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Tiqtiq, Brother Tadger, and Charles Dickens:The Theatre in the Round of Mackenzie Inuit Missions

1857-1863

(Short version, draft h)

Walter Vanast

McGill University

Intellectual Property

Corrections and suggestions invited

[email protected]

[email protected]


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Tiqtiq, Brother Tadger, and Charles Dickens:

The Theatre in the Round of Mackenzie Inuit Missions

1857-1863

Walter Vanast McGill University

Everything goeth, everything returneth . . .

for every here rolleth the ball turning there . . .

crooked is the path of eternity.1

F. Nietzsche

To arctic-coast tribes in pre-contact days history was a circle, as newborns received the

name of someone recently deceased and thereby became that person.2 But to whites who met

them it led straight from Adam to last judgment, when the dead would all rise and be assigned to

heaven or hell. How that was first heard in 1859 by a delegation of Mackenzie Inuit3 is the

subject of this article, as are the reasons it happened at Fort Simpson, a thousand miles south of

their home.4

A Troubled Decade:

The Hudsons Bay Company in the 1850s

The Hudsons Bay Company in the mid-century entered a difficult era, as an ending

loomed to its rights to Ruperts Land and the Northwest Territory, two immense terrains. Issued

in 1821 and valid for under twenty years, the licence to the latter had once been extended, but

free trade was in vogue by the time that was needed again. Showing doubt, Parliament submitted

the HBC to hearings in London.

Witnesses at that 1857 venue criticized Company conduct not only in the Territories, but

in Ruperts Land, the charter to which would expire in just over a decade. Most damaging of all

in that respect were plaints from residents of the Red River Settlement5

(later Winnipeg), who

chafed under HBC control.

Started for Scottish crofters forty years earlier, the Settlement had instead become a home

for retired Company employees and their mixed-blood descendants. Their farms by now

produced plentiful crops, many trades had developed, and private business was starting to


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growso they resented the Companys monopoly on commerce, and sought instant cancellation

of its charter.

To that end, a small group of the Settlements entrepreneurs had since 1846 drawn

attention to the fate of aboriginal peoples throughout fur-trade country. In an obvious ploy to

gain Britains support, they accused the Company6 of treating natives like slaves and refusing to

tell them of God. That meant (so they claimed by means of a legal pirouette) it had failed to meet

crucial obligations, and that therefore the charter was void.

Another means to get British attention was to state that the Company favoured Rome

over Canterbury, and that charge seemed valid if one looked at the Territory. In 1857 It held not

a single Protestant cleric, while Roman priests, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, had been present

more than half a decade and had gone as far north as Great Slave Lake.

It was there the next year, at Fort Resolution, that Father Henri Grollier arrived to put up

a permanent chapel.7

A driven man, nasty even to Oblates, he had asked permission from HBC

Governor Sir George Simpson to descend the Mackenzie, but a late response almost let an

Anglican cleric do it first.

The Reverend Hunter Leaves his Parish

About the time that Grollier started to build, Anglican reverend James Hunter, a fervent

evangelical, took leave from his Settlement parish. His reasons were several and some he could

not state, but it was a time of social turmoil and one senses he needed escape. Conflict had arisen

between Anglicans and Presbyterians (Pannekoek), and anger was high against the HBC, which

put the minister in an awkward position.

During a decade at posts8

further north, Hunter had formed warm ties with HBC men and

had married a daughter of Chief Factor Donald Ross and his wife Maria, a prominent couple.9

At

the Settlement, too, he got along fine with fur-trade staff, even as he saw that some Company

policies were unjust toward local residents. So he felt conflicted as its charter was challenged, its

licence put at risk, and its treatment of natives distorted in Britain.

Adding to the ministers woes was the Rev. Griffith Corbett , a fractious colleague with a

spotty past (Boreski), who preached rebellion against the HBC and supported claims it blocked

missionshe testified that year before the parliamentary committee.


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Ambition, too, pushed Hunters leave. Already an archdeacon,10

he might some day be in

line for the bishops position, and could raise the chance by blazing a path for new missions. But

the reason he gave in public, and in which he fiercely believed, was to battle Rome, whose

priests had set up base in the Territories and were about to reach the Mackenzie. His plan to

push right through them meant long absence from home (a fourth child was just born), but he

yearned to plant the cross among the Inuit. (1857, 1858a-c)

Sir John Franklin and the Ends of the Earth.

Hunters intended route played into whites fascination with the Arctic11

, as he would

follow the steps of naval officer Sir John Franklin, who had in 1826 explored the coast via the

Mackenzie. His ventures were well known, and even more so at midcentury were those of parties

trying to find him after he and his ships disappeared while looking for the Northwest Passage.

What also brought prestige was the Arctics meaning to Christians, for to them the last

phrase of Jesus Great Commission, unto the end of the world, was an order to tell of God at

the globes most distant sites.12

An Old Testament text, He shall have dominion also from sea to

sea, and from the river until the ends of the earth, was thought to presage it.13

That Hunters prospects were good was shown by a converted Inuk from east of

Hudsons Bay who had come to the Settlement and whose gentle ways confirmed his people as

the easiest of tribes to make Christian.14

Having him along might have helped evangelize the

Inuit of the Mackenzie, but he passed away, supposedly because of the climate. (Hunter 1858a)

The death did not blunt Hunters drive, for he also hoped to convert the Dene, the

Mackenzies Indians, who lived along the river south of the Delta, and who were said to be well

disposed toward accepting Christ. Hence his rush to get to Fort Simpson, HBC district

headquarters, where the officer in charge, Bernard Rogan Ross, had invited him in. (Hunter

1858b) They were friends from years both had spent at posts further south and besides, were

slated to be kin: Bernard planned eventually to marry Christina, younger sibling of Hunters

wife.15

Disappointment on the Mackenzie

In June Hunter left for the blessed work (1858d) on an HBC brigade (a flotilla of oar-

driven scows, each with a crew of twelve) and months later on Great Slave Lake met Father


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Grollier. The Oblate had been doing wellin addition to making headway among the Indians, he

had formalized the marriage of an HBC employee, Charles Gaudet, and his mixed-blood wife.16

Zealous as always and pained by seeing the enemy advance, the priest dropped his local work

and joined the boats to Fort Simpson. (Grollier)

All along the route the half-breed crews, Catholic descendents of voyageurs from

Quebec, helped the Dene pray with Father Grollier and accept his blessings. At Fort Simpson,

however, another dynamic took hold. When Indians there embraced the priest, Chief Trader Ross

at once sent him back to Great Slave Lake. (Grollier; Hunter 1858e)

Though Hunter now had the Mackenzie to himself, it brought no advantage, as natives

ignored his message and the mother-in- law of Charles Gaudet hurt his work. A forceful Mtisse,

she spread word that the minister was lhomme dune femme, a man linked to a wife, while the

priest belonged to God. (Grollier) Her tone that winter may have been extra harsh because

Gaudet had left the Roman faith and joined the Church of England.17

Career concern likely nudged the young mans shift. Recently promoted from labourer

status,18

he was the only Catholic officer in the district, while Chief Trader Ross19

hated all that

had to do with the pope.The switch was the ministers only success,

20and in July, as Father

Grollier sarcastically put it, he left in shame to rejoin his dear other half.

Hunters view of Inuit (1859), still based on hearsay, had by now greatly changed: rather

than peaceful and eager to learn, they thirsted for blood and were deceitful. Their urge to kill

would soon come into play, as they had vowed revenge against a Gwichin (a member of the

Dene tribe adjacent to the Delta) who had killed his Inuit wife. The threat was overblown if it

was true at all, but it kept the minister from going north beyond the Arctic Circle to Fort

McPherson, where Inuit had only recently begun to trade.

Inuit-Gwichin Conflict

Though a fur trade post (Fort Good Hope21

) had been present on the Lower Mackenzie

since 1804, Inuit never paid it a visit. What kept them away was fear of the Gwichin, who acted

as intermediaries in trade between them and whites, and who killed when that role was

threatened. Though each spring the two tribes spent time together at the Deltas southern edge,

sometimes for as much as a month, peace quickly ended if Inuit spoke of going to the post.22


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In 1840, when Fort McPherson opened on the Peel, closer to the Delta, Gwichin

massacred many Inuit men, women, and children. (H. Mackenzie) So effective was the message

to stay away that an Inuk brought from Hudsons Bay to aid with translation had nothing to do

and was removed.23 When his help were again offered in 1843, the clerk refused as he had no

contact whatever with Inuit. (Bell 1843).

