The Terror of the Coast

Franзois Boudreau is a professor of sociology at Laurentian University
in Sudbury.

The Terror of the Coast documents the exploitation of aboriginal land
and resources in British Columbia during the colonial period
(1849–71). After a peaceful period of treatymaking initiated by the
Hudson’s Bay Company, the governor of the province embarked on a
violent course aimed at forcing the aboriginal population to cede the
southeast coast of Vancouver Island and the other Gulf Islands (from
Nanaimo to Saanich). The set of events triggered by this action came to
be known as the colonial war of 1863.

The book is divided into two parts. The first four chapters set the
scene, describing the land and its rich and diversified resources, the
beliefs and social organization of the Hwulmuhw (People of the Land),
the arrival of the settlers (called “the Hungry People” by the
Hwulmuhw), their discovery of gold, and the subsequent unveiling of the
“imperial chain” that led to the erosion of aboriginal sovereignty
and jurisdiction. The remaining eight chapters detail the unfolding of
the 1863 war waged against the Lamalcha and Penelakut warriors of Kuper
Island, the role of the Church in destabilizing the Hwulmuhw system of
beliefs, the internal aboriginal feud caused by the use and abuse of
alcohol illegally traded by the settlers, the governor’s unsuccessful
attempt to buy the titles of the land from aboriginals, and the
subsequent use of a murder to achieve that end. Searching for four
“murderers,” the governor called on the Royal Navy to exercise its
military might against aboriginal communities. The subsequent trials of
the four aboriginals—trials followed by their public executions—were
strongly compromised by judicial impropriety.

This meticulously researched book is a scholarly yet compelling account
of a neglected and shameful chapter in British Columbia’s history.