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Swirling drifts of grit arose from that logging road of broken stone as our small, single engine bush plane lifted into the sky, leaving us behind. We watched for a while, until it arced away behind the encircling mountains. Then we gathered our equipment, and headed into the dense brush that brackets the road.A road to nowhere, in the middle of nothing. The only way into Bute Inlet, British Columbia is by boat, or plane. A series of local logging roads supplies a small lumber mill there with wood from the surrounding forests; but none of these roads connect to anything outside of the inlet.
There was a time, though, one hundred and thirty-odd years before, when it seemed that Bute Inlet would be at the head of a major wagon road into the Cariboo gold fields that lay beyond the Coast Mountains which ring the inlet. This was before a group from the Chilicotin Nation, under Chief Tellot, came down from the mountains that surround the inlet and wiped out the work crew which was building the road. That was in the spring of 1864. Up until that point, it seemed that a major port city would arise in Bute Inlet. Now, only the small sawmill disturbs the peace of this remote and mist shrouded place. It is now a much diminished inlet, where the heavy hand of modern man lies hard upon the land. But once, and for a very, very long time, it was the home of a proud and ancient people: the Homalco Band of the Coast Salish people. There were several large villages here, and on nearby Stuart Island. Now, however, this inlet supports only a few seasonal loggers; the bears that wander down from the mountains; and the dense, scrubby brush which has replaced the logged-out forest. I first ventured into that inlet on a hiking trip, during an attempt to help a friend (Lewis K.) find a route up onto the Homathko Ice field. In the course of this trip, I came upon a curious artifact which lay, forsaken, upon the rough gravel logging road which winds beside the Techuahan River. It was the first example of non-metrical image writing that I found. In the time that has passed since this trip, I have discovered that this artifact is an example of a form of writing undocumented by modern archaeology. This story is about the paths which this artifact has lead me along in my search for the truth about what happened to the people who once lived in Bute Inlet. This is a story which stretches from the remote depths of time. It ends, abruptly, in 1861. When I hold the small stone artifact which I happened upon on that day in October of 1991, when I read the image patterns upon that stone, I wonder about the person who produced the images this stone presents. I wonder why the people from that culture are no longer there in that inlet. I wonder when, and why, they left.
The images upon that stone come from the time of the mastodon hunters who first claimed this inlet as their home. In the dim depths of history, when someone worked images of their world onto this stone, that world included the saber-tooth tiger that they emulated in their hunting of mastodon. The history of that ancient people in this inlet stretches in an unbroken thread, from those days now long past, to the time of their first contacts with Europeans. I will begin with that contact, when this ancient thread was forcibly snapped.
The first recorded point of European contact with the people of Bute Inlet occurs in the journal kept by a man named Menzies, who accompanied Captain George Vancouver on his survey of the Northwest Coast. In this journal, Menzies records a report given by a man named Johnston. Dated July 2nd, 1792, the journal states:
"...they (Johnston's party) were joined by two canoes from the western shore (of Bute Inlet), containing about a dozen or fourteen of the Natives. The only articles of traffic they had were Bows and Arrows they readily bartered for small Trinkets. This indicating their peaceable disposition they were suffered to follow the Boats till they stopped for the night & then they quietly went to the opposite shore where a large smoke was seen issuing from the woods. The whirlpools which Johnston's party encountered are today known as the Arran Rapids. They are located between Stuart Island, which the Homalco traditionally inhabited, and the mainland at the entrance to Bute Inlet. These violent rapids were also encountered by the Spanish explorers Galiano and Valdes, who were surveying this area of the Northwest Coast at the same time as Vancouver's expedition:
"Spanish explores Galiano and Valdes aboard the Sutil and Mexicana encounter the violence of the Arran Rapids on July 20th, 1792. Caught in tremendous whirlpools, the Sutil is literally spun around three times, much to the amazement of her crew. So bizarre is this that crews aboard both ships, despite their grave danger, are convulsed in great laughter." The Homalco retreated from their traditional location on Stuart Island and took up residence in Bute Inlet proper because of encroachment by more northern tribes. Initial European contact with the tribes of the Northwest Coast was fueled for the most part by the trade in sea otter pelts. These pelts were in great demand in China, and were traded there by European and American merchants. Those merchants acquired the pelts along the western coast of Vancouver Island and in the Queen Charlotte Islands, further up the Northwest Coast. As a result, European muskets were distributed through trade amongst the tribes occupying these outlying areas long before such weaponry became available to mainland tribes such as the Homalco. This lead to a southern expansion of traditionally northern tribes. By the 1860's, mainland tribes who had traditionally occupied islands in the Strait of Georgia (between Vancouver Island and the mainland) had been forced back into the inlets which indent the coast. Commander R. C. Mayne described the situation in 1862:
"One tribe especially, living at Cape Mudge (across from Bute Inlet, very close to the eastern shore of Vancouver Island), the south point of Valdez (now Quadra) Island, and known as the U-cle-ta, are the Ishmaelites of the country, whose hands are literally against every man, and every man's against them...Efforts have been made to put down this cruel system of predatory warfare, and occasionally a grand peace-making of the hostile tribes is held, at which eternal friendship is vowed. But it is not long before some fresh depredation is committed, or some solitary Indian is caught by a party of another tribe, and the temptation to murder or take him prisoner being too strong to be resisted, war breaks out again. The U-cle-ta are great offenders in this way. In the summer of 1860 a lesson was administered to them, which, it is to be hoped, may do them some good. A party of them had attacked and robbed some Chinamen, and escaped to their village at Cape Mudge, which, being stockaded for protection against other tribes, they no doubt thought would be equally efficacious against white men. H. M. gunboat Forward was sent there to demand restitution; and, on approaching the village, she was fired upon from the stockade with loud shouts of defiance. The gunboat first fired a shell or two over; but, Indian-like, they mistook this leniency for an inability to hit them, and coming out in front of the stockade fired several volleys at her, which fortunately, however, fell harmlessly against her rifle-plates. She then opened fire upon the canoes on the beach, and lastly upon the stockade; and it was not till several men were killed that they came to terms, and restored the stolen property." It should be noted that such actions by Coastal Tribes did not start until after contact and trade with Europeans commenced. Before this point in time, tribal "warfare" usually consisted of the exchange of a few arrows between opposing groups, which tended to end when the first person was hurt. Further, such incidents as the one noted above were not always as they were reported to be by Europeans:
On the 5th of April we left Esquimalt to commence the summer work, and proceeded to Nanaimo to fill up with coal. On our way we stopped at the northern settlement on Admiral Island, as it had been reported that some Indians had been troublesome there. We found, however, that the Indians had done nothing more than tell the settlers occasionally, as Indians do everywhere, that they (the whites) had no business there except as their guests, and that all the land belonged to them." Such was the state of things in 1860, when the Homalco and other Coast Salish tribes of the mainland found themselves forced to retreat into the steep inlets that split the mountainous coast. At some point around this time, they also abandoned Bute Inlet as their traditional winter home. Homer G. Barnett notes:
"Regarding the range of the Homalco (homaLko), I have no detailed data. Their main point of convergence appears to have been at the head of Bute Inlet, near the mouth of he Homathko River (klakam). Other settlements were at Orford Bay and at the mouth of the Southgate River (mimaiya; also in Bute Inlet). Almost certainly there were other settlements further up the Homathko and Southgate Rivers. Menzies notes a village of twenty houses which Newcombe locates near the Arran Rapids, just north of Stuart Island (at the mouth of Bute Inlet). Vancouver's report contains a drawing of this settlement perched on a steep hillside. Old Church House (mucqin) on Sonora Island, across from Stuart Island, was resorted to at some time, but, from the data to follow, we may conclude that the Homalco did not occupy salt-water sites beyond the immediate mouth of Bute Inlet." It appears that the primary changes which affected the people of Bute Inlet date to about 1860-61. It was at this time that Bute Inlet first began to attract the attention of the European colonists who had settled in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. This group of colonists sought an easier route over the Coast Mountains, and into the Cariboo gold fields in the interior of British Columbia, than the one which followed the treacherous Fraser River canyon.
