The Settlement of the Colville Valley
An engineer’s report argues that the Colville Valley is held back by the presence of Indigenous and mixed-race populations.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In his report on the Upper Columbia, Lieut. T. W. Symons of the engineer corps thus describes a region now inviting settlers: 'The Colville Valley, one of the pleasantest and finest valleys to be found anywhere in the Northwest, has been retarded in its settlement and advancement many years by the fact that it is occupied and the lands held in large entities by Indians and half-breed descendants of the old Hudson Bay traders. These people, owing to the way they have been treated and the insecure tenure on which they hold their lands, are shiftless and unprogressive, make no effort to improve and beautify, and are a stumbling block in the way of civilization. When the land is surveyed and can be taken up according to the laws of the country and titles be obtained, settlers will assuredly flock into the country and Colville Valley will take the high rank that it deserves to hold among the most productive, pleasant and beautiful regions of the earth.'
“These people, owing to the way they have been treated and the insecure tenure on which they hold their lands, are shiftless and unprogressive, make no effort to improve and beautify, and are a stumbling block in the way of civilization.”
This report captures the era's common rhetoric used to justify the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and their descendants under the guise of 'civilizing' the land. It illustrates how official government surveys were weaponized to prioritize settler agricultural development over established communities.
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