The Historical timeline is a collection of published references to historical events involving Indigenous people on Salt Spring Island.
1782 |
“[A]ccording to the stories handed down”, smallpox came on the south wind, and the people could not get “ the clean north wind to blow the foul disease away.”The south wind blew all winter “until most of the tribe were dead and there were too few left to bury their bodies.’ The survivors took the corpses to a small island near Fulford Harbour “placing their remains in crevices in the rocks, covering them with flat stones.” Stevens and his brother found skull. Grandfather said: ”Take it back where you found it, he roared. It will bring us bad luck.” Stevens, Nick. Are All Fishermen superstitious? Fisherman, March 20,1964:15. |
1860 |
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 the unlucky mortal who ventured to disturb them (Description of Lineker cabin c. 1860-66, Walter 1941 pp. 31-32). April 5, 1860 At the Ganges Harbour Settlement some of the black settlers had been robbed by them . The Indians always steadfastly refused to regard black men as entitled to any of the respect claimed by and shown to the whites. They also entertain the same feeling with regrad to the Chinese. I remember an Indian once asking me about them, and saying “Wake,Wake!” (“No,no!), most decidedly, when I told him they were “carpa King George men” (“the same as Englishmen”). It appeared to be most desirable here, as a t other places, that the Indians should be duly paid for their land. This is not so simple as it may seem, however, even supposing the money necessary for such a purpose to be forthcoming. In New Zealand the government spent many thousands of pounds purchasing the land, appointing agents, commissioners, etc, and something of the same is no doubt as necessary here. Vancouver Island, however, has no revenue available or sufficient for such a purpose, and of course the revenue of British Columbia cannot, while the two colonies are distinct, be applied to it. Another difficulty would be found in the conflicting claims of the various tribes, arising from their habits of polygamy and inheritance from the female side, together with the absence of any documentary or satisfactory evidence of title. If, therefore, any one chief or tribe were paid for a piece of land without the acknowledgement on the part of adjacent tribes of the vendor’s right to the land sold, five or six other claimants would in all probability come forward asserting the land to be theirs, and founding their title to it upon someinermarriage of its former possessors. The difficulties arising from the Indian custom of descent from the female side are most perplexing…Admiral Island, for instance, of which I am now speaking would, in all probability, be claimed by no less than four tribes, viz.c,the Cowichans, The Penalikutso, a small tribe living among these islands, the Nanaimos, and Saanitch Indians. On the occasion of our present visit, the settlers, in reference to this subject said the Indians had never been there before, and that they had established a village there for the sole purpose of asserting their claim to compensation for the land . Upon our telling toner of them this, he pointed to a small stump by which we were standing, and said it marked his father’s grave, where he had buried him three years ago [1857]– long before any white settler came to the place. Lieutenant Richard Mayne “Four years in Vancouver Ilsdand Asn British Columbia, 1862:164-165). July 1, 1860 Tolson, Leonard When I first went to Ganges I was told that at very low water just where the wharf was afterwards built you could see large quantities of bones at the bottom of the sea. Afterwards, when what is now Mouat’s Boarding house [1909?] was built, many bones were found when they dug the foundations. Eyeryone knew that a battle had been fought there but no particulars. A short time ago I heard the story as told by Willie Stark, who is now 84 about (his mother is still living and hale and hearty at 104. Stark of course got all the details from his mother… [gives narrative]…the two were suppose to have fought it out on the Peninsula, the Cowichans being on the side opposite our house “Fair Acres”[base of Ganges Hill] the Haidas on the side where the wharf now is, with the result that the whole Haida forces were destroyed, most them on the Peninsula, accounting for the bones in the sea, some in the little field where the boarding house now is, and the remnant just where Mrs. Turners’ Store now is. At the spot where this last lot of bones were found, the big Maple tree grew up, which I dare say you will remember. And that is about all I know of the great battle Ganges. It is rather a queer story when one realizes that it took place only about thirty years before I got there, and it is quite possible that the general excitement of all was the cause of that warship coming up from Esquimalt, whose cannon balls were found at the Maples – it sounds like a true story, as told Stark, and I think, probably is. (p.34-35) Figure 1 Ganges 1924 with locations of human remains according to Tolson memoir. SSIA The first time they [the Navy] returned, the Indians, angry at their punishment, came out on the spit and fired on the ship. Captain Prevost threatened to smash their canoes and cabins if they did not hand over the ringleaders of this demonstration. The Indians, once more frightened, yielded. She remembered the gruesome burial ground of the slaughtered Haidas. Presumably owing to some superstition regarding the dead, the Cowichans after the massacre, went out to the Haidas canoe and brought in the murdered men, burying them on an island in Ganges Harbour. Indian-like they covered them only with stones, and on the white settlers of the island devolved the gruesome task of later going out and disinterring the bodies to give them proper