On March 19, 1859, a "Major" William Downie (he lacked any true military rank) held a public meeting in Victoria to announce that Bute Inlet might offer the easy access to the interior that was so eagerly being sought. Downie was an adventurer of sorts from Glasgow, Scotland. He had managed to find employment under Governor Douglas (who presided over the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia), as an explorer commissioned to find an inland route to the Cariboo gold fields. Governor Douglas says of William Downie, in a letter to the secretary for the colonies dated March 25, 1859:
"I have for some time had in the Government employ a respectable Scotchman, named Downie, one of the most successful miners in California, and known all over the state as Major Downie, the founder of Downieville. Downie's first exploration of 1858 had met with little success, but he was still hopeful that Bute Inlet, which he had failed to reach during that expedition, might offer the easy route which was being sought. Nothing more seems to have happened in relation to Bute Inlet until Alfred Waddington, in April 1861, announced it as the point from which an inland road could be built. By June of 1861, enough reports about renewed gold finds in the Upper Fraser River area had reached Victoria to indicate that they would far surpass the Lower Fraser strikes. A Bute Inlet road to this area would require less than half the land travel of the route which wound up the Fraser River canyon. More importantly for Victoria, a Bute Inlet route would require about 200 miles of ocean travel. This would funnel all traffic destined for the Cariboo gold field through the port city of Victoria (on Vancouver Island), and away from the city of New Westminster (which was on the mainland, at the mouth of the Fraser River). Thus in June of 1861, Waddington held a town meeting in Victoria to propose that a road to the gold fields be built from the head of Bute Inlet. By June 10th of 1861, he had formed a committee to raise the funds needed to send a party of exploration to Bute Inlet. Not to be beaten to such a prize by an upstart businessman, Downie himself set off (on June 26th of that year) on a Bute Inlet expedition. The records that survive from this time are mostly the first hand accounts of the explorers themselves. No consistent story emerges from these accounts about what actually happened in Bute Inlet in 1861. The best one can do is to try to correlate the various accounts that were recorded, and then try to wring some semblance of truth out of that texture of lies, half-truths, and omissions which has been preserved to our present day. There are three main parties who left accounts about what happened in Bute Inlet in 1861. They are William Downie, Alfred Waddington and Robert Homfray. Downie's accounts are couched in omissions and admonishments to abandon any attempt at building a Bute Inlet road. Waddington's reports are inflated and seem to include an inordinate number of outright lies designed to make a Bute Inlet road seem an easy thing to construct. Robert Homfray, who Waddington sent to the inlet in October of 1861, left an account which seems factual and accurate; although, it does seem to suggest a covert sub-text in its main narrative. Let us first consider the account which William Downie left.
Downie's 1861 explorations were undertaken with Aleck McDonald and Harry Harlan (who is himself a real piece of work), with whom he had purchased a small schooner. Sometime prior to the Victoria town meeting (during which the Bute Inlet road was proposed), Downie and his partners had undertaken a trip of trade, exploration, and prospecting to Knight Inlet (which is immediately to the north of Bute Inlet) and other places further north. Downie agreed to this trip reluctantly: even at this point in time, he had set his sights on Bute Inlet. Upon anchoring in Knight Inlet, Downie and his partners began to offload their trading goods. However, the excitement their presence caused was not to Downie's liking:
"By this time the Indians were swarming upon the deck of our little vessel, and upon my return to it, they had blocked the gangway so that I could not get on board for some time; when at last I reached the deck, I called my men below, and we at once made our arsenal ready for use. We had plenty of guns, pistols, balls, and powder, and had just broken into a keg of the latter. I told the boys, and they agreed with me, that if we found we were getting the worst of it, I should throw a match into the powder-keg, thus showing our charitable disposition by taking our enemies aloft with us, rather than let them cut us to pieces.After this incident (and the Victoria meeting concerning Bute Inlet), which despite Downie's hyperbole appears to have been caused simply by local excitement at a rare opportunity to trade for European goods, Downie convinces his partners to join him on a trip to Bute Inlet. Arriving at the head of Bute Inlet on July 3rd 1861, Downie notes (in a letter to Governor Douglas) that:
"There are three Rivers which fall into the head of Bute Inlet, one from the East, one from the North, and one from the West, the latter being the largest and the one by which the Interior Indians come for Salmon. I determined to proceed up this one first and accordingly made arrangements with the Indians to go with us, making them presents to keep them all right until we got a fair start I may say they are as hard a Lot of Indians to get along with as I have seen on the Coast, and it required all my tact to get them to go up the river at all. I used them well before starting and gave them all papers for 1 blanket each and sundries when we came back." Downie does not appear to agree with Johnston's earlier impression of the Homalco tribe as having no other passion to gratify than "doing a good office to strangers". But then, Downie rarely seems to have formed a good impression of any of the First Nations that he encountered. One can only conclude that the fault lies with Downie, and not with the people that he met during his explorations. After capsizing his canoe during his first attempt at heading inland, and loosing most of the supplies he was carrying in the process, Downie eventually proceeds up the Homathko River with two Aboriginal guides:
"The River became swift in its course the second day so that we had to use poles - from all appearance it is a hard River to get up - The Canoe I was in whilst passing around the end of a long tree struck a strong current, the Indians could not keep her head to the stream and down it came broadside on and went crashing under - Canoe, Indians and all I had in it disappeared in the twinkling of an eye...as for the Indians they stood trembling on the shore, without even once making an effort to save anything, as I had most of what was valuable in my canoe, our loss was a considerable item under the present circumstances..." In his accounts, both in the letter quoted above and in his book "Hunting For Gold", Downie refers to his Aboriginal companions on this second attempt in both plural and singular cases. Two "Indians" become one "Indian" which become two again, without any logical or contextual explanation. One of the Aboriginals, certainly, did not want to continue accompanying Downie on his trip up the Homathko River:
"Our Indian began to get sick and commenced to crying and wanted to turn back, but as we could not get on without his assistance in working the canoe, we would not permit him to return..." Elsewhere, it becomes apparent that Downie's lack of concern for his guide's health is due more to racism than to any other factor:
"It was one of the most trying journies I ever undertook, which is saying a good deal, and our Indian Chief began to cry, said he was sick and he wanted to go home. There are many who believe that the colored races surpass the Caucasians in endurance, but this is entirely a misapprehension. For endurance, tenacity, determination of purpose and moral courage the Caucasians cannot be equaled by any colored race I have ever met." As one reads through Downie's various accounts of his travels, one notes not only racism but also, a certain degree of indeterminacy as to what actually happened on these expeditions. Things are often not as Downie would have one believe. Of the section in "Hunting For Gold" which immediately precedes the one quoted above, Don Munday notes:
