History of Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh longshoremen, 1863–1963
In the late 1870s, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh communities on the North Shore of Burrard Inlet experienced an increase of physical and economic encroachment from the expansion of neighbouring Vancouver.
In particular, union activity within the longshoring sector served as a way to advocate for Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh economic interests and livelihoods during a time in which significant social pressures were affecting First Nations in British Columbia.
[3] According to Squamish-Sto:lo[4]: 211 author and historian Lee Maracle, Burrard Inlet was inhabited by "Downriver Halkomelem" speaking peoples, the Tsleil-Waututh,[4]: 203 [2]: 22–23 and was shared with the Musqueam.
[1]: 8 By 1812, Halkomelem peoples had survived three large epidemics from foreign illnesses such as smallpox, introduced through trading routes, including a 1782 outbreak that killed two-thirds of the population.
[4]: 203 Traditionally, the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh economy was seasonally based around the harvesting of both terrestrial and aquatic resources, supporting a "kin-ordered" social dynamic that was "flexible and mobile," according to historian Andrew Parnaby.
According to UBC historical geographer Cole Harris, the shifting settlement patterns of local indigenous First Nations groups could arguably be understood as "moving within webs of social and economic relations that connected different individuals and people to each other and each other's places.
"[10]: 5 In the context of race dynamics on Vancouver's post-contact waterfront, the Aboriginal workforce was, while demarcated by white society as homogeneously "Indian," a complex, ethnically heterogeneous entity comprising distinct yet not clearly divisible cultural groups.
[4]: 211 [8]: 69 The confusion of identities was likely compounded by the fact that historically, following the first smallpox epidemic, many Tsleil-Waututh started speaking the Squamish language in place of Downriver Halkomelem, a practice that continues to this day.
For example, Parnaby's book Citizen Docker states that longshoreman Dan George "became chief of the Squamish band in the 1950s"[6]: 82 but does not mention that he was also a Tsleil-Waututh,[5]: 4 born on Burrard Indian Reserve #3 in 1899.
[8]: 22 Burrard Inlet was an ideal sawmill location, due to its close access to significant reserves of cedar and fir coupled with a deep, sheltered natural harbor.
[8]: 45 [17] Unlike other economies which were family-oriented and gender-mixed, such as fishing[8]: 21 and hop picking,[8]: 45 or predominantly female, such as salmon canning and small-scale agriculture,[6]: 79 [18][19][20][21][22] forestry work was exclusively performed by men.
However, due to the shortage of labour which lasted until the 1900s, Native workers were in the advantageous position of being able to work intermittently as best suited to their own independent economic interests.
[6]: 81 By the 1920s, steam-powered vessels had almost entirely replaced sailing ships, leading to increased mechanization; deck-mounted winches and derricks or cranes were used to move the lumber.
For example, in the words of famed Tsleil-Waututh[5]: 4 longshoreman, chief, Hollywood celebrity, and Native rights activist[13] Dan George:Some of the timber were ninety feet long—so big that when the ship finally got to England, they didn't know how to handle the cargo, and we had to send men over to unload.
[6]: 82 [25]: 113–114 Edward Nahanee, a longshoreman and resident of the Squamish Reserve at Mission (Ustlawn), stated: When I was running side I used to watch the load coming down the hatch.
[6]: 82 [26]The specialized ability to fit lumber into a ship was a role that many Aboriginals gained respect for, while also reinforcing a causal notion of race as a determinant of skill for certain tasks.
[6]: 84 According to historian Rolf Knight, the role of racialization in dock work was a factor in the prominence of Aboriginal men performing lumber longshoring: "loading lumber was one of the more strenuous kinds of longshoring, [so] that employers attempted to maintain competition between racially distinct crews and that a reluctance seems to have developed among employers to hire Indians to handle [non-lumber] cargo".
[6]: 82 [28] In response to these pressures, the use by Aboriginal workers of the Squamish language helped establish camaraderie, while also enabling them to subvert authority by being able to keep their conversations socially encrypted from the oversight of white employers and colleagues.
[6]: 85–86 [29] At the turn of the century, several Squamish men such as Dan Paull and Chief Joseph Capilano would go on to become foremen, allowing them to hire their friends and family for longshoring.
[8]: 32 The reputation of Aboriginal longshoremen came to be seen not only as a result of training and specialization but, in the words of Parnaby, was shaped by a perception that their abilities were "perhaps of biology; [that] they were naturally suited to that sort of work.
[8]: 30 [31]: 213 This scenario of racial polarization resulted in a divided environment for union activity, which may have hindered opposition to industry restructurings that would ultimately affect Aboriginal longshoremen.
In addition to the formation of Local 526, representatives from both communities gathered on Vancouver Island for the purpose of nominating a special three-chief delegation to travel to London, England to directly petition their land title grievances to King Edward VII.
[6]: 88 In 1928, Chief Capilano travelled to Ottawa with twenty-five other Aboriginal leaders to meet with then-Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier over First Nations concerns.
[6]: 89 [25]: 55 [12]: 44–45 [32] In maintaining its independence as an indigenous political organization, Local 38-57 could more effectively articulate and assert the needs of its workers in an increasingly globalized shipping environment.
As historian William Mckee has noted, the establishment of these two unions meant "the foundations of modern labour relations had been laid on the Vancouver waterfront.
[6]: 96–97 Dan George left longshoring in order to resort to hand logging on the Reserve so that he could make a living for his family; in his words, "Things were so confused on the waterfront.
[6]: 92–93 As a result of pressure from the predominantly non-Aboriginal and increasingly rival ILA,[6]: 93 the ILHA quickly became weakened and subject to new regulations that favored full-time decasualized labor organization.
During the six-month strike of 1935,[6]: 155 a 900-man walkout that saw the violent Battle of Ballantyne Pier,[6]: 153 increasing numbers of de-unionized Aboriginal men began returning to the docks as replacement workers.
[6]: 158 It was an organization in which strikes, demonstrations, and "affiliate[ion] with any radical movement" were outlawed; its membership requirements included the conditions that all members had to be "white" males and "residents of Vancouver" for at least one year.
[6]: 158 The rationale was to reward strike-breaking Aboriginal longshoremen, who comprised approximately forty to fifty-five of the eighty-six workers in the Association, with a guarantee of ten percent of the waterfront employment.
