Halliday was "a teacher in an Indian residential school for seven years, and for upwards of twenty-six years Indian Agent in and for the Kwawkewlth Indian Agency..."

Kwawkewlth Indians (also spelled Kwagiutl or Kwakiutl) occupied the northern corner of Vancouver Island from Johnstone Strait to Cape Cook, and nearly all the coast of the mainland from Douglas channel to Bute Inlet.