"In spite of the definite opening sentence I am not quite sure, considering frequent signs of geographical ignorance throughout the book on the part of the editor, Waage, that this passage is not a paraphrase of Downie's account of the trip up the Homathko." When examining the description of the section to which Munday refers (from Downie's "Hunting For Gold"), as it is presented in Downie's letter of August 17 1861 (to Governor Douglas), some points of interpretive interest emerge. The apparent 'paraphrasing' Don Munday mentions relates to the exploration of two streams which are tributaries of the Homathko River. The original version of the section in question occurs immediately before the sickness of one of their Aboriginal guides is mentioned, and immediately after Downie's exploration of a glacier (described below). This is also the section in which Downie's guides are referred to in the singular form, as "our Indian". The paragraph mentioning the Aboriginal guide's sickness immediately precedes one of two instances where Downie inserts a full date into his letter: 17th July 1861. This date is followed by a section in which Downie and McDonald begin to cut their way through the forest, hauling their canoe (the word "haul" is smeared in the letter) along on rollers; their single Aboriginal guide's displeasure at this and his desire to return to Bute Inlet are also mentioned here. That section is then followed by a second insertion of a full date: 20th July 1861. Three days later. Then, a section in which TWO Aboriginal guides are left behind in camp while Downie and McDonald proceed ahead alone occurs. This is followed by a section which, again, seems to contain a paraphrasing of earlier sections related to the difficulty of travelling through this area; at which point Downie and McDonald return to Bute Inlet. Downie claims to have spent 16 days exploring the Homathko River, and then to have explored the Techuahan and Southgate Rivers as well. He records that his schooner was anchored in Bute Inlet for 23 days, and that he did not start up the Homathko River until 4 days after his schooner arrived in Bute Inlet. This would have left 3 days for exploring the two additional rivers he claims to have surveyed. Again: three days; and the exploration of two rivers (in addition to an exploration of the Homalko River). Elsewhere, in "Hunting For Gold", that 23 days becomes a month and a half. Clearly, something is seriously amiss in the accounts Downie has left of this expedition: it appears that something happened in Bute Inlet which Downie does not want to openly refer to. Whatever Downie may have been up to in Bute Inlet, a good portion of the hand written account that he left behind describes him climbing to the tops of the mountains which encircle Bute Inlet, and examining the massive glacier that hangs from the tops of these mountains:
"This is the first Glacier I have seen that comes down to level Ground, in width it might have measured one and a half miles whilst it extended in length as far as the eye could reach to the Eastward It was something grand to ascend to the face of this enormous mass of ice and mark the variegated hues of transparent blue in the crevices where the sun was making inroads by its beams softening this ice bound mass."
Downie's handwriting is difficult to read. His various accounts of the Bute Inlet expedition are inconsistent. His punctuation is almost nonexistent. Other people have noted the discrepancies in Downie's various accounts, and the rather odd style he used in writing his letters. Of an earlier record Downie compiled during an 1858 expedition, Munday comments:
"Downie's field notes are distinctly different to those prepared afterward. Periods and capitals rarely mark end or beginning of sentences." Despite the apparent haste with which Downie seems to have written his August 17th letter to Governor Douglas, only two 'mistakes' can be found where he has substituted one word for another. In addition to the duty/best substitution noted above, Downie displays one other example of a substituted word in this letter. This occurs when he is describing setting off on his first attempt to navigate the Homathko River, just before his canoe overturns:
"Mr. McDonald and I with 8 Indians in 3 canoes started up the River Homathko on the 7th July taking along with us plenty of provisions etc. to supply us in going over the Mountains. This River runs through low sandy flats thickly timbered, but the timber (this word is smeared in Downie's letter) is light and the flats formed
The first consideration I would like to note in the above quote by Downie concerns the nature of the country the Homathko River runs through. In relation to Downie's observation that "the timber is light" (although the forest is "thickly timbered"): in what sense are the trees "light"? Under what conditions could such a 'lightness of the timber' be determined? What causes Downie to say this? The trees Downie was referring to were part of a coastal, old growth, temperate rainforest. How could this 'timber' be seen as light? If this 'timber was noticeably "light"', then why is there a sawmill in Bute Inlet today? Were these trees 'light enough to be mown down like a swarth of grass'? Please consider, for a moment, another description of the forests in and around Bute Inlet. This commentary upon the trees found in said location is from 1864...three years after Downie's observation about the 'light nature of the timber' in Bute Inlet:
"A direct route from the coast into the Cariboo mines by way of Bute Inlet had been projected and partly carried out in the year 1864; and in consequence the writer was induced to visit this otherwise inaccessible country... Note that Downie did not actually draw a line through the words he wished to change in his letter, but 'bracketed' these words with little subscript X's; and then he wrote the substituting words above the words he wished them to replace. Perhaps the two graphemic elements (the "double x's"), noted above as contained in Downie's letter to Governor Douglas, are just simple mistakes. Perhaps they are something else:
"There is a universal language, which everyone can understand, but only a few can speak. It has no words of its own, but depends upon accentuation more than anything else, as I learned in the course of my life's schooling." Although this reference to some 'universal language' refers to Downie's ability to produce responses by screaming and gesturing wildly at people, I suspect that it might have had somewhat wider applications within Downie's general approach to communication.
The only other example of this "double marking" or "double crossing" in his letter occurs twice (as dots, rather than x's) under the words "Your Most (x?x) Servant" at the letter's end. We will return to this curious little graphemic oddity later. However long it took to explore Bute Inlet, Downie was soon back in Victoria, and telling people of his expedition. On August 19 1861, he held a public meeting during which he attempted to convince the people of Victoria not to invest in a Bute Inlet road. Unfortunately for Downie, his earlier, positive predictions for the success of such a route (and the attending possibility it presented for surpassing the rival settlement of New Westminster in importance) seems to have been more to the liking of those who attended. Downie was booed soundly at his meeting and driven from the stage by objects thrown from the audience. Two other expeditions entered Bute Inlet that year: one led by Alfred Waddington (who, despite his inflated claims of having successfully traveled up the Homathko River, seems to have simply gone to the inlet by steamer and then turned around), and one lead by Robert Homfray.
Let us briefly consider the record left behind by the leading proponent of a Bute Inlet wagon road, one Alfred Waddington:
"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a letter from the Colonial Secretary's Office, dated Sept. 9th, in answer to my inquiries of equal date, respecting the protection and privileges which would be granted me for the discovery and opening of a more direct communication with the Northern mines, by one of the inlets opposite Vancouver Island; which answer lays down the preliminary conditions under which such a charter would be granted William Downie, who had been in Bute Inlet during July 1861, stated:
"The tide flows up the River for about ten miles so that small steamers could go this distance at high water..." This is a serious discrepancy, of about 30 miles, over how far a steamer might travel up the Homathko River. So, who is telling the truth here? Downie certainly had a lot of experience as a sailor; Waddington, on the other hand, was a grocer by trade.
