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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 war against the Hwunitum in the fall of 1855. ¹ These developments were watched with interest and not a little anxiety by the colonial regime of James Douglas which provided financial and material support, including the Hudson’s Bay Company steamers Otter and Beaver, to aid the American forces. “I confess that it was not motives of humanity alone that induced me to lend such aid,” wrote Douglas to the Colonial Office, “other reasons of sound policy were not wanting … such as the conviction on my mind that the triumph of the Native Tribes would certainly endanger the position of this colony, which in that case could not be maintained without a vast increase of expence for military defences. It is therefore clearly to our interest that the American cause should triumph, and the natives be made to feel that they cannot successfully contend against the power of the whites.” ²

The town of Seattle, the major American settlement on Puget Sound, was attacked on January 26, 1856, and the Hwulmuhw were defeated after a day-long fight. Further south, not even the presence of the Beaver, carrying thirty United States regulars and Washington Territory Volunteers, could prevail over Leschi and thirty-eight well-armed warriors entrenched on the beach at Steilacoom where, after a bloodless stand-off, the Hwunitum wisely withdrew. During the unrest, Hwunitum settlers and soldiers constructed sixty-one stockades and blockhouses, and sporadic fighting continued until October 1856. ³ Hwulmuhw on Vancouver Island were well aware of what was taking place to the south. Douglas wrote that Hul’qumi’num First Nations were “elated with the recent successes of the Oregon Tribes over the United States Troops, [and that] the natives of this Colony were also becoming insolent and restive.” ⁴

At Fort Victoria, Douglas was also faced with large flotillas of well-armed aboriginal people from the north, heading south to trade. Some of these migrating families had ongoing feuds with Hul’qumi’num First Nations and fights, often with loss of life, occurred. Douglas informed the Colonial Office of an incident that took place in July 1856, when “a gang of Queen Charlotte Islanders … attacked and nearly destroyed a native Cowegin village situated about 50 miles north of this place. The Cowegins, few in number, fought desperately and were all slaughtered on the spot, and the assailants made off toward their own country with a number of captive women and children.” ⁵ Hul’qumi’num First Nations warriors retaliated by occupying strategic points “on the borders of the settlements, and shot every northern Indian, without respect to tribe or person, who ventured abroad.” ⁶ Douglas was obliged to provide the steamship Otter as an escort for some 300 “northern Indians” to insure their safe passage through Hul’qumi’num First Nations territories.

The inter-racial conflict in the Washington Territories and ongoing conflict between First Nations on Vancouver Island created “a well-grounded apprehension of danger, in the minds of the Colonists,” and Douglas likened the situation to “a smouldering volcano which at any moment may burst into fatal activity.” ⁷

Douglas was particularly worried about Hwunitum men who went to live amongst Hwulmuhw in those areas where land sale agreements had not been made. By 1856, a few Hwunitum had established themselves in the Cowichan Valley where they married Cowichan women and lived amongst the people, acquiring rights to land according to Hwulmuhw custom. Since a si’em with a Hwunitum son-in-law presumably gained easier access to Hwunitum goods, such arrangements were initially accorded some prestige. One of these early settlers, an unidentified “Scotchman,” held “an expensive piece of land from an Indian Chief on the terms of—giving him two blankets and accepting one of his daughters.” ⁸ Another was an Englishman named Thomas Williams, a former Hudson’s Bay Company employee, who had worked at the Uplands farm between 1852 and 1855 before moving to the Cowichan Valley in 1855 or 1856. ⁹ Douglas tried to prevent what he described as “the irregular settlement of the country” lest the rule of law “so conscientiously nurtured by himself” be put to risk through unauthorized contact between Hwunitum and Hwulmuhw. ¹⁰

Douglas’ worst fears were realized when, on August 22, 1856, Thomas Williams was brought to Fort Victoria “in, it is feared, a fatally wounded state, having been shot through the arm and chest by ‘Tathlasut,’ an Indian of the Saumina [Somenos] tribe who inhabit the Upper Cowegin District.” ¹¹ The dispute centred around a woman, possibly Tathlasut’s intended bride, who went to live with Williams and “refused to be parted from him.” ¹² Williams, it seems, was not well- liked and had tried to exert his own authority over Cowichan people through intimidation. As the late August Jack of Chemainus explained:

This fellow he wants to be the big chief over all the Indians in this country. Everybody’s scared of this fellow and they do what he says. One chief, he’s not scared any more, so he shoots this fellow in the arm, and the bullet goes right through and makes a big hole in his chest.

