“This Would Certainly Happen Unless We Killed Every White Man”: The Tsilhqot’in’s War of Survival

Abstract

In 1864, several Tsilhqot’in (also spelled as “Chilcotin” or “Chilcoaten”) killed workers building a road across their territory in modern-day British Columbia. Six of the Tsilhqot’in, including their war chief, Lhatŝ’aŝʔin (also spelled as “Klatsassin”), were subsequently executed by the British colonial government. Since the Tsilhqot’in were initially assisting the road crew, this paper addresses the question of what caused the so-called “Chilcotin War” to begin