According to hydrology charts, from much more recent surveys of the Homathko River's rates of flow (conducted to ascertain that river's hydro-electric potential), the Homathko River's peak water flow rate occurs in July (which is the month during which Downie visited the area). By mid-September, when Waddington left Victoria for Bute Inlet, the flow rate of the Homathko River is LESS THAN HALF of what it is in July. So: although all the texts of historical commentary I have read regarding this period of British Columbia's development repeat Waddington's words as if they were accurate and unbiased reports, it would seem that, in fact, Waddington was quite obviously lying through his teeth when speaking of his visit to Bute Inlet. Professionally, as a grocer, Alfred Waddington operated in a world characterized by patent medicines and snake oil. Since the establishment of a Bute Inlet wagon road would have been to Waddington's personal economic advantage, I think that NOTHING which he says concerning Bute Inlet can be taken as the unbiased truth, or at face value. Not that this is unusual, even in this day and New Age. Elsewhere, Downie states:
"Had I wished to get into the pay of the speculators, I could have made enough money on Bute Inlet to amply repay me for my outlay and hardships endured, but all I wished to do was to make a fair and unbiased report of what I saw and learned. I do not know if Downie is directly referring to Waddington here, but elsewhere (concerning an earlier exploration by Downie of the Skeena River), Downie comes straight to the point in his assessment of Waddington's 'explorations':
"Of my exploration on the Skeena I have already spoken. Myself and two companions were in reality the first white men who crossed from the coast to the Fraser River, but Mr. Alfred Waddington, who was jealous of my successful explorations of that part of British Columbia, took pains on several occasions to ignore the fact that I was the one who led the first expedition, and wrote about the route in such a manner as to make it appear as if indeed he was the first to penetrate the previously unknown country." Even back in 1861, one can see a distinct tendency for some to take credit for the work of others, and to enhance such claims by wildly inflating the dubious results of their non-efforts. Amazing, isn't it, how little some things change over time.
Let us now consider the account of Robert Homfray. Homfray's account was not published until 1894, one year after William Downie's book ("Hunting For Gold") was published. 1894 is also the year in which Downie apparently died. Robert Homfray's Bute Inlet expedition is an epic in itself. First, he and his companions were captured by hostile Aboriginal people as they approached Bute Inlet. Then, they were saved by the Chief of the Klahuse Tribe, who's territory was in Toba Inlet, located immediately to the south of the Homalco of Bute Inlet (italics mine):
"On his approach to the shore the six Indians jumped into their canoe and made off.
It should be noted that Homfray's expedition set out on October 31st of 1891. Snow at this time of year is VERY unusual in the area that Homfray was journeying through, due to its close proximity to the ocean; but, the winter of 1861 is reputed to have been one of the worst ever recorded on the coast.
"Suddenly we saw a tall powerful Indian and his squaw standing on the river's edge, looking cautiously about, having evidently heard us. When they saw us, the squaw ran behind the man, who was nearly naked. His body was painted jet-black with large vermillion-coloured rings around his eyes. The bow and arrow he had was pointed straight at us...Being not afraid, I went slowly up to him. He immediately seized me in his arms, and I was helpless in his powerful embrace. Coté ran up saying, "Don't fear, sir, he shan't kill you." The Indian then slackened his hold, lifted up my arms, looked into my mouth, examined my ears, to see if I were made like himself. He had evidently never seen a white man before." Homfray later identifies these people as members of the Chilicotin Nation. These people take Homfray into their homes (which were a type of underground pit dwelling commonly used, in the interior areas of the coast, during winter) and feed his party. They also advised Homfray to turn back; advice that he finally accepts. On his return trip down the Homathko River, Homfray's canoe was destroyed. In this section of his account, Homfray also mentions actually seeing an avalanche occur:
"These Indians who had befriended us are the same who, about three years afterwards, killed fourteen of the sixteen men belonging to Mr. Waddington's road party...The people were horror-stricken on hearing of so shocking a massacre; and a proclamation was immediately issued by Mr. Seymour, the Governor of British Columbia, calling for volunteers to go up and chase the Indians through the mountains... I don't know a lot about avalanches; and I've never seen one. I have, however spent the odd day or two on mountain peaks, meditating beside glaciers and practicing Tai Chi; and I've never heard "a SHARP crash" in such places...only the gentle and constant 'plink-plink-plink' of small stones thawing from cliff faces, and dropping away to the valleys below. One would not, however, expect to hear stones falling in such a fashion until long after sunrise, and well into the day...after the sun has had a chance to warm the mountainside to the point where the ice holding such rocks in place melts. Immediately before the avalanche section (and refering to the previous day's travel), Homfray reports that he had broken the poles by which he was moving his canoe along the river. It is interesting to note that, after the avalanche section, Homfray loses his canoe in very much the same way that Downie loses the one he was in on his first attempt to go up the Homathko River. The main difference is that, when this happens, Homfray is traveling on the river in the opposite direction that Downie was. The similarities between Homfray's account here and Downie's visit to Bute Inlet seem almost strong enough to suggest an allusion by Homfray to Downie's expedition. If one were to reverse the chain of events that Homfray records in this report, one would find: The loss of a canoe, due to difficulty navigating around a tree in the river; a massive avalanche which begins with a "sharp crash"; the 'breaking' of 'the poles' which propel canoes on the river; and, the massacre of Waddington's road crew in Bute Inlet (in 1864). Homfray's party proceeded on foot, and eventually reached the head of Bute Inlet again (italics mine):
"We were now at the head of Bute Inlet again, very weak from cold and exposure, our clothes continually freezing as we waded through the many streams. We were in hopes that we might see some Indians who would take us in their canoes, but there were none to be seen. All our hopes of safety had vanished. Our only hope was to cut down a tree, and on it float down the Inlet some seventy miles into Desolation Sound. The wind had been blowing seven days and nights, with heavy snow storms, and we were in great danger from falling timber. We were suddenly attacked by about twelve hungry wolves, who came boldly at us out of the bush, snapping and growling. We ran to a large fire we had burning and threw fire boards at them. It was some time, however, before they were driven off." Here again, Homfray notes the absence of people in Bute Inlet, which was at that time the place where the Homalco Tribe traditionally spent their winters. They were not on Stuart Island, due to the nearby presence of the Kwakiutl Tribe (already encountered by Homfray as the marauders who had taken him captive). They were not on the Homathko River, where the first people Homfray encountered had never seen a white person before. They were not at their later winter site at Grace Harbour, because their neighbors the Klahuse had not yet, at this point in time, taken up winter residence there. Indeed, the Klahuse Chief soon saved Homfray again; he was not far away, and was perhaps searching Bute Inlet (in his canoe) for his friends, the Homalco Tribe. The Klahuse Chief soon took Homfray to his village in Toba Inlet, where the Klahuse Tribe were busily drying their winter supply of salmon. That is what the Homalco should have been found doing at this time: drying their winter stock of salmon in their village at the head of Bute Inlet.
