thick ly wooded, and frequently swampy.” See Lieutenant Henr y Spencer Palmer, Report on Portions of the Williams Lake and Cariboo Districts and on the Fraser River from Fort Alexander to Fort George (New Westminster: Royal Engineers Press, 1863 ), 12. 12 Ken Martin and Mike Robinson, “System ‘E’ Sur vey, Wells Grey Provincial Park, Bowron Lake Provincial Park and Upper Fraser River” (Victoria: Archaeological Sites Advisor y Board, 1972 ), 19. The salmon runs in the Bowron River have long supported a large grizzly population inside of the current park and would be adequate to support human habitation. Tony Byrne, Peter Marshall, Lawrence Tuttle, Erro W hitfield, and P.R. W hitfield, A Report of Cave Studies on Huckey Creek , Bowron Lake Provincial Park (Victoria: Parks Branch, Department of Recreation and Conser vation, 1873 ), 69; Nancy Condrashoff, “An Archaeological Outline of Bowron Lakes Provincial Park for the Interpretation Branch of the Provincial Parks Department” (Victoria: Archaeolog y Division, British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1976 ), 1. 13 Condrashoff, “Archaeological Outline,” 1, 8. 14 Cole Harris, “Social Power and Cultural Change in Pre-Colonial British Columbia,” BC Studies 115-16 (1997 -98): 55. 15 Condrashoff, “ Archaeological Outline,” 8.
Into That Country to Wor 114
Figure 2. Barker ville and Bowron transportation routes and river net works.
Cartography by Eric Leinberger.
bc studies 115
confirms that the Bowron people were Dakelh and that the area is well
within the southern borders of Dakelh traditional territory. 16
Both the Condrashoff report and the earlier 1972 archaeological survey
by Martin and Robinson mention large private collections of points and
other artefacts gathered from various locations throughout the park
by local residents. 17 These artefacts have not yet been catalogued or
dated, and vast areas of the park remain unexamined by archaeologists,
meaning that future research may yield better information on this pre-
contact population.
The earliest documentary evidence relating to the Cariboo Mountains
dates to Simon Fraser’s 1808 expedition. Fraser noted the presence of
“several houses of the Nasquitins [Nazco First Nations]” at the mouth
of the Cottonwood River and the Quesnel River, both of which emerge
from the Cariboo Mountains. 18 On his return trip he “procured some
furs, plenty of fish and berries” from the people, which were probably
gathered locally as a part of an existing subsistence and trading
economy. 19 In subsequent decades, the Aboriginal people of Bowron
were involved in the fur trade and travelled from the Cariboo Mountains
down to the posts on the Fraser River via the Bowron and Cariboo
rivers. Joseph McGillivray, in charge of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s
Fort Alexandria in 1827 , reported that the Bowron area was a popular
hunting ground and complained about the arduous winter journey
between Bowron Lake and the post. 20
Established trails between Bowron, the Quesnel River, the Cariboo
River, and the Fraser River were later used by miners to reach gold-
bearing creeks in the Cariboo Mountains. One of these routes led from
the Bowron region northeast through the Cariboo Mountains to the
Goat River. In 1869 , Aboriginal people reported that a large lake to
the northeast (probably Isaac Lake in Bowron Lake Provincial Park)
was only “fifteen miles” (twenty-four kilometres) from Tete Jaune
16 Doug Brown, “Carrier Sekani Self-Government in Context: Land and Resources,” Weste r n Geography 12 (2002 ): 21-67; Elizabeth Furniss, “The Carrier Indians and the Politics of Histor y,” in Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience, ed. R.B. Morrison and C.R. Wilson, 508-46 (Toronto: Oxford Universit y Press, 1995 ). 17 Condrashoff, “Archaeological Outline,” 3. 18 W. Kaye Lamb, ed., Letters and Journals of Simon Fraser, 1806 -1808 (Toronto: Dundurn, 2007 ), 84. 19 Ibid., 148. 20 The journey supposedly took t went y-five days, although this was possibly an exaggeration on behalf of the author since it appears in a section on the disadvantages of the post. See Joseph McGillivray, “Appendix A: Report of Fort A lexandria Western Caledonia Columbia River District Outfit 1827 ,” in The Publications of the Champlain Society: Simpson’s 1828 Journey to the Columbia, E.E. Rich, ed. (Toronto: The Champlain Societ y, 1947 ), 189-94.
Into That Country to Wor 116
Cache and the same distance to the Fraser River. 21 The Cariboo Sentinel
(hereafter the Sentinel ) stated that “it [was] a well-known fact that the
Indians ha[d] trails and communication between Bear River and lake
and Tete Jaune Cache” and proposed putting a road in for miners. 22
In reality, the distance was much greater, but it seems clear that regular
and known routes existed between the Bowron Lake region and the
rest of the province well into the gold rush era. The story also indicates
Aboriginal knowledge of the local watersheds and their destinations.
The evidence suggests that European disease took a heav y toll on the
first residents of the Bowron Lake region, as it did elsewhere in what
became British Columbia. According to Cole Harris, in 1848 and 1849 ,
measles and influenza hit the interior of the province, which experienced
“massive depopulation” by 1850 . Smallpox further reduced the First
Nations population in 1862 , the first year of the Cariboo gold rush. 23
The effects of disease are apparent in the memories of Barkerville’s
earliest white residents. In a 1934 letter to newspaper reporter Louis
Lebourdais, Barkerville resident Hazel Kibbee wrote that “few Indians
survived ” an epidemic that swept the region around the time of the
arrival of the first white trappers at Bowron – Neil “Swampy” Wilson
and Kenneth McLeod – in the early 1860 s.24 This seems to refer to the
smallpox epidemic of 1862 . Hazel even claims that Wilson witnessed the
epidemic: “I have never known anyone who pretended to be old enough
to know where old Swampy came from. He was brought up among the
Indians and was here when the Indians were dying of smallpox.” 25
Further information about the epidemic comes from Thomas and
Elinor McCabe, who were naturalists in the Bowron region in the 1920 s
and 1930 s. The McCabes speculated that mid-nineteenth-century disease
was a major contributing factor to the spread of moose to Bowron.
In their 1928 article on the history of the Bowron Lake moose, they
quote oral information provided by William Boyd, a resident of Cot -
tonwood who visited Bowron Lake on a regular basis. Boyd claimed
that “the older Indians who frequented the northern moose country in
21 This optimistic estimate was later proved inaccurate. See “A Chain of Lakes,” Cariboo Sentinel , 28 July 1869 . 22 “Overland Communication,” Cariboo Sentinel , 14 August 1869 , 2. 23 Harris, “Social Power,” 53. 24 Kibbee did not know the exact date of Wilson and McLeod ’s arrival. The men were old family friends whose stories had been passed down to Kibbee by her father. See Hazel Kibbee to Louis Lebourdais, 5 Febr ua r y 1934 , British Columbia Archives (hereafter bca ), Lebourdais Fonds, MS - 0676 . See also Wright, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields , 109, 206 ; and Anne Laing, TheTraveller’s Site Guide to Barkerville Historic Town (Burnaby: Vanpress, 2009 ), 81. 25 Kibbee to Lebourdais, 5 Febr ua r y 1934 , bca , Lebourdais Fonds. For Wilson, see also Wright, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields , 109 -10.
