Government and Gunboats

The Government's Lack of Action

The first step that the government took was to order the Natives to be vaccinated: "By order of the Government, some thirty Indians were vaccinated on Wednesday by Dr. Helmcken."³ The press continued to call for more action on the part of the government:

We call the particular attention of the authorities, and all parties interested, to the spread of the small pox of the most virulent type among the Indians. We would impress upon them the necessity of the prompt removal of every Indian, whether male or female, from the town and vicinity. They should be sent to some place remote from the whites, and that without a moment’s delay. Else we shall in all probability have to record among our white population many serious losses from the infection. Among the Indians, the disease is making frightful inroads... It has passed into a proverb in this country that "it is better to have the small pox than have anything to do with the government;" but are we apparently to be cursed with both?⁴

To what can the reluctance of the authorities to act be attributed? Was it a lack of resources? Douglas had returned by early May so it could not have been his absence. Douglas’ own wife, Amelia, was part Native herself; perhaps Douglas was loath to treat her people with the disdain the press was advocating. Douglas, of course, was only one man and the government was made up of many. In any case, there is no definitive answer.

Whatever the cause, the result of the government’s actions was dire. The people forced to leave had no choice but to return north to their permanent villages, and they took the disease with them. It has been estimated that 20,000 people, or 1/3 of the Native population of BC, died of smallpox in 1862-63.⁵

Government and Gunboats