The last report about Bute Inlet from this time period that I would like to examine is from an account left by Hermann Otto Tiedemann. Tiedemann was hired by Alfred Waddington to survey the route that the Bute Inlet wagon road was to take; and, Tiedemann appears to be the first non-Aboriginal to actually cross over the Coast Mountains from Bute Inlet. In his journal of this survey expedition, Tiedemann states:
"May 22: Camped on the left hand shore of Bute Inlet. From this, one would have to conclude that there was indeed still an Aboriginal village at the head of Bute Inlet. But, was it the same village that Downie encountered, and which Homfray found no trace of, in 1861? The deserted village that Tiedemann finds is far up the Homathko River, and was probably the Chilicotin village that Robert Homfray encountered before turning back down the river and returning to the head of Bute Inlet. It is odd that people who had their traditional home at the head of Bute Inlet would have set up their village in a swamp, where it would be regularly inundated by both the river and the tides of the ocean. One would, however, expect this of people who had just arrived in Bute Inlet:
"During the winter Waddington and the British Columbia government carried on negotiations resulting in agreement on March 28, 1862, that he should build a bridle road, or trail, from Bute Inlet to the Fraser River... Some suggest that Waddington's crew were in place even earlier than this:
"On April 16 (1862), the contract was amended, with the consent of both parties, to provide for the construction of a wagon road, sixteen feet wide... By the time that Tiedemann arrived in Bute Inlet, Waddington's work crew had already been encamped there for over a month. It was quite usual at that time for Aboriginal villages to spring up wherever Europeans set up long-term camps. An account from 1863, by F. S. Saunders, illustrates this point:
"It was early in the month of April, 1863, we started from the H.B.Co.'s wharf in the steamer "Enterprise," commanded by the late Capt. Mouatt (Mowatt?), for Bute Inlet... In a letter to Waddington concerning the survey expedition of 1862, Tiedemann reports:
"In the first instance our Indians deserted us at the mouth of the river. Nothing could induce them to go farther with us. They were too much afraid of the high state of water in the river. Secondly, finding of no Indians along the river to procure a guide, to point out the trail, said to exist across the mountains, in consequence of which we were obliged to follow the river all the time, and to overcome the bluffs had to climb very steep and high mountains." Thus, the Aboriginal village Tiedemann encounters at the head of Bute Inlet: 1} is located immediately beside the work camp set up only one month earlier by Waddington's work crew; 2} is located on swampy ground which is subject to regular flooding...an unlikely site choice for people who have had a long-term occupancy of Bute Inlet; 3} is populated by people who will not accompany Tiedemann up the Homathko River, and can not point out the trail that follows the river into the interior. It seems to me that this village is one which came into being with the establishment of Waddington's work camp. It does not sound like the village or the people which Downie had encountered one year earlier...and which Homfray had failed to find any trace of, just a few short months after Downie's expedition. Tiedemann is following instructions given to him by Alfred Waddington; he is using a sketch map supplied by a Captain Price, who Waddington claims to have left in Bute Inlet during his 1861 'exploration'. Price's map shows no village at the head of Bute Inlet. Instead, it shows a village quite some distance up the Homathko River. Although Waddington claims to have forwarded a report of Price's findings to Governor Douglas, I could not find a copy of this report anywhere. And I have never come across any reference to this report's contents by anyone who claims to have seen it for themselves. Knowing how suspect Alfred Waddington's claims regarding Bute Inlet were, I am tempted to conclude that Waddington made up the story about Captain Price's expedition, and then substituted information from Robert Homfray in its stead. This would have been easy for him to do, since Homfray did not publish an account of his expedition until 1894...because Waddington had asked him not to:
"Many people in Victoria wished me to publish this account of our dangerous trip but I hesitated. Mr. Waddington feared my descriptions of the many dangers encountered would prevent parties joining him in making the road through the Cariboo." The only solid reference to any "price" that I have seen in relation to Bute Inlet, 1861, is the retrospectively chilling comment by William Downie upon returning to the head of Bute Inlet from his trio up the Homathko River:
"We returned to the Schooner at the head of the Inlet after being gone 16 days up the River Homathco pretty well tired out with our trip paid all the Indians those who turned back after the capsizing of the Canoe as well as those that went ahead with us it matters not what success we may have had Indians must be paid - " What ever happened in Bute Inlet in 1861, by the point in time when the Homalco were gathering with other local tribes at Grace Harbour for winter ceremonies, they seem to have undergone some large-scale tragedy which had reduced their numbers disproportionately below that of other nearby tribes:
"The beach at Grace Harbour was short and the houses were in rows, the larger ones being in front and the smaller ones behind. To the best of my informant's knowledge, there were four big houses representing the Klahuse; one or two, the Homalco; and four or five, the Slaiaman."
All that Homfray encountered at the head of Bute Inlet were wolves which seem to have somehow acquired a taste for human flesh. If I were to hazard a guess as to who let slip those particular dogs of war, I would have to speculate that: William Downie, angered by the loss of the trade goods which had been in his capsized canoe, vowed revenge upon the Homalco Tribe. FIRST, he tested his plans by introducing one of the two Homalco Nation members, who accompanied him on his second attempt to ascend the Homathko River, to a snuff box. Snuff at that time was usually more than just powdered tobacco. Often, it also contained the powdered scabs of smallpox victims, which maintained the snuff user's immunity to the disease. This crude method of inoculation had been discovered by the Chinese; and the "double marking" found in the closing salutation of Downie's letter to Governor Douglas (here, as two dots twice repeated, rather than as the two "x's" noted earlier) does look rather like part of a representation of a Chinese glyph that one might find on a container used to carry snuff.
Noting the resulting sickness that afflicted one of his Aboriginal guides (who, you will remember, are initially referred to in the plural but then, are suddenly referred to in the singular), Downie then returned to the head of Bute Inlet after examining the glacier which overhangs it. Of course, snuff wasn't always carried in boxes. It was also carried in bottles, and this would have been particularly true of snuff inoculated with powdered smallpox scabs.
