Hudson's Bay Company "point blankets" were important North Island trade item

This article was published in the North Island Gazette July 24, 2014.

When the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) established Fort Rupert in the mid 1800s their immediate interest was in mining coal for use on the new steamships serving the California gold rush.

It soon became apparent that a reliable supply of coal was going to be difficult to obtain in the area, and the HBC tried to break even on Fort Rupert through trade with First Nations.

There were only about four coastal HBC trading posts at that time, and First Nations from coastal and interior areas travelled great distances to bring furs, fish, and other items to barter.

Fort Rupert faced stiff competition from trading vessels, which would anchor in Quatsino Sound, Shushartie or Nahwitti and intercept First Nations who would barter until they had obtained the best trade for their furs.

Fort Rupert did not trade liquor, and employees lamented to their superiors at Fort Victoria that the best furs often passed them by because First Nations would bypass Fort Rupert and trade at Fort Victoria or in the United States, where it was not uncommon for half the value of a trade to be redeemed in rum.

One of the most popular trading items from the HBC were their iconic ‘point blankets.’  Point blankets originated in the late 1700s, when the HBC purchased large quantities of blankets from mills in England in various widths, ranging from 2’ 8” to 8’ wide.  In order that the size of the blankets could be ascertained when the blanket was folded up, a series of lines were standardized which were woven into the blanket denoting its size.  A 1pt blanket was the smallest, and a 3pt blanket was the largest.

HBC blankets were made of felted wool, which was water resistant, did not unravel, and could be cut to use for various purposes.  The blankets were available in a number of colours. White and blue were the most popular on the North Island, and the smaller blankets (1 to 2 1/2 pt) were preferred.  The Kwakwaka'wakw (possibly chinook?) name for the HBC blankets was 'ul'-hul-as-kum.'

Blankets served as a form of currency, and the value of other items was often measured in terms of the number of blankets for which an item could be traded.  A sea otter pelt, for example, might be worth seven 2 1/2 point blankets.

Some of the most iconic images of the potlatch showed heaps of trade goods amassed prior to a potlatch for distribution. When bartering for a bride or making an important announcement, it was not unusual for hundreds or even thousands of HBC blankets to be piled in front of the First Nations village at ‘Tsakis to be given away by local chiefs as a show of wealth and generosity.

Chiefs at 'Tsakis at Fort Rupert with blankets - circa 1898.

One of the more controversial issues related to HBC blankets had to do with the smallpox outbreak on the Coast in the mid 1800s, when there were reports that unscrupulous traders removed blankets from villages stricken with the disease and re-sold them, in effect transmitting the disease to new populations.

Correspondence from Fort Rupert to Victoria at one point noted that the daughter of a South Island HBC employee had been accidentally kidnapped at San Juan (probably as a part of ongoing raids between various First Nations).  Her captor paddled her all the way to Fort Rupert, but felt that he should probably give her back, and returned her scared but in good condition.  The clerk at Fort Rupert gave him six HBC point blankets to thank him for her safe return.

H'Kusam

Article originally published in the North Island Gazette in 2007.

H’Kusam or Xusam is believed to be a Kwak’wala word for “having fat or oil.”  H’Kusam referred to both the Salmon River and the large First Nations village on its Southern bank.

When the first Europeans explored the coast of Vancouver Island in 1792 they noted a large village site strategically located on the southern bank of what was to become known as the Salmon River.   The village was on the border between the Kwakwaka’wakw and Coast Salish language groups, and is believed to have changed hands between these groups. 
The village was in the shadow of Mt. H’Kusam, which through a unique weather phenomenon often has clouds clinging to the upper mountainside.  The First Nations called this mountain “Hiyatsee Saklekum” or “where the breath of the sea lions gathers at the blow hole”. They believed that there was a tunnel through the mountain through which the sea lions’ breath traveled.  More recently local people have affectionately called the perpetual cloud at the peak of the mountain “Oscar.”