bc studies 117
the winters [hunted] moose for food for themselves and their large fol -
lowing of dogs.” 26 That is, Aboriginal subsistence hunting kept moose
numbers in check. The McCabes also noted that the moose population
exploded after a “passing of great numbers of Indians in some of the
late epidemics.” According to the McCabes, “the vanishing of the old
native culture … [was] probably the chief [factor] in the increase of the
moose.” 27
Accounts by Kibbee and the McCabes influenced the secondary
literature, which often employs the story of epidemic disease at Bowron
as a transitional narrative between the region’s pre-contact and its gold
rush history: the complete eradication of the Aboriginal population
of Bowron explains why First Nations people did not coexist with
miners in Barkerville. For example, local historian Chris Harris argues
that “successive waves of human occupation … left little mark on the
Bowron Lakes,” 28 and in his popular history of Bowron, Richard Wright
concludes that, “ by [ 1862 , Indians] no longer fished the lakes nor canoed
the river.” 29
In her 1934 letter to Lebourdais, Hazel Kibbee related that Wilson
and McLeod encountered an Aboriginal woman who was “the single
survivor of a scourge of smallpox that had wiped out the rest of the
tribe, numbering several hundred people.” 30 This is the origin of the
“total-destruction-by-disease” explanation of First Nations absence
from Bowron and Barkerville. Lebourdais took considerable jour -
nalistic liberty with the story, describing the last Aboriginal woman
at Bowron “weeping amongst the fresh-made graves on lower Bear
River.” 31 The woman’s entire tribe had been wiped out by smallpox,
Lebourdais asserts, which she considered punishment for their efforts
to prevent the gold rush. Hoping to keep their pristine lake community
from being settled and mined by invaders, the tribe had – the account
goes – murdered a white man who had come down Antler Creek in
26 Thomas and Elinor McCabe, “The Bowron Lake Moose: Their Histor y and Status,” Murrelet 9, 1 (1928 ): 4. 27 Ibid.28 Chris and Jenny Harris, The Bowron Lakes : British Columbia’s Wilderness Canoe Circuit ( Va n - couver: Gordon Soules, 1991 ), 81. 29 Richard Wright, Bowron Lake Provincial Park: The All-Seasons Guide (Surrey: Heritage House, 1994 ), 16. 30 Kibbee to Lebourdais, 5 Febr ua r y 1934 , bca , Lebourdais Fonds. 31 Lebourdais’s article is also to blame for the myth that surrounds “Dead Man’s Island ” at the headwaters of the Bowron River. Popularly, the area is thought to have been a location where Aboriginal people abandoned smallpox victims or buried their dead. However, archaeological reports found only storage pits at this site, not graves. See Louis Lebourdais, “Bear Lake,” bca , Lebourdais Fonds, MS 0676 , box 7, file 4, p. 2; Martin and Robinson, “System ‘E’ Sur vey,” 17.
Into That Country to Wor 118
1860 . In Lebourdais’s story, the old Aboriginal woman was gently led
away by Wilson and McLeod, the white men, “her shrunken shoulders
shaking with sobs” as she said goodbye to her homeland. In this way
she physically and symbolically made room for newcomers and their
narrative of exploration and gold hunting. In effect, a “frontier myth”
was in the making. 32 Unfortunately, “total destruction by disease” has
provided a ready explanation for Aboriginal peoples’ apparent absence
in the subsequent rush, even though First Nations did, in fact, live and
work in the region.
Although estimates for population loss in epidemics range as high as
90 percent in parts of British Columbia, 33 scenarios of total destruction
by disease should be viewed with caution. Cole Harris, who argues
that epidemic disease caused considerable demographic change among
British Columbia’s Aboriginal population, offers some insight into the
fate of Bowron Lake survivors. 34 On the middle Fraser River he points
out that, after the epidemics, there were no longer enough people to
maintain the salmon fisheries, forcing the remaining individuals to move
to other locations or to change their modes of subsistence. First Nations
also relocated to take advantage of the commercial fur trade economy,
which was established and relatively stable by 1850 . First Nations moved
their winter villages to be closer to trading posts, abandoned small
village sites for larger ones, and in general occupied far fewer sites in
1850 than they had one hundred years earlier. The result was that the
population shifted as survivors moved to core or favoured areas pre -
viously unavailable to them and coalesced into new groups. 35 Sur vivors
of the epidemic at Bowron may have found it impractical to remain in
the area and so moved to centres of population where new modes of
making a living were possible. 36 At the same time, rising employment
opportunities associated with the gold rush attracted Aboriginal people
to Barkerville from other areas of the province that were undergoing
similar demographic changes. 37
By 1862 , whatever population might have existed near Barkerville
was small enough to be invisible to the incoming miners, and any
32 Lebourdais, “Bear Lake,” bca , Lebourdais Fonds, 3; Furniss, Burden of History . 33 Harris, “Social Power,” 55. 34 Ibid., 79. 35 Ibid., 55, 67, 79. 36 First Nations people living near Fort George, Quesnelle Forks, and Fort A lexandria, all accessible by river from the Bowron region, may be descended from the Bowron Dakelh.37 In the gold rushes, Aboriginal people “were relocating to the gold-mining communities at Fort Hope, Lytton, Yale, Wild Horse Creek, and New Westminster.” Lutz, Makuk, 167-71, 177.
bc studies 119
survivors had merged with First Nations elsewhere. I have seen no
clear references to any local Bowron Aboriginal population in the news -
papers, miners’ accounts, or government documents. Newspapers and
newcomers tended to lump all First Nations under the terms “Indian”
or “Siwash” regardless of their geographic origin, which compounds the
problem of identification. And, because Barkerville had no recognized
Indigenous population, it never had a reserve. 38 Although the Sentinel
reported “ 8 male Indians and 7 females” in a December 1866 census, it
is unclear where they lived, 39 and none of the official Cariboo district
census reports identified Aboriginal people as residents in Barkerville,
Richfield, Lightning Creek, or Keithley Creek. Neither the McCabes’
writings in the 1920 s or 1930 s nor documents pertaining to the creation
of the Bowron Lake Game Reserve ( 1928 ) indicate the presence of
local Aboriginal people in this portion of the Cariboo Mountains. 40
Considerable research remains to be done on Dakelh use and habitation
of the Cariboo Mountains generally and of Barkerville/Bowron Lake
specifically.
Despite the disappearance of the Bowron Lake Dakelh from the
documentary evidence, which seems to be disease-related, Aboriginal
peoples’ participation in the Cariboo gold rush did not end in 1862 .
A new First Nations population of temporary and perhaps permanent
residents formed in the years following the rush. An “Indian Camp”
appears in newspaper, documentary, and photographic sources between
1874 and perhaps 1914 . Richard Wright quotes an interwar letter from
Harry Jones to Louis Lebourdais: “The Lillooet Indians were in the
habit of spending their summer months in Barkerville in the [ 18]70s
– their camping ground was on the East side of Williams Creek, op -
posite the hospital – the same camping [site] every year, as it was their
custom to camp on the same ground when travelling up and down the
road.” 41 In 1874 , two men were implicated for taking alcohol into this
38 The closest reser ves were at Quesnel and A lexandria, and they were established in 1881 . See Dominion of Canada, Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for the Year Ended 31st December 1881 (Ottawa: Maclean, Roger & Co., 1882 ), 271. After British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 , the Barker ville region was included in the Williams Lake Agency of the Department of Indian A ffairs. For the arrival of Indian agents in British Columbia, see Robin Fisher, Contact and Conflict , chap. 7; and Keith D. Smith, Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance: Indigenous Communities in Western Canada, 1877 -1927 (Edmonton: Athabasca Universit y Press, 2009 ). 39 Cariboo Sentinel, 15 December 1866 , 40 For more on the origins of the Bowron Lakes Game Reser ve, see Mica Jorgenson, “‘A Business Proposition:’ Naturalists, Guides, and Sportsmen in the Formation of the Bowron Lakes Game Reser ve,” BC Studies 175 (2012 ): 9-34. 41 Wr ight, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields , 112.
