William G. Cox was born in Ireland in 1822. He married Sophie E. Webb in November of 1857. Shortly after Cox left his career as a banker and the couple emigrated to New York in the United Sates. In August of 1858 Mrs Cox returned to Ireland and W.G. Cox moved west to what is now British Columbia. Through connections with the Hudson’s Bay Company Cox was employed as a constable and he was posted at Yale. In 1859 Cox was sent to Kamloops as the Deputy Collector of Customs. Soon after he was appointed Gold Commissioner and Justice of the Peace in Rock Creek. While in the position of Gold Commissioner Governor Douglas instructed him to mark out reserves in the Okanagan in 1861. Two years later he marked out reserves with post in the Kamloops area. His instructions from Douglas were to “grant all lands claimed by the Indians”. These reserves were later reduced prior to the Joint Indian Reserve Commissioner by Mr. Nind and Mr. Haines with support from other government officials to support habitation by settlers. These reserves would become somewhat controversial as it would be greatly reduced in the future and involve disputes with settlers over illegal pre-emptions. This line of work sent him up to the Cariboo mines in 1863 and later in 1867 he was found Columbia and Kootenay regions. In 1864 Cox was charged with leading the search party to seek out the Chilcotin warrior Klatsassin and others after the violence that occurred on settlers as a result of Alfred Waddington’s Bute Inlet work party dispute. Although the Chilcotin viewed this as a war the colony saw them as murders and Cox’s success in capturing led to their death by hanging as ordered by Judge Begbie. Cox became a county court judge in 1866 and went on to hold a seat legislative Council of British Columbia in 1867 and 1868. Cox was viewed by others in his field as a generally entertaining man who spoke his mind, told good stories, and wasn’t afraid to use his fists when challenged in his earlier positions. He was popular as a judge among the miners and was known for his unconventional decisions; he once settled a dispute over a mining claim by ordering the disputants to a foot race from their current location to the claim in dispute. Cox’s personal life caused him some controversy and affected his professional standing. Cox, like many others, had made a home with an Aboriginal woman while he was still legally married to his first wife Sophia which brought the anger from family in a high social status back in Ireland. This controversy along with his support of establishing the capital of the new province in Victoria angered Governor Seymour who favoured New Westminster as the capitol. In May of 1868 Cox’s office was terminated. Almost a year later with no government employment Cox left Victoria for California. His later years he had little money as he sent some paintings to his friend Dr. Helmcken in Victoria requesting that he sell them for him as he was in need of income. He sought out gold in California and died in the mining town of Bodie in 1878. References Harris, Cole. Making Native Space. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. Dahlo (Eek), Sue. “William Cox: Gold Commissioner” Boundary History No. 13 (1995): pp. 31-37.

Minutes of Decision, correspondence, and sketches P. O. Reilly.

Minutes of the conference of Duncan C Scott Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, Chief Inspector of Indian Agents W.E. Ditchburn, and the Executive Committee of the Allied Indian Tribes of British Columbia to discuss aboriginal title

Volume covers a variety of topics including, 1863 reserve leases, lists of reserves in the railway belt, files related to the McKenna-McBride Commission, copies of papers related to BC Land case 1 & 2, Historic sketches on BC Indian Affairs by G.M. Matheson, regstrar of Department of Indian Affairs 1934-34

Minutes of Decision and sketches P. O. Reilly, A.W. Vowell True Copy. Companion for volume 19. reflects all MOD for both commissioners during this time.

Minutes of Decision and sketches P. O.Reilly .True Copy. Inclusive collection of all of O. Reilly's MOD in this time period

Minutes of Decision and sketches G.M. Sproat. True Copy. Four sets of MOD are in this volume, most of which have not been located in other federal material.

Minutes of Decision and sketches G.M. Sproat . True Copy of Sproat's Interrupted Work Books 1,2 & 3.

Surveyor's Copy of Minutes of Decision & Sketches JIRC Allotments - Surveyor Edward Mohun. All MOD are copies made for use in the field. Some of his copies have subtle differences. Only a few of the MOD or maps are dated.

Minutes of Decision, correspondence, and sketches A.W. Vowell. Vowell's practice of submitting field notes before MOD differed from O'Reilly. Correspondence is more inter-related than other volumes.

Minutes of Decision, correspondence, and sketches P. O Reilly. O'Reilly March 31, 1898 and his duties assumed by Vowell. There is numerous correspondence acknowledging receipt or transmittal of letters.

Minutes of Decision, correspondence, and sketches P. O. Reilly. This volume is arranged from the latest date to the earliest date as was the original. There aregaps in correspondence from Feb 1894-Oct 1894 and from Dec 1893-Feb 1894. Powell retires and is replaced by Vowell in 1890. There is some correspondence regarding reserves that Sproat allotted prior to the establishment of the railway belt.

Minutes of Decision, correspondence, and sketches P. O. Reilly. Within this volume are the first correspondence with A.W. Vowell as BC Indian Superintendent after Powell. Portions of some MOD and/or sketches are missing.

