Perfect Kneeling: The Mackenzie Inuit’s First Contact with Missions

Walter Vanast McGill University

“Everything goeth, everything returneth . . .

for every here rolleth the ball turning there . . .

crooked is the path of eternity.”

F. Nietzsche

Introduction

Conversion of the Mackenzie Inuiti, now known as the Inuvialuit, is said to have been remarkably

quick,ii giving rise to competing explanations. Ethnologist and religious cynic Vilhjalmur Stefansson

ascribed it to fashion, like a new style of hats, spreading east along the coast; missionaries, to the

flowering of seeds gently tended. But whichever concept is right (and any others put forward) must

address that the road to baptism was in fact quite slow: its “sudden” acceptance in 1909 followed fifty

years of contact between Inuit and clergy. This article describes their first meeting, the events that

brought it about, the link between trade and evangelization,iii and the fate of some of the players.

Hudson’s Bay Company Terrain in the 1850s:

A Thumbnail Sketch

At the time of this story the Hudson’s Bay Company (by means of its 1670 Rupert’s Land

charter, valid for two hundred years) ruled most of what is now northern Quebec and Ontario, as well as

the near entirety of the prairies. Terrain north of the prairies to the Arctic Coast was known as the Indian

or Northwest Territories, and to this in 1821 the HBC had also gained an exclusive licence. Two decades

later a first renewal was easily obtained, but in 1857 as the second approached free trade was all the rage,

and the Company was vigorously examined by a parliamentary committee in London.

At the continent’s center near the border with the U.S., the Company owned the Red River

Settlement,iv now the cities of Winnipeg and St. Boniface. Here its staff lived out their retirement, many

families had farms, and Anglicans and Catholics each had a bishop. As private business grew, people

chafed under HBC control and at mid-century sought repeal of its charter.

Until events depicted here, Anglican ministers had not entered the Territories, but Catholic

priests, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, had been there since 1851.v In half a decade their work extended to

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Great Slave Lake, where in 1858 with the arrival of Father Henri Grollier they opened a permanent

mission. vi A driven man, nasty even to Oblates, he planned soon to visit the length of the Mackenzie.

Three fur-trade sites are relevant to this early mission saga: Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie’s

southern leg, Fort Good Hope to the north by the Arctic Circle, and beyond that Fort McPherson near the

Mackenzie Delta. Located on the Peel, the last was referred to as Peel’s River post or simply Peel’s

River.vii

The journey by boat from the Red River Settlement to Fort Simpson covered twelve hundred

miles, and it was another eight hundred to the Inuit’s homes at the mouth of the Mackenzie. A straight

line on the map from the Settlement to that point cuts through Fort Simpson and closely approximates the

water route of the 1850s.

Missionaries on the Mackenzie:

Hunter and Grollier

When in 1858 the Rev. James Hunter took leave from his Settlement church there were several

reasons, some of which he could not state. It was a time of social turmoil, for the HBC, with which he

had warm ties,viii was under siege: its charter was being challenged, its licence was under review, and

rebellion against it was stoked by a local colleague. So he needed escape—a period of rejuvenation.

Ambition also played a part: Hunter had already been promoted to archdeacon,ix and was likely to

be considered for the post of his ageing Anglican bishop. One way to raise the chance was to blaze a path

for new missions.

The reason Hunter gave in public (1857, 1858a-c) was to battle Rome, whose priests were about

to enter the Mackenzie River. 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.

Hunter’s intended route, as far from London as one could go on British terrain, played directly

into whites’ fascination with the Arctic. Moreover, he would follow the steps of famed explorer John

Franklin, whose 1826 journey to the ice had started here. Franklin’s ventures were widely known, and

even more so at midcentury were those of parties trying to find him after he was lost while looking for the

Northwest Passage. The world was transfixed by news of the searches, and some of the latest reports had

just appeared.

As well, the Arctic held special 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 globe’s most distant sites.x 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.xi

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That Hunter’s prospects were good was shown by a converted Inuk from near Hudson’s Bay who

had recently come to the Settlement and whose gentle ways confirmed his people as “easiest” to make

Christian. xii 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 Hunter’s drive, for he also hoped to convert the Dene, the Mackenzie’s

Indians, who lived south of the Delta along the river’s edge. “Well disposed toward the gospel,” they had

to be seen before Oblates could reach them. Hence his rush to get to Fort Simpson, headquarters of the

Mackenzie District, whose officer-in-charge, Bernard Rogan Ross, had asked him in. (Hunter 1858b)

They were friends from years both had spent at posts further south and besides, they were kin—their

partners were sisters.

