Giant Trees, Iron Men: Coast Salish Loggers and Masculinity

• In Event: Negotiations and Renegotiations of Space and Resource Use in Pacific Northwest Aboriginal History

Abstract

The forest has always been an important provider for Coast Salish people, and that did not change with the inception of the commercial logging industry in the nineteenth century.
Coast Salish loggers ensured their place in British Columbia’s burgeoning forest industry by working hard, earning big, and staying alive. The woods was a dangerous place to work; the trees these men fell were not the skinny sticks you see on the trucks populating modern highways. They were big, heavy, unpredictable and unforgiving. Trees crashing to the forest floor meant cash in the bank and food on the table. But financial gain was not the only motivator that kept these men working in the woods. Something much bigger than a paycheque was being negotiated.
This paper explores how employment in commercial logging became an important element in the formation of Aboriginal masculine identities in the Twentieth century. By felling the giant trees of the Pacific Northwest, Coast Salish men could transcend the socio-racial stigmas applied to Aboriginal people in the twentieth century. My research, gleamed largely through Ethnohistorical methods, reveals that while working in the woods, Aboriginal men experienced little racism, and were often sought after by firms throughout the Pacific Northwest. Through the strength of their backs and the sweat of their brows, Aboriginal men could stand on equal - and often higher - footings than their non-Aboriginal colleagues.
Writing history gathered from ethnohistorical research contributes to the priority of building reconciliation between Canada’s indigenous and settler populations by constructing a fuller understanding of not only the colonial processes that oppressed, but also the avenues where indigenous people carved out opportunities for themselves. It accomplishes this by constructing a broader understanding of how working for wages shaped Aboriginal identities in the tangled web and turbulent wake of colonialism.

Author

• Colin Murray Osmond, University of Saskatchewan