Into That Country to Wor 120
camp in an effort to gain the affections of an unidentified Aboriginal
woman, and an 1899 photograph entitled “View of Barkerville: Indian
Encampment, Barker ville, Aug, ’ 99” shows an open and hilly area sur -
rounded by packhorses, a covered freight wagon, a cart, sheds, shacks,
and wooden shelters located high on the northeast bank of Williams
Creek on the edge of town. The camp is suggested in other records: in
June 1902 James Champion noted in his journal: “Indians come to town
every summer – leave in the fall.” 42 And, in the same month, Barkerville
barber Wellington Moses noted that “the first three Indians [to] arrive
on the creek ” had come for their annual summer visit. 43
Although Barkerville is within Dakelh traditional territory, his -
torically the best recorded Aboriginal residents in the town are the
St’at’imc (Lillooet) people mentioned by Mary Tappage and Harry
Jones. In 1961 , historian Alvin Johnston recalled that the Lillooet had
travelled to the Barkerville region to gather huckleberries, an obser -
42 James Champion, “James Champion Journal,” 6 June 1902 , Barker ville Historic Town Librar y and Archives (hereafter bhtla ). 43 Wellington Moses, “Moses Diar y,” 6 June 1902 , bhtla .
Figure 3. “View of Barker ville: Indian Encampment, Barker ville, Aug, ’ 99.” The
Cariboo Wagon Road gave First Nations on its route ready access to Barker ville.
Source : Barker ville Photograph Collection, Barker ville Historic Town Library and
Archives, P- 1479 .
bc studies 121
vation that is confirmed by newspaper accounts of the annual migration
of St’at’imc to Barkerville. 44 Other evidence puts St’at’imc people in
Barkerville during the summers. For example, in September 1899 , John
Stevenson, W.J. Powell, and John Lyne were all separately charged at the
Richfield courthouse with supplying “an Indian woman of the Lillooet
tribe, known by the name of ‘Nancy,’ with an intoxicant.” 45 In July 1907 ,
Indian agent E. Bell wrote of a “Lillooet” man named John Scotchman
who appeared for trial at Richfield after he shot an Aboriginal man
named Edward, who was from Cayoosh Creek, near Lillooet. 46
The Sentinel mentions other varied origins of Barkerville’s post- 1862
First Nations population. For example, on 11 October 1866 the newspaper
commented on an Aboriginal man accused of murder at Soda Creek,
who was reportedly at large in the Okanagan, and whose trial was
eventually held in Richfield. 47 In 1867 , the Victoria Colonist mentioned
the death of an Aboriginal woman of the curious name of “Captain
John” who was originally from Victoria but who had been living on
Williams Creek for two years. 48 When an Aboriginal woman named
“Full Moon” was assaulted in Barkerville in 1871 , “two Indians – a
Lillooet and Hydah,” were implicated. 49 Three years later, the Sentinel
claimed that “Indians” would be gathering in Barkerville “from all
parts of the province to witness the [ 1874 Dominion Day] amusements,”
and it also provided the results of “Indian”-specific competitions
such as the “Siwash races.” 50 Known to be a gathering place for Abo -
riginal peoples, Barkerville received funds from Indian commissioner
I.W. Powell specifically for the purpose of hosting these games. 51 Also
in the Sentinel in 1874 , an Aboriginal person from Boston Bar brought
news of a death to Barkerville. 52 These references indicate that Abo -
riginal people travelled considerable distances and that, after 1862 , the
First Nations population of Barkerville was composed of a number of
44 A lvin Johnston, “Indians Trek to Barker ville,” Cariboo Observer , 1 June 1961 ; untitled, Cariboo Observer, 14 June 1913 . 45 British Columbia, Government Agency, Cariboo, “Magistrates Court, Indian Act: Liquor Violation,” bca , GR 216, box 150, file 6. 46 British Columbia, Attorney General, Correspondence, 1872 -1937 , 1950 , “E. Bell, Indian Agent, to A.W. Vowell, Indian Superintendent,” 31 July 1907 , bca , GR 0429, box 14, file 03, fol. 2421 /04. 47 “Still at Large,” Cariboo Sentinel , 11 October 1866 . 48 “Births and Deaths,” Victoria Colonist , 6 July 1867 . She was probably the daughter of a well- known Aboriginal man named Captain John who supposedly made a fortune running boats bet ween Hope and Yale during the original stages of the Fraser rush. See Marshall, “Claiming the Land,” 85. 49 “A s s a u l t ,” Cariboo Sentinel , 22 July 1871 , 3. 50 “Indian Sports” Cariboo Sentinel , 27 June 1874 . 51 Ibid. 52 “ Ya l e ,” Cariboo Sentinel , 29 August 1874 .
Into That Country to Wor 122
migrants. Unfortunately, labels identifying individuals’ home groups are
rare, but in these examples alone we have Aboriginal people specified
as originating in the Fraser Canyon, Lillooet, Victoria, and the Queen
Charlotte Islands. These do indeed seem to represent First Nations from
“all parts of the province,” as the 1874 article specified.
“The Indians Will Have Plenty of Muck-a-Muck for
the Winter”: The Endurance of the Subsistence
Economy in Barkerville
My forays into newspapers, court records, and government documents
provide many more examples of First Nations peoples’ gold rush era
activities. Indeed, Aboriginal people continued to fish, forage, and hunt
to sustain themselves during the gold rush. For example, they regularly
harvested the annual salmon run at Bowron River, where they had
fishing stations and drying racks, just as they had on the Fraser and at
other traditional fishing grounds. 53 In August 1869 , the Sentinel noted:
“the Indians along [Bowron River] are having a joyful time catching
and drying salmon … [T]he run for good, well-conditioned fish is
enormous.” It continued: “From the piles that are hung up to dry at the
numerous fishing stations on both sides of the river, it is evident that
the Indians have been and are yet extremely diligent in catching and
preserving all they can.” 54 The newspaper also noted that “several tons
of salmon” were caught and cured by Aboriginal people at Bowron Lake
t hat yea r. 55 Similarly, in August 1870 , the Sentinel commented that the
large run would mean that “the Indians [would] have plenty of muck-
a-muck [food] for the winter.” 56 Unfortunately, these early accounts do
not provide a home base or ethnographic affiliation for these fishers,
but it seems likely that they were Dakelh.
