The Terror of the Coast. Chris Arnett
of the aboriginal inhabitants, most of whom, at this time of year, would have been absent at the Fraser River sockeye fishery.
Within days of the return of the Hwunitum explorers, Douglas and Pemberton devised a “make-shift pre-emption system,” which was limited to the unsurveyed land of Hul’qumi’num First Nations in the Chemainus Valley and on Salt Spring Island. 41
Douglas deliberately aimed the first pre-emption system in western Canada directly at the territories owned by those most actively opposed to Hwunitum settlement. The open prairie land of Hwtlelum (place having salt), on the north east side of Salt Spring Island, chosen by the Hwunitum as an ideal site for settlement, was an important food-gathering area used by Lamalcha and Penelakut families. The resources of the Chemainus River were also accessed by families from Kuper Island, and the valley itself was home to the Halalt and other people. 42 Douglas hoped that his unofficial pre-emption strategy would satisfy the unemployed miners-turned-settlers and, at the same time, establish de facto Hwunitum presence in unceded Hwulmuhw territories.
The colonial government’s pre-emption policy within the unceded territories of Hul’qumi’num First Nations “was never officially proclaimed, nor was its authorization sought from the Imperial Government” possibly because Douglas knew that it was illegal. 43 In official correspondence to the Colonial Office Douglas only asked for authorization to apply the new pre-emption strategy to vacant lands already ceded by Hwulmuhw in the treaties of 1850, 1852, and 1854—lands that were, by and large, unsuitable for agriculture. 44 This suggests that Douglas, frustrated by Hwulmuhw unwillingness to part with their lands, planned to circumvent the land sale agreement process to provoke reaction from militant Hwulmuhw factions which would, in turn, allow for military retaliation and the forceful alienation of their lands without agreement. Douglas seemed confident that any Hwulmuhw resistance would be futile.
Once again, the British chose the time of year when the majority of Hul’qumi’num First Nations would be involved in the sockeye fishery at the Fraser River.
On July 26, 1859, Pemberton informed Copland that he had received the names of twenty-five persons “for whom you are agent and who apply through you for permission to settle on the unsurveyed lands of Tuam or Salt Spring Island … The permission asked for I am empowered to give.” Pemberton added that “none of these persons shall occupy or allow other persons to occupy lands at any time occupied by Indians,” an interesting caveat given that all of the land in question was unceded and owned by numerous families. 45
On July 27, 1859, eighteen men left Victoria on board the Nanaimo Packet for the fertile prairies of Hwtlelum on Salt Spring Island. 46 Due to the shoaling sandstone shoreline, the schooner landed them on a sandy beach two miles south, the site of a major Hwulmuhw clam harvesting and processing site which the Hwunitum named “Walker’s Hook,” after Edward Walker, master of the Nanaimo Packet. After exploring the land they “drew choices of [lot] selection.” 47
When the Penelakut and Lamalcha returned to their villages on Kuper Island, there was anger over the unannounced arrival of Hwunitum in their midst. In light of information received from Jonathan Begg, the New Westminster Daily Times wrote:
We have to urge upon the Government the necessity of some immediate measures being adopted to settle the Indian claims, if any exist, upon these islands as the settlers are subjected to constant annoyance and insult from these claimants more especially by the “Penalichar [Penelakut] tribe,” who boldly tell the settlers that the Island is their’s, and that Gov. Douglas has “cap-swallowed” it, which, in the elegant Chinook jargon (we believe), means stolen it. The subject deserves immediate attention. 48
On the southern part of the island, where 5,000 acres had been surveyed between Hwaaqwum (Burgoyne Bay) and Hwne’nuts (Fulford Harbour), Douglas promised compensation to Tsoiclum, the Clemclemalits si’em whose family owned the land and resources in the Burgoyne Valley, on condition that he leave. 49 According to Robert Akerman, a descendant:
