Census on the Skeena

Taken from Bulletin No. 5 of the Census of Canada, Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, February, 1891,
GEORGE JOHNSON, Statistician.

The Work of Enumerating

“Few persons, especially in the east, have any idea of the work involved in enumerating the people in British Columbia. Some extracts from the diary of the enumerator who had charge of the census in the region whence spring the Fraser, the Skeena, and the Peace Rivers will assist in giving an idea of the difficulties encountered.

Fred R. Greer (the census taker) says : —

” Left Victoria June 1st,1891 arrived at Naas River

June 6th. Started work

June 8th; great difficulty in getting Indians. Every Indian wants to know what this work is for, and some even want pay for using their names.
June 11th, traveled in skiff about 18 miles to fishing stations and got about 70 names. Very difficult traveling, on the river on account of strong tides and heavy winds.  Registered deaths and entered establishments, churches, etc. It is almost an impossibility to find out the number of canoes, shanties, &c., on account of the Indians being so suspicious.
13th. Rowed boat 15 miles to Indian village and entered 87 names.
15th. Pulled boat 15 miles and registered names at Mill’s Bay.
16. Started for up river and had to return on account of strong current. Very difficult traveling this season of the year on the rivers as the water is very high.
19th. Started for Skeena, heavy wind and rain all day.
20th. Arrived at Fort Simpson 6 p.m.
22nd. Procured supplies and started for Skeena. Also drew $100 in cash. Also bought one rifle and cartridges, which it was impossible to get along without in the interior, as it is the only possible means of procuring fresh meat.
24th. Reached Port Essington.
25th. Started to work among the canneries.
26th. Taking mostly Chinese.
27th. Took down all the industrial establishments and institutions and walked 5 miles over rough trail to Cunningham’s saw mill.
29th. Rain all day. We had considerable trouble with the Indians making them understand what we were doing. We talked Chinook to them.
July 1st. Finished the village and did considerable running around in boat; rain and wind all day.
2nd. Pulled boat to Balmoral cannery and did most of the work to be done there.
3rd. Pulled boat to fishing camps along the river. Great difficulty in getting the fishermen, as they are in all parts of the river, camped in every cove along the banks. We have to pull the boat from one side of the river to the other, and as the tides and winds are strong, it is very slow work.
6th. Heavy downpour of rain still continues. A large land-slide occurred at the North Pacific cannery this morning, sweeping everything before it. It struck one part of the Indian camp carrying away three or four houses, killing ten people and injuring several.
7th. The downpour of rain still continues. Took the registry of deaths from the Missionaries.
9th. Started up river and reached Aberdeen Cannery. We have to pay the Indians $100 to take us to the Forks of the Skeena.
10th. Started to work at 7 o’clock, and worked steadily all day till 9 to-night, registering upwards of 200, and traveled up the River by canoe about 25 miles. We have camped on an old camping ground, and the mosquitoes and blackflies are in clouds.
11th to 14th. Traveling, except on Sunday; the Indians declining to work on that day.
15th. Still on our trip. This has been the hardest day’s work as yet, as the further up the river we get the stronger is the current. We made three portages this day with our provisions and blankets, then hauling the canoe up the river with a line.
16th. Started out at 7 o’clock and only made about five miles. All hands of us working hard all day polling [sic] the canoe and lining it over hard water, we reached the Kit Silas Canyon about 4 o’clock. This is the worst piece of water on the Skeena River. We had to unload all our things and carry them over a hill about one mile. It is the finest piece of work any person ever laid eyes on to see the Indians taking the canoe over the canyon. Two men stay in the canoe, one in the bow and the other—the captain—in the stern, both stripped ready to jump for their lives in case an eddy should catch the canoe and smash it to pieces. The other Indians have two lines on shore to haul the canoe up.
26th. We reach Houlgate and crossed the river at the canyon on an Indian suspension bridge. The bridge is built of poles and withes — the length being about 120 feet and about fifty feet above the water. On crossing the bridge a person has to go very steady, as the structure sways and bends like a swing, only allowing one person to cross at a time. The canyon is lined with Indians catching salmon, their mode being with traps and long poles with hooks at the end. These Indians are the first wild looking tribe we have met yet, and are more suspicious than any we have yet visited.
28th. Reached a village of the How-qual-gate Indians, and were surrounded in a few minutes by men, women and children, as it is seldom they see any white men. They wanted to know our business at once. Our Indians explained to them, taking about an hour’s talk before satisfying them. The Chief’s eloquent voice was raised far above the din in controversy with our Indians. He said the priest told him that the Lord raised them out of the clay and gave them this land to live on; and he supposed our mission was to find out how many of them there were, and then the Government would do away with them to get their land. However, we explained through our Indians (Chinook not being understood by this tribe) that it was just for the opposite purpose that we were amongst them and instead of doing harm the Government would do them good and protect them. Finally we got to work and had no more trouble.
August 5th. Left Kitmoniax village at 7 a. m. and traveled up the trail five miles to a summer village called Oreylas, and got about fifty persons; thence to Kispiax. We have three Indians with us packing our grub, and we carry our blankets, census portfolio and rifle. We have got upwards of 200 miles to walk between here and Bear Lake.
7th. We have had a hard trail all day, being very hilly and rocky. The heat must have registered 100 degrees.
9th. Sunday; camped for the day, washed our clothes and got ready for another week’s travel. We also made an extra cover for the census portfolio, as our traveling is so rough it is almost impossible to keep it together.
10. We reached Kiskigas this afternoon. These are a very dirty tribe; a great many wear no clothing except a breach cloth. The river here is swarming with salmon, which these people catch, take the spawn from them and throw the fish back into the river. I had to pay the Indians here tobacco to tell me names of their children and friends who were absent hunting or picking berries.
12th. On our journey back to the “forks” — very hot weather. My eyes are scalded with the heat and perspiration, feet sore, clothes and shoes torn.
16th. At the Forks, Sunday, everything solemncholy until the afternoon when a canoe arrived from the coast with the body of an Indian woman who had died there last spring. Then the wailings and weepings of the old women could be heard for miles—singing and crying at the same time.
18th. The first snowfall on the mountain tops last night.
19th. Still on our way to Babine Lake. All our travel to-day has been through burnt country; nothing but rocks and mountains on all sides to be seen. The nights are very cold. We camp tonight on the summit of the mountain pass between the Forks and Babine Lake.
20th. Reached Babine Fort at noon and found that the Indians were fishing 15 miles off, set off and reached the place at 8 p.m.
21st. We took down, upwards of 100 names this forenoon, then traveled back to the Fort.
24th. We got started this morning about 7 o’clock, and traveled steadily all day. The trail has been mostly through swamp and mud knee deep, making it very hard work packing. The heat has been intense. We are camped to-night on the summit of Frying-pan Pass
25th. We got up this morning to find everything around us frozen up. There was an inch of ice in our water pail which was 10 feet away from the fire. As soon as the frost got off our tent we started reaching [sic] Tacla Lake at 5 p.m.
26th. Got across Tacla Lake in an old canoe and started in the trail to the Omenica Mines.
27th. We reached Thomas’ Creek to-day at noon.
28th. We commenced census taking at 7 a.m. and finished about 3 p.m.—got our packs together and started back for Tacla Lake. While on the creek we had to purchase a few provisions; paid $1.00 for 2 pounds of bacon; $1.00 for 2 pounds of sugar and 50 cents for 1 pound of salt; there being very few articles costing less than 50 cents, per pound.
30th. Sunday; a miners’ holiday, so we have washed and mended our clothes for another week’s wear.
31st. On summit of Frying-pan Pass on our return. We are out of provisions having nothing but rice, and what we can shoot along the trail.
September 2nd. I discharged the two Indians. They got making trouble for me wherever I went, and threatened to leave several times on the trail when they had us in a bad place, so we had to put up with whatever they wanted to do. They said it was Government work and we should give them tobacco and what they wanted, and not travel more than 10 miles a day with packs. I have been trying to get a canoe to-day to take us to the head of this (Babine’s) Lake—a distance of 120 miles, on our way to Stuart’s Lake.
12th. Reached the head of Babine Lake at noon; got the Hudson Bay Company’s waggon to take us over the portage to Stuart’s Lake a distance of 10 miles.
14th. We left the Portage this morning for Fort St James, on the Hudson Bay Company’s boat, and arrived about midnight, the distance being about 50 miles.
16th. I started in to-day at the Indian Village, which is about a mile from the Fort, and with the assistance of Father Morris, who keeps a register of every, soul in his division. I have got along better and with less trouble than in any place we have yet visited.
23rd. We make a start this morning for Fort Babine. We had only proceeded about 2 miles when we saw a black cloud, and a few minutes later we noticed a heavy swell on the lake. We turned our canoe and made for shore; the storm struck us before we got sheltered and came near swamping our canoe.
24th. The equinoxial gale continues with even greater force than yesterday. The lake is white with breakers and foam.
25th. We are still on the lake shore, the gale being as strong as ever.”