The old Kusam Store

In 1894, after complaints from the white community about a disturbance being caused by the First Nations at H’Kusam, Indian Agent R.H. Pidcock arrived on the scene to find a large potlatch going on.  Over 500 natives were estimated to have gathered for the event.  The Agent tried to arrest the host, Chief Johnny Moon, but the white settlers were vastly outnumbered and eventually the Agent was forced to agree to take one of Moon’s sons instead, averting a potentially violent situation.
Theodore Peterson, a cook on sailing ships, settled near the mouth of the Salmon River in 1895.  He married a local aboriginal woman and started a business partnership with Ed Wilson.  “Port H’Kusam” soon boasted a store with a large false front, the H’Kusam Hotel, and a saloon.  One of these buildings was also  known as “Ruby House.”  The community was a stop for coastal   steamships in the early 1900s.  An official post office opened at Port Kusam on March 1, 1899. 
Otto Sacht was a 29 year old living in Victoria when a colleague suggested that they load up a ship with trade goods and head up the coast, selling the goods to local Indians and hand loggers.  Sacht was interested, and the two set off in 1903/04.  At their first stop, in H’Kusam, a local chief  “Tyee Harry” was hosting a potlatch and purchased almost their entire load of goods for $4,500.00.  The partners took their money and stayed to explore the area.  Sacht fell in love with the area and stayed, becoming a founding father of Sayward.

Port Kusam (1905) Mr Mc[Keugin], Mr. Peterson, Mr. Phelps,
Mr. [Monteuil], Mr. Hyer, Miss Piddock, Miss Sharp
City of Vancouver Archives Item : CVA 312-57 

On December 1, 1911, the post office at H’Kusam was closed and it was moved to what was becoming a larger town at Sayward. 
A trail system now leads up the Mt. H’Kusam, behind the old village site.  Called the H’Kusam Mountain Trails (or Bill’s Trails), it allows climbers to walk from sea level to 5681 ft, and provides a beautiful view of Johnstone Strait. An annual endurance climb has been held on the trail.  A popular geocashing trail also leads through the old townsite.

Englewood at Beaver Cove

Published in the North Island Gazette June 26, 2014

Logging started in the Beaver Cove area, just South of Port McNeill in about 1908.  A couple of early homesteaders had taken preemptions in the area, but eventually gave them up as logging moved from the beach area inland.

The first logging railways were built in the Nimpkish Valley around 1917.  One railway ran through the upper Nimpkish watershed to the top of Nimpkish Lake, and another ran from the bottom of the lake to Beaver Cove. Historical articles seem to disagree whether the lower railway initially was routed to the mouth of the Nimpkish River or Beaver Cove. In any case, the logs had to be floated down Nimpkish Lake and then removed at the bottom of the lake. The Nimpkish Timber Company operated an early camp in the area.

A mill was operated for a few years (1917 to the early 1920s) at the mouth of the Kokish River in Beaver Cove by the Beaver Cove Lumber Company.  

Beaver Cove Lumber Co. Office, store and Rooming House - Nov 1918. BC Archives G-03149

In 1925 the Wood & English company opened a new sawmill in the northern part of Beaver Cove.  This location provided a sheltered bay, access to deep water, and a stream which provided a source of power for the mill.  The Nimpkish logging railway was redirected to the new mill, and a town sprang up in this new location.

The new community was named Englewood, a play on the Wood & English mill name. Log cars were originally pulled along the railroad by steam engines.  The rail line became known as the Englewood Railway.

Wood and English Mill 1926

Englewood became a steamer port and a post office.   A general store and community hall opened on the wharf.  Bunkhouses, mill offices, married quarters, a small Japanese village, and a school were all constructed or moved from other camps.

Wood and English Camp - 1926. BC Archives D-05029

In the early days the mill was busy and sometimes operated three shifts per day. Most of the workers were able to live for free in the company housing.

Naturalist and fisherman Roderick Haig-Brown visited and photographed the mill in 1927.

Englewood School in 1928 (BC Archives G-06385) 

The Wood & English operated until 1941.  After the mill was closed most of the company buildings were burned to the ground.

The nearby communities of Beaver Cove and Kokish grew after the closure of Englewood.

It wasn’t until 1957 that the upper and lower Nimpkish logging railroads were connected, eliminating the need for logs to be floated down Nimpkish Lake.  The offloading of logs from throughout the Nimpkish watershed and beyond was moved to the community of Beaver Cove, which existed at the mouth of the Kokish until the log sort was expanded in 1975.

