Insights Into Métis History

Insights Into Métis History

This video was made to provide insights into the Métis people and their contributions to British Columbia. Western and Northern Canada had a unique political environment for 200 years. The Hudson's Bay Company was the legal government according to King Charles II Charter. Parliament tried several times to overturn the Charter and open the vast territory to settlement but it failed. It was only in 1858 when the West Coast statutory grant expired and finally in 1870 with the purchase by Canada that settlement could proceed.
James Douglas and the Colony of British Columbia

James Douglas and the Colony of British Columbia

James Douglas was part black, married to an aboriginal woman, he spoke the Chinook Jargon trade language and had already successfully opposed the legislature in Victoria which had wanted to remove the local Songhees reserve. He was appointed first Governor of British Columbia and he and Colonial Secretary Lytton established the Colony on two key principles:

  1. First Nations communities would remain permanently in place permanently. This was in opposition to what had happened just south of the 49th parallel where people were moved to distant reservations.
  2. Native people could preempt land privately off of the reserves but this land would also be available to new immigrants.
Brexit, Canada and the American Revolution

Brexit, Canada and the American Revolution

The United States originated in the English Colonies that were established in the 1600s. But in 1707, four nations of England, Wales, Scotland and later Ireland came together in one political union under the symbol of the Constitutional Monarchy. They called this British. It was at its core multicultural and inclusive.
Harland Bartholomew

Harland Bartholomew

For 40 years, Vancouver developed without government planning. The Canadian Pacific Railway laid out Vancouver’s streets before the city government existed. The London-based BC Electric Company chose the arterial streets to maximize riders on its streetcars. London was the model, where order came from human interaction not human design. Robert Horne-Payne, founder of BC Electric Company sold it in 1928 then died shortly after. That same year, Harland Bartholomew presented his radical Plan for Vancouver, claiming cities are better designed and organized by planners than by natural processes.
Jay Powell interviewed by Sam Sullivan in Chinook Wawa

Jay Powell interviewed by Sam Sullivan in Chinook Wawa

Jay Powell is the last remaining speaker of Chinook Wawa in British Columbia who learned it from native elders. He is inspiring other British Columbians to revive this important language as a reminder of our past and in inspiration for our future.

In this video, one of Jay's students, Sam Sullivan, interviews him about the language.