Cattle were introduced to Haida Gwaii at the turn of the last century. In 1878 Masset’s Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) representative Alexander McKenzie, after his retirement, decided that Masset was the place for ranching. A herd of cattle were shipped to him around 1890. He persuaded two other HBC employees, Hall and Clifford, to form a partnership and set up a cattle ranch on the North Beach end of McKenzie’s land. As not all company men were ranchers, it wasn’t a great success, but Hall persuaded Lindsay Alexander, another company man, to resign from the HBC and buy into the cattle venture with a promise that they would all be in it together. Alexander was taken in by the idea but Hall, instead of helping him as promised, got promoted by HBC and left Alexander to deal with the ranch on his own.

It wasn’t all bad. Alexander’s step-son, Wiggs O’Neil, wrote of their adventures and Kathleen Dalzell, in her wonderful history of the islands, told Wiggs’ story: “The Alexander’s were at last free to move out to the ranch (after retirement) ‘which we named See-Watt,’ wrote Wiggs. ‘We all loved the life and everything was going nicely. There were no predators on the islands, plenty of good grazing land and a mild climate, so we didn’t need much in the way of barns. The cattle grew sleek and fat and multiplied, and there seemed to be no obstacles.’ But a vital factor had been overlooked in all the big plans – markets for beef were non-existent in those days.”

The Alexanders were a large family, and without an income from the cattle the whole enterprise had to be scrapped. Alexander arranged for his family and twenty-one steers to be shipped aboard the “Nell” to the mainland, where he planned to sell the meat. Sadly, Alexander ran out of money and couldn’t keep paying the $70 a day to keep the cattle on board, so the load of steers was dumped overboard in a bay near Elizabeth Island and forced to swim ashore. A callous act. Most of the cattle drowned, and the Alexanders never did make any money from them. The rest of the herd, about four hundred, were abandoned and left to roam Haida Gwaii without care or attention.

Enter Mexican Tom, real name William Hodges. Armed and dangerous, he had threatened more than one with his gun over a poker game. He arrived in Port Simpson in 1901 after being run out of Hazelton, and found work with Wiggs O’Neill who had moved there. Then, hearing of the cattle roaming free on Haida Gwaii, Hodges decided, as he was a cattleman at heart, to come over and round them up and fence them in. He did find them, mostly at Rose Point where they had wandered, but the fences wouldn’t hold them.

Meanwhile, back in Masset, Charles Harrison, local magistrate, had bought some of Alexander’s cattle. The long arm of the law reached for him when he didn’t pay his taxes. A Mr. McIntosh from New Westminster bought Harrison’s land and cattle in a tax sale for $150, and he came to round up Harrison’s, now his, cattle. He gathered a few of Hodges’ as well, so Harrison corralled him into getting rid of Mr. McIntosh by issuing a writ against McIntosh for cattle rustling. Hodges quietly told McIntosh that in Texas they settled matters relating to cattle out of court, and also suggested that he might be healthier if he returned to New Westminster. He did, but kept up a legal fight for many years.

Hodges remained on island. He found ideal land at Tll.aal Tlell and became a rancher, but then sold the land and bought into K’il Kun Sandspit before returning a few years later to the better land at Tlell. He built cabins all along East Beach and had cattle all over the place.

It was the wild west. The Haida people on Haida Gwaii lived a civilized, mainly peaceful life, but the land grabbers, gunslingers, moneymen and greedy parlayed and double-dealt. They played one off against the other, sold and resold the cattle, gave them away, set them free, and used and abused them for their own ends.

The cattle at the north end of Graham Island were introduced by settlers back in the late 1800’s. They are not an indigenous species. Their freedom to roam comes at a dangerous cost in today’s world. They are afraid for their lives all the time and will flee in terror on approach. They are shot at, chased by dogs and killed by passing traffic. It will take courage to acknowledge ownership or lack thereof. Courage to tackle municipal, regional and provincial governments to deal with their failure to act. Courage to drive the highway knowing that there is a herd of very large animals behaving erratically which could appear in front of you in a flash and kill both you and them.

Loose Cows – A Dangerous Combination

Submitted by Susan Musgrave

On Friday August 6th, 2021 at 9 am, I set off to drive to the airport with my neighbour, her daughter, and her daughter’s four-month old baby. About six kilometres from Masset, my Lexus Rx350, which I bought last year, was struck by a 1200-lb cow that ran out in front of me on Department of National Defense property. Not one of us in the car saw the cow, and it sounded as if I had hit a cement wall, after which everything went white. I thought, “This is it, death.” But luckily for us, it was just the many airbags being deployed!

I have driven on these islands since 1972. I have never hit a deer. I have never been in an accident. The road was clear, the sun was shining. I was driving the speed limit. My peripheral vision is perfect. So it is hard for me to make any sense out of what happened.

We spent four hours in the emergency room at the hospital. My friend (who is almost 80) has some residual pain and swelling where the seat belt lay, but nobody else was hurt. A week before this happened, at the same time of day, I saw the herd run across the road being chased by a small white dog. I don’t know if the herd on the occasion of my crash was being chased, but apparently the first one out of the bushes (which are only 6.5 feet from the side of the road) hit my car and destroyed it.

Numerous people have come forward with similar stories. In the past year there have been four wrecks as a result of this herd. Yesterday a Haida man on a bicycle was set upon by bulls and rescued by a passing car. Doctors, midwives, paramedics and ambulance drivers who are often called out at night are particularly vulnerable, as are visitors to the islands who may be unaware of the potential danger.