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

vessels, each with a crew of twelve. Months later near the Mackenzie he met Father Grollier, who was

making inroads among the Indians and who had recently sealed the marriage of Company employee

Charles Gaudetxiii and his mixed-blood wife. (Payment) As it pained Grollier to see the “enemy” advance,

he dropped his local work (he was building a chapel) and joined Hunter on the boats to Fort Simpson. But

when Dene there embraced the priest, Chief Trader Ross at once sent him back. (Grollier; Hunter 1858e)

Though Hunter now had the Mackenzie to himself, it brought no advantage: many Dene had ties

to French-speaking fur-trade servants or their mixed-blood descendants,xiv so their attraction to clerics

with long robes was greater than to those who spoke English and dressed like HBC staff. Besides,

Hunter’s work was hurt by Gaudet’s mother-in-law, a forceful Métisse, who spread word that a minister

was “l’homme d’une femme,” a man linked to a wife, while priests belonged to God. (Grollier) Her tone

that winter may have been extra harsh because Gaudet had just left the Roman Church and joined the

Church of England.xv

Career concern likely nudged the young man’s act: recently promoted from labourer status, he

was the only Catholic officer in the district, while the chief trader, an Orangistxvi from Northern Ireland,

hated all that had to do with the pope. The switch was the minister’s only success, for no Dene, except a

few who did so briefly, adopted the Protestant faith. In July, as Father Grollier gleefully put it, Hunter left

in shame to rejoin his “dear other half.”

Hunter’s view of Inuit (still based entirely on hearsay) had by now greatly changed: rather than

peaceful and eager to learn, they thirsted for blood and were deceitful. (1859g) A Gwich’in, a member of

the Dene tribe adjacent to the Mackenzie Delta, had killed his Inuit wife, for which her people vowed

revenge. So Hunter, despite knowing he could spend but a year in the North, had not gone to the Peel’s

River post near the Delta, which Inuit had begun to frequent.

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Traders on the Coast

The threat of injury by the Inuit was overblown, for a clerkxvii from Peel’s River had just stayed in

their homes and found them “anxious” for contact with whites. Though the post had been founded in

1840, Inuit had not come because of fear of Gwich’in, who had long been middle-men in trade between

them and whites, and who readily killed to hold that position. In 1852, at last, three Inuit had visited

Peel’s River (Peers 1852), and since then a few more had done so each spring. What they wanted now was

a link to the Company such that all the tribe could barter directly for goods—and that touched several

issues.

Because profit at Peel’s River had lagged for some time, the Company wanted all furs from the

coast it could possibly get. Yet if Inuit in number came up the Peel, violence between them and Gwich’in

might fatally flare. One solution was to place a post directly among the Inuit, but that Chief Trader Ross

(1858) would not do without access to good translation.

That interpreters were hard to find seems strange, for (as three decades of HBC records show)

peace between Inuit and Gwich’in lasted longer than conflict, a Gwich’in chief made an annual trading

journey to Inuit terrain, and the tribes lived side by side in spring at the Delta’s southern tip.xviii They had

heard each other speak for years.

Similarly, Gwich’in had long dealt with whites.xix But though some interpreted well between the

Inuit’s language and English, others (at least, so it seems from today’s perspective) lost that skill at

strategic times. When the HBC approached bands in the Delta, translation could be frustratingly poor.xx

Chief Trader Ross (1859) also worried about translation further east at the mouth of the Anderson

River, where he had sent a clerkxxi to find a site for a fort. That location, he assumed, would serve nearby

Inuit as well as those of the Mackenzie. But the visit did not go well—the presence of Dene in the HBC

group caused friction.

To avoid such issues in future, the clerk asked his Inuit hosts for a boy to train as interpreter. And

when that was turned down it was hoped a similar request by Gaudet, now in charge at Peel’s River,

would bring better results. The signs were good, for while with the Mackenzie tribe in late 1858 he

“enjoyed their hospitality” and got many pelts. (Ross 1859) The giving up of a child, however, begged

reflection.

Youths for the HBC

Inuit families consisted on average of a mother, father, and two children who by age ten helped

with many chores and hunts. Giving one up meant loss of labour now and of security in the future—and

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besides, bonds of love were tight (except, at times, for orphans and youngsters taken in beyond the infant

stage, who might be worked hard and treated almost as slaves).xxii So for the Inuit to agree to the HBC

request, benefits had to be major.

The following may have happened. In winter the tribe decided to let two children go, but in return

wanted a post among themselves. Then in spring Gaudet told them their request would carry more weight

if discussed directly with Chief Trader Ross, and arranged for Inuit spokesmen to go with him later to

Fort Simpson, a month’s journey upstream on the Mackenzie.

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

Simpson (1859) to build a fort near the coast without delay. And since the Company had no interpreter to

send in, he ordered that Inuit receive “sufficient inducement” to let some children be raised among

whites. Cost for this and the fort had no limit.

Chief Trader Ross got the letter in July when his brigade reached Portage La Lochexxiii far to the

south to exchange the year’s furs for new supplies.xxiv Debarking here was Archdeacon Hunter, who was

going home, and coming aboard was his replacement, the Rev. William Kirkby.

The governor’s missive told that the Territories licence had not been renewed, so the Company’s

role was no longer as a ruling body, but as “private individuals.” Clerics would now be charged for travel

and freight, but that did not mean less assistance—quite the contrary. Kirkby was to have free board at

Fort Simpson until a house for him had been built, and Father Grollier would also be going there: he was

to join Ross during the brigade’s return journey north, and stay at the fort until a boat left for the lower

Mackenzie.

