Ted Hewlett | University of British Columbia (original) (raw)

Papers by Ted Hewlett

This thesis deals with a disturbance which broke out in April of 1864 when a group of ChJLlcotin ... more This thesis deals with a disturbance which broke out in April of 1864 when a group of ChJLlcotin Indians massacred seventeen^workmen on a trail being built from Bute Inlet to the interior of British Columbia, The main endeavours of this thesis are three-fold. It seeks to provide an accurate account of the main events: the killings and the para-military expeditions which resulted from them. It attempts to establish as far as possible the causes of the massacres. Finally, it examines the attitudes of whites towards the Indians as revealed in the actions they took and the views they expressed in connection with the uprising and the resulting expeditions to the Chilcotin territory. Published and unpublished primary source material has given a detailed and verifiable picture of the events of the Chilcotin Uprising, and of various background events. It has revealed, besides, the verbal reactions of many whites and even of Indians who were involved. To seek the underlying causes of the uprising and to get a clear view of white attitudes it has been necessary to probe both ChUcotln and European backgrounds. The studies of others have helped to shed light on Chilcotin society prior to the time of the uprising, on European thought as it developed in the Nineteenth Century, and on the general development of relationships between the white man and the Indian in British Columbia up to the period with which this thesis deals. Iii-C ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my indebtedness to the staff of the Provincial Archives, particularly to Mr. George Newell, whose suggestions first led me to sources on the Chilcotin Uprising. I also owe much to the staff of the Special Collections Division of the library of the University of British Columbia. My thanks is due also to Dr. M. Ormsby and Mr. K. Ralston of the History Department of the University of British Columbia for benefit of their time spent and experienced advice given. Especially I wish to thank my advisor, Dr. R. V. Kubicek, who made me aware of the possibilities of a study of Indian-white relationships and white attitudes to Indians. His constructive criticism, encouragement, and stimulus to thought during the time I have spent writing this thesis have been much appreciated. iv PREFACE This thesis deals with a disturbance which broke out in April of 1864 when a group of Chilcotin Indians massacred seventeen workmen on a trail being built from Bute Inlet to the interior of British Columbia. The Chilcotin Uprising at the time it occurred startled and shocked practically the whole white population of colonial British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Overwhelmingly outnumbered by the Indians, the whites were bound to take seriously any uprising which might threaten to become an Indian war such as the Americans to the south had experienced. The further killings which followed the initial massacre and the adventures and rumoured adventures of the resulting expeditions to the Chilcotin territory gained much public notice and for many months took up most of the attention of Governor Seymour and the top officials of the infant colony of British Columbia. As time went on and it became evident that the uprising was unlikely to involve more of the native population than a portion of the Chilcotin tribe, the white colonists became increasingly concerned at the, to them, enormous cost of the extensive operations in Chilcotin territory. Today, though neither its threat to the European populace nor its effect on the colonial budget seem in retrospect to be important, the Chilcotin Uprising is of significance for other reasons. The story of the Chilcotin Uprising is the best-documented account of conflict between Indians and whites in British Columbia. Accounts published in the Nineteenth Century together with a large amount of V unpublished material give a detailed and verifiable picture of the events of the uprising. We also have detailed narratives of various background events, and of the verbal reactions of the whites and even of Indians who were involved. Variously referred to in the accounts of the time as a series of massacres, as an insurrection, and as a war, the Chilcotin Uprising was the type of reaction to the inroads of Europeans which certain modern historians would prefer to label as a "resistance," I have chosen "uprising" as a term I consider adequately descriptive yet not reflecting any particular theory of social action. The main endeavours of this thesis are three-fold. It seeks to provide an accurate account of the main events: the killings and the para-military expeditions which resulted from them. This has seemed to be of considerable importance, since no narrative of the uprising exists which tells all the events as accurately as available documents enable one to do today. A second thing this thesis attempts is to establish as far as is possible the causes of the massacres which occurred. The immediate cause was discovered by the enquiries of Judge Begbie after the surrender of a number of the Chilcotins involved in the uprising. The underlying causes, though not so obvious at the time, throw a good deal of light on the reaction of one group of native people to the Europeans whom they encountered. The third main task of this thesis has been to examine the attitudes of whites towards the Indians as revealed in the actions they took and the views they expressed in connection with the uprising and the resulting expeditions to the Chilcotin territory. vi To seek the underlying causes of the uprising and to get a clear view of white attitudes it has been necessary to probe both Chilcotin and European backgrounds. It has only been possible to do this, of course, because others have carried out studies-historical, anthropological, and sociological in nature-which have shed light on Chilcotin society prior to the time of the massacres, on European thought as it developed in the Nineteenth Century, and on the general development of relationships between white man and Indian in British Columbia up to the period with which this thesis deals. The early historiography of the Chilcotin Uprising I have discussed in the bibliographical essay which accompanies this thesis. Seymour's despatches to Cardwell contain the most accurate account of all the major events of the Uprising. All other contemporary accounts of the Uprising are only partial. Lundin Brown's is the most complete and accurate published account of the nineteenth century, but is not to be completely relied on. Twentieth century accounts are either popularized versions of limited accuracy which have appeared in newspapers or periodicals or are necessarily curtailed in their scope because the Chilcotin Uprising is narrated as an event of limited significance in the history of British Columbia as a whole. F. W. Howay in British Columbia from the Earliest Times to the Present gives a fairly full and accurate account, but there are a number of factual errors in his work. This thesis attempts to give a more detailed and accurate account of the events than has been given in the past. At the same time, though it is centred around one tribe and a single set of events, it is hoped it may, along with the studies of others, contribute to a greater understanding of the development of Indian-white relationships. vii It seems impossible to make an estimate of any great reliability for the population of the Chilcotins at any time during the period with which we are concerned. The population of the Chilcotins before contact with whites is a matter of very doubtful conjecture. Kroeber, following MoOney, gives an estimate of 2,500"^, but Lane gives what appear to be very valid reasons for rejecting this figure as giving much too high a population density.^ Lane's own estimate for the population of the pre-nineteenth-century 12 Chilcotins is a figure of from 1000 to 1500 , which seems a more probable number in view of the extent of their territory compared to that of other Athapaskans, and the limits of the Chilcotins' food resources, and in view of the population estimates we have for later periods. The total number of-families which George McDougall reported having 13 visited and heard of in 1822 was about 196. Should there have been an average of four persons per family this would give a total of about 784 individuals. There were probably many families which he did not visit or hear of, since he writes of what was only part of the Chilcotin territory.