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What Goes Around Comes Around:

The Early Theatre of Mackenzie Eskimo Evangelization

1799-1859

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

Four things had to happen to let the Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta first hear of Jesus in 1859. For a

start, fear between whites and this tribe, stoked by GWichin Indians, had to end. Next Hudsons Bay

Company profit had to stall, which made it look to the coast for a new source of hides. Then in Londonthe Company had to be so hurt (by a former employee who said it blocked missions) that it wished to be

seen aiding God wherever it did business. Lastly, the Inuit had to want a post in their own midst. Their

1859 delegation to that end reached Fort Simpson, a thousand miles off, at the same time as two HBC-

assisted clerics. A week of meetings followed and a girl was left behind.

The Ends of the Earth,

the HBC, and the Loucheux

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

of someone just deceased and became that very person.1 But to whites who met them it led straight from

Adam to the rise one day of all the dead and (depending on faith in Jesus during life) their assignment to

heaven or hell. What follows here is how that came to be told to the Inuit of the Mackenzie2 Delta.

After whites first saw the Mackenzie in 1786, its banks were soon plied by Northwest Company

traders from Montreal. So difficult were conditions (including the high cost of bringing in trade goods,

hostility from Dene Indian tribes, scant provisions, natural shifts in wildlife, and competition further south

from the London-based HBC) that the project was later abandoned. But in 1821 the NWC joined the HBC

under the latters name and posts were manned again. Success seemed guaranteed, as parliament in

Britain granted the new entity a monopoly licence to the Indian or North West Territories, which included

the Mackenzie.

The Company already held Ruperts Land, a vast terrain that stretched above the United States

border from the Rockies to Ungava, and whose charter, obtained in 1670, was valid for two hundred

years. So except for white colonies on the eastern side, 3most of British North America was now in its


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hands. The Mackenzie was the part most distant from London and sustained but a very small number of

people, yet it often figured in the public eye.

Each time the North West Territory licence was about to end (in the early 1840s and late the next

decade) the Company sought extension, a goal it it could only achieve with the support of the people of

Britain. And that became tough as free-trade views gained steam, monopolies drew disdain, and fierce

debate went into the repeal of laws that shut out competition. Such was the case when parliament ended

the fixed price of corn, known as wheat in North America, which had made landowners rich at the

expense of ordinary people.

Then, too, many Britons held the North close at heart and for Christians it held special meaning.

Tto them an Old Testament text, He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river until

the ends of the earth,4 urged preaching at far-off sites. So at strategic times the Company sent explorers

to the arctic coast, and somewhere on its land helped missions. As in theater-in-the-round, its work was

hued by what Britons thought, and vice versa.

All along, shareholders had to be pleased. So like any business eager to raise its worth, the HBC

expanded by sending its men west of the Mackenzie in the Yukon. When that failed to raise profit it

looked north to the coast and furs such as fox that brought a good price. That this resource had not been

tapped before was due to the GWichin, then known to Europeans as Loucheux, a Dene Indian nation

living south of the treeline adjacent to the Delta.

It was the Loucheux who bought goods from whites and bartered them to the tribe to their north.

And like the HBC, they were determined to keep making a profit. To that end they used violence to keep

Delta bands from meeting whites, and convinced the latter of the treacherous nature of these people. For

fifty years that policy worked remarkably well.

The Kukpugmiut

Except for a strip near the Beaufort Sea, the Delta was for much of the year empty of natives. In

winter most people lived on the coast, and in warm months, too, few from its northwest edge ever went

upstream. But those from the other side traveled each spring to the Deltas southern tip, now known as

Point Separation. Nearly always in the nineteenth century it is they who are subject of fur-trade letters

from the Mackenzie.

What we know of them is scant. The Loucheux only told whites what suited their own ends.

Arctic explorers (and parties looking for lost ones) saw the Delta every decade or two, but only very

briefly and while passing through.5 So what traders wrote about the tribe, when they wrote anything at all,

was second-hand and concerned only the most southerly part of their migration.6 Still, works from

archeologists and people who lived with them later (on the assumption the material can be applied

backwards) give a sense of their lives at this stage.


