| 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic | |
|---|---|
| Disease | Smallpox |
| First outbreak | ship Brother Jonathan , San Francisco to Victoria |
| Arrival date | 1862 |
Deaths | 20,000+ |
The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic was a smallpox outbreak that started in Victoria on Vancouver Island and spread among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and into the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, killing a large portion of natives from the Puget Sound region to Southeast Alaska. Two-thirds of British Columbia natives died—around 20,000 people. [1] The death rate was highest in southeast Alaska and Haida Gwaii—over 70% among the Haida and 60% among the Tlingit. Almost all native nations along the coast, and many in the interior, were devastated, with a death rate of over 50% for the entire coast from Puget Sound to Sitka, Alaska, part of Russian America at the time. [2] In some areas the native population fell by as much as 90%. [3] The disease was controlled among colonists in 1862 but it continued to spread among natives through 1863. [2]
While colonial authorities used quarantine, smallpox vaccine, and inoculation to keep the disease from spreading among colonists and settlers, it was largely allowed to spread among indigenous peoples. The Colony of Vancouver Island made attempts to save some natives, but most were forced to leave the vicinity of Victoria and go back to their homelands, despite awareness that it would result in a major smallpox epidemic among natives along the Pacific Northwest coast. Many colonists and newspapers were vocally in favor of expulsion. The situation in the Puget Sound region was similar, with newspapers encouraging settlers to get vaccinated, but with little effort towards protecting natives. Most papers supported removing natives. The effect of the epidemic in the Puget Sound area is not well documented and it appears it did not spread south beyond the Chehalis people of the Chehalis River area. [2]
Some historians have described it as a deliberate genocide because the Colony of Vancouver Island and the Colony of British Columbia could have prevented the epidemic but chose not to, and in some ways facilitated it. [3] [4] According to historian Kiran van Rijn, "opportunistic self-interest, coupled with hollow pity, revulsion at the victims, and smug feelings of inevitability, shaped the colonial response to the epidemic among First Nations"; and that for some residents of Victoria the eviction of native people was a "long-sought opportunity" to be rid of them; and, for some, an opportunity to take over First Nation lands. At the time, and still today, some natives say that the colonial government deliberately spread smallpox for the purpose of stealing their land. [5] [6]
Pacific Northwest indigenous peoples experienced several earlier smallpox epidemics, about once per generation after European contact began in the late 18th century: in the late 1770s, 1801–03, 1836–38, and 1853. These epidemics are not as well documented in historical records. [7]
Smallpox was brought to Victoria by the ship Brother Jonathan , which carried 350 passengers from San Francisco. The population of Victoria at the time was about 4,000 colonists and slightly more indigenous people from all over the Pacific Northwest coast camped nearby. [3] There were several large semi-permanent native camps around Victoria at the time. The largest, known as the "Northern Encampment", had been in place since the gold rush of 1858 and was populated by northern coastal natives, especially Tsimshian, Haida, Tlingit, Heiltsuk, and Kwakwakaʼwakw. There were also Songhees villages and other natives from nearby areas, including Halkomelem and Wakashan speaking peoples, such as the Sto:lo and Nuu-chah-nulth. [1]
Brother Jonathan arrived at Victoria on 12 March 1862. The ship left the next day. On 18 March The Daily British Colonist reported one passenger had the disease. A second case was reported on 19 March. By 22 March this second infected person was in the Lower Mainland at New Westminster, having traveled across the Strait of Georgia on the Otter . On 24 March another vessel from San Francisco, the Oregon arrived with at least one passenger infected with smallpox. California was struggling with smallpox at the time, but vaccinations and other preventative measures had kept the death toll relatively low. [2]
In late March the paper The Daily British Colonist published the first of several articles calling upon the government to take action, including quarantine and vaccination, to control the spread of smallpox among colonists as well as native people camped near Victoria. By 1 April about half of the colonists in Victoria had been vaccinated. On the same day the first infected native was reported. It is unclear how large a supply of the smallpox vaccine was available. Some sources stated that there was a shortage of vaccines. During May, 3,400 Indians along the lower Fraser River were reportedly vaccinated, as were others, in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia. These groups avoided much deaths from the epidemic. [2]