Later that decade whenever Inuit approached the post, one or more were killed, which

made them think that whites gave Gwichin guns to kill them. (Richardson 214-15; Peers 1849).

In response the clerk sent gifts via Gwichin, hunters for the fort, to show his good will and tell

of his wish to meet them.24

The tactic worked despite a massacre (plotted by one of the

emissaries) of four Inuit25

; several men from the coast entered the fort in 1853, and each spring

thereafter a few more appeared. [ref.] Such visits from small bands, however, did not match the

Companys needs.

Lagging Business

Business at Fort McPherson had lagged since the 1847 founding across the mountains of

Fort Yukon, which had taken over trade with the western Gwichin. To raise intake of fur to

prior levels, there had to be much contact with Inuit. Problem was, if they came to Fort

McPherson in number, war with the Gwichin might occur. One solution was to place a post in

the Delta, but that Chief Trader Ross (1858) would not do without access to translation.

That interpreters were hard to find seems strange, for (as decades of Company records

show) peace between Inuit and Gwichin lasted longer than conflict, a Gwichin chief made an

annual trade journey into the Delta, and the two peoples lived side by side in spring.

Intermarriage also occurred, so for years these tribes had heard each other speak.

Similarly, some Gwichin had long traded at Fort Good Hope and Fort McPherson or

worked for those posts, and knew English well enough to interpret between it and the Inuits

language. But that skill, it appears, was lost at strategic times: when HBC clerks met Inuit in the

Delta, translation by Gwichin could be frustratingly poor.26

Children for the HBC


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To address these issues in 1858, Charles Gaudet, now in charge at Fort McPherson,

visited the Inuit in their homes. (Ross 1859) He enjoyed their hospitality, and got many pelts,

but on asking for a boy to take south to train, people needed time to reflect.

An average family, after all, consisted of a mother, a father, and two children who by age

ten helped with chores and hunts. Giving one up meant loss of labour now and of security in the

future, and besides, bonds of love were tight (except for orphans and youngsters taken in beyond

the infant stage, who might be treated as slaves).27

So to agree to the request, benefits had to be

major.

The following likely happened in winter and spring. The tribe chose to let two children

go, but in return wanted a fur-trade post to themselves. Then Gaudet told them their request

would carry more weight if put directly to Chief Trader Ross, and arranged for delegates to go

with him in July to Fort Simpsonan upstream journey of close to a month.

Gaudet did not know it, but his scheme nicely fit a command just written by Governor

Simpson (1859), who wanted a fort near the coast built at once. And since there was no

interpreter to send from Hudsons Bay, he instructed that the Inuit receive sufficient

inducement to let children be raised at a Company post. Cost for this and the new fort had no

limit. The open-ended commitment, foreign to his ways, was a calculated response to wounds the

Company had just suffered in Britain.

Theatre in London:

Charles Dickens and The Frozen Deep

For the HBC the tenor of the 1857 hearings could not have been worseand much of

that was of its own, unintended making. When two decades earlier the first expiry of the

Territory licence approached, the Company had stopped alcohol sales to natives, placed

missionaries on the trade route southwest of Hudsons Bay, and sent two of its men to explore

the Arctic shore.28

That last endeavour worked remarkably well, as large parts of the coast were

defined and new terrain was named after recently crowned Queen Victoria. As a result the

licence extension was smoothed and the Companys governors (George Simpson in North

America and his senior in England) were knighted.29

Given that success, exploration of the coast by HBC men had once again seemed an

excellent tactic prior to asking for a second licence renewal in the 1850sand besides, the


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search for Franklin and his men made for serendipitous timing. Where naval ships with large

crews and supplies had failed to learn their fate, small parties living off the land might succeed

and boost the Companys image. The initiative, however, brought the opposite of its intent. A

first effort, by the officer in charge of the Mackenzie District,30 produced little of note. A second,

by Chief Factor John Rae, who had been in charge there just before him (from 1849 to 1850),

brought a public relations disaster.

Travelling alone except for Inuit helpers, Rae learned that the last survivors from

Franklins ships had eaten dead fellow sailors before dying themselves. Rushing to England he

expected praise for his work, but instead faced anger, for the awful news could not be believed.

A campaign to discredit him and the Company was started by Franklins widow and boosted by

Charles Dickens, who wrote a play, The Frozen Deep, to show that British seamen were a heroic

lot and would never have engaged in anthropophagic acts. Queen Victoria came to see it and was

deeply touched. (McGoogan; Brannan).

The play was on stage in one part of London (with Dickens playing the most dramatic

role, each time breathing his last) while in another the parliamentary committee on the HBC

heard of high prices for trifles, blindness to native needs, failure to back missions, and payment

of sops to stifle clerics complaints. [ref.]

Sir George Simpson was made to look deceitful when he denied cannibalism occurred

among starving tribes and a letter was produced describing that very act by Gwichin outside the

gates at Fort McPherson.31

Matters were made worse by Rae, who botched his explanation of

Company profit, admitted he had never understood its tariff, and told that while in charge of the

Mackenzie he had ignored an order to lower what was charged for certain goods.32

Adding to the damage were jeremiads against the HBC,33 broadsides from the Aborigines

Protection Society (1856), complaints by naval figures involved in the search for Franklin,34

and

campaigns against it by several former employees.35 And since much of this alluded to the

Mackenzie (including claims of agricultural potential, which would make it a haven for colonists

and missions),36 the district became a focus of committee questions.

The Rupert Lands Charter at Risk

From the start, the hearings signalled non-renewal of the licence, and when that was

borne out, the HBC faced an even larger crisis: loss of its Ruperts Land charter in just over a


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decade if extension was not received. To have any hope, it had to regain public favour and raise

its repute among churchesand given what had been said in London, that required exemplary

behaviour not only in Ruperts Land, but along the Mackenzie.

Among other things, the Company would have to be seen trading vigorously with Inuit

(whom it was accused of ignoring) and helping to convert them and other far-off tribes. So the

governor in 1859 wrote to Chief Trader Ross, ordering him to aid missions to as great an extent

as he could.37

The HBCs role in the Territories, the letter explained, was no longer as ruling body, but

as a private entity. [ref?] Clerics would now be charged for travel and freight, but that did not

mean less assistancequite the contrary. William Kirkby, a new Anglican minister, would soon

arrive, and was to have free board at Fort Simpson while his house was constructed. Father

Grollier, too, would be going there, and was to stay till a boat left for the lower Mackenzie.

Chief Trader Ross received the letter in July when his brigade went south to the Methey

Portage38

to exchange the years furs for new goods.39

Debarking here was Archdeacon Hunter,

who was going home (where his daughter Maria died just before he arrived), and coming aboard

was the Reverend Kirkby. Whether he had an obsequious habit or wore his pants a particular

way is not clear, but something about him made fur-trade staff refer to him as Brother Tadger,

after a Dickens character in the Pickwick Papersa label that stuck the rest of his Mackenzie

career.40

On Great Slave Lake two weeks later Father Grollier joined the boats on their journey

back to Fort Simpson.41

Theatre at Fort Simpson:42

Inuit Delegates and the Art of Kneeling

Every summer at each Mackenzie District post, the clerks departure was timed so as to

reach Fort Simpson about the time the brigade returned from the Portage, and in 1859 that

worked remarkably well. Chief Trader Ross with Kirkby and Grollier aboard arrived on August

14, and Gaudet from Fort McPherson the next day. What made for excitement was the presence

on the latters boat of Tiqtiq (a chief) and four other Inuita man, a woman, their boy, and

Attngareq, a nine-year-old girl who had come without her parents.43

The crowd ashore44

was thrilled by the Inuits height, intelligence, good nature, exotic

dress, and remarkably fine looks. (Kirkby, 1859a) The children could easily pass for


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Europeans.45

Kirkby marvelled at so quickly seeing people from the coast. Here, he wrote in

his journal, is a new tribe to the Redeemer. May his glorious Kingdom be speedily established

among them.

