Episode 3 of 5
Eviction of Indigenous Communities
- When
- May–June 1862
- Where
- Victoria, British Columbia
Infected First Nations were evicted from Victoria and forced to return to their homelands, spreading the disease along the coast.
Starting in May 1862, thousands of infected Indigenous people were evicted from Victoria. The Daily British Colonist reported Haida evictions in May. This policy, despite awareness of the risks, forced communities back to areas with less prior exposure and no vaccines, facilitating widespread transmission from Nanaimo to the Stikine River.
Sources
- 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-15
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.