Implicit in all this was concern for the HBC’s hold on giant Rupert’s Land, the charter to which

would end in just over a decade. The licence to the Territories had just been lost, and the charter, too,

might not be extended if the Company’s image, badly hurt by recent events, did not improve quickly.

In the 1830s, prior to seeking a first renewal of the Territories licence, the Company had stopped

selling alcohol to natives, installed missionaries on the trade route southwest of Hudson’s Bay, and sent

two of its officers to explore the Far North.xxv That last measure had worked spectacularly well—large

parts of the coast had been defined and new terrain, later found to be an island, had been named after just-

installed Queen Victoria. As a result, the Company’s governors ( George Simpson in North America and

another in England) were knighted, and renewal of the licence was smoothed.

In the 1850s, too, it had seemed that journeys to the coast by HBC men would help gain renewal,

and the loss of Franklin made for serendipitous timing. Where naval ships with large crews and supplies

had failed to find him, small parties living off the land might succeed and boost the Company’s prestige.

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Unfortunately, this initiative brought the converse of its intent. A first effort, by the officer then in

charge of the Mackenzie District,xxvi produced nothing useful. A second, by Chief Factor John Rae, in

charge there before him, triggered a disaster in public relations.

Travelling alone with his Inuit helpers, Rae learned that Franklin’s last surviving men had eaten

the flesh of deceased fellow sailors before perishing themselves. Rushing to England with the news, he

expected praise for his work, but instead faced derision: the awful story could not be believed and led to

distrust of both him and the HBC. A campaign to question the Company’s credibility came afoot, pushed

by Franklin’s widow and supported by Charles Dickens, who wrote a play to show that British seamen

could not have committed such acts. Queen Victoria came to see it and was deeply touched. (McGoogan;

Brannan).

While the play was on stage, witnesses told the 1857 parliamentary committee of high Company

prices for trifles, blindness to native needs, failure to back missions, and payment of “sops” to stifle

clerics’ complaints. Sir George was made to look deceitful when he denied cannibalism had ever occurred

among starving natives and a letter was produced describing that very act by Gwich’in outside the gates at

Peel’s River.xxvii Indeed, much of the testimony touched the Mackenzie, and Rae made matters worse by

botching his explanation of Company profit, admitting he had never understood its tariff, and telling that

while in charge of the Mackenzie in 1849-1850 he had ignored an order to lower the cost of goods.xxviii

Adding to the bad impression were recent jeremiads against the HBC, pamphlets from the

Aborigines Protection Society, reports by naval visitors during the Franklin search, and campaigns against

the company by former employees. And since many of these alluded to the Mackenzie,xxix it became a

focus of committee questions. If the HBC wanted to regain public favour, it was here it had to act.

To raise its repute among churches and other influential groups, the HBC had to be seen trading

with Inuit (whom outsiders accused it of ignoring) and helping to Christianize them and other far-off

tribes. And since public relations, not law or obligation, dictated this approach, it had to be put in place

even though the Mackenzie was not a part of Rupert’s Land. In fact, that would make it all the more

effective. So the governor ordered Ross to aid missions as much as he possibly could.xxx

Perfect Kneeling

The clerk’s summer departure from each district post was timed so he would reach Fort Simpson

just as the chief trader returned from the Portage with new goods. Ross with the Reverends Kirkby and

Grollier aboard arrived on August 14, 1859, and Gaudet from Peel’s River the next day. What made for

excitement was the presence on the latter’s boat of Tiktik (a chief) and four other Inuit: a man, a woman,

their boy, and a nine-year-old girl, Attingarek, who had come without her parents.xxxi

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The crowd ashorexxxii was thrilled by the Inuit’s height, intelligence, good nature, exotic dress, and

“remarkably fine” looks—the children could easily pass for Europeans. Kirkby (1859a) 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.”

Though Inuit could not be made to gather on farms (then a sine qua non of conversion tactics

among southern natives), they spent part of the year at permanent villages with driftwood homes and

central halls, which Kirkby (1859i) thought “all so many facilities to the progress of the Gospel.” Already

the chief trader had invited him to the fort to be raised near them. Father Grollier had asked to go, but

would not be allowed.

Five days later Chief Trader Ross met the Inuit in the mess room, packed with observers. Saying

nothing of plans for a post on the Anderson River, he told them he would place one 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 session’s end the chief trader was about to hand out gifts when he had Kirkby 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 kneelingxxxiii 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.xxxiv

On Monday in Kirkby’s 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 Gwich’in who had come on the boat from Peel’s River, he spoke at length of salvation,

intent to make them “fully understand it and feel it, so as to carry it back to their countrymen.”(Kirkby

1859c) That shows either that the Gwich’in 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 their necks and

explained it was “the child of the sun”—if worn like the amulets on their own clothes it would unfailingly

protect. 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.

Not until Friday, when the Inuit boarded Gaudet’s boat, did the boy realize he was to stay. Then

he wailed so loudly and clung to his mother so tightly that, to Kirkby’s distress (1859e), she relented and

took him along. Only Attingarek, without parents to appeal to, was left behind.

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At Peel’s River in mid-September a large group of Inuit met the boat, and when the delegates told

of their excellent treatment, many offered to go the next year. Yet matters related to Attingarek caused

conflict, for Ross had sent her father a present, which another Inuk wanted as well. At some point, it

turned out, 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.

Attingarek becomes Maria

Meanwhile Attingarek, “the poor little Eskimo girl,” stayed dull and withdrawn for weeks.

(Kirkby 1859f). The only one to comfort her was a Gwich’in boyxxxv, an orphan from Peel’s River who

spoke her language. Also acquainted with her tongue was a Gwich’in womanxxxvi at the fort, and it was

with her that Attingarek stayed. Each day she and others went to the Rev. Kirkby’s 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)

Attingarek further lost connection to home when her name was changed. It happened in an

informal way at first, but was documented in March 1860 when the chief trader ordered a start on a post

on the Anderson River. Not realizing how far from the Delta that would be, Kirkby (1860j-k) quickly

baptized Attingarek so HBC staff at the new post could tell her friends at home.xxxvii

Baptism of natives in that era involved assigning a European name, often one from the Bible, and

only rarely did ministers choose one of liking to the Catholic Church. So it may seem out of line that

Kirkby called the girl after Jesus’ mother, to whom Rome gave what Protestants thought idolatrous

praise.xxxviii Yet he probably had no choice, as many women related to HBC men were called Maria,

including the sister of Chief Trader Bernard Ross, his mother-in-law Maria Ross, and Archdeacon

Hunter’s little girl, who had passed away during his trip to the Mackenzie.

The person who had chosen the new name was Bernard Ross’s wife. When the latter had a baby,

she took on Attingarek as a nurse, and found her “a good, intelligent, and obedient girl,” who learned with

ease and followed instructions exactly. But she found her employee’s native name so “unmanageable” she

called her Maria.xxxix

In addition to that break with her culture, Attingarek was denied the chance to meet again with

one of her fathers, an Inuit chief. In 1861 he came to Peel’s River and told Gaudet 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 between parent and daughter took place.xl

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Despite the hope raised by Tiktik’s stay at Fort Simpson, the Rev. Kirkby did not contact the

Inuit, and it was by chance that three years later he met a group near the Delta. Writing up the encounter

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

telling of Attingarek: from knowing no English when she first came under his wing, she now spoke and

wrote it well. (Kirkby 1865). That fine result, however, brought no help with evangelization of her

people.

Youngsters in the North became sexually active when still children by today’s standard, and

whites took very young brides. As Franklin noted earlier in the century, “The girls at the forts . . . are

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

happened to Attingarek. Mrs. Ross had come to depend on her so much and got along with her so well,

she had hoped to take her along with the family on a journey to England. But her husband refused

because William Brass, one of his traders, wanted her for a wife.xli The marriage occurred when she was

carrying his first child and was likely performed à la façon du pays (i.e.by a signed HBC contract without

the blessings of the church) during Kirkby’s absence.

The missionary’s report of Maria’s new status failed to hide dismay: “As far as earthly things go

she has a comfortable home for her future life.” What made it hard to take was that the newlyweds had

been sent to a post well south of the treeline.xlii Yet there remained a chance something positive would

happen. If plans came through to transfer Brass to Peel’s River, his new partner might still “tell her poor

countrymen something of Jesus.”(Kirkby, 1862) None of that came about.

L’Envoi

Governor Simpson did not live to see the outcome of his mission policies. He had long suffered a

form of spells, and at the 1857 parliamentary hearingsxliii it was already clear his memory had begun to

fail. In 1859 he declared he would soon resign, and early the next year, while paralyzed from a stroke or

multiple seizures, he passed away. (Galbraith)

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

founded a mission further north at Fort Good Hope on the Mackenzie and from there made forays to

Peel’s River to meet the Inuit. Shortness of breath felled him in 1864 at age thirty-eight. (Carrière) He had

never entered the Delta, yet Catholic histories tell how he realized his ideal, which was “to take the cross

all the way to the Pole.”(Champagne 121) The line paraphrases his last words, inscribed on his grave:

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

Similar words marked Canada’s 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 text that, as we saw,

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served as basis for missions: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river until the

ends of the earth.” xlv Given that heady mix of national pride with Christian triumphalism, as well as

colonists’ pressure for soil,xlvi the HBC recognized its charter would not be renewed, and after negotiating

gave up its rights in 1870.

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

Good Hope, where his companions were priests who spoke French,xlvii the language of his youth in

Montreal. Soon he reverted to the Catholic faith, xlviii but did not show it in public till a decade later.

(Payment 5) The conversion did not stall his receiving, in 1878, the title of chief trader, but it came

without change in duty, and he was never in charge of the district.xlix He ran the Good Hope post nearly

five decades.