burial. Unfortunately there was practically no soil on this island, so all the earth for the graves had to be carried over in boats. July 1860 The Fort Indians, after accomplishing the bloody deed, continued on their course, taking the heads of the victims with them. The next day one of the heads, divested of its scalp, was found stuck on a tall pole on an island near Saltsprings [sic]. Much alarm is felt at Saltspring Island and government aid is loudly called for (British Colonist July 12,1860). September 5, 1860 We pulled up to the head of the harbor & walked up a winding trail through a deserted Indian village to a log hut. This was the house of Mr. Lenaker [Lineker] the principal settler. Mr. Lowe accompanied me on shore. Several settlers met us. I visited most of the log houses which are built on each lot. The land is much more open than on the other side which we visited yesterday. It is quite park like & the soil is sometimes rich black loam…There is plenty of fine grass. There are sixteen settlers, mostly young men. Nearly all are living with Indian women (Diary of Bishop George Hill, Hw’Tlelum (Fernwood), Friday, September 7, 1860 Bagshaw Roberta L. The 1860 Diaries of the Anglican Bishop George Hills. Victoria. So No Nis Press Bagshaw 1996:226). Left [Ganges] early and paddled against a strong wind til about 10 ½ am when we rounded the southerly point and hoisted sail. After about two hours sailing we came to an Indian house on Salt Spring Island {Fulford harbour?] and as our canoe was not sufficiently large to endure the gale we hired an Indian with a large canoe and took ours in tow… |
1863 |
They [Lamalcha] notified the stone cutters on Salt Spring by special messenger that they would give them one week more to live and at the expiration of that date they would cut all their throats. Stonecutter bay. …Indians told him [George Richardson] and other settlers that the Lamalcha would come and secret themselves in the bush and shoot them while they were at work. |
1869 |
I beg to state to you that as some of my family were walking on my farm near the beach [DfRu-1] they perceived some Indians in a canoe and on returning they saw the same canoe at a little distance and in a few minutes they fired a gun, and the ball alighted within a few yards of them. I state these facts in order that the Indians be driven out of the bay entirely as our lives are not safe for a moment and all the settlers as well as myself are quite uneasy and unsettled several murders having been committed on the island within the last twelve months. |
1874 |
Passed an old Indian Ranch [Fulford Harbour], the carved posts of which are still standing. |
1876-77 |
Koo nah nich, Seven males and eight females including five children, livestock. “Chief” Lil kwi yun. Indian Reserve Commission, Census of British Columbia Indians ,1876-77,RG 88 V 494 file, NAC. |
1870’s |
One of the residents [interviewed circa 1896] tells how twenty years or so ago it was no strange thing during the months of May or June to see the shores of Ganges Harbor swarming with Indians – 500 or more in number—their long, curiously shaped canoes drawn up on the beach, the object of their visit being to dig, roast, and preserve the clam-fish. That these visits must have ben made to the same spot for centuries past is evidenced by the great depth of the clam-shell soil, three, four and even in some places as much as seven feet in depth, with trees 200 years old or more growing in it; indeed the theory of our informant that “the Indians were roasting clams here in Ganges harbor while Moses was writing the Pentateuch on Mt. Sinai,” may not be altogether without foundation. According to his description the process of preserving clams was as follows: In Ganges Harbor the Indians also used to catch enormous amounts of herring during the season. They would go out in their canoes, and with long flat sticks, 12 or 13 feet in length and shaped like paddles, with nails sticking in the edges, they would scoop up the herrings by the hundred and drop them into their canoes. Then on reaching shore, they would make a long frame-work of poles, four or five tiers high, and hang the herrings to dry in the sun. They would also place cedar boughs in the water for the herrings to spawn on, and the herring spawn after being dried in the sun was with them an important article of commerce with which to trade with the Interior Indians. About the month of August the smelt would come into the harbor in immense numbers, and during the spawning season would be so thick in the shallow water that they could easily be caught with the hand or drawn on shore with an ordinary garden rake or hoe. Indeed they are still caught in this way by those who care for them. The point owned by Mr. Ed Walter, and called “the Spit,” used to be a great camping ground for the Indians. One night there was such a yelling and holloaing and firing of guns on the spit that the settlers in the harbor were in considerable alarm fearing that some Northern Indians had arrived, and that a fight was going on. It turned out however, afterwards, that a pack of hungry wolves had attacked the Indians’ dogs and that was the cause of the disturbance ” |
1874? |
We refused to make a small reserve asked for at Maple Bay, by some of the Quamichan Indians and on Salt Spring Island near Sansum Narrows by an Indian Known as Captain Verygood [Sweyhultun]. Mr. Morley J.P. of Cowichan states that in both these cases the Indians allege that they have had from the Land Office some informal permission to encamp or temporarily occupy these spots and that as long as they are not in the way, there may not be any object in removing them. The Commissioners will mention this matter to the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works. These small detached places occupied by one or two Indians are inconvenient and have only been included in the reserves by the Comissioners in very special cases. |