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The Eastern Channel at its downstream end turns quite wide, so one of the names its people

applied to themselves was Kukpugmiut, or People of the Large Water. For simplicitys sake (rather than

name people by each locality) that term is used here for all from that side of the Delta. Their number fell

over time, but may at one point have been as high as six to eight hundred.

They were nomads, but in a particular sense. Each family had a permanent driftwood home in one

or more villages on the coast. Such sites (of which there were half a dozen at any time) had at least one

hall, orkajigi, wheremen fixed their tools and told stories, and at night with the women danced to drums.

Shamans at such times communicated with spirits.

This happened almost nightly in August, when the Kukpugmiut speared belugas, small white

whales, in the shallow tidal water of settings like Kittigazuit. 789 Shortly after, many left to spend the dark

part of the year in villages further northeast, and from there made journeys for fish and caribou at the

Eskimo Lakes.10 Then in spring a large part of the tribe turned south, spending a month to reach Point

Separation, where trade with the GWichin occurred.1112 At times they got along well, at others there was

war; meetings always held potential for danger.

Contact (and lack of it) with Whites

At the time Europeans reached their world, the Kukpugmiut looked unkindly on anyone entering

the Delta. This followed in part from conflict with the GWichin, but religious belief also played a role,

for the sudden apparition of persons with strange features meant spirits had taken human shape and were

coming frightfully near. Death followed sight of some, but grimaces and shouts made others part, and left

no ill effect. If outsiders responded in an aggressive way, the Kukpugmiuts bow-and-arrow skill could

quickly do them in. And that held even if their opponents had firearms (the range of a gun and an arrow

was about equal).

Alexander Mackenzie faced no such problem when in 1786 he explored the river that now carries

his name. Following the Central Channel to the coast, he met not a soul, for it was August and the

Kukpugmiut were then further east. But the next white man to enter these waters, a trader who came north

in June, met an awful death near Point Separation with most of his crew. 13

Despite the loss the NWC soon after built Fort Good Hope14 on the Mackenzie, just a few days

upstream from the disaster. Whites, it seems, still hoped to deal directly with the Kukpugmiut, but gave it

up on the first try when in 1809 one of them was threatened on reaching the Delta.15 That allowed the

Loucheux to continue as intermediaries in trade, a role they firmly protected. If Kukpugmiut thought of

passing them by, they killed one or more and stopped it from coming about. And since each death brought

a cycle of revenge, they could always blame the other side.1617.18

NWC men in those early years were not all taken in, and saw GWichin themselves as19

aggressive.20 Traders such as Peter Dease knew it was they who caused many fights, and profited if they


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dragged on, for then they received bribes to end them.21And even when they lived side-by-side with

Kukpugmiut for weeks, they let none go south to trade with whites.

Such was the case in 1822, when Delta people spoke of poing to Good Hope.222324On hearing of

this, the clerk at that post asked the GWichin for help to bring them near, but was rebuffed and found

them much displeased.25

The fort would be thrashed, they warned, if these people came by. So no visit

took place, and the GWichin kept their role in trade.

Four years later Capt. John Franklin and Dr. John Richardson of the British navy traversed the

Delta to reach the coast (one on each side, with Richardson on the eastern). On a prior arctic journey they

had almost starved and Franklin had gained fame as the man who ate his boots,26 but this time he was

well prepared. Aware of the fate of the trader who had met Kukpugmiut a quarter century before, he

studied contacts with primitives elsewhere on the globe. Whites often died, he learned, because of harsh

response to native gesture and shouts. So he chose a passive approach. (Franklin 99).

The tactic worked well at the Deltas outer ends, as bands were startled by the sudden appearance

of strangers. [see Richardsons illustration of the Kukpugmiut in the Eastern Branch ]27 Though they lost

their fear and plunder was tried, no one was hurt.

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PjwvTURMPjwvQ2l0ZT48L1JlZm1hbj5= (Franklin 99-112, 119-20;Richardson 193-202;Franklin and

Davis) Still, the assaults gave the world a dreadful sense of these people. Franklins account showed a

horde of men storming the boats with knives.28

GWichin, by contrast, got much praise. When Franklin told of their delight at his passing

through their land,29 the HBC showed no surprise, for they had always been hospitable to strangers. 30

Kukpugmiut, however, had again schemed to take advantage of the weakest. Given their constant desire

for war, there were worries for Good Hope.31 But pressure for profit was such that, despite the danger, the

HBC considered having its men move even closer to the Delta.