“On the 30th the enumerator, after having been six days either storm-stayed or paddling on the lake, says: ” We have traveled from 7 a.m. till dark to-night; we have had nothing to eat but bread and butter and what game we shot along the lake.”
On the 1st of October he reached Fort Babine.
On the 5th he arrived at the Forks of the Skeena, and next day prepared to go to the Indian villages on the Upper Naas River. This journey occupied the time till the 19th of October, and, so far as incidents are concerned, was a repetition of the previous experiences. On one day they had to live on grouse and rabbits, their provisions having been eaten. On another day, he tells with apparent relish, how, after tramping through the rain all day with nothing to eat, “except a cup of tea in the morning , ” they reached an Indian village where an Indian woman cooked for them a supper ” composed of salmon, potatoes, pilot bread, tea and sugar, which we devoured with a ravenous appetite.” After which they evidently had an enjoyable evening, for he says : ” In the centre of the ill-constructed building our cook built a large fire before which she spread a large cariboo skin on the floor for us to sit on while we dried ourselves. After supper we sat around the fire, and spent a very pleasant evening conversing with the occupants.
“On the 19th he tells with a minuteness of particularity betokening his joy that the work of enumerating is over, how, after occupying the morning finishing up — “at 10 minutes after 12 we were traveling down the river bound for the coast I have written down the last name to-day in the portfolio.”
After a detention of several days’ duration at Fort Simpson waiting for the steamer, during which he managed to sprain his ankle, he left on the 11th November, and on the 17th arrived at Vancouver, having been absent 164 days. His schedules show that he enumerated 2,420 persons.”

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Thanks to my cousin Ruth Warner for telling me about this great story and giving me the above information.