Commissioners

Peter O’Reilly was born March 27, 1827 in England to Patrick O’Reilly and Mary Blundell and was raised in Ireland. He was a Lieutenant with tie Irish Revenue Police until 1857. He Left Ireland in 1859 for Victoria. Shortly after his arrival he became the high sheriff of the colony where he was responsible for arranging the hanging of condemned criminals. He held this position until 1866. O’Reilly was named assistant gold commissioner in 1860 for the Similkameen region and the Hope District. He administered the law in the gold fields, issued mining licenses, recorded claims and other duties. In 1862 he was named the chief gold commissioner for the province and was stationed in Richfield. While there he often worked with Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie who would remain his lifelong friend. As a result of the union of Vancouver Island and British Columbia in 1866 O’Reilly’s position was officially changed to become a county court judge. From 1864 to 1870 and then again in 1871 O’Reilly served on the Legislative Council of BC which was soon dissolved as a result of confederation. O’Reilly continued as county court judge for the Yale District for the next ten years until he learned of the opening of the position of Indian Reserve Commission in 1880. He travelled to Ottawa in hopes of securing the position. His family connection to Sir John A. MacDonald through his brother-in-law Joseph Trutch. For the next 18 years he would serve as the reserve commissioner. O’Reilly’s reserve allotments have been criticized by current scholars as being inadequate and disregarding Aboriginal title. He also reduced the size of many reserves alloted by the the Joint Reserve Commission and his predecessor Gilbert M. Sproat. As a result of complaints from the Tsimshian regarding the reserves he laid out at Metlakatla in 1882 his reserve allotments were reviewed by provincial commission in 1884. O’Reilly claimed that when possible he had granted the Tsimshian’s requests in all of his decisions and the commission approved his allotments. and extent of reserves have been criticized by modern scholars. It has been suggested that he made niggardly allocations, and that because he had private investments in ranching operations he was sympathetic to ranchers generally, whose interests might conflict with the land requirements of Indians. Like most influential British Columbians of his time, he refused to accept the concept of aboriginal entitlement as a basis for claims. Later in his role as commissioner he did concede some rights in the areas of traditional hunting and gathering activities such as his promises to assure these rights to Chiefs in the Skeena and Bulkley regions. O’Reilly retired from government service in 1898 to spend time at his home Point Ellice House in Victoria and enjoying his family’s social status. He died of heart failure at home where he lived with his daughter Kit on September 3, 1905. References Brealey, Ken. “Travels from Point Ellice: Peter O’Reilly and the Indian Reserve System in British Columbia” BC Studies No 115/6, (1997): pp. 181-236. Harris, Cole. Making Native Space. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. BC Archives, O’Reilly Family Papers. Williams, David Ricardo. “Peter O’Reilly” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. University of Toronto, Universite Laval. BC, Legislative Assembly, “Metlakatlah inquiry, 1884: report of the commissioners, together with the evidence” Sessional papers, 1885: 131–36. Cail, R. E. Land, Man and the Law: The Disposal of Crown Lands in British Columbia, 1871–1913, Vancouver: UBC Press, 1974.

Gilbert Malcolm Sproat was born to Alexander Sproat and Hectorine Shaw, 19 April 1834 in Scotland. In 1860 travelled to the Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island as an employee of Anderson and Company. His encounters with Aht people of the Alberni Inlet led him to become an amateur ethnographer with the publication his book, Scenes and studies of savage life, published in 1868. Sproat Lake in the Alberni Valley is named for him. He married Katherine Ann Wigham in Victoria in 1862 and they raisd a daughter and two sons. They later separated from each other and she returned to England. Sproat was offered a seat in the colony’s legislative council but declined and later, on 24 July 1863, he was sworn in as a justice of the peace for Vancouver Island. He returned to England for a time, but he remained interested in BC affairs. In 1869 he allowed he name to be put forward for governor. After visiting BC in 1871, he assumed the role of the province’s first agent general to London. In 1876 he returned to BC where he became the third member, representing both governments, of the Joint Indian Reserve Commission (JIRC). He completed two circuits with the JIRC before the commission was reduced and he was named as the sole commissioner in 1877. During his tenure as commissioner Sproat became increasingly critical of both governments’, especially the province’s, approach to Indigenous land issues. Sproat followed in Douglas’ views that the land should be reserved prior to settlement, that Aboriginal title needed to be acknowledged, and that reserves needed to include access to future commerce opportunities such as fishing, timber, agriculture etc. He voiced his numerous complaints regarding the failure of the province to deal with illegal settler pre-emptions, the resistance to recognize Aboriginal title, and the ramifications of the colonial policy to grant as little land as possible to reserves. He was instrumental preventing a possible war in the interior with the negotiation of reserves and dissolution of a Secwepemc/Okanagan Confederacy in 1877. His involvement and support of a large gathering of Nlha7kápmx, where the people met to plan forge a plan for self-government, and his continued letters of complaint to Ottawa and Victoria led to widespread criticism and eventually led to his resignation early in 1880. In 1883 Sproat, as a government agent, was sent to the Kootenays to report on the region. As a result he became a magistrate in Revelstoke in 1885 and regional gold and land commissioner in 1886. He became known as “the Judge” and “the Father of the Kootenay.” In 1889 he ended his government service, remained in the interior, and became involved in real estate. In his later years, he returned to Victoria and he continued to express his opinions about the history of the province through his publications in newspapers and historical texts. His correspondence during his time as reserve commissioner stand as a voice of opposition to the disregard of Aboriginal rights, the unjust treatment of Indigenous people by the governments, and the “settlement” of BC. Sproat spent his last days in Victoria with Brenda Peers, James Murray Yale’s granddaughter, before his death on June 4, 1913. References Fisher, Robin. “An exercise in futility: the joint commission on Indian land in British Columbia, 1875-1880,” CHA, Hist. Papers, 1975: 79–94. Foster, Hamar. “Gilbert Malcolm Sproat” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. University of Toronto, Universite Laval. Harris, Cole. Making Native Space. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. Sproat, Gilbert. Scenes and Studies of Savage Life Sproat. London : Smith, Elder, 1868. Sproat, Gilbert. “Sir James Douglas, k.c.b.,” in the Victoria Week, 9 Sept.–11 Nov. 1911 (also preserved in clippings at pp.96–103 of the J. T. Walbran scrapbook at BCARS, S/S/W 14). Sproat papers, BCARS, Add. mss 257. Papers Connected with the Indian Land Question 1850-1875. Victoria, B.C. : Queen's Printer, c1987. Rickard, T. A. “Gilbert Malcolm Sproat,” British Columbia Hist. Quarterly, 1 (1937): pp 21–32.

