Alex Caulfield Anderson [ca. 1865]
BC Archives A-01076

Alexander Caulfield Anderson [1814–1884]

b. 1814 — Calcutta, India
d. 1884 — Victoria, B.C.

Alexander Caulfield Anderson was born near Calcutta in 1814 and died at Saanich in 1884.

He was educated in England and joined the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1831 as an apprentice clerk. After a year of service at Lachine, he was assigned to various HBC posts throughout the northwest, including Fort Vancouver, Fort McLoughlin, Fraser Lake, Fort George, Fort Nisqually, Fort Alexandria, and Fort Colvile.

He was promoted to chief trader in 1846, and would have been made chief factor had he been willing to accept a post in New Caledonia. Between 1846 and 1847, in response to the Oregon boundary issue, Anderson led three exploring expeditions in an attempt to find a route, from the HBC post at Kamloops to the HBC post Fort Langley, which would fall entirely within British territory. Two of the routes that he identified were used at various times by the HBC brigades between the interior posts and the ocean.

He retired from the Company in 1854, and settled with his wife Eliza Birnie, whom he married in 1837, in Cathlamet, Washington. They eventually had 13 children. In 1858 Anderson was persuaded by James Douglas to accept the position of postmaster of Victoria; he later served briefly as collector of customs, and also had various business interests in Victoria. In 1876 he was appointed as both Dominion inspector of fisheries and the federal representative on the Dominion-Provincial Joint Commission on Indian Land in British Columbia. His appointment to this commission ended in 1878. Anderson was considered scholarly, and wrote several reports, articles and manuscripts about the history of the northwest coast. (1, 2, 3)

Edward Worrell Jarvis [1846–1894]

Indigenous people

Harmon’s map interior of North America 1820 shows the following Indian distribution:

East of the Rocky Mountains:
Beaver Indians — around the Peace River from headwaters to Fort Chipewyan
Cree or Knisteneaux Indians — around the Saskatchewan River drainage
Sursee Indians — around headwaters of the Athabasca River

West of the Rockies:
Sicanny Indians — north of Fraser River
Carrier (Dakelh) or Tacully Indians — around upper Fraser River

Rupert’s Land

Rupert’s Land (French: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert’s Land (French: Terre du Prince Rupert), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The right to “sole trade and commerce” over Rupert’s Land was granted to Hudson’s Bay Company, based at York Factory, effectively giving that company a commercial monopoly over the area. The territory operated for 200 years from 1670 to 1870. Its namesake was Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who was a nephew of King Charles I and the first governor of HBC.

In December 1821, the HBC monopoly was extended from Rupert’s Land to the Pacific coast.

Rupert’s Land included the drainage of the Saskatchewan River.

The Rupert’s Land Act 1868, which was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, authorized the sale of Rupert’s Land to Canada with the understanding that it included the whole of the lands and territories held or claimed to be held by the Hudson’s Bay Company

Lheidli T’enneh Territory
Lheidli T’enneh First Nation

A Shaman or “Medicine Man.” Morice 1904, p. 10
Internet Archive

A Carrier Fisherman. Morice 1904, p. 40
Internet Archive

Doubly “Carriers.” Morice 1904, p. 163
Internet Archive

Carrier and Carried. Morice 1904, p. 218
Internet Archive4

Carrier

The Carrier or Dakelh are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, belonging to the Northern Athabascan or Dene group of First Nations.

Among the Carriers, the widow of a deceased warrior used to pick up from among the ashes of the funeral pyre the few charred bones which would escape the ravages of fire and carry them on her back in a leathern satchel—hence the name of the tribe—until the co-clansmen of the deceased had amassed a sufficient quantity of eatables and dressed skins to be publicly distributed among people of different clans, in the course of an ostentatious ceremony called “potlatch,” a ceremony which prevailed among all but the Sekanais and the Eastern Nahanais tribes.

— Morice 1904, p. 6 (1)

The Carrier lived directly north of the Chilcotin, in the valleys of the upper Fraser, Blackwater, Nechako, and Bulkley rivers, and around Stuart and Babine lakes up to the borders of Bear lake. Their name (English, Carrier; French, Porteur, said to be a translation of the term applied to them by their eastern neighbours, the Sekani) refers to their peculiar custom of compelling widows to carry on their backs the charred bones of their dead husbands. They had no common name for themselves, only names for the independent sub-tribes into which they were divided. In the nineteenth century, however, they adopted for themselves the obscure title Takulli, bestowed on them apparently by Europeans.

— Jenness 1932 (2)

Dakelh territories include along Fraser River from south of Quesnel upstream to the Yellowhead Pass, as well as the upper North Thompson and Canoe River valleys.

The traditional Dakelh way of life is based on a seasonal round, with the greatest activity in the summer when berries are gathered and fish caught and preserved. The mainstay of the economy is centered on harvesting activities within each family keyoh (territory, village, trapline) under the leadership of a hereditary chief, known as a Keyoh holder or keyoh-whudachun. Fish, especially the several varieties of salmon, are smoked and stored for the winter in large numbers. Hunting and trapping of deer, caribou, moose, elk, black bear, beaver, and rabbit provided meat, fur for clothing, and bone for tools. Other fur-bearing animals are trapped to some extent, but until the advent of the fur trade, such trapping is a minor activity.

The Dakelh engaged in extensive trade with the coast along trails known as “grease trails”. The items exported consisted primarily of hides, dried meat, and mats of dried berries. Imports consisted of various marine products, the most important of which was “grease”, the oil extracted from eulachons (also known as “candlefish”) by allowing them to rot, adding boiling water, and skimming off the oil. This oil is extremely nutritious and, unlike many other fats, contains desirable fatty acids. (3)

The band located near Prince George is the Lheidli T’enneh Band, (4) historically known as the Fort George Indian Band. The Lheidli T’enneh did not have permanent settlements in what is modern day Prince George until the arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company post Fort George. Temporary and seasonal settlements were used across the traditional territory and archeological evidence of fishing camps along the Nechako and Fraser rivers.

A Carrier Fisherman. Morice 1909
Internet Archive

Doubly Carriers. Morice 1909
Internet Archive

Carrier and Carried. Morice 1909
Internet Archive

A Shaman or “Medicine Man.” Morice 1909
Internet Archive

Shuswap (Secwépemc)

Shuswap (Secwépemc)

Cf

The First Canadian Pacific R.R. and Geological Survey parties for British Columbia, July 22 1871 Left to right : L. N. Rheaumis, Roderick McLennan, A. S. Hall, West West Ireland, Alfred Selwyn, Alex Maclennan, Walter Moberly, C. E. Gilette, James Richardson, — — McDonald, George Watt.
Toronto Public Library

Walter Moberly. B.C. Archives Call Number: A-01814

Walter Moberly, C.E. [1832–1915]

b. 1832
d. 1915

Walter Moberly [1832–1915] was a civil engineer and surveyor who played a large role in the early exploration and development of British Columbia, including discovering Eagle Pass, now used by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Trans-Canada Highway.

Robert M. Rylatt

On the 2d November (my birthday by the way), I reached the depot

Walter Alfred Don Munday [1890–1950]

b. 1890 — Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
d. 1950 — Vancouver ?

Walter Alfred Don Munday was a Canadian explorer, naturalist and mountaineer famous for his explorations of the Coast Mountains with his wife Phyllis Munday [1894–1990], and especially for the exploration of the Waddington Range.