A medicine man says, “I fix you so you don’t die.” Then he plugs up the hole in this fellow’s chest with cedar bark, and he takes him to Victoria. ¹³ This fellow’s arm goes no good, and the white doctor cuts it off, but this fellow doesn’t die.

The Governor gets mad, so he sends ships with guns to catch the chief who shoots this fellow, and he hangs this chief up in a tree. ¹⁴

When Williams was brought to Fort Victoria Douglas was informed that Tathlasut “felt assured of escaping with impunity. He in fact told his friends that they had nothing to fear from the enmity of the whites, as they would not venture to attack a powerful tribe, occupying a country strong in its natural defences, and so distant from the coast.” ¹⁵ Douglas planned a quick response. Two recently arrived Royal Navy vessels, HMS Monarch (eighty-four guns) and HMS Trincomalee (twenty-four guns), gave Douglas the opportunity to launch the largest display of Hwunitum military force seen up to that time on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Douglas called on the services of Admiral Henry William Bruce, commander of the Pacific Station, informing him that:

… the Civil Power will require the support of a larger military force than the Colony can provide … a force sufficient to answer the ends of justice, and to teach the savages to respect the lives and property of Her Majesty’s subjects. ¹⁶

A message was sent to Nanaimo “ordering Thos. Oumtony [Tomo Antoine] to proceed at once to Victoria to act as an interpreter.” ¹⁷

Within a week, Douglas was in Cowichan Bay aboard the HMS Trincomalee, the sailing frigate commanded by Captain Wallace Houston. The sail-powered Trincomalee was deemed unsuitable to navigate the channels and capricious currents en route to Cowichan Bay and was towed to her destination by the Hudson’s Bay Company steamer, Otter. On board under the command of Captain Matthew Connolly were 437 sailors and marines from the Trincomalee and the Monarch, a field battery of two twelve-pound howitzers and eighteen Victoria Voltigeurs under the command of William J. McDonald. The force was three times larger than the expedition of 1853. ¹⁸

On September 1, the small army disembarked and camped on strategic Comiaken Hill, the site of the previous altercation in 1853. The timing of the expedition was fortuitous for the British, as the majority of the Cowichan people were absent at the Fraser River sockeye fishery. As Douglas later observed, “the Cowegin [Cowichan] Tribe can bring into the field about 1400 Warriors but nearly 1000 of these were engaged upon an expedition to Fraser’s River, when we entered their Country.” ¹⁹ While the troops bivouacked, Hwulmuhw allies were despatched to determine the whereabouts and disposition of the various Cowichan families in the villages along the river channels of the delta. The scouts returned with conflicting reports but Douglas was able to determine that Tathlasut was near the village of Somenos, some five miles inland.

Although there is no mention in the official dispatches, Cowichan oral history records that the guns of the Trincomalee opened fire on Cowichan houses to terrorize and intimidate the people.

[The HMS Trincomalee] bombarded the Indian houses, causing the Indians to flee in terror into the woods. The Indian account reflects vividly the awe experienced on the flash of fire, together with the smoke and the echoing rumble of the guns. The people ran from their houses and, not knowing which way to turn to avoid the danger, they joined together in groups within the fringes of the wood, taking comfort in the presence of each other as though by mutual support they might be able to steady the quailing of their bodies and silence the crash of doom which rumbled so ominously in their ears. Then the terrified Indians were glad enough to point out the hiding-place of the murderer. ²⁰

It was Lohar, a prominent si’em from the village of Comiaken, who was prevailed upon to assist the British in either securing Tathlasut or facing destruction. According to Lohar’s daughter, Stockl-whut:

The captain of the man-of-war came and talked to my father, and said to him, “Some of your people are hiding that bad man. If you don’t give him up I will take my big guns and blow up all your villages.” Now Lohar knew where that Somenos man was hiding, and as he did not want all his people’s houses to be broken, and wanted to help the white man do what was right, he went to the place where that bad man was to be found. ²¹

An official account by Douglas describes the British advance up the Cowichan River on the following day, September 2:

In marching through the Thickets of the Cowegin Valley the Victoria Voltigeurs were, with my own personal Staff, thrown well in advance of the Seamen and Marines, formed in single file to scour the Woods [to] guard against surprise, as I could not fail to bear in mind the repeated disasters, which last Winter befell the American Army while marching through the Jungle against an enemy much inferior in point of numbers and spirit to the Tribes we had to encounter. ²² The Troops marched some distance into the Cowegin Valley, through thick bush and almost impenetrable forest. Knowing that a mere physical force demonstration would never accomplish the apprehension of the culprit I offered friendship and protection to all the natives except the culprit, and such as aided him or were found opposing the ends of justice.

That announcement had the desired effect of securing the neutrality of the greater part of the Tribe who were present, and after we had taken possession of three of their largest Villages the surrender of the culprit followed. ²³

Tathlasut was seized by a band of warriors led by Lohar: “Come out!” he called to him. “Don’t be afraid; it is your friend and chief Lohar.” The man came out from his hiding place, holding his musket behind his back with one hand. “We are friends,” said Lohar, and held out his hand. The Somenos man took the hand held out to him. Lohar quickly pulled him closer, and reaching round behind him, caught the musket and took it from him. Then he shouted to other men who had gone with him, and they ran up and took the Somenos man and tied him so that he could not get away. ²⁴

Tathlasut resisted capture and during the struggle “Lohar was wounded in the arm. He got cut with a knife when he captured this person.” ²⁵

After securing the village of Somenos, the British force marched a half mile further west and set up camp to await the arrival of the two artillery pieces being transported up the south arm of the Cowichan River from Comiaken by canoe. Soon the British were approached by “a formidable force of armed Indians” with “their faces blackened … and painted for war, shouting and gesticulating.” But there was no fighting as Tathlasut was handed over. ²⁶

The trial and execution of Tathlasut took place behind the village of Quamichan where a “drum-head courtmartial was convened” with a jury of naval officers, while sailors rigged a make-shift block and tackle gallows to a large oak tree. ²⁷ Although the newly appointed Chief Justice David Cameron was present, he did not preside but instead yielded to the authority of his brother-in-law Douglas who acted as judge. ²⁸ According to Douglas, Tathlasut “was tried before a special Court convened on the spot and was found guilty of ‘maiming Thomas Williams with intent to murder,’ an offence which the Statute 1st, Victoria Cap 83, Section 2 considers felony and provides that the offender should suffer death. He was accordingly hanged and the sentence was carried into effect, near the spot where the crime was committed, in the presence of the Tribe upon whose minds, the solemnity of the proceedings, and the execution of the criminal were calculated to make a deep impression.” ²⁹ As Lohar’s descendant, Dennis Alphonse relates, Tathlasut’s execution made a deep impression on everyone, not just the Hwulmuhw:

There’s a story that when they hung this person—he must have been a very strong person because he started singing and it was a nice clear day and all of a sudden it got dark. There was thunder and lightning and it started raining and that’s when they hung him. Anyway, they got kind of scared with what was going on when they hung him. ³⁰

After Tathlasut’s body was taken down, his mother breathed into his nostrils and began “feeding him with salmon” in an attempt to revive him. ³¹ The rain continued to fall as the gun crews of the two artillery pieces “practised shooting to frighten the Indians.” ³²

MacDonald, the militia Captain, recalled that those Cowichan present at Tathlasut’s execution showed “many indications that their approval was withheld and that they yielded only to force.” ³³ Douglas, on the other hand, recorded that “the expedition remained at Cowegin two days after the execution of the offender, to re-establish friendly relations with the Cowegin Tribe, and we succeeded in that object, to my entire satisfaction.” ³⁴ It was later alleged that an unnamed si’em only consented to the hanging after Douglas “had a number of blankets given to him after the man was hung, or before.” ³⁵