A.W. Vowell was born in Ireland on September 17, 1841 to Richard and Elizabeth Vowell as the twelfth of thirteen children. He joined the Irish militia where he served in garrison duty in England until 1860. Vowell arrived in Victoria via the ship Isthmus of Panama through San Francisco in 1861 and headed for the gold mines of the Cariboo. He tried for a time, without success, to succeed in his endeavors until he exhausted his resources and returned to the coast where he took up manual labour. Vowell joined the civic service in 1864 and was appointed as a Chief Constable in 1866 and then became the gold commissioner of the Kootenay district. In 1873 he was transferred to the Omineca District and in 1874 to the Cassiar District where new gold was found. He left the public service in fall of 1874 and was elected a member of the provincial legislative assembly as senior representative from the Kootenay District. He left his seat in the legislature in 1876 and returned to the Cassiar gold fields as a commissioner and stipendiary magistrate until 1884 when he was transferred to the Kootenay District until 1889. In 1898 he took over the position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the province of BC from I.W. Powell. When Vowell accepted the position relations between the provincial and federal governments were tense and adversarial. The position of reserve commissioner had also been folded into that of the Indian Superintendent. The province viewed the federal government and Vowell’s office as interfering with the province’s Indian land policies. In his early years he allotted reserves in the north eastern regions of the province in the Nass, Bella Coola, and Chilcotin regions. Under Vowell’s management the situation became unmanageable when in 1907 the province refused to approve the allotment of any more reserve lands. During his tenure he had little ability to maneuver given the position of the provincial government but tried his best to continue reserve allocation. If the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works did not approve his allotments there was little he could do. With relations between the governments continuing to dissolve Vowell resigned in March 1910 and was the last to allocate reserves before the McKenna-McBride Commission. In addition to this role he was requested for special assignment to bring law and order to the city of Vancouver during riots and racial tension in 1887. He took charge of the municipal government with the aid of an inspector and forty constables to restore order to the city. He was a member of the Royal Arch Masons and also belonged to the pioneer society. He died in 1918. References Gosnell, R.E. A History of British Columbia. Victoria [?]: Hill Binding Co, 1906.

