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James Douglas (later Sir James, Lord of Douglas) was born at Douglas Castle, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the son of William “Le Hardi” Douglas. Le Hardi was most notable for being the first Lord to join Sir William Wallace in his revolt against English rule.
1286
Open revolt had spread across Scotland. This became the “First War of Scottish Independence”. Ultimately, some Scottish nobles agreed to swear allegiance to King Edward I of England. During the “Capitulation of Irvine” the Scots worked out surrender negotiations. While the negotiations took place, Wallace continued to lay plans and gather men.
1297
As part of the surrender, both Sir Robert the Bruce and Sir William Douglas agreed to turn over their eldest children as hostages to assure their allegiance. In reality, they had no intention of doing so. The Bruce hid his infant daughter and Sir William sent Sir James to France.
1297
February
Britain, France and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years War. Having lost the war, France gives up all claims of sovereignty in North America. Britain now claims sovereignty over the whole of North America east of the Mississippi (with the exception of New Orleans and Louisiana). Spain and Russia still maintain competing claims to parts of western North America, including the lands currently called British Columbia.
1763
May
As the British attempt to gain control of Indigenous territories, Chief Pontiac leads the Ottawa, Objibwa, Potawatomi, Wyandot, Miami, Delaware, Shawnee, and Seneca nations in a three-year military action to drive the British east of the Appalachian Mountains. By late fall, Pontiac’s forces kill or capture more than 600 British colonists.
1763
King George III issues a Royal Proclamation to affirm the Treaty of Paris and expand Britain’s claims beyond the Treaty. While reserving the lands of the west for the “Indian nations,” the King declares that these territories are now under the “Sovereignty, Protection, and Dominion” of Britain and are to be surrendered only to the British Crown. Under British sovereignty, peace and friendship treaty-making gives way to surrender treaties and the Crown forgets the international character of nation-to-nation relationships between Indian nations and Britain.
1763
The Haida meet Spanish trader Juan Josef Peréz Hernandez during his journey along the Pacific coast. After welcoming the Spaniards in peace, the Haida engage them in trade. Hernandez had been instructed by the Spanish Crown to take possession of the land by erecting a large wooden cross on shore. The Haida and the Spaniards trade for two days without the Spanish setting foot ashore.
1774
George Vancouver, a British explorer, surveys the Northwest Coast in search for the Northwest passage. Though the Northwest coast would not be put under colonial policy until the mid 19th century, Vancouver’s maps of the coast would enable imperial officials to ignore the presence of Indigenous people and advance their territorial claims over the area. Vancouver assigns the names of influential British individuals to various geographic features including “The Gulph of Georgia,” “Bute’s Canal,” and “Howe’s Sound,” portraying the coast as British possessions.
Read More 1792
Scottish fur trader and employee of the Northwest Company, Alexander Mackenzie, traveling overland from the east, reaches the Pacific Ocean at Q’umk’uts (Bella Coola) in Nuxalk territory. A map of his journey is published in 1801.
1793
David Thompson (1770-1857), an explorer, fur trade employee, and cartographer, crosses the Rocky Mountains in 1807 to Kutenai. Thompson establishes Fort Kootenai/Kootenay House below the Upper Columbia Lake after cautiously crossing Piikani (Blackfoot) territory; Piikani people were targeting traders in retaliation to Captain Lewis’ murders of two Piikani individuals. By arrival in Kutenai territory, Thompson’s crew exhaust their food supply and rely on provisions of Roe Deer given by local Kutenai men.
Read More 1807
Simon Fraser and his crew meet Nlaka’pamux in Lytton in June 1808, the first European travellers to do so. Nlaka'pamux oral history states that: Nlaka’pamux welcome Simon Fraser and share food, smoke, and ceremony; Simon Fraser refuses the Nlaka’pamux host’s offer of roast fish and requests they give him their dog for meat instead, to their dismay; and Simon Fraser physically violates local Nlaka’pamux women bathing in the river, taking advantage of the fact that they mistake him for a transformer.
Read More 1808
The US ship the Tonquin is captured and the crew killed in Tla-o-qui-aht waters after the ship’s captain insults a Nuu-chah-nulth chief during trade negotiations by throwing furs in his face.
1811
Alexander Caulfield Anderson (1814-1884), an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is sent to Fort Vancouver in 1832. A.C. Anderson establishes Fort McLoughlin in Bella Bella the following year.
