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64-537: The chief of the Kwakiutl is Councillor Grace Wilson. There are approximately 835 members of the Kwakiutl nation. In 1851, the ancestors of the Kwakiutl entered into treaties with James Douglas , then acting as agent for the Hudson's Bay Company , so that the company could gain access to coal deposits on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. However the nation asserts that the treaty was violated and has been in litigation with

128-737: A conflict of interest between his duties to the company and to the colony. In 1856, gold was discovered in the Thompson River , a tributary of the Fraser River , and a year later in the Fraser River itself. That sparked an influx of miners and others, as word of the discoveries spread south to the United States. Thousands of Americans flooded into British Columbia during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush . Although without political authority on

192-519: A few blankets or a few shillings ). The treaties, concluded between 1850 and 1854, acquired 14 parcels of land for the Crown from the native peoples, totaling 570 square kilometres (220 sq mi). The treaty-making was halted after the Colony ran out of money to pursue its expansion policy. The administration also founded public elementary schools, worked to control alcohol in the colony, and constructed

256-607: A fur trader, and he sought to conclude treaties (the Douglas Treaties ) with First Nations on southern Vancouver Island. On the other hand, Douglas supplied Washington Territory's Governor Isaac Stevens with arms and other supplies to assist the US government in its conflict with Native American tribes. The treaties that he concluded were later criticized as having provided woefully inadequate compensation to First Nations in return for their cession of large swaths of territory (in most cases,

320-580: A heart attack on August 2, 1877, at the age of 73. His funeral procession was possibly the largest in the history of B.C., and he was interred in the Ross Bay Cemetery . Fort William, Ontario Fort William was a city in Ontario , Canada, located on the Kaministiquia River , at its entrance to Lake Superior . It amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form

384-610: A new midway transshipment point between their inland posts and Montreal. The partners needed to meet and exchange furs and supplies without being subject to American taxation. In 1803, the Nor'Westers abandoned Grand Portage and established a new fur trading post on the Kaministiquia River on land acquired from the Ojibwe by written agreement 30 July 1798. The post was named Fort William in 1807 after William McGillivray , chief director of

448-725: A second line of forts be built in case the Columbia River valley fell into American hands. Charged with the task, Douglas founded Fort Victoria , on the site of present-day Victoria, British Columbia . That proved beneficial when in 1846 the Oregon Treaty was signed, extending the British North America and the United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia . In 1849, Britain leased

512-495: A small amount of land and from which Douglas's mother, 'a half-breed', originated. Douglas's ethnicity made him 'an affront to Victorian society'. Mary Moody, the descendant of the Hawks industrial dynasty and the Boyd merchant banking family, wrote on 4 August 1859 'it is not pleasant to serve under a Hudson's Bay Factor' and that the 'Governor and Richard can never get on'. In a letter to

576-633: A vast area from Sibley Peninsula to the American border. For eight years the residents of Neebing and Neebing Additional townships battled Port Arthur residents for the Thunder Bay terminus. In March 1881, the inhabitants of Neebing and Neebing Additional petitioned the Ontario Legislature successfully to separate the southern townships from Shuniah and to create the Municipality of Neebing. By 1883–1884,

640-822: The Empire , Queen Victoria promoted him Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath . Upon his retirement, Douglas was honoured with banquets in both Victoria and New Westminster , the capital of the mainland. He also received a thank you on paper signed by 900 people. From 1864 to 1865, Douglas toured Europe. He visited relatives in Scotland and a half-sister in Paris. He had to return early when his daughter, Cecilia, died. Douglas continued to be active but kept out of politics in all forms. He died in Victoria of

704-541: The Lower Mainland . In contrast, Europeans in the Colony numbered under 1000. Meanwhile, in neighboring Oregon and Washington Territory the Cayuse and Yakima Wars and other conflicts between Americans and indigenous peoples were raging. His relations with First Nations peoples were mixed. On the one hand, Douglas' wife was Cree , he had established many close business and personal relationships with indigenous peoples as

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768-639: The North West Company (Nor'Westers). The North West Company continued to use Grand Portage as their centre of operations after the area was ceded to the United States after the colonists' victory in the American Revolution . Following the signing of the Jay Treaty of 1794 between Great Britain and the United States, which acknowledged American control of the area, the North West Company required

832-611: The San Juan Islands . The protracted, twelve-year standoff came to be known as the Pig War . Douglas pressed Britain to exert sovereignty over all islands in the archipelago dividing the Strait of Georgia from Puget Sound . Named for the largest island of the group, the San Juan Islands are immediately adjacent to Victoria and so were of great strategic interest and worry. While opposing troops remained garrisoned on San Juan Island ,

