The Terror of the Coast. Chris Arnett

      Early map (c. 1860) of Hwunitum occupation of lands on Salt Spring Island between Booth Canal and Ganges Harbour (Admiral’s Harbour). The Lamalcha canoe skid may have followed the route of the public road between lots 2 and 3.

      Courtesy of Salt Spring Island Archives

      At Shiyahwt, shortly after the Hwunitum occupied their claims, Hwulmuhw owners arrived and erected houses along the beach at the head of the harbour to remind the settlers of the true ownership of the land. ⁶² Henry Lineker, whose two hundred acre claim occupied the Lamalcha canoe portage, built the first house in the Admiralty Bay settlement in November 1859, but his family was often visited by Lamalcha people who made themselves at home in the family’s log cabin:

      Bands of Indians might come to the cabin and quite fill up the small space. Before the fire they would sit perhaps a whole day, for no one dared ask them to move. They talked among themselves, and intimated by suggestively drawing a hand across the throat, what would happen to the unlucky mortal who ventured to disturb them. The family did not stay very long on the island. ⁶³

      Another Hwunitum settler, James Shaw, took up land on the east side of the island in December 1859, cleared some land, built a house and planted potatoes, but within months was forced to leave when he found his claim “inconvenient and unprotected from Indians” who continued to access their lands despite his residence. ⁶⁴

      At least six qihuye’ families, recently immigrated from the United States, also took up land in the vicinity at the Admiralty Bay settlement towards Vesuvius Bay. ⁶⁵ They did not intermarry with Hwulmuhw and their presence was likewise only barely tolerated. A few months after their arrival in early 1860, Lamalcha or Penelakut warriors robbed “some of the black settlers” at the “Ganges Harbour settlement.” ⁶⁶ Black or white, those settlers lacking marriage or economic ties to Hwulmuhw had no rights to the land and the resources and were fair game for depredation. The Lamalcha, in particular, “would await settlers landing at Vesuvius Bay with their sacks and boxes of supplies—swoop down and depart with the supplies before the startled settler knew what had happened.” ⁶⁷ The hostility directed towards the Hwunitum by the true owners of the land was the main reason for the high absenteeism and turnover of Hwunitum pre-emptions on Salt Spring Island. ⁶⁸

      A short time after the Salt Spring pre-emptions, another two hundred and twelve Hwunitum applied for pre-emption rights in the Chemainus Valley. A survey was made of the valley between August 11 and August 25, 1859, while the majority of Hwulmuhw inhabitants were absent at the Fraser River. ⁶⁹ It was soon revealed that the government had greatly overestimated the amount of suitable agricultural land in the Chemainus Valley, much of which was “heavy timbered land” confined by precipitous slopes to within three miles of the shore. There was barely enough arable land to accommodate the needs of twenty-five Hwunitum, let alone two hundred and twelve, and much of it was occupied by Hwulmuhw potato fields. ⁷⁰

      In the middle of November 1859, Robert Watson and thirteen other pre-emptors “laid in about twelve months provisions and started for Chemainus, with the intention of making it our home on our arrival.” ⁷¹ They arrived as the winter dances were beginning, and the villages on the Chemainus River (at Halalt on Willy Island) and at Lamalcha on Kuper Island were full. The Hwunitum were watched and not made welcome. Eventually they were forced to leave. According to Watson:

      … we experienced considerable difficulty with the Indians, as they did not wish us to settle on the land until they were paid for it, as there were only certain portions they would allow us to settle on. Only six of the party remained. I then accompanied one of the Chiefs to the Governor to have our reasons for being there explained to them. The Governor made him some trifling presents which smothered matters a little for some time, when the party went to work, built houses, and prepared a large amount of fencing, with a view to putting in crops for the spring. About the latter end of February [1860] the settlers were informed by the friendly portion of the Indians, that their Indians meditated taking our lives. The whole party returned to Victoria with the expectation that some settlement would be made with the Indians in time to allow us getting in spring seeds, but after purchasing cattle, ploughs, and other necessary implements and seed, we were informed that although the Government was favourable to the settlement, and wished us to go on with our improvements, that they had no money at their disposal to extinguish the Indian title, without which I consider the land system only a farce, as the Indians occupy all the fronts of the small valleys, and their potato patches, although not exceeding ten acres, spread over as many thousand acres … I am not one of those who attach all blame to the Governor in retarding settlement of the colony; it is those legislators that refuse the necessary means to extinguish the Indian title to the soil that keeps Cowichan and Chemainus from being thriving settlements instead of as they now are—merely hunting grounds for the red man. ⁷²

      As Watson reveals, Douglas made some sort of promise to local si’em but it was not carried through and the settlers were forced to leave their claims. Commenting on the eviction of the Chemainus Valley settlers, the Victoria Gazette of April 13, 1860, recognized the need to extinguish Hwulmuhw title as “a pragmatic political gesture rather than a strict legal necessity”: ⁷³

      However much the title may be disputed, it is and has been usual to subsidize the Indian upon taking possession of his patrimony, and thus while denying a right de jure, admitting it de facto. The system of giving presents for purchase of or in exchange for lands, is attended with the happiest results. By it the friendship of the Indian is gained, he is convinced of our honour, justice, and integrity, and his confidence is at once acquired. The injurious effects of non-extinguishment of title in other districts is shown by the fact of Chemainus settlers having been obliged to leave that part of the country. To suppress a serious broil and bring the offenders to justice would cost more than the sum required to extinguish the title and gain the confidence of the native. Economy invites the Indian title to be extinguished, custom calls for it … We ask the Executive at once to extinguish the title to the land in the Chemainus district … Do it now, for it can be done at small cost. But let priests and missionaries once gain the ear of the Indian then farewell to so easy and so inexpensive an arrangement. ⁷⁴

      However, money was not the issue. The aboriginal owners of the Chemainus Valley wanted to keep their lands and had set aside areas for Hwunitum settlement. Robert Watson accompanied a si’em to Victoria, where Douglas assured them that he would make a land sale agreement with the Halalt, Chemainus, Sickameen, Penelakut, and Lamalcha owners that would recognize their rights to their lands and resources. Douglas presented the si’em with gifts in recognition of his promise, but did not act on his word.

      As a Victoria newspaper later observed, “promises were made both to Indians and settlers that compensation should be paid to the former for the loss of their summer homesteads, potato plots, and fishing stations, and broken and broken again; and to this day the redskin and the white man have not had that justice which common sense, truth, and honour ought to have compelled the Government to give them, without one day’s necessary delay.” ⁷⁵

      In