British Columbia Canada Genealogy

Biography of John Boyd

John Boyd, a well-known citizen of Riverside, though not a pioneer, has been a resident of the city since 1876, and there are few men who have been more closely identified with the real interest and improvements of the city than John Boyd. He arrived at a time when the first named commodity at least was needed and appreciated. He erected a substantial building on Main Street, and entered into business; and as the demands of the city increased he was ever to the front with his improvements. The present magnificent Boyd block, with its frontage of 111 1/2 feet … Read more

Bellacoola Tribe

Bellacoola Indians, Bellacoola People, Bellacoola First Nation (Bí’lxula). A coast Salish tribe, or rather aggregation of tribes, on north and south Bentinck arm, Dean inlet, and Bellacoola river, British Columbia. This name is that given them by the Kwakiutl, there being no native designation for the entire people. They form the northernmost division of the Salishan stock, from the remaining tribes of which they are separated by the Tsilkotin and the Kwakiutl. In the Canadian reports on Indian affairs the name is restricted by the separation of the Tallion and the Kinisquit (people of Dean inlet), the whole being called the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Charles Carpenter

CHARLES CARPENTER. – Mr. Carpenter was born in Chattendon county, Vermont, February 1, 1838. He was the third son in a family of eight. Orrin and Jane (Basut) Carpenter were his parents. When thirteen years old he went with his parents to Franklin county, New York, and there received his education. In 1859 he came in company with his brothers J.W. and Henry, to California. They came via the Isthmus of Panama, and on the Pacific side took passage in the older steamer John L. Stevens for San Francisco. While in California Mr. Carpenter was engaged in various occupations, according … Read more

Kwakiutl Tribe

Kwakiutl Indians, Kwakiutl People, Kwakiutl First Nation (according to their own folk etymology the name signifies ‘smoke of the world’, but with more probability it means ‘beach at the north side of the river’). In its original and most restricted sense this term is applied to a group of closely related tribes or septs living in the neighborhood of Ft Rupert, British Columbia. These septs are the Guetela, Komkutis, Komoyue, and Walaskwakiutl, and their principal village Tsahis, surrounding Ft Rupert. Other former towns were Kalokwis, Kliksiwi, Noohtamuh, Tsaite, and Whulk, of which the last two were summer villages shared with the Nimkish … Read more

Chilliwack Tribe

Chilliwack Indians, Chilliwack First Nation, Chilliwack People. A Salish tribe on a river of the same name in British Columbia, now speaking the Cowichan dialect, though anciently Nooksak according to Boas. Pop. 313 in 1902. Their villages, mainly on the authority of Hill-Tout, are: Atselits Chiaktel Kokaia Shlalki Siraialo Skaukel Skway Skwealets Stlep Thaltelich Tsoowahlie Yukweakwioose The Canada Indian Affairs Reports give Koquapilt and Skwah (distinct from Skway), and Boas gives Keles, which are not identifiable with any of the above.

Senijextee Indians

Senijextee Indians were located on both sides of the Columbia River from Kettle Falls to the Canadian boundary, the valley of Kettle River, Kootenay River from its mouth to the first falls, and the region of the Arrow Lakes, B. C. The Lake Indians on the American side were placed on Colville Reservation.

Bellabella Tribe

Bellabella Indians, Bellabella People, Bellabella First Nation (an Indian corruption of Milbank taken back into English). The popular mame of an important Kwakiutl tribe living on Milbank sound., British Cololumbia. Their septs or subtribes are Kokaitk Oetlitk Oealitk The following clans are given: Wikoktenok (Eagle) Koetenok (Raven) Halhaiktenole (Killerwhale) Pop. 330 in 1901. The language spoken by this tribe and shared also by the Kitamat, Kitlope, China Hat, and Wikeno Indians is a peculiar dialect of Kwakiutl, called Heiltsuk from the native name of the Bellabella. These tribes resemble each other furthermore in having a system of clans with descent … Read more

Chehalis Tribe

Chehalis Indians. Chehalis actually refers to two distinct peoples. One group of tribes residing on the Chehalis River in Washington, another tribe, a sub-tribe of the Cowichan First Nation residing along the Harrison River in British Columbia. We provide both below.

Biography of Sir James Douglas, K. C. B.

SIR JAMES DOUGLAS, K.C.B. – The first governor of British Columbia is worthy of more than a passing notice in this work. With a peculiar though undesigned poetical fitness, he first came to the land of his fame on the famous old steamer Beaver. On her he came to Esquaimalt harbor in the summer of 1849. He had gone from Fort Vancouver, where he had been head clerk, to be chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company in British Columbia. Having founded the city of Victoria, he made his home there, conducting with great ability the work of the company. … Read more

Biography of James R. Daniel

JAMES R. DANIEL. – The subject of this sketch was born in 1826, and has lived a life that might well be described in poetry as succinct as that in which Othello related his own. The son of a machinist and shipbuilder of Philadelphia, Mr. Daniel early learned naval craft on the schoolship North Carolina in New York harbor, and on the brig Washington of the Coast Survey, and was then transferred to the Independence and Potomac. After his honorable discharge from the United States navy, he made voyages as able seaman to Havre and Liverpool, and to the West … Read more

Kitksan Tribe

Kitksan Indians, Kitksan People, Kitksan First Nation (‘people of Seena [Ksian] river’) One of the three dialectic divisions of the Chimmesyan stock, affiliated more closely with the Naska than with the Tsimshian proper. The people speaking the dialect live along the upper waters of Skeena river, British Columbia. Dorsey enumerates the following towns; Kauldaw, Kishgagass, Kishpiyeoux, Kitanmaiksh, Kitwingach, Kitwinskole, and Kitzegukla. To these must be added the modern mission town of Meamskinisht. A division is known as the Glen-Vowell Band. Population 1,120 in 1904.

