BACKGROUND - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 726

The First Nations Response
The fur trade brought prosperity to the indigenous society, which was organized around
wealth, possessions, and potlatches. The Hudson's Bay Company had no interest in inter-
fering with the First Nations and, in general, treated them fairly. This early contact with
Europeans resulted in expanded trade patterns and increased commerce between coastal and
interior tribes. It also spurred the production of indigenous arts and crafts to new heights,
as chiefs required more carved headgear, masks, costumes, feast dishes, and the like for the
increasingly frequent ceremonial occasions that came with increased wealth.
However, commerce between the Europeans and locals also caused the indigenous tribes
to abandon their traditional home sites and instead to cluster around the forts for trading
and protection. In addition, the Europeans introduced muskets, alcohol, and disease (most
significantly smallpox), all of which took their toll on the First Nations population, which
stood at around 60,000 in 1850. Christian missionaries soon arrived and tried to ban the tra-
ditional potlatches, but not until land-hungry colonists showed up did major conflicts arise
between First Nations peoples and Europeans. Those land-ownership conflicts proved ten-
acious, continuing to this day.
Vancouver Island
The British government decided in 1849 that Vancouver Island should be colonized to con-
firm British sovereignty in the area and forestall any American expansion. Though mostly
content to leave the island in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Brits neverthe-
less sent Richard Blanshard out from England to become the island colony's first gov-
ernor. Blanshard soon resigned and was replaced in 1851 by James Douglas, head of the
Hudson's Bay Company. Douglas had long been in control of the island, and his main con-
cerns were to maintain law and order and to purchase the land. He made treaties with the
First Nations in which the land became the “entire property of the white people forever.” In
return, tribes retained use of their village sites and enclosed fields, and could hunt and fish
on unoccupied lands. Each indigenous family was paid a pitiful compensation.
In 1852, coal was discovered near Nanaimo, and English miners were imported to de-
velop the deposits. Around the same time, loggers began felling the enormous timber stands
along the Alberni Canal, and the Puget Sound Agricultural Association (a subsidiary of
Hudson's Bay Company) developed several large farms in the Victoria region. By the
1850s, the town of Victoria, with its moderate climate and fertile soil, had developed into
an agreeable settlement.