On returning from the coast Franklin had found a stream at the Deltas southwest edge that he

called the Peel. And since he thought it rich in fur-bearing creatures, the HBC at once planned a fort on its

bank. But just then the GWichin told of increased danger from this very treacherous and hostile

people. So the post was not built.32

By this time Loucheux stories of treachery by the Delta people had been repeated so often that the

new generation of HBC traders, including John Bell (married to Deases daughter), became entirely

convinced. And since at Good Hope he had no contact with the Kukpugmiut themselves, there was never

occasion to change their views. Even what good they heard about these people was perceived as yet

another form of deception.

This happened in 1828, when Loucheux despite their dark reports again camped at length with the

Kukpugmiut near Point Separation.33That, time, too, it seemed the latter were about to visit Good Hope,

but Bell34put no faith in such thought and turned out to be right. 35 On meeting a youth alone (so he was

told) Kukpugmiut used the first opportunity to kill. War flared, hunts diminished, and the post got few

furs.36

The Loucheux chief still made a trading trip to the Delta, but likely laid a trap. When people he

met began a rant he downed three with one shot.37In revenge three GWichin wives were inhumanly

butchered,3839and her people in turn planned to shoot three foes to match the dead.40 Yet despite the to-

and-fro nature of the murders, Bell laid all blame on the Kukpugmiut. It was they who were always the

aggressor.

The cycle of deaths might have gone on for a while, but the Delta people did not came south thenext year, and quiet reigned.41 Also contributing to peace was Good Hopes move more than a hundred

miles south. GWichin now had to travel a week longer (and into another Dene tribes land42) to reach the

post, but there was an advantage. Kukpugmiut were even less likely than before to think of heading south

to meeting with whites.


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As a result for a while there were no reports of killings. And when they did occur it related to an

extortion scheme gone bad: a Delta band met a GWichin for whose death they had long paid fines, so

they killed him for good along with his companions. (Simpson 101) When in 1837 Peter Dease (by now

chief trader in another district) returned to the Mackenzie District and entered the Delta, 43matters had

turned chilling. But because of his route he met no Kukpugmiut, and had no difficulty with people on the

northwest side.

At HBC behest Dease44had come to map the coast, assisted by Thomas Simpson, nephew of

HBC governor George Simpson. (get exact ref.) (Dease) 45During three consecutive summers they

mapped the Alaska shore to Point Barrow,46 named terrain (later found to be one of the worlds largest

islands) after newly installed Queen Victoria, 47 and almost defined the Northwest Passage. As a result

HBC prestige was raised, its two governors were knighted, and the admiring atmosphere made for easy

renewal of its North West Territory licence.48 At the local level, the finding in Alaska of the Colville,49

thought to be a beaver-rich stream, led to the building of forts from the lower Mackenzie towards it. 50

Isbister

Deases expedition had another effect that initially seemed minor. While heading home in the fall

of 1839 he and his assistant stayed for months at Fort Simpson, HBC headquarters on the Mackenzie,

where the latter likely contributed to the decision of Alexander Isbister, a fur-trade apprentice, to leave his

employ. Peacock-like in his sense of self, Simpson crowed about gaining highest honors at the University

of Aberdeen, from which he held an M.A. Afterwards he had been secretary to Governor George

Simpson, which had not worked out. So he may have fanned the young mans mounting dislike of his

employer.51

Once it was known Isbister would not stay past the end of his contract (of which a year remained)

he received no further training. Instead, the chief trader52 in the 1843 spring took him to Good Hope and

handed him to Bell as an extra hand to start the chain of forts towards the Colville. [ref] Loucheux

warnings of the decade before were ignored, and the first was placed on the Peel.

In July Bell set out53to found the post then referred to as simply Peels River, 54 55and was met

near the Delta by kindhearted Loucheux. Dancing in joy they escorted the boats to protect them from

Kukpugmiut and their uniform hostility to whites.(Isbister 332-45) Only later did he learn the Loucheux

had just shot eleven Eskimo men and numerous women and children.