Foraging, particularly for berries, was another form of subsistence
work engaged in by First Nations people. In June 1869 , the Sentinel
quoted “Kloosh-le-Tete, an Indian,” saying that “the forest fires have
destroyed the olally [berry] shrubs.” This meant that “the prospects for
an abundant harvest of olally muck-a-muck [were] dim through the
53 For this t ypical combination of salmon fishing stations and dr ying racks, see Douglas Harris, Fish, Law, and Colonialism: The Legal Capture of Salmon in British Columbia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001 ); and Douglas Harris, Landing Native Fisheries: Indian Reserves and Fishing Rights in British Columbia, 1849 -1925 (Vancouver: ubc Press, 2009 ). 54 “The Salmon Run,” Cariboo Sentinel , 25 August 1869 . 55 Ibid . See also “At Bear Lake,” and “Mountain Fisher y,” Cariboo Sentinel , 14 August 1869 . 56 “Quesnellmouth Items,” Cariboo Sentinel , 6 August 1870 .
bc studies 123
smok e.” 57 Barkerville’s high elevation and subalpine forests produced
large wild berry crops, and “Kloosh-le-Tete’s” anxiety about the impli -
cations of their destruction in 1869 may indicate their importance as a
seasonal food supply. 58
The best evidence of berry-picking taking place in Barkerville comes
from the recorded memories of those who witnessed, a generation later,
the annual migration of St’at’imc and Tsilhqot’in people to the Cariboo
creeks. In June 1913 , the Cariboo Observer noted: “a band of Lillooet
Indians, who annually makes the pilgrimage to the Barkerville district
for the summer months, passed through [Quesnel] this week on their
journey to the mining town.” 59 Mary Augusta Tappage’s 1917 poem,
“The Lillooets,” is a fine example of this “pilgrimage,” but other references
suggest a long-standing tradition dating back at least as far as the turn
of the century. For example, a July 1914 photograph of “G.F. Killam”
on horseback bears this caption: “White object under horse’s nose is
white canopy of prairie schooner-type wagon. Each fall, Indians from
the Chilcotin come up to pick huckleberries, lifted the body from
their wagon beside the creek, and lived in it briefly.” 60 This indicates
that Tsilhqot’in people came to Barkerville for the same purposes, and
at the same time, as St’at’imc people. Recalling events from his school
days at the turn of the century, Alvin Johnston, in the Cariboo Observer ,
described St’at’imc camping at Barkerville to gather the huckleberries
that grew in abundance around the town. 61 According to Johnston,
“about ten families of Lillooet Indians” arrived in Quesnel on their way
to the goldfields “about the first week of June, depending on the season
and the earliness of grass for pasture.” 62 In the first few months, they
offered a variety of support services to prospectors (laundry and saddle-
horses), and then, “late in the summer[,] the women and children picked
huckle berries, which were packed in empty butter boxes, or about 20
pounds weight.” 63 The consistency of these accounts suggests that entire
families of St’at’imc and Tsilhqot’in people moved in and out of the
area annually to work at a variety of jobs, including picking berries and
57 “Olally Prospects,” Cariboo Sentinel , 12 June 1869 . 58 Berries were har vested by First Nations women in other parts of the northwest and were particularly important when salmon stocks ran low. See Sylvia Van Kirk, Many Tender Ties , 57-59; Nancy Turner, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Universit y Press, 2014 ), 97. 59 Untitled, Cariboo Observer, 14 June 1913 . 60 “Just Back from Patrol,” Barker ville Photograph Collection, P 0580 , bhtla . 61 A lvin Johnston, “Indians Trek to Barker ville,” Cariboo Observer , 1 June 1961 . 62 Ibid . 63 Ibid.
Into That Country to Wor 124
providing laundry services and packhorses to the residents and miners
of Barkerville.
Commercial trapping drew Lheidli T’enneh (Dakelh people living at
the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers) to Barkerville through
the gold rush period. Barkerville’s Hudson’s Bay Company ( hbc ) store
stocked tobacco and marten and beaver traps specifically for trade with
the Lheidli T’enneh, who came to Barkerville every spring rather than
trading at the Fort George post within their traditional territory. Lheidli
T’enneh trappers were market sav v y and adept at getting the best prices
for their furs. In 1869 , John Wark, who was in charge of the Barkerville
store, reported to the Board of Management in Victoria that the “Fort
George Indians” had not made their usual spring visit. He assumed
that better prices at Fort George had drawn the trade away, but in fact
Aboriginal trappers had sold their furs to stagecoach express operator
Francis Barnard. Under the threat of losing hbc shipping contracts,
Barnard promised to stop trading with the Lheidli T’enneh trappers. 64
The incident suggests that Barkerville was an economic hub for First
Nations fur producers who opportunistically took advantage of new
markets in the Cariboo.
Hunting also featured as part of Barkerville’s gold rush and early
economy. For example, two First Nations hunters (of unidentified origin)
figure in an October 1870 Sentinel story about a nearby grizzly bear
attack. The newspaper noted in passing that the two men were “Caribou
hunters” who had “ been recently very successful.” 65 The Mountain
Caribou (for whom the Cariboo Mountains are named) migrate out of
the higher elevations into protected valleys in the fall, bringing them right
through the Barkerville area. While we know little about these Caribou
hunters, their activities suggest that they used existing knowledge and
skills to thrive in the new and unfamiliar gold rush economy. We can also
speculate from this intriguing incident that market hunting – commercial
as opposed to sport hunting – took place at Barkerville. Such hunting
must be placed in the context of severe meat shortages in Barkerville
between 1866 and 1871 . During these years, the Sentinel closely tracked
the movement of beef herds at nearby Bald Mountain and speculated
openly about whether or not food supplies would last the winter. 66 In the
64 See Ramona Boyle and Richard Mackie, “The Hudson’s Bay Company in Barker ville” (this is sue).65 “Encounter with a Bear,” Cariboo Sentinel , 22 October 1870 . 66 “Cow s,” Cariboo Sentinel, 6 June 1867 ; “Bovine,” Cariboo Sentinel , 17 June 1871 ; “Mountain Grasses,” Cariboo Sentinel , 14 August 1869 ; “More Beef,” Cariboo Sentinel, 18 June 1870 ; “Prospects for the Coming Winter,” Cariboo Sentinel, 6 September 1866.
bc studies 125
spring of 1866 the paper observed that meat was completely unavailable; 67
in May 1867 , it reported that, “for two or three days last week, not a
pound of beef, ham, or bacon could be procured on the creek, and the
consequence was, that some very ancient can[ned] meats were greedily
sought after, and changed hands at respectable figures”; 68 in 1870 , at one
of the more remote creeks, beef was selling “at 50 cents [per pound], and
no growling”; 69 and in 1871 , beef prices hit sixty cents per pound. 70 Such
food shortages made First Nations hunting and fishing more important
and valuable. Barkerville’s remote location and large settler population
resulted in short supply, high demand, and high prices for certain goods
and services. 71
The sale of fish in the mining towns could be lucrative. The Sentinel
recorded a sale of eulachon in Barkerville in May 1867 , noting that
Aboriginal people of unstated origin were selling the fish “at the rate of
three bucketfuls for one bit [ 25 cents].” The main market was Chinese
miners, “who [were] always ready with the cash for good cheap grub.” 72
This transaction suggests a degree of contact between Aboriginal people
and Chinese miners, an acquaintance that extended to the social sphere
in early British Columbia. 73
While no direct references survive of First Nations selling fish from
the Bowron region, a white man intent on exploring an overland route
from Barkerville to Tete Jaune Cache in August 1869 never got past
Bowron Lake, where he stopped to participate in the fishery. Fish were
so plentiful that the Sentinel reported that he had filled up a miner’s
sluice box and that he was later able to sell them for twenty-five cents
per pound. 74 In October 1869 , the newspaper observed: “those who have
been in the fishing business … will do much better than if they had been
mining.” 75
67 “Scarcit y of Meat,” Cariboo Sentinel , 10 May 1866 . 68 “Scarcit y of Beef,” Cariboo Sentinel , 13 May 1867 . 69 “Germansen Creek,” Cariboo Sentinel , 24 September 1870 . 70 “Prices of Provisions, Etc.” Cariboo Sentinel, 5 August 1871 . 71 For example, in 1865 general merchandiser J.H. Todd & Co. advertised the arrival of spring goods, which would include “Gum Boots and Coats, Soulwester Hats, Cotton Duck, Blashing Powder, Oregon Hams, and No. 1 Scotch Oatmeal.” See “Live and Let Live,” Cariboo Sentinel, 17 June 1865 . 72 “Oolahans,” Cariboo Sentinel, 27 May 1867 . 73 See Jean Barman, “Beyond Chinatown: Chinese Men and Indigenous Women in Early British Columbia,” BC Studies 177 (2013 ): 39-64. 74 “At Bear Lake,” Cariboo Sentinel, 14 August 1869 . 75 “Bear Lake,” Cariboo Sentinel, 9 October 1869 .