The Mackenzie Inuit could not be gathered on farms (then a mainstay of mission tactics

in the South), but spent large parts of the year in permanent villages, which Kirkby considered

all so many facilities to the progress of the Gospel. (1859i) Already Chief Trader Ross had

invited him to the fort to be built nearby. Father Grollier had asked to go, but would not be

allowed.

Shortly after, Ross met the Inuit in the mess room, packed with observers, and told them

he would place a fort wherever they wished. But he needed an interpreter and asked that the boy

and girl be left with the minister for training. When the men agreed, Kirkby lept with joy. At

the sessions end the chief trader was about to hand out gifts when he had the minister do it

instead, as that would forge a link between cleric and future converts. (Kirkby 1859b)

Next morning, a Sunday, the Inuit came to worship in the same crowded space, standing

and kneeling46

as if they had been doing it for years (one wonders who coached them). Never

had Kirkby so strongly felt the gracious assistance of God.47

On Monday in Kirkbys room the visitors left nothing untouched. A clock and umbrella

intrigued them most, but they were not content just to look. Wanting goods to take home, they

made signs for knives, scissors, and needles, and Kirkby took them to the store and purchased it

all. Then, with the aid of a translator (a Gwichin who had come on the boat from Fort

McPherson), he spoke at length of salvation, intent on making them fully understand it and feel

it, so as to carry it back to their countrymen.( 1859c) That shows either that the Gwichin could

translate very well, or that the minister had no idea how few of his words were getting through

a common feature of nascent missions.

By Tuesday the men and the boy wore European suits, the girl a dress and bonnet newly

made by the tailor. But Kirkby (1859d) was aghast, for Father Grollier had hung a crucifix from

the neck of each, explained it was the child of the sun , and promised that if worn all the time

(like the amulets on their own clothes) it would protect them. Gaudet threw the crosses to the

ground while raising a hand as if in horror and disgust, later explaining this would prevent

such items from ever again being accepted.


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Not until Friday, when the Inuit boarded Gaudets boat, did the boy realize he was to

stay. Then he wailed so loudly and clung to his mother so tightly that, to Kirkbys distress

(1859e), she relented and took him along. Only Attngareq, without parents to appeal to, was left

behind.

At Fort McPherson weeks later a large group of Inuit met Gaudet and his passengers, and

when the delegates told of their excellent treatment, many offered to go the next year. Yet

matters related to Attngareq caused conflict, for Chief Trader Ross had sent her father a present,

which another Inuk wanted as well. At some point the girl had been given away by her family,

and the adoptive father thought the gift should go to him, as he was taking the greater loss. When

a fight was about to erupt, Gaudet (1860) wisely proposed the item be shared, to which the men

agreed.

Attngareq

Meanwhile Attngareq, the poor little Eskimo girl, stayed dull and withdrawn for

weeks. (Kirkby 1859f). The only one to comfort her was a Gwichin boy48

, an orphan from Fort

McPherson who spoke her language. Also acquainted with her tongue was a Gwichin woman49

at the fort, and it was with her that Attngareq stayed. Each day she and others went to the Rev.

Kirkbys school, and as they gained skill in saying letters and body parts, she cheered up. Smart

as the rest, she turned out perfectly happy and anxious to learn. (Kirkby 1859g-h)

Connection to home was further lost when Attngareqs name was changed to Maria. It

may at first have happened in a casual way, but become formal in March 1860 when Chief

Trader Ross ordered a start on a post for the Inuit. It was not, however, in the Delta as Tiqtiq had

hoped, but to the east on the Anderson River, at a site Ross thought would serve both nearby

Inuit and those on the Mackenzie.

Not realizing how far from her people that would be, Kirkby quickly baptized

Attngareq50

so staff at the new post could tell her friends. His journal (written for the eyes of the

Church Missionary Society in London) rapturously referred to her as the first fruit of a large

harvest that would soon be gathered into the heavenly garrison. (1860j-k)

The girls immersion in white ways increased the next year. In the 1860 summer

Christina Ross came north to marry the chief trader and when in spring their first child arrived


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she took in Attngareq as its nurse (Healy 1923). The arrangement worked well, for the girl was

good, intelligent, and obedient, learned with ease, and exactly followed instructions. 51

In addition to those breaks with her culture, Attngareq was denied the chance to meet

again with one of her fathers, a chief, who in 1861 at Fort McPherson let it be known he wanted

to see her. But permission for him to go by Company boat was several times delayed (Gaudet

1861, 1862; Ross 1861b) and in the end no reunion took place.52

For Attngareq that meant lack of news from home, a situation not helped by the

Reverend Kirkby. Despite his prediction of quick conversion, he did not visit the Inuit, and it

was by chance that three years later he met some near the Delta.53

Writing up the encounter for

the Smithsonian Institute, he claimed their good looks reflected high intellect, and backed it up

by telling of Attngareq. From knowing no English when she came under his wing, she now

spoke and wrote it well. (Kirkby 1865). That fine result, however, brought no help in

evangelizing her people.

Wife and Mother at Thirteen

Youngsters in the North became sexually active when still children by todays standard,

and whites took very young brides. As Franklin noted in the 1820s, The girls at the forts . . . are

frequently wives at 12 years of age, and mothers at 14, (Van Kirk, 101) and that is what

happened to Attngareq. Though Mrs. Ross got along with her so well she wanted to take her on

the familys journey to Britain, her husband refused because thirty-three-year-old William Brass,

one of his traders, wanted her for a wife. (Healey, 1923).

When the Rosses left Fort Simpson in 1862, Attngareq was once again without a family,

and it was then that Brass made Attngareq his mate. Their marriage the next year, when she was

pregnant with his child, was likely performed la faon du pays, i.e. via a signed HBC contract,

during Kirkbys absence.She gave birth to a boy at age thirteen.

The missionarys report of Attngareqs new status ( as far as earthly things go she has a

comfortable home for her future life) failed to hide his dismay. What made it hard to take was

that the newly-weds had been sent to a post far south of the treeline.54

Yet something good might

still happen, for if plans came through to transfer Brass to Fort McPherson, his new partner could

tell her poor countrymen something of Jesus.(Kirkby, 1862) None of that came about.


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Part II: LEnvoi

South of the Treeline

Governor Simpson did not live to see the outcome of his policy toward missions. He hadlong suffered a form of spells (Hargrave), and at the parliamentary hearings his memory failed

on several occasions.55

In 1859 he declared he would soon resign, and early the next year passed

away (Galbraith) while paralyzed from a stroke or multiple seizures.

Next to leave this world was Father Grollier. Shortly after meeting Tiqtiq and his group

he founded a mission at Fort Good Hope, and from there made journeys to Fort McPherson to

meet both Inuit and Gwichin. Shortness of breath felled him in 1864 at age thirty-eight.

(Carrire) He had never entered the Delta, yet Catholic hagiographies told how he realized his

ideal, which was to take the cross all the way to the Pole.(Champagne 121) The line

paraphrased what were said to have been his last words, and which were inscribed on his grave:

Jesus, I die content, for your standard has been raised unto the ends of the earth.56

Similar words marked Canadas founding three years later. When plans emerged to name

it a kingdom and the United States balked, the solution (a dominion) was found in a Bible text

that, as we saw, served as basis for missions: He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and

from the river until the ends of the earth.57

Given that heady mix of national pride with

Christian triumphalism, as well as colonists pressure for soil,58 the HBC recognized its charter

would not be renewed, and after negotiation surrendered its rights.

Charles Gaudet was promoted from postmaster to clerk in 1863. That same year he

moved to Good Hope, where his only white companions were priests who spoke French,59

the

language of his youth in Montreal. Soon he reverted to the Roman faith,60

but kept it a secret for

a decade. (Payment 5) The conversion did not stall his receiving, in 1878, the title of chief trader,

but it came without change in work, and he was never in charge of the district.61

He ran the Good

Hope post nearly five decades and throughout that time his wife was a pillar of the Catholic

Church.

Archdeacon Hunters Mackenzie journey did not lead to his becoming the next bishop of

the Northwest. In 1862 at the Red River Settlement he had to deal with a scandal involving Rev.

