Indians at Work: An Informal History of Native Labour in British Columbia, 1858-1930

Indians at Work provides an historical background to native labour in BC from the Gold Rush to the beginning of the Great Depression. It counters the common misconception that native people responded to European settlement and industrial development by retreating to a reserve existence. Evidence amassed from logging, transport, construction, longshoring, commercial fishing and canning, and a host of other industries shows that native Indians played a significant role in British Columbia’s economy from the moment the first European explorers appeared off the coast.

Rolf Knight was born in 1936, and grew up in Vancouver and in the resource workers' camps of the British Columbia coast, where he worked until the late 1950s.

After earning a BA and MA from the University of British Columbia, he travelled for some years before getting his PhD from Columbia University in New York in 1968. He taught in a number of American universities, including Columbia, and returned to Canada to teach at the University of Manitoba, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Toronto. For some years he also drove taxi in Vancouver.

Rolf Knight is the author of numerous important books about BC history, including A Very Ordinary Life (with Phyllis Knight) (1974), A Man of Our Times (with Maya Koizumi) (1976), Indians At Work (1978; 1996), and Homer Stevens: A Life In Fishing (1992). In 1992 he received the Canadian Historical Association's award for his contributions to regional history. He continues to live in Burnaby, BC, and to write books.