From “the hot-bed of vice” to the “good and well-ordered Christian home”: First Nations Housing and Reform in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia

This article analyzes the relationship between First Nations housing and reform in British Columbia between 1849 and 1886. Utilizing published and archival evidence drawn from church and government sources, the essay examines reformers' conceptions of First Nations housing and their concrete efforts to improve it. The essay thereby suggests that housing was an important site in the colonial encounter and that the colonial encounter itself was key to honing and disseminating new ideals related to housing, gender, and the family.