Into That Country to Wor 126
“Packed across the Mountain by Indians”:
Gold Rush Opportunities in Wage Work
While berry picking, hunting, and fishing occurred in relative isolation,
wage and/or commercial work at Barkerville brought Aboriginal people
into more frequent contact with newcomers. As a result, comparatively
more information about their participation in these jobs has survived,
and, of these, packing goods was primary. This was an old tradition.
Aboriginal packers had been so important to the earlier Fraser River gold
rush that Chief Justice Matthew Begbie later recalled that “no supplies
were taken in except by Indians … Without them … the country could
not have been entered or supplied in 1858 -1860 .”76 In his 1862 d i a r y, a
Cariboo miner named Samuel Hathaway wrote: “There are numbers
of Indians all through this region … along the route. They work pretty
well, packing over the portages, loading wagons and boats, etc.” 77 In
the 1860 s, in order to provide commercial access to the swiftly expanding
population in the interior of the province, Governor James Douglas built,
improved, and maintained roads so that freight wagons or sleighs could
operate year round on the more heavily used routes. 78
The most important of these new roads was the Cariboo Wagon
Road, completed to Barkerville in 1865 .79 Historian R.G. Harvey notes
a “phasing out” of Aboriginal labour in the Fraser Canyon as a result
of the road ’s improved infrastructure. Fraser River steamers competed
directly with Aboriginal packers, swiftly putting them out of business
on the lower parts of the river. 80 Like steamers, horse-drawn wagons
and sleighs transported more goods and people in a shorter time than
could be managed by Aboriginal packers. 81 For example, at Barkerville,
F.J. Barnard ’s Express Freighting business advertised that it could bring
goods from Yale to Richfield in ten days. 82 In 1862 , George Eves noted:
“Packing is done from Forks [Quesnelleforks] to Williams Creek prin -
cipally by Indians 30 c [per pound] but has recently gone up to 40 c,
76 Matthew Baillie Begbie in H.L. Langevin, British Columbia: Report of the Honourable H.L . Langevin, Minister of Public Works (Ottawa: I.B. Taylor, 1872 ), 27. 77 Hathaway is quoted in Wright, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields , 110. 78 Duclos, Packers, Pans, and Paydirt, 133-37. 79 Ibid., 136. 80 R.G. Har vey, Carving the Western Path by River, Rail, and Road through Central and Northern BC (Surrey: Heritage House, 1999 ), 10. 81 Duclos also notes that Aboriginal packers were gradually out-competed and replaced by packers of other ethnicities. A lthough Aboriginal packers were cheaper, particularly in the early years, mule trains, stages, steamships, and sleighs “ became better known and could reliably carr y more goods,” meaning that “the Indian was called on less and less.” See Duclos, Packers, Pans, and Paydirt , 62. 82 “Express Freight,” Cariboo Sentinel , 1 July 1865 .
bc studies 127
and $5 worth of grub for the trip.” 83 Aboriginal packing continued even
after the completion of the Cariboo Wagon Road to Barkerville in 1865 ,
particularly when the rapidly melting spring snow at the town’s higher
altitude made it difficult to keep the new route open. Because supplies
were generally short and road access difficult, the Sentinel followed the
arrival of goods in Barkerville with great interest. 84 On several occasions,
the demand for goods created opportunities for Aboriginal packers.
In June 1866 , the Sentinel described Barkerville’s continuing dependence
on Aboriginal people as packers. “How Provoking,” reads the headline:
“Only half a mile of snow to prevent wagons from coming to Barkerville,
and yet the Government will not expend fifty dollars to have it cleared
away. The express and mail have still to be packed across the mountain
by Indians.” 85 Continued reliance on the manual labour of “Indians” was
seen as archaic and as a sign of the government’s neglect of the district. In
June 1868 , when the road was once again rendered impassable by lingering
spring snow, the Sentinel sarcastically urged its readers: “[Let us] possess
our souls in patience, Caribooites, and pay without grumbling the paltry
sum of $3000 a week in road tolls and $2000 a week in mining licenses
etc.” 86 The problem was still unresolved in 1875 , the year that the paper
stopped publishing. In April of that year the Sentinel reported that poor
road conditions prevented the mail and express sleds from passing beyond
Cottonwood: “Indians” would pack it the rest of the way, meaning that
the mail would be late. 87
Even when the new wagon road was operational, it did not solve the
problem of transport between Barkerville and its many satellite com -
munities on more remote creeks – communities whose residents were at
the mercy of First Nations packers. The Sentinel reported an incident in
1866 in which a speculator named Mr. Gronosky lost “several hundred
dollars” when “the [Aboriginal] packer … charged him double freight on
[his] goods, namely, 16 cts [per] lb” after a failed foray into the Cariboo
Mountains. 88 In 1868 , a letter to the editor of the Sentinel complained
about the lack of roads between Barkerville and the major mining op -
erations at Antler Creek, Grouse Creek, Willow River, and Sugar Creek:
“There is no means of getting supplies except through Mosquito [Creek],
83 Eves is quoted in Wright, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields , 110. 84 For example, “Arrival of Goods,” Cariboo Sentinel , 18 October 1866 ; untitled, Cariboo Sentinel , 24 June 1867 ; “Pack Trains,” Cariboo Sentinel, 11 June 1868 ; “Pack Train,” Cariboo Sentinel , 18 June 1868 . 85 “How Provoking,” Cariboo Sentinel , 8 June 1868 . 86 Ibid.87 “The Express,” Cariboo Sentinel , 17 April 1875 . 88 “Cedar Creek,” Cariboo Sentinel , 23 August 1866 .
Into That Country to Wor 128
from which goods have to be packed by Indians.” 89 The adverse climate
and diffuse character of the Cariboo Mountain mining communities
meant that First Nations could engage in this type of work, presumably to
supplement other ways of making a living. The consistency of complaints
over the years indicates that Aboriginal packing continued sporadically
around Barkerville, even when improvements to infrastructure reduced
such work along the main Fraser River transport corridor.
