Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

Site
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Fort Plain (continued)

Kanaka Village

The area now known as Kanaka Village was a Company employee residential area, located west of "river road," and for the most part, south of Upper Mill Road. It was referred to as a town or village by several visitors in the 1830s and '40s, and the name, "Kanaka Town," in reference to it was used at least as early as the 1870s, and probably by the late 1840s. [659] Kanaka was one of the terms commonly used to refer to Company employees from Hawaii, who lived in the village along with employees of other ethnic groups. Within the past two decades, the site has been the focus of a number of archaeological studies, and consequent historic research, which have added appreciably to its understanding, particularly regarding later occupation by the U.S. Army quartermaster's depot, and have raised additional questions for which, at present, there are no answers. [660] For the purposes of this report, the discussion of Kanaka Village excludes the river front complex, the area south of the extension of Lower Mill Road and west of the "river road." The river front complex did include some employee dwellings, which will be considered in the section focusing on that area.

Much of the village was located on relatively flat terrain, descending gradually about twenty feet from Upper Mill Road to the river. Most of it was located south of Upper Mill Road and west of the "river road," about eight hundred feet west of the stockade. To the west, a curving arm of dense undergrowth and forest, which defined the west edge of Fort Plain, enclosed it. Most of its structures were situated north of the extension of Lower Mill Road, although a cluster of scattered dwellings were located near the river west of the salmon store, and another cluster was located within the river front complex. It appears that for the most part it fell within the naturally-occurring open space of Fort Plain, although as late as 1855 some moderately-sized trees were standing, at least near its north edge. Some larger trees--and probably some undergrowth--from the west forest extended into the site early in its development, but existing illustrations and maps of the area, beginning in 1844, indicate natural vegetation was spotty and low-growing by the mid-1840s.

The history of the development of the village is sketchy in specifics. There is no reason to believe the village wasn't established at least as early as the stockade's move to Fort Plain, or possibly even before. By 1827, ninety-nine servants were stationed at Fort Vancouver--although the number and uses of buildings within the original stockade are not known, it seems unlikely all employees were lodged within its gates. However, John Warren Dease, who arrived at the post in September of 1829, noted in his journal that he "Got my tent pitched there being no house room: all the gentlemen being in lodges or tents." [661] Perhaps the gentlemen of the Company preferred not to lodge in village houses with the servants that fall, or perhaps the village did not, at that point, exist.

The village is first mentioned in the historic literature by John Ball, who visited the post in 1832, and noted in his journal that "For the servants and Frenchmen there were little houses outside the fort..." [662] By September of 1834, according to John Kirk Townsend, there were "...thirty or forty log huts, which are occupied by the Canadians, and others attached to the establishment" [663] In 1839 Thomas Farnham said the village contained fifty-three log houses, and Charles Wilkes, in the spring of 1841 reported "about fifty comfortable log houses," although Lieutenant Emmons, with Wilkes, said there were only thirty buildings. [664] A count of the buildings, shown in a very small scale on the 1845 Vavasour map, totals about forty buildings that are probably dwellings, including those north of Upper Mill Road and in the river front complex; it contrasts dramatically with the buildings shown on the 1846 Covington stockade area map, which identifies only twenty eight dwellings, including those west of the church and near the river. An army captain at the post in 1849 said the village contained forty or fifty houses. [665]

The village was apparently organized, to some extent, along lanes. In 1834 Townsend said the "...huts are placed in rows, with broad lanes or streets between them, and the whole looks like a very neat and beautiful village." [666] Charles Wilkes also observed that the houses were "...placed in regular order on each side of the road." [667] Company millwright William Crate later stated that in 1843, "In the lower town was a street for Canadians, one for Kanakas, and one for English and Americans. Most of the English and Americans were spotted around, above and behind the fort." [668]

