Geographies of the lower Skeena, 1830-1920 ...

• Main Author: Clayton, Daniel Wright
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: Fort Simpson; Tsimshian; Tsimshian*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0097752; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0097752

This study generates a number of geographical ideas and methods for analysing north coastal British Columbia, attempting to show how and why historical geography is a valuable mode of inquiry. During the nineteenth century the human geography of the lower Skeena region was altered by three influential institutions: the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), the Christian Church, and the government. Three settlements were created, within easy access of one another by water. The HBC established a fur trade post (Fort Simpson), the Anglican Church created a missionary site (Metlakatla), and government laws and officials regulated a salmon canning town (Port Essington). All three settlements brought the Coast Tsimshian into sustained contact with 'whites'; HBC traders, missionaries, and government officers had important impacts on aboriginal economies and societies. These institutions comprised a discursive triad that rotated around commercial monopoly, evangelical-humanitarianism, and property-contract laws. However, the ...