Governor James Douglas enlisted Hudson's Bay Company physician Dr. John Helmcken to vaccinate the Songhees. Little was done to prevent smallpox from spreading to the other natives encamped near Victoria. Two missionaries tended to the sick at the Northern Encampment and asked for government assistance. The colonial police commissioner, Augustus Pemberton, said the colony had no authority to interfere or even help bury the dead. On 28 April the Daily British Colonist called upon the government to "remove...the entire Indian population" from the Victoria area. Pemberton, with Governor Douglas's permission, ordered the Tsimshians to leave within one day, had a gunboat stationed to enforce the order, and placed armed guards around Victoria to prevent natives from entering. [1]
Most of the Tsimshians left on 1 May, along with a number of Haida and Tlingit. However, during May the epidemic continued to ravage the natives still living in the Northern Encampment. Many moved to other nearby camps. The Haida set up a large camp at Cadboro Bay. In early May two gunboats arrived, HMS Grappler and HMS Forward. On 11 May Police Commissioner Pemberton brought the gunboats and many policemen to Cadboro Bay. They forced about 300 natives to evacuate in 26 canoes. One of the gunboats towed the canoes. [1] When the Cadboro Bay camp was empty the police went to what remained of the Northern Encampment and burned all the dwellings, leaving about 200 Haidas with no canoes. On 13 May the Daily British Colonist reported that these Haida were to be evicted "to one of the islands in the Straits—there to rot and die with the loathsome disease which is now destroying the poor wretches at the rate of six each day." [1] They were taken to San Juan Island where they died at a place today called Smallpox Bay. Police efforts to drive the natives away from Victoria continued through late May, as small groups still remained near Victoria. Reports of natives dying of smallpox near Victoria continued into June. The number of native deaths near Victoria in 1862 is not known, but on 11 June newspapers reported about 1,000 to 1,200 unburied Northern Indian corpses just west of Victoria. [1]
In April, when the outbreak was just starting, Dr. Helmcken vaccinated about 500 Songhees. On 29 April the Songhees abandoned their villages and moved to Discovery Island in Haro Strait. Due to this and Dr. Helmcken's vaccines the Songhees survived the epidemic with few deaths. [2] [1]
Most of the Halkomelem-speaking people of the Lower Mainland were saved due to the vaccination efforts of missionaries. The Catholic Oblate missionary Leon Fouquet and his partner Father Pandosy vaccinated a large number Halkomelem peoples such as the Cowichan Quwutsun, as well as some members of other groups like the Squamish and Shishalh. Fourquet also sent a large supply of vaccine to Casimir Chirouse at Tulalip. Chirouse vaccinated most of the Tulalip and Nooksack people. In August, when smallpox arrived in the Puget Sound area the Tulalip and Nooksack were mostly safe, while other native groups were devastated. The Anglican missionary John Good vaccinated the Snuneymuxw. [1]
Some Hudson's Bay Company officials took part in vaccination efforts, such as Hamilton Moffat who vaccinated over 100 natives near Fort Rupert, and William Manson who vaccinated "a large number" at Fort Kamloops. Despite Manson's efforts he reported "violent outbreaks" of smallpox in the Kamloops area. Some natives attempted to inoculate themselves, although how many and how effective it was is not known. [5]
Starting in May 1862, thousands of infected natives were evicted from the Victoria area and forced to return to their homes in the north, all along the coast from Nanaimo to the Stikine River in southeast Alaska. Unlike the region around the Salish Sea the northern coast had less previous exposure to smallpox and no vaccines available. As the disease spread indigenous peoples suffered devastating losses. There are no first-hand accounts of the initial stages of the epidemic in the north. By mid-June Victoria newspapers began receiving reports of the toll the disease was taking. The Pentlatch, Eeksen, and Qualicom peoples were greatly reduced and merged with the K'ómoks (Comox). Although a few Shishalh people had been vaccinated the nation as a whole was devastated. [1]