896-797: The "Stikine lisière." The area leased by the RAC was on the Alaskan Panhandle , on the northern coast from Mount Fairweather south to 54°40′. In return, the RAC received 2000 otter pelts and a number of other goods, notably a large supply of wheat and provisions needed at various Russian stations. To meet the demand, Simpson and members of the governing committee created the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC) to both meet this demand and promote settlement of territories around Cowlitz Farm and Fort Nisqually . Both stations are now located within modern Washington . In November 1839, Douglas

960-671: The CPR stimulated development, as did the construction of the railway, begun in June 1875. The federal Department of Public Works, and later the Department of Railways and Canals, took seven years (1875–1882) to build the Thunder Bay Branch from Fort William to Winnipeg, Manitoba . The Ontario Legislature incorporated the Municipality of Shuniah in March 1873. This early form of regional government comprised

1024-623: The Colonial Office formally confirmed Douglas's proclamation of sovereignty and established a new colony encompassing the mainland. After the British Parliament in 1858 created the Crown Colony of British Columbia , Douglas was assigned as governor and was asked to resign as Chief Factor of the western portion of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Crown did not renew the company's trade monopoly on

1088-524: The Colonial Office of 27 December 1858, Moody boasted that he has ‘entirely disarmed [Douglas] of all jealously' Douglas repeatedly insulted the Engineers by attempting to assume their command, and refusing to acknowledge their value in the nascent colony. Margaret A. Ormsby, author of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry for Moody (2002), condemns Moody for a contribution to the abortive development of

1152-506: The Crown. He started work at 16 for the North West Company and then the Hudson's Bay Company and became a high-ranking officer. From 1851 to 1864, he was Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island . In 1858, he became the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia and asserted the authority of the British Empire during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush , which had the potential to turn

1216-775: The HBC. Being a Chief Trader was a very important position that was held by only four others in the large district. He received his commission as one of "the gentlemen of the interior" on June 3, 1835, in York Factory during a meeting of the Council of the Northern Department. In 1838, Douglas was put in charge of the Columbia District while Chief Factor John McLoughlin was on furlough in Europe. While he commanded Fort Vancouver, he denounced

1280-535: The Hudson's Bay Company post remained in dispute until 1875, when it was surveyed as Neebing Additional Township. Most land was acquired by absentee landowners speculating on the decision of the new Dominion of Canada to build a railway to the Pacific that would begin somewhere along the north shore of Lake Superior. The selection of the Fort William Town Plot (later known as West Fort) as the eastern terminus for

1344-519: The Mainland into an American state. He remained governor of both colonies until his retirement in 1864. Douglas was born in 1803 in Guyana. His father was John Douglas, a Scottish planter and merchant from Glasgow, in business with three of his brothers. The Douglas family were part of "the business elite of Scotland ". His uncle was Lieutenant-General Sir Neil Douglas , Commander-in-Chief, Scotland . His aunt

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1408-491: The Montreal-based CPR syndicate, in collaboration with the Hudson's Bay Company , clearly preferred the low-lying lands along the lower Kaministiquia River to the exposed shores of Port Arthur, which required an expensive breakwater if shipping and port facilities were to be protected from the waves. The CPR subsequently consolidated all its operations there, erecting rail yards, coal-handling facilities, grain elevators and

1472-411: The North West Company from 1804-1821. After the union of the North West Company with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1821, the fort lost its raison d'être because most trade shifted to York Factory on Hudson Bay. It became a minor HBC fur trading post. The original site disappeared under development of Canadian Pacific Railway]] railroad tracks and coal piles in the 1880s. A replica of Fort William

1536-595: The Victoria District Church (the forerunner to the Christ Church Cathedral ). In 1856, as ordered by the British Government, Douglas reluctantly established an elected Legislative Assembly . That was a turning point for Douglas, who had grown accustomed to administering the colony with absolute authority. The council was opposed to Douglas on many issues and consistently criticized him for having

1600-473: The accused before taking him away. Various accounts were passed around the area, and Douglas generally acquired a negative reputation among the local First Nations as a result. Fearing for Douglas's life, Connolly asked HBC Governor George Simpson to transfer the younger man elsewhere. He was reassigned to Fort Vancouver, headquarters of the company's Columbia District , near the mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Washington . His wife joined him after