The small scale of the buildings and the difference in the site's orientation in the 1844 Peers map and the 1845 Vavasour map, makes comparisons difficult, but the general spatial organization of the buildings appear similar in both illustrations. Both illustrate a line of structures along the west edge of the "river road," beginning near its intersection with Upper Mill Road, and continuing to the extension of Lower Mill Road, south of the stockade: Vavasour's map shows more structures along the road. The Peers map shows Lower Mill Road extending west towards the forest edge, into the heart of the village site. There appear to be two roads or paths which begin at the road and run north, parallel to each other and to the "river road," terminating in an east-west path or road which is located north of and parallel to the extension of Lower Mill Road. These paths or roads form a roughly shaped square, within which are located structures; a ring of structures is also depicted on the outer edges of the square on the west and north, which would have defined the outer edges of the west and north paths. There is a second east-west line of structures, north of and parallel to the north line of structures on the square, although no road is depicted between the two lines. A scattering of buildings in a curving north-south line are located west of the square. The area south of the Lower Mill Road extension is not detailed in this map, except for a rough outline which may indicate buildings or roads near the river; it may be that because the area was not affected by the fire, it was not deemed necessary to illustrate it in any detail, however, the map appears to be most careful in delineating all the structures on other parts of the farm, including the sawmill area and the buildings on Lower and Mill Plains. The Vavasour map shows similar clusters of structures in approximately the same locations, although the orientation of the entire village is shifted off the north-south axis shown in the Peers map. It also indicates there were at least two east-west paths between the clustered houses, and one north-south path at the west edge of the village. Vavasour's map also shows some structures in the southwest area of the village site, which are not shown on the Peers map.

Figure 9. View of Kanaka Village, looking east towards Hudson's Bay Company stockade, 1851, by George Gibbs, showing enclosures. Original from "Drawings by George Gibbs in the Far Northwest, 1849-1851," Smithsonian Institution.

It seems, then, that the village may, in 1844-45, have been organized around a cluster of structures which ran on roughly east-west lines in the heart of the site, ringed by paths, with the extension of Lower Mill Road providing the principal access to the site from the "river road. " Functionally, the use of Lower Mill Road as the principal access road makes sense: it was the most direct route from the main gates of the stockade to the village. Beyond this cluster, it appears there may have been an outer-ring of buildings, which roughly echoed the shape of the village heart. The Vavasour map shows several structures running in an east-west line towards the north edge of the cluster from "river road," in an approximate line of a point just south of the stockade's northwest bastion. This may have been--or become--another path or access road into the site: what appears to have been this road, lined with structures and enclosures, can be seen in an 1851 Gibbs sketch looking from the village towards the stockade.

By 1846, the clear organization shown on the Vavasour and Peers maps appears to have disintegrated. The 1846 Covington stockade area map shows far fewer structures, and the organization appears to be random. It is consistent with the other maps in that it shows the three structures west of the Catholic church, above Upper Mill Road, and a line of dwellings along "river road," although far fewer than shown on Vavasour's map. To the west of the "river road," there is little evidence of any closely spaced buildings laid out in any kind of orthagonal pattern, as shown in 1844 and 1845. Despite archaeological studies of the area, and the identification of the later quartermaster's house and four village structures, the change in the underlying pattern between the two earlier maps and the later maps has yet to be fully understood. Later maps--those from 1854, for example--seem to be more consistent with the Covington map, at least in terms of fewer structures, but by then, a number of village structures had been demolished or fallen into ruin, as the employee work force had dropped significantly. It seems likely Covington prepared his maps for the Company in conjunction with the 1846-47 inventory of buildings, and the inventory was used by the Company for evidence in its claims to the British and American Joint Commission. As has been noted earlier, not all buildings known to have existed in 1846-47 were listed on the inventory, and very few village dwellings were included in the list. Perhaps it was not deemed essential that Covington depict all village buildings for the inventory; several historic sources testify to the hovel-like nature of some of the buildings in the village, and it may have been determined that the Company would only press claims for those considered substantial enough for remuneration. As noted earlier, Captain Theodore Talbot estimated the village contained between forty and fifty dwellings. As late as 1851, Brevet Brigadier General E.A. Hitchcock said that there was "quite a village of ordinary frontier huts, disposed in streets..." [669]