Corbett, the missionary62

who had urged rebellion against the HBC and had testified against it in


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London: after making a servant girl pregnant, the minister had repeatedly used his medical

training to try to abort the foetus. Much nastiness followed and contributed to Hunter being

denied the episcopal post. Returning overseas, he became a renowned London preacher. (Peel)

In 1881 Attngareq and her husband lived at Fort Nelson and had six surviving children,

the youngest age three.63 Near the centurys end they retired to southern Manitoba, and it was

there, at St. Andrews (the former parish of the Reverends Hunter and Kirkby in the Red River

Settlement), that she died on Jan. 20, 1897 and was buried beside the church. (Brownlee)

The Mackenzie Delta

For decades nothing came of missions to the Mackenzie Inuit. Some years clerics met

them in spring at Fort McPherson, and on occasion stayed in their homes in the Delta, yet

scandal, mental illness, low funds, lack of drive, fear of violence, or some other issue always

negated those efforts.64 That is not to say this explains the failure to gain convertsit may be

that no matter how strong the churches efforts, the Inuit were not yet ready to change belief.

The same might be said of extraction, the process of taking heathens to an established

white site, teaching them Bible truths and the evangelizers language, and then sending them

home to spread their new faith. After Attngareq other youths from the coast (one of whom was

named David Copperfield) stayed at HBC forts from time to time65

, but as far as one can tell

from surface events, exposure to divines and later contact with their own people never helped the

Christian cause.

Tiqtiqs people found little use for the fort on the Anderson River, which was too far

away and did not fit their spring migration through the southern Mackenzie Delta. When it

opened Chief Trader Ross (1861a) wrote that it would bring an important and lucrative trade,

but instead it took in few furs and led only to loss(Dallas 1863). Abandoned five years after

construction, it was burnt down by Inuit for the nails.66

It would be understandable if Tiqtiq felt bitter about his journey to Fort Simpson, for

despite Attngareqs remaining with whites, no fort had been built where he had asked. In 1871,

after yet another promise that one would soon go up, his tribe withheld their furs in anticipation.

(Hardisty 1871a, b)

When that time, too, the HBC reneged, and chose instead to send Gaudet into the Delta

with a boat, Inuit attacked and threw overboard the furs he had collected. The Company as a


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result abandoned what it had hoped would be an annual affair. (Hardisty 1872a, b). Promise of a

fort was again made from time to time, especially after American whalers in 1889 started trading

near the Delta, but it all came to naught.

Nowhere is it recorded whether Tiqtiq was with those who those who assaulted Gaudets

boat, but the next spring he was at Fort McPherson (PRJ 1873), where it seems he was well

known and probably visited yearly. There may have been times, however, when danger kept him

near home, as he played a central part in a feud that brought many murders.67

Also causing demise was epidemic illness. When it claimed Tiqtiqs wife in late 1885,

she was brought to Fort McPherson and lay frozen in the warehouse beside three Gwichin. (PRJ

1885) That she was taken there for eventual burial, rather than left above ground, was perhaps a

first sign of willingness to adopt Christian rites. It did not, however, point to quick reception of

the teachings of competing clerics, Oblate Father Camille Lefebvre and Anglican Reverend Isaac

Stringer68

, who approached them seven years later.

Details of the two mens faiths, let alone conflicts in dogma, eluded the Inuit, but they

heard a difference in tone. The priests hell-fire words soon led to his exclusion from their

homes, while Stringers calm approach won friendship and respect.69

Initially based at Fort McPherson, Stringer moved in 1897 to Herschel Island off the

Yukon coast, which the whalers had left for points further east. Living with wife and children in

the whaling companys house,70

he managed its trading post for natives and conducted his

mission. As during Tiqtiqs visit to Fort Simpson, commerce and Christianity were closely tied.

The End of the World

We dont know when Tiqtiq passed away, but around the time he lost his wife he had a

new daughter, Sukayak (the fast one), perhaps the offspring of a junior woman in his household.

71She worked for the Stringers in 1901, sewing beautiful caribou coats in which they were

photographed in the fall on the way home to Ontario, and in which years later they were received

by the king and queen in Britain.72

Just after the centurys turn Sukayak and her husband survived an epidemic that killed

eighty of the two hundred in their tribe, and on a summer tour in 1909 Stringer (now a bishop

based in the southern Yukon)73

held a hearty service, with many present, in their tent.74

During


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16

that trip a few adults were baptized, and by 1912 most Inuit in the region, including several

hundred who had moved there from Alaska, had joined the Anglican Church.

The Christian path of eachconfirmation, marriage, etc.can easily be traced from

Anglican records, including that of a second Tiqtiq, who in 1914 was one of a group who

volunteered to tell of Jesus to another tribe far east along on the coast. 75 In the same way that

Europeans had taken the gospel to the Delta, these new converts felt compelled to take it to the

end of their world. It could not happen just yet, as foul weather stopped their advance and ruined

the boat supplied by the mission, so it took other people and efforts. But in time the Great

Commissions final phrase was (in its geographic sense) fully effected.


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17

Archival Sources and Abbreviations

American Museum of Natural History, New York

R. M. Anderson photos (Anderson-Stefansson Expedition)

Anglican Church of Canada.

General Synod Archives, Toronto (Stringer Papers)

Public Archives of Alberta (Register of Baptisms etc.)

Dartmouth College Library

Stefansson Papers.

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online DCBO

Hudsons Bay Company HBC or Company

Hudsons Bay Company Archives HBCA

Fort Simpson correspondence books.

Fort Good Hope post journal.

Peels River post (i.e. Fort McPherson) journal. PRJ

National Archives of Canada NAC

Church Mission Society Papers. CMS at NAC

R. M. Anderson 1910 photos.

Oblates of Mary Immaculate Archives, Rome

E. Petitot correspondence.

Old Dartmouth Historical Society

Whaling records.

Questions and answers by number at the parliamentary

committee hearings concerning the HBC, 1857. Q+A

Note concerning dates and names.

All correspondence is cited by year-day-month. Fort McPherson on the Peel was for most of the

nineteenth century referred to as Peels River post, or simply Peels River, nearly always

without the apostrophe. For the sake of clarity, Fort McPherson is used in the body of this article.

Citations

Anglican Church of Canada. Dioceses of the Mackenzie and Yukon.


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18

1909-26 Registers of Eskimo Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, and Death 190926.

Public Archives of Alberta 70.387.

Aborigines Protection Society.

1856 Canada West and the Hudson's Bay Company: A Political and Humane Question

of Vital Importance to the Honour of Great Britain, to the Prosperity of Canada,

and to the Existence of the Native Tribes, being an Address to the Right

Honorable Henry Labouchre, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for

the Colonies. London. Pamphlet. Web. Canadiana.org

Alunik, Ishmael, Eddie D. Kolausok, and David Morrison.

2003

Across

Time and

Tundra:

The Inuv

ialu

itof

the Wes

tern

Arctic.

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Anderson, James

1852a to Governor, 1852, 01, 07. HBCA B200/b/29

1852b to Augustus Peers, 1852, 25, 08. HBCA B200/b/29

Anderson, R.M.

1910 Photo album. NAC. PA 187698.

1910 Amer. Mus. of Natural History, New York. Anderson-Stefannson Expedition.

Anderson Photos. Filing No. 57.2 (98). Photo 16997, June 16, 1910.

Armstrong, Alexander.

1857 A Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the Northwest Passage. London. 1857.

Lindsay, Debra J.

1991 The Modern Beginnings of Subarctic Ornithology, Northern Correspondence with

the Smithsonian Institution, 1856-1868. Winnipeg: The Manitoba Record Society.


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Ballantyne, Robert M.

1848 Hudson's Bay; or, Every-Day Life in the the Wilds of North-America. Edinburgh

and London,1848. Web. Canadiana.org.

Barr, William

2002 From Barrow to Boothia: The Arctic Journal of Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease,

1836-1839. McGill-Queens University Press.

Bell, John

1826 to Edward Smith and Peter Dease, 1826, 21, 08. HBCA B200/b/3

1830 to Smith, 1830, 08, 08. HBCA B200/b/3

1831a to Smith, 1831, 31, 01. HBCA B200/b/6

1831b to Smith, 1831, 09, 08. HBCA B200/b/7

1832 to Smith, 1832, 31, 01. HBCA B200/b/7

1841 to Lewes, 1841, 04, 07. HBCA B200/b/14

1843 to Lewes, 1843, 03, 04. HBCA B200/6/16.

