A Post from 2013: "Trutch" we never Trusted. How about Truce, Christy?
A BC Liberal Government Website likes to hang onto the old names database, by listing off their "Alias", like it was a crime, a fraud and to a large degree, they were. If Grandpa called the best fishing hole in British Columbia "Rum Cache", don't look for it on the map, the name is now Cicuta Lake, south-west of Vanderhoof, well before you reach the Nechako Reservoir.
92% of 100% Reserve land was put aside for the 1% like Trutch, by Trutch, for Trutch!
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Land policy under Colonial B.C. 1850 - 1871
The first Indian (First Nation Land) Reserves were created in this period. These reserves were located on southern Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, the Fraser Canyon, Kamloops, the Nicola Valley, the Okanagan, and the Shuswap Lake areas. Most of these were set up by Sir James Douglas in the early 1860's.
Douglas' reserve policy generally allowed Indians to select as much land as they wanted. In 1861 Douglas directed the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, who had responsibility for laying out these early reserves, to "take measures to .... for marking out distinctly, the Indian Reserves throughout the Colony". He added that "the extent that the Indian Reserves to be defined" was to be "as they may be pointed out by the native themselves".
This policy was dramatically reversed in 1864 - 1865 by Joseph Trutch. As head of the colonial Department of Lands and Works, Trutch initiated a policy of reduction of the Douglas' reserves, of reluctance to allot additional reserves, and of non-recognition of the Indian's aboriginal claim (native title).
An example of Trutch's policy of reduction can be seen along the Thompson River. The Indians of Kamloops, Neskainlith and Shuswap Lake originally held a reserve along the north bank of the South Thompson River from Kamloops to Shuswap Lake. This included Little Shuswap Lake and areas around Adams Lake. In 1866 these reserves were "adjusted" by Trutch by reducing them to approximately their present size.
This policy was extended to the Fraser Valley in 1867. It is difficult to get precise information on the location and size of the present reserves in the Fraser Valley are only remnants of the original reserves.
To learn more about these early "cut-offs" and other land grievances in the 1850 -1871 period, see the article, "Joseph Trutch and Indian Land Policy" in B.C. Studies (1971 - 72) by Robin Fisher.
Snip
CBC Lede: Sticker campaign targets Trutch Street signs
..... He (Trutch) also made sure Indian reserves were small, quickly overturning the generous and inclusive decisions of his colonial predecessor, Governor James Douglas."He reduced the reserves that Douglas had allowed for by 92% and changed the laws so that a Sto:lo family could only occupy about 10 acres of land," says Kluckner.
Trutch went on to be the first lieutenant-governor of B.C. in 1871, when the province decided to join Confederation.
"His policies and the policies of the government of the time were perfectly in keeping with serving the needs of the British government,” says documentary filmmaker Vince Hemingson. .......