Even in the earliest days of the rush, as the newcomers made their way
to Antler Creek, Aboriginal people acted as letter carriers while simul -
taneously capitalizing on other opportunities. In 1862 Michael Brown,
one of the original discoverers of gold at Barkerville, claimed to have
bought snowshoes at fourteen dollars a pair from the Fort George First
Nations so that he and his partner could get to rumoured discoveries at
Antler Creek. Joined at Antler by William Dietz and Michael Burns,
the group of four explored together and eventually struck it rich on
“Williams” Creek. The men hired two “Indians” to carry a letter to
Judge Nind at Williams Lake, declaring the name of a new creek and
laying claim to it. The Aboriginal postmen, probably members of the
local Red Bluff band, were travelling to Williams Lake any way “to
procure provisions for a storekeeper at the forks of the Quesnel.” 90
In 1870 , a court case against two Chinese men charged with running
a lottery house in Barkerville was delayed owing to the lack of an inter -
preter, and an Aboriginal person was dispatched to get one. 91 Aboriginal
people worked for the Chinese community as well. In February 1875 , a
representative of the Chinese merchant house Kwong Lee sent two First
Nations men to pick up a sick Chinese man from the Barkerville hospital,
“stating that[,] on the account of it being Chinese New Year, he had not
time to come to the hospital himself.” 92 Scattered in passing throughout
the newspapers, these accounts indicate that Aboriginal people acted as
couriers during the gold rush.
Economic activities such as the sale of food, packing, and couriering
supported gold mining, which was the engine of Barkerville’s boom-
town economy. Its importance to Barkerville’s population is reflected in
the Sentinel , which focused on mining activities and provided lengthy
reports on the operations of active companies in the area. Mining issues
89 “Roads,” Cariboo Sentinel , 19 July 1868 . 90 The creek was named after William Dietz because he was the one who found the most gold. Barker ville is located on this creek. Michael Brown’s reminiscences were published in the Colonist in 1913 . See “Gold Discover y of Fift y Eight,” Victoria Colonist , 24 December 1913 . 91 “Police Court,” Cariboo Sentinel , 10 December 1870 . 92 “Coroner’s Inquisition,” Cariboo Sentinel , 20 Febr ua r y 1875 .
bc studies 129
also dominated local court cases. 93 The centrality of mining meant that a
large percentage of the people in Barkerville made a living from it, and,
inevitably, the hunt for gold attracted Aboriginal people as well.
Aboriginal miners had been major participants in the Fraser River
gold rush in 1858 . As Ronald Genini notes: “The bulk of the extraction
through 1859 was by Indian river-panning.” 94 Daniel Marshall argues
that “Native peoples not only participated in gold discoveries throughout
the northern Pacific Slope region, but actively mined the resource,” and
he consults colonial government sources to further argue that, after 1858 ,
Secwepemc and Nlaka’pamux peoples, along with Chinese, formed the
majority of miners. 95 Michael Kennedy is equally specific, maintaining
that, although the Fraser rush had died down by 1860 , gold mining
“continued to be practiced by small groups of Chinese and Native
miners who used pans, rockers, and sluices.” 96 Lutz, drawing on work
by Marshall, T.A. Rickard, and others, notes that Aboriginal people
mined gold for the hbc before outsiders arrived on the Fraser and that
they continued to work as miners during that rush. 97 Aboriginal par -
ticipation in Barkerville’s mining economy must be seen as an extension
of this earlier tradition.
A number of accounts survive of Aboriginal mining activities, though
details are scarce. In 1867 , the Sentinel reported the profits of the Douglas
site and noted that “a number of Indians [were] working at these
diggings.” 98 In the summer of 1869 , the newspaper noted: “the Indians
who made small ‘piles’ last winter by mining … are busy packing flour
from Yale to Lytton.” 99 Two years later: “A Siwash, living at Richfield,
who had been rocking among the old claims, made a complaint on
Tuesday that he had been robbed the previous night of $42 .50 in gold
dust, notes, and silver.” 10 0 Historian Bill Hong mentions “Indian Frank,”
who had “a small operation a quarter-mile above Stanley on Chisholm
Creek ’s west bank.” 101
93 A lmost ever y Sentinel edition for the years bet ween 1865 and 1875 included a long “Mining Court” section detailing recent cases related to claims and diggings. 94 Genini, “Fraser-Cariboo Gold Rushes,” 472. 95 Marshall, “Claiming the Land,” 18. See also Daniel Marshall, “Rickard Revisited: Native ‘Participation’ in the Gold Discoveries of British Columbia,” Native Studies Review 11, 1 (1996 -97): 91-108. 96 Kennedy, “Fraser River Placer Mining Landscapes,” 44. 97 Lutz, Makuk , 174. 98 “Douglas Diggings,” Cariboo Sentinel, 27 May 1867 . 99 “ Bu s y,” Cariboo Sentinel, 24 July 1869 . 10 0 “Rocking” refers to the use of a one-person rocker used to sift gravel. See “A lleged Robber y,” Cariboo Sentinel , 12 August 1871 . 101 Hong, … And So … That’s How It Happened , 71.
Into That Country to Wor 130
As individual mining became less viable in the later years of the
rush, Aboriginal men also worked as employees in mining companies,
and they appear regularly in mining company ledgers. 102 For example,
“Indian Frank,” “Indian Dick,” “Indian Jim,” and “Edward (Indian)”
are recorded in ledgers from the Central Company on the Jack of Clubs
Creek. 103 Working for mining companies could be lucrative. In 1870 ,
a labour shortage drove wages up to “ $3 per day [or] … better.” The
Sentinel noted that “there [was] not an idle man on the creek,” and that
“in a few claims Indians [were] being employed.” 104 These records of
Aboriginal mining tend to appear as side-notes to other stories and,
unfortunately, provide no direct information about the specific origins,
tribal affiliations, or motivations of the miners involved. 105
These findings contradict the work of Christopher Herbert, who, on
slim evidence, speculates that a surplus of Chinese and white miners
in Barkerville created a highly competitive job market that prevented
Aboriginal people from becoming wage-earning miners. 106 He also
proposes that gold mining may have been unappealing to Aboriginal
people because it did not fit well with seasonal rounds: the mining season
occurred at the same time as summer hunting, fishing, and foraging
activities aimed at securing adequate food for the winter. 107 Seasonal
cycles of Aboriginal wage and subsistence work may indeed have existed
in Barkerville, but the intermittent coverage of newspapers and other
accounts makes them difficult to detect. 108 By the turn of the twentieth
century, Aboriginal people were certainly engaged in foraging around
Barkerville during the spring, as is indicated from the evidence related
to St’at’ imc huck leberr y pick ing. 109 However, late spring, when mud and
melting snow made wagon and sleigh use impossible, was also the best
102 “Lowhee Mining Company Ltd,” bhtla ; “Last Chance Company,” bhtla ; “A l a b a m a Company,” bhtla . 103 “Central Company, Jack of Clubs Creek,” bhtla . 104 “Labou r,” Cariboo Sentinel , 18 June 1867 . 105 Further instances of Aboriginal mining will undoubtedly appear as further primar y research is undertaken in relation to such sources as letters, diaries, mining licences, and gold commissioners’ reports.106 Herbert cites a Sentinel article written during a labour shortage in 1870 as evidence: “There is not an idle man on the creek at the present time,” “ both Chinese and W hite labor [ sic] would seem to be scarce,” and that as a result, “Indians are being employed, which is something quite new.” See Herbert, “Unequal Participants,” 101. 107 Ibid.108 In Makuk , Lutz notices that Aboriginal people arrived for “a work season that lasted from early spring to late summer” in Victoria and that this migration became a regular part of seasonal cycles of trading and raiding among coastal groups. See Lutz, Makuk , 169-70. 109 Champion, James Champion Journal , 6 June 1902 , bhtla .
bc studies 131
season for packing. 110 Hunting and fishing were fall activities, when the
salmon run arrived and the caribou began to migrate. 111 In 1873 , Indian
superintendent I.W. Powell marvelled that Aboriginal people could be
seen “during the coldest weather working their cradles,” which suggests
a considerable degree of adaptation to the gold rush economy. 112 One
can speculate that Aboriginal mining took place when opportunity and
season allowed. Aboriginal residents’ varied origins and occupations
imply that there may have been multiple cycles at work at any one time
in Barkerville and that seasonal work opportunities may have pushed
Aboriginal people not only towards activities that supplemented mining
but also towards mining itself.
