Cowichan’s ‘Hanging Tree’ (Part 1)

With Truth and Reconciliation has come a new awareness of and sensitivity to our colonial history.

Everything about British Columbia’s formative years, once taken as gospel, is now under review.

Not all of it has been objective; some of it is revisionist to the point of insult. Does any sensible person really believe that it was B.C. colonial policy to arbitrarily impose its authority with fire and sword?

Ironically, there have been occasions, well recorded, when the Royal Navy did administer “justice” with cannon fire, destroying entire villages and inflicting death and injuries while serving as police.

Was this rule by terror? Or, as British colonial authorities believed, was it the only practical way to impose law and order throughout the future province when Indigenous peoples, most of them armed and militant, outnumbered settlers by the 10’s of 1000’s?

Chronicles readers will have the opportunity to judge for themselves over the next several weeks as they read the amazing story of ‘Cowichan’s Hanging Tree.’ 

 *  *  *  *  *
PHOTO: A grotesque memento of the American Wild West’s violent history of law and order, the ‘hanging tree’ of the appropriately named Vulture City, Arizona. —Wikipedia