history short answer
HSTR 324B Powerpoint Notes 6 July
Introduction
British Columbia, 1849-1900
HSTR 324B
Instructor: Jenny Clayton
July 2017
Canada, a recent development
Image: Canada 150 years, Anishinaabe 13000 years
Wahsay Pyawasit, Batchewana First Nation, Ontario
1849-1900: Becoming British Columbia
Transformations:
Control over territory
Population composition
Political and legal systems
Land ownership
Land use
Transportation and communication
Resource extraction
Consequences…
Colonizing Vancouver Island
Establishing Fort Victoria
Creating a border
Colony
Treaties
Settlement schemes
Image: Paul Kane, Return of a War Party, 1847
Gold rushes
Influx of miners
Conflicts over land and resources
Establishment of mainland colony
Smallpox, 1862
Guest lecture on Tsilhqot’in War by Dr. John Lutz
(11 July)
Image: William Hind, Prospecting for Alluvial Gold in BC, 1864
Missions
Missionary project
Indigenous perspectives on Christianity
Image: Metlakatla
Resettlement
Pre-emption
Gender and state formation
Resistance to resettlement
Image: Ruckle family of Saltspring Island
Political developments
Union of Vancouver Island and the Mainland
Joining Confederation, 1871
Party politics
Restriction of rights for First Nations and Chinese residents
Reserve policy
Industrialization
Transcontinental railway
Coal, Lumber, Salmon
Image: Train at the summit of Roger’s Pass
Chinese settlement
Living in Victoria – segregation and integration
Overseas Chinese and political events in China
Image: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association building, Victoria, BC (BC Archives, D-05246)
What are the requirements?
Textbook readings in Barman, West Beyond the West
Participation (20%)
Journal articles + primary sources
4 seminar discussions (groups A and B)
In-class discussions
Research Project
Primary source analysis, 13 July (10%)
Research essay, 21 July (35%)
Final exam in class 27 July (35%)
Lecture: Pacific Northwest to 1840
Indigenous people have lived here for at least 15,000 years
Up to 50 different languages spoken here in the mid-18th century
About 30 languages survived to the present
Pre-contact pop est: 200,000 to 300,000 people
Extensive Trading Networks
Images: Obsidian; Eulachon drying on racks in Fishery Bay, Tsimshian territory.
Potlatch
Gift-giving feast to recognize important social events
Banned from 1884-1951
Image: Goods to be given away at a potlatch at Alert Bay, 1900.
BC Archives, H-03976.
Resource ownership and management
Fishing sites
Plant cultivation
Clam gardens
Images: Berry pickers in Hazelton; Fishing weir on the Cowichan River.
Precursors to Contact
Horses
Smallpox (1775-82)
European Interest
1740-1774: Russian and Spanish expeditions
1778: Captain Cook at Nootka Sound
1790-94: Spanish and British mapping
1793-1811: North West Company partners mapping rivers
Maritime Fur Trade, 1785-1825
Images: Yuquot, Sea Otter, North West Coast Trade, 1790-1840 (from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10015768)
Overland Fur Trade
NWC forts west of the Rocky Mountains, 1806-1843
Fur traders and Indigenous women
Power relations in the fur trade
Lecture July 6
Colonizing Vancouver Island, 1843-1858
Settler Colonialism
“a distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that, over time, develops a distinctive identity and sovereignty.”
https://globalsocialtheory.org/concepts/settler-colonialism/
In other words…
“In the simplest terms, settler colonists went, and go, to new lands to appropriate them and to establish new and improved replicas of the societies they left. As a result Indigenous peoples have found an ever-decreasing place for themselves in settler colonies as changing demographics enabled ever more extensive dispossession. Settlers, in the end, tended not to emigrate to assimilate into Indigenous societies, but rather emigrated to replace them.”
… Indigenous people came to be treated as legally and socially anomalous in their own lands. As such… self-consciously benign sounding policies of assimilation, merging, absorption or protection heralded a range of legally sanctioned practices whose goal of abolishing Indigenous peoples’ languages, histories and identities are increasingly identified as genocidal.”
Mar and Edmonds in Making Settler Colonial Space, 2-3.