My Grandmother [Tuha’wiye] said that Douglas promised her dad [Tsoiclum] compensation for the Burgoyne Valley if he’d leave it and go back to his camp at Cowichan Bay. So he left … Douglas must have recognized that the Indians owned the land or why else would he offer to buy it. 50
Local opposition to the Hwunitum settlements at Hwaaqwum and Hwtlelum on Salt Spring Island was soon tempered by marriage between many of the settlers to the daughters of local si’em from Penelakut and elsewhere. At Hwtlelum (Salt Spring Settlement), one of the settlers, Henry Sampson, eventually married Lucy, the daughter of Hulkalatkstun, a si’em at Penelakut. 51 Others followed his example. The Anglican Bishop George Hills, visiting the settlement a year later, found “sixteen settlers mostly young men” and observed that “nearly all are living with Indian women.” 52 Intermarriage made legitimate, according to Hwulmuhw custom, Hwunitum occupation of family-owned lands. The rights to the land and access to local resources “came” with the women upon marriage and were transferred to the men. 53
Similarly, in the Burgoyne Valley marriages between Roman Catholic Hwunitum settlers such as Michael Gyves, Theodore Traige and John Maxwell, and the daughters of Clemclemalits si’em, allowed these men to occupy their claims unmolested. 54
Other Hwunitum on Salt Spring Island who did not marry into Hwulmuhw families were tolerated because of their value as trading partners. Jonathan Begg followed the example of Samuel Harris at Cowichan Bay and opened a trading post on his north end claim, catering not only to the settlers but to nearby Hwulmuhw clients. In a March 10, 1860, letter to family in the United States, he boasted that: “It is very cheap living here as the Indians who are very useful and very good to white men bring us large quantities of the best the water, woods and forest can produce for a mere song.” 55 Begg’s store and farm became such a fixture that the Salt Spring settlement on the north end of the island was often referred to as Begg’s Settlement.
The Salt Spring Island Stone Company Ltd. laid claim to a thousand acres of land encompassing the entire northwest tip of the island, a region characterized by dry rocky outcrops, forested ravines, and little arable land. Owned by Lamalcha and Penelakut families who “had shacks here and there,” this area was valued for the hunting of deer and elk and the gathering of food plants and other resources. 56 Pqunup (Southey Point, Cupple’s Beach) was an important clam digging area and the site of a burial ground. 57 The stone cutters’ claim was technically made up of five lots but because the area was controlled by the Lamalcha it remained unsur-veyed and the four or five Englishmen employed by the company occupied only a tiny area of the shoreline north of Stonecutter’s Bay on the west side of the island. How the company managed to occupy traditional Lamalcha territory is not known but it seems likely that some sort of payment or mutually beneficial agreement was made.
The Salt Spring Island Stone Company may have commenced operations as early as 1859 under the direction of John Lee, “a first class mechanic who understood stone as anyone would bread and butter.” He and his four co-workers “true to nature and instinct … built a house of stone,” parts of which still stand at the top of a sloping incline above the shore where they cut sandstone blocks. 58 The stonecutters understood too well their precarious situation; archaeological investigations of their stone house reveal blocks of stone specially cut to provide embrasures for rifles fitted into the wall facing the sea. 59
At the Admiralty Bay settlement, which spread across the centre of the island, there was much less tolerance towards the newcomers. The lands occupied by Hwunitum and qihuye’ (black) settlers encompassed Shiyahwt (Admiralty Bay) and Stulan (Booth Canal), both of which were important camps and food-gathering areas accessed by Hul’qumi’num First Nations. According to Lamalcha elder Henry Edwards, “People from all over go there [Shiyahwt] to harvest seafood. Families had cabins built all along the shore—each one had a smokehouse for clams, herring, ducks [and] seal. People from Lamalcha, Penelakut, Valdez, Saanich people, all went to Shiyahwt.” 60 The land between the head of Booth Canal and Admiralty Bay (now Ganges Harbour) was used as a canoe portage by Lamalcha families. According to Roy Edwards, “They used