This book consists of O'Reilly's work as Indian Reserve Commissioner for the period June 1882 to January 1885. Since the book was once a file, the book commences with the latest date and ends with the earliest date. The cover page for the book which clearly identifies it as: "Department of Indian Affairs, Minutes of Decision and Correspondence, British Columbia Indian Reserves, File No. 298583, Vol

This volume consists of what was formerly designated as book 6 and book 4. Upon examination of the originals it became clear that book 6 represented the first half of book 4. Book 4, as it was then, was missing its first 148 pages. Book 6 went from page 1 through to page 131, however some sketches and minutes of decision were missing. The flimsy, paper cover of book 6 matched with the interior hard cover design exactly. How the two came to be separated is unknown, but it appears to have happened quite some time ago.

agination and organization are a problem in certain sections. How the book came to be numbered as it is not known. There are two, and sometimes three, systems of page numbering occurring in this volume. It would appear that the volume was once numbered back to front, then numbered front to back and some of the correspondence has internal pagination. The page numbers beginning with 1 are in green in the original. The other set is in pencil. The original table of contents found at the front of the volume refers to the pages numbered in green beginning with 1. The system that will be followed will be the system beginning with page 1.

This volume differs from all the others in the federal collection in two respects: first, it consists only of correspondence; second, this was originally a gummed file. The left hand side of each page has a gummed strip affixed to it. These gummed strips were then bound with string. If the original ever had a cover, it has been lost. Also, the gummed strips were longer than the pages which were affixed to them. On the advice, and under the direction of paper conservators, the string binding was removed so that pages could be separated and the unused sections of gummed stripping were trimmed. In some instances the gummed stripping had dried out and could be removed in whole or in part from the page without damaging the original. By and large, however, the gummed strip was firmly affixed to the pages and could not be removed without utilizing other delicate, time-consuming conservation methods. On some letters text has been obliterated. When this has occurred transcriptions have been done from the original as the writing can often be read through the stripping

This book is a compilation of Sproat's Minutes of decision dated from May 21,1878 to October 5,1878. All the Minutes are initialled, some have accompanying sketches glued onto the pages. There are also a few large maps included in the volume. In some instances reserves have been identified, but most sketches are generally noted and "Various" appears in the reserve name column

INTERRUPTED WORK BOOK No. 1 | This volume appears to be complete, no pages are missing. The original book, itself, is in moderate condition. Some pages and maps are loose and the binding is not secure. The paper, however, is high quality and in good condition. Near the end of the book, Sproat inserted some pages dealing with pre-emptions. This paper is quite different from that in the volume, but this will not be evident in the copy. Other pre-emption records are also glued onto pages. The maps in this volume were either glued directly onto the relevant page, or were glued onto other sheets, which were, in turn, glued onto the relevant pages. Similarly, Sproat glued three original letters into the book; 1 from Mohun (6 pages long) and two from Government Agent Hughe

Field Minutes | Volume 4 of the Federal Collection of Minutes of Decision, Correspondence & Sketches consists of thirteen (13) soft-covered books containing the "Field Minutes" of Indian Reserve Commissioner Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, for the period June 1878 to June 1880. The majority of the books cover the summer and fall of 1878, however, notations and remarks in the field minutes indicate that Sproat re-wrote or revised many of the books after his initial work of 1878. In many of the volumes, there are references to the 1879 Land Amendment Act, notations noting work done by surveyor Edward Mohun in 1879 and remarks regarding reports received from Mohun as late as January 1880.

This book appears to be a compilation of extracts from a number of different files which contained material about the work of the Joint Indian Reserve Commission. The original book is in poor condition. Virtually all of the original Minutes of decision were removed from this volume. While the majority have been located, some are still missing. This relocated material has been placed into mylar envelopes. The file covers come after the documents of the file. At some point in the past someone wrote the file numbers on small pieces of paper and paper-clipped the appropriate file number at the beginning of the documents for the file.

This volume contains correspondence related to Sproat's work as sole Indian Reserve Commissioner. Like Volume 1, this volume contains correspondence upon a variety of issues including surveying, disputes with the provincial government, agreements with Indians, Sproat's perception and interpretation of policy and his perception and interpretation of his interaction with Indians and settlers. Sproat never felt restrained in offering his opinion on a variety of subjects, even if, as he admitted at least once, his opinion was "perhaps a little outside [his] special duties." (p. 301)

This volume deals with some of the work of the Joint Indian Indian Reserve Commission (JIRC), but primarily it contains correspondence related to Sproat's work as sole Indian Reserve Commissioner. Sproat is appointed the sole Indian Reserve Commissioner on March 15,1878 [p. 79]. The correspondence deals with a variety of issues including costs of operation of the Commission, difficulties dealing with the B.C. government, Sproat's perception and interpretation of policies; Sproat's perception and interpretation of his interactions with the Indians [eg. pp. 131,151, 153, 165, 182, 219, 253, 277, 336, 343], and, as Sproat characterizes it, the "settling the Indian Land question."

The PDF document below includes links to photographic images related to the Commission which are held in the BC Archives. Any reproductions or permissions to publish or display these images must be obtained directly from the BC Archives.

The PDF document below includes links to photographic images related to the Commission which are held in the BC Archives. Any reproductions or permissions to publish or display these images must be obtained directly from the BC Archives.