Many Kwakwakaʼwakw lived near Fort Rupert, on northern Vancouver Island. Over the summer of 1862 various ships reported high death tolls. The disease reduced the Kwakwakaʼwakw population by over 50%. Likewise there were harrowing reports about the Heiltsuk people of the Bella Bella area. On 18 July 1862 the Daily British Colonist reported that smallpox had killed about 60% of the Heiltsuk people. Robert Boyd estimates the Heiltsuk population fell by about 72% due to the epidemic. Many villages were abandoned and survivors soon moved to the consolidated settlement at Bella Bella. Large areas of traditional Heiltsuk territory were abandoned. By 1899 the Heiltsuk population had dropped to 319, almost all at Bella Bella. The Nuxalk people were also decimated by smallpox, with a loss of about 58%, and a similar abandonment of villages and whole regions, with consolidation at Bella Coola. [1]
The Haida people suffered the most from the smallpox epidemic. Haida Gwaii experienced a large amount of village abandonment and consolidation. No contemporary accounts describe what happened when the first infected Haida returned, but later reports suggest that smallpox circulated among Haida villages for over a year killing about 72% of the Haida people. Many historic Haida villages were abandoned in the years following the epidemic, including Ninstints, Kloo, Skedans, Cumshewa, Dadens, Haina, Hiellen, Kung, Klinkwan, and "Old" Kasaan, among others. Survivors consolidated in four main settlements: Skidegate, Masset, Hydaburg, and "New" Kasaan. [1]
The Tsimshian forced away from Victoria brought smallpox to Fort Simpson, whence it spread widely starting in June 1862. By early July the native settlement outside the fort was deserted due to deaths and people fleeing the area. The Tsimshian settlement at Metlakatla had only just been founded by the missionary William Duncan, who intended it to be a utopian Christian community. Duncan was able to quarantine Metlakatla by refusing to allow natives to be admitted who showed any signs of smallpox. His efforts resulted in Metlakatla being mostly spared from the disease. Duncan also used the epidemic to proselytize, saying that the epidemic had been sent by God as a punishment for the sins of the Tsimshian, and that those who repented and "came to Jesus" and were baptized would be spared. Duncan also recorded news about the spread of the disease up the Skeena River, and elsewhere, as refugees sought entrance to Metlakatla. [1]
Tlingits driven from Victoria brought smallpox to the Stikine River area. Some of the refugees were escorted by the gunboat HMS Topaz all the way from Victoria to Alaska. No records survive of the situation in the Stikine area during July and August, when the epidemic was likely at its height. In early September HMS Devastation visited the area and noted major population loss and the continuing spread of smallpox. The epidemic spread north into the Alexander Archipelago but was limited due to an extensive Russian vaccination program. Some Tlingit groups had not been part of the Russian program and these were decimated by the disease, especially the Henya Tlingit of northern Prince of Wales island. The Mainland Tlingit suffered losses of about 60%, and the Island Tlingit about 37%. [1]
Other indigenous peoples who suffered major population loss include the Saanich (about 72%), Nisga'a (about 37%), Gitxsan (about 22%), Sabassas or Kitkatla Tsimshian (about 67%), Wuikinuxv (Oweekeno), as well as the interior nations of the Nlaka'pamux, Stʼatʼimc, Dakelh, Tsilhqotʼin, and Secwepemc, among others. [1]
Up until the 1862–1863 epidemic, the colonial authorities acquired indigenous land through treaties. Governor James Douglas had signed 14 land cession treaties on Vancouver Island, known as the Douglas Treaties. In 1864, after the epidemic, the colony's Chief Commissioner of Land and Works Joseph Trutch decided to stop recognizing indigenous title and abandon the treaty process. This set the precedent of British Columbia taking indigenous land by fiat rather than treaty. [3]
The large population losses also caused widespread native village abandonment and consolidation, cultural loss, and increased conflict and hostility with colonists. [1] In Haida Gwaii, following the 1862 epidemic, over nineteen villages diminished to four by the early 20th century. [7]
The Tsilhqotʼin people resisted when a wagon road began to be built through their territory without permission, resulting in the Chilcotin War. One of the foremen of the road-building project threatened the Tsilhqotʼin with smallpox. The war ended with the hanging of six Tsilhqotʼin chiefs. In 2014, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark formally exonerated the executed chiefs and apologized for these acts, acknowledging that "there is an indication [that smallpox] was spread intentionally." [3]
The Tlingit or Lingít are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and constitute two of the 231 federally recognized Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; however, some are First Nations in Canada.
The Haida are an Indigenous group who have traditionally occupied Haida Gwaii, an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years.
