The first cat in Kwakwaka'wakw By Malcolm McColl

Beau Dick is an artist who works out of cultural inspiration drawn from a lifetime in the Pacific North West where Beau's family roots span the millenniums. Beau recounts a couple of intriguing stories passed down by the generations in relation to first contact with Europeans on the coast of the Pacific North West. One story describes the fate of the first domesticated feline to land in the Pacific Coast in transit with the Spanish, and another story tells how the chiefs reacted to the rum-drinking custom of the British Navy.

The Spanish sailed up the outside coast of the Pacific North West islands and archipelagos as early as the mid-1500s, but the domestic cat made its first appearance in a Kwakwaka’wakw village in the Pacific North West in the mid-1700s when the Spanish landed within the Kwakwaka'wakw nation to begin conducting the business of mercantile trade.

This nation of Houses, Clans, and villages occupied the coast of present day B.C., including hundreds of islands in the Broughton Archipelago as well as the top half of Vancouver Island on both sides. When the Spanish sailed into one of the well-populated villages they were joined immediately by hundreds of canoes including one carrying the chief who greeted the ship’s captain with a cordial welcome to the Kwakwaka'wakw nation.

At this first meeting the chief saw a cat capering on-board the Spanish ship. The Kwakwaka'wakw chief was enthralled by the creature and the animal was brought before the chief for his closer inspection. After playing with the cat for a spell the chief believed he had received possession of it.

Beau says the Spanish captain was enormously devoted to his pet, and the captain of the Spanish ship refused to relinquish it. A couple of intrigues late in the night put the Kwakwaka'wakw chief in full possession of the cat.

The captain of the Spanish ship was infuriated and soon unleashed a cannonade on the shore at the Kwaguilth community, blowing apart several war-canoes parked on the beach in front of the big houses. Canoes were never in short supply in a Kwakwaka'wakw community and a few minutes later a flotilla of war canoes coursed out toward the Spanish ship.

The Kwakwaka'wakw surrounded the Spanish ship and returned a few of the cannon balls and the warriors began to demand the Spanish perform this feat once again. (They were not, however, returning the cat.)

The Spanish ship sailed away leaving the chief in possession of the curious animal and the chief announced that a special event would be held in his big house. Soon a gathering of chiefs and important clan members and associates had been assembled and the stage was set to unveil the cat.

The chief reached in a large cedar basket and grabbed the terrified cat and flung it some distance against a wooden post where it stuck. Everybody “oh'd and ah'd” while the cat made a couple of frantic loops around the post and took off never to be seen again, dinner for a hungry eagle or raven.

The Spanish spent a number of years exploring and mapping the explorations in the Kwakwaka'wakw nation. The Spanish left a legacy of sketches (people and villages), ship’s log entries, and a few Spanish place-names.

At about this time the Spanish were superseded by the British who brought something other than a cat. Beau says the British Navy began stopping around the territory occasionally gunning the Spaniards out of the region and often stopping at big houses of the chiefs.

The British had a custom of ending each occasion with the protocol of a shot of rum. At first the chiefs were kind of 'taken' by the custom but not all were happy with it and some were offended by the British insistence at imposing the bitter tasting liquid on these special occasions.

Indeed a large argument ensued among the chiefs about whether to allow the British to stay. The argument that prevailed was this, "Ah, let them stay. What harm can it do?" Beau Dick believes there is no doubt that an element of conspiracy lay behind the rum strategy.

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