Douglas informed the Colonial Office in London that the recent expedition employed “the same principles of action” used in 1853, “that is, by striving to impress on the minds of the Natives that the terrors of the law would be let loose on the guilty only, and not on the Tribe at large, provided they took no part in resisting the Queen’s authority nor in protecting the Criminal from justice.” ³⁶ Douglas maintained that he “was not influenced by the love of military display … but solely by a profound sense of public duty, and a conviction, founded upon experience, that it is only by resorting to prompt and decisive measures of punishment, in all cases of aggression, that life and property can be protected and the Native Tribes of this Colony kept in a proper state of subordination.” ³⁷

The response of the Colonial Office to Douglas’ action against the Cowichan was less than enthusiastic. Douglas later informed Admiral Bruce that he had received:

… the approval of the authorities at the Colonial Office expressed however in measured terms intended to show that Her Majesty’s Ministers do not like the hazard of military expeditions into the Indian Country. I dare say that few persons who know their character have any partiality for such expeditions, but however inglorious these episodes may be they are never-theless essential parts of the system by which our Empire over the Indian mind is to be supported. ³⁸

Officers and crew of the HMS Trincomalee engaged in gunnery practice.

British Columbia Archives and Records Service, Photo HP 1-51758

Dennis Alphonse (“Lohar”) on Comiaken Hill gesturing towards Cowichan Bay, where HMS Trincomalee threatened to bombard Cowichan villages.

Photo by Chris Arnett

Site of the trial and execution of Tathlasut near Quamichan village.

Photo by Chris Arnett

Lohar, the si’em who captured Tathlasut, was convinced that the Cowichan could not win a war against the British whose naval guns, sailors and marines would make short work of any resistance. When the British threatened to bombard the villages around Cowichan Bay if Tathlasut was not given up, Lohar “as a leader took it upon himself to save the Cowichan people.” ³⁹ He used his influence as a “paramount chief of the Cowichan tribe” to curb retaliation against Hwunitum by Tathlasut’s relatives:

Now the Indians saw that it would not do to harm the white man; that if they did so, they would be punished and for some time there was no trouble. ⁴⁰

Other Hwulmuhw leaders reacted with anger and called for vengeance against Hwunitum who transgressed their laws. Referring to Thomas Williams:

Everybody says this is a bad thing, and the chief at Chemainus says he’s going to shoot this fellow dead if he comes around there. Then nobody’s scared of him anymore. ⁴¹

The 1856 military expedition against the Somenos profoundly influenced the future of the Cowichan people by bringing “the whites into their midst, for one of the principal legacies of the expedition was the discovery of the expanse and fertility of the Cowichan plain.” ⁴²

Upon his return to Fort Victoria, Douglas wrote enthusiastically to his friend and colleague, James Murray Yale, that “Cowegin is a fine valley far more extensive and valuable as an agricultural country than I had any idea of”—a statement which reflects his enthusiasm for the potential of the Cowichan Valley to alleviate the crucial shortage of agricultural land, the main impediment to Hwunitum settlement facing the Colony of Vancouver Island. ⁴³ Douglas predicted that the valley could support 50,000 settlers: “I have therefore bright hopes for our future,” he wrote, “and no longer despair of the Colony.” ⁴⁴

The major obstacle was Hwulmuhw ownership. Rear Admiral Bruce shared Douglas’ optimism and made the improbable claim that the Cowichan people would welcome Hwunitum settlers. “Its present population consists of 4,000 Indians,” he wrote, “who are friendly to the English, and desirous for their residence among them; notwithstanding the summary infliction of justice they so recently witnessed at our hands.” ⁴⁵ Bruce was probably referring to Lohar who, according to his daughter, “was always very friendly to the white men … He wanted them to come and live in our land.” ⁴⁶ Other Cowichan si’em were opposed to any land sale agreements and preferred to exercise their own sovereignty and jurisdiction over their lands.

