Drum Songs : Glimpses of Dene History [1 ed.] 0773509925, 9780773509924, 0773511504, 9780773511507

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mcgill-queen’s studies in ethnic history

Donald Harman Akenson, Editor

1

Irish Migrants in the Canadas A New Approach Bruce S. Elliott

2 Critical Years in Immigration Canada and Australia Compared Freda Hawkins (Second edition, 1991)

Columbia W. Peter Ward (Second edition, 1990) 9 The People of Glengarry Highlanders in Transition, 1745—1820 Marianne McLean 10 Vancouver’s Chinatown Racial Discourse in Canada,

i875~197 8° 3

Italians in Toronto Development of a National Identity, John E. Zucchi

4 Linguistics and Poetics of Latvian Folk Songs Essays in Honour of the Sesquicentennial of the Birth of Kr. Barons Vaira Vikis-Freibergs 5 Johan Schrpder’s Travels in Canada, 1863 Orm 0verland 6 Class, Ethnicity, and Social Inequality Christopher McAll 7

The Victorian Interpreta¬ tion of Racial Conflict The Maori, the British, and the New Zealand Wars James Belich

8 White Canada Forever Popular Attitudes and Public Policy toward Orientals in British

Kay J. Anderson 11

Best Left as Indians Native-White Relations in the Yukon Territory, 1840-1973 Ken Coates

12 Such Hardworking People Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto Franca Iacovetta 13 The Little Slaves of the Harp Italian Child Street Musicians in NineteenthCentury Paris, London, and New York John E. Zucchi 14 The Light of Nature and the Law of God Antislavery in Ontario, l833-l877 Allen P. Stouffer 15 Drum Songs Glimpses of Dene History Kerry Abel

Drum Songs Glimpses of Dene History KERRY ABEL

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TRENT UNiVttv, PETERBOROUGH, OH

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal Sc Kingston • London • Buffalo

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© McGill-Queen’s University Press 1993 isbn 0-7735-0992-5 Legal deposit third quarter 1993 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also been received from Multiculturalism Canada.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Abel, Kerry M. (Kerry Margaret) Drum songs: glimpses of Dene history (McGill-Queen’s studies in ethnic history) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-7735-0092-5 (bound) - isbn 0-7735-1150-4 (pbk.) 1. Tinne Indians - History. 2. Indians of North America — Canada — History. 3. Indians of North America - Arctic regions — History. I. Title. II. Series.

e99t56a23 1993

971'.00497

C93-090210-6

This book was typeset by Typo Litho composition inc. in 10/12 Baskerville.

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Contents

Tables and Maps vii Preface ix Introduction xiii Illustrations xxi 1 When the Earth Was New

3

2 Life in the Eighteenth Century 3 The Stone House People 4 The New Traders

43

65

5 War Songs, 1821 to 1848

88

6 Prophets, Priests, and Preachers 7 Trappers and Traders 8 In Witness Whereof

17

113

145 165

9 Canada and the Dene Nation: Economics 10 Canada and the Dene Nation: Society and Politics

231

11 Drum Songs

265

Notes 271 Bibliography Index 333

309

202

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/drumsongsglimpse0000abel_r4t0

Tables and Maps

TABLES

3.1 Northern Natives Visiting Churchill, 1719—35

59

8.1 Average Day School Attendance, Selected Day Schools, 1889—1935 183 8.2 Average Boarding School Attendance, 1887—1935 184 g.i 10.1

The Changing Shape of the Dene School Attendance, 19°1—54

nwt

nwt,

Economy

229

Selected Years,

233

10.2 Boarding School Attendance, in the Mackenzie Valley, Selected Years, 1918—54 233 10.3 Native Population, Selected Communities, 1 go 1-86 10.4 Populations in a Divided Northwest Territories MAPS

1 The Dene Homeland 2 The Eastern Fur Trade

16 66

3 Treaties and Registered Bands

166

238

263

Preface

While growing up in a number of resource towns in northern Can¬ ada, I developed a very distorted view of my world. Schoolteachers provided a sound survey of British history, but Canadian history ap¬ parently consisted solely of red tracings of explorers’ routes across a pink map. There seemed no evidence around me to contradict that conclusion. There were no elderly people to tell stories of days gone by, everyone lived in houses of the same style and age, and everyone had parents who had been born “outside.” Apparently, my land had been a vast and uninhabited frontier awaiting development by the mining and logging companies. Native peoples were mythical beings who had existed in magical times, and it never occurred to us that there might be real, living Natives on our own doorsteps. When it finally became clear to me that northern Canada did in¬ deed have a history as old and fascinating as that of any other part of North America, I began a search for reading material and was sadly disappointed. Most of what had been written dealt with the ex¬ pansion of Canadian industry into the resource “frontier,” compendiums of dry facts that did little to explain the human experience of northern life and seemed to bear no relation to my perspective on my surroundings. Aboriginal peoples were scarcely noted. Those events that had occurred before the arrival of Euro-Canadians were called “prehistory,” and after contact, only those events related to is¬ sues of interest to Canadian society as a whole were examined. It is only relatively recently that historians have attempted to include events of importance to minority groups in their assessments of the

x

Preface

past. Formerly, for instance, fur trade historians examined the eco¬ nomics of the trade for Canadian and British entrepreneurs or eval¬ uated the place of that trade in imperial expansion. The impact of the trade on the First Nations who participated was not considered important until the late 1960s, when pathbreaking studies like A.J. Ray’s Indians in the Fur Trade began to appear. Similarly, regional histories have only recently challenged the assumption that the west and the north formed a tabula rasa upon which central Canada etched its image. Northerners have not always accepted Ottawa’s policies with passive resignation. They have fought for recognition and fair treatment, and sometimes they succeeded in forcing the politicians and policy makers to re-evaluate their positions and ad¬ just their proposals. What was of importance for northerners was not always what Ottawa considered to be important for Canada as a whole, and the ongoing tension between region and nation has been as much a part of northern Canadian history as it has been for any other region of the country. This book, then, is an attempt to readjust the balance of historical writing. In order to understand northern history, Canadians must begin with an understanding of the people who have been there since ancient times. I make no claims to have written a history of the Dene according to the Dene definition of history. That task can be done only by the Dene themselves, and I hope that someone will at¬ tempt it soon. Rather, this is a history researched and written within the parameters of the European tradition so that it will speak clearly to Canadian society as a whole and broaden our understanding of an important region. In several ways this book is not “traditional” history. Traditional history may suffice for history as it traditionally has been defined, but with respect to the Dene, the standard questions and sources are not always appropriate. Instead, an attempt has been made to con¬ struct a more holistic view of Dene history so that the reader can ap¬ preciate the interaction of social, political, and economic forces within a particular time and space. I would hesitate to call the study “ethnohistory,” but I have followed the lead of ethnohistorians in consulting a broad range of source materials. Archival documents, oral testimony, archaeological findings, linguistic studies, and folk traditions together provide a rich resource base from which clues about the past may be extracted. Neither is this an anthropological study. The point of the research was not to prove or disprove particular theories of culture change, or to establish or challenge models of social structures and functions. The major anthropological debates about the Dene (kinship pat-

xi

Preface

terns, historic periodization, and rates of economic change) are noted only in passing. 1 hrough the process of research, I discovered that insufficient evidence has survived to allow me to address these debates in any new way. Neither oral tradition nor the records of early European visitors provide enough clues about ancient family systems or regional economies to permit meaningful comparisons with the immediate pre- or postcontact periods. These are interest¬ ing questions, but without evidence, discussions of them must re¬ main speculative and theoretical. The point of this study is not to develop new interpretive models. This book is intended instead to reconstruct some important mo¬ ments in Dene history in order to answer the question of how these northern people have been able to maintain a sense of cultural dis¬ tinctiveness in the face of overwhelming economic, political, and cul¬ tural pressures from the European newcomers to their homelands. Nineteenth-century settlers were convinced that the aboriginal pop¬ ulation of North America was doomed to extinction and that small band societies with hunting and gathering economies were particu¬ larly vulnerable. The Dene, making their homes in a region of harsh climate and extraordinarily delicate ecosystems, would seem to have been susceptible to the disruptions of the colonizers. Instead, the Dene have persevered. In recent years they have moved beyond concerns at home to make major contributions to the political move¬ ment for aboriginal rights in Canada, including the ideological im¬ pact of the Dene Declaration in 1975, the leadership of Georges Erasmus in the Assembly of First Nations, and the innovative exper¬ iments of the Northwest Territories government. This book is an ex¬ amination of the process through which the Dene have been able to defy the confident predictions of those nineteenth-century doomsayers. Such an undertaking would not have been possible without the support of many people. The Social Sciences and Humanities Re¬ search Council of Canada provided funds for two years of the re¬ search. The Department of History and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba financed much of the travel costs involved. Judith Beattie, Anne Morton, Debra Moore, and Michael Mooseberger at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives kindly chased after hundreds of documents and somehow remained cheerful through it all. Mrs Shirlee Anne Smith, keeper of the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, provided much practical as well as moral encouragement. The staff at the nwt Archives in the Prince of Wales Northern Her¬ itage Centre and Chris Hanks of the Archaeology Division made a number of helpful suggestions. I hanks are also due to Terry

xii

Preface

Thompson and Anne ten Cate of the Anglican Archives in Toronto, the Archives Deschatelets (omi), the staff of the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, the staff of the Provincial Archives of Alberta, and, of course, the staff of the National Library and the National Archives in Ottawa. My colleagues in the Department of History at the Uni¬ versity of Manitoba and at St John’s College, Winnipeg, sat patiently through my discussions of parts of the “work in progress” and asked very helpful questions. Particular thanks go to Jean Friesen, Jen¬ nifer Brown, John Kendle, E.C. Moulton, Gerald Friesen, and, at Queen’s University, Donald Swainson. I would also like to thank two of several anonymous readers who made some very helpful sugges¬ tions that I have chosen to incorporate. Finally, I would like to thank Christine Earl of the Department of Geography, Carleton University, for her fine work in the prepara¬ tion of the maps, and Judith Turnbull for her thorough and helpful editorial work.

Introduction

Three canoes slipped silently across the calm waters of the bay. A warm purple haze had settled across the lake on this summer’s eve¬ ning, wrapping the sky and the land in a magical veil. The sun had dipped briefly below the horizon, but its light lingered behind, sil¬ houetting the spruce trees against its promise of return. A raven called from one of the tree tops, urging the canoeists to join the group that had gathered on the lakeshore. The rich, warm smell of a crackling campfire had reached the newcomers even before they rounded the point, and the throbbing of a drum could be heard well before they were close enough to hear the voices accompanying it. Then, suddenly, they were there among the dancers, caught in the rhythms of the drums and the feet and the voices, their bodies bound up in the mass of humanity, but their spirits released by the music. The dancing, feasting, and storytelling would go on for three days in celebration of the successful fishery and the pleasure of one another’s company. Children would hear tales of great hunters and courageous warriors, of travels through another world, and of clever women who had overcome adversity in its many forms. Sto¬ ries from the past would colour the present and shape the future. And beating throughout them all is the drum. As one visitor to Denendeh once wrote, those drum songs “express the spirit of the people, and their melodies possess such subtleties as to defy imita¬ tion ... the tea-dances and gambling songs of the Dogribs will haunt me for the rest of my days.”1

xiv

Introduction

Who are the Dene? The name, which means simply “people,” has been applied to a variety of groups. Outsiders may first have learned of the name from Alexander Mackenzie’s account of his travels in the northwest, published in London in 1801. He supplied the word “Dinnie” as Chipewyan for “man” and noted that the Gwich’in (Kutchin) were called the “Deguthee Dinees.”2 Nearly thirty years later, the reading public learned from Sir John Franklin that these northern people called themselves “Dinneh” to identify the larger population, and then distinguished separate groups by adding the name of the river or lake associated with the hunting grounds of each. Thus, he recorded, the Dogrib were known as the Thlingchadinneh.3 Father Emile Petitot, omi, also recognized the name, which he rendered into French as “Dene-Dindjie” in the 1870s. The DeneDindjie, according to Petitot, were a family of peoples who could be divided into numerous “tribes”; his names and definitions of those groups varied considerably over the course of his long writing ca¬ reer. Roughly speaking, Petitot applied the name Dindjie to the more northerly people known today as the Gwich’in (Loucheux or Kutchin), and the name Dene to the southern groups, including the Slavey, Dogrib, Chipewyan, and Hare. A second term was introduced in the United States by an early ethnographer, Albert Gallatin. In 1836 he published an essay in the journal of the American Antiquarian Society that idenuhed the Nauves of the northwest as “Athapascas.”4 Henry Schoolcraft, in his massive study of American aboriginals prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and published in the 1850s, adopted the term Athapascas to refer to “a class of tribes” living north of the Churchill and Saskatchewan rivers, but he explicitly excluded the Gwich’in from the culture group.5 Other scholars rejected the name “Athapascas.” In 1915 Father A.G. Morice published an extended essay in which he dismissed the term as being a foreign one imposed by American scholars. He preferred to follow Emile Petitot in promoting the use of the Dene’s name for themselves, but he broadened its application to include the western Sekani, Carrier, Chilcotin, and Sarcee as well as the south¬ ern Navajo and Apache.6 The Canadian government also adopted the name in its attempt to describe and categorize the First Nations of Canada in a handbook published in 1913, although the authors of the book entered the spelling as “Tinne.”7 Both Athapaskan and Dene continue to be used. Some contempo¬ rary anthropologists prefer to call the people Northern Athapaskans (to differentiate them from their southern relatives, the Navajo and