1884 |
Decie Beddis related that when their first garden [1884/85?] was coming along well, her mother was horrified to see a party of Indians come ashore and begin to eat the carrots and peas. Little Decie, equally upset, dashed away from her mother and ran into the garden to kick at the leader’s legs. Her mother was terrified, but the chief thought it a great joke and called his men back into the canoe. In spite of this uncomfortable beginning later relationships with the Indians were good. Decie remembered with pleasure that every year, after the hop-picking season in Oregon, the Indians, returning to various reservations on Vancouver Island would gather on the beach below the house to exchange news and feast on clams, Such gatherings Decie said, brought a welcome change to the homestead. The Indians were friendly and caused them no trouble whatever. Hill, Beth and Sue Mouat, Margaret Cunningham and Lillian Horsdal 1985 Times Past:Salt Spring Houses and History before the turn of the century. Community Arts Council Heritage House Committee. They resented a number of the white families who settled here. I remember the Beddis family; Decie F. Beddis, she only died a short time ago, at about nearly 90-something, and she told me, when she was a little girl, she and her brother used to go down to the beach, [she and] Charlie would go down onto the beach, and they’d come running up to the house, because these Indians would suddenly come around the corner, you know, they’d have their bows and arrows, and looked rather fierce, so they hid. Told us about an older lady D.C. Beddis who used to live at Beddis Road. He said that she remembered up to 100 Indian Canoes at once, drawn up on the beach there—the Indian women would bring in the clams and shuck them between the canoes leaving piles of shells behind which when washed by the tide eventually became the shell covered beach. Field notes Steve Cassidy, January 16, 1974) |
1890’s |
This was an intelligent and dignified old Indian whom Mrs. Griffiths especially employed from time to time…In his younger day he had acted as a guide to earliest pioneers in the country and considered himself honored by their approval. When he passed away on the Griffith’s place (now Fernwood) its Mistress had him buried in the usual way, but his wife not approving, she later had him removed to be placed nearby, according to Indian tradition (Walter 1943:55). |
1891 |
Body of Khalamas removed [from Idol Island] and reburied at Lamalchi Bay. |
1897 |
Of course there were lots of Indians here then[1897]. There’s an Indian Reserve just across Fulford Harbour and a lot of the Indians lived on it. They used to come here through the fine weather and they’d have quite elaborate camps, and theyd dig clams and catch the fish. They’d smoke the clams by stringing them on lattice works. Always about the middle of May they’d be collecting up this stuff because some chief from one of the tribes would be giving a potlatch… The Gulf Islanders Sound Heritage,Volume V, Number 4. Edited by Derek Reimer. Field notes. Steve Cassidy,Feb. 1. 1974 |
1914- |
Mr Hedger says that he Indians came down from Kuper Island to gather herring eggs with willow and arbutus branches sunk into the chuck. I believe they were doing this during his lifetime [after c. 1914]. He is about 60 years old. He said on Salt spring the Indians used to burn or “catface” fir trees to get pitch for canoes and that they used fires to hunt deer as they ran through narrow gulleys. He[Alan Hedger] remembers when the Indians used to make brush shelters to live in at the north end of the island. Garnett Young Donald Abbott, Old site form, DeRv-9 When the Indians on the island had given up the chase after their wily prey, they returned to the harbour and carried the bodies of the northern warriors, and women, to a little island in Ganges Harbour, and piled them up on the shore (the furs had all been thrown overboard to clear the canoes during the fight). Then they went back to their camps. By six o'clock that evening not a vestige of evidence remained to show that a deadly struggle had taken place in Ganges Harbour. Interview with Eliza Griffiths (Lineker) Sidney Review Walkers Hook Field notes Steve Cassidy, Feb 27 1974 …still visible there are the mouldering remains of the rough cabin of Medicine Man Charley and his wife Mary, both Cowichan Indians. Remnants of a fireplace, cleverly constructed out of sticks and clay still clings to the mouldering hut. Hamilton, Bea On the point at the foot of Reginald Hill before and after the turn of the century lived the last of the Indians who used the Reserve for any length of time—Indian Charlie Zalt Zalt, a member of the Coast Salish tribe. Indian Charlie and his first squaw, Mary, lived there for some years, and when Mary died, Charlie got Fanny to live with him. Fanny died and the author’s father, meeting Indian Charlie one day, remarked that he was sorry Charlie had lost his squaw. “No matter,” said Indian Charlie cheerfully, “I get ‘nother squaw from Cowichan for twenty dollar.” He did, too, and they lived very happily and everyone liked the old couple. |
1923 |
Indian Charley missing with wife Mary one week Captain Horace Westmoreland Isabella Point A.O.Lacey |
1930’s |
I don't remember any Native Indians on the Island [elsewhere he describes buying fish from regular native vendors]. There were traces of them having lived there for many generations back, by the “middens” along different parts of the shoreline. I think “Midden” is the right word. There were mounds of seashells that the Indians had apparently feasted with and disposed of the empty shells in a huge trench anywhere from a few feet to 20 or thirty feet long and piled up sometimes three or four feet above land level (of course after many years, they were covered with the shifting sands). |