Fort Simpson (Columbia Department)
Fort Simpson was a
Economic fur trade
One of the primary reasons for the establishment of Fort Simpson, as well as
In 1829
Aemilius Simpson and Peter Skene Ogden spent the summer of 1831, trading at the new post and the
Prime location
In 1834, Fort Simpson was moved from the mouth of the Nass River to a more favourable location on the nearby Tsimpsean Peninsula. The village that grew around the fort later became known as Port Simpson. In 1986, the name was officially changed to
Fort Simpson rapidly became a profitable success, becoming the central trading point of a large region. In 1841, for example, Fort Simpson was visited by about 14,000 people, mostly indigenous. The Tsimshian people came to dominate the trade and collected furs from any other coastal people including the Tongass, Haida, and Kaigani, as well as the Dakelh (Carrier) people in the interior. The fort was soon surrounded by a village of the Tsimshian "homeguard" of at least 800 people. The homeguard controlled most of the indigenous trade and was the fort's main source of provisions, security, and labour. By the end of the 1830s Fort Simpson's fur trade profits exceeded those of any other HBC post along the Pacific coast. Unable to provide its own food, provisions were at first brought from Fort Vancouver and other posts, but in time native trade supplied most of the fort's needs.[1][6]
During the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic thousands of indigenous people were evicted from large semi-permanent camps near Victoria and forced to return to their homelands, spreading smallpox throughout the Pacific Northwest coast. Groups of Tsimshian thus brought smallpox from Victoria to the Fort Simpson area, whence it spread widely starting in June of 1862. While authorities at other Hudson's Bay Company forts, as well as at nearby Metlakatla, administered smallpox vaccine and tried to limit the epidemic, no preventative measures were taken at Fort Simpson. Smallpox deaths at the fort began in late May and peaked in late June. Through the summer Nisga'a, Haida, Tlingit, and other indigenous people arrived regularly at the fort to trade, contributing to the spread of smallpox throughout the Northern Coast, up the Skeena River and the Nass River into the British Columbia interior.[7][8]
By early July the native settlement outside the fort was deserted due to deaths and people fleeing the area. All Tsimshian peoples suffered high death rates from smallpox in 1862–63: About 67% among the
Hudson Bay anchor
By 1844, Fort Simpson was the most profitable of any fur district in the HBC's Columbia Department, excepting New Caledonia. Furs collected along the coast by the steamship Beaver also generated large fur returns. The 1844 returns of Fort Simpson and the Beaver exceeded that of New Caledonia. The success of the Beaver after 1843 resulted from the closure of two HBC posts on the coast north of Fort Langley, Durham (Taku), and Fort McLoughlin, on Milbanke Sound. Only Fort Simpson was kept as the company's anchor on the northwest coast.[6]
Images
See also
- Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories
- Kaigani (trading site)
References
- ^ ISBN 0-7748-0613-3. online at Google Books
- ^ For a biography of Aemilius Simpson see: William Barr and Larry Green, 'Lt. Aemilius Simpson’s Survey from York Factory to Fort Vancouver, 1826', The Journal of the Hakluyt Society, August 2014 [1] Archived 2015-01-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Koppel, Tom. Kanaka, the Untold Story of Hawaiian Pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Vancouver, B.C.: Whitcap Books. 1995, p. 52.
- ^ "Port Simpson". BC Geographical Names.
- ^ "Simpson, Port". BC Geographical Names.
- ^ ISBN 0-7748-0613-3. online at Google Books
- ^ ISBN 978-0-295-97837-6. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ a b Lange, Greg. "Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians". HistoryLink. Retrieved 8 February 2021.