The Contributions of First Nations to British Columbia's Early Economy and Workforce

1. Working Communities FNAT 102 Lecture Spring/2009

2. ‘Indians at Work’ • Knight (1978, 1996), a labour historian, paints a picture of the breadth of our peoples’ work lives and contributions in B.C.’s early history • Farming, mining, on the railways, freight transporting, as seamen & riverboat crew, long shoring, as entrepreneurs, logging, in sawmills, fishing, canning, as entertainers and artisans for the ethnographic trade. • Particularly interested in labour/union activity • Left academia in 1977 after stints at U of T, SFU and Manitoba

3. Countering Merivale and other mythmakers • Often our people portrayed as needing ‘protection’ and ‘unable to compete’ • We were the workforce of early B.C. as Boas noted (Lutz, 1992) • The settlers are often portrayed as self-reliant ‘pioneers’, who carved the province out of a backward wilderness • The success of our enterprise and the need to discriminate against our full participation counters the former • The breadth and depth of our labours and their significance to the early economy counters the latter

4. First Nations and the Foundation of the B.C. Fishery • In the late 19th century most of the suppliers and cannery workers were First Nations people • Early identification or potential and success due to traditional knowledge of where and when to fish • Huge growth with our participation but that success lives little room for work for settlers and immigrants • Dominion government started to regulate the fishery, confine FN to a ‘food fishery’, & discriminate in licensing • Barricade Act (1905) attacks traditional technologies (King, 2004)

5. Life in the Canneries • ‘I know, many [Stó:lo] families that stayed there years and years, until finally the canneries were phased out or stopped canning the fish here in the lower mainland” (Woods,1998) • Often seasonal wage employment, with men on the boats and women & children living at the canneries

6. Activity in the Commercial Fishery • 1900 on the Fraser alone 555 gillnet licenses plus additional cannery licenses (p. 185) • Decline in numbers through mid-century regulations and discrimination • In 2003 owned 564 vessels out of a total fleet of 2885 • 26.9% of all commercial licenses • Varies from fishery to fishery • Spawn-on-kelp 80% • Salmon 30% • Continued resistance to aboriginal participation e.g. B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition Teakerne Resource Consultants (2004)

7. Freshwater follows the pattern • Manitoba example (Tough,1996) • Late 1800’s a booming whitefish and sturgeon fishery on lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba • Source of affluence for aboriginal people in a ‘common property’ fishery • Increased conflict over the resource led to regulations (under terms of Treaty 5) • Slowly decreased number of areas where aboriginal people could fish • Declining role except as food fishery & local sales though closure of the fishery in the 1960’s

9. Forestry: Logging, Mills & Long shoring • Primary source of income listed in 1876 Indian Affairs report for B.C. • Formed significant membership of the industry unions by the 1920’s • Sawmills in Puget Sound employed hundreds (Lutz, 1992) • 1881 Indian Commisioner remarked that “indian workers were preferred to whites” • During and after the depression more marginalized and displaced in the workforce

10. Skxwúmish Longshoreman (Parnaby, 2006) • Gravitated to Burrard Inlet in large numbers; figured heavily in B.C.’s industrialization • Organized in ‘gangs’ specializing in loading/unloading logs & lumber • ‘They were the greatest men that ever worked the lumber’( ILWU Pensioners, 1986) • Effectively protested harsh working conditions (Bows & Arrows local of IWW) • Many blacklisted after the 1923 strike…ILA membership goes from “mostly Indians” to “many who had not worked on the waterfront , within six weeks”

11. Farmers • Many prairie treaties included provisions for agricultural implements and instruction in farming • The book Lost Harvestsdetails howas success increased government began to deny access to machinery and stock (Carter,1991) • Denied right to sell their surplus • Parallel to a food fishery & ban on commercial sale • Assigned role as migrant workers for hops and other picked crops

12. Playing to the Primitive • Communities create economy where they are ‘allowed’ to participate • Anthropologists and others interest in pre-contact and primitive • A rush to collect and ‘preserve’ • Museums, private collectors and tourists • Began iconic association with Canadian wilderness travel and tours

13. Cashingin on the Curio factor • Flood of collectors 1890-1920 • Later crash in demand (except for cheap, mass produced souvenirs) until art resurgence of the 1970’s • Interested in the colourful and ‘exotic’ • Communities began to produce items solely for this market

14. Touring & Performing • Followed the lead of eastern & plains people e.g. Bella Coola 1880’s tour of Germany • World’s Fair appearances e.g. ‘Hamatsa’ performances at 1904 • ‘posing’ for ethnographic pictures e.g. Curtis’ pictures of traditional people (all working as loggers, seine boat captains, etc.)

15. Tourism and the Selling of Culture • 4 broad areas of potential conflict described by Robinson (1999) • As economy it has implications for community • Resurgence in our communities now/ especially remote or resource declining • Shift from performers to actual control • Issues of authenticity and authority abound

16. A Different Picture • One of opportunity denied rather than inability to compete • The myth of a superior culture needed a little help/ dispossession of property wasn’t enough • Current successes indicate what could have been • Remarkable achievements (seine boat captains, logging crew leaders, businesses, etc.) in communities regardless