Archibald McKinlay was born in 1811 in Killin, Perthshire, Scotland. He entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company as an apprentice clerk at York Factory in 1832. His service with the Hudson’s Bay company includes: Clerk in charge of the Forks, Red River Settlement, 1834; Columbia District, 1835; Clerk, New Caledonia District, 1836 to 1838; Clerk, Bona Ventura expedition, 1839 to 1840; Clerk in charge of Fort Walla Walla, 1841 to 1846; Chief trader and charge of Wallamette Falls 1846. He was on leave from 1849 to 1850 and retired from the HBC in 1851 remaining in Oregan with his wife Sarah Julia Ogden, daughter of Peter Skene Ogden, whom he married in June 1840 and their five children. After his HBC service he created the firm of Allan, McKinlay & Co. in Oregon City with G.T. Allan and Thomas Lowe. They operated as an agent of the HBC in Willamette Falls until severe flooding in December 1860 left the business in ruins. In 1862 McKinlay moved his family to Lac La Hache, where Sarah’s father Ogden had settled, and pre-empted 160 acres of land. They established a ranch and Roadhouse at 115 Mile that catered to travellers moving through on the Cariboo Road. In 1876 he was named as one of the commissioners of the Joint Indian Reserve Commission, along with A.C.Anderson and G.M.Sproat. McKinlay was the provincial representative. He was not supportive of the Dominion’s involvement in the commission as he felt that it was the province who had the right to allocate the land rather than the Dominion. In his commission diary he complained about Anderson, the Dominion representative, not listening to his provincial address when meeting with Native leaders. He also strongly disagreed with his fellow commissioners when they sided with the Okanagan people when two ranchers O’Keefe and Greenhow had illegally pre-empted land at the north end of Okanagan Lake. Sproat granted the land to the Okanagan’s for their reserve. McKinlay had privately instructed the ranchers not to cooperate with the commission. McKinlay, a settler himself, placed the settlers interests ahead of the Okanagan’s reserve needs. The JIRC was disbanded and reduced to a single commission with G.M. Sproat in 1878. McKinlay returned to his ranch at 115 Mile. Ironically, when preparing for retirement McKinlay requested a survey of his property and found that his pre-emption had never been registered. He had submitted the papers to Judge Baily Begbie but they were never processed. He also neglected to apply for a certificate of improvement which is the next necessary step. In 1878 a Crown land grant for 700 acres was issued October 17, 1878 thus resolving the issue. He lost his eldest son James when he was robbed and murdered on his return trip from the coast where he had sold a band of horses. He spent later retirement years with his wife at their daughter Darah Fergason’s at Savona BC. until his death in 1919. References Harris, Cole. Making Native Space. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. McKinlay, Archibald and Hubert Howe Bancroft. "Narrative of a Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company." BC Archives, 1878. Patenaude, Branwen C. Trails to Gold Volume 2. Victoria: Horsdal & Schubart, 1995. Patenaude, Branwen Golden Nuggets: Roadhouse Portrait’s Along the Cariboo Gold Rush. Surrey: Heritage House, 1998. Biographical sketch of Archibald McKinlay. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba Keystone Archives Descriptive Database.

Alexander Caulfield Anderson was born to Robert Anderson and Eliza Charlotte Simpson in India on March 10, 1814. He was raised in Essex, England before joining the Hudson’s Bay company in March 1831 with his brother James and sailing to Canada. He remained with the HBC from 1832 to 1854 where he worked for Peter Skene Ogden, was appointed to numerous forts in New Caledonia and what is now Washington State. In 1837 he married Eliza Birnie, daughter of an HBC clerk, with whom he had 13 children. He was based at Fort Alexandria on the Fraser River from 1841-1848 and from there led three expeditions to explore trade routes from Kamloops to Fort Langley. These expeditions, with the assistance of a Native guide “Blackeye”, resulted in the path via the Coquihalla and Tulameen rivers that was used as the brigade trail from 1849 to 1860. He had the charge of Fort Colville until 1851 when he was stationed at Fort Vancouver. He retired from the HBC on 1 June 1854, age 40, to Clamath Washington near his wife’s family. At the start of the gold rush in 1858 Douglas requested that he modify this HBC brigade trail for use by the miners and it became known as the “Douglas Trail”. He then moved to Victoria Vancouver Island where he became the first Collector of Customs. His dealings in Victoria include part owner of Victoria Steam and Navigation Company, and Dominion inspector of fisheries for BC. In 1876 Anderson was the first commissioner appointed to the Joint Indian Reserve Commission representing the Dominion Government along with Archibald McKinlay and Gilbert M. Sproat. In each meeting with Native leaders he would deliver the address from the Dominion government. He was involved, with McKinlay and Sproat in the negotiating the dissolution of a Secwepemc/Okanagan Confederacy in 1877 which possibly prevented a war in the interior. He completed two circuits with the JIRC before disagreements between the provincial and Dominion governments and budget concerns saw the commission reduced to Sproat as a single commissioner in early 1878. He shared many of the same sentiments as Sproat and was frustrated the by province’s attempts to impede the commission and impose a settler-supportive agenda. Anderson had numerous publications as an author on BC topics, some of his publications include a guide for gold-miners in 1858 Hand-book and map to the gold region of Frazer’s and Thompson’s rivers; an award winning essay in 1871 “The dominion at the west; a brief description of the province of British Columbia”; A brief account of the province of British Columbia, its climate and resources; an appendix to the British Columbia directory, 1882–83; and he contributed a manuscript to Hubert Howe Bancroft’s History of British Columbia titled “History of the northwest coast.” Bancroft considered him to be the “most scholarly” in all the HBC. He died May 8, 1884 in Saanich BC. Anderson Lake, Anderson River and Anderson Island in Puget Sound Anderson were named after him. References Bancroft, H. H. History of British Columbia, 1792–1887. San Francisco, 1887. Creech, E.P. “Similkameen trails, 1846–61,” BCHQ, 5 (1941): pp 256–62. Fisher, Robin. “An exercise in futility: the joint commission on Indian land in British Columbia, 1875-1880,” CHA, Hist. Papers, 1975: pp 79–94. Goodfellow, J. C. “Fur and gold in Similkameen,” BCHQ, 2 (1938): pp 72–76. Harris, Cole. Making Native Space. UBC Press: Vancouver, 2002. Hatfield. H. R. “On the brigade trail,” Beaver, outfit 305 (summer 1974): pp 38–43. Lamb, Kaye W. “Alexander Caulfield Anderson” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. University of Toronto, Universite Laval.