Chilcotin War

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The Chilcotin War was a confrontation between members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) in British Columbia and whites in 1864. It was triggered by the construction of a road leading to the gold fields in the north of the province and the Northwest Territories should shorten. The war killed at least 25 men.

On October 26, 1864, Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie had the five Tsilhqot'in who had been recognized as prisoners of war only in 1993 - Telloot, Klatsassin, Tah-pitt, Piele and Chessus - who had been detained during the trial, publicly executed. Two other Indians , Ahan [Kwutan] and Lutas, were executed on July 18, 1865. It was not until 1993 that they were recognized as opponents of the war.

prehistory

As early as 1836, the Hudson's Bay Company had built Fort Chilcotin not far from the confluence of the Chilcotin Chilco River. But in 1844 she had to give up the fort and built Fort Kluskus in the Dene area .

With the start of the Fraser Canyon gold rush from April 1858, a total of over 30,000 gold prospectors moved up the Fraser, mainly from California. They first came to Victoria and some of them were looking for a way to the gold region on their own. The Cariboo Gold Rush followed in 1860 after gold was found at Williams Creek. The next year, Captain Cavendish Venables attempted to locate a route for a road from Bella Coola on the coast to Alexandria, near the Cariboo gold fields.

Waddington's road construction project

On October 24, 1861, Alfred Waddington , Roderick Finlayson and William F. Tolmie of the Hudson's Bay Company commissioned six men under the leadership of Robert Homfray to locate a route from Bute Inlet to Alexandria . But the group did not get beyond Homathko Canyon, where they were found and saved by Tsilhqot'in. The seven men returned on December 20th, completely starved and in rags.

Alfred Waddington, who privately operated the road construction project in question, hoped that this would reduce land transport from 359 to 185 miles, or from 37 day trips to 22 days. Governor James Douglas preferred the Cariboo Wagon Road from Yale to the Cariboo area (see Cariboo gold rush ).

Waddington's Bute Inlet Wagon Road followed the valley of Homalco from the mouth of Bute Inlet over Mount Waddington, later named after him, and from there over the Chilcotin Plateau . From there it went on over the Bentinck Arm Trail at Puntzi Lake and to the mouth of the Quesnel River . In addition, Waddington hoped that the route could one day become the route of the transcontinental railroad.

In March 1862, Waddington and RC Moody, Commissioner of Lands and Works for the Colony of British Columbia, signed a contract that allowed Waddington to build a road in exchange for user fees. At that time, on March 12th, a ship from California, Brother Jonathan, brought in smallpox, which spread rapidly to Alaska after the Indians had been driven out (see smallpox epidemic on the Pacific coast of North America in 1862 ).

Exploration, manpower, contacts

In the months that followed, men moved to the later war region for various reasons, not all of which had anything to do with Waddington's project. Among them were from April 1862 Alex McDonald and his partner William Manning, who lived near Bendziny (Puntzi Lake or Benshee Lake) in the Tsilhqot'in area.

On May 16, Tiedeman and four other men, including a Tom and perhaps a Harry, and a stranger and Henry McNeill, plus three Indians, set out from Victoria to scout a road to Alexandria. They reached the area on June 25th, but they were near death. Before that, they had passed Waddington's construction site on May 23. On July 4th, Henry McNeill set out to return to Bute Inlet, which he reached on July 15th.

Also on June 25th Herbert Spencer Palmer and two other Royal Engineers named Breakenridge and Edwards set out from Victoria to map the route from Bentinck Arm to the goldfields.

As early as May, 20 prospectors left Bentinck Arm, nine of them reached Alexandria on July 4th, including Francis Poole. On their way they left two brothers named Linn who showed signs of smallpox at Naukuluff [or Nootlas] above the valley of Bella Coola, and two others in a Tsilhqot'in village on Chilcotin Lake. The two joined a group led by Pearson that was in the area 14 days later.

start of building

On April 14, 1863, the Enterprise came with 91 road builders and 19 mules at the end of Bute Inlet. Waddington hired Tsilhqot'in packers, among them Chief Tilagued, also known as Tellot or Telloot. By November, at the onset of winter, 23 miles of the route, including 66 bridges, had been built. Now Waddington and 70 of his men have returned. For the next year they had set up a supply of flour in a warehouse that was guarded by Cushen, a 25-year-old Tsilhqot'in.

On March 22nd, with the arrival of the schooner FP Green and 16 men, work could continue. The painter Frederick Whymper was also there. Three weeks later, 16 packers had been recruited, including 14 Tsilhqot'in. They built their camp not far from the main camp at Homathko Canyon.

Around this time, on April 2, Frederick Seymour succeeded the seasoned Governor of New Westminster, James Douglas. Arthur Kennedy also became governor of Vancouver Island.

Trigger and course

Meanwhile, Klatsassin's 15-year-old son Pierre (Biyil) left his family on April 20 and had a long chat with Waddington's Indian men. Five days later, his father drove towards the Homathko Ferry with his three wives, two sons and two daughters, one of whom he had just released from the Euclataws . He was accompanied by Cushen and a man whom the whites called "Scarface" (scar face) traveled.