In 1958 the Englewood post office closed and was moved to the community of Beaver Cove. In 1967 a report from the Forest Service said there was still a 10 person camp at Englewood. Its registration as a community was rescinded in 1985.  

In the late 1990s a state of the art fish processing facility was constructed on the site of the old mill, where the historic pilings were still visible.  

http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/bchf/bchn_1995_summer.pdf

Brooks Peninsula Provided Glacial Refuge

This article originally appeared in the North Island Gazette May 22, 2014.

Brooks Peninsula is located just South of Quatsino Sound, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.

Isolated and remote, the area is home to the Mquq^win/Brooks Peninsula Provincial Park. The park was originally established as a Recreational Area in 1986 and expanded to a Class A Provincial Park in 1995. In 2009, following a partnership agreement signed between BC and the Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nation, the park was given its present name, which means “the Queen” in the Nuu-Chah-Nulth language.

One of the distinguishing features of this park is the fact that parts of its upland area (between seven and nine square kilometres) are believed by scientists to have been a ‘glacial refugium’ during the last ice age.

From 35,000 to 18,000 years ago, all of the land in B.C. (with the exception of Haida Gwaii) was covered by the Cordilleran ice sheet that extended offshore and was up to 2 km thick. A number of factors led scientists to theorize that parts of Brooks Peninsula had protruded from the glacial mass (a group of mountains from 580m to 670m in height), and subsequent analysis of the geology and biology of the upland areas has supported this theory. This rocky outcropping would have been one of the only pieces of land exposed in the transition between the Pacific Ocean and a massive sheet of glacial ice.

As the ice receded about 16,000 years ago and plant life returned, First Nations moved into the area. The first documented evidence of First Nations occupation of the North Island area is about 12,000 years ago.

Since the time of contact with Europeans, Brooks Peninsula has been the dividing line between the Kwakwaka’wakw and Nuu-Chah-Nulth language groups, although in prehistory this area is believed to have had more fluid borders.

Archeological examination of the area revealed one village site and a number of general use and burial sites. Growth of trees over house depressions suggest that the village was used up until the 1700s. It is estimated to have been home to about 3,000 people, in seven family groupings (nuyums).

Explorer Captain James Cook called the area “Cape of Storms,” when he visited in 1778 in his ships the Resolution and Discovery. Cape Cook, on the north-west point of the peninsula, is named for this explorer.

Drawing of Brooks Peninsula (Split Rock off Woody Point) sketched by James Colnett,
Captain of the Princess of Wales, in 1787.

Solander Island, located off of the peninsula, is named for Daniel Solander. A contemporary of Cook, Solander was a noted biologist. The island is an Ecological Reserve, off limits to the public, home to a valued seabird nesting area.

In 1788 Captain Duncan anchored in Klaskish Inlet, and called this inlet Brooks in subsequent correspondence. In 1795 Spanish officers Galiano and Valdes, who were surveying the area, named the inlet “Puerto de Bruks,” a Spanish interpretation of Duncan’s name. Captain Richards, surveying in 1862 on the Hecate, again confirmed this name.

In the early 1900s the Ilstads built a cabin on the North side of the peninsula, from which they ran a trap line.

In the 1970s a couple from Quatsino lived in a driftwood shack for an undetermined period of time, possibly two years.

Getting to know the Nahwitti

This article appeared in the North Island Gazette on April 24, 2014.
Three First Nations tribes were collectively known as the Nahwitti: Tlatlasikwala, Nakomgilisala, and Yutlinuk.  There was also a Chief known as Nahwitti, and a place the First Nations referred to as Nahwitti (first a location at Cape Sutil, later a village on Hope Island). The river which we now know as the Nahwitti was originally known to the First Nations as “wuda staade” (having cold water).

In 1786 James Strange and Alexander Walker visited the area on the ship Captain Cook.  They saw signs of local villages but did not encounter any of the local First Nations. In 1792 Don Galiano traded with the Nahwitti and left a large number of trade beads with the local people as a gift and gesture of goodwill.  These brown beads are unique and can still be found in the possession of local families.  Also in 1792 John Boit, on-board the Columbia, visited the area and attempted to trade with the First Nations.  He found them aggressive though, and ended up shooting one with his musket.