Archdeacon Hunter’s Mackenzie journey did not lead to his becoming the next bishop of the

Northwest. In 1862 at the Settlement he had to deal with a scandal involving the missionaryl who had

preached rebellion against the HBC: after making a servant girl pregnant, the medically trained cleric had

repeatedly tried 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)

Maria Ross Brass gave birth to a boy in 1863. Five others survived as well and wereli registered at

Fort Nelson in Canada’s 1881 census. Their mother’s ethnic origin was given as “Esquimaux,” but in

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

early the next century referred to Inuit as Esquimaux Indians). At one point they sought to bring an

Anglican minister to the fort so as to provide a proper Christian schooling for their children, but when

Brass stopped in at Fort Liard, an Oblate priest talked him into importing a Catholic one instead. When

years later William retired to southern Manitoba, Maria went with him, and it was there, at St. Andrews,

that she died on Jan. 20, 1897.

Maria’s 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 long tried to define. In return, he kindly offered

details he had found of her first years at Fort Simpson (such as her employ as servant by the chief trader’s

wife) and those in the paragraph above. In his youth Brownlee’s nearest relatives denied there was any

link to native blood, then considered a shame—but he followed a hunch and doggedly traced through the

decades. He and his family proudly bear their Métis status.

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

during their spring stay at Peel’s River, 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 nearly always negated those

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efforts.lii That is not to say this was a cause of the failure to gain converts—it may be that no matter how

solid the churches’ efforts, the Inuit were not yet ready to change their beliefs.

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

site, teaching them the Bible and the evangelizers’ language, and then deploying them to spread their new

faith. After Attingarek other youths from the coast stayed at HBC forts from time to timeliii, but as far as

one can tell from surface events, exposure to ministers or priests and later contact with their own people

never helped the Christian cause.

Tiktik’s people found little use for the fort on the Anderson River, which did not fit their annual

spring journey south through the Mackenzie Delta. When it opened Chief Trader Ross (1861a) wrote to

Governor Simpson (not knowing he was dead) 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.liv

It would be understandable if Tiktik felt bitter about his journey far south on the Mackenzie, for

despite Attingarek’s remaining with whites, the HBC had not put a fort where he had asked. In 1871, in

response to yet another HBC promise that one would soon be constructed, he and his tribe withheld their

furs in anticipation.(Hardisty 1871a, b) When again nothing was built and the HBC decided instead to

send a boat from Good Hope to trade in the Delta under the command of Gaudet, the Inuit planned to

attack it and seize all the goods.

Despite being forewarned Gaudet undertook the trip, and was forced to leave when angry Inuit

grabbed the fur he had collected and threw it overboard. The project, which had foreseen yearly journeys,

was then entirely abandoned.(Hardisty 1872a, b). Promise of a fort for the Delta was again made from

time to time, especially after 1889 when American whalers began to trade nearby, but that, too, came to

naught.

Nowhere is it recorded whether Tiktik was with those who alerted Gaudet or those who took part

in the assault on his boat, but the next year the Inuit leader was again trading at Peel’s River (PRJ 1873).

It is likely he went there on annual basis, though some years danger may have kept him on the coast,

where he played a central part in a feud that brought many killings. (Stefansson 1916)

Also causing demise was epidemic illness. When it claimed Tiktik’s wife in late 1885, she was

brought to Peel’s River and lay frozen in the warehouse beside three Gwich’in. (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 a receptive attitude to the teachings of novice clerics,

Isaac Stringer for the Anglican Church and Father Camille Lefebvre for the Catholic, who reached them

seven years later.

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Details of the two men’s faiths, let alone conflicts in dogma, eluded the Inuit, but they were much

aware of a difference in tone. The priest’s hell-fire words soon led to his exclusion from the Delta, while

Stringer’s calm approach won friendship and respect.lv

Initially based at Peel’s River, Stringer moved in 1897 to Herschel Island (in the Beaufort Sea

within easy reach of the Delta), which the whalers had left for points further east. They had built a depot

to replenish their ships and a trading post for the Inuit, enterprises that the minister now managed. Living

with wife and children in the whaling-company house,lvi he simultaneously took care of its interests and

conducted his Christian work. As during Tiktik’s visit to Fort Simpson, commerce and evangelization

could not have been tied more closely. Yet neither that nor Stringer’s engaging persona brought converts.

It was only after another near-decade of mission, and that by an unpopular cleric, that acceptance of Jesus

took place.

Around the time Tiktik lost his wife he had a new daughter, Sukayak (the fast one), perhaps the

offspring of a more junior woman in his household. lvii She worked briefly for the Stringers in 1901,

sewing beautiful caribou coats in which in the fall on their way home the clerical couple was

photographed, and in which years later they were received in the palace at London by the King and Queen

of Britain.lviii

Sukayak and her husband survived an epidemic just after the turn of the century 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) held “a hearty service,” with many present, in their tent.lix During that trip a few adults

were baptized, and soon after nearly all the Inuit of the region, including two hundred who had moved

there from Alaska, joined the Anglican Church.