On the same day Waddington sent the schooner Amelia to Bella Coola, because Alex McDonald and four other men were supposed to meet with Manning at Puntzi Lake and from there cut a path towards Bute Inlet. So they should work against his group so that one would meet on the track.

But on April 29, 1864, the ferryman Timothy Smith, Klatsassins, Tallot and their followers refused to cross. Smith was shot and his body was thrown in the river. The adjacent camp was looted. Around this time, foreman Brewster sent Inuqa-Jem, also known as "Squinteye" (silver look), towards the ferry. He and Telloot met Klatsassin's men about two hours after Smith's death. They were packed with goods from the ferry warehouse. Silberblick received two blankets and he had to promise not to disclose. He reached the road builders' camp the next day and reported the incident, but no one believed him. On the contrary, Frederick Whymper left the camp for Victoria.

Klatsassin and his people painted themselves and prepared with dance and song for their campaign.

The next day, the men attacked the nearby labor camp, killing everyone but Peterson Dane, Edwin Moseley, and a man named Buckley. The men then hurried 6 km further down the road and killed William Brewster and three of his men. In the end, they killed William Manning, a settler from Puntzi Lake, and three members of a truck at Anahim Lake, a total of 19 men. Apparently they knew very well who was involved in the construction project, and they wanted to prevent this by all means.

On May 3, three injured arrived at the Bute Inlet camp. It was only eight days later that the news of the outbreak of war reached Victoria and the three men whom the Emily Harris had brought there. Two days later, on the morning of May 13th, the news reached the provincial governor's office in New Westminster . Frederick Seymour had been in office for barely a month. The next day he sent 28 men to Bute Inlet, led by Chartres Brew, including Alfred Waddington and the survivor Edward Mosely. They went there with the HMS Forward , but could not get to the site of the fighting. Around this time, the settler Manning was killed on Puntzi Lake.

On May 17th, Alex McDonald, his five husbands and 14 mules left Bella Coola. On May 23, the Nooscults group moved on, already 25 km above Bella Coola, where the Hamilton family lived. They met a packer named McDougall and his Indian wife Klymtedza from Nagwuntl'u, as well as the English prospectors Higgins and Grant. They decided to move on with a tsilhqot'in named Tom. But the group decided to turn back when they were warned by Klymtedza of an attack. But they were attacked after barely five miles, and Higgins, McDougall, and McDonald were killed as well as Klymtedza. Only one of the attackers was killed.

On May 20, Brew and his men reached the camp with the dead, but they had to turn back without having achieved anything.

William George Cox, Gold Commissioner , led 50 men overland on June 8, but was also forced to withdraw. Again, this time by ship with the HMS Sutlej , 38 men and the governor himself drove to the Chilcotin from the Bentinck Arm of the Dean Channel on June 15 . They set out from Bella Coola on June 20, reinforced by 30 warriors. Ten days later they reached Indian territory, but they had lost a man in an accident and 20 Indians had deserted. But they arrived on July 7th and met Cox. Donald McLean, who led a reconnaissance force against Cox's orders, was shot dead. Then Cox's troop withdrew to Puntzi.

Chief Alexis and a slave to the Klatsassine entered into negotiations with the governor on July 20 and 22, respectively, and with Cox, who promised them friendship. The next day, Klatsassine, Tallot, and six other men came to the camp.

Arrests, executions

They were arrested immediately. The Indians felt betrayed, but they were taken to Alexandria on August 27th and from there to Quesnel .

Five of them, Telloot, Klatsassin, Tah-pitt, Piele and Chessus were charged with murder on September 28 and 29. The trial took place before Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie in Quesnel, who was notorious for his quick and harsh sentences. Although the defendants said they were at war, they were convicted of murder and hanged on October 26, 1864 in the presence of 250 witnesses.

Apparently the war was not yet over. On December 16, Governor Seymour answered a petition from Williams Lake settlers who feared attacks by the Tsilhqot'in. He sent a small force. On February 16, 1865, Seymour received a report that the residents of Quesnel had formed a troop because they feared similar attacks.

On May 29th, two Tsilhqot'in were deported to New Westminster. It was Ahan [Kwutan] and Lutas who met a man named Moss on their way to Bella Coola to offer him reparation for the war victims. In a three-hour trial, the two men were sentenced to death on July 3, 1865 and executed in New Westminster on July 18.

Waddington's trial, first interpretations

The colony had not granted the construction any protective measures - which had not been requested - so Waddington sued the colony for $ 50,000 in damages. However, according to the government's subtle argumentation, there is no protection against murder. She refused the payment. Only Donald McLean's widow received a pension of $ 100 a year for five years.

Waddington believed the fear of smallpox reintroduction was the cause of the uprising, which had claimed countless victims only two years earlier.

Frederick Whymper, who accompanied Waddington's men as an artist, assumed that the issue of rifles to the Chilcotin was causal in a time of hunger and that it was not a question of revenge or predilection. But there may also have been arguments within the workers' group.

Recognition as an opponent of war

In 1993, Judge Anthony Sarich prepared a report on the relationship between the provincial legal system and the indigenous people. Following his recommendation, the Attorney General apologized for the fact that the chiefs and their people had been hanged and not treated as opponents of the war. It was also ensured that their graves were exhumed and that the remains were appropriately interred.

See also

Web links