xv

Introduction

Apache) on the basis of linguistic similarities among the various sub¬ divisions.* Other anthropologists have adopted the term “Dene.”9 The people themselves, of course, continue to prefer their own names, a fact demonstrated particularly through the formation of the Dene Nation organization. The Dene today are applying the term in a more limited sense than did Morice, however. The Dene Nation recognizes its members as the Gwich’in, Bearlake (or SahtuDene), Hare, Dogrib, Slavey, Chipewyan, and Mountain people, and sometimes those Cree who live in the vicinity of Fort Smith and Hay River.10 It is this contemporary definition that is used here. This is the story of the people who make their homes in the drainage system of the Mackenzie River, or as the Dene call it today, the Deh-cho. The Mackenzie drainage system includes an area of over 1.8 mil¬ lion square kilometres in Canada’s western subarctic. The boreal forest gradually gives way on its northeastern margins to the lichen woodland and eventually the Barren Grounds, or tundra. The rocky ridges of the Cordilleran region in the west meet the sedimentary layers of the interior plains along the Mackenzie Valley proper; to the east are the rocky outcrops of the Precambrian Shield. Summers are short but comfortably warm, while winters are long and cold. There is only light precipitation. Thousands of lakes and rivers dot the landscape, giving the Northwest Territories 9 percent of the world’s fresh water. The fish found in these waters grow slowly but are renowned for their fine taste. Principal species include whitefish, trout, pickerel, and pike. Big game resources include bear, barren ground and woodland caribou, moose and wood bison. Small game includes muskrat, hare, beaver, and marten. There are dozens of species of birds and edible plants as well. In short, while many imag¬ ine the subarctic as a desolate, inhospitable land, there are adequate resources to provide a comfortable living for human inhabitants if those resources are used with care. The Dene are not a homogeneous people. Half a dozen different languages are spoken throughout their homeland, some of which are as different as French and Spanish. People have specialized in different resource-harvesting activities and identify with distinct so¬ cial groups. The exact nature of the differences among groups has been a subject of considerable debate among anthropologists. Do commonly used names represent indigenous distinctions, or were they labels applied by fur traders and non-Dene aboriginal neigh¬ bours? How did the Dene organize their societies? Anthropologists have argued over whether the Dene should be divided into regional

xvi

Introduction

“bands,” resource “task groups,” “clans,” or simply family units. Nu¬ merous maps have been produced that purport to indicate the terri¬ tories inhabited by each culture group at given points in time. 1 hese divisions can be problematic because they oversimplify a complex and historically fluid situation. Classification schemes devised by so¬ cial scientists can be helpful devices for some purposes, but they have sometimes also served to obscure what life was truly like for the people, or what the people themselves considered to be their social organization. Even in general terms, classifications of language, cul¬ ture, or economic base are not always useful distinctions, since the many opportunities for interaction among peoples serve to tran¬ scend these differences. Trade, intermarriage, military excursions, and travel all bring separate groups together temporarily and some¬ times permanently. It is because of this complex web of activity that this book addresses the history of the Dene as a whole, rather than attempting to trace the story of any particular group. Nevertheless, certain general population divisions are in common use today. The largest Dene group is the Chipewyan. The name is usually said to be derived from the Cree word meaning “pointed skins,” which described the clothing once worn by these people.11 Today, the Chipewyan live in a wide area across northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; north along the Mackenzie Valley; and east to the Barren Grounds. Many Chipewyan groups continue to make use of resources in both the boreal forest and the barrens, relying on the migrating caribou in particular but also fishing in the many lakes and streams. Closely related to the Chipewyan, and sometimes described as part of the same nation, are the Yellowknife. These people were so named because of their access to copper, which they traded with their neighbours. They were once reported to be a large and powerful group, but by the end of the nineteenth century, they had almost disappeared. Today they are considered by some to have vanished as an identifiable group,12 while others argue that they still exist as a small regional division of the Chipewyan.13 Another subdivision of the Chipewyan was the Caribou Eater nation, so called by nineteenth-century travellers because of their reliance on the caribou for all their food and shelter needs. The name is no longer in common usage. I he Dogrib are found today between the Great Slave and Great Bear lakes. Like the Chipewyan, they based their economy on cari¬ bou and fish, with summer excursions onto the Barren Grounds and winter camps in the shelter of the trees. Today most live in and around Rae-Edzo, Snare Lake, and Lac la Martre. Their name is de¬ rived from a story told widely throughout the north about a woman

xvii

Introduction

who married a magical dog that appeared to her as a man. Their off¬ spring became the ancestors of the Dogrib people. Early fur traders often described the Dogrib together with an¬ other large population group called the Slavey, or Slave. Today, however, the Slavey are always distinguished as a separate group. They are found along the Mackenzie between Great Slave Lake and Fort Norman, along the Liard River to Fort Nelson, and through northern British Columbia and Alberta to Hay River. Large wood¬ land game, fish, birds, and small game form the basis of their econ¬ omy. The early fur traders heard the name “Slave” loosely applied by the Cree and Chipewyan to many different groups, including a band of Plains people who are unrelated to the northern Slavey. For a time in the mid-nineteenth century, a pidgin form of the Slavey language known as “broken Slavey” was widely used along the Mackenzie as a universally understood trading language. The Hare people live west and northwest of Great Bear Lake, with their main community centre at Fort Good Hope. They received their name because of their use of rabbit skins for clothing and for shelter, but they also hunted larger game. Close links were devel¬ oped with their western neighbours, the Gwich’in, and for a time, fur traders referred to a distinct population that appeared through intermarriage as the “Batard-Loucheux,” who lived to the north of the Hare and east of the Gwich’in. The Gwich’in people have also been called the Loucheux and the Kutchin. They live along the lower Mackenzie, in the Yukon River valley, and along the Peel River. The name “Loucheux” comes from the French translation of the Chipewyan name for these people and means “squint-eyed.” The name “Kutchin” applies to the larger pop¬ ulation of which the Loucheux are an eastern branch, while the spelling “Gwich’in” is now preferred by the people themselves. As noted, Emile Petitot also referred to them as “Dindjie.”14 The Gwich’in have a number of customs that are quite distinct from other Dene groups because of their long-term interactions with coastal peoples like the Tlingit, including a clan system and potlatch tradition. To the south, the Mountain people live on the slopes west ot the Mackenzie and north of the Liard. Most live today in the communi¬ ties of Fort Norman and Wrigley. The name was once applied to a much larger group of mountain dwellers, including the Kaska, Nahanni, Tahltan, and Sekani,^ but today the name is usually ap¬ plied to the more specific population. Among other resources, they made use of mountain goats and sheep. Today the Fort Norman and Wrigley people are renowned among their neighbouis for their

xviii

Introduction

songs, dances, and medicine powers. They are also credited as the inventors of the moose-skin boat.16 The people who live around Great Bear Lake are known today as the Bearlake people, or Sahtu-Dene. They are recognized as a mix of Slavey, Dogrib, and Hare who came together during the fur trade to form a distinct group. Although the Dene Nation does not include the Beaver in its list of member groups, these people are culturally and linguistically re¬ lated. They live south of the Slavey and west of the Chipewyan in northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta. These then are the people with whom this history is concerned. The first two chapters will reconstruct as much as possible of their ancient past, drawing on oral traditions, archaeological findings, and linguistic evidence to trace the movement of populations and build a tentative image of what life was like before the arrival of the white men. In chapters 3—5, the story turns to the impact of the arrival of fur traders to the east and south. Long before any Europeans or Ca¬ nadians arrived in the Mackenzie Basin, their presence was being noted. Rearrangements of trade patterns and territories, the impact of unknown disease, and the political responses of the people will be discussed. Once the competitive energies of the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ pany

(hbc)

and the Montreal fur trade partnerships were directed

into the Athabasca country, life changed irrevokably for the Dene. As will be noted, the trade brought both significant improvements and serious challenges. Before 1821 the ferocious disputes among the Euro-Canadian traders had important implications for the Dene; after the

hbc

and North West Company merged in

1821,

the

fur trade itself entered a new period of economic and political stabi¬ lization, although relationships among the various nations contin¬ ued to be uneasy. Chapter 6 examines a new element that was introduced into this economic partnership at mid-century, when the Brst of the Christian missionaries arrived to spread their message. The interaction of the Dene with these newcomers provides a fascinating glimpse into the dynamics of culture contact. People reacted in a variety of ways to the missionaries and their ideas about religion and society, and these reactions will be examined in some detail. Many of the new Christian ideas were directly analogous to traditional Dene concepts, while others were very different. Individuals and communities struggled to come to terms with these ideas, and in the process, other impor¬ tant changes were introduced into their lives. The missionaries also brought more than a vision of a new religious and social order. They helped to draw the attention of the Canadian governments towards

xix

Introduction

the region and acted as champions of what they believed were Dene interests in their encounters with that government. Chapter 7 looks at the 1880s and 1890s, when the Dene found themselves dealing with a third group of newcomers from “outside.” While they had worked for many years alongside Metis freetraders who operated independently (or semi-independently) of the hbc, they now were meeting white traders, trappers, and prospectors who had been attracted by the promise of quick wealth. Most did not plan to remain in the north and so had very different attitudes about resource harvesting. For the first time, the Dene were forced to com¬ pete for food and furs with outsiders, and disputes inevitably arose. The Canadian government was drawn reluctantly into a more active administrative role in the north in an attempt to deal with these con¬ troversies and address the obvious problems that were developing. As northern resources became more important to Canadians as a whole, the government was finally forced to recognize that its claim to the north involved more than a statement of fact. Treaties 8, 10, and 11 are examined in chapter 8. These treaties were produced as part of the government’s “solution” to the sover¬ eignty issue. The history of these treaties and the subsequent chal¬ lenges to their validity form an important part of the recent Dene past and therefore merit attention. How did the Dene interpret the treaty-making process? Have they benefited in any way? Chapter g explores the most recent history of the Dene, which has two main focal points: technological change and economic innova¬ tion. Aviation was introduced to the north by prospectors and trap¬ pers; it has become both a destructive and constructive thread in the socio-economic fabric. Radio and then television have been received with a similar mix of results; for better or worse, they are now an integral part of many lives. Society has also been crucially affected by the institution of the family allowance and old age security programs. The secularization of school curricula and the increased involvement of government in directing the school system as a whole have had a profound impact on everyday life in the north as well. Modern economic changes like the availability of wage employment and the declining overseas fur market must also be considered as important aspects of recent history. Finally, chapter 10 examines what might be called the renaissance of Dene society. A new political awareness, developed during the months of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, may prove to be the most enduring legacy of that episode. Effective use of the Cana¬ dian political system is already producing important results, and or¬ ganizations like the Dene Nation are directing considerable energy

xx

Introduction

towards promoting an awareness of the people’s history and culture. Dim predictions made only a generation ago that the northern Na¬ tive peoples were vanishing seem highly unlikely today. As the Dene struggle to be recognized as a people, it is hoped that an understand¬ ing of the past will help contribute to an enduring plan for the fu¬ ture. The drum songs of the past carry many messages for the children of tomorrow.

A caribou hunt camp. The hunters are displaying the skins in front of them, while the meat is drying on the racks to the rear, (na pa

19699)

Gwich’ in fish-drying racks. Enormous quantities of fish could be preserved this way for use throughout the winter, (na pa 101120)

-•

::'v-'..

-'•

A'.

.

■

Bloody Falls, near the mouth of the Coppermine River, the probable site of Matonabbee’s attack on the Inuit camp as described by Samuel Hearne.

(na pa

120590)

A Dene woman tending her fish weir near the family campsite. Women could contribute significant amounts to the diet through gathering close to home,

(na pa

42048)

A member of the Mountain people at Fort Norman with the winter’s fur catch. Europeans were outraged that women were expected to carry such heavy loads, but to the Dene it was only natural, since women were believed to be the stronger of the sexes. (Anglican Church of Canada, General Synod Archives GS-75-103-S3-113)

A cache (probably Chipewyan). The toboggans are loaded and ready for winter, placed on a high platform to prevent damage from animals. (na pa 20010)

Frangois Beaulieu, the famous Metis trader who was a thorn in the side of the hbc and a member of a large extended family among the Chipewyan. (na pa 18924)

omi mission at Providence with the recently expanded hospital, circa 1900. 1 he mission garden, in which vegetables, flowers, and herbs were grown, is to the right, (paa)

Snowshoe manufacture, or “knitting,” as the hbc sometimes called it. Men shaped the frames and women prepared and wove the lacing. Snowshoes were a vital trade commodity, (na c 38174)

A moose-skin boat. Invention of these large and practical boats is attributed to the Mountain people. They were once a common sight along the river routes to Fort Norman, (na pa 18578)

Group of Grey Nuns and children en route to Providence School,

circa 1927-29. The man on the right is Father Vacher, who had served in the area since 1895. The other

I he

hbc

is

lay brother Lafreielle.

(paa)

steamer Wrigley docking at Fort Simpson. The boat represents

the beginning of a nevv era for the region, facilitating local communi¬ cations, but also providing easy access for non-Native “outsiders.”

(paa)

A Dene woman preparing a skin. Larger frames for moose or caribou hides are still found in the north today,

(na pa

42104)

yilK! jiXMf fo. 11. This arrangement was apparently initiated by Edward Smith after 1826. See journal entry for 13 October 1833, fo. 18. 51 W. Sinclair to Robert Campbell, Norway House, 21 December 1859, hbca B.3g/b/i5, 23-4. 52 John Bell to James Anderson, Portage la Loche, 8 June 1854, hbca B.200/b/32, 5753 Alexander Christie to William Mactavish, Fort Chipewyan, 20 March 1866, hbca B.3g/b/i8, fo. 34. 54 Fort Chipewyan, 30-1 May 1858, hbca B.3g/a/44b, fo. 7d. 55 George Simpson to Bernard Ross, Norway House, 15 June 1859, hbca B.2oo/b/34, fos. 3-3d. 56 Edward Smith, Fort Chipewyan, 25 September 1822, hbca B.39/a/2ib,

57 Fort Simpson, 24 February 1836 and g April 1836, na mg i9/d6, vol. 2. See also James Anderson, Summary Report (1851-57), na mg 19/A29, vol. 1; and Petitot, Exploration de la region du Grand Lac des

Ours, 97. 58 Petitot, En route pout la mer glaciale, 39-47-

John

McLean re ers to a

dispute at Fort Good Hope in 184(4] that ended without bloodshed but also involved women (Wallace), John McLean’s Notes, 34459 James Anderson to George Simpson, Fort Chipewyan, 29 October 1850, NA MG 19/A29, VOl. 1, file 1. 60 See explanation of James Keith, Fort Chipewyan, 15 October 1823, HBCA B-39/a/22, fo. 36.