1664-573: The age of 16, James Douglas signed on to join the North West Company (NWC), a major organization active in the North American fur trade . He sailed from Liverpool for Lachine , Lower Canada , in spring 1819. From there, Douglas was assigned as a clerk at Fort William in what is now Thunder Bay . The following year, he was moved to Île-à-la-Crosse on the Churchill River in what is now northern Saskatchewan . The rival Hudson's Bay Company

1728-630: The best of British culture, not just a police force," sought men who possessed "courtesy, high breeding and urbane knowledge of the world," and decided to send Moody, whom the Government considered to be the archetypal "English gentleman and British Officer" at the head of the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment . Moody and his family arrived in British Columbia in December 1858, and was sworn in as

1792-585: The cent[re] contains a grain elevator, a steamship and a locomotive, while the beaver surmounts the whole." Fort William and Grand Portage were the two starting points for the canoe route from the Great Lakes to Western Canada . For details of the route inland see Kaministiquia River . Kamanistigouian, as a place, is first mentioned in a decree of the Conseil Souverain de la Nouvelle-France dated 23 August 1681 instructing one of two canoes to make known

1856-685: The chaos accompanying the California Gold Rush was not repeated in British Columbia. He was nicknamed "Old Squaretoes" for his stiffness. In December 1861, during the ongoing Trent Affair , Douglas argued for his London superiors to invade and conquer the Washington Territory as America was too busy in the East with the Civil War . He reasoned because there were few U.S. troops stationed in

1920-511: The city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Since then, it has been the largest city in Northwestern Ontario . The city's Latin motto was A posse ad esse ( From a possibility to an actuality ), featured on its coat of arms designed in 1900 by town officials, "On one side of the shield stands an Indian dressed in the paint and feathers of the early days; on the other side is a French voyageur ;

1984-431: The city. However, most other historians have exonerated Moody for the abortive development of the city and consider his achievement to be impressive, especially with regard to the perpetual insufficiency of funds and the personally-motivated opposition of Douglas, whose opposition to the project continually slowed its development. Robert Edgar Cail, Don W. Thomson, Ishiguro, and Scott have praised Moody for his contribution,

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2048-647: The colony, and few of them owned property. He was friends with Robert Ker , the First Auditor General of the Two Colonies of British Columbia, and John Sebastian Helmcken a future Speaker of the House of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia . Like Douglas, they are both considered founding fathers of British Columbia. Helmcken married Douglas's daughter, Cecilia. When Douglas ended his service to

2112-782: The company's service. He created the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corp, otherwise known as the African Rifles, an all-Black militia of immigrants from San Francisco's First African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church who settled on Vancouver Island in the 1860s at his invitation. He also used the sparse presence of the Royal Navy for protection. During the Crimean War , the British and French carried out an attack on Petropavlovsk in 1854, and casualties were sent to Victoria. After facilities of

2176-678: The country — command its trade, and soon compel it to submit to Her Majesty's Rule." Continuing his service as governor, Douglas authorised construction of the government buildings known as the "Birdcages" in 1859. In 1862, with the discovery of rich gold deposits in the Cariboo region , sparking the Cariboo Gold Rush , Douglas ordered the construction of the Cariboo Road . This engineering feat ran 400 miles from Fort Yale to Barkerville through extremely hazardous canyon territory. The Cariboo road

2240-531: The couple had three children together (Alexander, born 1801 or 1802; James, born 1803, and Cecilia, born 1812), but never formally married. In 1812, John Douglas returned to Scotland with his children and put James into school at Lanark to be educated. John married Jessie Hamilton in 1819, and had more children with her, making a second family. James went to school or was taught by a French Huguenot in Manchester , England, where he learned to speak and write in fluent French, which helped him in North America. At

2304-404: The death of their first child in 1830. While they lived in Fort Vancouver, she gave birth to ten more children (five died in infancy). Their son James W. Douglas grew up to become a politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), 1875–1878. Douglas spent 19 years working in Fort Vancouver . He served as a Clerk until 1835, when he was promoted to Chief Trader, the second highest rank in

2368-439: The dispute was eventually settled by arbitration in favour of the United States. Douglas's largest problem in the mid- and late 1850s concerned relations with the majority First Nations peoples. These numbered around 30,000 local Songhee, Cowichan , Nanaimo , Nuu-chah-nulth , including raiding Haida from Haida Gwaii and the Euclataws Kwakiutl of northern Georgia Strait and the Sechelt, Squamish , and Sto:lo peoples of

2432-453: The enslavement of Chinookan peoples. Douglas supported Simpson's plans of making a settlement with the Russian-American Company (RAC). In Hamburg in early 1839, Simpson and Governor of Russian Colonies in America Ferdinand von Wrangel negotiated a commercial treaty that established future relations between the two state companies. The RAC-HBC Agreement let the HBC rent a portion of Russian American claimed territory referred to as

