Indians said both abused and abusers
Tuesday, 07 September 2010 00:00
September 6, 1864. With a whiff of 19th-century patronizing, a letter writer in Victoria's Vancouver Times sees the colony's1 native people as victims of both white civilization and their own violent behaviour. He calls for better protection for native people and more effective enforcement of law and order.
"Here especially at the very centre of power and law," he writes, "are the aborigines the victims of the most lawless cupidity on the part of the civilized, and the perpetrators of the most barbarous crimes among themselves."
The letter is prompted by a drunken riot of some 100 Haida Indians, presumably on a visit from their home in the Queen Charlotte Islands. "Stones, sticks, knives, and every available weapon were in requisition, and from house to house, and rock to rock, the tide of battle surged… as the heaving mass of the intoxicated rabble staggered to and fro in pursuit of blood and vengeance."
A "head of Indian affairs" who would be "gifted with larger powers" is advocated. His duty would be to "regularly inspect the condition of each Indian district, examine into the conduct of the Indian agent who should have been appointed there, decide all questions between the settlers and the natives… and thus gain the confidence and good will of the aborigines, as well by the vigorous and just punishment of crimes as by the fair and impartial protection of their rights… The encouragement of industry, social reform and moral and physical improvement would, of course, engage much of his attention.
"By this means the aboriginal inhabitants of the colony would gradually be trained into a respect for civilized institutions. The security of life and property-prompt redress of grievances-vigorous administration of justice, and protection from all their foes-would soon make themselves felt and produce a decided influence for good in the native mind."
1 Vancouver Island was a separate British colony in 1864. It was united with the British Columbia colony in 1866.