286

61

Notes to pages 103-10

Edward Smith, Fort Simpson, 15 May 18, hbca B.20o/a/8, fo. 45.

62 Fort Good Hope, 27 November 1827, hbca B.8o/a/6, fos. i3d-i4; 20 March 1829, B.8o/a/7, fo. 24; and B.8o/a/8, 11 July 1829 (fos. 2—2d), 15 and 16 January 1830 (fos. i7d—18). 63 Fort Chipewyan, 21 April 1832, hbca 6.39/3/28, fos. 18—i8d. 64 Alexander Stewart, Fort Chipewyan, 3 December 1828, hbca 6.39/3/27, fo. 11. 65 Edward Smith, Fort Simpson, 25 February 1829, hbca B.20o/a/io, fo. 25; and Fort Good Hope, 22 September 1828, hbca B.8o/a/8, fos. 1 id-12. 66 See Fort Good Hopejournal, 6 July 1829, B.8o/a/8, fo. 6d; and Edward Smith, Fort Simpson, 6 January 1830, B.20o/a/ii, fo. 2 id. 67 Krech 111, “The Early Fur Trade,” 249. No source given. 68 Ibid. 69 Hamell, “Trading in Metaphors,” 5—28. I am grateful to Wayne Moodie at the University of Manitoba for referring me to this fascinating article. 70 Although other North American aboriginal peoples also considered white and red as symbolic colours, the Dene appear to have differed in their use of blue. Most other groups seem to have preferred black. 71 See Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade; Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Mea¬ sure”', Rotstein, “Trade and Politics”; and Thistle, Indian-European Trade Relations. Clearly the debate has been overworked. Only diehard economic determinists would argue that Europeans behave strictly according to economic stimuli. The myth of “economic man” should be laid to rest for all human societies. 72 Fort Simpson, 26 April 1840, hbca B.20o/a/22, fo. 18. 73

Robert McVicar, Fort Resolution, 7 March 1823, hbca B.i8i/a/4, 38; and Edward Smith, Fort Simpson, 29 September 1831, B.20o/a/i3, fo. pd.

74 Fort Simpson, 1 October 1834, na mg 19/D6, vol. 2. 75

Edward Smith, Fort Simpson, 22 May 1825, hbca B.20o/a/6, 15.

76 Fort Chipewyan, 16 September 1832, hbca 6.39/3/29, fo. 3gd.

77 Alexander Stewart, Fort Chipewyan, 19 March 1828, hbca b.39/3/26, fo. i6d. 78 Ibid., 12 October 1828, hbca 6.39/3/27, fo. 7.

79 John Stuart, Fort Simpson,

12 October 1833, hbca b.200/3/15,

fo. i7d. 80 William Todd, Fort Wedderburn, 20 December 1819, hbca 6.39/3/15, fo. 16; William Todd to Robert McVicar, 6 January 1820, hbca B.i8i/a/2, 67; and John Franklin, Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, 67. 81

W.F. Wentzel to Roderick McKenzie, Great Slave Lake, 23 May 1820, in Masson, Les bourgeois 1 :i30.

287

Notes to pages 110—19

82 John Bell, Fort Good Hope, 18 June 1826 and 19-20 August 1826, hbca

B.8o/a/5, fos.

2, 5d.

83 Fort Chipewyan, 10 April 1833, 84

Edward Smith, Fort Chipewyan,

hbca 15

6.39/3/29, fo. 6id.

December

1835, hbca 6.39/3/31,

fo. 7id.

chapter six

1 James Keith, Fort Chipewyan, November 1823, hbca b.39/3/22, fos. 39, 4od, 47. 2 Letitia Hargrave to Florence Mactavish, York Factory, 9 September 1844, in MacLeod, ed., The Letters of Letitia Hargrave, 188. 3 A.A. Tache to M. Dawson, Red River, 7 February 1859, in Les Missions des Oblats, vol. 2, no. 6 (June 1863): 172. 4 Champagne, Les Missions catholiques, 85. 5 Minutes of the Northern Council for 2 July 1825, quoted in Morton, A History of the Canadian West, 635. 6 Governor and Committee to George Simpson, 5 April 1827, hbca a.6/27, fo. 240. 7 See Carriere, “L’Honorable Compagnie de la Baie-d’Hudson”; and

Peake, “Fur Traders and Missionaries.” 8 George Simpson to Benjamin Harrison, 10 March 1825, in cms North West America Mission Incoming Letterbooks 1822-1862, c.i/m, na microfilm reel no. A77.

9 To George Simpson, 28 November 1858, hbca D.5/47, fo. 640. 10 For an account of the expansion of this work, see Grant, Moon of Win¬ tertime, 96—109. 11 Journal of Father Lecorre, September to December 1876, published in Les Missions des Oblats 15, no. 60 (December 1877). 12 Letter from Sister Ward, Providence, 4 September 1878, published in Circulaire mensuelle 1, no. 13 (March 1979). My translation. 13 Quoted in Whitehead, “Missionaries and Indians in Cariboo,

21.

14 See Carney, “The Native-Wilderness Equation,” 61-78; and Abel, “The Drum and the Cross.” Duchaussois, The Grey Nuns, 70. 16 For histories of the omi mission, see Breton, Au pays des Peaux-de-Lievres

15

and Vital Grandin; Champagne, Les Missions catholiques; Duchaussois, Mid Snow and Ice and The Grey Nuns; Grant, Moon of Wintertime; Morice, History of the Catholic Church', Philpot, Le Frere Alexis Reynard; and numerous articles by Gaston Carriere. 17 cms, Proceedings (1891-92), 22.

18 Only one was enrolled on opening day, and students spent an average of just one year at the school. See “Materials Relating to the Irene Training School,” Provincial Archives of Alberta, a.281/98.

288

Notes to pages 120-3

19 For histories or the cms mission, see Boon, The Anglican Church and “William West Kirkby”; Getty, “The Failure of the Native Church Policy”; Jean Usher, “Apostles and Aborigines” and William Duncan of Metlakatla; and Grant, Moon of Wintertime. 20 Annual Letter to cms, Fort Simpson, 29 November 1869, na microfilm reel no. Ag8. 21

Emile Grouard to Sister Marie Colombe, Providence, 10 November 1864, ad HPF4191.C74R124.

22 Bernard Ross to Laurence Clarke, Fort Simpson, 1 January 1859, quoted in Peake, “Fur Traders and Missionaries,” 84. 23

Based on figures in Lesage, “Sacred Heart Mission,” and James Ander¬ son, “1855 Census of the Population of the Mackenzies River Dis¬ trict,” na mg 19/A29, for Fort Simpson, and Petitot, “On the Athabasca District of the Canadian North West Territory,” for Providence.

24 W.D. Reeve, Fort Simpson Journal, 19 September 1872, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. a 100. 25 Letter from Mgr Isadore Clut, Providence, 8 August 1976, published in Les Missions des Oblats 16, no. 61 (March 1878): 11. My translation. 26 Charlotte Bompas was one of the few Europeans to recognize this fact. “An Indian is apt to look upon all ‘yaltis’ (praying men) as more or less ‘medicine men,’” she wrote in a letter to England in 1901, although she was referring primarily to the role of the physical rather than the spiritual healer. See Archer, comp., A Heroine of the North, 172. 27 William Spendlove, “A Wild Red Indian Tamed,” unpublished chapter from his memoirs, paa mr.250/1. 28 Kirkby to C.C. Fenn, Fort Simpson, 19 June 1890, cms c.1/0, na mi¬ crofilm reel no. ai 16. 29 For instance, Emile Grouard reported on a visit to some “Nahanni” In¬ dians who had no understanding of his message and did not re¬ spond to his speeches for several days and nights until one woman asked to have the sign of the cross made over her children to protect them. Letter to Sister Marie Colombe, Providence, 3 December 1872, AD, hpf 4191x7511134. 30 Journal of Mgr Grandin, June 1862-April 1863, published in Les Mis¬ sions des Oblats 5, no. 18 (June 1866): 220—1. 31

Words of W. Spendlove, Fort Simpson Journal, June-December 1884, entry for 1 August, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. ai 12.

32 W.D. Reeve, Fort Simpson Journal, November 1872-November 1873, entry for 19 January 1873, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. aioo. 33 Quoted in Lesage, “Sacred Heart Mission,” 9. 34 W.D. Reeve, Fort Simpson Journal, entry for 3 September 1869, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. Agg. 35 McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 305. Based on a letter from Seguin to Tache, 1 June 1887.

289

36

Notes to pages 123—7

Fort Simpson Journal, entry for reel no.

9

June

1878,

cms

c.1/0,

na microfilm

A103.

37 Tort Simpson Journal, entry for 19 August 1870, cms c.1/0, na micro¬ film reel no. Agg. 38 Elihu Stewart, Down the Mackenzie and Up the Yukon in 1906, 240-1. 39 W. Spendlove, Fort Simpson Journal, entry for 8 May 1882, cms c.1/0, Original Letters, Incoming 1880-1900, na microfilm reel no. aiio. 40 W.D. Reeve, Fort Simpson Journal, entry for 20 January 1870, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. Agg. Reeve later noted that these

vile

questions” were “too disgusting to be written down.” 41 William Spendlove to cms, Fort Simpson, n.d. (received 3 March 1884), cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. ah 1.

42 Grouard, Souvenirs de mes soixante ans, 100. My translation. 43 Ibid., 99. My translation. 44 Duchaussois, The Grey Nuns, 74. Mgr Clut recounts an incident of 1874 in which he bargained with a Yellowknife Indian to get him to give up a young girl with whom he was cohabiting. The price eventually agreed upon was a bonnet, some fish, a comb, and some ammuni¬ tion. Letter from Clut to omi published in Les Missions des Oblats 141 no. 53 (March 1976): 22-6. 45 W.D. Reeve, Lort Simpson Journal, entry for 28 April 1872, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. aioo.

46 Quoted by Williams, “The H.B.C. and the Lur Trade, 1670-1870,” 69. 47 W. Spendlove, Lort Simpson Journal, entry for 6 August 1884, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. A112.

48 Manuscript by W. Spendlove, “Suffer the Little Children,

paa

mr.250/1. 49

Kirkby to C.C. Lenn, Lort Simpson, 19 June 1890, cms c.1/0, na mi¬ crofilm reel no. ai 16.

50 Ortolan, Les Oblats 3:262—3. 51

Lor example, the Anglicans thought that the Gwich’in were “more in¬ telligent and very anxious to learn,’ according to Diary ol Augusta Morris, Lort Norman, 9 December 1881, hbca z.13/1. The Slavey, on the other hand, were lacking “intellectual powers” or the ability to think in abstract terms, according to D.N. Kirkby’s Report from Lort Norman, 4 Lebruary 1888, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. A115. The Gwich’in were receptive to the Anglicans, while the Slavey were nui.

52

OQ

/

D.N. Kirkby, Report from Fort Norman, 4 February 1888, cms c.1/0 na microfilm reel no. A115.

53

W.D. Reeve, Annual Report for 1874, quoted

in Abel, “The South

Nahanni River Region,” 72.

54

Bishop Bompas to C.C. Fenn, Peace River, 12 c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. aih.

November 1882, cms

290

Notes to pages 128-32

55 Quoted in Cruikshank, Athapaskan Women, 24. 56 Bishop Bompas to C.C. Fenn, Fort Norman, 2 May 1891, copy in paa mr 170/2.

57 Mason, The Arctic Forests, 61. 58 June Helm and Eleanor Leacock, “The Hunting Tribes of Subarctic Canada,” in Leacock and Lurie, eds., North American Indians, 368. 59 Definition of Weston LaBarre, cited in Janes and Kelley, “Observations on Crisis Cult Activities,” 153. 60 Particularly in his The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca, and “Revitalization Movements.” 61 John Lranklin, Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea 2:44—5; and W.L. Wentzel to Roderick McKenzie, 18 Lebruary 1814, in Masson, Les bourgeois 1:109. 62 Journal of cms missionary Robert Hunt, na microfilm reel no. Ago, 5 June 1859 anfl 11 June 1859. Also Alexandre Tache, Vingt annees des missions, 120-2, cited in McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 309-13. Also see Breton, Vital Grandin, 118. 63 Valentin Vegreville to Alexandre Tache, 29 July i860, Archives of the Archbishopric of St Boniface, to 120—1, cited in McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 314-15. 64

Lather Clut to Lather Vegreville, 28 December i860, na M2073, cited in McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 315—16.

65 Petitot to omi, Port Good Hope, 1 June 1878, published in Les Missions des Oblats 17, no. 65 (March 1879): 6—8. 66 W. Spendlove to cms, Fort Simpson, 30 November 1880, cms c. 1/0,

na microfilm reel no. a 109. 67 Reported in Michael Mason, The Arctic Forests, 61. 68

For example, John Franklin, Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea 2:60, 230; Father Seguin to Father Clut, Fort Good Hope, 4 February 1874, ad G-LPP2686, cited in McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 321.

69 Jacqueline Peterson, paper presented to the Twentieth Annual Con¬ ference of Algonkianists, Hull, Quebec, October ig88. 70 Father Clut to Mgr Faraud, 16 December 1861, cited in Carriere, “The Oblates and the Northwest,” 54. 71

Lesage, “Sacred Heart Mission,” 14.