Sekani Tribe

Sekani Indians, Sekani First Nation, Sekani People (‘dwellers on the rocks’). A group of Athapascan tribes living in the valleys of upper Peace river and its tributaries and on the west slope of the Rocky mountains, British Columbia. Morice says they were formerly united into one large tribe, but on account of their nomadic habits have gradnally separated into smaller distinct tribes having no affiliation with one an other. Harmon said that they came front east of the Rocky Mountains, where they formed a part of the Tsattine. Gallattin gave their habitat as the headwaters of Peace river. Dunn located them in … Read more

Nootka Tribe

Nootka Indians, Nootka People, Nootka First Nations. A name originally applied to the Mooachaht of Nootka sound, west coast of Vancouver Island, and to their principal town, Yuquot, but subsequently extended to all the tribes speaking a similar language. These extend from Cook Creek to the north to beyond Port San Juan, and include the Makah of Flattery Creek, Washington. Sometimes the term has been used as to exclude the last named tribe. The Nootka form one branch of the great Wakashan family and their relationship to the second or Kwakiutl branch is apparent only on close examination. In 1906 … Read more

Biography of John M. Silcott

Almost forty years have passed since John M. Silcott took up his residence in Idaho, and he is therefore one of the oldest and most widely known pioneers of the state. He came in the spring of 1860 to establish the government Indian agency at Lapwai, and has since been identified with the growth and development of this section. He is a Virginian, his birth having occurred in Loudoun County, of the Old Dominion, January 14, 1824. His French and Scotch ancestors were early settlers there, and during the Revolution and the war of 18 12 representatives of the family … Read more

Senijextee Tribe

Senijextee Indians. A Salish tribe formerly residing on both sides of Columbia River from Kettle falls to the Canadian boundary; they also occupied the valley of Kettle River; Kootenay River form its mouth to the first falls, and the region of the Arrow Lakes, British Columbia. In 1909 those in the United States numbered 342 on the Colville Reservation, Washington.

Etchareottine Tribe

Etchareottine Indians, Etchareottine Nation (‘people dwelling in the shelter’). An Athapascan tribe occupying the country of Great Slave lake and upper Mackenzie river to the Rocky mountains, including the lower Liard valley, British America. Their range extends from Hay river to Ft Good Hope, and they once lived on the shores of Lake Athabasca and in the forests stretching northward to Great Slave lake. They were a timid, pacific people, called ‘the people sheltered by willows’ by the Chipewyan, indicating a riparian fisher folk. Their Cree neighbors, who harried and plundered them and carried them off into bondage, called them Awokanak, … Read more

Nanaimo Tribe

Nanaimo Indians, Nanaimo People, Nanaimo First Nation (contraction of Snanaímux). A Salish tribe, speaking the Cowichan dialect, living about Nanaimo Harbor, on the east coast of Vancouver Island and on Nanaimo Lake, British Columbia. Population 161 in 1906. Their gentes are Anuenes, Koltsiowotl, Ksalokul, Tewethen, and Yesheken.

Biography of Richard Jeffs

RICHARD JEFFS. – The subject of this brief sketch was born in Westchester, Westchester county, New York, December 27, 1827, where he was brought up, working on his father’s farm until he was nineteen years of age. He then went to New York City, where he remained for eighteen months. In February, 1851, he started for California by way of Panama, arriving in San Francisco in March of that year. He started almost immediately for the mines, where he remained until 1858. During the great gold excitement of 1858-59, on the Frazer river, British Columbia, when thousands of people were … Read more

Biography of Col. Henry Landes

COL. HENRY LANDES. – The subject of this sketch is prominent and noteworthy, even among the foremost self-made men of the great and growing Pacific Northwest, – a section so progressive and promising that it has attracted the most vigorous minds and the ablest men throughout the country. He was born in a small town in Germany on the 8th of October, 1843. In 1847 his father and family emigrated to Kentucky, Henry being then four years old. There the boy grew almost to the years of manhood, and developed in a marked degree the spirit of adventurous ambition which … Read more

Biography of Keith W. White

Keith Wood White, a retired farmer now residing in Grangeville, is a native of the far-off state of Connecticut, his birth having occurred in the town of Ashford, Windham County, on the 15th of May 1838. His ancestors came from old England and settled in New England at an early epoch in the history of this country, and there the family remained for several generations. Keith W. White, the father of our subject, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and married Catharine Farnum, a native of Connecticut. They became the parents of two children, and the father provided for their support … Read more