To Share, Not Surrender: Indigenous and Settler Visions of Treaty Making in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia

Too often, history and knowledge of Indigenous-settler conflict over land take the form of confidential reports prepared for court challenges. To Share, Not Surrender offers an entirely new approach, opening scholarship to the public and augmenting it with First Nations community expertise. The authors take us back to when James Douglas and his family relocated to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1849, critically tracing the transition from treaty-making in the colony of Vancouver Island to reserve formation in the colony of British Columbia. Informed by the spirit of cel’a?’en – “our culture, the way of our people” – this multivocal work includes essays, translations/interpretations of the treaties into the SENCOTEN and Lekwungen languages, and contributions by participants of the Songhees, Huu-ay-aht, and WSANEC peoples. As an all-embracing exploration of the struggle over land, To Share, Not Surrender advances the urgent task of reconciliation in Canada.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments | Haichka Foreword / Chief Ron Sam Preface Introduction / Graham Brazier, Peter Cook, Hamar Foster, John Lutz, and Neil Vallance Part 1: First Nation and Colonial Understandings of Indigenous Land Rights 1 Note on the Early Life and Career of James Douglas / Graham Brazier 2 Indigenous Lands, Imperial Travels, and James Douglas / Adele Perry 3 More or Less Human: Colonialism, Law, and the Social Construction of Humanity on Vancouver Island, 1849–1864 / Laura Spitz 4 The Imperial Law of Aboriginal Title at the Time of the Douglas Treaties: What Was It? / Hamar Foster Part 2: Treaty Texts 5 The Earliest First Nation Accounts of the Formation of the Vancouver Island (or Douglas) Treaties of 1850–1854 / Neil Vallance 6 First Nation Language Texts of the Vancouver Island Treaties Introduction / Neil Vallance SENĆOŦEN Language Treaty Text / STOLCEL John Elliott Sr. Lekwungen Language Treaty Text / Elmer George 7 Huu-ay-aht t’ayii hawil (Head Chief) liishin’s Land Transaction with Government Agent William Banfield in 1859 / Kevin Neary Part 3: The Beginning and End of Treaty-Making on Vancouver Island 8 Land, First Nations and James Douglas and the Background to Treaty-Making on Vancouver Island / Graham Brazier 9 The Rutter’s Impasse and the End of Treaty Making on Vancouver Island / John Sutton Lutz Part 4: After the Treaties 10 “For Ever Removing the Fertile Cause of Agrarian Disturbance”: Governor James Douglas’ British Columbia Unsurveyed Land System / Sarah Pike 11 “The Last Potlatch”: James Douglas’ Vision of an Alternative Form of Settler Colonialism / Keith Thor Carlson Afterword / Robert Clifford, Maxine Matilpi, and Stephen Hume Appendix: Timeline / Hamar Foster and Neil Vallance Index