The History of Smallpox Quarantine on Poplar Island, British Columbia
by Janice Nienaber
Poplar Island, located off the shore of New Westminster in BC, holds a rich history. Poplar Island remains uninhabited and undeveloped. Spanning 27 acres, it is the last large island in the North Arm of the Fraser River that does not have a dike. Covered with Poplar trees, it stands as a sharp contrast to the industrial city that surrounds it.
History
Before colonists arrived in 1858, Poplar Island belonged to the village of Qayqayt (pronounced Kee-Kite). Qayqayt was a Coast Salish Indian village on the New Westminster side of the Fraser River. When the Royal Engineers arrived in 1859, headed by Col. Richard Moody, they found the community flourishing. Col. Moody, who in 1858 had been declared by the British government to be a governor of British Columbia, was assigned to select a location for the capital city. Col. Moody’s Royal Engineers, in turn, were charged with planning roads and assessing the resource potential of the areas. In the January of 1859, Col. Moody came across the Qayqayt territory and decided it would be the ideal location due to it being able to serve as both a capital city and a maritime port. The site was named Queensborough (later to become New Westminster), and city planning began.
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In 1879, after British Columbia joined confederation, the federal government moved the Qayqayt people to Poplar Island. They remained locked in the reserve system until the smallpox epidemic of 1889, which reduced band numbers from 400 to less than 100. The remaining members of the Qayqayt band were removed from the island and placed in other local reserves, expected to assimilate and disappear. It was not until 1994 that the last remaining descendent of the Qayqayt was discovered.
Smallpox is an acute infectious disease that is spread by touching an object or a person that is infected, or by being sneezed on by an infected person. The duration of a smallpox infection lasts about a month from the initial infection period, at which time the victim will die or recover. Individuals do not show any symptoms during the first two weeks of infection, and that period is followed by a rapid onset of fever, muscle pain, and lesions. First Nations populations in North America, carrying no immunity to the disease, suffered higher infection rates and higher mortality rates than European settlers in Canada. It is little wonder, then, that the Qayqayt First Nations group were considerably reduced in size during the smallpox epidemic of 1889.
Smallpox is an acute infectious disease that is spread by touching an object or a person that is infected, or by being sneezed on by an infected person. The duration of a smallpox infection lasts about a month from the initial infection period, at which time the victim will die or recover. Individuals do not show any symptoms during the first two weeks of infection, and that period is followed by a rapid onset of fever, muscle pain, and lesions. First Nations populations in North America, carrying no immunity to the disease, suffered higher infection rates and higher mortality rates than European settlers in Canada. It is little wonder, then, that the Qayqayt First Nations group were considerably reduced in size during the smallpox epidemic of 1889.
Quarantine History
In July of 1889, the Mayor of New Westminster, John Hendry, allocated Poplar Island as a quarantine site for indigenous victims of smallpox. Though European residents also suffered from smallpox, they were not quarantined to the island. The small island was chosen as a quarantine site for indigenous people because it was not yet connected to the mainland, which was seen as the ideal way to prevent the spread of smallpox. A small hospital was built on Poplar Island, and indigenous victims of smallpox from around Vancouver were sent there. Though the major of New Westminster at the time, Major John Hendry, insisted that the hospital built was a “good” one, no more than $100 was spent on funding the construction of the hospital and its health care providers. At this time, $100 was approximately equivalent to a month’s salary for a city electrician. New Westminster’s own official hospital, built twenty years prior, was given over $3000 in funding. No records mention the survival rate of indigenous victims on the island, but the fact that Poplar Island is home to the burial of smallpox victims suggests that the survival rate was extremely low.
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Shipbuilding to Present:
Eventually, when all that remained on the island was a cemetery, the island was ignored because of its association with smallpox and death. It wasn’t until 1917 that the island was used again because it was designated as a WWI shipbuilding place. Within a year, the island was cleared of its poplar trees and four warships (pictured here) were built and launched from the eastern end of the island. Some remnants of this dock can still be seen.
Poplar Island was sold to Rayonier Canada Forestry in 1940 for $20,000. This company used the island to anchor booms of logs on their way to be processed. For 50 years, the island was relatively unused and its trees grew back. During the 1990’s, discussions about native land claims regarding Poplar Island convinced the company to sell it back to the government of British Columbia, who designated it as a protected nature reserve. Currently, the island remains unoccupied. The Qayqayt First Nation, whose surviving legacy consists of one remaining woman, is pushing to reclaim Poplar Island as Qayqayt territory.
Poplar Island was sold to Rayonier Canada Forestry in 1940 for $20,000. This company used the island to anchor booms of logs on their way to be processed. For 50 years, the island was relatively unused and its trees grew back. During the 1990’s, discussions about native land claims regarding Poplar Island convinced the company to sell it back to the government of British Columbia, who designated it as a protected nature reserve. Currently, the island remains unoccupied. The Qayqayt First Nation, whose surviving legacy consists of one remaining woman, is pushing to reclaim Poplar Island as Qayqayt territory.
Wider Implications
Today, Poplar Island’s history as a quarantine site is not publically commemorated nor remembered.
