Chilcotin War
| Chilcotin War | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Alfred Waddington sponsor of the road construction |
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| Belligerents | |||||
| White workers working for Alfred Waddington | Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
| 14-19 killed | 5 arrested and hanged 1 | ||||
| 15 arrested allegedly were tricked into meeting Colonial officials under the pretense of a truce | |||||
The Chilcotin War, Chilcotin Uprising or Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people in British Columbia and white road construction workers. Fourteen men employed by Alfred Waddington in the building of a road from Bute Inlet were killed, as well as a number of men with a pack-train near Anahim Lake and a settler at Puntzi Lake.
In 1862, Alfred Waddington began lobbying the press and his political allies for support to a wagon road from Bute Inlet to Fort Alexandria where it would connect to the Cariboo Road and continue on to the goldfields at Barkerville. He received approval for the construction early in 1863. According to Waddington, it would reduce land travel from 359 miles to 185 miles and the total days consumed in packing freight from 37 days to 22 compared to the Yale-Fraser Canyon route known as the Cariboo Road favoured by Governor Douglas. The Bute Inlet Wagon Road was to follow the Homathko River valley from the mouth of Bute Inlet and then swing northeast across the Chilcotin Plateau to join the Bentinck Arm Trail at Puntzi Lake and the mouth of the Quesnel River. It was also one of the routes considered and advocated by Waddington for the transcontinental railway eventually constructed to what became Vancouver instead.
Construction had been underway for two years when, on April 29, 1864 a ferryman, Timothy Smith, stationed 30 miles up the river was killed after refusing a demand from Klattasine, Tellot and other natives for food. Smith was shot and his body thrown into the river. The food stores and supplies were looted. A half ton of provisions were taken. The following day the natives attacked the workers camp at daylight. Three men, Peterson Dane, Edwin Moseley and a man named Buckley, though injured, escaped and fled down the river. The remaining crew were killed and their bodies thrown into the river.
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