Press and Propaganda

Changing Attitudes

Soon after suggesting that some Natives should not have had to leave, the Colonist argued that all Natives remaining in Victoria should be sent away. The following day it expressed compassion for the people who were dying in the smallpox hospital on the Reserve. This contradiction implies that only those Natives who are too far away to endanger the colonists should receive help.

6 June 1862, p. 3.

Small Pox in the Ravine.--It is reported that the small pox has broken out among the Indians living in the ravine, back of Johnson street, that two Indians have already succumbed to its effects, and that a Chinaman died yesterday from the same cause. The Police should take a look in the direction indicated, and send the Indians back to the Reserve. The few that are left are a nuisance and the neighbors are becoming alarmed at their presence.

7 June 1862, p. 3.

The Small Pox Hospital.--Yesterday six fresh cases of Indians stricken down by small pox were brought to the hospital. Out of these, four were from the camp in the neighborhood, one was employed by a Mr. Cox, and the other by another resident on Store street. Two of the sufferers died during the day. They were Stickeens. We are informed that no remedies of any description were given them, and indeed the hospital, so called, is only a place where the victims may die in a heap without being obnoxious to anyone, and not where they may obtain relief and attention as its name implies. No one doubts but that if some little nursing were bestowed upon these poor natives, the lives of many of them might be spared.