Several publications, recent and old, do not mention Poplar Island’s sad history. As a result, residents of the area are quite unaware of the forced relocation and subsequent death of hundreds of First Nations people off the coast of New Westminster. |
Poplar Island remains a sorrowful reminder of a time when racially-segregated health care was federally encouraged. During the late 1800s, European residents of New Westminster, as well as visitors to the city, were given free smallpox vaccinations. Furthermore, Europeans were allowed to attend New Westminster’s well-funded Royal Columbian Hospital when they fell ill. If European residents in New Westminster needed to be quarantined, they were not sent to Poplar Island. Rather, the city paid for someone to guard the house from visitors and fumigate the house with sulphur. In contrast, indigenous people, who were very susceptible to European diseases, had little chance of survival partly because they were not offered equal health care opportunities. If an Indigenous person living in the vicinity of New Westminster was found to suffer from a contagion, their home was promptly burnt to the ground and they were transported to Poplar Island, where they faced isolation, substandard healthcare, and death. This fact of life, which happened not so long ago, reminds us of the need for publically-accessible healthcare to people of all ethnicities.
Further Readings Divided By Category:
Col. Richard Moody of the Royal Engineers:
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
2000. < http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=39837> Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
History of New Westminster:
Chambers, L.B.
1979 The Court House of New Westminster. D.W. Friesen & Sons, Ltd. Cloverdale, B.C.
Hainsworth, Gavin and Katherin Freund-Hainsworth
2005 A New Westminster Album: Glimpses Of The City As It Was. Dundurn Press, Toronto.
Wolf, Jim.
2005 Royal City: A Photographic History of New Westminster 1858-1960. Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd. Surrey, BC.
Woodland, Alan.
1973 New Westminster: The Early Years 1858-1898. Nunaga Publishing Company, New Westminster, B.C.
Poplar Island:
Glavin, Terry
2006 How Poplar Island Fell Off the Map. Straight.com: Vancouver’s Online Source. <http://www.straight.com/news/how-poplar-island-fell-map> Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
Wilkinson, Ken
2010 Poplar Island: A History as Thick and Colorful as the Trees. Tenthtothefraser. <http://www.tenthtothefraser.ca/2010/10/24/poplar-island-a-history-as-thick-and-colorful-as-the-trees/> Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
Qayqayt Nation:
Lau, Alfie
2009 Uncovering Her Roots. The New Westminster Record <http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=312de30a-2778-4a3b-a044-f1d2dc0e829b&sponsor= > Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
Selwyn, Jacob, Eunhee Cha and Donald White.
2003. A Tribe of One. National Film Board of Canada. Montreal, Quebec.
Quarantine Islands:
Cameron, Ian Arthur
2005 Quarantine, What is Old is New: Halifax and the Lawlor’s Island Quarantine Station 1866-1938. New World Publishing, Halifax Nova Scotia.
Lucaccini, Luigi.
1996 The Public Health Service on Angel Island. Public Health Reports 111(1): 92-94.
Roger Parton
1997 Islands of Greater Vancouver (Deadman’s Island) in The Greater Vancouver Book: An Urban Encyclopaedia. Edited by Chuck Davis, pp. 169. Linkman Press, Surrey B.C.
Smallpox:
Willrich, Michael.
2011 Pox: An American History. The Penguin Press, New York.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
2000. < http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=39837> Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
History of New Westminster:
Chambers, L.B.
1979 The Court House of New Westminster. D.W. Friesen & Sons, Ltd. Cloverdale, B.C.
Hainsworth, Gavin and Katherin Freund-Hainsworth
2005 A New Westminster Album: Glimpses Of The City As It Was. Dundurn Press, Toronto.
Wolf, Jim.
2005 Royal City: A Photographic History of New Westminster 1858-1960. Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd. Surrey, BC.
Woodland, Alan.
1973 New Westminster: The Early Years 1858-1898. Nunaga Publishing Company, New Westminster, B.C.
Poplar Island:
Glavin, Terry
2006 How Poplar Island Fell Off the Map. Straight.com: Vancouver’s Online Source. <http://www.straight.com/news/how-poplar-island-fell-map> Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
Wilkinson, Ken
2010 Poplar Island: A History as Thick and Colorful as the Trees. Tenthtothefraser. <http://www.tenthtothefraser.ca/2010/10/24/poplar-island-a-history-as-thick-and-colorful-as-the-trees/> Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
Qayqayt Nation:
Lau, Alfie
2009 Uncovering Her Roots. The New Westminster Record <http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=312de30a-2778-4a3b-a044-f1d2dc0e829b&sponsor= > Retrieved 9 Feb 2013.
Selwyn, Jacob, Eunhee Cha and Donald White.
2003. A Tribe of One. National Film Board of Canada. Montreal, Quebec.
Quarantine Islands:
Cameron, Ian Arthur
2005 Quarantine, What is Old is New: Halifax and the Lawlor’s Island Quarantine Station 1866-1938. New World Publishing, Halifax Nova Scotia.
Lucaccini, Luigi.
1996 The Public Health Service on Angel Island. Public Health Reports 111(1): 92-94.
Roger Parton
1997 Islands of Greater Vancouver (Deadman’s Island) in The Greater Vancouver Book: An Urban Encyclopaedia. Edited by Chuck Davis, pp. 169. Linkman Press, Surrey B.C.
Smallpox:
Willrich, Michael.
2011 Pox: An American History. The Penguin Press, New York.