Motive for the Chilcotin war?

Question

What was the motive for the Tsilhqot’in to kill the people in the chilcotin war? Also, does anyone know how to access the interpretations page?

Answer 1

There is no certain and unique cause for the confrontation.  

Alfred Waddington, the man who was building the road in which construction site the incidents took place, believed at the time that the natives were concerned about the presence of the white man introducing smallpox and other diseases in their population and wanted them out at any cost.

Frederick Whymper, a chronic of the events, believed that the natives attacked because of an unrest generated by lack of food and the introduction of firearms to some of the tribes.  This is also somewhat reflected in the version that accounts that the reason why the natives revolted concerned an unrest caused by the difference in treatment dispensed to the natives who were working as part of the construction crew  -- allegedly, they were being given far less food than other workers, being "starved" essentially.

In the trial in which the Aboriginal Chiefs were sentenced to death by hanging, the official conclusion was that the natives were fighting over title to land through which the road was to pass.