72 Grouard, Souvenirs, 59-60. My translation. 73 Journal of Mgr Grandin, June 1862-April 1863, published in Les Mis¬ sions des Oblats 5, no. 18 (June 1866): 220-1. My translation. 74 D.N. Kirkby to C.C. Fenn, Fort Simpson, 19 June 1890, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. ai 16. 75 Journal of Bishop Grandin at Fort Rae, Les Missions des Oblats, June 1866, 221.

291

Notes to pages 132-6

76 D.N. Kirkby to C.C. Fenn, Fort Simpson, 29 November 1890, na

microfilm reel no.

ai

cms

c.1/0,

16.

77 Father Grouard to Father Sardou (Procurer General), Nativity Mission, 25 August 1890, published in Les Missions des Oblats 28, no. 112 (De¬ cember 1890): 445. 78 Petitot, “Etude sur la nation Montagnais,” Fort Good Hope, 1 July 1865, published in Les Missions des Oblats 6, no. 24 (December 1867): 508. 79 Sister Lapointe to Mile Symns, 8 June 1868,

ad

Historical Documents

of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, microfilm reel no. 89. 80 For example, Russell, Explorations in the Far North. 81

Diary of Augusta E. Morris, entry for 5 November 1881,

hbca

z.13/1.

82 Emile Petitot to R.P. Fabre, Les Missions des Oblats 6 (1867), quoted by McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 318. 83 Emile Petitot to

omi,

Providence, 31 August 1862, published

in

Les Mis¬

sions des Oblats 2, no. 6 (June 1863): 224. 84 D.N. Kirkby to C.C. Fenn, Fort Simpson, 19 June 1890, microfilm reel no.

ai

cms

na

16.

85 W.D. Reeve, Annual Letter, Fort Simpson, 17 July 1878, na

c.1/0,

cms

c.1/0,

microfilm reel no. A103.

86 Father Grouard to Sister Marie Colombe, Providence, 3 December 1872, ad hpf

4191.C75R. My translation.

87 Faraud’s memoirs, in Fernand-Michel, ed., Dix huits ans chez les sauvages, 157-8. My translation. 88 For example, W. Spendlove, Fort Simpson Journal, entry for 21 De cember 1884,

cms

c.1/0,

na

microfilm reel no. A113; and W. Spend¬

love to C.C. Fenn, Fort Resolution, 24 July 1890, film reel no.

ai

cms

c.1/0,

na

micro¬

16. Charlotte Bompas was also remembered for her

work with Dene women. See Archer, A Heroine of the North. 89 Compiled from “List of Fort Simpson Indians, 1860-1871,” paa MR.2/1;

and Fort Norman Mission Register,

paa mr. 1/1.

90 Ibid. 91 Compiled from various sources in the Oblate Archives Deschatelets. It is possible more girls were sent to school as a substitute foi the practice of female infanticide or because parents considered that young girls were less needed at home than boys. 92 Petitot, En route pour la mer glaciale, 377~ 93 Laytha, North Again for Gold, 43-494 For example, Abel, “The Drum and the Cross,” 72; George Simpson to

hbc

Governor and Committee, 25 November 1841, quoted in

Williams and Galbraith, eds., London Correspondence Inward, 79; and Zaslow, The Opening of the Canadian North, 1870-1914, 70. 95 J.H. Lefroy to Anthony?, Fort Chipewyan, 11 November 1843, in Stanley, ed., In Search of the Magnetic North, 74-

2Q2

Notes to pages 136-40

96 McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 27iff. 97 Fort Resolution, 11 March 1883, hbca z.13/2. McCarthy, in her “The Missions of the Oblates,” 273-4, claims Bishop Bompas believed the homeopathic system used by the priests to be as “deceptive as their re¬ ligion,” citing na microfilm reel no. A83, 9 December 1867, but his wife obviously disagreed, and by this time, Bompas may also have changed his mind. 98 Father Grollier to Alexandre Tache, i8July 1861, Archives of the Arch¬ bishopric of St Boniface, T0675, quoted in McCarthy, “1 he Mis¬ sions of the Oblates,” 272. 99 W.D. Reeve, Fort Simpson Journal, entry for 1 October 1872, cms, c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. aioo. 100 Fort Simpson Journal, entry for 17 May 1885, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. ai 13. 101

Letter of 9 January 1862, quoted in McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 272.

102 W. Spendlove, Fort Simpson Journal, entry for 4 March 1882, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. ai 10. 103 Mgr Faraud to R.P. Fabre, 15 November 1865, published in Les Mis¬ sions des Oblats 6 (1867): 355-6. Also quoted in McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 317. 104 W.D. Reeve, Fort Simpson Journal, entries for 1 October 1872 and 10 February 1873, CMS C-1/0- NA microfilm reel no. aioo. 105 Breynat, Cinquante ans aux pays des neiges 2:271, footnote. 106 W.L. Hardisty to William Mactavish, Fort Simpson, 27 November 1869, hbca B.20o/b/37, 228—9. 107 W.L. Hardisty to Bishop Grandin, Fort Simpson, 28 November 1863, HBCA B.200/b/35, fo. 18.

108 D.N. Kirkby, Report for Holy Trinity Mission, Fort Norman, 4 Feb¬ ruary 1888, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. ai 15. 109 Duchaussois, The Grey Nuns, 72-3. 110 In Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 3, no. 1 (1972): 1-28. 1 11

Report from Fort Norman, 4 February 1888, cms c.1/0, na microfilm reel no. ai 15.

112 Letter from Father Clut to omi. Providence, 8 August 1876, published in Les Missions des Oblats 16, no. 61 (March 1878): 11. 113 See, for example, a description of these traditions in Archer, A Heroine of the North; W.D. Reeve’s Fort Simpson Journal for 1870s, such as the entry for 1 January 1873, cms c.1/0, na microhlm reel no. aioo; Russell, Explorations in the Far North, pgff; and others. 114 Tache reported on his first visit to Athabasca that he met “Indians” there who had never seen a priest yet knew French prayers. In McCarthy, “The Missions of the Oblates,” 277.

293

Notes to pages 140-7

115 Duchaussois, Mid Snow and Ice, 239. 116 Ibid., 240. 117 W.D. Reeve, Annual Letter, Fort Simpson, June 1890,

cms

c.1/0,

na

microfilm reel no. A99. 118 Cruikshank, Athapaskan Women. 119 For example, at Fort Simpson in 1858. 120 Russell, Explorations in the Far North, 162—3. 12 1 Pike, The Barren Ground of Northern Canada, 120—1. 122 W.D. Reeve, Fort Simpson Journal, 4 March 1870,

cms

c.1/0,

na

mi¬

crofilm reel no. A99. 123 Helm, The Lynx Point People, 117—20. 124 Brody, Maps and Dreams, 79. See also Homgmann, Ethnography and Acculturation, 135; and VanStone, “The Snowdrift Chipewyan,” 103-4. 125 David M. Smith, Inkonze, 20. 126 VanStone, “The Snowdrift Chipewyan,” 103.

CHAPTER SEVEN

1 See Fort Chipewyan Correspondence (Inward), hbca B^g/b/15 for Au¬ gust 1861 (98-9), December 1862 (102), July 1862 (76), June 1863 (108-9). °ne °f his aides was Fran?ois Beaulieu. See John Lockhart to W.L. Hardisty, 25 September 1862, Fort Simpson Correspon¬ dence (Inward), hbca B.20o/b/34, fo. 5id. 2 A. Christie to James Forsyth, Fort Chipewyan, 1 February 1866, hbca B.39/b/i8, fo. 29. 3 R. MacFarlane toJ.A. Grahame, en route Athabasca River, 7 June 1875, hbca B.3g/b/20, fo. i37d. 4 A. Christie to William McTavish, Fort Chipewyan, 20 March 1866, hbca B-39/b/i8, fo. 34. See also William McTavish to W.L. Hardisty, Nor¬ way House, 10 July 1866, hbca b.200/13/36, p. 66. 5 Fort Chipewyan Correspondence, hbca B.3g/b/i8, lo. 46.

6 John Lockhart to B.R. Ross, Fort Youcon, 15 November 1859, hbca B.20o/b/34, fo. 8d. . . 7 Roderick Finlayson to B.R. Ross, Fort Hope, British Columbia, 6 Ju y 1859, hbca b.200/b/34> fo. 16; and Dugald Mactavish to B.R. Ross, Victoria, 20 May 1861, fo. 37d. 8 James Anderson to Eden Colvile, Fort Simpson, 16 March 1852, An¬ derson Correspondence, na mg 19/A29, vol. 1, file 1. 9 W.L. Hardisty to Robert Campbell, LaPierre’s House, 30 June 1855, HBCA B.20o/b/32, 113.

10 W.L. Hardisty to John McLean, Fort Simpson, 15 March 1865, hbc b.200/b/35> fos. 44-44d; and circular dated 10 March 1865, fos. 47~47d.

294

Notes to pages 147-51

11 James MacDougall to R. MacFarlane, Fort Youcon, 6 July 1868,

hbca

b.200/13/36, 158-9.

12 George Simpson to Robert Campbell, Dunvegan, 30 April 1861, B-39/b/l5> 4513 John Reid to B.R. Ross, 28 June 1861,

hbca b.200/^34,

hbca

fo. 3od; and

W.L. Hardisty to Northern Council, Portage la Loche, 5 August 1871,

hbca B.20o/b/38,

106.

14 W.L. Hardisty to Northern Council, Fort Simpson, 30 November 1862, HBCA

B.20o/b/35, fos. id-2cl.

15 John Reid to R. MacFarlane, Fort Providence, 1 June 1869, b.200/13/36,

hbca

246.

16 Report from Fort Norman, 4 February 1888,

cms

C.1/0, na microfilm

reel no. ai 15. 17 W.D. Reeve, Annual Letter, Fort Rae, 27 June 1876, crofilm reel no.

cms

c.1/0,

na

mi¬

A102.

18 John Reid to R. MacFarlane, Fort Providence, 1 June 1869,

hbca

B.20o/b/36, 246. 19 McDougall, Pathfinding, 37—40. 20 James McDougall to W.L. Hardisty, Fort Youcon, 25 November 1865, hbca

B.20o/b/36, 43—4.

21 Andrew Flett to W.L. Hardisty, Peels River, 1 February 1866,

hbca

B.20o/b/36, 40. 22 W.L. Hardisty to Governor Mactavish, Fort Simpson, 27 November 1866,

HBCA B.200/b/35,

fo. 103d.

23 W.L. Hardisty to Thomas Swanston, Fort Simpson, 18 March 1871, HBCA B.20o/b/39,

vol. i, fo. 14d.

24 W.L. Hardisty to William Mactavish, Fort Simpson, 2 December 1867, HBCA B.200/b/37, 6.

25 Fort Simpson Correspondence (Inward),

hbca b.200A3/36,

133, 191, 195; Fort Simpson Correspondence (Outward),

pp. 131,

hbca

B.20o/b/37, 56—8; Fort Chipewyan Correspondence (Outward),

hbca

B-39/b/20, fos. 32, 38—gd, 74—6d, 91; Fort Simpson Correspon¬ dence (Outward),

hbca b.200^/39,

vol. 1, fos. 87d, 103d, ii2d—13d;

William Christie Fl ip Journal, entry for 10 December 1872, 29/A6; Roderick MacFarlane Papers, and Fort Providence Post Journal,

na mg

hbca

na mg

29/A1 1, vol. 1, 329—33;

8.333/3/1, fos. 34—5.

26 W.L. Hardisty to James Grahame, Portage la Loche, 19 August 1877, HBCA B.20o/b/39,

vol.

2,

fo. 39.

27 Ibid., fos. 41-4id. 28 Missions des Oblats 22, no. 87 (September 1884): 275-6. 29 10 May 1884,

cms

c.1/0,

na microfilm reel no. ai

12.

30 See Krech III, “The Eastern Kutchin and the Fur Trade.” 31

B.R. Ross to Northern Department, Fort Simpson, 29 November 1858, HBCA B.200/b/33,

fo.

lid.

2g5

Notes to pages 152-6

32 W.L. Hardisty to William Mactavish, Fort Simpson, 27 November 1869,

33

hbca

B.20o/b/37, 225-6; Fort Yukon Correspondence 1869-70,

hbca

b.24o/b/i, fo. lod.

James McDougall to Roderick MacFarlane, Fort Youcon, 1869,

MacFarlane Papers,

na MG29/

A11’ v°l-

L

23

December

129-

34 W.L. Flardisty to Donald Smith, Fort Simpson, 1 April 1873,

hbca

B.20o/b/39, vol. 1, fo. 48. See also Fort Simpson Correspondence, HBCA B.20o/b/39,

vol. 1, fo. 48.

35 Kenneth McDonald to J.S. Camsell, Rampart House, 15 January 1880, PAM, AEPRL,

box

P348.

36 Kenneth McDonald to Roderick MacFarlane, Rampart House, cember 1878, MacFarlane Papers, 37

na MG29/ ah,

vol. 1, 7i7d-i8.

Although there is no direct evidence on this point, a number of Gwich’in comments to the

hbc

are suggestive. See Kenneth McDonald to

Roderick MacFarlane, Rampart House, Papers,

na MG29/A11,

Camsell, 38

De¬

22

January

15

vol.

1, 811;

30

December

1880,

MacFarlane

and Kenneth McDonald to J.S.

1880, pam-aeprl

box

P348.

Kenneth McDonald to Roderick MacFarlane, Rampart House, cember

1880,

MacFarlane Papers,

na MG29/A11,

vol.

30

De¬

1, 811-12.