1821 – merger of HBC and NWCo
1825 – settlement of Russian territory to include panhandle south to 54º40’
1824 – Fort Vancouver
1828 – Fort Langley
1830s – American settlement in Oregon territory
1838 – American claim north to 54º40’
1843 – transfer southern base to Vancouver Island
Map of First Nations in Victoria area:
http://acitygoestowar.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Map-3-A-Straits-Territories-1JPEG.jpg
Encountering a “perfect Eden”
Lekwungen territory appeared park-like to Douglas
Thought the site looked more like a “perfect close sward of a well managed lea, than the produce of an uncultivated waste”
Images: James Douglas, Camas plant at Uplands Park
Lekwungen Labour
Economic system of reef-net fishing
40 pickets 22 feet for 1 blanket
Other work by Lekwungen:
Agricultural
Mail delivery
Food provision
Images: Sketch of Fort Victoria, 1854 (BC Archives, A-04104) Reef net fishing: http://staff.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/2016/12/21/the-archaeology-and-history-of-macaulay-point/
Payment in blankets
Wealth items
Wool of dogs and mountain goats
Wool cleaned, carded, spun, woven
Images: Paul Kane, (Clallam) Woman Weaving a Blanket (1848-56); blanket with woolly dog hair from Burke Museum
Reorientation around the fort
1843 – Lekwungen moved from village sites in Esquimalt and Cadboro Bay to be near the fort
1844 – fire behind Lekwungen village, Finlayson forced them to move across harbour
Controlled the trade at the fort with other First Nations, became known as Songhees
Paul Kane, “Return of a War Party,” 1847: Songhees village and Fort Victoria
Dividing up the land among Colonial powers
1843-45 – hundreds of settlers into Oregon Territory
Democratic candidate James Polk campaigning on slogan of 54-40
1845-48 – US at war with Mexico, annexation of Texas, New Mexico, California
1846 – Britain and US sign Oregon Treaty
1849 – est of colony of Vancouver Island
Establishing a colony
HBC has to leave area south of 49th parallel
Has right to trade on mainland, not Vancouver Island
HBC asked Britain for jurisdiction over VI in exchange for promoting colonization
Britain hesitant to est. more colonies
How could colony be independent from HBC?
How could colony not be a drain on Britain?
How might HBC have to change approach?
What might be impacts on Indigenous nations?
Colony of Vancouver Island, 1849
Colony granted to HBC for 10 years
HBC must:
Allow Colonial Office to appoint a governor
Create one or more settlements of British colonists by 1854
Redirect 90% of land sales into infrastructure
1856: General Assembly (43 voters, 7 members – 5 with ties to HBC)
Images: Richard Blanshard, resided in colony as Governor from March 1850 to September 1851
Purchasing Indigenous lands and recruiting settlers
Douglas Treaties, 1849-1854
Wakefield system of colonization
Image: Linton, Victoria, on Vancouver Island, 1857 (BC Archives, G-03249)
HBC farming operations
Puget Sound Agricultural Co.
Est. Craigflower farm in 1853, managed by Kenneth McKenzie
-major crop was wheat – biscuits for Royal Navy (supplied needs in 1854)
Helmcken: “Indeed from the very commencement of the settlement until now [1892] the Colony has never supplied itself with ordinary necessities.”
Diary of Robert Melrose, Scottish worker on Craigflower Farm, May 1856
S. 4 American Sloop of war “Decatur” sailed Puget Sound.
Tu. 6 Very warm weather.
We. 7 S.S. “Otter” sailed Bellvue [San Juan Island] with a cargo of horses.
Fr. 9 Great discoveries of gold in different parts of the Island.
Sa. 10 John Instant ¾ D. Brick-kiln burnt off.
S. 11 Refreshing rain.
Mo. 12 One sheep killed.
Tu. 13 American S.S. “John Hancock” visited Esquimalt.
Fr. 16 Brig “Recovery” arrived from San Francisco. Five sheep killed.
Sa. 17 John Instant dropped work.
S. 18 Mrs. Captain Cooper gave birth to a female child.
Tu. 20 Duncan Lidgate, John Instant, & Robert Laing apprehended for shooting into Mr. McKenzie’s house.
Th. 22 Three sheep killed by dogs.
Fr. 23 Five sheep killed.
Sa. 24 Victoria Races celebrated on Beacon Hill. Duncan Lidgate, John Instant, and Robert Laing bailed out of prison.
Results of HBC Colonization of Vancouver Island
180 settlers bought land on southern Vancouver Island between 1851 and 1858
The HBC sent out 641 immigrants (mostly workers) from Britain to the island between 1848-1854
About 400 of these immigrants stayed in the colony
Indigenous population of VI in 1856: 25,873
Settler population of VI in 1854: 774 (up from 30, 6 years earlier)
Colonists had settled in Victoria, Esquimalt, Sooke, Metchosin, San Juan Island, Nanaimo, Fort Rupert
Questions for Discussion: Land purchases on VI and James Douglas’s Native Land Policy
What was agreed to in the written treaties?
What motivated Douglas to purchase land?
Do you think these were legitimate treaties?
How did local First Nations view the land purchases/ceremonies?
How and why did Douglas’ Native land policies change over time?
How did his approach differ from those who came after?
Were alternative approaches possible?
Researching the First Assignment
Primary Source Analysis
What kind of document is this, where and when was it written?
Who was the author? Provide a brief introduction.
Summarize the contents: what does the source tell you about the topic?
Why do you think the author wrote this text?
In what ways does the document present a particular point of view or bias? Does it include certain information while potentially omitting other information? For example, does the position of the author (“race,” class or gender) or the purpose for which the text was produced, affect the way the document was written?
What did you find particularly interesting about this source? Did anything surprise you? Was anything unclear?
What questions did this document raise for you? These questions may help guide your research paper.
Secondary Sources
Books or articles written by historians
Books are generally published by a university press, and scholarly articles should be peer-reviewed
For articles, the best place to search is the database, America: History and Life (select for peer-reviewed articles)
Should be at least 15 pages long
Must have footnotes, or otherwise reference all evidence to specific sources
Should be published after 1985