1850 to Governor (from Fort Simpson), 1850, n.d., fall. HBCA B200/b/25.

Bodfish, Capt. Hartson H.

1936 Chasingthe Whale. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1936. Entry for 1895, 04, 06.

Boreski, Thomas G.

2000 Griffith Owen Corbett. Web. DCBO. 2011/01/01.

Brannan, Robert Louis.


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20

1966 Under the Management of Charles Dickens: His Production of The Frozen

Deep. New York: Cornell UP.

Breton, P. E.

1963 Irish ofthe Arctic. Edmonton: Editions de L'Hermitage.

Brisebois, Charles

1825 to Edouard Smith, 1825, 07, 01. HBCA B200/b/1

Brownlee, John

2011 Personal Communication.

Burch, Ernest S.

1994 The Inupiat and the christianization of Arctic Alaska. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 18.1-

2: 81-108.

Carrire, Gaston

1977 Pierre-Henri Grollier. Dictionnaire Biographique des Oblats de Marie Immacule

au Canada, vol. 2, U. of Ottawa, 114-115.

2010 Pierre-Henri Grollier. Web. DCBO. 2010, 12, 10.

Coates, Ken S.

1991 Best Left As Indians: Native-White Relations in the Yukon Territory. McGill-

Queen's UP.

Coates, Kenneth.

1987 The Commerce of Discovery: The Hudson's Bay Company and the Simpson and

Dease Expedition. Symposium on Early Investigations ofthe Western Arctic,

Twentieth Annual Conf. ofthe Can.ArcheologicalAssn. Calgary, V 8-10. Quoted

in Coates 1991.


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21

Champagne , Joseph Etienne

1949 Les Missions Catholiques dans lOuest Canadien, 1818-1875. Ottawa: LInstitut

de Missiologie de lUniversit Pontificale dOttawa.

Choquette, Robert

1995 The Oblate Assault on Canada's Northwest. Ottawa: U. of Ottawa P.

Cooper, Barry.

1988 Alexander Kennedy Isbister: A Respectable Critic of the Honourable Company.

Ottawa: Carleton UP.

Dallas, A. G.

1861 to W.L Hardisty, 1863, 22, 05. HBCA 200/b/34

David, Robert G.

2000 The Arctic in the British Imagination 1818-1914. Manchester: Manchester UP.

Duchaussois O.M.I., Pierre.

1937 Mid Snow and Ice: The Apostles ofthe North-West. Buffalo: Missionary Oblates

of Mary Immaculate.

Fitzgerald, James Edward

1849 An Examination of the Charter and Proceedings of the Hudson's Bay Company,

With Reference to the Grant of Vancouver's Island. London. Web. Canadiana.org.

[check]

Galbraith, John S.

2000 Sir George Simpson. DCBO. 2007, 11, 12.

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Hudsons Bay

Company.


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1858 Report from the Select Committee together with the proceedings of the

committee, minutes of evidence, appendix, and index. London. Canadiana.org.

2008, 02, 10.

Gaudet, Charles

1860 to William Kirkby, 1860 n.d. (received at Fort Simpson 1860, 19, 03 when Kirkby

transcribed it into his journal, q.v.)

1861 to Bernard Rogan Ross, 1861, 02, 02. HBCA B200/b/34

1862 to Ross, 1862, 09, 02. HBCA B200/b/34.

Grollier, Rvrend Pre.

1858 Missions Etrangres: Vicariat du Mackenzie, Souvenirs: rcit indit d'un voyage

du R. P. Grollier au Fort Simpson en 1858. Missions de la Congrgation des

Missionnaires Oblats de Marie Immacule. March 1886, 409-19.

Hardisty

1871a to Andrew Flett at Peels River, 1871, 10, 03. HBCA B200/39/vol. 1

1871b to governor, 1871, 30, 11. HBCA B200/39/vol. 1

1872a to Donald A. Smith, 1872, 28, 02. HBCA B200/39/vol. 1

1872b to Donald A. Smith, 1872, 02, 12. HBCA B200/39/vol. 1

Hargrave, Letitia

[Date?] to [I must fill in name and date], in McLeod, Letters

Healey, W.J.

1923 Women of Red River: Being a Book Written from the Recollections of Women

from the Red River Era. Winnipeg: Womens Canadian Club, 1923. Web.

Hooper, Lieut. W. H.


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23

1853 Ten Months Among the The Tents of the Tuski, With Incidents of an Arctic Boat

Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, As Far As the Mackenzie River and

Cape Bathurst. London: John Murray (AMS Press, New York, 1976).

Hudsons Bay Company, Fort Good Hope journal.

1822-1834. HBCA, B/80/a/1-12.

Hudsons Bay Company, Peels River [i.e. Fort McPherson] journal (PRJ). HBCA.

1873 1873, 05, 06.

1885 1885, 04, 11.

Hunter, James

1857 to CMS 1857, 04, 11. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.

1858a to CMS, 1858, 11, 02. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.

1858b to CMS, 1858, 09, 04. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.

1858c to CMS, 1858, 11, 05. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.

1858d Journal, 1858, 08, 06. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.

1858e Journal, 1858, 11, 08. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.

1858f Journal, 1858, 16, 08. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.

1859 to CMS, 1858, 30, 11. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A80

Isbister, Alexander Kennedy

1846 A few Words on the Hudson's Bay Company; with a Statement of the Grievances

of the Native an Half-Caste Indians, Addressed to the British Government through

their Delegates now in London. London. Pamphlet. Web. Canadiana.org

Kennicott, Robert


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24

1859 to Spencer Baird, 1859, 17, 11. Smithsonian Institute Archives, RU 7215, box 13.

Trancribed in Lindsay, Beginnings, 28.

Kirkby, William West

1859a Journal, 1859, 15, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859b Journal, 1859, 20, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859c Journal, 1859, 22, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859d Journal, 1859, 23, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859e Journal, 1859, 26, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859f Journal, 1859, 27, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859g Journal, 1859, 08, 09. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859h Journal, 1859, 09, 09. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1859i Journal, 1859, 10, 11. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1860a Journal, 1860, 19, 03. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1860b Journal, 1860, 25, 03. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1862 to CMS, 1862, 29, 11. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.

1865 A Journey to the Youcan Russian America. Smithsonian Institution Annual

Reports 19: 416-20.

Lewes, John

1842 to Governor Simpson, 1842, 07, 09. HBCA B200/b/16.

1843 to Governor Simpson, 1843,30, 07. HBCA B200/b/19.

Levasseur, Donat


25/40


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26

1932 John McLean's Notes of a Twenty-Five Year's Service in the Hudson's Bay

Territory. Toronto: Champlain Society (reproduction of the 1849 original).

McPherson, Murdo

1840 to J. Bell, 1840, 02, 06. HBCA B200/b/12.

Morton, Desmond

2001 A ShortHistory of Canada. Toronto: McLelland.

Nuligak, [Robert]

1966 I, Nuligak. Maurice Mtayer, transl. and ed. Toronto: Martin.

Owram, Doug

1992 Promise ofEden: The Canadian ExpansionistMovementandthe Idea ofthe West,

1856-1900. Toronto: U of Toronto P (first issue in 1980; 1992 version has new

introduction).

Palssen, Gisli

2001. Writing on Ice: The Ethnographic Notebooks of Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Hanover:

New England UP.

Payment, Diane

2003 Marie Fisher Gaudet (1813-1914): la Providence du fort Good Hope."

Ecclectica.2 :1-14. Web. 2009, 03, 12.

Peel, Bruce.

2000 James Hunter. DCBO. Web. 2007, 12, 04.

Peers, Augustus (Peels River journal entries)

1849 1849, 04, 07. Peels River House. Journals kept by Angus [sic] R. Peers. NAC

MG19, D12, Reel H2341.


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27

1852 1852, 31, 08. NAC source as above.

Petitot, Emile

1865 to Oblate Director General L. Fabre in Rome, 1865, 21, 03. Oblate Archives,

Rome.