39 W.L. Hardisty to Roderick MacFarlane, Fort Simpson, 10 November 1872,

B.20o/b/39, vol. i, fo. 59; W.L. Hardisty to D.A. Smith,

hbca

Portage la Loche, 15 August 1873, fo. 88d; Roderick MacFarlane to D.A. Smith, Fort Chipewyan, 19 December 1872,

hbca b.39^/20,

fo. 13; Roderick MacFarlane to D.A. Smith, Portage la Loche, 15 July 1873, fo. 39; and Simeone, A History of the Alaskan Athapaskans, 67. 40 Robert MacFarlane to James A. Grahame, Fort Chipewyan, 3 December 1873,

hbca b.39^/20,

fos. 50—5od; Robert MacFarlane to James

A. Grahame, Fort Chipewyan, 2 January 1875, fos. io4d-541 Robert MacFarlane to D.A. Smith, Portage la Loche, 15 July 1873,

hbca

B-39/b/20, fos. 38—gd; Robert MacFarlane to Gavin Hamilton, Fort

42

Chipewyan, 19 December 1874, fo. 85. Roderick MacFarlane to John McTavish, Fort Chipewyan, 17 March 1878,

hbca

B.39/b/20, fo. 31; and Roderick MacFarlane to D.A.

Smith, Portage la Loche, 15 July 1873, MacFarlane Papeis, MG29/A11,

na

vol. 1; and Andrew Flett to W.L. Hardisty, Fort Rae,

29 November 1875, hbca b.200/0/2, fo. i7d. 43 Andrew Flett to W.L. Hardisty, Fort Rae, 29 November 1875, B. 200/C/2, fo.

hbca

i7d.

44 W.L. Hardisty to James Grahame, Portage la Loche, 5 August 1874, hbca B.20o/b/3g, vol. 1, fo. ggd. 45 W.L. Hardisty to John Reid, Fort Simpson, 17 March 1871,

hbca

B.20o/b/39, vol. 1, fo. 10. 46 W.L. Hardisty to James Grahame, Fort Simpson, 31 March 1875, B.2Qo/b/39, vol. 1, fo. io8d.

hbca

296

Notes to pages 156-62

47 Ibid., 30 March 1876, fo. 131. 48 Ibid., 28 March 1878,

hbca b.200/6/39,

vol. 2, fo. 52.

49 Ibid., 31 March 1875,

hbca b.200/6/39,

vol. 1, f'o. 113.

50 Kenneth McDonald to [Roderick MacFarlane?], Rampart House, n.d. (ca. 1880), MacFarlane Papers,

na

MG29/A11, vol. 1.

51 See Milloy, The Plains Cree, 117. 52 Roderick MacFarlane to J.A. Grahame, Fort Chipewyan, 26 December 1874,

hbca

B.3g/b/20, fo. 99.

53 Reply of Bishop Bompas to questions of the Senate Select Committee of 1888, Schultz Collection,

pam mg

12/E1, 3770—808.

54 Roderick MacFarlane to Donald Ross, Fort Chipewyan, 10 March 1875, hbca B.3g/b/20, fo. 118. 55

Emile Petitot to

omi,

Fort Good Hope,

1

January

1878,

published in

Les Missions des Oblats 17, no. 65 (March 1879): 6—8.

56 W.L. Hardisty referred to it as S/at/c-Chipewyan tensions in Fort Simp¬ son Correspondence,

hbca b.200/6/39,

v°l- 2, fos. 53—53d. See also

the oral tradition reported in Helm and Lurie The Dogrib Hand Game, 84. 57 Alexander Christie to William Mactavish, Fort Chipewyan, 20 March 1866, hbca

B.3g/b/t8,

fo. 33d.

58 James A. Grahame to W.L. Hardisty, Fort Garry, 5 July 1876,

hbca

B.200/C/4, fos. 24d-2559 See, for example, Roderick MacFarlane to John McTavish, Portage la Loche, 22 July 1873,

hbca b.39/6/20,

fo. 44, and from Fort Chip¬

ewyan, 24 December 1874, fos. g3~g3d. 60 Bishop Bompas to Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Morris, 14 January 1874,

pam

Morris Papers, Lieutenant-Governor’s Collection, Letter

no. 614. 61 Government of Canada, Senate, Report of the Select Committee of the Senate Appointed to Enquire into the Resources of the Great Mackenzie Basin, 100.

62 Ibid., 84. 63 Ibid., 103. 64 Fumoleau, Aj Long as This Land Shall Last, 36; and Tough, “Native Peo¬ ple and the Regional Economy,” 104-5. 65 Letter fragment, Roderick MacFarlane to Lieutenant-Governor David Laird, Fort Chipewyan, 24 December 1880, MacFarlane Papers,

na

MG29/A11, vol. 1,809. 66 Copy, Bishop Bompas to the Secretary for the Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest Territories, Fort Chipewyan, 12 August 1880, in Government of Canada, Senate, Report of the Select Committee, 254-5. Lieutenant-Governor Laird passed this letter on to John Christian Schultz in December 1880. See

pam mg

12/E1, 7728-9.

67 For a discussion of the reasons, see Krech III, “The Influence of Dis¬ ease,” 135-8.

2g7

68

Notes to pages 162—9

Julian Camsell to Joseph Wrigley, Fort Smith, 1

2

September 1889,

hbca

8.200/6/39, vol. 3, fo. 537c!. 69 Morice, History of the Catholic Church, 217-8; and Manitoba Daily Free Press, 10 September 1889, 1.

70 Bishop Bompas to C.C. Fenn, Mackenzie River, 28 June 1889, c.1/0,

na

microfilm reel no.

ai

cms

16.

71 Journal of Arthur Robinson, “Journey to the Far North,” part 2, 48. 72 “From the North,” Manitoba Daily Free Press, 10 September 1889, 1. 73 According to Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 35. Original not seen. 74 J.S. Camsell to Joseph Wrigley, Fort Simpson, 29 March 1890,

hbca

B.2oo/b/39, vol. 3, fo. 601; and Lawrence Vankoughnet to Bishop Bompas, Ottawa, 14 October 1889, Papers of the Diocese of Mackenzie River, 75

paa mr.

171/5.

Joseph Wrigley

to

J.S. Camsell. Winnipeg,

19

July

1890, hbca

B.200/C/2, fo. 175. 76 Roderick MacFarlane to the Honorable J.J.C. Abbott, Ottawa,

cember

1891,

MacFarlane Papers,

na mg 29/Aii,

vol.

1

De¬

1, 1509-13.

77 John Reid to J.S. Camsell, Fort Providence, 16 October 1890,

hbca

B. 200/d 2,

fo. 183. 78 Hugh A. Dempsey, “People of the Boreal Forest,” in Chalmers, ed., The Land of Peter Pond, 43. 79 Privy Council Report O.C. 52, 26 January 1891, quoted in Fumoleau,

As Long as This Land Shall Last, 41. 80

A. Robertson to J.S. Camsell, Winnipeg, 13 April i8gi, hbca

B.200/C/2,

fo. 196.

chapter

eight

1 Thomas White to Privy Council, 19 January 1887,

na

rg

10, file

241,209—1, cited in Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 36. 2 Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 32. 3 Richard Daniel, “The Spirit and Terms of Treaty Eight,” in Price, ed., The Spirit, 59. 4 Coates and Morrison, Land of the Midnight Sun, 87.

5 House of Commons, Debates, 21 February 1898, 823. 6 Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 59. 7 House of Commons, Debates, 22 June 1899, 5695. 8 For extensive quotations from the relevant correspondence, see Daniel, “The Spirit and Terms of Treaty Eight, 68-9. 9 The most complete account of Laird’s speech may be found in Mair, Through the Mackenzie Basin.

10 Details from [H.B. Round?], Diary of an Inspection Tour, 1899, E.26/1, fos. 3gd-4o; and accounts collected by Fumoleau, As Long

hbca

298

Notes to pages 169—76

as This Land Shall Last, 73—5. In his affidavit, J.K. Cornwall later swore

that discussions went on for days, but according to Round’s trip diary, actual talking lasted for only two days. 11 Details and quotation from Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last,

75-712 [H.B. Round?], Diary of an Inspection Tour, 19 June 1899,

hbca

E.26/1, fo. 3gd. 13 Details compiled from ibid., 13 July 1899, fo. 44d; Fort Chipewyan Journal, 6-13 July i8gg, hbca B.3g/a/6o, fos. 50-51; Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 77—9; Diary of Victor Mercredi, Fort Chipewyan, photocopy in

paa

71.369, 3.

14 [H.B. Round?], Diary of an Inspection Tour, 10 and 1 1 July 1899,

hbca

E.26/1, fo. 44. 15 Fumoleau, As Long as this Land Shall Last, 78. 16 Official report of the commission, included in published text of Treaty 8 (Ottawa, 1966). 17 Macrae’s report for 1990, published with text of Treaty 8 (Ottawa, 1966), 20. 18 Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 88—9. 19 Cited ibid., 99-100. 20 6 July 1899 and 25 September 1899, cited in ibid., 76-7. 21 George Drever to William Livock, Fort Chipewyan, 29 September 1900, hbca B.3g/b/39, fos. ig7d-8d. 22 Fort Chipewyan, 2 June 1901,

hbca

B.3g/a/6i, fo. 2od.

23 Fort Chipewyan, 7 June 1901, hbca 8.39/3/61, fo. 2od. 24 Because I have been unable to locate any original papers of the Indian agents in the north, these details are drawn only from the official published reports that appear in the Government of Canada, Sessional Papers, annual reports of the Department of Indian Affairs.

25 Fort Chipewyan Correspondence, hbca 6.39/^39, fo. 234d. 26 See Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 117-8. 27

na rg

10,

vol.

7997,

file

191/30—11—1.

28 H.J. Bury to D.C. Scott, Ottawa, 9 November 1916, file 191/30-1 1-1.

na rg

10, vol. 7997,

29 G. Card to Assistant Deputy, Department of Indian Affairs, Fort Smith, 11 September 1916,

na rg

10, vol. 7997, file 191/30-11-1.

30 Jarvenpa, “The Hudson’s Bay Company,” 517. 31 Details about the adhesions to Treaty 5 are from Tough, “Native PeoPle>” 65-9, 76-7, 93-5. 32 Ibid., 93. 33 Cited in Fumoleau, A.y Long as This Land Shall Last, 135. 34 George Drever to fo. 70.

hbc

Commissioner, 18 March 1899,

hbca

8.39/^39,

35 Fort Chipewyan, 16 November 1901, hbca B.3g/a/6i, fo. 3id.

299

Notes to pages 176-82

36 Cited in Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 134-5. 37 Ibid., 137-9. 38 Report of Corporal Mellor, Smith’s Landing, 27 August igog, in

rnwmp

Annual Report, Sessional Papers, no. 28 (Ottawa, 1910). 39 Kelly, “Comptroller Fred White,” 89-91. 40 See

rnwmp

annual reports in the Sessional Papers of the day. For a his¬

tory of police work in the north, see Morrison, Showing the Flag. 41

Interview with Gus Kraus, August 1974, Parks Canada Historic Re¬ sources Inventory Manuscript Report no. ig6, 2:100.

42 Lewis, “Maskuta,” 15—52. 43 Kelly, “Comptroller Fred White,” 170. 44

rnwmp

Annual Report for 1910, 185.

45 An example is cited in Longstreth, The Silent Force, 77. 46

“Missionary Matters,”

na RG85,

hie

568,

item

20,

vol.

2.

47 Morrison, Showing the Flag, 79-80. 48 Fort Chipewyan, 27 January 1901, hbca 4g

George Drever to

[?

B.3g/a/6i,

fo. 11.

at Edmonton], Fort Chipewyan, 17 February 1900,

hbca B.3g/b/3g, fos.

i65d-6.

50 Annual Report for the Department of Indian Affairs, Year Ended 31 March 1911, Sessional Papers, no. 27 (Ottawa, 1912), (xx). 51

Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 140.

52 Report of Gerald Card, in Report of the Deputy Superintendent Gen¬ eral of Indian Affairs, Sessional Papers, no. 27 (Ottawa, 1912), 125. 53 “Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds,” submitted 14

March

1879, na rg 10,

vol.

6001,

file

1-1—1,

part

1.

54 Hayter Reed to Archdeacon Reeve, Regina, 9 September 1886,

paa

a.380/11.

55 Lawrence Vankoughnet to Bishop Bompas, Ottawa, 14 October 1889, paa mr.

171/5.

56 Archdeacon Reeve to A.E. Forget, 30 March [ 1898],

paa mr.

180/1, An¬

nual Report for Year Ended 30 June 1901, Department of Indian Affairs, Sessional Papers, no. 27 (Ottawa, 1902). 57 William Ogilvie to J.C. Schultz, Muskey Lake, 15 October 1892, Schultz Papers,

pam,

6051-62.

58 House of Commons, Debates, 22 June 1906, 5987. 59 Memoir of the Bishop of St Albert to the Honorable E. Dewdney, 9 August 1890, copy in Macdonald Papers, vol. 335,

na

microfilm

reel no. C1706, 151335-4460 S.H. Blake to Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, 4 oionto, Jan¬ uary 1905, 61

vol. 6001, hie 1—1—1, part 1. presented at a meeting of November 1910,

na rgio,

Copy of contract

na rg

10,

vol. 6039, hie 1-1-1. The regulations were set up by order-incouncil, 6 August 1908. 62 Duncan C. Scott, Report of the Deputy Superintendent General of In-

300

Notes to pages 183-93

dian Affairs, 3 September 1918, Sessional Papers, no. 27 (Ottawa, 1919), 86, 90. Population totals drawn from 192 1 census data. The Prov¬ idence school hoped to draw children from down the Mackenzie River, and thus the total here is for major settlements north to the Delta. 63 Report for the Year Ended 31 March 1926, Sessional Papers, no. 14 (Ottawa, 1927), 8. 64 Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 154. From the Edmonton Jour¬ nal, 18 January 1921. 65 Ibid., 164. 66 J.A. Lougheed, Annual Report, Department of Indian Affairs, Sessional Papers, no. 27 (Ottawa, 1922), 7, 35. 67 Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 164. 68 Ibid., 169—71. 69 Conroy’s report, dated 12 October 1921, was included with published text of Treaty 11 (Ottawa, 1957 edition), recorded from the 1926 edition of the treaty text. 70 Details from Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 207—10. 71

Ibid., chap. 4.