Details about the Christian path of each (confirmation, marriage, etc.) can easily be had, including

that of a second Tiktik, who in 1914 was one of a group who volunteered to tell of Jesus to another tribe

far east along on the coast. lx 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 it took other people and efforts. But in time the Great Commission’s final

phrase was (in its geographic sense) fully effected.

12

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.)

National Archives of Canada

Church Mission Society Papers CMS at NAC

R. M. Anderson 1910 photos

Dartmouth College Library (Stefansson Papers)

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online DCBO

Hudson’s Bay Company HBC or Company

Hudson’s Bay Company Archives HBCA

Fort Simpson correspondence books

Fort Good Hope post journal

Peel’s River post journal PRJ

National Archives of Canada (Anderson photos) NAC

Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 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

All correspondence is cited by year-day-month.

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13

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

Anderson, R.M.

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Armstrong, Alexander.

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

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

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

1850 to Governor (from Fort Simpson), 1850, n.d., fall. HBCA B200/b/25.14

Bodfish, Capt. Hartson H.

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Breton, P. E.

1963 Irish of the Arctic. Edmonton: Editions de L'Hermitage.

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1977 Pierre-Henri Grollier. Dictionnaire Biographique des Oblats de Marie Immaculée 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 of the Western Arctic, Twentieth

Annual Conf. of the Can. Archeological Assn. Calgary, V 8-10. Quoted in Coates 1991.

Champagne , Joseph Etienne

15

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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:

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Dallas, A. G.

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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 of the North-West. Buffalo: Missionary Oblates of

Mary Immaculate.

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

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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

16

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

Grollier, Révérend Père.

1886 “Missions Etrangères: Vicariat du Mackenzie, Souvenirs: récit inédit d'un voyage du R.

P. Grollier au Fort Simpson en 1858.” Missions de la Congrégation des

Missionnaires Oblats de Marie Immaculée. March: 409-19.

Hardisty

1871a to Andrew Flett at Peel’s 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

Hooper, Lieut. W. H.

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).

Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort Good Hope journal, 1822-1834. HBCA, B/80/a/1-12.

Hudson’s Bay Company, Peel’s River 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.

17

1859 to CMS, 1859, 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

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.

Levasseur, Donat

1995 Les Oblats de Marie-Immaculée dans le Grand Nord du Canada 1845-1967. Edmonton:

Western Canadian Publisher.

Mackenzie, Alexander

1855 to Gntlm. in Charge, 1855, 10, 12. HBCA B200/b/32.

Mackenzie, Hector

18

1840 to R. McLeod, 1840, 28, 07. HBCA B200/b/17

McCarthy, Martha

1995 From the Great River to the Ends of the Earth. Edmonton: U. of Alberta P.

McGhee, Robert.

1988 Beluga Hunters: An archeologic reconstruction of the history and culture of the

Mackenzie Delta Kittegaryumiut. Hull: Can. Mus. of Civilization. (Original edition

1974:U. of Newfoundland.)

McGoogan, Ken.

2005 Lady Franklin’s Revenge: A True Story of Ambition, Obsession, and the Remaking of

Arctic History. Toronto: Harper-Collins, 2005.

McLean, John and W. Stewart Wallace

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).

Morton, Desmond

2001 A Short History of Canada. Toronto: McLelland.

Nuligak, [Robert]

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

Owram, Doug

1992 Promise of Eden: The Canadian Expansionist Movement and the Idea of the 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.

19

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

Peers, Augustus (Peel’s River journal entries)

1849 1849, 04, 07. Peel’s River House. Journals kept by Angus [sic] R. Peers. NAC MG19,

D12, Reel H2341.

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 Historical Journal 28.3: 597-621.

Rasmussen. Knud

..1924 The Mackenzie Eskimos, after Knud Rasmussen’s Posthumous Notes. Ed. H. Osterman.

Copenhagen: Gyldenhalske Boghandel, 1942.

Richardson, Sir John

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

20

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

1983 “‘Commerce and Christianity’: Providence Theory, the Missionary Movement, and the

Imperialism of Free Trade, 1842-1860." The Historical Journal 26.1: 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 Arctic Expedition of the 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.

Journal. ACCT, M74-3, Stringer Family Fond,Series 1-B, Box 5.

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Vanast, Walter

..2006 “ ‘Une Faute d’Orthographe’: A Sexual History of Missions to the Mackenzie Inuit.”

Unpublished article21

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

the Mackenzie Delta 1906-1925.” Religious Study and Theology 26: 77-116.

