A Decade of Change: Origins of the Nishga And Tsimshian Land Protests in the 1880s

Abstract

The decade of the 1880s was one of ferment and change for the Nishga. Internal and external factors operated. The allotment of reserves, the coming of Indian administration, the changing role of the missionary, the conflict within the missionary community — all of these were felt and reacted to by the Nishga. Rivalries between Nishga and Tsimshian and among the Nishga contributed to the sharpened awareness of changes regarding the land. The threat to the land was keenly felt and became the public issue. It retained that position for the next one hundred years, with intermittent periods of greater or lesser intensity.