72 Godsell, Arctic Trader, 196-7. 73 Report for 1920,

na rg

10, vol. 4085, hie 496,658—^, quoted in Mc¬

Cormack, “How the (North) West was Won,” 112. 74 “White Trappers and Indians Are Having Trouble,” Edmonton Journal, 14 November 1922. 75 See Zaslow, “The Development of the Mackenzie Basin,” and Robinson and Robinson, “Exploration and Settlement,” part 2, 43-9. 76 Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada, 371. 77 House of Commons, Debates, 6 June 1928, 3829. 78 Ibid. 79 H.J. Bury to J.D. McLean, Ottawa, 5 July 1920,

na rg

10, vol. 7997,

hie 191/30—11—1. 80 Official of Dominion Parks Branch to James Macoun (Geological Sur¬ vey), Ottawa, 11 December 1914,

na rg

85, vol. 1390, hie 406-13,

vol. 1. 81

H.J. Bury, Report on Game, Fur and Fishing Resources of the North¬ west Territories, 4 October 1916. Supplementary note dated 6 No¬ vember 1915,

na rg

85, vol.

666,

hie 3915.

82 Commissioner of Dominion Parks Branch to D.C. Scott, Ottawa, 28 Jan¬ uary 1920,

na rg

10, vol. 7997, hie 191/30—11—1.

83 Controller, Department of Interior, to J.D. McLean (Assistant Deputy of Indian Affairs), Ottawa, 23 May 1917,

na rg

10, vol. 7997,

hie 191/30-1 1-1. 84 “Buffalo Range Would Deprive Alberta of 100 Square Miles of Ter¬ ritory Say Northmen,” Edmonton Bulletin, 18 October 1922.

3d

Notes to pages 194—8

85 “Indians and Whites in North May Clash This Winter,” Edmonton Bul¬ letin, 14 November 1922. 86 The Arctic Islands Preserve was also established for Inuit use. It was by far the largest. According to government statistics, the size of the preserves was as follows: Arctic Islands 439,105 square miles Yellowknife 70,000 Slave River 2,200 Peel River 3,300 Wood Buffalo Park 3,625 87 Alfred Vale (principal, Hay River Residential School) to O.S. Finnie, Hay River, 12 January 1926; G. Fletcher

to Commanding

(rcmp)

Officer, G Division, Fort Smith, 11 March 1926,

85, vol. 764,

na rg

file 5075. 88 T.W. Harris (Indian agent) to D.C. Scott, Fort Simpson, 20 April 1927, na rg

85,

vol.

775, file 5643.

89 O.S. Finnie to John A. McDougal, Ottawa, 28 January 1927,

na rg

85,

vol. 775, file 5643. 90 G.D. Murphy to O.S. Finnie, Fort Smith, 12 July 1927,

na rg

85,

vol. 775, file 5643. 91 See Coates, Best Left as Indians. 92 Duncan C. Scott, Report for the Year Ended 31 March 1926, Depart¬ ment of Indian Affairs, Sessional Papers, no. 14 (Ottawa, 1927), 9. 93 Report of O.S. Finnie, Inspection of Mackenzie District (July-August 1929), na

rg

85, vol. 794, file 6417.

94 O.S. Finnie to D.C. Scott, 31 May 1927,

na rg

85, vol. 764, file 5066,

part 1. 95 Report of O.S. Finnie, Inspection of Mackenzie District (July-August 1929), na

rg

85, vol. 794, file 6417.

96 Godsell, Arctic Trader, 193—497 T.W. Harris’s report, diand file 191/28-3, vol. 1, as quoted in Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 227. 98 John G.M. Christie, Diary and Clippings, June and July 1921,

hbc,a

E.76/1. 99 See comments on this attitude in Breynat, The Flying Bishop. 100 Report of the Deputy Superintendent General for Indian Atfairs, Ses¬ sional Papers, no. 14 (Ottawa, 1927), 11 • 101

Dr C. Bourget to O.S. Finnie, 19 September 1928,

na rg

85, vol. 764,

file 5075. . , 102 Corporal J.L. Halliday to Commanding Officer Great Slave Lake Su district, Fort Rae,

6

August 1928,

na rg

85,

vol.

764,

file

5075.

103 Godsell, Arctic Trader, 304-5; and extracts fiom Repoit ot Inspe H. Royal Gagnon,

na rg

85, vol. 764, file 5075.

104 Smith, Moose-Deer Island House People, 134. Diamond Jenness, m 7he

302

Notes to pages 198-205

Indians of Canada, 253, estimated the loss at 10 percent of the population. 105 Dr C. Bourget to O.S. Finnie, 19 September 1928,

na rg

85, vol. 764,

hie 5075. 106 Ibid. 107 Report of the Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs (Dun¬ can C. Scott), Sessional Papers, no. 14 (Ottawa, 1929), 7. 108 David M. Smith, Moose-Deer Island House People, 134. 109 Harold W. McGill, Report for the Year Ended 31 March 1936, De¬ partment of Indian Affairs, Sessional Papers, no. 14 (Ottawa 1937)-

17no Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 280—1. 111

Ibid., 282.

112

See Finding Aid for

rg 85,

box 1, List #2 (vols. 1—1043), na Federal

Archives Division. 113 Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 242. Moran was an inspector for the

nwt

Council.

114 As quoted in ibid., 244.

CHAPTER NINE

1 See for example, Baker, Memoirs of an Arctic Arab, 180. 2 Ibid., 168. Baker boasts that in 1925 at Fort Resolution, he obtained $1,500 of the $2,000 treaty money within a matter of hours. 3 Report of J.F. Kirkby to Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, 1950, na RG

85, vol. 147, hie 400—6, parts 5,

6.

4 Laraque, “Eleonor McNeill of Fort Smith,” 54; and Lamont, “Prelim¬ inary Report on the Ethnobotany of the Fisherman Lake Slave,” typescript for Fisherman Lake Archaeology Project (1974), chives,

MTSA

nwt

Ar¬

4/41.

5 Baker, Memoirs of an Arctic Arab, 75. 6 Sharp, “The Null Case,” 224, regarding the Chipewyan of Brochet, Manitoba, and Fond du Lac, Saskatchewan. 7 See the Annual Report of the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, Sessional Papers, no. 27, for the years prior to 1922, and no. 14 there¬ after. 8 Flume, Canada Moves North, 186. 9 Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for 1927, Sessional Papers, no. 14 (Ottawa, 1928), 45, and for 1929 (Ottawa, 1930), 81. Richard Finnie reported in 1941 that motors cost $250 each and gas¬ oline 30^ per gallon (Canada Moves North, 186). 10 Godsell, Arctic Trader, 300. 11 W.A.B. Douglas, The Creation of a National Air Force, 41.

303

Notes to pages 205-11

12 Molson, “Early Flying along the Mackenzie,” 44. 13 Zaslow, The Northward Expansion of Canada, 180. 14 For more on the history of aviation in the north, see Ellis, Canada s Flying Heritage-, John W. Chalmers, “Wayfaring, Airborne and Earthbound,” in Chalmers, The Land of Peter Pond, 89-97; and Finnie, Canada Moves North, 92—110. 15 Report of Inspector M. Christianson to Department of Indian Affairs, Calgary, 18 August 1936,

na rg

85, vol. 873, file 8752.

16 J.P. Harvey to Secretary, Indian Affairs Branch, Fort Norman, 1 Feb¬ ruary 1939,

na rg

85, vol. 267, file 1003-2-1, part 1.

17 Baker, Memoirs of an Arctic Arab, 41. See also Godsell, Arctic Trader, i5°-i18 Robertson, ed., A Gentleman Adventurer, 65. 19

cbc

Television, “We Remember,” broadcast 4 August

1979-

20 Robertson, A Gentleman Adventurer, 66. 21

Ibid., 23 September 1928, 63.

22 Godsell, Arctic Trader, 205. 23 Ibid., 300-1. 24 Zaslow, “The Northwest Territories 1905-1980,” 10. 25 Wherrett and Moore, “Arctic Survey,” 51-2. 26 Cited in Fumoleau, “The Treaties,” 20. 27 Harold McGill to all Indian agents, 14 January 1937, cited in Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 26728 Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 288. 29

na rg

85, file 835, item 7745. The names on this petition provide an

interesting glimpse into the diverse origins of the non-native trap¬ pers in the area: George, Jones, Boudah, Foe, Lindberg, Rorwich, Pear¬ son, Arhus, McNeil, Turner, Field, Epler, FaFlair, Crombie, Derosier, Rolier, Whitlock, Carlson, Mulholland, McEwan, and Sullivan. 30

na rg

85, file 46, item 2694, Letter series regarding Game Policy,

12 July to 14 September 1935. 31

Extract from minutes of

nwt

Council, 13 February 1934,

na rg

85,

vol. 267, file 1003—2—1, part 1. 32 Telegram from Bishop Breynat to d .A. Crerar, Edmonton, 5 Apiil 1937,

na rg

85, vol. 267, file 1003-2-1, part 1.

23 The account given here is based on that drawn together by Fumoleau, As Long as This Land Shall Last, 292—6. 34 Ibid., 295. 35 F.P. Fallaize, na rg

omi,

to Charles Camsell, Fort Simpson, 21 January 1938,

85, vol. 267, file 1003—2-1, part 1.

36 Alberta Order-in-Council no. 298, 6 March 1935. 37

na rg

45, file 46, item 2694, Letter series regarding Game Policy,

12 July to 14 September 1935.

304

Notes to pages 211-20

38 Clancy, “State Policy and the Native Trapper,” 195. 39 Order-in-Council no. 976, 3 May 1938; Order-in-Council no. 2470, 4 October 1938. 40 Dawson, ed., The New North-West, 33. 41

For accounts of these prospects, see Zaslow, The Northward Expansion of Canada, chap. 8; and Coates, ed., The Alaska Highway.

42 M. Meikle to R.A. Gibson, Yellowknife, 9 August 1944,

na rg

85,

na rg

85,

vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2. 43 Abel, “The South Nahanni River Region,” 173. 44 F. Fraser to R.A. Gibson, Yellowknife, 9 January 1945, vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2. 45 Davies, The Great Mackenzie, 4, 33. 46 Ibid., v, 4. 47 Extracts from game wardens’ reports for period ended 31 December 1947,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003-2—1, part 2.

48 Minutes, Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, 17 November 1947, na rg

85, vol. 147, hie 400-6, parts 5, 6.

49 Ibid., observations of Col. J.P. Richards. 50 Noted through the hies,

na rg

85, vol. 267, file 1003—2—1, part 2. There

were many other similar complaints. 51 Dr L.J. Mulvihill to R.A. Hooy, Fort Resolution, 17 July 1947,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003—2—1, part 2. 52 Chief Glosmere Lamalice to Governor General of Canada, Hay River, 25 June 1949,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003—2—1, part 2.

53 Report of Pascal Bugghins, Fort Resolution Agency, 31 March 1948, na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003-2—1, part 2.

54 G.H. Gooderham to Maj. D.M. McKay, Calgary, 14 September 1949, na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003—2—1, part 2.

55 I. McT. Cowan to R.A. Gibson, 5 April 1948,

na rg

85, vol. 147,

hie 400-6, parts 5, 6. 56 Department of Resources and Development, Services Branch, Annual Report (Ottawa, 1950), 32—3. 57 Council of the Northwest Territories, Debates, 10 December 1951, 44. 58 L.C. Hunter, Survey of Conditions in Mackenzie Basin and Western Arctic, Fort Norman, 22 April 1948,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie

1003-2-1, part 2. 59 William Sloan to J.W. Burton, Fort Smith, 22 October 1949,

na rg

vol. 267, file 1003-2-1, part 2. 60 Clancy, “State Policy and the Native Trapper,” 198. 61 G.H. Gooderham (Regional Supervisor of Agencies) to Maj. D.M. McKay, Calgary, 14 September 1949, 1003-2-1, part 2. 62 Ibid., 11-13.

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie

85,

305

Notes to pages 220-6

63 Jarvenpa, “Spatial and Ecological Factors,” 47. 64 James G. Smith, “Local Band Organization,” 20. Smith comments that the Cree in the same areas chose to take out traplines as individuals or small family groups rather than as collectives, as did the Chipewyan. 65 Sam Trachtenberg and C.H. Herbert to the

nwt

Commissioner,

16 August 1956, quoted in Clancy, “State Policy and the Native Trapper,” 207—8. 66 Report of J.F. Kirkby to Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, Fort Resolution, 1950,

na rg

85, vol. 147, hie 400-6, parts 5, 6.

67 W. Sloan to W.C. Brown, Development Services Branch, Fort Smith, 26 September 1950,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2.

68 Comments of Warden McCall on Report of Warden O.F. Eliason, Good Hope, June 1952; M. Meikle’s memo for J.G. Wright (Chief, North¬ ern Administration Division), Ottawa, 3 November 1952,

na rg

85,

vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2. 6g Minutes, Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, 17 May 1945, na rg

85, vol. 147, hie 400—6, parts 5,

6.

70 W. Sloan to W.C. Brown, Fort Smith, 26 September 1950,

na rg

85,

vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2. 71 “Informal Remarks” to Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, 5 No¬ vember 1951,

na rg

85, vol. 147, hie 400-6, parts 5,

6.

72 G.H. Gooderham to Maj. D.M. McKay, Calgary, 14 September 1949, na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003-2—1, part 2.

