Editing Haida people (section)

=== 19th century ===
In 1850, [[gold]] was discovered on southern [[Haida Gwaii]]. The Haida had been instructed to look for the mineral by the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. A Haida man, possibly Albert Edenshaw, was shown where to find gold by an elderly woman in [[Skidegate]], which he subsequently brought to officers at [[Fort Simpson (Columbia Department)|Fort Simpson]]. This discovery instigated a brief [[Queen Charlottes Gold Rush|gold rush]] in 1851, drawing American prospectors to the area. The Haida themselves took an active role in the mining of gold, seeing it as a new material for trade.{{sfn|Galois|2018|pp=23–23}} In response to the gold rush, British colonial authorities formally annexed Haida Gwaii in 1853, establishing the [[Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands]]. It was later integrated into the [[Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866)|Colony of British Columbia]] in 1858. Colonial authorities backed their claims using [[gunboat diplomacy]], both in Haida Gwaii and more broadly throughout northeastern Pacific coastal Indigenous title territories.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Also in 1857, the {{USS|Massachusetts|1845|6}} was sent from Seattle to nearby Port Gamble, where indigenous raiding parties made up of Haida (from territory claimed by the British) and Tongass (from territory claimed by the Russians) had been attacking and enslaving the [[Coast Salish people]] there. When the Haida and Tongass (sea lion tribe [[Tlingit]]) warriors refused to acknowledge American jurisdiction and to hand over those among them who had attacked the [[Puget Sound]] communities, a battle ensued in which 26 natives and one government soldier were killed. In the aftermath of this, [[Colonel Isaac Ebey]], a U.S. military officer and the first settler on [[Whidbey Island]], was shot and beheaded on August 11, 1857, by a small Tlingit group from [[Kake, Alaska]], in retaliation for the killing of a respected Kake chief in the raid the year before. Ebey's scalp was purchased from the Kake by an American trader in 1860.<ref>[http://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/newspapers/SL_dir_steilacoompugesounhera/pdf/SL_dir_steilacoompugesounhera_11191858.pdf#page=2 Puget Sound Herald Nov 19, 1858]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://juneauempire.com/stories/022908/nei_252437545.shtml |title=''Juneau Empire'', February 29, 2008 |access-date=August 25, 2014 |archive-date=August 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826113352/http://juneauempire.com/stories/022908/nei_252437545.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://members.aol.com/Gibson0817/ebey.htm Beth Gibson, ''Beheaded Pioneer'', Laura Arksey, Columbia, Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Spring, 1988.]</ref><ref>Bancroft says they were Stikines and makes no mention of the Haida. [[iarchive:washidahomont00bancrich|''History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845–1889'', p.137]] [[Hubert Howe Bancroft]] (1890) This enormous source, photocopied, including p. 137, is more easily accessible online at [https://archive.org/stream/washidahomont00bancrich#page/2/mode/2up], if desired. Retrieved February 21, 2012.</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=December 2024}}

==== Smallpox epidemic of 1862 ====
{{Main|1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic}}
The [[1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic]] began on March 26 when a steamship called ''Brother Jonathan'' arrived in [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] from [[San Francisco]] containing a passenger infected with [[smallpox]].<ref>{{cite news |date=1862-03-26 |title=Quarantine |url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist18620326uvic |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=[[Times Colonist|Daily British Colonist]] |page=2 |language=en |publication-place=Victoria, BC |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> At the time thousands of Indigenous people lived in villages outside the walls of Fort Victoria. The disease broke out amongst [[Tsimshian]] people in their community near Fort Victoria. This quickly spread into a pandemic. European public health standards at the time were well practiced and adhered-to official health standards, including vaccinations and victims isolation. Instead, as the disease spread, Victoria Police burned some one dozen homes, deliberately displacing 200 Haida on May 13. They went on to burn some 40–50 more indigenous villages the following day.<ref>{{cite news |date=1862-05-14 |title=The Small Pox |url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist18620514uvic |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=[[Times Colonist|British Colonist]] |location=Victoria, BC |page=3 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

First Nations from further north had been camping periodically outside the city limits of Victoria to take advantage of trade, and at the time of the epidemic numbered almost 2000, many of whom were Haida. The colonial government made no effort to [[Smallpox vaccine|vaccinate]] the First Nations in the region nor to [[quarantine]] anyone infected. In June, the encampments were forcibly cleared by police, and 20 canoes of Haidas, many of whom were likely already infected with smallpox, were forced back to Haida Gwaii, escorted by gunboats HMS ''Grappler'' and ''Forward''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lange |first=Greg |date=2003-02-04 |title=Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/5171 |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=[[HistoryLink]]}}</ref> Those infected did not make it home, according to the plans of the colonial governments, and passed on at [[Bones Bay]] near Alert Bay.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weir |first=Candace |date=March 2009 |title=For those of us at Bones Bay |url=https://www.haidanation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/jl_mar.09.pdf |journal=Haida Laas |publisher=[[Council of the Haida Nation]] |pages=23–27 |access-date=2024-12-16}}</ref>