Snuff, in the form of powdered tobacco, was one of the earliest American exports to China. Even in the 1700's, the Chinese were producing exquisitely crafted snuff bottles; and these were often decorated with Chinese scenes and characters. Such snuff bottles were very much works of art and came in all manner of materials (from agate and jade to multi-colored glass) and colors...including, I am certain, ones in which one might "mark the verigated hues of transparent blue" [to borrow Downie's description of the glacier, from his August 17 1861 letter to Governor Douglas, which he visited with one of his Aboriginal guides: It should also be noted that Downie's description of his visit to the glacier is much more prosaic (and telling) in his book "Hunting For Gold" (italics mine):
"From behind, the woodlands wafted their fragrant breezes up the chasm, filling the air with an odor of life; and a number of small swallows playfully chased one another in the golden rays of a hot July sun. And there in front of us the grim picture of winter, as we descended the huge blocks of ice with all the varied hues of transparent blue, green and gold where the sunbeams were making inroads through the crevices, trying in vain to soften the ponderous mass. And these very crevices leading into caverns of eternal frost and darkness, traversed by ice-cold streams, but never lighted or warmed by the beneficent sun. As I stood there, looking backward and then again forward, it seemed to me as if I stood somewhere between life and death." Elsewhere in Downie's "Hunting For Gold", there is also a description of an Alaskan glacier, as seen under the midnight sun from the deck of a ship. In that passage, Downie likens the sight to that of a distant Oriental city. SECOND, Downie distributed smallpox infected blankets to the the tribe. The disease would have infected almost all of the members of the tribe within about three days. Downie and his friends would have remained (physically) "well", and probably removed themselves and their schooner from the vicinity of the village for the initial stages of the epidemic. THIRD, Downie climbed to the foot of the glacier, to where it extended from the Homalthko Icefield above the Homalco village in Bute Inlet. Setting powder kegs in the indentations he had previously noted along the glacier's edge, he then blasted a huge mass of ice and rock down onto the village, sweeping the village (and any evidence of his crime against humanity) into Bute Inlet.
On a previous expedition hunting for gold in the Queen Charlotte Islands, Downie mentions his familiarity with blasting techniques, which were used to exposed rock faces when looking for gold veins. Downie was no stranger to the blasting techniques used in gold mining at that time...and this familiarity might well have something to do with the way in which he acquired the nickname "Major" in the California gold fields some years earlier.
"Having left Victoria on the 27th July, with twenty-seven practical miners, with stores, &c., for three months, we arrived in Gold Harbour, Queen Charlotte Islands, safely, on the 6th August, and immediately set about prospecting. Weakened by disease, most of the villagers in Bute Inlet who survived this chain of events would have been easy prey for the wolves (who do not attack humans under normal circumstances) and other wild animals in the area. Downie then returned to Victoria and attempted to dissuade any other expeditions from journeying to Bute Inlet, in the fear that they might discover what he had done. For although he tried his best to convince others not to visit Bute Inlet, he also bought a homestead, on speculation, from the company Waddington organized to build a settlement and road in Bute Inlet. Don Munday notes of this:
"Waddington's map, dated Jan. 31, 1864 (in the Provincial Archives) shows "Downie's claim" shrewdly located on the shore beside this anchorage, the only safe one at the head of the inlet." Perhaps what Downie did in Bute Inlet would have been noticed eventually, but for one thing: the next year, in 1862, a major smallpox epidemic started in the Aboriginal trade settlement just outside Victoria. This epidemic swept through the Northwest Coast, because the officials in Victoria forced the Aboriginal People so infected to return to their home villages...at gunpoint. Gunboats were used to follow the canoes of the Aboriginal Peoples so afflicted back to their home villages; and the epidemic spread throughout their coastal villages, and on into the Interior of British Columbia. The epidemic lasted for 3 years, with mortality rates of up to 90% in First Nations' villages. No one knows how many hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal people (or more) died in this epidemic, because nobody knows how many members of the First Nations were in British Columbia at that time. Any stories concerning an initial epidemic of 1861 in Bute Inlet would have been conflated with stories of the province-wide epidemic that began in the following year, and would have been interpreted and judged accordingly. Of the 1862 smallpox epidemic, Downie states:
"I have mentioned Mr. Waddington's aspirations in the direction of exploring, and that he was vastly interested in Bute Inlet and the adjacent country. In course of time he planned a townsite there and began to make roads as best he could. It proved a dangerous work for the men; not only because of the wild nature in this vicinity, but also owing to the indisposition on the part of some of the Indians, who objected to any road being made through their country. Facing this section of text, on page 269 of "Hunting For Gold", there is a photograph. It is a photograph of the Barnard Glaciers, on the Skeena River. There is nothing in the surrounding text about the Skeena River, which is as far north of Bella Coola on the Northwest Coast as one can go, while still remaining in Canada. There is nothing in the surrounding text about the Barnard Glaciers. There is nothing in the surrounding text about any glacier. Evidently, though, referring to the smallpox epidemic of 1862 within the context of Bute Inlet brought the thought of glaciers so strongly to Downie's mind that, he felt compelled to include a photograph of a glacier at this point in his book. The closest reference to the Skeena River in "Hunting For Gold" occurs 17 pages earlier. It is immediately after the section regarding Knight Inlet, when Downie resolves to blow up himself, his ship, and everyone on it with an open powder keg (quoted above). There is no mention of a glacier in that section of text, either.
"Following upon the first gold excitement in 1858, it became the habit of many northern coastal tribes to visit Victoria in large numbers, and at times more than 2,000 "Hydahs", "Stickeens", "Chimseans", "Bella Bellas", "Fort Ruperts", and so on were camped on the outskirts of the settlement. That was the situation in April, 1862, when a white man with smallpox arrived from San Francisco. Before long, despite dire warnings in the Colonist, the disease reached the camps of the Indians, and they began to die in fearful numbers. Alarmed, the authorities burned the camps and forced the Indians to leave. They started up the coast for home, taking the disease with them, leaving the infection at every place they touched. The epidemic spread like a forest fire up the coast and into the interior..."
"In 1862 a terrible new smallpox epidemic broke out on Vancouver Island. Within a few months, the disease swept through the province, this time killing up to one-third of the remaining B.C. Indian population. Such is the general course which smallpox, as a disease, takes; and death can occur within seven to ten days after infection. This is the strain of the disease which seems to have spread throughout British Columbia beginning in 1862. However, the most virulent form of smallpox (which in its course resembles a hemorrhagic fever) can kill in about THREE DAYS...and this, I suspect, would have been the strain of the disease with which Downie infected the Homalco tribe of Bute Inlet in 1861. Taking a wider view of the historical context in which Downie's 1861 Bute Inlet expedition occurred, some interesting factors can be uncovered. The border between the British colonies of Vancouver Island and the territory of the United States of America on the Northwest Coast was established by treaty in 1846. This treaty set the border between the two countries at 49 degrees latitude north; however, ownership of the San Juan Islands was still in dispute, as these islands lie directly on the border: their ownership depended upon which ocean channel the border was drawn along. Although the sovereignty of the British Crown in this area was thus set by treaty, not everyone in the area had been party to that treaty. Concerning Downie's earlier 1858 expedition in British Columbia, Munday notes:
"Within a few years the power and pride of the coastal tribes was to be broken by smallpox and other epidemics introduced by the white men; some tribes no longer had a separate existence. But at the time Downie came down the "Le Quamish" river, the fact of Governor Douglas' rule having been extended to include the mainland had not been impressed on the Indians." In 1859, the dispute over the ownership of the San Juan Islands threatened to escalate into armed conflict. When a pig owned by a British farmer raided the garden of an American and was shot, both countries sent armed troops into the area. War threatened; but, both countries agreed to arbitration...which settled the matter in favor of the Americans in 1872. However, the outcome of this incident was far from certain at its beginning, and several other factors were at play in the dispute. The San Juan Islands lie very close to the mouth of the Fraser River, which was the only point of access to the rich Cariboo gold fields of British Columbia's interior. The American population in the area had greatly increased in the years following the California gold rush of 1849; and many in the British Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia were worried that the dispute over the San Juan Islands would escalate to the point where American forces might seize control of the river's mouth, and thus the valuable gold fields. When the American Civil War erupted on April 12, 1861, things began to look even more precarious for British interests in the area: whatever the outcome of that war, one thing was certain: when the war ended, the Americans would have a very large army of well supplied and battle-hardened soldiers...who would then have nothing to do. To British colonists in the area, an armed conflict with the Americans (in which control of the Cariboo gold fields would be a major factor) seemed to loom in the near future. British control over the area was tenuous at best. Although the treaty of 1846 established their claim to the area internationally, little had been done to secure title to the land from the First Nations who had been living there forever.
