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Joseph William McKay : a Métis business leader in colonial British Columbia / Greg N. Fraser.

by Fraser, Greg N.

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Heritage House Publishing, 2021.

McKay, Joseph William, 1829-1900.

Hudson's Bay Company -- Biography.

Fur traders -- British Columbia -- Biography.

Métis -- British Columbia -- Biography.

British Columbia -- Biography.

9781772033403 (pbk.)

256 p. : maps, portr. ; 23 cm.

"Best known as the founder of Nanaimo, Joseph William McKay (1829-1900) was one of the most successful Métis men to rise through the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company in the late nineteenth century. McKay began his career in Oregon during the international boundary dispute of 1845-46. After moving north, he worked with Governor James Douglas, who would become his mentor, and at age twenty-three, he earned the job of building Nanaimo from the ground up. McKay made several exploratory trips with Douglas during the gold rush. He surveyed the route for the Overland Telegraph, which ran throughout BC. He held several prominent position in HBC, eventually becoming Chief Factor, the company's highest rank. This was at a time when few Indigenous employees of HBC were permitted to rise beyond the rank of postmaster. A product of his time, who found personal success working within the colonial system, McKay is a complicated figure when viewed through a twenty-first-century lens. He advocated on behalf of Indigenous Poples when he tried to prevent the trespass of CPR crews and European settlers on ancestral land. Between 1886 and 1888, he administered the smallpox vaccine to more than a thousand Indigenous people. Yet, he also participated in a system that did untold harm to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people. This fascinating new biography, sheds light on an accomplished and complex man." --Back cover.

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