Later on a group of copper miners travelled from [[Bella Coola, British Columbia|Bella Coola]] aboard the ''Leonede'' under command of Captain McAlmond.<ref>{{cite news |date=October 20, 1862 |title=Indian Troubles |url=https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist18621020uvic |access-date=2024-12-15 |work=[[Times Colonist|British Colonist]] |location=Victoria, BC |pages=3 |language=en |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> The boat took 12 passengers in December. One of these passengers carried smallpox to Haida Gwaii. This might not have been a disaster should the infected miner have stayed in isolation at the mining site on {{langr|hai|Sḵʼin G̱aadll}}, or Skincuttle Island. Instead the disease was spread throughout Haida Gwaii.

The disease quickly spread throughout Haida Gwaii, devastating entire villages and families, and creating an influx of refugees. The pre-epidemic population of Haida Gwaii was estimated to be 6,607, but was reduced to 829 in 1881.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ostroff |first=Joshua |date=2017-08-01 |title=How a smallpox epidemic forged modern British Columbia |url=https://macleans.ca/news/canada/how-a-smallpox-epidemic-forged-modern-british-columbia/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=[[Maclean's]]}}</ref> The only two remaining villages were [[Masset]]t and [[Skidegate]]. The population collapse caused by the epidemic weakened Haida sovereignty and power, ultimately paving the way for colonization.

==== Arrival of missionaries ====
From the mid-19th century onwards, both [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] and [[Methodism|Methodist]] missions were established on Haida Gwaii, endeavouring to convert the Haida people. The first known missionary to spend time with the Haida was Jonathan Green, a missionary for the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]]. Green spent a few weeks on Haida Gwaii in the summer of 1829, though his later suggestions for the establishment of a mission on the coast were ignored.{{sfn|Tomalin|2011|pp=42–43}}

In 1854 and 1868, two different Anglican missionaries tried garner support for the establishment of a mission on Haida Gwaii, to no avail.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Henderson |first=John R. |year=1974 |title=Missionary Influences on the Haida Settlement and Subsistence Patterns, 1876–1920 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/481146 |journal=[[Ethnohistory (journal)|Ethnohistory]] |volume=21 |issue=4 |page=304 |doi=10.2307/481146 |jstor=481146 |access-date=2024-12-16}}</ref> In the 1860s, several Northern Haida visited the newly founded [[Tsimshian]] community of [[Metlakatla, British Columbia|Metlakatla]], by Anglican missionary [[William Duncan (missionary)|William Duncan]], prompting them to request a missionary of their own.{{sfn|Blackman|1977|p=46}} It wouldn't be until November 1876, Anglican missionary William Collison, acting on behalf of the [[Church Mission Society]], established the first permanent mission on Haida Gwaii, located in Masset.{{sfn|Tomalin|2011|p=44}} In response to the Anglican mission established in Masset, the Haida in Skidegate petitioned for their own mission. Consequently, a Methodist mission was established there in 1883.{{sfn|Tomalin|2011|p=49}}

==== Potlatch ban ====
{{Main|Potlatch ban}}
The [[potlatch]] ({{Langx|hai|gyáa isáaw}}) began to decline with the arrival of the missionaries, who believed it to be antithetical to their mission of converting the Haida to Christianity.{{sfn|Blackman|1977|p=47}} Missionaries like Collison sought to replace the with Christian ceremonies, such as the singing of hymns.{{sfn|Davidson|Davidson|2018|p=26}} Others, like Methodist Charles Harrison, dissuaded potlatching through public chastisement.{{Sfn|Blackman|1977|p=47}} By the 1880s, potlatches were often conducted in secrecy, primarily as a result of pressure exerted by missionaries.{{Sfn|Blackman|1977|p=48}}

In 1884, the potlatch was outlawed throughout the coast, under an amendment to the [[Indian Act]], known as the [[potlatch ban]].{{sfn|Davidson|Davidson|2018|p=27}} The elimination of the potlatch system destroyed financial relationships and seriously interrupted the cultural heritage of coastal people. As the islands were christianized, many cultural works such as totem posts were destroyed or taken to museums around the world. This significantly undermined Haida's self-knowledge and further diminished morale.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}