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Faculty of Graduate Studies

Conner White

  • B.A. Hons. (University of Victoria, 2024)
Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Arts

Topic

Publicans and Other Bloodsuckers: Enforcement of Indigenous Prohibition in Colonial British Columbia, 1849-1871

Department of History

Date & location

  • Thursday, August 27, 2026
  • 10:00 A.M.
  • Clearihue Building, Room B017

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. John Lutz, Department of History, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
  • Dr. Peter Cook, Department of History, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

  • Dr. Brian Thom, Department of Anthropology, UVic

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Sandra Gibbons, School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education, UVic

Abstract

For the entirety of their existence, the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia attempted to prevent entirely Indigenous peoples’ access to alcohol. Almost all historians who have worked in this period touch on the liquor issue, but none have set out to fully explain the means by which this control was enacted, and how people, both settlers and Indigenous, reacted to these endeavours. By exploring contemporary letters, newspapers, and journals, this paper will demonstrate the limits of colonial control and emphasize how important the quest to gain that control was. Exhaustive debate played out at every level to figure out the best possible way to prevent a single drop of alcohol from entering Indigenous hands. At the same time, settlers profited greatly off of the illicit trade, as demand for booze remained high. The Indigenous world was, at least somewhat, culturally transformed by the adoption of alcohol. Demand for it remained high as liquor became integrated into cultural activities, took on a symbolic role as an icon of resistance, and as a coping mechanism for those who experienced terrible loss during the smallpox epidemics that ravaged the population. This issue remains relevant today, as British Columbia underwent another failed prohibition in 1916, and continues to experience the ramifications of prohibition in the form of toxic drug deaths, both within Indigenous communities and without.

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