“Lucy Demanded Money; the White Man Said
He Had None”: Aboriginal Women and the
Sex Trade in Barkerville
Just as First Nations men and their economic activities appear sporad -
ically in the documents, hints from the Sentinel suggest that Aboriginal
women were also economically active in Barkerville. For example,
“Kloosh-le-Tete,” who lamented the loss of the Barkerville berry crop
in 1869 , was a St’at’imc or Tsilhqot’in woman living or temporarily
working at Barkerville. In 1874 , an Aboriginal woman named “Betsy”
lost a satchel containing “about $800 in money, specie, and gold rings”
while travelling by stagecoach between Lightning Creek and Barker -
ville. 113 In hopes of reclaiming it, she posted an advertisement in the
Sentinel , which specified that two of the cheques were from the Bank
of British North America, were in her own name, and had been for “the
respective sums of $130 and $100 .”114 The paper did not mention how she
came to obtain such a sum or where she was taking it. The satchel was
found two years later emptied of its money. 115 Betsy’s economic activities
110 This occurred in the spring of 1868 and 1875 . See “How Provoking,” Cariboo Sentinel , 8 June 1868 ; “The Express,” Cariboo Sentinel , 17 April 1875 . 111 For example, the unlucky caribou hunters were attacked by a bear in October. See “Encounter with a Bear,” Cariboo Sentinel , 22 October 1870 ; “The Salmon Run,” Cariboo Sentinel , 25 August 1869 . 112 Dominion of Canada, Annual Report on Indian Affairs for Year Ending 30th June 1872 (Ottawa: I.B. Taylor, 1873 ), 10. 113 “Relics of a Robber y,” Cariboo Sentinel , 12 September 1874 . 114 “L ost,” Cariboo Sentinel , 28 September 1872 . 115 “Relics of a Robber y,” Cariboo Sentinel , 12 September 1874 .
Into That Country to Wor 132
remain a mystery, but the possession of such a large sum of cash suggests
considerable financial influence. 116
Aboriginal women who came into contact with white men through
the sex trade were comparatively more visible (and therefore potentially
better recorded) than were those involved in other forms of work, but
even here the records are either sporadic or of a sensational nature .
The sex trade was referred to in euphemisms or in very vague terms in
Barkerville, just as it was elsewhere in British Columbia, which makes
it difficult to trace in the documents. 117 As Patrick Dunae argues about
Aboriginal prostitution in Victoria, “the motives, identities, and origins
of these women were irrelevant to colonial officials who regarded Abo -
riginal prostitutes as a nuisance.” 118 Moreover, sources rarely define the
actual exchange of sexual services, goods, and cash. As in other gold
mining and frontier towns, these exchanges occurred with varying
degrees of formality, blurring the line between prostitution, consensual
sexual relationships, and sexual abuse. 119 While the details of the sex
trade and its implications for Aboriginal women are difficult to assess,
prostitution appears to have been a form of Aboriginal livelihood in
Barkerville and provided a form of income for some. 120
According to the Victoria Colonist , “degraded ” women of a variety of
ethnicities were already apparent in Barkerville in 1862 . In September of
that year, the Colonist described prostitutes who would “swagger through
the saloons and mining camps with cigars or huge quids of tobacco in
their mouths,” wearing men’s clothing, gambling, and drinking whisky. 121
Richard Wright documents a number of brothels owned and occupied
by women in later years. For example, between 1866 and 1899 , Fanny
116 For a broad view of Aboriginal women’s work, see Carol Williams, ed., Indigenous Women’s Work: From Labour to Activism (Champaign: Universit y of Illinois Press, 2012 ). 117 Patrick Dunae, “Sex, Charades, and Census Records: Locating Female Sex Trade Workers in a Victorian Cit y,” History sociale/Social History 42, 84 (2009 ): 267-97. 118 Patrick Dunae, “Geographies of Sexual Commerce and the Production of Prostitutional Space: Victoria, British Columbia, 1860 –1914 ,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 19, 1 (2008 ): 119. 119 In her sur vey essay on American mining towns and prostitution, Julia Ann Laite obser ves: “It seems that the realit y of women’s engagement with prostitution in mining regions was by no means black and white, and the line bet ween resistance and sur vival often became blurred.” Julia Ann Laite, “Historical Perspectives on Industrial Development, Mining, and Prostitution,” Historical Journal 52, 3 (2009 ): 746. 120 Jean Barman notes “the rapidit y with which Aboriginal women became sexualized as prostitutes in colonial British Columbia.” See Jean Barman, “Taming Aboriginal Sexualit y: Gender, Power, and Race in British Columbia, 1850 -1900 ,” BC Studies 115-16 (1997 -98): 243. Adele Perr y also argues that contact bet ween white men and Aboriginal women tended to be highly sexualized. Adele Perr y, On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race, and the Making of British Columbia 1849 -1871 (Toronto: Universit y of Toronto Press, 2001 ), 49. 121 “The Prostitutes,” Victoria Colonist , 10 September 1862 .
bc studies 133
Bendixen owned and operated a long series of “parlour” and “private”
saloons known to be disorderly houses. 122 However, Sylvia Van Kirk
notes that no easily identifiable brothels existed in the Cariboo, that
prostitution was generally unorganized, that “it was largely Native women
who were exploited as prostitutes,” and that at Barkerville the dominance
of Aboriginal prostitutes explains the profession’s relative invisibility. 123
Despite some examples of “professionalized ” prostitution in Bark -
erville, most of the evidence regarding Aboriginal women implies casual
arrangements pertaining to the sale of sex. That more formal sex-for-pay
establishments existed is hinted at by an 1865 report in the Sentinel. Here,
we may have evidence of a dance hall that employed Aboriginal women.
The newspaper reported on a dispute between James Loring, the owner
of the dance hall, and a man named Pierce. Loring accused Pierce of
plying “the Squaws who [were] employed in Loring’s Dancing Saloon”
with illegal liquor. 124 Richard Wright refers to Loring’s saloon as Loring’s
“Terpsychorean [dancing] Saloon in Cameronton,” where Aboriginal
women were employed and thereafter became “a part of the underside
of Barkerville’s social life, most often surfacing as prostitutes.” 125 Such
evidence hints at the possibility of a formal or semi-formal sex trade
involving Aboriginal women in Barkerville.