After a winter at Peels River with absence of wildlife (part of a natural cycle) and much

suffering by Loucheux, Isbister started for home by walking to Good Hope. It was good he made the trip

then, and not a year later, for by then Indians had become so famished they were killing and eating others

of their tribe. On meeting some women on the very same trail and in the same season, two HBC men lost


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their lives. The miscreants were named, but Governor Simpson refused to have them hurt. Whites would

do the same, he judged, in want of such extreme.56

At the time the men became a meal, Isbister was ensconced at one of the prettiest spots [ref? in

the Red River Settlement57(now Winnipeg), at the Anglican boarding school he had left three years

before.58

Still in charge was his former teacher,59

who held an M.A. from Kings College in Aberdeen,

hated Indians, and used sadistic rule of the sort inflicted on David Copperfield and other boys in the

novels of Charles Dickens. But he and Isbister got along very well.

Taken aback at the intensity of Isbisters views against the HBC, the teacher ascribed it to his

half-breed status (his mother and grandmother were native) which blocked promotion past the level of

post-master, the lowest officer rank.60But he thought of a solution: the fierceness would turn to good if

used to spread Gods word. The student agreed and started training at once. By summer he was off to

Kings College to complete his studies and earn ordination.61

Peers and MacLean

As he left the country Isbister met Augustus Peers, an apprentice clerk just arrived from England

who was the following spring (1843) assigned to the Mackenzie. There he proved his worth at once: when

the chief trader shot off his own right hand, he tied the artery and saved his life.62 The accident led to a

twist in that John MacLean, who had worked for the HBC in Ungava, was sent north to help. Expecting

full command the next year when the wounded man went home, he was crushed to learn he chief trader

who had left in 1840 (the one who had sent Isbister to Peels River) was about to return and would take

charge instead. Instead of managing a district, Mclean was to run a single post.63

The blow may have been caused by McLeans intent to marry Clarissa, daughter and only child

of Wesleyan missionary James Evans, whom the governor had installed a few years before (just ahead of

the first expiry of the HBC licence) at Norway House in a district further south. His overbearing conduct

had caused much friction, as had his stress on Sabbath observance and his insistence on having Indians

quit the woods and live by his church. Also disruptive were the social missteps of his daughter and wife.

So Sir George may not have wanted Clarissa as leading lady of the Mackenzie. Several authors have

noted the ministers close attachment (too close, one suspects)64to the girl. Perhaps the governor feared

he would insist on being with her.65

When news of the non-promotion arrived, McLean began a jeremiad against the HBC. He had

long sought its higher ranks, but now hated its all; conversion to critic could not have been swifter. In

1845, manuscript in hand, he settled in Ontario with Clarissa, 6667 whose leaving caused new problems in

her parents mission home. Her father continued having young women live in his house, but his physical

contact (play) with them now reached a point where several spoke up.68 Called to Britain, he died there

shortly after mission leaders reviewed the charges. 6970


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There were those, of course, who blamed the HBC. Since the settling of natives lowered intake of

fur, they accused it of scheming the ministers fall.71 He died of a broken heart, as McLean put it in his

book. [ref?] Whether he contacted Isbister prior to its 1849 London publication is not clear, but he most

certainly did so thereafter.(Cooper 245) The works shrill tone closely matched what the former

apprentice had been saying for years. Despite his teachers hope, his bile had continued to flow.

The Aborigines Protection Society

Soon after arriving in Aberdeen, Isbister had lost the urge to serve God. He studied for a while

(including, he briefly claimed, two years of medicine) but earned no degree. After a few months at the

University of Edinburgh,72 he dropped out again, and in 1845 began a frenzy of tries for all sorts of

employ in London and overseas. Several were with the Company, and two involved medical positions for

which he lacked qualification (see appendix 1).