"By 1860, settlement was spreading into the Cowichan, Chemainus, and Saltspring Island areas. Governor Douglas made a determined effort to continue the policy of buying out the Indian rights to the land. The local Assembly agreed that it was necessary, and petitioned the Imperial Government for the necessary funds. The Colonial Secretary also agreed that the step was an absolute necessity, but maintained that the funds should be raised locally. With no funds, Douglas was not able to make treaties, and after his retirement his successors chose to ignore the problem or deny the existence of any Indian title. Despite growing discontent among the Indians, the colonial governments made no further treaties with them." Thus, the British colonists faced two perceived threats to their interests in, and claim over, the area: the Americans to the south, and the First Nations who lived all around them. The perceived threat from the First Nations was soon to disappear:
Only 17 of the 30 original Shuswap Bands survived Following the great smallpox epidemic of 1862, measles, influenza, whooping cough and tuberculosis further reduced the Shuswap population. In just two generations, the Shuswap population declined by nearly 70 percent - from approximately 7,200 people in 1850 to 2,185 in 1903. At the same time, large numbers of miners and settlers moved into Shuswap territory. Some settlers gloated there would soon be no 'Indian problem', for the Indians would all be extinct." Elsewhere in British North America, the English Crown had established a pattern of response to threats of American aggression as it regarded Britain's supply routes into its territory. Along the Great Lakes, canals were constructed which would allow the British to supply their inland forces in the event that the Americans gained control of the St. Lawrence River - Great Lakes waterways. The Rideau Canal system was built to link the port of Montreal with Lake Ontario, bypassing the narrowest (and most vulnerable) section of the Saint Lawrence River (the Thousand Islands area) by way of Ottawa. Similarly, The Trent - Severn Waterway was constructed to link Lake Ontario with the upper Great Lakes, by way of Georgian Bay...bypassing the strategicly vulnerable areas around the Niagara River and Detroit - Windsor. One has to wonder, then, if William Downie's 1861 expedition into Bute Inlet might have had other reasons behind it than simple exploration and economic expediency. Could it be that a more secure route into the Cariboo gold fields was being sought against the possibility that American forces might soon seize control of the mouth of the Fraser River? If so, then who would ultimately be responsible for what Downie seems to have done to the people of Bute Inlet? And in answering these questions, one must then turn one's attention to the great smallpox epidemic of 1862... To this day, treaties have not yet been signed with the First Nations of British Columbia. Talks are underway at this moment, but the history leading up to and through these treaty talks reflects very, very badly upon the intentions of those who took the traditional territories of the First Nations away from them. In the 1870's, a Pre-emption Act was made law in British Columbia; it allocated 300 acres of land to each family that applied. Aboriginal people and Chinese people were were barred from applying. First Nations who were already settled on land so allocated were forced to move. From this point on, there was a focussed and concerted effort to suppress Aboriginal culture in British Columbia. Traditional ceremonies, such as the potlatch (where those who had acquired wealth and possessions gave them away to those with less) were banned. By 1927, it was illegal for more than three Aboriginal people to gather with the intention of discussing land claims issues. When non-Aboriginal lawyers were hired to act in the interests of the First Nations in these matters, another law was passed which made it illegal for non-Aboriginals to accept payment for advising the First Nations on their rights. The penalty was 2-6 months in jail; and these laws were on the books into the 1950's. It was not until 1960 that members of the First Nations were granted the right to vote in Federal elections. The First Nations of British Columbia have not been neglecting their rights; they have simply been denied them. Many non-Aboriginals grew up in British Columbia never realizing that almost no treaties had been signed there (although they know that now); this fact was not part of the history which was being taught in the province's school system. Many Aboriginal people in British Columbia have spent most of their entire adult lives involved with attempts to settle land claims issues; and for the most part, these issues have yet to be settled. But the logging and development upon First Nations' land continues on the part of the non-Aboriginal community, without any consultation with the First Nations whose land is involved and with little or no benefits for those First Nations. Even today, the Province of British Columbia continues to grant "tree farm licenses" (logging rights) for these lands, even though these lands are subject to First Nations land claims. American workers in the forestry industry complain that they are loosing their jobs because of cheap lumber imported from British Columbia; and they claim that the cutting of lumber on crown land in British Columbia constitutes an unfair subsidy, since they must pay to cut timber on private land. They blame the low cost of British Columbia lumber on the 'socialist system' there; but in fact, lumber from British Columbia costs so little because it is stolen goods. Meanwhile, the First Nations of British Columbia (and of Canada) struggle against both overt and covert racism; 80-90% unemployment rates; the highest infant mortality, suicide, and incarceration rates of any identifiable group in Canada; inadequate housing and public services; and the list goes on and on. And, guess what? It doesn't matter HOW much training or education you have if no one you know CAN, and no one else WILL, hire you. As for those who were associated with the attempt to force a wagon road through Bute Inlet, British Columbia: Aleck McDonald, who was one of Downie's partners on the Bute Inlet expedition of 1861, was a casualty of the 1864 attack by members of the Chilicotin Nation upon Waddington's road crew. Of this incident, Downie notes:
"...it was feared that Manning's party, and McDonald and his party, known to be, at the time, packing considerable freight into the Cariboo mines, would share the same fate as the Waddington party, and true enough, it was confirmed later by some of the scouts under McLean, of Bonaparte, that Mr. Manning and others were murdered at Benshee Lake. Others, however, tell a different story:
"On the 17th of May McDonald and his party started from New Aberdeen, at the head of Benetick Arm, for Fort Alexandria on the Fraser. They had forty-two pack animals, twenty-eight of which were loaded with goods for the mines, valued at between four thousand and five thousand dollars... William Downie returned to prospecting in 1862. He managed to strike it rich in that year; but, he then spent all the money that he had so acquired looking in vain for more gold in a swamp. In 1872, he traveled to Panama and Costa Rica, where he purchased the rights to plunder Mayan tombs from the governments of those countries. He found nothing of value in those tombs but pottery, which he no doubt smashed in frustration. Downie finally met his end in 1894, the year that Homfray published his account of his 1861 Bute Inlet expedition. Of Downie's death, Don Munday reports:
"As an old man, getting rather deaf, Downie sold books by subscription in Nanaimo, B.C., I am kindly informed by Robie L. Reid, K.C., of Vancouver, who adds that in 1894 Downie was taken to California to reproduce the beginnings of Downieville, but died as the ship entered San Francisco Bay." (Hold that last thought, Downie). Alfred Waddington persisted in his grand plans for Bute Inlet, even though the Chilicotin Nation had ended any hope for his wagon road (planned to run from that location into the Cariboo gold fields) in 1864. Waddington tried for years to promote a Bute Inlet route for the national railway which was to link Canada from coast to coast. But, this was not to be:
"In 1866 he (Waddington) was negotiating with the British Government, through friends in England, (for) support in creating an "all British" overland route. His scheme was for the construction of a "traction line" or tramway over the Bute Inlet route, steamers plying 325 kilometres up the Fraser River and a wagon road then through the Yellowhead pass to the prairies...The following year Waddington left for London to further promote his scheme and never returned to British Columbia... Some reports state that Waddinton's date of death was February 26th 1872. Personally, I have a preference for the February 27th date... but then, that is probably because February 27th is also my birthday.