73 Clancy, “State Policy and the Native Trapper,” 201. 74 Edgar D. Cooke, “Boom and Bust,” in Chalmers, The Land of Peter Pond, 102. 75 Chief Glosmere Lamalice to the Governor General, Hay River, 25 June 1949,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2.

76 D.J. Martin to R.A. Gibson, Hay River, 15 August i949> NA RG ^5> vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2. 77 Chiefs Beaulieu, Phressie, and Simmons to J.A. Simmons, Fort Reso¬ lution, 25 July 1950; R.A. Gibson toj. Aubrey Simmons, 12 Sep¬ tember 1950; G.R. Clark to R.A. Gibson, 27 September 1950,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003-2-1, part 2. 78 Extract from monthly report of Warden Camsell, Hay River, July 1949, na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003—2—1, part 2.

79 R.A. Jenness, Great Slave Lake Fishing Industry, 13. 80 Council of the

nwt,

Debates, Votes and Proceedings, 10 December 1951,

4381

Council of the

. nwt,

Papers, no. 20 (July 1961), 163. 82 R.A. Jenness, Great Slave Lake Fishing Industry, 4. 83 Ibid., 3.

„

“Fishing Industry, Northwest Territories, Sessional

306

Notes to pages 226-39

84 “Mackenzie District Trappers Meetings, 1960,” Council of the

nwt,

Ses¬

sional Papers, no. 6 (January 1961), 3. 85 “Fishing Industry, Northwest Territories,” Council

of

the

nwt,

Sessional

Papers, no. 20 (July 1961), 158. 86 For an outline, see R.A. Jenness, Great Slave Lake Fishing Industry, 23-4. 87 Royal Commission on Canada’s Economic Prospects, Report (Ottawa,

1957). 4i388 William Sloan to W.C. Brown of Development Services Branch, fort Smith, 26 September 1950,

na rg

85, vol. 267, hie 1003—2—1,

part 2.

CHAPTER TEN

1 Council of the Northwest Territories, Sessional Papers, no. 6 (January 1961) , 2.

2 E.M. Hind to R.A. Gibson, Fort McPherson, 30 November 1948, rg

na

85, vol. 225, hie 630/118—1, part 1.

3 Supplementary report on St. Matthew’s Day School, Fort McPherson, Christmas 1945, 4

na rg 85,

vol.

na rg

222,

hie

85, vol. 225, hie 630/118-1, part 1. 630/110—3, part

1B.

5 Finnie, Canada Moves North, 84—5. 6 Department of Mines and Resources, Indian Affairs Branch Annual Reports, “School Statements” for 1944-54. 7 Council of the Northwest Territories, Sessional Papers, no. 17 (August 1962) , 165-7. 8 Ross and Usher, From the Roots Up, 149. 9 Report of Pascal Bugghins, Fort Resolution, 31 March 1948,

na rg

85,

vol. 267, hie 1003-2—1, part 2. 10 News of the North 11, no 34 (20 January 1956). 11 Council of the Northwest Territories, Votes and Proceedings, July i960,

45-712 Report of Bugghins. 13 Lynda Lange, paper presented at the University of Manitoba (winter 1987); also Lynda Lange, “The Changing Situation of Dene Elders, and of Marriage, in the Context of Colonialism: The Experience of Fort Franklin 1945—1985,” in Dacks and Coates, eds., Northern Commu¬ nities, 23—33. 14 As a result of the education experiences of young people sent to res¬ idential schools, a cross-Canada outpouring of emotion has oc¬ curred in recent years. Dene graduates are no exception. See comments by George Blondin, Bella Trindell, and Philipp Lafferty in Lanny Cooke and Camille Piche, Liidh Koe, 21-3. 15

“pm

to Open North Wealth,” Winnipeg Tribune, 13 February 1958, 1.

307

Notes to pages 239—54

16 Quoted in Newman, Renegade in Power, 218. 17 Diefenbaker, One Canada 2:8—9. 18 Newman, Renegade in Power, 218. 19 According to ibid. 20 Tungsten is used primarily in light-bulb filaments. See W.K. Buck and J.F. Henderson, “The Role of Mineral Resources in the Develop¬ ment and Colonization of Northern Canada,” in Bladen, ed., Canadian Population and Northern Colonization; and C.J. Brown, “The Geology of the Flat RiverTungstenDeposits,’’C.M.M. Bulletin 54, no. 591 (July 1961). 21

Bishop Breynat to R.A. Gibson (Deputy Commissioner), Aklavik, 8 July 1949,

na rg

85, vol. 267, file 1003-2-1, part 2.

22 G.H. Gooderham (Regional Supervisor of Indian Agencies) to Maj. D.M. McKay (Director, Indian Affairs Branch), Calgary, 14 Sep¬ tember 1949,

na rg

85, vol. 267, file 1003-2-1, part 2.

23 Report of the Nelson commission (1959), 3-4. 24 Ibid., 4. 25 Ibid., 6—7. 26 Area Economic Surveys, Industrial Division, Department of Indian Af¬ fairs and Northern Development, 1958-69. 27 Anders and Morissett, Rae-Lac la Marte, 10—48. 28 Berger, Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland 1:124. 29 Wolforth, The Evolution and Economy of the Delta Community, 2:126—7. 30 Higgins, The Lower Liard Region. 31 Anders and Morissett, Rae-Lac la Marte, 82ff. Calculations of meat cost are my own, based on their information. 32 Kupsch, “The New Northwest Territories,” 11. 33 Council of the Northwest Territories, Debates (October 1965), 6. 34 “Government Surrenders!” Native Press, 8 October 1971. 35 Interview with James Wah-Shee in Devine, “The Dene Nation,

17.

36 House of Commons, DAto, 11 March 1970. 37 Standing Committee on Indian and Northern Affairs, Proceedings, 10 June 1971. 38 Mr Gordon to the Standing Committee on Indian and Northern Affairs, 2 May 1972. 39 Ibid., 25 May 1972. 40 Native Press, 10 April 1974, 2. 41 “Tripartite Committee Report on an Ordinance Respecting Education in the Northwest Territories,” Metis Association of NWT/Indian Brotherhood of the NWT/Tree of Peace, April 1976. 42 Edmonton Journal, 20 May 1976. 43 See Page, Northern Development, 1—3, 37^’ an

Back, George, 95

86

174-5250

192-3.

216,

334

Index

Christie, Alexander, 146

Diefenbaker, John

f irth, John, 207

Churchill, 32, 35, 53-9, 62, 67-9, 71, 73-5, 84,

George, 239 Disease, 63—4, 109-10, 173, 208, 266; influ¬ enza, 197—8, 208, 235; scarlet fever, 122—3,

Fishing, 5, 14, 19, 27, 29; commercial, 223—4, 226-7; techniques,

175 Church Missionary Soci¬ ety, 114, 119 Clancy, Peter, 211, 219, 223 Clothing, 37-8 Glut, Isidore, 121, 129, 139- ‘63

Coates, Kenneth, 167, 268 Commission to Investi¬ gate the Unfulfilled Pro¬ visions of Treaties 8 and 11, 241—2 Conroy, H.A., 172—3, 176, 185-6, 192 Conservation: Dene techniques, 28, 218, 222; government in¬ terest, 190, 211,214—15, 218, 220 Cooperatives, 227, 253—4 Copper, 6, 12—13, 31—2, 49. 51- 53- 55. 59-6o, 75 Coppermine, 12, 20, 31, 70—1, 262 Crapaud, Chief, 213 Cree, 20, 32—3, 36-7, 44-5. 49-53. 67, 71, 76, 169-71, 175, 216 Cumberland House, 71 Cust and Davis, 154-5 Daligasse, James, 175 Davis, H.F., 154—5 Death customs, 23, 85, 107, 143 Deh-Cho Regional Coun¬ cil, 260 De Krangue, Noel, 131,

137. 149-5G smallpox, 72-3, 109, 157, 197; tuberculosis, 237 Dogrib, xiv—xvi, 9, 19, 32, 36, 38-9, 45, 68-9, 73, 75-6, 91, 103, 122, 131, 158, 164, 196, 216, 219, 246, 250 Dogrib-Yellowknife War, 73, 91—6, iog, 158 Dogs, 130—1 Dominion Wildlife Ser¬ vice, 2 14 Drygeese, Chief, 196—7 Dunne-za. See Beaver (people) Dunvegan, 95, 147, 154 Dz-ghal-iaze, 47 Echo Bay mine, 243 Economic development, 218-19, 227, 228—9, 242-3. 253-4 Education. See Schools Edzo, 95 Ehtsontsie, 47 Ekerichli, 130 English Chief. See Aw-geenah English River, 72, 100, 108, 159 Epidemics. See Diseases Erasmus, Bill, 258 Erasmus, Georges, 255 Evans, James, 115

151

Dene Declaration, 252 Dene Mat, 253 Dene Nation, xv, 252—3, 254-6, 258, 261 Denendeh, 258, 261—3 Dentalium, 105, 147 Devine, Marina, 258 Dewdney, A.S., 232 Dickerson, Mark, 260

Family: size, 18; compo¬ sition, 20 Family Allowances. See Social services Faraud, Henri, 115, 134-5 Fidler, Peter, 79, 83 Finnie, Richard, 232 Firebags, 31

28-9 Fond du Lac, 81, 209 Food preparation tech¬ niques, 14, 27, 203 Forest fires, 177—8, 213 Forget, AmedeeEmmanuel, 168 Fort Chipewyan, 32, 160, 175, 176; disease at, 110, 137; and fur trade, 81, 89, 90, 99—100, 108; game regulations at, 210; mis¬ sions at, 116, 137; prophets at, 129; pro¬ tests at, 81, 216; schools, 180—3; Treaty 8, 170, 172—3 Fort Good Hope: disputes at, 97, 101; fur trade at, 93, 98, 103-5; and game regulations, 221; Indian agency, 199; people, xvii; petro¬ leum, 167; prophets at, 129, 158; protests at, 207; Treaty 11, 186 Fort Liard, 96, 104, 107, 110, 121, 140, 151, 186, 198 Fort McMurray, 170 Fort McPherson, 110, 181, 183, 186, 195—6, 207, 23U 235. 259 Fort Nelson, 137, 212, 243 Fort Norman: DogribYellowknife War and, 93; economy, 206; fur trade at, 91; game man¬ agement station, 214; game regulations at, 216, 221; Metis dis¬ pute at, 101; and mis¬ sions, 133,135; people, xvii; petroleum, 183; protests, 216; radio, 205; Trappers

335

Index

Association, 228; Treaty 11, 186—7 Fort Providence (old), 91 Fort Rae, 121, 132, 155, 186, 197, 216, 219,

Fumoleau, Rene, 171, 176, 185-7, '99- 209,

253 Fur tax, 190 Fur trade: Americans

Grant, Cuthbert, 74 Great Bear Lake, xvi, xvii, xviii, 5, 13, 84, 92, 110, 119, 150 Great Slave Lake, xvi,

221, 225, 237, 243-4,

and, 152-7, 159; Dene

xvii, 5, 13,28,53,57,63,

250

strategies, 54-6,

71, 77, 81-2, 85, 91,

58-61, 78, 81-3, 89-90,

94—6, 110, 142, 148,

at, 110, 198; economy

108-9, 153- 156.

150, 158, 167, 168,

of, 203, 236-7; and fur

207-8; hbc policies, 46,

171, 176, 198, 219, 223,

trade, 81, 82, 85, 90-1,

89, 206-7; middle¬

225

Fort Resolution: disease

Gregory, McLeod and

157; game management

men, 58, 62—3, 65-6,

station, 214; missions

68-70, 73, 78, 90-1,

at, 115, 121; police post,

97-8, 157; population

Grey Nuns, 118—9, 125>

177; protests at,

movement and, 56—7,

209—10, 217, 220, 225;

75- 79- 103-4- 157-8; preferred goods, 6i,

133. '35- Mo- 15°. 180 Grollier, Pierre-Henri,

Treaty 8, 171, 209-10 Fort St John, 95-6, 146,

.

