"The Indians Stationary Here": Continuity and Change in the Origins of the Fort Simpson Tsimshian

Authors

  • E Palmer Patterson University of Waterloo

Abstract

In 1834, the Hudson's Bay Company moved its post, Fort Simpson, to a new site on the Tsimshian peninsula. This essay explores the origins, founding and first decade of the Coast Tsimshian village which formed at the new Fort Simpson. Working primarily from fort records, complemented by oral traditions, a close view is available of a variety of elements, persons and events in the village's first years. These include trading relationships involving different Tsimshian groups, Nisga'a, Tongass, Americans, Russians and others, as well as political rivalries and ceremonials. There is a record of the devastation caused by smallpox. Although the journal inevitably reflects the prejudices of the European traders, it nonetheless provides a valuable picture of the cultures of the Northwest Coast, incidentally revealing the ways in which the Tsimshian utilized the European presence.

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Author Biography

E Palmer Patterson, University of Waterloo

E Palmer Patterson was bom in New Orleans, Louisiana, and took his Ph.D. in History at the University of Washington in Seattle. He recently retired from his position in the Department of History at the University of Waterloo, where he taught courses on Canadian Indian Ethnohistory and the Expansion of Europe. He has conducted research on the history of the Nishga people of British Columbia, and more recently on the history of the American South. He is the author of Mission on the Nass: The Evangelization of the Nishga and The Canadian Indian: A History since 1500, as well as other books and articles.

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Published

2022-06-02

How to Cite

Patterson, E. P. (2022). "The Indians Stationary Here": Continuity and Change in the Origins of the Fort Simpson Tsimshian. Anthropologica, 36(2), 181–203. Retrieved from https://cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/1984

Issue

Vol. 36 No. 2 (1994)

Section

Articles

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