By 1800 the Spanish had left Nootka, and the British had taken control of the area.  Trading posts on the West Coast of Vancouver Island were closed and the main trading area on the Island became ‘Newitty’ (which was actually at Shushartie Bay).  It continued to play a prominent role in trade on the island for thirty years.

These First Nations faced many threats, owing to their preferred trading relationship with the British. In order to keep this position they had to regularly face challenges from their Northern neighbours, including First Nations from Bella Bella (Heiltsuk) and Kitkatla (Tsimshian).  In the 1820s traders noted that the population of the area significantly declined.

In 1850 the “Nahwitti Incident” resulted in the Royal Navy destroying two of the First Nation’s villages, in retaliation for the suspected murder of three Hudsons’ Bay Company deserters (see more at: http://undiscoveredcoast.blogspot.ca/2013/10/the-tragedy-of-nahwitti-incident.html). 

Many of the Cape Scott First Nations had amalgamated with the Nawhitti by the mid-1850s.

Around this time, when Fort Rupert was established, a census of the area noted that the Nahwitti had six villages, over 3000 members, and over 700 men of fighting age.

In the early 1900s Roderick Haig-Brown fished the Nahwitti River for steelhead, and it became a part of his folklore tales of fishing on Vancouver Island.

Today we have local place references which keep this heritage alive in the names of the Nahwitti Lake, Nahwitti River, Nahwitti  Bar, and the Nahwitti Cone.

___________________________

Footnote:

I originally had in this article some references to the Tonquin, as per below. A reader raised a question about the location of these events and I have researched the item in a bit more detail.  A number of the historical references have this incident being triggered by a disagreement with the 'Newity' Indians and reference events that took place at the Newitty village.  There does seem to be general historical agreement though, that these events took place on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, potentially in the area of Nootka.  Maybe there is a Nuu-chah-nulth village of the same name as the North Island Nahwitti people? 

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In 1811 the Vancouver Island First Nations captured an American trading vessel, the Tonquin.  Some reports say that the skirmish started when the vessel was anchored off the village of  'Newitty' and some say that a number of 'Newitty' people were kept on board the ship against their will. The Tonquin appears to have been in Nuu-Chah-Nulth territory when the vessel was attached by the local Indigenous peoples. By evening only a couple American survivors remained.  Scared, they slipped away from the boat in a dingy under the cover of darkness.  The next day the First Nations returned.  In the course of raiding the vessel either the First Nations, or one of the Tonquin crew members (reports differ) detonated the ship’s magazine, killing possibly hundreds of Indigenous people and destroying the ship.  The First Nations hunted down the crew and killed all but one translator, who was kept as a slave for a number of years before he managed to escape.

The Tonquin circa 1811

Port Alice Landslides

This article was originally published in the North Island Gazette on March 27, 2014.
Port Alice sits on the banks of Neroutsos Inlet in Quatsino Sound.  The Inlet was given its current name by the Government of BC in 1927 after the Captain of the Canadian Pacific Railway Coastal Service, Cyril Demetrious Neroutsos.
Much earlier than that, pre-1750, the Hoyalas called the area home, and in the late 1800s the Koskimo also lived in this area. It falls within the claimed traditional territory of the Quatsino First Nation.
Due to its steep slopes and heavy rainfall, the area around Port Alice has been subjected to a number of mud and rock slides.
In 1927 the original Port Alice townsite was struck by a slide that resulted in one fatality. A man with the last name Clark, was killed when his bachelor shack was swept away in a slide. Muddy debris tore down the hill, narrowly missing the local hospital.  The town had experienced several days of heavy rainfall prior to the slide, and it was suspected that a dam in a creek upstream of the town had burst.
In 1935 two additional slides careened down the hill, one ripping through the golf course, another coming dangerously close to the community store.  Local residents pitched in to help sandbag and create berms to divert the flow of water and mud.

1935 Port Alice slide

The town was relocated in 1965, further away from the mill, mainly due to concerns about pollution and a need for additional space to expand the mill to add pollution control measures. While the old town of Port Alice was a company town, where the company owned all the homes, the new municipality of Port Alice at Rumble Beach was an 'instant municipality,' with the District of Port Alice being created at the same time that the residents all moved to the new location.
Two devestating slides, however, took place in the 1970s at the new townsite.
On December 15, 1973 the community suffered from a storm that lashed the coast with high winds and heavy rains.  A mudslide occurred at the new townsite, knocking out utility poles, washing away a bridge, and affecting 15 houses.  Ten families were unable to return to their homes.