None of this seemed to matter to Douglas who, after two successful military campaigns against Cowichan people, went ahead with his plans to alienate from Hwulmuhw ownership the majority of the Cowichan Valley. In 1857 Douglas authorized the Surveyor General, Joseph Despard Pemberton, a Protestant Irish immigrant who had been in the colony since 1851, to undertake a reconnaissance of the area and to report on the feasibility of settlement. Tomo Antoine led the small party up the Cowichan River to Cowichan Lake and down the Nitinaht River to its outlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Pemberton’s exploration confirmed British impressions regarding the potential of the Cowichan Valley as a future addition to the colony. ⁴⁷ Douglas was now prepared to allow other agents of colonization to enter the territories of Hul’qumi’num First Nations as a preliminary stage in the alienation of their lands.

Hwunitum desire for Hwulmuhw land was matched by the quest for their souls. Quebecois Roman Catholic clergy contributed to the destabilization of Hwulmuhw culture in ways equally as effective as Douglas’ hangings and naval bombardments. The success of the Quebecois missionaries in obtaining numerous converts while simultaneously undermining traditional Hwulmuhw culture was partly the result of the drastic decline in Hwulmuhw population. Hwulmuhw witnessed disease, alcoholism, violence and subsequent high mortality rates, wreaking havoc among them while the Hwunitum suffered little and in fact prospered. The acceptance of Christian deities seemed necessary to restore order in a world out of balance. ⁴⁸

As early as 1843, when Father Jean-Baptiste Bolduc arrived at the future site of Fort Victoria and offered to baptize a large congregation of Hwulmuhw assembled there, an elder addressed him saying:

Your words are good; but we have been told that those that were baptized of the Kwaitlens and the Kawitshins (on the Fraser River) died almost immediately; however, as you say it is a good thing, we believe it. Since that will make us see the Master on high after death, baptize all those in our camp; do them this charity; they are to be pitied; almost all die. ⁴⁹

When the Bishop of Vancouver Island, Modeste Demers, arrived in the colony in September, 1852, on the heels of Timothy Honore Lemprit’s ill-fated Cowichan mission, he began to make frequent visits to the Cowichan Valley, and possibly other areas, where he was well received.

Born in the little village of St. Nicholas in Lower Canada in 1809, Demers arrived in the Pacific Northwest overland in 1838. ⁵⁰ From his base in the Oregon Territory he travelled extensively throughout the land, “contacting and converting the Indian tribes from the northern boundary of Oregon to Stuart Lake in what is now the Interior of British Columbia.” ⁵¹ Demers and another priest, Blanchet, employed and elaborated “Chinook,” a five hundred word trade jargon invented by Hudson’s Bay Company employees to facilitate communication with indigenous peoples. ⁵² Demers created a vocabulary, composed canticles, and translated prayers into Chinook which “enabled the two first missionaries to do a great deal of good among the Indians and half-breeds.” ⁵³ In 1847 Demers was consecrated Bishop of Vancouver Island.

Upon his arrival in the Colony of Vancouver Island, Bishop Demers found himself chronically short-handed and, receiving no assistance from the largely Protestant Hudson’s Bay Company establishment, Demers worked on his own:

Losing no time in undertaking his arduous activities … he, himself, began his frequent visitations to the natives of the East Coast of the Island to whom, in a very short time, he became so well known and beloved as the “Great Priest with the long hat and the crooked stick, the Man of Prayer” … soon his visits to the natives took on the nature of triumphal processions in which the tribes would vie with one another in their demonstrations of faith. ⁵⁴

A church historian provides a description of a typical visit by the Bishop to a Hwulmuhw village:

In the eyes of the aborigines, the priest was above all the “man of God,” a being quite apart in creation, upon whom too much honour could scarcely be lavished. As soon as his canoe, manned by a crew hailing from the last village visited, was in sight, a volley of musketry saluted the temperance flag which floated in the wind over the frail skiff. Then the men on shore separated from the women and, forming lines distinct from theirs in front of the village, received a hearty handshake from the missionary, after each person had blessed himself with a generously proportioned sign of the cross. As he passed along, the priest had to be very careful lest he should forget even the smallest babe in the distribution of his fatherly attentions.