2496-401: The entirety of Vancouver Island to the HBC under the condition that a colony be created. Douglas moved the headquarters of the western portion of the company from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria. Douglas had a Kanaka man accompany him in 1849 on his journey from Fort Vancouver to Victoria by canoe, and at Victoria, he had a Hawaiian cook and household servant (Barman and Watson 2006: 62). He

2560-401: The eyes of the Engineers and the British Government. Moody had been selected by Lord Lytton due to his possession of the quality of the archetypal 'English gentleman and British Officer', his family was 'eminently respectable': he was the son of Colonel Thomas Moody , one of the wealthiest mercantilists in the West Indies, who owned much of the land in the islands where Douglas's father owned

2624-416: The fall of 1858, escalating tensions between the miners and the Nlaka’pamux people of the central area of the canyon broke into the Fraser Canyon War . Douglas's actions in asserting British sovereignty over the mainland is generally conceded today to have helped exert to control over American miners and to undermine American territorial ambitions toward this part of British North America. Shortly thereafter,

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2688-421: The first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia . He is often credited as "The Father of British Columbia ". He was instrumental to the resettlement of 35 African Americans fleeing a life of racial persecution in San Francisco who arrived in the province aboard the steamship Commodore in what later became known as the Pioneer Committee. In 1863, Douglas was knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to

2752-449: The first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia and appointed Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia. Throughout his tenure in British Columbia, Moody was engaged in a bitter feud with Douglas, whose jurisdiction overlapped with his own. Moody's position as Chief Commissioner and Lieutenant-Governor was one of ‘higher prestige [and] lesser authority' than that of Douglas, despite Moody's vastly superior social position in

2816-483: The fur market. In 1717, a new post, Fort Kaministiquia , was established at the river mouth by Zacharie Robutel de la Noue . This post appears on 18th century French maps by Royal hydrographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin as "Fort Caministogoyan". The post was abandoned in 1758 or 1760 during the British conquest of New France. The fur trade was quickly re-established with most people using Grand Portage . By 1784, Montreal merchants and their "wintering partners" had formed

2880-421: The help of a Dakelh . Douglas was said to have marched into the Stuart Lake village and seized the accused murderer, but the exact events of the day are disputed. By some accounts, Douglas shot the native in the head on the spot, with everyone watching. In others, Douglas took him away from the village, to be executed later. Another story is that Douglas tried to shoot the man but missed and got his partners to beat

2944-413: The key port proved inadequate, the British government charged Douglas to build a hospital at Esquimalt harbour , as well as improve Royal Navy supply capacity. This base proved to be important and successful when in 1865 the headquarters of the North Pacific Squadron were moved to Vancouver Island. In 1859, Douglas also found his colony embroiled in a dispute with Washington Territory over sovereignty in

3008-408: The king's amnesty to coureurs de bois , although the Kaministiquia River is depicted on the 1671 "Carte des Jésuites" as "R. [rivière] par où l'on va aux Assinipoualacs à 120 lieues vers le Nord-Ouest." In late 1683 or spring 1684, Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut , established a trading post near the mouth of the Kaministiquia River . French authorities closed this post in 1696 because of a glut on

3072-410: The latter accusing Ormsby of being ‘adamant in her dislike of Colonel Moody’ despite the evidence, and almost all biographies of Moody, including those of the Institute of Civil Engineers, the Royal Engineers, and the British Columbia Historical Association, are flattering. In August 1858, news reached Douglas that two Vancouver Island miners had been killed by natives. He believed that the whole region

3136-419: The mainland or Douglas' position as Chief Factor. Richard Clement Moody was handpicked by the Colonial Office , under Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton , to establish British order and to transform the newly established Colony of British Columbia into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west" and "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific". Lytton desired to send to the colony "representatives of

3200-423: The mainland, Douglas worked to exert British jurisdiction over the territory. He stationed a warship at the mouth of the Fraser in order to issue licenses to prospectors and merchants. A major task during the huge inflow of settlers was to prevent violence between the recent arrivals and the local First Nations peoples. The Indian Wars in the United States West made American animosity against natives often high. In

3264-478: The natives for their land. Costs for each parcel of land were usually in the form of blankets, often three for each man. The policy also stemmed from a desire to have good interactions with natives while avoiding violence. After Blanshard resigned in 1851, the British government appointed Douglas as the Governor of Vancouver Island. As he was still Chief Factor of the HBC, he tried for several years to balance his important and time-consuming duties of both positions. He

