In 1849 the Queen of England granted all of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company with the requirement that it be opened to settlers from England. However, before any settlers could buy parcels of this land it was necessary for the authorities of the new Crown colony of Vancouver Island to purchase the right to occupy it from the First Peoples in the area. It was the responsibility of James Douglas, as the Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Victoria and, after 1851, the Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, to negotiate with the leaders of the First Nations on the Island the terms of this purchase. In his negotiations, Douglas concentrated on areas that were most likely to be settled first. In early 1850 he entered into nine agreements with Salish First Nations in Victoria, Metchosin, and Sooke. The next year, he signed two agreements at Fort Rupert with members of Kwakwaka'wakw groups. Douglas ended by signing three more treaties with Salish groups, on the Saanich peninsula in 1852 and near Nanaimo in 1854. After these treaties were signed a dispute arose between Douglas and the colonial administration on the one hand and the Imperial government on the other over who should pay the costs associated with them. The dispute dragged on until Douglas retired in 1864; his replacements at the head of government were not as interested in recognising the rights of the First Nations and so there was not as much pressure to enter into agreements. Until some First Nations in the far northeastern part of British Columbia were added to Treaty 8 between 1900 and 1910, these fourteen treaties were the only ones signed with the First Nations of British Columbia. In 1999 the Federal and Provincial Governments and the Nisga'a Tribal Council signed an Agreement-In-Principle marking the first modern negotiated treaty in British Columbia. Source: Wilson Duff, "The Fort Victoria Treaties" BC Studies 3 (Fall 1969), pp. 3-57.
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