Van Kirk, Sylvia

1983 Many Tender Ties. University of Oklahoma Press.

22

i Until the late nineteenth century only Inuit from the Delta’s eastern side came each spring to its southern tip,

and it is they who are the actors in this account. Whites in the 1890s sometimes refer 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.’s Across Time and Tundra.

ii For debate about sudden Inuit conversion see Vanast, whose work came after Ernest S. Burch’s outstanding

study of that process on the Alaska coast.

iii For Britons’ providential view of the conjuncture of Christianity and commerce see A. Porter. Stanley tells

why it was expected to reach complete “consummation” between 1857 and 1860 and why that failed.

iv Settlement hereafter.

v Wesleyan missionary James Evans had visited Lake Athabasca and the Peace River in the early 1840s.

vi For early Oblate work in the Territories see Levasseur ch. 5, “Jusq’au Grand Nord.”

vii A fur trade post was called a fort, a house, or a factory. Some posts were referred to by location, hence “Peel’s

River post.” Most authors left out “post” and the apostrophe, making it “Peels River. ”

viii Hunter was married to the daughter of deceased Chief Factor Donald Ross from Norway House and his wife

Maria, a respected HBC couple, and had long worked at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan, where he

made friends among HBC personnel.

ix 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.

x The 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." For British

fascination with the Arctic see the turgid volume by David.

xi Psalms 72:8, KJV. The idea for this line comes from Martha McCarthy’s From the Great River to the Ends of

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

xii Hunter (1857) had years earlier heard these kind comments about Inuit of the Hudson’s 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.

xiii Gaudet was then postmaster, the lowest officer rank. The next levels are clerk, chief trader, and chief factor. In

this article chief trader designates both the title and the responsibility for the district.

xiv Most HBC labourers spoke French and favoured Rome, in contrast to officers, who were English-speaking and

Protestant.On meeting Grollier, Hunter (1858e) noted the priest would be “much assisted… by the Canadian half

casts and their wives who are all Papists.” While descending the Mackenzie, Hunter (1858f) wrote that “the

Roman Catholics in the Brigade do all for him they can with the Indians.”

xv “Mr. Gaudet was last year admitted into the Church of England by Archdn. Hunter.” (Kirkby 1859b)

xvi An Orangist: 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).

xvii James Lockhart, whose report was not transcribed into the Fort Simpson correspondence book, but

paraphrased in a letter by Ross (1858).

xviii Early in the century, when Fort Good Hope belonged to the Northwest Company, Gwich’in profited from war

with Inuit, for then, as in 1817 and 1819 when Peter Dease was in charge, they received gifts from the post to

end it.(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. In general, conflict emerged if Inuit wished to meet whites or were about to do so. In 1840 Gwich’in

massacred a dozen Inuit men, as well as women and children when the Peel’s River post, near the Delta, was

about to open (H. Mackenzie). A few years later they shot Inuit entering the Peel (Richardson 214-15), and Inuit

as a result thought whites gave Gwich’in guns to kill them (Peers 1849). In 1850, when Inuit met an HBC boat

near the Peel, Gwich’in ensured they would not get invited to the Peel’s River post: “The Indians first traded all

the bows and arrows of their foes then crept into the surrounding bushes and deli1berately shot them” (Bell

1850).

xix The first Fort Good Hope, opened in 1805, was located on the Mackenzie a few days’ travel from the Delta; in

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

xx For translation problems see J. Anderson 1852a and b; A. Mackenzie 1855; Ross 1858 and 1859.

xxi Roderick MacFarlane

xxii See Nuligak’s tale (13, 30, 32, 54, 58, 120, 127) of his 1890-1910 youth as “a poor orphan. ”

xxiiiPortage La Loche, twelve miles long, in what is now northern Saskatchewan.

xxiv The Mackenzie’s trade year went from late June one year to late June the next.

xxv Barr gives an exquisite introduction to his edition of the diary of Peter Dease, who in 1836-9 with Thomas

Simpson explored the Alaskan and Central Coast. See Fitzgerald for sarcastic 1849 comments (119-120) on the

HBC’s tactics prior to the licence renewal. Coates has discussed the self-serving aspects of the HBC’s 1836-39

Dease and Simpson explorations.

xxvi James Anderson, to whom Gov. Simpson’s 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 Majesty’s Government and the English public” (1854)

xxviiOn 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 Peel’s

River was from Ballantyne’s 1848 adventure book Hudson’s Bay. Ballantyne, a former HBC clerk, 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.

xxviii All Rae’s testimony: Q+A 365-696; not understanding the tariff: 482-484; not lowering prices: 532.

xxix The Company’s sins were painted as bad treatment of natives and failure to aid missions. The latter charge

related to its enemies’ claims that the Mackenzie could support agriculture—which meant natives could change

from a nomadic life to farming, thought essential to conversion. James E. Fitzgerald’s 1849 jeremiad against the

HBC commented (119-20) on the Mackenzie’s fine weather and soil, even at Peel’s River. 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 domestic cattle, which were kept at several posts. John McLean, who denigrated the

HBC in his 1849 book, had assisted the trader-in-charge at Fort Simpson in 1843-44, and was in command at

Fort Resolution in 1844-45 (the first year it was part of the Mackenzie District), after which, faced with lack of

promotion, he quit the HBC and became its opponent. Endless charges came from Alexander Isbister, former

HBC apprentice at Fort Simpson in 1839-40 and at Peel’s River in 1840-41, who spoke in London for

disgruntled citizens of the Red River Settlement, spearheaded a written assault on the company’s rights,

concocted an 1856 tract against it (Aborigines Protection Society), and testified at length at the 1857 hearings.

