Thesis/argument.
- The killings started as self defence because of communication gaps.
“One of the main issues in reconstructing the events is the delay in communication. It sometimes took weeks for a letter to pass from the heart of the Cariboo or the Chilcotin Plateau.”
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/klatsassin/murdersorwar/indexen.html
- Why defence? Small pox had come into their community, this action of traversing their land was seen as threat.
- More they push the road, the more the attacks.
- Chilcotin did not know what was going on, their land was being taken and they wanted to defend themselves
- Europeans didn’t think they were doing anything wrong and thought Chilcotin were ‘savages’ killing for no reason.
“The true mode of dealing with savages here or anywhere else is with strict justice, good faith, and the greatest firmness.” http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/klatsassin/murdersorwar/deathofaroadcrew/255en.html
- Europeans saw it as a revolt, but didn’t understand that Chilcotin had legitimate concerns
“but I must frankly own that it is a gratification to which I should scarcely consider myself entitled so long as there is no ship of War upon the Northern Coast to secure our defenceless fellow country men and to help to crush a local revolt, which may not improbably lead to a formidable war.”
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/klatsassin/murdersorwar/attackonthepacktrain/288en.html
- Start as murders ended as a war
Assumptions:
- Colonialists do whatever they want. They see land differently then Indigenous. They don’t think about what it is doing, they don’t think about being equitable. This is seen with Beothuk’s, as well as in 21st century- building pipelines in unseated territories (white people think they own but Indigenous never gave it to them taken by force)
- Problem with smallpox brought in by white peoples is seen as threat to Chilcotin
Aboriginal people returned to their villages up the coast, taking smallpox with them. By the time the disease ran out of fresh blood, perhaps half the native people in the region, some 30,000 people, had died from it.
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/klatsassin/context/indexen.html
- Was communication a thing, or were white people just disregarding the Chilcotin concerns unknowingly. White people do not even recognize the Chilcotin land, just barge in and do what will benefit them
- White people: We’re doing this either way. Gives them access to resources that will benefit them.
- Viscious cycle. White people go in, many die. Replace men who died, and they get killed again… Do not look into the meaning behind it, just see it as a murder of white men.
- White men do not revolt right away they wait for court. Because they did not retaliate right away solidifies their belief that they had to take care of the Indian problem between them because they thought it was murder. Their halt on using weapons also proves how this was not a war.
I am but doing my duty in making known to you my views as to the position of this colony. Each day that the Chilicotens continue to range the country loaded with the spoils of the murdered white men, increases the probability of an extensive rebellion and each new post from the interior will I anticipate bring me intelligence of further loss of valuable life caused by the Savages who have set themselves above all law. In the neighbourhood of Bentinck Arm alone are fifteen Englishmen scattered without means of defence.
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/klatsassin/murdersorwar/attackonthepacktrain/288en.html
Sources cause to reconsider ideas?
At first glance it seemed as though this could be nothing other than a war. Sources of men’s journals stating they Chilcotin men came into their tents and shot and stabbed them blind sided made this seem as though it could be nothing more than war.
Unanswered Questions
- What were they Chilcotin people thinking when killing the white men. What were their points of view and true purpose?
- What do the people in that region today say about these events?