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Copyright 1991 by John Morton. All rights reserved.
Yes, it is a nice photograph...and not just because it was shot on Ilford Pan F black and white film (through a polarizing filter that I just happened to be using in the place of a missing lens cap). Some of what happened through the years which have followed is presented on this web site. These were the only two "clouds" in the sky that day; and, although I've been taking, developing, and printing black and white photographs since 1974, this is the only time that I've ever taken pictures of "clouds" using black and white film. When I later developed the film and printed this photograph, I remember thinking: "Yes, this is what I thought I saw!" (although 'experienced' would be a more accurate term to use here than "saw"). And when I tell people that they shouldn't just take anything that they feel like using from my research (and this does not apply to members of the First Nations of North America), I mean that...for reasons that most people would not WANT to understand. Trust me in this; or, don't. It doesn't matter much to ME what YOU choose to do: I am not responsible for the actions of Others ...or, any consequences resulting from those actions. That is not anything I am expected to look after and/or take care of.
(I was on a mountain slope at the time this photograph was taken; and this particular version of the image was scanned onto a photo CD (you can see some 'scan' lines running through it; but I don't know why that happened). This image has been digitally edited, but just for contrast and brightness, to make the image clearer. The parabolic shape in the sky's shading is an effect of the polarizing filter, which selectively darkens the blue of the sky while leaving clouds white. This is an actual photograph of a real occurrance; and as I have said, it does not matter to me if you believe me or not; I took this photograph at the time when I saw this simply to convince myself).
Or, maybe you would like to understand...SO; If you have understood what I have been saying here, and the way that I have said it, then you have already realized that I am not concerned with being paid for the use of my work by any person who is, through their own freedom of choice, working directly with members of the First Nations of North America...without being paid to do so (i.e. I am not talking about government employees here). Wouldn't it be worth your while to be able to say that you were part of such a great undertaking, which was achieved solely through peaceful co-operation? Because, even if this were to only happen once in the entire history of humanity, it would still always be an event, a block of temporal flux, through which all of the future shifted in its realization of all of the past! That isn't something which happens very often; it isn't something that NEED ever happen at all (it needs to be done but, it won't happen on its own): yet, it can happen if people choose to make it happen. SO, come and join the rest of us upon the very edge of time itself: there is no place like it. Come in peace; for, peace is precisely that which we all wish to see continue, always.
(Well, just so you know - not that it matters if you are warned, since you should know better anyway - it is the considered opinion of the high level Taoist masters that those who act irresponsibly on matters and in situations such as this will tend to end up, after the brief flashes of physical existence that are their lives, with what spirit body - 'soul' - they have managed to consolidate while upon this material plane abandoned and begging for forgiveness in the empty vacuum of space...for about 64,000 years: "Look, here comes Earth! Ooopps; there it goes again for another year...Too bad!" [although I've also heard it's for 125,000 years, and not necessarily anywhere near any solar system but, who can say?]. Some like to justify actions they know to be unethical by saying, "life isn't fair"; but the point is that people can be fair, if they so choose. My advice to anyone who decides to involve themselves in these matters would be to act like a human here, and choose your actions wisely. If you are just looking to have some fun for yourself, impress your friends and some people you don't know, or to make some fast and easy money by exploiting this material, or if you are looking for new ways to manipulate and hurt people...do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. I have spoken.
The finding of this particular piece presented the successful conclusion of the first part of what has turned out to be a truely amazing 'vision quest'. It took me a bit under a year and a half to locate: and although some might think that finding such an object, which could have been anywhere on the Northwest Coast, would have been impossible; it was in fact 'compossible' since, after all, it could only have physically been in ONE place! And yes, I had shown LOTS of people the above photo of "clouds" before I actually managed to find the object shown in THIS photo. So, I can indeed find 'witnesses' to that effect (but, since the important thing was to prove what was happening here to myself, I would not bother those good people about this matter). As it turns out, this object is in fact an "event map" of the entire Northwest Coast...from many, many thousands of years ago. I have to this date managed to connect three glyphic positions on this event map with three physical locations on the Northwest Coast...through referencing glyphic composites found in those three locations with those shown on this event map. Now, THAT'S geophilosophy! But, it was not an easy thing to do (although it WAS a lot easier than actually teaching myself how to read non-metrical image writing - quickly). If you would like to have another look at the close-up photographs of this example of non-metrical image writing which were presented on this site's HOME PAGE then, by all means, be my guest.
"An Analysis of Non-Metrical Image Writing".
"An Intelligent Species of Reptile" .
There is one more image of a 'double mountain' that I would like to show you. Whether this is "the same" 'double mountain', I can not say; although, it is in about the right geographical area. Still, that was thousands of years ago and, although the 'double mountain' would still be there, much else would have changed. Here is a truly exceptional example of non-metrical image writing; and on it can be seen (among other interesting things) both the image of a "double mountain" (among many mountains portrayed upon this 'stone')...and the instructions used for navigating toward this 'double mountain', as presented in the form of a mapped territory. You can view the complete image of this stone by visiting: The Ivory T. Rex .
Now, I'm not going to mention how many thousands of stones I had to sort through to find these particular examples; I will, however, give you a close-up view of a "sighting glyph" (one of the 'instructional glyphs') from the pre-Columbian stone astrolabe I mentioned above...
This 'sighting glyph', the image area of which is shown greatly enlarged below, is located on the photograph above about 1/3rd of the way from the bottom, and 1/3rd of the way over from the left side.
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The Three Feather Chief stone, which was the first example of non-metrical image writing that I found; this stone is presented and analysed in the second section of the page titled "Interpreting Non-Metrical Image Writing", 
An Intelligent Species of Reptile, shown by firelight (hence, something that only a human could have created) and associated with a horse. This stone is presented on the page titled 
A mountain that either has a line of some sort (landslide, drainage, etc.) down it's side or, is always seen with a taller mountain behind and to the right of it; and which is associated with a cloud or (volcanic) smoke plume above it. Luckily, the example that I found of this image was on a stone that is also a functional astrolabe...with the latitudes where it was used clearly etched into it. And it still works too, since the only moving parts it has are itself and the earth (or, if your prefer, the sun). Of course, relative latitudes are shown on the map-stone cross referenced here; and I did indeed worked out how this system of mapping functioned...even before I realized that the stone astrolabe also carried instructions as to how maps were made...