Porter, Sophie E.

1895 Jesse H. Freeman log,1895, 04, 06. Old Dartmouth Historical Society, Roll 1010,

frame 362-422. Catalog # 1080.

Porter, Andrew

1985 Commerce and Christianity: The Rise and Fall of a Nineteenth-Century

Missionary Slogan. The HistoricalJournal28.3: 597-621.

Rae, John

1851 to Sir George Simpson, 1851, 04, 23. In Rich, Raes Correspondence, 174-175.

Web.

Rasmussen. Knud

1924 The Mackenzie Eskimos, after Knud Rasmussens Posthumous Notes.Ed. H.

Osterman. Copenhagen: Gyldenhalske Boghandel, 1942.

Rich, Edwin Ernest and A. M. Johnson.

1953 Rae's Correspndence with the Hudson's bay Company on Arctic Exploration

1844-1855. Hudson's Bay Record Society. Web.

1828 "Dr. Richardson's Narrative of the Proceedings of the Eastern Detachment of the

Expedition."in Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea in

the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827. London: J. Murray, 1828. 193-202. 1971

reprint, ed. M. G. Hurtig, Edmonton.


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28

1851 Arctic Searching Expedition: A Journal of a Boat-Voyage Through Rupert's Land

and the Arctic Sea in Search of the Discovery Ships Under Command of Sir John

Franklin. London. Greenman Press, New York, 1969, Vol. 1, 214-15.

Ross, Bernard Rogan

1858 to HBC governor 1858, 29, 11. HBCA B200/b/33

1859 to HBC governor 1859, 26, 03. HBCA B200/b/33

1861a to HBC governor 1861, 20, 03. HBCA B200/b/33

1861b to Charles Gaudet, 1861, 26, 03. HBCA B200/b/33.

Simpson, George

1854 to James Anderson, 1854, 10, 11. HBCA B200/c/1

1859 to Bernard R. Ross 1859, 15, 06. HBCA B200/b/34.

Simpson, Thomas

1845 Narrative of the Discoveries of the North Coast of America: Effected by the

Officers of the Hudson's Bay Company During the Years 1836-9. London:

Richard Bentley, 102.

Smith, Edward

1826 to Governor, 1826, 29, 11. HBCA B200/b/3

1830a to John Bell, 1830, n.d., 10. HBCA B200/b/6

1830b to Governor, 1830, 28, 11. HBCA B200/b/6

1831 to Governor, 1831, 03, 06. HBCA B200/b/7.

Stanley, Brian


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29

1983 Commerce and Christianity: Providence Theory, the Missionary Movement,

and the Imperialism of Free Trade, 1842-1860." The HistoricalJournal26.1: 71-

94.

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur

1906 Diary, 1906, 17, 02. (Palssen 122).

1907 Diary, 1907, 05, 02. (Stefansson 1914, 180).

1912 Diary, 1912, 18, 04. (Stefansson, 1914, 380-1; missing from Palssen).

1914 The Stefansson-Anderson ArcticExpedition ofthe American Museum:

Preliminary Report. Anthropological Papers of the Amer. Mus. of Natural

History, XIV, part 1.

1916 Diary, 1916, 29, 02. Typed transcript. Dartmouth College Library Stef. MSS 98

(5): V-9.

Stringer, Isaac.

[Date?] Journal. ACCT, M74-3, Stringer Family Fond,Series 1-B, Box 5.

Stringer, Sarah Ann

[date?] Journal. ACCT, M74-3, Stringer family fonds, Series 2-C, Box 14.

Vanast, Walter

2006 Une Faute dOrthographe: A Sexual History of Missions to the Mackenzie

Inuit. Unpublished article.

2007 The Bad Side to The Good Story: Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Christian

Conversion in the Mackenzie Delta 1906-1925. Religious Study andTheology

26: 77-116.


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30

2011 Oblate Defeat. Father Camille Lefebvre, Reverend Isaac Stringer and the

Competition for Mackenzie Inuit allegiance: 1892-1894 . Primary data from

diaries and correspondence. Web. [reference not yet entered in body of text]

Van Kirk, Sylvia

1983 Many TenderTies. University of Oklahoma Press.

1These words open an address by Zarathustras animals during his convalescence: Everything

goeth, everything returneth; eternity rolleth the wheel of existence. Everything dieth, everything

blossometh forth again; eternally runneth the wheel of existence. Everything breaketh,

everything is integrated anew; eternally buildeth itself the house of existence. All things separate,

all things again greet one another; eternally true to itself remaineth the ring of existence. Every

moment beginneth existence, around every ball Here rolleth the ball There. The middle is

everywhere. Crooked is the path of eternity. [source?]

2What was given to the child was the name-spirit, which needed a home after its prior owner had

died, and which could create havoc or illness if not given refuge. See Stefansson [get reference]

3 Until the late nineteenth century only Inuit from the Deltas eastern side came each spring to its

southern tip, and it is they who are the actors in this account. Whites in the 1890s sometimesrefer to them as Kukpugmiut, i.e. people of the large water, a name the tribe applied to itself.

Some modern authors name them as just one of several original Eastern Delta groups, which

include the Kittegaryumiut (McGhee 9). For an excellent, well illustrated history of the

Inuvialuit see Alunik et al., Across Time andTundra.

4Porter describes Britons providential view of the conjuncture of Christianity and commerce.

Stanley tells why it was expected to reach complete consummation between 1857 and 1860

and why that failed.

5Settlement hereafter.

6Via their spokesman in London, Alexander Kennedy Isbister.


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7For early Oblate work in the Territories see Levasseur, ch. 5, Jusqau Grand Nord.

8Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan.

9 For many years Donald Ross was in charge of Norway House, a major HBC transport hub and

depot.

10 Archdeacon since 1853, Hunter was secretary of Northwest missions for the Church Mission

Society. In 1855 after study in England he gained A Lambert M.A. from the Archbishop of

Canterbury. His bishop was James Anderson.

11For British fascination with the Arctic see David, The Arctic, a turgid, almost impenetrable

academic tome.

12The Great Commission, KJV Matthew 28:18-20, All power is given unto me in heaven and in

earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the

Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded

you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. The New Century Version

translates the last words as the end of this age."

13Psalms 72:8, KJV. The idea for this line comes from Martha McCarthys From the Great

Riverto the Ends ofthe Earth, a superbly researched, fluid account of Mackenzie Dene missions.

14Hunter (1857) had years earlier heard these kind comments about Inuit of the Hudsons Bay

region from HBC surgeon Dr. John Rae, and was unaware of his harsh view of Mackenzie Inuit,

met during his 1848 Franklin search expedition with John Richardson.

15At Norway House, a major transport hub and depot on the trade route southwest of Hudsons

Bay.

16 The wife was Marie Fisher. See Payment.

17 Mr. Gaudet was last year admitted into the Church of England by Archdn. Hunter. (Kirkby

1859b)


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18Gaudet was then postmaster, the lowest officer rank. The next levels are clerk, chief trader,

and chief factor. In this article, unless stated otherwise, chief trader designates both the title and

the responsibility for the district.

19 Ross was from Ireland (HBCPS) and a fervent Orangist, i.e. a member of the Orange Order,

or Orange Lodge, founded in 1796 by Irish Protestants at a time of intense sectarian strife. The

name refers to William of Orange, the Dutch prince who became King of England, Scotland, and

Ireland in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and who two years later defeated Catholic James II

in Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne. (Wikipedia).

20 A few Dene joined the Anglican faith, but only briefly.

21 The first Fort Good Hope, was located on the Mackenzie a few days travel from the Delta; in

the late 1820s it was moved a weeks travel upstream to just south of the Arctic Circle.

22Early in the century, when Fort Good Hope belonged to the Northwest Company, Gwichin

profited from war with Inuit, for they received gifts from the post to end it. Such was the case in

1817 and 1819 when Peter Dease was in charge. (Simpson 102) For conflict and contact between

the tribes after 1821 see the Good Hope Journal (1822, 16, 10, HBCA B80/a/1; 1826, 22, 06 and

1826, 08, 09, B80/a/5; 1828, 20, 09, B80/a/7; 1829, 20, 06 and 1829, 21, 07, B80/a/8; 1830, 22,

06, B80/a/9; 1834, 23, 06 and 1834, 23, 08 and 1834, 14, 09, B80/a/12) and the Fort Simpson

correspondence books: Brisebois 1825, Bell 1826, 1829, 1830, 1831a and b; Smith 1826, 1830a

and b, 1831, 1832.