More accounts survive of Aboriginal women trading sex for money
or liquor on an informal basis. For example, Lucy Bones was regularly
involved in the sex trade without being explicitly labelled a prostitute
or being associated with disorderly houses. Bones’s illicit dealings are
known only because of her suspicious death in her cabin in the heart
of Barkerville in 1870 . The testimony of witnesses indicates that Lucy
worked regularly in the sex trade. The Sentinel reported the testimony of
“Charlie, an Indian,” as follows: “I was in [Lucy’s] house when a white
man came and asked to sleep there; Lucy demanded money; the white
man said he had none; Lucy told him it was very good if he would get
some cocktails. He went and got one bottle. About midnight he went and
got another bottle.” Charlie’s account indicates that the white man came
122 Richard Wright, Barkerville, Williams Creek, Cariboo: A Gold Rush Experience (Williams Lake: Winter Quarters Press, 1998 ), 48-49; Sylvia Van Kirk, “BENDI XEN, FANN Y,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, Universit y of Toronto/ Université Laval, 2003 , http://www. biographi.ca/en/bio/bendixen_fanny_ 12E.html . 123 Sylvia Van Kirk, “A Vital Presence: Women in the Cariboo Gold Rush, 1862 -1875 ,” in British Columbia Reconsidered: Essays on Women, ed. Gillian Lara Creese and Veronica Strong-Boag (Vancouver: Press Gang, 1992 ), 22. 124 The paper later indicated that the accusations were part of a larger dispute bet ween the t wo men and, therefore, had little to do with Loring’s Aboriginal dancers. See “The Indian Liquor Tr a ffi c ,” Cariboo Sentinel , 14 October 1865 . 125 Wr ight, Barkerville, Williams Creek, Cariboo , 45.
Into That Country to Wor 134
to Lucy’s cabin specifically for sex. The testimony of Charlie Hughes,
the white man mentioned by “Indian Charlie,” is equally explicit. “After
a while I told her I wanted to sleep with her, she told me she wanted
some whiskey,” stated Hughes. 126 Lucy’s request for payment, first in
money and then in liquor, suggests that their relationship was mutually
understood as an exchange. Other accounts are more oblique and blur the line between prostitution
and what may simply have been sexual relationships. An example is
the July 1872 case of A. Clinker and Susan. According to the Sentinel :
“Clinker was brought up on a charge of giving Susan, an Indian woman,
whiskey at Stout’s Gulch. Chief Constable Lindsay said he had gone,
on the previous night, at Harry Wilmott’s request, to Clinker’s cabin,
and found the woman in Clinker’s bed drunk. Found also a bottle
of cocktails.” 127 Lizzie Wilmott, an eight-year-old Aboriginal child,
and a woman named Jeannie both testified in court that Clinker had
also given them alcohol. The result was a thirty-dollar fine assessed to
Clinker. While it is difficult to determine whether Susan was earning
a living by selling sex, that she did so is implied by her being found in
Clinker’s bed. Susan did not fare well in Barkerville. In October 1872 , a
few months after being found in Clinker’s bed, her name again appears
in police court for being “drunk and disorderly and breaking windows
in Barkerville.” Faced with the choice between a ten-dollar fine or three
days’ imprisonment, Susan chose the jail time. 128
In another example of casual sexual contact, in September 1874 a man
named Johnston assaulted Wellington Delany Moses, a barber, for
bragging that he would “take his klootchman [Aboriginal woman] from
h i m.” 129 It is unclear whether the woman in question was a prostitute,
but saloon owner Henry Morgan testified that Moses asked him to break
the law by taking a bottle of whisky to the barn where the Natives were
camped, possibly as payment. He was quick to inform the judge that he
had refused to do so. After fining Johnston, Justice Robertson said that
“it did not look well for [Moses] to be laying around an Indian camp in
sight of the town; and being a strong hearty man … it would be more to
his advantage to go to work and make for himself a good name.” 130 The
126 “Sudden Death and Inquest,” Cariboo Sentinel , 16 July 1870 . 127 “Police Court,” Cariboo Sentinel , 6 July 1872 . 128 Ibid., 5 October 1872 . 129 Moses is well known in Barker ville histor y. He was a black barber who arrived in the 1860 s and ran a successful shop for many years. See “Assault,” Cariboo Sentinel , 5 September 1874 . 130 Ibid.
bc studies 135
examples of Clinker’s and Moses’s “klootchman” demonstrate the dif -
ficulty of separating casual prostitution from other types of relationships.
Prostitution could be a dangerous business. In 1865 , an Aboriginal
woman named “Sophie” was “[taken] … forcibly into [a] house” and
murdered by Donald Livingston, apparently with the help of two
Aboriginal men named “Indian Bill ” and “Indian Jim.” 131 Lucy Bones
died under suspicious circumstances in 1870 , and in 1871 a woman named
Full Moon was beaten with a rock and might have been killed had John
Bowron, the government agent, not intervened. The Sentinel openly
ridiculed Full Moon’s appearance, and her assailant received a mere seven
days’ imprisonment for the assault. 132 Unlike the frequently romanticized
lives of white women in Barkerville, such as the German “Hurdy Gurdy
Girls,” Aboriginal prostitution was fraught with considerable danger. 133
Regardless, the evidence suggests that the sex trade was a part of Bark -
erville’s economy and that Aboriginal women participated in it.
Barkerville’s Place in British Columbia’s
First Nations History
Although much research remains to be done, especially in the colonial
and early government records generated in the mining districts, the
sources surveyed here indicate that Aboriginal people lived and worked
at Barkerville during the gold rush. Indeed, the evidence – either sub -
stantial or elliptical – suggests that Aboriginal people of a variety of
origins in British Columbia came to Barkerville to engage in a range
of occupations, including berry picking, laundry services, packing and
packhorse support, hunting, selling salmon and eulachon, letter-carrying,
mining, and prostitution. Barkerville was a hub of employment, the
economic nucleus of central British Columbia, and members of the
Dakelh, St’at’imc, Tsilhqot’in, Haida, and Coast Salish First Nations
are known to have worked or visited there. 134 While some flourished in
131 “Information,” 1864 , bca , Cariboo West Court Documents, GR 2528 , box 1, file 3; Untitled, 1864 -71, bca , Cariboo West Court Documents , GR 2528 , box 1, file 6. 132 “A s s a u l t ,” Cariboo Sentinel, 22 July 1871 . 133 For a description of the hurdy-gurdy girls, see Wright, Barkerville, 45. Silvia Van Kirk also contrasts the Hurdy Gurdies with Aboriginal prostitutes in Barker ville, concluding that Aboriginal women experienced considerable danger in their profession. Van Kirk cites the deaths of Lucy Bones and another Aboriginal woman, “Jessie, ‘The Flower of Lillooet,’” who was sick and died on the road to Barker ville in 1872 . See Van Kirk, “Vital Presence,” 32. 134 In his gold rush database, Wright names over fort y First Nations people at Barker ville, including Joseph, a Similkameen man; Nellie Bouche, a “Carrier Metis from Fort St James”; and Sarah, a K lickitat woman from Washington State. See Wright, Barkerville and the Cariboo Goldfields , 56, 111.
Into That Country to Wor 136
the gold rush economy, others experienced hardship and poverty as a
result of large-scale changes to British Columbia’s political, social, and
economic landscape.
But many questions remain. How many Aboriginal migrants lived
at Barkerville permanently or seasonally? How did temporary or
permanent work at Barkerville affect traditional Aboriginal trade
networks and cultural practices? Archival and archaeological research
should help answer these questions. In a broad sense, evidence of an
Aboriginal presence at Barkerville contributes to the larger history of
Aboriginal economies in British Columbia and resonates especially with
Lutz’s moditional framework: Aboriginal people came to Barkerville
to engage in a mix of capitalist and subsistence work. In thinking and
writing about Aboriginal modes of production in the colonial economy,
Lutz and other historians of the province’s first people provide valuable
models and precedents for examining Aboriginal work at Barkerville.
The evidence presented here indicates that, in the 1860 s and 1870 s, a
Dakelh group was decimated by disease at nearby Bowron Lake, while
a number of various other BC First Nations came to Barkerville to
trade or to work. Aboriginal people chose to move, work, and live in
ways that responded to the gold rush and a rapidly advancing colonial
economy.
bc studies