Then the chief welcomed the envoy from Heaven in the name of his people, and the missionary reciprocated by telling the villagers of his happiness in meeting his children, and delicately hinted at the great expectations he entertained with regard to their docility to the voice of God, whose instrument he was to be among them. ⁵⁵

Hul’qumi’num First Nations were generally unfamiliar with the Chinook trade jargon and Demers’ missionary activities were facilitated to a large degree by the Hudson’s Bay Company interpreter Tomo Antoine, of whom the bishop wrote, “the Iroquois named Thomas, a devout young man, assisted by interpreting sermons and teaching them hymns and prayers in their own tongue.” ⁵⁶ An early convert was Jean-Baptiste Glasetatem, a si’em of Comiaken, who was appointed by Demers “to act as a priest among his own people” pending the establishment of a resident priest. ⁵⁷ Lohar, the other prominent si’em of Comiaken, also “liked the priests and always tried to help them; they were his good friends … Lohar did all the priests told him.” ⁵⁸ Another early convert to Catholicism was the Kuper Island warrior and si’em Hulkalatkstun from Penelakut who, as a young man, “had been taught by the priests and ‘got religion.’” ⁵⁹ It was said that Hulkalatkstun, who was baptized Pierre, was “the first chief to welcome Roman Catholic missionaries to the Pacific Coast.” ⁶⁰

In 1858, Bishop Demers authorized Father Pierre Rondeault, a secular priest and recent arrival from Lower Canada, to establish a mission at Comiaken on Cowichan Bay. A Cowichan elder, Quon-us, recalled Rondeault’s (Londo’s) reception:

That good man came when I was a little boy. My people told me how he paddled all alone from Saanich up to Comiaken. He had nothing with him, just a sack of flour and his Book, a gun to get food with, and maybe a blanket. When the Cowichan people heard he was coming, everybody went down to the water to look at him, and to tell him how glad they were that he had come! and everybody wanted to shake his hand. All that day Father Londo was shaking hands and talking to the people. My father’s friend Tsulchamel, who the priests by and by called Gabriel—he told father Londo to come and live in his house at Comiaken, and there he stayed until he could make his own house. ⁶¹

The Comiaken si’em, Lohar, and Jean-Baptiste Glasetatem invited Rondeault to use their houses to perform mass and baptisms which were well-attended. ⁶² Samuel Harris, a Hwunitum trader who established himself in the valley around 1858, reported seeing “over 900 clean-washed, well-dressed Indians at mass in one of their own lodges.” ⁶³ Others travelled long distances “to hear the priest and to see him … From the islands they came, and from all parts of the coast—big canoes full of men, women and children. He likes best to see the little children come. ‘Bring them all,’ he told the old people, and he held them and washed (baptized) them and gave them names like the white man.” ⁶⁴

Rondeault visited villages outside of the Cowichan Valley to preach and baptize. Hulkalatkstun developed a special relationship with Rondeault who “used to come to Penelekhut. Ah, Hul-ka-latkstun did like that man! Often he used to come and talk to the Cowichans.” ⁶⁵

Hwulmuhw converts soon pooled their labour to build a church, St. Ann’s, on the summit of the hill overlooking the village of Comiaken. Built of logs, the church measured “about 50 feet by 20,” and “some distance from it, in front, a huge wooden Latin cross stood in the ground.” ⁶⁶ When St. Ann’s was finished the people built “a humble shanty adjoining the church” for Father Rondeault’s living quarters. Si’em from various villages contributed, as Quon-as recalled:

For this house the Indians gave one board from each village; one from Comiaken, one from Quamichan, one from Yekoloas and Penelekhut on Kuper Island, and so on, and in that way every place helped to make a house for that good man. ⁶⁷

Other Catholic missionaries assisted Rondeault to convert Hwulmuhw on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The Oblate priest, Father Casimar Chirouse from the Puget Sound Tulalip Mission came north to visit Rondeault in May 1859. During his brief visit, it was sais that Chirouse, the “Apostle of Puget Sound”:

… baptized about four hundred children and induced over two thousand adults publicly to renounce gambling, conjuring and murdering. So successful was his preaching and so sincere were the Indians in their promises, that they loaded his canoe with the paraphernalia of the medicine-man, or conjurer, as well as with knives, gambling discs and similar accessories to sin. ⁶⁸

Chirouse made a similar trip in April 1860 with another priest, Father Fouquet.