Rejected everywhere, he became a schoolteacher, a position for which no degree was required

and which, as in Dickens tales, was held in low esteem.73 But means to boost respect presented itself just

then. Disgruntled residents of the Red River Settlement asked him (at least, so he put it) to present their

complaints about the HBC to parliament in Britain. Jumping at the chance, he now became the

Companys most rabid public critic. In his view it did worse than make natives slaves, for it blocked them

from hearing of Christ. Its lucre came from buying fur with trifles; its conduct brought famine, disease,

cannibalism, and death. 74

To raise pressure Isbister joined the Aborigines Protection Society,75a London group with Quaker

roots. Years before it had tried to help Ojibway in Upper Canada 76who had been forced from their forests

to barren ground. At issue was not the move itself, but absence of arable land, for tilling was thought

crucial to conversion. Natives who farmed, it was also held, were spared the dying off that elsewhere

followed whites presence. As proof the APS quoted Wesleyan cleric James Evans, then at work near the

Great Lakes at many sequential sites (in retrospect another item of suspicion).

Though this had nothing to do with the HBC, Isbister applied similar lines to his former

employer. The only means to save natives (last of a noble race) on its terrain, was to make them farm

and teach them of Christ. To prevent further wrong their nomadic ways must stop, and the Companys

charter must end. [ ] Irony was that at that very time Peers was trying to tell the Kukpugmiut of the

benefits of trading at Peels River.

Drawing in the Kukpugmiut:

Peels River 1847-1853


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During five years with the HBC Peers had become an excellent trader, trusted by whites and

natives alike (MacFarlane 12-15). To test his mettle he was in 1847 placed in charge at Peels River, by

then the Mackenzies most strategic site. There, as expected, he superbly handled both local tasks and the

sending of goods across the mountains to just-founded Fort Yukon,77 second post in the chain toward the

Colville.

Problem was, the better transport worked, the more hides Fort Yukon could buy. And that meant

less remained for barter among bands who had in prior years brought them to the Peel. Though Peers

skill showed in every way, his returns (intake of pelts) dropped a lot.78 The only means left to raise

profit was to draw in the Kukpugmiut, trade with them directly, and cut out the Loucheux. The need to

make money sped conversion of the HBC view of the Delta people.

The change occurred despite an attack on whites in the Eastern Channel that again involved Dr.

Richardson. His friend and former commander Sir John Franklin had disappeared during a search for the

Northwest Passage, so in 1848 he had come to look for him on the coast. The HBC gave him as assistant

John Rae, its surgeon on James Bay and a seasoned arctic traveler.79

As before, the Kukpugmiut tried to seize what was in the boats, and again, no one was hurt.

Richardson saw this benignly and published to that effect, while Rae took an unhappy view but kept it to

himself, at least for then. To the Kukpugmiut it was surely a big event. Despite aggression, whites had

stayed calm, and trade had taken place. 80

The contact occurred just as Peers at the Deltas other end was trying to show good will. When

his hunter Ghendong81 brought gifts to a group near the mouth of the Peel, they promised to meet him in

fall.82 But they did not turn up, and given what later occurred, it is hard to know what was really said and

what role Ghendong played.83

It was the Kukpugmiuts habit as they came south to have the kayaks travel ahead of the umiaks,

the large boats that contained belongings, dogs, women, and children. They hunted along the way and

also acted as scouts in terms of routes to follow, choice of camping site, and early detection of danger. In

1850 near Separation Point six men engaged that way happened to come across an HBC boat on its way

from Good Hope to Peels River.

None of the crew had met Kukpugmiut before, did not speak their language, and were unsure

what to do. One wanted to have them come along to trade at Peels River; another, Manuel, feared them

very much. Having just passed Ghendong and others of his tribe, they called them to the scene, and whathappened then was pitiless killing.84The GWichin offered trade while surrounding their prey, shot the

unsuspecting victims, and ritually sliced the bodies. Manuel also fired his gun.85

The deaths were like previous ones inflicted to block Delta bands from meeting with whites, but

no such attack had previously been witnessed. And since Ghendong headed the assault, it was all the

more necessary to explain it in terms that made sense to Peers, 86 [ref.?] So given what he knew of their


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beliefs, the GWichin told that a tribesman had died, which could only be due to a spell sent from the

Delta, and that therefore the murders were correct.87What the Kukpugmiut saw or thought of the attack

we can only surmise, but a meeting on the coast that year showed that whites could be quite benign.