159 171 Fort Simpson, 10, 29, 93, 212; aviation and,

Company, 74

1 16—7, 136

75, 76-7, 104-6, 147-8,

Gros Pied. See Akaitcho

155, 156, 203; prices,

Grouard, Emile-Jean-

69. 77- 99- 155-6206-8; relations with

Baptiste-Marie, 121, 125, 131 Guns, 45—8, 51, 54, 61, 64,

ease at, 110, 151; fur

the hbc, 102, 207; vio¬ lence and, 75, 78,

trade at, 89-90, 99, 103,

79-81, 83, 91-3, 95-8,

Gwich’in, xiv, xvii, 9, 25,

107—8; game regula¬

101—2

205-6; co-op, 253; dis¬

76-7, 104-5, 2°3 28, 37, 58, 66, 96-8, 105—6, 109, 110, 120,

tions and, 214, 221; growth of, 237; mis¬

Gallatin, Albert, xiv

130, 141, 147, 151-3.

sions, 116, 119, 121-3,

Game preserves, 194-5,

i58- ‘95- 257-8

125. 133. !35. M8140; police at, 167, 177;

211, 213, 219, 240 Game regulations, 173,

Hamgou, 92

protests at, 197—8,

195, 199-200, 210-11,

Hanks, Christopher, 29

210, 217; schools at,

215-17, 219, 222-3,

Hardisty, Allen, 127

181-3, 234-5; starva¬

267-8

Hardisty, William Lucas,

tion at, 162; Trappers

Game wardens, 215

Association, 228;

Gathering. See Plant use

Treaty 8, 164, 168, 176;

Geological Survey of Can¬

Treaty 11, 186—7, 197-8 Fort Smith, 245; people,

ada, 167, 212, 228 Gillespie, Beryl C., 11, 35,

95

xv; game regulations

Glaciation, 4-5

and, 215, 221; hospital

Godsell, Philip, 188, 196,

at, 137; protests at,

198, 208

192-4; schools, 182-3,

Gold, 146, 167, 176, 267

232, 234-5; Trappers

Goulet, Charles, 197-8

Association, 228;

Graham, Maxwell, 191

138, 147-8, 150, 154-6 Hare (people), xiv, xv, xvii, 10, 37, 66, 76, 92-3, 97, 101, 110 Harris, T.W., 186, 200, 209 Hay River, xv, xvii, 96,

119. 154. ML 181. 194, 217, 224-5, 245-

257 Hearne, Samuel, 19, 24-30, 58, 69-72, 110

Treaty 8, 170, 174,

Grand Blanc, 96, 104

Helm, June, 95

192-4

Grand Cheveux, 89

Herschel Island, 181

Fort Wedderburn, 81

Grand Jambe, 92

Hewitt, Gordon, 190

Fort Yukon, 98, 105,

Grand Jeune Flomme,

Homeopathy, 136

147- M9- 151-2, *54. 156

Frobisher, Joseph, 71, 80

82, 86 Grandin, Vital-Justin, 122, 132, 138, 181

Housing: construction techniques, 14, 33—4 Hunter, James, 116-17

336

Index

Hunting techniques: bows, 13, 22, 26, 29; pounds, 24—5; snares, 13,25-6, 29-30, 54,64; spears, 5, 7, 13, 25, 29

Lac la Biche, 79, 159 Lac la Martre, xvi, 29, 86, 90, 92, 93-5, 99, 107, 231, 253 Lacombe, Albert, 169 Laird, David, 168—70

Ile-a-la-Crosse, 71, 74, 76, 115, 129, 175, 181 Indian agents, 174, 179, 196, 199—200, 203, 206, 212, 217, 220, 223 Indian Brotherhood of the nwt, 246—52 Indigenous Survival Inter¬ national, 253 Infanticide, 21, 23, 120, 142 Ings, Dr George, 197 Inuit, 31-3, 37, 53, 55, 60, 62, 65, 81, 96-7, 109, 158, 197, 243, 261, 262 Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, 261 Inuvialuit, 262

Lake Athabasca, 63, 69,

Macrae, J.A., 171

227

Mangeur de Lard, 90

Lamalice, Casimir, 194, 216-18, 224

35. 46

Lange, Linda, 237

Matonabbee, 20, 22, 58,

L’Anglois, 96 Language: groups, 7, 18; and culture, 264; in

Medical services, 136—8, !50. *73- !97> *99 Mellor, Arthur H.L., 176

249-50 La Pierre’s House, 98, 152, 154 L’Association des Metis d’Alberta et des tno, 209

170-1, 173 Lebeaux, Albert, 188

Loucheux. See Gwich’in

Keelshies, 20, 69—70

McClellan, Catharine, 38 McDonald, Kenneth,

Krech III, Shepard, 105

153’ 157 McDonald, Robert, 120, 141, 153 McGillis, Cuthbert, 145—6 Mackenzie Air Service, 205, 212 Mackenzie, Alexander, xiv, 9, 26, 28, 35, 38-9, 73- 74- 77- 86, 110

La Butte, 85, 86

Metis Association of the nwt, 249, 255-6, 258, 261

tion Act, 190 Mining, 211—12, 213, 239- 243

Mis-ta-poose, 78 Montagnais, 1 1 Moose, 29

Kelsey, Henry, 35, 46, 49

Kutchin. See Gwich’in

243, 251-2, 256

Migratory Birds Conven¬

259-61

Keele River, 6

Koe, James, 241

158, 168-70, 172, 175,

255.

Leroux, Laurent, 77

Kaska, xvii

46, 48-54

116, 140—2, 145—6,

Metis Nation, 258

168, 215

Knight, James, 25, 31,

tage la Loche Metis, 76, 83, 85—7,

the nwt, 245, 247,

Livingston, Duncan, 81

>49

Methye Portage. See Por¬

187, 209, 227, 237,

Laviolette, Alexandre,

Kanoobaw,91, 93

122, 126, 132, 139,

Mercredi, Pierre, 170

88—9, 98—102, 110, 113,

La Verendrye, Pierre

Liard River, xvii, 1, 159,

Kirkby, David North,

68-71, 74 Mayo, Alfred, 154

schools, 181—2,

Julius, Chief, 195-6

Kin-oo-say-oo, 164

Marriage customs, 20, 79 Martin, Calvin, 63—4

Legislative Assembly of Jeremie, Nicholas, 32,

Marest, Gabriel, 45

Land claims, 187, 255—8

67

Jarvenpa, Robert, 27-8

93

McQueston, Leroy, 154

Mandeville, Francois, 32

Irene Training School, Iroquois, 79—80

line Inquiry, 252 McLeod, Alexander R.,

151, 155, 158, 193, 223,

Gaultier de Varennes,

Ives, John, 18

xvii, 6, 9, 21, 29, 75 Mackenzie Valley Pipe¬

7D 73-4- 78, 80, 83,

Inuvik, 14, 234-5, 243 180

Mackenzie River, xv,

Mackenzie, James, 78

Morice, Adrien-Gabriel, xiv, 31 Morris, Augusta, 136 Morrison, William R., 167 Morrow decision, 251 Morton, Arthur Silver, 79,

88 Mountain (people), xv, xvii, 10, 36, 66, 96, 103 Mourning. See Death cus¬ toms Munk, Jens, 32

337

Index

Murray, Alexander Hunter, 98 Music, xiii, 39, 133

Oblates of Mary Immacu¬ late, 114, 118—19 Oil and gas. See Petroleum

Port Radium, 211, 214 Portage la Loche, 72, 80, 100, 102, 129, 159

Ojibwa, 33, 44, 79, 131

Pouce Coupee, 86

Nahanni (people), 84

Old Crow, 5

Prince of Wales’s Fort. See

Nahanni National Park,

Onion, Julian. See

247-8 Naming practices, 20—1 Native Communications Society of the nwt, 254 Natural Resources

Camsell, Julian Oral traditions, 86, 198—9; origin stories, 8; on population move¬

Churchill Prophets, 107, 128—31, 158 Providence, 118, 121, 150, 156, 180—2, 186-7

ments, 8—9, 10—11, 12;

Transfer Agreement,

on resources, 12—13,

Radio, 205, 237

210

30, 32, 66; on warfare,

Rae-Edzo, xvi, 250

Nau-derri-cho, 104

47-8, 73, 94-5; on the

Red Leggings, 152

Navajo, xiv, 9, 11—12

fur trade, 49, 74—5

Red River, 99-101, 110,

Nelson, Walter H., 241 Nelson Commission. See Commission to Investi¬

Orphanages, 118, lig, 142, 150 Oul-ly, 68

114-16, 140, 145, 154 Reeve, William Day, 121, 122, 123, 127, 136, 141-2, 149

gate the Unfulfilled Provisions of Treaties

Palaeo-Eskimo, 6

Reindeer Lake, 80-1

8 and 11

Parker, John H., 244, 250

Relief, 163, 165, 179, 187

Nerysoo, Richard, 259

Paulette, Frangois, 251

Religion: Dene, 39-42,

Nielsen, Erik, 248

Peace River, 73, 78—9, 90,

Norman Wells, 6, 214 Northern Co-operative Fisheries, 227 Northern Traders Lim¬ ited, 189, 193, 196, 205,

95, 146, 155-6, 158, 167, 168, 193, 205 Peace treaties, 48, 73

Company, 2 14

and religion Reserves, 168, 170,

Peel River, xvii, 97, 110

173-4, 186-7, !93>

Peterson, Jacqueline,

240—1, 251 Roads. See Transportation

207—8, 216 Northern Transportation

123. See also Shamans; Prophets; Women -

Petitions, 191, 209, 216-17, 224

— overland Roads to Resources pro¬ gram, 239-40

North West Company,

Petitot, Emile, xiv, xvii,

75—6, 78—80, 83, 84,

9, 10-11, 30, 37, 74,

Robertson, Gordon, 236

85, 86-7, 109

101, 117, 129, 132-3,

Ross, Bernard Rogan,

Northwest Game Act, lgo-t, 196 Northwest Microblade tradition, 6 North-West Mounted Police, 167, 168 Northwest Territories

*35 Petroleum, 161, 167, 183-4, 211, 214, 242,

Rotstein, Abraham, 139

250

Round, H.B., 169—70

Phressie, Pierre, 225

Royal Canadian Mounted

Plano culture, 5-6, 8

Police, 190, 197-200,

Plant use, 30—1, 38, 39

Council, 209, 212, 214,

Poitras, 90

218-19, 223, 225-6,

Pond, Peter, 71, 74-7, 80

232, 237, 245, 247, 255,

Population: groupings,

259

Northwest Territories

36, 100, 117, 121 Ross, James, 257

xv- xvi, 6; distribution,

205, 216 Royal North-West Mounted Police, 176-7,

•79 Rundle, Robert, 115

xvi- xviii; precon¬

Forest and Game Man¬

tact numbers, 19;

Sahneuti, 153, 157

agement Service, 214

eighteenth-century

Sahtu-Dene, xv, xviii,

Norton, Moses, 68—70

numbers, 19; twentieth-

Norton, Richard, 54, 60-1

century numbers, 238

258 St Germain, Pierre, 95

Norwegian, Joseph, 187

Porritt, Robert, 245

Salt River, 86, 100, 174

Norwegians, 176

Porsild, A.E., 222

Sarcee, xiv, 12

338

Index

Saskatchewan: govern¬ ment programs, 220, 227

South Nahanni River, 176, 239 Spendlove, William,

Schoolcraft, Henry, xiv

124-6, 130, 133, 135,

Schools: Dene participa¬

'37- ‘51

tion, 124, 144, 182—3, 231-5- 238-9, 248-50, 266; government funding for, 180—2, 232, 234; government policy and, 180—2,

Starvation, 93-4, 104, 107, 111, 150, 162-3 Staunton, Richard, 55, 56—7, 60-1 Stewart, William, 49-50,

53

Treaty 6, 164 Treaty 8: controversy, 171—4, 200, 210, 217, 253; negotiation of, 164,167, 169-72 Treaty 10, 175 Treaty 11: controversy, 187-8, 217, 240-2, 253; negotiation of, 185-7 Tree of Peace, 249

234-5; mission day,

Surveys, 173-4

Tribal councils, 260

119, 120, 160, 180—3;

Syllabics, 117, 11 g

Trout Lake, 90, 110, 151,

Tache, Alexandre A.,

Trudeau, Pierre Elliott,

155, 186

mission boarding, 1 18, 119, 181-3, 232—3; res¬ idential, 232—4 Schultz, John Christian, 160 Schultz Committee. See

115, 118, 129 Tausigouai, 92 Thanadelthur, 18, 49—53, The Butte. See La Butte

enquire into the re¬

The Pea, 82

sources of the Great

Thibeault, Jean-Baptiste,

Scrip, 168—9, *72, 175, 187 Sekani, xiv, xvii Senate committee to en¬ quire into the re¬ sources of the Great

80

64

Senate committee to

Mackenzie Basin

246, 247 Turnor, Philip. 72, 76, 78,

115

Thompson, Judy, 38 Tourangeau, Francois, 146

Usher, Peter J., 236

Valentine, Victor F., 241 Vermilion, 96, 104, 1 10, 119, 148, 155, 170, 180-1 Volcanoes, 9-11

Trade, precontact, 13-14, 38-9 Trade chiefs, 71, 78, 81,

Wah-Shee, James, 246, 248, 255, 258-9, 262

Mackenzie Basin,

82, 89, 91, 96, 97,

160—2, 167, 267

103-4, 108, 110, 153,

45-8, 62, 68, 73;

•57

Dogrib-Yellowknife,

Shamans, 19, 40—1, 121, 123, 129, 132, 137 Shield Archaic tradition,

Transportation, 14; avia¬ tion, 205—6, 211-12,

War: Cree-Chipewyan,

73, 91-6, 109, 158; other, 96—7

243; barges, 184, 211,

Watkins, Mel, 254—5

Sibbeston, Nick, 259

229; canoes, 35—6,

Welfare. See Relief

Sifton,.Clifford, 168

204-5; moose-skin

Wentzel, Willard Fer¬

Simpson, George, 86, 88,

boats, xviii, 36—7; over¬

5-6

116, 145 Slavey (people), xiv, xv,

land, 34-5, 56; rail¬ ways, 184, 229; roads,

xvii, 9, 10, 36, 38-9, 67,

159, 184, 211, 224,

75-6, 90-1, 94, 125,

229, 239—40; steam¬

164, 210 Slaw-ealth-el-ene, 108 Smith, David, 198-9 Smith, Edward, 89, 91, 103, 110 Smith, James G.E., 11 Snare Lake, xvi Snowdrift, 143, 254 Social services, 235—7

boats, 159, 204, 2 11 Trapline registration, 210-11, 218-20 Trappers’ associations, 228, 231-2 Trapping regulations, 190-1 Treaty boycotts, 196-7, 209-10

dinand, 21, 42, 83, 89, 110 Wesleyan Methodist mis¬ sions, 115 White River, 10—11, 13,

53 Women: cultural tradi¬ tions, 20-3, 38, 111; economic role, 23, 29, 78—9, 84, 86, 103-4, 110, 203, 237-8; and politics, 101; and reli¬ gion, 40-1, 127,

!33-6>14°

339

Index

Wood Buffalo Park, igi-3, 216 Workman, William B., g Wrigley, xvii, 162, 186

Yellowknife (city), 211—13, 22g, 232, 245, 246

xy Company, 80

19, 20, 31, 48, 59-61,

192 Yendo, Julian, 187 York Factory, 44, 46, 51-4- 57- 61-2, 71, 74,

Yakalaya, Johnny, 216

98, 147, 152, 159

Yellowknife (people), xvi,

68, 75, 90-5, 109, 164, Xavier, Antoine, 164

Yukon River, xvii, 10, 6

'75

Zaslow, Morris, 205