The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada. Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose names mean "inside the River of Mist", and "people of the River of Mist," respectively. The river and its basin sustain a wide variety of fish, wildlife, and vegetation, and communities native to the area depend on the health of the river. The Tsimshian migrated to the Lower Skeena River, and the Gitxsan occupy territory of the Upper Skeena.
The Heiltsuk, sometimes historically referred to as Bella Bella, or Híɫzaqv are an Indigenous people of the Central Coast region in British Columbia, centred on the island community of Bella Bella. The government of the Heiltsuk people is the Heiltsuk Nation, though the term is also used to describe the community. Its largest community is Bella Bella.
The Tsilhqotʼin or Chilcotin are a North American tribal government of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group that live in what is now known as British Columbia, Canada. They are the most southern of the Athabaskan-speaking Indigenous peoples in British Columbia.
Discovery Island is located off the eastern side of Vancouver Island and is viewable from Ten Mile Point, near Cadboro Bay, and Oak Bay. Discovery Island Marine Provincial Park occupies the southern portion of Discovery Island, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Oak Bay. The northern portion of the island is part of Discovery Island Indian Reserve 3, under the control of the Songhees First Nation.
Cadboro Bay is a bay near the southern tip of Vancouver Island and its adjacent neighbourhood in the municipalities of Saanich and Oak Bay in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
The Chilcotin War, the Chilcotin Uprising or the Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people in British Columbia and white road construction workers. Fourteen men employed by Alfred Waddington in the building of a road from Bute Inlet were killed, as well as a number of men with a pack-train near Anahim Lake and a settler at Puntzi Lake.
Metlakatla, British Columbia is a small community that is one of the seven Tsimshian village communities in British Columbia, Canada. It is situated at Metlakatla Pass near Prince Rupert, British Columbia. It is the one Tsimshian village in Canada that is not associated with one particular tribe or set of tribes out of the Tsimshian nation's 14 constituent tribes.
Ligeex is a hereditary name-title belonging to the Gispaxlo'ots tribe of the Tsimshian First Nation from the village of Lax Kw'alaams, British Columbia, Canada. The name, and the chieftainship it represents, is passed along matrilineally within the royal house called the House of Ligeex. The House of Ligeex belongs to the Laxsgiik.
William Duncan was an English-born Anglican missionary who founded the Tsimshian communities of Metlakatla, British Columbia, in Canada, and Metlakatla, Alaska, in the United States. Although sometimes referred to as "Father Duncan" in subsequent reports, he was never ordained.
Northwest Coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations and Native American tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present.
The Coast Salish are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coast Salish languages. The Nuxalk nation are usually included in the group, although their language is more closely related to Interior Salish languages.
Milbanke Sound is a sound on the coast of the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term Northwest Coast or North West Coast is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of what is now called British Columbia, Washington State, parts of Alaska, Oregon, and Northern California. The term Pacific Northwest is largely used in the American context.
The Lekwungen or Lekungen nation are an Indigenous North American Coast Salish people who reside on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in the Greater Victoria area. Their government is Songhees First Nation, a member of the Te'mexw Treaty Association and the Naut'sa Mawt Tribal Council. Their traditional language is Lekwungen, a dialect of the North Straits Salish language.
Fort Simpson was a fur trading post established in 1831 by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) near the mouth of the Nass River in present-day British Columbia, Canada. In 1834, it was moved to the Tsimpsean Peninsula, about halfway between the Nass River and the Skeena River, and was later referred to as Port Simpson or as the native name Lax Kw'alaams. The fort was part of the HBC's Columbia Department.
The first known smallpox epidemic to strike the native peoples of the coastal and interior Pacific Northwest arrived in the early 1770s, devastating large swathes of the population and causing significant demographic collapse – both from the disease itself and corresponding malnutrition from the deaths of hunters within tribes. Poorly attested due to a lack of consistent European presence during the period, it most likely originated from Bruno de Heceta and Bodega y Quadra's 1775 expedition to the Northwest Coast, spreading as far inland as the Bitterroot Salish territories in western Montana and as far north as the Tlingit at Sitka. Widespread pockmarks and scars among older native populations were recorded by European explorers for several decades afterwards, including Lewis and Clark and George Vancouver. Several additional smallpox epidemics would occur in the region over the following decades.