In August theInvestigator, a large British naval vessel88, sailed east along the coast searching for

Franklin. On board as translator was Moravian cleric Johannes Miertsching, who had worked among

Labrador Inuit and always wore their clothes. When he and the captain landed near an Eastern Delta

band,89natives shrieked, but then abruptly turned friendly. A chief showed his house and a son with a

gangrenous leg. But nothing could be done, nor was there time to tell of Jesus, for the tide was going out,

so all rushed aboard.90

The meeting surely warmed the Kukpugmiuts view of whites. Arriving on a giant, initially

terrifying vessel, they had paid a visit, done some barter, and stayed pleasant throughout. Their

spokesman, moreover, wore clothes like theirs and used words they could grasp. All this was retold in

homes and kajigis in winter. And it prepared the ground for new attempts to have the Kukpugmiut come

to Peels River.

When in 1851 a GWichin with gifts was well received at a Delta camp, Peers rushed to the site

and found it empty. Worried the emissary might return with hostile men, all had fled. Still, the work paid

off as next year he was visited by a chief and two other men. First to enter a traders post, they were

most taken up with everything they saw. 91 Then death again intervened.

Peers, who had rarely been ill, passed away in the course of several days. [citation?] To whites it

seemed strange, as did the loss of his will. Given native perception of unexpected demise, some may have

thought a Gwichin spell had made him die to stop contact with the Delta people. But of that, or

poisoning, or any other malfeasance there is not a word in the archives.

In public all regretted the young traders loss. Had he lived, wrote Sir George, he would soon

have received a more responsible and conspicuous position.92An assistant of whom he had spoken

well93took over the post and his wife and three young children.[HBCPS] Yet Peers, as we will see, had

not entirely left the scene.

Theater in Britain:

Eskimos as Man-Eating Primitives

John Rae was not among several whites who after seeing the Delta a book. Had he done so just

then, it would have hurt his cause and that of the HBC. While on the coast with Richardson he was made

a chief factor, and after a brief bout in charge of the Mackenzie was sent on other arctic explorations. On

the first he named a large strait after the queen, and on the next he heard from Inuit that Franklins men

had died after eating the flesh of fellow sailors. Rushing to England he expected praise, but faced hostile

words instead. Since cannibalism was an unspeakable offense,94 the news could not be believed.


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When Franklins widow set out to discredit Rae,95 Charles Dickens proved an ally. In his widely

read journalHousehold Words hehad always drawn Eskimos in noble light, but now depicted them as

savage and by analogy to African tribes proved their taste for human meata concept of primitives long

held by whites. When two centuries earlier an image of Eskimos first appeared96 the text explained they

were entirely wild people and cannibals who lived like cattle.97

Raes view of the Kukpugmiut fit that picture. Stout, and broad-shouldered, with great strength

of arm and hand, they were worse than South Sea pirates as they swarmed the boats. One could not

imagine a more fierce, daring, and truculent-looking set. Had this been published shortly after the trip,

rather than decades later, Dickens would surely have used it. Even so, he raised doubt about Rae and his

Franklin account.

To prove naval men could not have eaten their companions, Dickens wrote a tale in which a

shipwrecked group avoid anthropophagy by telling each other tales. (Trodd 201-25) He also created a

play, The Frozen Deep, in which two officers make a desperate escape from the Arctic. The stronger one

instead of killing and consuming the other (Frank), gives up his life to deliver him to his sweetheart Clara.

The plot brought many tears as Dickens played the heros role and gasped his last on stage.98Production started in 1857, just as hearings began in parliament on the wisdom of extending HBC

rule. When the queen saw the play she was deeply touched, (Brannan 67-68) and the more that was so the

more the HBC was hurt. As Rae later put it, the truth did not matterwhat was said about the North was

mostly balderdash.[(Bunyon et al.)[that citation is incorrect] All that counted was public perception.

Decades before, Dease and Simpson had smoothed the way for first renewal of the monopoly

licence. But sending Rae north just before it expired again had the opposite effect. He, too, had named a

major arctic feature after the queen. More than that, he had learned Franklins fate, which had worried all

the world. Yet TheFrozen Deep showed Rae and his story, and therefore his employer, unworthy of

trust.99 What astounds is that the very opposite picture of Eskimosi.e. of a gentle, kindly peoplecould

be propagated at the very same time and also work against the HBC.

