Native elders in many B.C. First Nations have always alleged that the sudden, catastrophic depopulation of B.C. by smallpox in 1862/63 was an instance of ethnic cleansing. Discover the evidence for yourself.
This is an exhaustively researched study of the 1862/63 B.C. smallpox epidemics. It integrates the archival evidence into the framework of the oral tradition.
Introduction
In 1862/63, what is now British Columbia was massively depopulated by a series of catastrophic smallpox epidemics. In one year or less, several native Peoples suffered a sudden catastrophic decline that amounted to as much as 70 percent of their whole number.
Native Elders and community leaders always have alleged that the settler community artificially created these epidemics as an aid to the subjugation of natives so that they could be dispossessed and their land redistributed to settlers.
Beginning with the Tsilhqot’in struggle against smallpox spreaders leading to the Chilcotin War, this study examines evidence from the written record to discover how and whether it corroborates native traditions.
It then analyzes the behaviour of colonial officials in Victoria, the main settler population centre of the time, as they repeatedly forced healthy and sick natives to mix while expelling all natives from the town at police gunpoint.
Finally, it tracks the distribution of the disease from Victoria throughout the Pacific shelf, showing the agency of settlers throughout.
Typical estimated population decline, 1862-64.
- Tsilhqot’in 90%
- Haida 90%
- Nuxalk 85%
- Nanimo (where missionaries vaccinated in good faith) 18%
Includes over 25 maps, timelines and diagrams.
What readers are saying.
The publication of “The True Story of Canada’s ‘War’ of Extermination on the Pacific,” by writer and lawyer Tom Swanky, has made avoiding that conclusion [that Canada’s methods of ethnic cleansing also included the use of smallpox blankets and deliberate exposure to infected individuals] increasingly difficult. In fact, the provincial government of British Columbia was so convinced of the authenticity of Swanky’s claims of deliberate smallpox infection that they publicly exonerated the six Tsilhqot’in chiefs who were hung for murder in the early 1860s. Swanky’s book demonstrates that the chiefs had acted in self-defence and that their trials were a judicial mockery.
Swanky’s search for the true story about smallpox matters to me, not only for its rewriting of colonial history by providing a counter-narrative, but also because it indicates that our ongoing disregard for the health and wellbeing of BC’s First Nations has roots in both the racist policies of the federal government and the colonial administration of James Douglas.
– Garry Geddes, “Medicine Unbundled,” Heritage House Publishing Company, 2017.
It’s well-known that the native people here fell ill with diseases imported by the colonists. It is usually said that the Indians “lacked immunity” to these foreign maladies. The native people know better, and since that time have passed down a different story. Uncontestable evidence of what happened is laid out in a recent book by Tom Swanky, “The True Story of Canada’s ‘War’ of Extermination on the Pacific.” It was a form of genocide.
– Robert Amos, “Walking campers and social injustice,” Times Colonist, April 30, 2017.
This is an extremely well researched book that takes into consideration the indigenous peoples’ history and perspective and effectively turns “colonialist” history on its head. Swanky states what should be obvious: that a people living in their home territory are under their laws, and a foreign interloper has no right to dispossess such peoples and impose foreign law.
– KP, “Beyond the Expurgated Narratives of Colonists,” Amazon 5-Star review, July 28, 2014.
A note from the author.
Tom Swanky was born in the hospital built on the gravesite of the Chilcotin Chiefs. “When my Grandparents came to Quesnel, these graves were still visible. My grandfather learned about the Chilcotin War from natives, some of whom had even witnessed the martyrdom of the Chilcotin Chiefs.”
“I learned about the smallpox epidemics from local Elders. Virtually every native source around the province who knows the tradition begun by survivors tells the same story: the incoming settler community knowingly spread the disease to kill them for their land.”
“Neither the story told by elders about the Chilcotin War or the creation of artificial smallpox epidemics was reflected at all in the histories of B.C. created at the universities. For my own satisfaction, I had to examine all the evidence to see which story was true.”
For Tom, discovering the truth about the smallpox epidemics that shaped his homeland forever, and the role of the Chilcotin War within that history, has been a journey of self-discovery. Through this book he has set out the facts and evidence so that others can use it as an aid for understanding their own journey through these lands and through Canada’s history on the Pacific shelf.
A note from the author.
Tom Swanky was born in the hospital built on the gravesite of the Chilcotin Chiefs. “When my Grandparents came to Quesnel, these graves were still visible. My grandfather learned about the Chilcotin War from natives, some of whom had even witnessed the martyrdom of the Chilcotin Chiefs.”
“I learned about the smallpox epidemics from local Elders. Virtually every native source around the province who knows the tradition begun by survivors tells the same story: the incoming settler community knowingly spread the disease to kill them for their land.”
“Neither the story told by elders about the Chilcotin War or the creation of artificial smallpox epidemics was reflected at all in the histories of B.C. created at the universities. For my own satisfaction, I had to examine all the evidence to see which story was true.”
For Tom, discovering the truth about the smallpox epidemics that shaped his homeland forever, and the role of the Chilcotin War within that history, has been a journey of self-discovery. Through this book he has set out the facts and evidence so that others can use it as an aid for understanding their own journey through these lands and through Canada’s history on the Pacific shelf.