( Q+A 2392-2598 and 6072-6098). See Cooper for an irritating, ostentatious, theory-soaked hagiography of him.

Thomas Kennedy, Isbister’s young uncle, after leaving the HBC led searches for Franklin sponsored by the

latter’s widow, whipped up opposition in Upper Canada to the Company’s monopoly, and spoke to Toronto

businessmen about the Mackenzie’s wasted riches (Aborigines Protection Society). Like Fitzgerald, he had not

been in that district and likely got his information from McLean and Isbister. Naval Lieutenant W. H. Hooper

told in 1853 (366-74) of an HBC man’s part in a massacre of Inuit by Gwich’in. 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.

xxx By aiding Rome, it is true, 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.

xxxi Kirkby journal, CMS reel A93, NAC. The girl’s age: 1859, 08, 09; the rest of the paragraph, 1859, 15, 08.

Tiktik’s name, 1860, 19, 03.

xxxii Over a hundred people were present, including crews of boats from most district posts to pick up goods, and

those of the chief trader’s brigade (who spent winter at the Mackenzie’s Big Island).

xxxiii The evangelical or “lower” branch of the Anglican Church included kneeling in its liturgy.

xxxiv At the service’s end, Kirkby thanked HBC staff for their “noble efforts” to erect a church.

xxxv “William Flett—8 years old, speaks Loucheux and Eskimo. He is from Peel’s River, a pure Indian, and

unbaptized though called by the above name.” (Kirkby 1859g)

xxxvi She was the wife of James Flett, who had been at La Pierre’s House, a subsidiary to Peel’s 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.

xxxvii Hunter also baptized the Gwich’in boy, and said of the two: “Oh, that they may prove as first fruits of an

abundant harvest that shall yet be gathered into the heavenly garrison from their respective tribes.”

xxxviii That was all the more so since the pope had recently proclaimed the doctrine of Mary’s immaculate

conception. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate had pushed for the doctrine in Rome.

xxxix Healy, W.J. Women of Red River: Being a Book Written from the Recollections of Women from the Red River

Era. Winnipeg: Women’s Canadian Club, 1923. Web. Reference provided by John Brownlee.

xl Perhaps 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.

xli Healey, Women, web.[page?]

xlii Fort Halkett, on the Liard.

xliii Q+A 702-2125, Feb. 26 and 27, 1857.

xliv “Je meurs content, O Jésus, votre étendard est élevé jusqu’aux extrémités 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 Father Pierre Duchaussois (Duchaussois O.M.I.) who held a doctorate in literature. Its original

version, Aux Glaces Polaires, published in Paris, won him membership in the Académie Française. 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.”

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

xlvi See Owram’s informative Promise of Eden about the West’s appeal to farmers and politicians.

xlvii Father Grollier until his death in 1864, Father Jean Séguin starting in 1861, and Father Emile Petitot, from

1864 on. Also present was Oblate religious brother J. P. Kearney, for whom Grollier’s imperious ways were a

cross to bear. Séguin and Kearney stayed half a century, as did Gaudet. Breton’s 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 missionaries ” (opp. p. 80). The book softens Grollier’s 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.”

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

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

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

Hunter). In addition to stoking Red River’s populace against the HBC, he testified to its anti-mission stance at

the 1857 hearings (Q+A 2656-2888, p. 150-169 ). A fine précis of his twisted personality and bizarre ecclesiastic

path tells that the local bishop called him “a most dangerous man.” (Boreski).

li By descending age, Margaret, Jane , William, John, and Thomas.

lii A 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 d’orthographe’: a

sexual history of missions to the Mackenzie Inuit.” The faute was the Oblates’ way of referring to Rev. Robert

McDonald’s fathering in the 1860s of a child by the Peel’s River HBC trader’s wife—which required him to stay

away for several years in the Yukon. Later Anglican missionaries include McDonald’s 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 Séguin, superior at Good

Hope, and one his priests, Emile Petitot. Séguin made a long visit to the Delta Inuit’s 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 Gwich’in—after visiting

them he told stories that required his knowing the language when in fact (as Séguin pointed out) he did not.

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

liv “I 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.

lv These comments are based on my transcription of the diaries and correspondence by and about the two men in

church and HBC archives.

lvi Formerly a pool hall for sailors and quarters for the Pacific Whaling Company’s on-shore captain.

lvii For 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).

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

Archbishop of Rupert’s Land, one of the Anglican Church in Canada’s most senior positions.

lix At Nalugogiak

lx For 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 Tiktik’s daughter, 1912, 10, 07; her marriage, 1912,

12, 07; baptism #270, of Tiktik’s son Mark, 1913, 11, 01; Tiktik married again, 1922, 01, 01; Tiktik confirmed,

1925, 29. 06.