1973 Port Alice slide

Miraculously, no one was injured, but the community was cut off from the rest of the North Island in its moment of need. There was so much debris in the water that float planes could not land, and the Marble River bridge was washed out. Although it was dangerous for boats to travel, water taxis from Coal Harbour did manage to safely get to the community and were able to ferry out a number of families who were billeted in Port Hardy.
On November 12, 1975 again the town was hit with a mudslide that forced the evacuation of many residents.
After these events a number of studies were undertaken to look at slope stability above the town, and a diking system was impemented to divert future slides.
Tragedy struck again, however, November 10, 1987. A slide occurred on the road between the town and the mill.  A number of local residents were on-site assisting with the clean-up, including Port Alice Alderman Ian Ford, when a second slide hit.  Ford was standing in the path of the second slide and did not survive.
September 25, 2010 the highway to Port Alice was again washed out as a part of a weather event that saw much flooding and many slides occur around the North Island.

Chinese Canadian businessmen were pioneers on the North Island

This article was published in the North Island Gazette February 27, 2014.

The North Island’s history contains a number of stories of First Nations and pioneers who lived very interesting lives.

In the 1800s a number of First Nations people from the North Island, perhaps most notably the Quatsino, established a connection with Asian countries like China and Japan through their involvement in the sealing and whaling industries.  Prized for their skills, ships would come to the North Island to recruit First Nations sailors, who might be away for more than a year at a time. 

A number of Chinese Canadians left their legacy closer to home, here on the North Island.

Jim King emigrated as a young boy from China to Vancouver in 1882.  After working at low paying, unskilled jobs for a number of years he decided to set off up the coast to try his luck in the logging industry.  King worked as a boom man, camp cook, and a sawmill labourer before ending up in Alert Bay in 1910.

The local Indian Agent, William Halliday, befriended King and helped him to start a small store in Alert Bay.  King originally sold tobacco and then branched out into a dry goods store.

Dong Chong left Hong Kong in 1922 aboard the “Empress of Asia” and landed in Vancouver at the age of 16.  Chong started off selling fresh vegetables at a grocery stand, and then expanded these sales into a successful wholesale business based in Vancouver’s bustling Chinatown.

In 1928 Chong got married, sold his business, and travelled up the coast in search of a job.  Unfortunately he found that many businesses on the coast would not hire Chinese.  At this time the Head Tax had been implemented, and many Caucasian British Columbians were vocal in their discrimination against Asians, who had come in large numbers to the province to work on the Canadian National Railway and in many of the area’s coal mines.  Stopping in at Alert Bay, Chong met King, and decided to buy his store.

UBC Collections - Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection - CC_PH_00315

Chong would deliver goods to his customers by row boat and wheelbarrow.  When the Canadian government outlawed the potlatch Chong would always be one of the first to know if there was an illegal potlatch going on because the hosts would order huge quantities of goods from his store.  He never reported these goings-on to the police, and noted that in Alert Bay everyone got along at that time: white, Asian, and First Nations.

Chong was known to help out locals by extending credit to those could not pay their bill.  Some First Nations fishermen also used his store as a bank, asking Chong to hold onto their money at the end of the season so that they wouldn't spend it all at once.
At one point Chong ended up taking over part ownership of a logging company from a customer who couldn’t repay the loan.  Ironically, it was illegal for Chong’s logging company to employ Chinese workers.

In the 1960s Chong purchased land in Port Hardy, and built a number of successful commercial units.  His business eventually included grocery stores and commercial holdings all over British Columbia. 

A video with photos from this area is available here.
In more recent history, Dick Wong was well known for his café in Echo Bay, and later his restaurant, the Pagoda Gardens, which was established in 1961 in Port Hardy.  The building on Granville Street was a landmark in the community until it was destroyed in a fire in 1991 (by the site of the town clock). The curator at the local museum published a multi-installment biography on Wong in 1998 in the Gazette.

Articles
"Don Chong delivered groceries by wheelbarrow" in the North Island Gazette November 13, 1980.