NEWS RELEASE - Royal BC Museum

NEWS RELEASE
News Release - [target date April. 2002]
For Immediate Release
[April. 2002]
Chief Kwah’s famous dagger
STUART LAKE--Chief Kwah’s dagger played a part in an event that changed the history of our Province.
The oral histories of the Nak’azdli people of Stuart Lake tell us that a man named Kwah acquired the first
iron dagger in the area over 225 years ago, and before the first Europeans appeared off our coast.
Numerous articles have been written about an event where Kwah captured a young Hudson’s Bay Company
clerk who failed to observe local Nak’azdli social traditions. This clerk was moved south - resulting in his
becoming a strong and major player in the early events that led to the creation of our Province. The young
clerk was James Douglas.
In the early 1900s, a dagger, believed to be the original one passed down to Kwah’s grandson, Chief Louis
Billy Prince, was brought into the media spotlight, but then disappeared. What ever happened to it?
In 1998, a letter of enquiry arrived at the Royal BC Museum from an 89-year-old daughter of chief Louis Billy
Prince. She remembered seeing her father’s dagger in the old Museum and wanted to know if we had it.
“The Museum had daggers, but no record stating that any were Kwah’s dagger,” recalls Grant Keddie, RBCM
Curator of Archaeology.
Curious, the curator searched libraries, archives and anthropological collections for months, talked to the
Nak’azdli people and tracked down anyone with a connection to the dagger.
“With a little detective work and the help of many people, I pieced together the story,” says Keddie. He was
able “to single out a specimen from the Royal BC Museum collection and prove that it was the dagger once in
the possession of Chief Louis Billy Prince.”
This story is part of the larger question. Did First Nations of B.C have iron tools before the contact period
with Europeans?
“Archaeological evidence shows some First Nations hammered natural nuggets of copper into artifacts 1800
years ago,” adds Keddie. “However, no evidence has been found for the smelting of iron ore before the
coming of Europeans in the 18 th century.”
Yet in 1774, Spanish explorers in the Queen Charlottes were surprised to find an iron harpoon point, a
broken bayonet, and a piece of sword made into a knife.
Grant Keddie is examining First Nations oral traditions and other accounts of early iron distribution as part
of the museum’s Living Landscapes initiative, a province-wide research and public education program of the
Royal BC Museum that explores human and natural influences on regional environments. It offers British
Columbians opportunities to learn about their cultural and natural heritage through its website:
http://livinglandscapes.bc.ca.

Part I of Kwah’s Dagger can be seen on the Museum’s web site under Publications of Curators and Students.
Part II will appear in an upcoming article in the May edition of the Royal BC Museum’s Discovery newsletter.
Keddie will tell what he discovered about the more recent history of the dagger.
The Royal British Columbia Museum is a publicly owned cultural, educational and historic institution that was
founded in 1886. The museum is responsible for collecting, displaying and researching the human and natural
history of British Columbia.
This news release is online at: www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca\newsreleases\index.html
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Contact:
Chris Higgins
Royal BC Museum
250-387-2101
cahiggins@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca