Underrepresented Encounters in Mining Towns: Chinese and Indigenous Relations in the Cariboo Region During the 1850s to 1920s

This research paper is a historical exploration and analysis of the complex relationship between Chinese and Indigenous people in the Cariboo region during the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. Using a historical archival thematic analysis with decolonial theory, this paper examines three mediums of archival resources: the historical newspaper, The Cariboo Sentinel, C.D. Hoy's photographs and the Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs by the Government of Canada. It identifies the friendships, business exchanges and tensions that Chinese and Indigenous people encountered in the historic Cariboo region. Of particular interest to this research is how settler colonialism, whiteness and racism affected the lived experiences and societal attitudes of Chinese-Indigenous relations within the region. These archives provide a glimpse of and exposure to how racialized settler-Indigenous relationships were, both the positive and negative aspects of Chinese and Indigenous encounters.