23Oulibuck had been with Dease and Simpson during their late-1830s explorations along the

coast, starting from the Mackenzie. He spent the 1840-41 trade year at McPherson (McPherson

1840), and it may be there that his wife and two children joined him. In 1841 he was sent to Fort

Simpson (Bell 1841), where he stayed the next two years (Lewes 1842). After Clerk John Bell

(1843) refused his services, he was sent to Norway House, whence he made their way home.

(Lewes 1843).


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24It may have helped that about that time British parties looking for Franklin traversed the Delta

and acted with restraint. In 1848, for example, Dr. John Richardson traded with the Inuit and did

not fire when they swarmed the boats.

25 The killings took place at Separation Point, at the Deltas southern point. When Inuit met an

HBC boat near the Peel, the Gwichin (led by a man who had been an HBC emissary) ensured

they would not get invited to Fort McPherson: The Indians first traded all the bows and arrows

of their foes then crept into the surrounding bushes and deliberately shot them (Bell 1850).

26For translation problems see J. Anderson 1852a and b; A. Mackenzie 1855; Ross 1858 and

1859.

27 See Nuligak, 13, 30, 32, 54, 58, 120, 127, for the tale of his 1890-1910 youth as a poor

orphan.

28Peter Dease and Thomas Simpson. Barr gives an exquisite introduction to his edition of

Deases diary.

29 See Fitzgeralds sarcastic 1849 comments (119-120) on HBC tactics prior to the licence

renewal. Coates has discussed the self-serving aspects of the HBCs 1836-39 Dease and Simpson

explorations.

30James Anderson, to whom Gov. Simpsons instructions ended with the line I rely on you

sparing no effort to distinguish yourselves by success and so to secure for the Honourable

Company and their [sic] officers the approbation of Her Majestys Government and the English

public (1854)

31On being read an account by William Kennedy of cannibalism in Labrador, Simpson had

insisted (Q+A 1558-1564) that famine was never severe enough to bring such ends. The letter

read to him (Q+A 1606-7) re Peels River was from John Ballantynes 1848 adventure book

Hudsons Bay. A former HBC clerk, Ballantyne had not been to the Mackenzie, but had a friend

in the district. Besides, when he left the Northwest he traveled to Montreal with HBC foe John

MacLean, author of a work highly critical of the HBC.


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32All Raes testimony: Q+A 365-696; not understanding the tariff: 482-484; not lowering prices:

532.

33

34Naval Lieutenant W. H. Hooper told in 1853 (366-74) of an HBC mans part in a massacre of

Inuit by Gwichin. Naval Surgeon Armstrong 1857 (155, 167, 198) praised the Inuit and pointed

out that clergy had done good work among them on the Labrador coast, yet none could be found

on the Arctic Coast.

35 Thomas Kennedy, Isbisters young uncle, after leaving the HBC led searches for Franklin

sponsored by the latters widow, whipped up opposition in Upper Canada to the Companys

monopoly, and spoke to Toronto businessmen about the Mackenzies wasted riches (Aborigines

Protection Society). Like Fitzgerald, he had not been in that district and likely got his

information from McLean and Isbister. Kennedy and McLean had both worked for the HBC in

Ungava, and after leaving the Company lived near each other in southern Ontario.

36The charge that the HBC blocked missions related closely to claims that the Mackenzie could

support agriculture. If true, it meant that natives could change from a nomadic life to farming,

then considered a sine-qua-non to native conversion. James E. Fitzgeralds 1849 jeremiad against

the HBC commented (119-20) on the Mackenzies fine weather and soil, even at Peels River,

and McLeans book backed him up. General Sir John Lefroy, an expert on magnetic force, who

had passed 1843-44 in the Mackenzie District, denied at the hearings (Q+A 158-364) that

farming there could support colonists, yet on a final note (Q+A 361) mentioned he had shared

the HBC boats with cattle, which were kept at several posts.

37By aiding Rome the HBC might offend evangelicals, but it had other power groups (including

Catholics in Lower Canada) to consider. To show an even hand, the Company fostered comity

by helping Anglicans set up at certain posts, Catholics, at others. It was not a policy that could

last.

38Also known as Portage La Loche, or the Grand Portage, twelve miles long, in what is now

northern Saskatchewan.


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39A trade year started June 1.

40 There are at the post Mr. Ross, Mr. Onion a clerk, Mr. Kirkby an Episcopal clergyman (of

Church Missionary Society) nicknamed Brother Tadger (see Mr. Wellers friend in Pickwick

papers) and myself, for gentlemen. (Kennicott 1859). 1

41Kirkby had with him John Hope, a young mixed-blood teacher from the Settlement, where he

was a recent graduate of the St. Johns Academy, which had Anglican staff.

42 In theatre-in-the-round, actors address not only each other but the audience (distant in this

case) that set their lines. The concept as applied to native-white encounters come from several

sources. Mission work, Noel Dyck (1980) first suggested, was like a morality play 1980). While

improving tribal ways, clerics also touched an audience at home. Values conveyed were those

of Europeans, to whom at the same time they gave cause for imitation. Jennifer Brown

broadened the concept to traders. Like clerics, they were deeply involved in directing,

orchestrating, and acting out a script. For both missionaries and HBC clerks it was theatre-in-

the-round, watched by indigenous peoples on one side, directors, share-holders, and the church-

going public on the other. And natives, one might add, were all along staging plays of their own;

newcomers and original peoples were actors in each others simultaneous dramas.

43 Kirkby journal, CMS reel A93, NAC. The girls age: 1859, 08, 09; the rest of the paragraph,

1859, 15, 08. Tiktiks name, 1860, 19, 03.

44Over a hundred people were present, including crews of boats from most district posts to pick

up goods, and those of the chief traders brigade (who spent winter at the Mackenzies Big

Island).

45One might postulate this had something to do with sailors contact with Inuit during the

searches for Franklin).

Sir John Richardson had passed through the Deltas Eastern Channel in1848 and had close contact with its people, and overt descriptions of sex between sailors and

native women by other parties off the coast (though further west) were put to paper in subsequent

years . In 1849 an orgy on the ice by the Alaska Coast (while Lieutenant Pullen, the officer in

charge was briefly absent) was indulged in by his subordinate and nearly all the men, and was


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halted when a sudden break in the ice caused a number of very ludicrous exposes. And when

the ship Ploverwintered near the Behring Strait that year, the captain kept an Esquimaux girl in

his cabin for purposes that were but too evident. Officers and crew followed the example. (Rae,

1851) Numerous others undoubtedly occurred, but were not recorded. That young Mackenzie

Inuit girls were beautiful and sexually desirable, however, was not something recent. Richardson

had also come through the Eastern Delta in 1826, when he was Franklins second-in-command,

and reported in euphemistic terms how the females had given his party glances that could

scarcely be misconstrued, and that young girls had a considerable share of beauty.

(Richardson, 1828). In the 1850s the beauty of Inuit women had not escaped HBC men who had

gone far north on the Mackenzie and Anderson Rivers. They in turn mentioned it to missionaries

Hunter and Kirkby, who repeated it almost with longing in their journals (they were both at thetime far away from their wives) [citation]

46The evangelical or lower branch of the Anglican Church included kneeling in its liturgy.

47 At the services end, Kirkby thanked HBC staff for their noble efforts to erect a church.

48William Flett8 years old, speaks Loucheux and Eskimo. He is from Peels River, a pure

Indian, and unbaptized though called by the above name. (Kirkby 1859g)

49 She was the wife of James Flett, who had been at La Pierres House, a subsidiary to Peels

River west of the Mackenzie Mountains. The couple and their children had come south on the

same boat as the Inuit. The husband had no relationship to the orphan boy.

