Colonial Despatches

In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie and his group of explorers visited the Bella Coola valley, historically occupied by the Nuxalk peoples.1 From the mid-1800s onwards, Bella Coola was a central area for trade; the Nuxalk peoples participated in the fur trade, not only selling fur of the animals they caught but also trading with other First Nations groups for furs that they could later sell to the Europeans.2 Contact with Europeans brought smallpox, among other diseases, and it is estimated that roughly three quarters of the Nuxalk population was wiped out.3 In 1867, The Hudson's Bay Company established a post in the Bella Coola Valley.4

• 1. Bella Coola Valley Museum; B.C. Central Coast ArchivesAlexander Mackenzie, Historic Theme Pages.
• 2. Bella Coola Valley Museum; B.C. Central Coast ArchivesAlexander Mackenzie, Historic Theme Pages.; Bella Coola Valley Museum; B.C. Central Coast ArchivesHudson's Bay Company (1867-1882), Historic Theme Pages.
• 3. Bella Coola Valley Museum; B.C. Central Coast ArchivesNuxalk Peoples, Historic Theme Pages.; Paula Wild, One River, Two Cultures: A Hiostory of the Bella Coola Valley (Canada: Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd., 2004), 72.
• 4. Bella Coola Valley Museum; B.C. Central Coast ArchivesA Brief History, History.