b. 1829
d. 1900
Joseph William McKay was born in
Rupert’s Land on
January 31st 1829 to a Métis family.
1 McKay was educated at the
Red River Academy and joined the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) when he was 15 years old, spending
the rest of his life west of
the Rocky Mountains.
2In
1848,
Roderick Finlayson appointed McKay as postmaster of
Fort Victoria.
3 McKay was promoted to apprentice clerk a year later, breaching the unwritten HBC
policy that prevented mixed-blood males from rising above the postmaster position.
4McKay went on to work as
James Douglas’s clerk, known by his superior as an
active, faithful, and trusty servant.
5 During
Douglas’s creation of the Fort Victoria Treaties, McKay assisted with translation.
6 As an avid explorer, McKay provided
Douglas with valuable maps, information, charts, and reports.
7 In
this document McKay accompanies
Douglas on a raid to capture an Indigenous prisoner.
In
1849, The
Nanaimo Chief Kietsakum mentioned a region filled with black stone.
8 McKay told the Chief that if he brought back some of the stone for sampling he would
be gifted a bottle of rum and his gun would be fixed for free.
9 McKay went on to claim the Nanaimo coal for the HBC, leading the development of mines
in
1852.
10McKay continued to work in various roles for the HBC in the
1870s, and became a Federal Government civil servant in the
1880s.
13 He worked for the government as an Indian Agent and as the assistant superintendent
of Indian Affairs in
British Columbia.
14Joseph William Mckay died on December 20th, 1900.15
- 1. George & Terry Goulet, Joseph William McKay- Métis Founder of Nanaimo, in The Métis in British Columbia: From Fur Trade Outposts to Colony (FabJob Inc.: Calgary, 2008), 131.
- 2. Ibid. 131-132.
- 3. Ibid. 133.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid. 134.
- 6. Ibid.
- 7. Ibid.
- 8. Ibid.
- 9. Ibid.
- 10. Ibid. 134-135.
- 11. Ibid. 140-141.
- 12. Ibid. 140-143.
- 13. Ibid. 144.
- 14. Ibid.
- 15. Ibid.