The 1846 Covington stockade area map attaches names to some of the buildings, some of which are mentioned in the 1846-47 inventory of buildings. It has been observed from the names that, as William Crate described, servants tended to live near others with the same ethnic background: French-Canadian names appear along the "river road," Hawaiian dwellings appear next to each other ("Kanaka's" and "Billy's") and the nearby building labeled "L," belonging to Joe Tayenta, an Iroquois boute; and English or American names appear in a row to the south (two Johnsons and a Calder). [670] Discovery of a list of buildings rented to the U.S. Army by the Company for the years between 1849 and 1860 has added a few more names to the Covington map, which was clearly later used as a key for identifying the rented structures. Because the Company attached names to some of these structures, it appears that those referred to must have occupied the buildings just prior to the army rentals--that is to say, in the middle to late 1840s. The Building labeled "H" on the map was the Laframbois house, probably occupied by Francois Laframboise and his Indian wife Marguerite. Around the time the army arrived, he laid claim to a portion of Lower Plain, where he established a farm and raised timothy hay. [671] The structure labeled "L" had been occupied by a Joe Tayenta, an Iroquois bowsman employed by the Company. [672] The building labeled "O" had been occupied by a Joe Onowanoran, or possibly Anowanoran. Building "C," rented and lived in by quartermaster Rufus Ingalls in 1849, had been the house of Captain James Johnson, who was employed on Company trading vessels, and retired to Baker's Bay in the late 1840s.

Figure 10. Four versions of the Kanaka Village site from different historic period maps, analyzed and drawn by Terri Taylor, National Park Service, Pacific Northwest Region. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

The information regarding outbuildings and other structures within the village is limited. In later testimony Archibald McKinlay said the village included stables and outbuildings. [673] It is clear from the 1851 George Gibbs sketch that there were small sheds and outbuildings within the village, as well as dwellings. Enclosures as shown on the 1846 Covington stockade area map around some village dwellings, and enclosures consisting of what appear to be post and rail or pole fences can be seen on the Gibbs sketch. Using these two sources as a reference, it appears that those structures which were enclosed were sometimes located near the center of the enclosure, and sometimes at the edge. It is apparent from the Gibbs sketch, which shows livestock grazing freely in the unenclosed areas, that the enclosures were designed to keep livestock out, with one exception. This was a corral, referred to in later testimony, as the Company's corral, the location of which was not specified, but which appears to be an enclosure shown in the 1846 Covington stockade area map, west of the "river road," and south of Upper Mill Road. A Company employee said that the army later used this corral, and it can be seen in an 1851 sketch by George Gibbs. [674] One of Gibbs' sketches of the village area clearly shows a hitching rail near an unidentified crossroads.

An 1860 Boundary Commission photograph looking west towards the quartermaster's house, after most of the village was demolished by the army, shows two buildings, each enclosed within a relatively high stockade, south and slightly east of the quartermaster's house. There is no record of the army having erected structures in that location at that time, and it appears these two enclosed buildings may have been Company structures suffered to stand.

According to later testimony by Archibald McKinlay, some village houses were "...built of logs, boards, squared slabs from the mill, some of them neatly finished and ceiled." Some village houses, noted as finished and "ceiled," were listed in the 1846-47 inventory. [675] William Crate said, "Some of the houses were built Canadian fashion of two or four inch planks; some were built American cottage fashion, framed and weather-boarded; some were of squared timber, and some very few of logs and some few of sawed slabs. The houses were generally one-story high, and some of them 1 1/2; plastered with clay." M.T. Simmons, who saw the village in the mid 1840s, said there were "A good many huts made of slabs rebated in the french style; some had two some had three rooms." [676]