By the end of 1860, as a result of their efforts and Rondeault’s mission at Comiaken, the traditional way of life was effectively undermined and the majority of Hul’qumi’num First Nations were, at least nominally, Roman Catholics. Over time, as Roman Catholic influence grew, the ancient system of hereditary si’em and inherited rights and privileges was displaced in part by si’em appointed by the Bishop. ⁶⁹

Protestant missionaries arrived late on the scene and found their labours hampered by the influence their Catholic rivals had over the Hwulmuhw. One of them, an Irishman named Alexander Garrett, arrived in the colony in 1860 at the invitation of the Anglican Bishop, George Hills. ⁷⁰ Garrett established a school for aboriginal children at the Songhees reserve across from the town of Victoria and made occasional visits to the Cowichan Valley, but his ministrations met with little success. An arrogant, dishevelled man, Garrett despised and distrusted the French-speaking Roman Catholic priests whom he often referred to as “foreigners.”

Others were much more charitable in their regard for the labours of the Romanist missionaries. The Hwunitum trader, Samuel Harris, wrote a letter on March 26, 1861, in which he described the profound influence of the Roman Catholic priests on Cowichan society after only two years residence among them:

I reside in the above district [Cowichan] in the midst of about 2,000 Indians who, eighteen months ago, carried on a system of drunkenness and murder too horrible to relate. At this date they may be said to be a reclaimed people. Drink is forbidden by them, and a penalty attached to drunkenness by order of their chiefs. Consequently, other crimes are of rare occurrence. And to what is all this owing? To the honest and persevering labours of a poor Catholic priest who receives no salary, and is fed by the Indians as far as their means will enable them. Within eighteen months he has baptized upwards of 250 children and 50 adults who can repeat the catechism in their own language. Besides cutting timber, they have subscribed their dollars to build a substantial church, capable of containing 400 people, and it is, every Sabbath, full to overflowing. I have seen hundreds standing in the rain to catch a sound of the priest’s exhortation. They are now collecting funds to furnish their church and make it like the white man’s place of worship. ⁷¹

As Harris points out, the Quebecois priests took an active role in suppressing the liquor trade which plagued the Cowichan people. On one occasion, “illicit whiskey dealers, who, attempting to land alcohol from their sloops, were driven off and their casks rolled into the sea.” ⁷²

The fundamental influence of the church, however, was not so much spiritual as economic. The Roman Catholic Mission of St. Ann’s diverted attention from traditional food resources by encouraging the people to cultivate cash crops such as potatoes, tobacco, timber and dairy products. ⁷³ As a result, a growing percentage of people stayed in their winter villages during the annual summer migration to the Fraser River in order to tend their crops under the guidance of the priests.

Similarly, the Church competed with the stlun’uq (potlatch)—the complex system by which wealth was redistributed amongst the people in exchange for witnessing and thereby validating important changes in status. The priests:

… recognized that the giving that was the foundation of Indian religious beliefs was a field of strength that was worth their while to cultivate. Potlatching is a two-way process. Within this present world you give, and sooner or later, you receive in return. The priests attempted to replace potlatching with the practice of giving worldly goods to the church in exchange for everlasting life … When they gave, the priest would promise that it would all be returned in the next world … But the Church wanted cash, not swaddling blankets for the Baby Jesus. So the devout learned to turn their goods into cash … When the goods were turned into cash which flowed across the seas and upward toward the heavens, the cycle that had perpetuated itself for so long was broken. The imperial chain was complete. ⁷⁴

Modeste Demers, first Roman Catholic Bishop of Vancouver Island.

British Columbia Archives and Records Service, Photo HP 2533

Vancouver Island Colony showing area of land purchase agreements, from 1850 to 1852, and illegally acquired Cowichan territories, July 22, 1859.

Courtesy of Surveyors General Branch, Victoria