Tofino Chapter 12 notes

Disconnection - Notes on Sources

This chapter frequently cites the testimony of Nuu-chah-nulth leaders from their testimony at the hearings of the McKenna-McBride Commission in 1914. The full text of these proceedings is available through website of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca.

The following books have been particularly useful in researching this chapter: Robert E. Cail, Land, Man, and the Law: The Disposal of Crown Lands in British Columbia, 1871 – 1913; Douglas Cole and Ira Chaikin, An Iron Hand Upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast; Cole Harris, Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia; Douglas C. Harris, Landing Native Fisheries: Indian Reserves and Fishing Rights in British Columbia 1849 – 1925; Dianne Newell, Tangled Webs of History: Indians and the Law in Canada’s Pacific Coast Fisheries.

Detailed information about size and location of reserves can be found through the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development: http://pse5-esd5.aincinac.gc.ca/FNP/Main/Search/FNReserves.aspx?BAND_NUMBER=661&lang=eng . See also the websites of the individual First Nations, and Harris, Making Native Space.

The 1916 map showing the final boundaries of reserves decided by the McKenna McBride Commission can be seen on the website of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.

“the government were anxious…” Harris, Landing Native Fisheries, p. 93.

“The land around Kennedy Lake...,” Wayne Suttles in the Handbook of the North American Indians: Volume 7 describes the Tla-o-qui-aht as the “Kennedy Lake people.”

The Maaqtusiis definition “moving from one place to another” comes from Chief Earl Maquinna George, Living on the Edge.

“desperate remedy” and “I came in for...,” John Grice cited in Newell, Tangled Webs of History, p. 95.

“as an incentive to industry…” cited by Harry Guillod in his 1886 Indian Affairs report, also by Cole and Chaikin, An Iron Hand Upon the People.

Walter Dawley’s papers contain a wealth of detail about the commercial activity generated by the trade in goods for potlatches in all three of his three stores on Vancouver Island’s west coast.

“The priests and ministers…” quotation from Father Brabant comes from Charles Lillard, Mission to Nootka 1874 – 1900.

“senseless drumming and dancing” and “the original spirit…” Duncan Campbell Scott cited by Brian Titley, A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada. pages 177 and 225.

“prolonged idleness…,” Duncan Campbell Scott, cited by Cole and Chaikin, An Iron Hand upon the People, p.133.

For Gordon Gibson’s description of the Ahousaht potlatch, see Bull of the Woods.

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