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3328-422: The province of British Columbia for a number of years. This British Columbia -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This First Nations in Canada –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . James Douglas (governor) Sir James Douglas , KCB (August 15, 1803 – August 2, 1877) was a Canadian fur trader and politician who became

3392-429: The strict HBC hierarchy. In 1825, he was put in charge of the founding of the Fort Vermilion trading post in what is now northern Alberta . He was next assigned at Fort St. James on Stuart Lake , headquarters of the company's New Caledonia District , roughly located within modern British Columbia. In 1827, he established Fort Connolly on Bear Lake . The station was named after his manager, William Connolly , who

3456-402: The territory since most other units stationed there were off to war in the East, the region's population was scattered, and there was little to no U.S. naval ships in the area. He also said the Royal Navy and Marines were powerful and could easily do the job, ending with a statement that "with Puget Sound, and the line of the Columbia River in our hands, we should hold the only navigable outlets of

3520-425: Was Cecilia Douglas , a notable art collector. Through his paternal grandmother, James Douglas was related to Sir Andrew Buchanan, 1st Baronet , diplomat. His mother was Martha Ann (née Ritchie, later Telfer). Ritchie was classified as free coloured , which in that time and place meant someone of mixed African and European family history, who was not a slave. According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography ,

3584-406: Was also active in this area, and Douglas was caught up in at least one argument with the fighting fur traders. Douglas continued his policy of self-education by reading books brought from Britain and meeting with many First Nations people. In 1821, the NWC was merged into its powerful competitor, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Douglas's contract was placed onto the HBC's payroll. He quickly moved up

3648-417: Was also called the "Queen's Highway" and the "Great North Road". Near the end of his term as governor, Douglas was criticized for not developing the colony as a self-governing body. His only political reform had been to initiate an elected Legislative Council. His argument against the creation of a self-governing colony was the state of the population: few were British subjects, most held permanent residence in

3712-444: Was built further upstream on the Kaministiquia River at Pointe de Meuron , a former military staging location named after Lord Selkirk 's Swiss de Meuron Regiment . It is now known as the Fort William Historical Park . Two townships ( Neebing and Paipoonge ) and the Fort William Town Plot were surveyed in 1859–1860 by the Province of Canada 's Department of Crown Lands and opened to settlement. A large section of land adjacent to

3776-485: Was impressed by Douglas' skills and viewed him favourably. Because of their close relations, Connolly agreed to Douglas marrying his Métis daughter Amelia Connolly . Her mother was Cree and likely also Métis. Douglas and Amelia were married on 27 April 1828 'à la façon du pays' , a ceremony repeated almost a decade later at Fort Vancouver . Throughout part of 1828, Connolly was absent from Fort St. James, leaving Douglas in charge. Two company traders were murdered with

3840-404: Was not initially appointed as Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island , which instead went to Richard Blanshard , an English barrister . However, most practical authorities rested with Douglas as the chief employer and person in charge of its finances and land, and he effectively drove Blanshard from the position. Douglas acknowledged the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and had the policy to trade

3904-421: Was on the verge of war and went out to investigate. Numerous minor clashes between natives and whites had concluded without fatalities. After investigating the situation he found that alcohol had been a major cause, and prohibited the sale of liquor to natives. While on the trip to the murder scene, Douglas brought the Crown Solicitor of Vancouver Island to uphold the law and make a show that demonstrated British law

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3968-448: Was promoted to Chief Factor, the highest possible rank for field service with the HBC. As a Chief Factor, he traveled to Alta California , where he met with a Mexican administrator and received permission to create a trading post in Yerba Buena, California (modern San Francisco , California ). In 1841, Douglas was charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island . George Simpson had recommended

4032-517: Was still in effect. During the trip, he encountered a great number of squatting foreigners, reducing the total possible revenues for land sales to the government. In attempt to suppress unlawful acts, Douglas appointed regional constables , a Chief Inspector of Police ( Chartres Brew ), and a network of intelligence officials. He also created Assistant Gold Commissioners (he appointed Chartres Brew as Chief Gold Commissioner) to look after mining and civil cases. Such preventive measures helped ensure that

4096-421: Was the subject of controversy in local political debates and editorial tirades. As governor, Douglas faced a number of significant challenges, not least of which was the expansionist pressure of the neighboring United States of America. Using his meagre resources, Douglas created the Victoria Voltigeurs, Vancouver Island's first militia, using money from the company and composed of Métis and French Canadians in

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