The Terror of the Coast. Chris Arnett
want to talk to you and your people about this coal,” he said. “We will have a meeting. You and all your people, and you must get another chief and his people, and on a certain day we will all talk this thing over.”
So my father, Chief Suquen-Es-Then, called all his people, and he told another chief, whose name was Chief Schwun-Schn, to call his tribe, and together they went to the meeting.”
Now, you know where the big wharf is now—where the steamers come? Well, down there is a rock, in the water. In those old days it was part of the land, and at that place was a very big house. To that house there went all the Hudson’s Bay men, and the two chiefs with their people.
Here Quen-Es-Then interrupted. “I was at that meeting,” he said, “I can remember all the people in that house, and lots outside, but I was only a small boy standing beside my father.”
Then the Hudson’s Bay men talked to the Indians. “This coal that is here,” they said, “is no good to you, and we would like it; but we want to be friends, so, if you will let us come and take as much of this black rock as we want, we will be good to you.” They told my father, “The good Queen, our great white chief, far over the water, will look after your people for all time, and they will be given much money, so that they will never be poor.”
Then they gave each chief a bale of Hudson’s Bay blankets and a lot of shirts and tobacco, just like rope! “These are presents for you and your people, to show we are your good friends,” they said. The chiefs took the things and they cut the blankets, which were double ones, in half, to make more, and gave one to every chief man, then the shirts, and to those who were left they gave pieces of the rope tobacco; so that every man in the tribes had a present.
“Now you know,” said Tstass-Aya, “we think there was some mistake made at that meeting, or, maybe, the people could not understand properly what was said; but later, when our people asked for some of the money for their coal, the Hudson’s Bay men said to them,”Oh, we paid you when we gave you those good blankets!” But those two chiefs knew that the man had said, “The Queen will give you money.” 89
According to the Nanaimo version of the agreement, Douglas made verbal promises that were not honoured. The New Zealand-derived conveyance form, if it was ever attached to the Nanaimo agreement, has since been lost. However, it seems probable that the same provisions were included and that “the conveyance obtained in 1854 was obtained on the strength of a promise that the Indians would be entitled to retain their village sites and enclosed fields, and the Indians would have the right to hunt over the unoccupied lands, as well as to carry on their fisheries as before.” 90 In short, they would retain their sovereignty and jurisdiction over their people and lands.
That the Nanaimo signatories were familiar with the text of the deed of conveyance is strongly suggested in the wording of an address given by Nanaimo si’em to Douglas’ successor Arthur Kennedy, on the subject of land alienation on November 15, 1864:
We want to keep our land here and up the river … All our other land is gone, and we have been paid very little for it. God gave it to us a long time ago, and now we are very poor, and do not know where our houses will be if we leave this. We want our land up the river to plant for food. Mr. Douglas said it would be ours, and our children’s after we are gone. 91
In other words, the Nanaimo were demanding that the government live up to the promise of the 1854 “Douglas Treaty,” that villages, fields, and food gathering areas would, as the deed of conveyance put it, “be kept for our own use, for the use of our children, and for those who may follow after us.” 92
With the arrival of the Staffordshire miners and the Nanaimo land sale agreement in place, the coal-mining operations began in earnest to supply company steamers and, increasingly, warships of the Royal Navy on patrol and survey duties for the imperial government. 1854 not only heralded the first ceded territories among Hul’qumi’num-speaking people (the Saalaquun), but also marked the beginning, thanks to the Crimean War, of the naval base in Esquimalt where a hospital had been constructed in expectation of casualties following an allied assault on the Petrovask Peninsula. More than the bastion looming over Colvilletown, the formidable, increasingly frequent appearance of Royal Navy warships coaling at the docking facilities below served to discourage Hwulmuhw resistance to Hwunitum newcomers.
The town of Colvilletown, soon to be called Nanaimo, grew to be the second largest Hwunitum settlement in the Colony of Vancouver Island. In addition to its coaling facilities, the town’s proximity to the heartland of Hul’qumi’num First Nations made it an important trading and distribution centre for Hwunitum goods, not the least of which was alcohol.
Alcohol was an important trade item, highly valued and eagerly sought by Hwulmuhw. It had become a symbol of wealth: one gallon was equal to two threepoint Hudson’s Bay blankets. 93 Its consumption permeated many aspects of Hwulmuhw culture, including the stlun’uq (potlatch) and funerals. Amidst the disruption of traditional society, “drunkenness appeared as a desireable thing which outweighed its unpleasant consequences. It had preeminent value in the feast situation. The more intoxicated the guests became, the more conspicuously did they attest to the strength of the host’s liquor and to their wealth which permitted them to be so lavish with hard-to-come-by whiskey and rum.” 94
Colonial legislation “prohibiting the Gift or Sale of Spiritous Liquors to Indians” was introduced by Douglas and approved by the Council of the Colony of Vancouver Island on August 3, 1854, but despite this measure the illegal trade in alcohol to Hwulmuhw continued unabated. 95 Liquor consumption by Hwunitum was widespread and the profits associated with bootlegging too attractive. Commenting on the constant traffic of coastal schooners over the following decade, a former dealer stated that it “was potent to anyone of common sense that the main objective of these vessels making voyages is for gain by whiskey selling.” 96
Between 1850 and 1854, the Hudson’s Bay Company, with increasing difficulty, negotiated fourteen land sale agreements with aboriginal people on Vancouver’s Island. The Colony of Vancouver Island composed eight districts created from these lands, but the 1854 agreement at Nanaimo would be the last of the “Douglas Treaties.” With Nanaimo to the north and Victoria to the south, the unceded territories of Hul’qumi’num First Nations along the east coast of Vancouver Island were flanked by centres of Hwunitum power and influence, who were increasingly envious of the rich agricultural lands along the Cowichan and Chemainus Rivers and the large offshore island known to the Hwunitum as Chuan or Salt Spring.
Kenipsen, Cowichan Bay, 1934. Birthplace and residence of the famous Cowichan warrior Tzouhalem.
Royal British Columbia Museum, Photo 6047
Clemclemalits, 1984. One of the larger Cowichan villages, families from Clemclemalits owned lands and resources on the south end of Salt Spring Island. In 1853, a si’em from the village killed Peter Brown, a Hudson’s Bay Company employee. Douglas accepted a slave substitute to settle the dispute.
Photo by Chris Arnett
Interior of Fort Victoria. Site of the land sale agreements of 1850 and 1852 by which Hwulmuhw on southern Vancouver Island, from Sooke to North Saanich, ceded their lands to Hwunitum.
British Columbia Archives and Records Service, Photo HP 10601
Chapter Three
The Imperial Chain
South of the Colony of Vancouver Island, across Juan de Fuca Strait in the Washington Territory, the influx of 4,000 Hwunitum to the shores of Puget Sound set the stage for an escalation of inter-racial conflict. Although Dwamish, Suquamish, and other native leaders made treaties with the newcomers, other leaders such as Leschi of the Nisqually waged