50Conversion in that era involved assigning a new name, often one from the bible, and only

rarely did ministers choose one of special liking to the Roman Church. So it may seem strange

that Kirkby baptized Attngareq with the name of the mother of Jesus, to whom Rome gave what

Protestants thought was idolatrous praise.50

Yet he had no choice, as many women in Scotland

and the Northwest were called Mary, including the sister of Chief Trader Bernard Ross and his

future mother-in-law. Perhaps also in play was the death of Archdeacon Hunters daughter

Maria, who had died just before he returned home from the Mackenzie in 1858. Attngareq, as a

result, was now Maria Ross.


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51The Rosss first child, Alex Christie, arrived in 1861. When in old age Christina looked back

at this period, her memory had fogged and she thought it was she Attingareks unmanageable

native name to Maria. Ross went on furlough in 1862, and may have gone to Dublin, but the

family was at St. Andrews in the Red River Settlement in Feb. 1863, when their second child,

Francis Curtis, was baptized.

52Perhaps it was feared that since no fort had been built in the Delta, the man would insist on

taking Attingarek home, or that he wanted more gain. But it may have been a matter of true

affection.

53Kirkby was en route from Fort Simpson to the Yukon.

54 Fort Halkett, on the Liard, from which no post journal has survived.

55For Simpsons testimony see Q+A 702-2125, Feb. 26 and 27, 1857.

56 The inscription is from Grolliers grave at Fort Good Hope: Je meurs content, O Jsus, votre

tendard estlev jusquaux extrmits de la terre. (Choquette photograph, 58). The same

quotation appears on the title page of a 1937 history of northern missions, Mid Snow and Ice, by

French Oblate Pierre Duchaussois, who held a doctorate in literature. Its original version, Aux

Glaces Pola

ires, published in Paris, won him membership in the Acadmie Franaise. The

wording in the English volume: Oh my Jesus, I die happy, since I have seen the Sacred

Standard of Thy Cross lifted up at the very ends of the earth.

57Leonard Tilley, government leader in New Brunswick, suggested the text. (Morton 97-98)

58 See Owrams informative Promise ofEden about the Wests appeal to farmers and politicians.

59Father Grollier until his death in 1864, Father Jean Sguin starting in 1861, and Father Emile

Petitot, from 1864 on. Also present was Oblate religious brother J. P. Kearney, for whomGrolliers imperious ways were a cross to bear. Sguin and Kearney stayed half a century, as did

Gaudet. Bretons 1963 hagiography of Kearney shows a photo of a nasty-looking Grollier (opp.

p. 16) and one of Charles Gaudet and his family with the comment staunch friends of the


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missionaries (opp. p. 80). The book softens Grolliers deathbed words (p. 53) so as not to imply

he reached the pole: I die happy now that your standard is raised here at the ends of the world.

60 Petitot to Oblate Director General Joseph Fabre in Rome, Mar. 21, 1865, Oblate Archives,

Rome

61HBCA personnel sheet. HBCA. Web. http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical

62Griffin Owen Corbett belonged to the high Anglican Church (another reason for his not getting

along with Hunter). In addition to stoking Red Rivers populace against the HBC, he testified to

its anti-mission stance at the 1857 hearings (Q+A 2656-2888, p. 150-169 ). A fine prcis of his

twisted personality and bizarre ecclesiastic path tells that the local bishop called him a most

dangerous man. (Boreski).

63Situated on the Liard west of Fort Simpson in what is now British Columbia, Fort Nelson was

part of the Mackenzie District. The 1881 Canadian census listed James 18, Margaret 16, Jane

14, William 10, John 8, Thomas 3. Marias ethnic origin was given as Esquimaux, but in later

years in other documents as Indian and Mtis (the former is not unusual given that some whites

until early the next century referred to Inuit as Esquimaux Indians). Marias daughter Margaret

was the great-grandmother of John Brownlee, now living in Edmonton, who saw early drafts of

this article on the web, and realized that Attingarek (known to him only as Maria Ross) provided

a last link in a story he had chased for decades. In return, he kindly offered details he had found

of her time at Fort Simpson (such as her employ as servant by the chief traders wife) and of her

later life. In his youth Brownlees nearest relatives denied they carried native blood, then

considered a shamebut he followed a hunch and doggedly traced through the decades. He and

his family proudly bear their Mtis status.

64A conclusion based on my transcription of Oblate and Anglican correspondence related to the

Mackenzie Inuit from 1860 through 1890 and written up in as yet unpublished articles such as

Une faute dorthographe: a sexual history of missions to the Mackenzie Inuit. The faute was

the Oblates way of referring to Rev. Robert McDonalds fathering in the 1860s of a child by the

Peels River HBC traders wifewhich required him to stay away for several years in the


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Yukon. Later Anglican missionaries include McDonalds brother Kenneth, who left because of

his own sexual scandal, Wm. Carpenter Bompas, who stopped his Inuit work when made bishop,

and Thomas H. Canham, who disliked McDonald and feared Inuit violence and so arranged in

the 1880s to get moved from Ft. McPherson west across the mountains. The Catholic clerics

were Jean Sguin, superior at Good Hope, and one his priests, Emile Petitot. Sguin made a long

visit to the Delta Inuits homes and wished to return, but was not allowed by the Oblate

hierarchy. Petitot was never able to control his homosexual appetites and suffered with paranoid

schizophrenia that quickly cut short all four of his stays with the Delta Inuit; his experience of

them may be far less than his writings tell. He did the same with Yukon Gwichinafter visiting

them he told stories that required his knowing the language when in fact (as Sguin pointed out)

he did not.

65The main examples are three males: George Greenland (Arveuna), David Copperfield, and

Kalukotok.

66I visited the Kogmollit [at sandspit between Baillie I. and Cape Bathurst]... Long talk in my

tent with Naoyniak, Taligoak, and Izyatooagzyook... They used to visit Fort Anderson. They tell

how some of the natives burnt the buildings after they were deserted to get at the nails I.

Stringer journal, 1900, 08, 08.

67This item reached V. Stefansson in 1912 through oral history told him by Kukpugmiut who

were youngsters in the 1890s. (Stefansson 1916)

68Stringer, ordained a deacon in Toronto in 1892, and a priest at McPherson in the 1893

summer, and was not a reverend until that second event.

69These comments are based on my transcription of the diaries and correspondence by and about

the two men in church and HBC archives.

70Formerly a pool hall for sailors and quarters for the Pacific Whaling Companys on-shore

captain.


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71For Sukayak and her husband Ivitkoona (and a prior one accidentally shot by a whaler) see

Sophie Porter, 1895, 04, 06. Bodfish 124. Isaac Stringer 1895, 14-15, 08; 1897, 13, 05; 1898, 01

and 09, 01; 1898, 26, 11; 1900, 05, 03; 1900, 20, 07; 1901, 08-18, 04; 1909, 27, 07. Sadie

Stringer 1901, 08-18, 04. Stefansson 1906, 1907, 1912. R. M. Anderson June 1910, photos

#162, 176, and 180. Anglican church registers 1910, 05, 08; 1921, 01, 01; 1925, 13, 07. Nuligak

86. Rasmussen 44 (in 1924 at Igdluk).

72 The fame the royal visit brought, as well as stories about his time in the Arctic, helped make

Stringer Archbishop of Ruperts Land, one of the Anglican Church in Canadas most senior

positions.

73Though bishop of the Yukon (then called the Diocese of Selkirk) Stringer acted as commissary

for the Diocese of the Mackenzie, which often had either no bishop or a weak one who preferred

to leave visits to the coast to Stringer.,

74At Nalugogiak

75For this second Tiktik, or Tyiktik, as whites also spelled it, see Isaac Stringer diary, 1898, 20,

11; 1899, 31, 01; 1899, 01 and 02, 02; 1900, 20, 07; 1909, 30, 07; 1912, 12, 07 (when the offer

to go east to the Copper Inuit occurred), and 1927, 25 and 26, 07; Stefansson, 1907, 1916;

Nuligak, 91; Anglican Church registers, baptism #64-5, 1910; marriage #32, 1910, 06, 08;

baptism #219 of Tiktiks daughter, 1912, 10, 07; her marriage, 1912, 12, 07; baptism #270, of

Tiktiks son Mark, 1913, 11, 01; Tiktik married again, 1922, 01, 01; Tiktik confirmed, 1925, 29.

06.

Documents

Tiqtiq+Dickens 2