The Tragedy of the "Nahwitti Incident"

The article was originally published in the North Island Gazette July 17, 2008.
In 1850 three white men, employees of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) who were indentured labourers, deserted the HBC on the steamship Beaver.
The men had signed contracts to work for the Company for a certain period of time, in exchange for the cost of their passage to Vancouver Island and basic amenities.
The men had deserted from the Fort Victoria, believeing that they were boarding a ship bound for the California gold fields to the South.  Unfortunately they accidentally boarded a ship bound North, and the next port of call for the ship was Fort Rupert on Northern Vancouver Island.  When the boat arrived the men jumped ship and managed to find a way to run off up the coast.
There are contradictory reports as to what exactly the HBC communicated to local First Nations about the deserters.  Some of the company's employees, Scottish miners, claimed that the First Nations were told that the Company wanted the men back, dead or alive.
It is clear that the HBC put a price on the heads of the deserters, and made it clear that there would be a reward for their return.
While they were hiding in the woods on a nearby island, the deserters were found and killed.  Two of their bodies were found on Willes Island, not far from Shushartie Bay.
The HBC believed that they had been killed by members of the Nahwitti tribe - the First Nation known today as Tlatlasikwala.

Kwakiutl traditional dugout cedar ocean-going canoes

When the bodies of the deserters were discovered, the HBC did an initial investigation and accused the Nahwitti of murder.  They denied the charges.
HBC clerk C. Beardmore sent word to Fort Victoria that the Nahwitti had killed three British subjects.  In October 1850 the Royal Navy frigate HMS Daedalus (42 cannons; 1,082 tons) arrived at Fort Rupert.
Magistrate J.S. Helmcken negotiated with the local Nahwitti chief, who offered to pay restitution to the HBC, however this was declined.  The Royal Navy was sent in with 60 men to apprehend the murderers by force.
When they arrived at the Nahwitti village on Nigei Island the navy found it deserted, so they burned all the buildings to the ground and destroyed all remaining belongings.
In 1851 the HMS Daphne arrived at Fort Rupert and tried to capture the murderers.  The naval ship found the natives staying in a more fortified village at Cape Sutil and a fight ensued.  In the end the First Nations agreed to hand over the murderers, but in the tumult both these three and a young chief were shot and killed.
The three suspects' bodies were buried at Fort Rupert, not far from the bodies of the deserters whom they were believed to have killed.
The Nahwitti incident further increased tension between the First Nations, HBC employees, and company management.  Many people believed that the First Nations had been treated harshly and unfairly by the HBC and the navy.
Even in correspondence between Fort Rupert, the governor of the colony, and England, it is unclear whether First Nations had been instructed to kill the deserters.  Most of the remaining members of the Nahwitti First Nation moved to the village of Mel-oopa at Hope Island.