Read More 1832
After 16 years of working in the fur trade, first with the North West Company and then with the Hudson’s Bay Company after the merger of both companies, James Douglas is appointed as a Chief Trader. Chief traders received one of eighty-five equal cuts of forty percent of the company’s net profits or losses, amounting to £400 on a good year. These profit shares were dependent upon the price and market situation of beaver skins, in which Indigenous labour and participation were crucial.
Read More 1834
Eager to send a chaplain to the Columbia Department to enforce Christian values upon Hudson’s Bay Company employees and Indigenous people, the London Governor and Committee and Hudson’s Bay Company Governor, George Simpson, appoint Herbert Beaver in 1835 to serve as a chaplain and missionary for Indigenous people at Fort Vancouver. Beaver denounces the company’s practices of marrying multiple Indigenous wives and enslaving Indigenous people, creating great tension with chief factor, Dr. John Mcloughlin. After only two years, Beaver returns to London after facing much difficulty in working with the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Read More 1836
At the age of 37, James Douglas is appointed chief factor for the Columbia Department, the highest rank in the fur trade. Douglas now oversees the entire fur trade of the Hudson’s Bay Company west of the Rocky Mountains. Douglas also sets up a fort on the Taku River under the advice of a local Indigenous resident. There, he refuses the demands of local Indigenous traders to price beaver skins at two blankets a pelt and forces them to accept a price of one blanket per beaver skin.
Read More 1839
Richard Blanshard (1817-1894), a barrister who previously served the West Indies, is appointed Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island after the Colonial Office rejects Hudson’s Bay Company’s recommendation that James Douglas becomes governor, as Douglas already represented the interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company as chief factor. As almost all the colonial residents of the Vancouver Island were Hudson’s Bay Company employees, James Douglas serves as the de facto leader and severely undermines Blanshard’s authority. Blanshard resigns shortly after in 1851.
Read More 1849
With the creation of the colony of Vancouver Island in 1849, the Hudson’s Bay Company and the British Colonial Office entrust James Douglas to develop Indigenous land policy and implement private property. Douglas decides that Indigenous village sites, fields, and fisheries should be reserved by the crown and all other land be purchased. Douglas begins to negotiate land purchases with Indigenous tribes by written contract under the terms that tribal lands are to be forever surrendered and tribes may retain certain resource and land use rights.
Read More 1849
Governor Blanshard resigns and returns home to England. James Douglas becomes Governor of Vancouver Island and remains HBC Chief Factor. The instatement of Douglas as Governor now meant he held two roles, one representing the interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company and one representing the interests of the British colonial government.
Read More 1851
Douglas concludes treaties in Fort Rupert under similar terms to those pursued in the treaties in Victoria, Sooke, & Metchosin. The Hudson’s Bay Company has a special interest in developing coal deposits in Fort Rupert.
Read More 1851
Joseph Despard Pemberton (1821-1893) is hired as a Hudson’s Bay Company colonial engineer and surveyor for Vancouver Island, as hundreds of colonists arrive from Britain. J.D. Pemberton is tasked with surveying the southern tip of Vancouver Island in preparation for colonial settlement and establishes the Wakefield system of land allocation which sought to create a wealthy land-owning class alongside a wage-earning class of European settlers. Pemberton himself comes to own a large farm estate near Victoria, aligning with the elite class. At the same time, Pemberton lays out Indian reserves, ensuring they are small (below 100 acres) and are confined within straight lines to make way for colonial settlement.
Read More 1851
In response to a growing number of questions, concerns and issues being raised by First Nations, Business, and Industry Leaders the FNLC and BC Government jointly decide to postpone introduction of the proposed Aboriginal Title Recognition and Reconciliation Act until after the May 12th Provincial Election. UBCIC sends an open letter to Premier Campbell and Ministers withdrawing from the legislative initiative process in July.
2009
UBCIC submits a response to the Ministry of Environment, Water Stewardship Division’s BC Water Act Modernization Initiative. UBCIC expresses deep concerns that the submission process is highly problematic; it was designed without Indigenous involvement and treats Indigenous people as “stakeholders” in the water policy process. There is no recognition of Indigenous jurisdiction or constitutionally-enshrined and judicially-recognized Aboriginal Title and Rights.
2010
UBCIC, along with 38 Aboriginal and civil society organizations across Canada, sends an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging him to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples without qualifications and in a manner consistent with international human rights law. Of the four countries that opposed the UNDRIP, Australia and New Zealand have changed their positions and the US is taking a public review of its position. Canada’s position remains unchanged.
2010