The events which sparked the Chilcotin War began in the spring of 1864. Some Tsilhqot'in people, smallpox survivors, were still ill and starving when they came to Waddington's camps to work in exchange for muskets and food. They were treated badly, thrown only scraps of food or given none at all.

A Tŝilhqot'in Chief named Klatsassin led 24 warriors in a surprise attack at dawn, killing 12 of the road crew who lay asleep in their tents. Two other attacks against the road builders took place, as well. The violence enraged colonists throughout British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

Variously referred to in the accounts of the time as a series of massacres, as an insurrection, and as a war, the Chilcotin Uprising was the type of reaction to the inroads of Europeans which certain modern historians would prefer to label as a "resistance." "Uprising" is adequately descrip- tive without reflecting any ...