Eskimos as a Noble People

What Richardson wrote in his 1851 book unknowingly raised anti-HBC feeling, for his fine

depiction of the Kukpugmiut showed that fur-trade contact with them should have been an easy matter,

and that there was no excuse for it not having happened to date. Stories that accused them of slaughter,

treachery, and very bad character were untrue, and due to distortions by the GWichin.100101 It was the

latter who were mean in their ways, and always attacked from ambush. The Kukpugmiut, by contrast,

fought in the open. Though their enemies had guns and they had none, they came south each year to trade.

Hardy travelers, brave and resolute, they deserved admiration like Norsemen.


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Given such excellent character, it was all the more chilling to find in a book that came out two

years later (by a Franklin searcher who happened to be on the Mackenzie shortly after it happened) a long

and lurid second-hand account of the 1850 massacre of Kukpugmiut at Point Separation. Throughout, the

words evoked horror, especially in terms of the role of Manuel: Alas the day that so foul and bloody an

act of treachery could be perpetrated! and alas, shame and degradation that a white man could be found

worse fiend than the untutored savage!102

The consequence would be extensive and irremediable. Whites were now included in Eskimos

undying vengeance. Company men at Peels River would be killed by a people so cruelly wronged.

(Hooper 373) What the public did not know was that that by the time this appeared the Kukpugmiut had

visited the fort and established good rapport with its trader. None of that, however, mattered to Isbister

and his friends.

Isbisters role in the Aborigines Protection Society had by then advanced to being a member of its

board, whose stance against the HBC he directed.103 In an 1856 appeal to Secretary of Colonial Affairs

Henry Labouchre,104the Society (i.e. Isbister) used a legal pirouette to show the Company had

betrayed its charter. But rather than quote that seventeenth-century parchment, it quoted orders to

colonies of around the same time. (Aborigines Protection Society)

These directed that natives receive no provocation, and that no British subject, nor any of their

servants, do them harm. Should they suffer violence, governors must severely punish the perpetrators.

The quotes and their assembly could not have been put in a way that more closely applied to the 1850

Point Separation killings and the participation of Manuel. The orders also insisted salvation reach all

tribes though never so remote. Italicized in the APS pamphlet, the words proved the HBC had failed to

live up to obligations and must therefore forfeit its hold. (Aborigines Protection Society Appendix I, 19,

23 )

Isbister ensured the appeals appearance in many newspapers, including leading ones in Upper

Canada.(Aborigines Protection Society 11), and fed them information that triggered comment against the

HBC. Some of the stoking came from his uncle William Kennedy, a few years older than he, who had

been raised for years by Isbisters mother. The two were almost siblings.105

For a while a trader in Ungava, Kennedy had become disgruntled with the HBC, left the fur trade

and moved to Upper Canada. In the north his time and McLeans overlapped, and their houses near

Guelph were within a short ride of each other. Overbearing in faith (religious cant as Sir George calledit)(Cooper 242), he was sure of his cause. 106

To Toronto merchants Kennedy spoke of gold and other riches easily to be had on Company land.

Much of his talk concerned the Mackenzie District, where he had never been, and details of which he

likely got from Isbister and McLean: coal abounded, a vast supply of tar served only to seal traders


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boots, and copper lay above ground. Whales sported at the rivers mouth, but given HBC apathy it would

likely fall to the people of San Francisco to get them.(Aborigines Protection Society 11-12)

As editors responded, Isbister packed their lines into an APS pamphlet, admixed with his

comment. Couched in concern for natives, what it again boiled down to was that their travels must stop.

To make that point, he quoted The Economist, which referred to John McLeans 1849 book and his

enthusiastic depiction of converted Indians living on their farms, grouped round their Protestant Pastor

[James Evans]. (Aborigines Protection Society 6) But instead of becoming Christians in such settings,

natives were left to degradation. Tens of thousands perished while alcohol and syphilis wrecked their

lives. It followed that parliament must end HBC rule, and open its land to immigration.(Aborigines

Protection Society 3,5)

What next came into play was a report from theInvestigator. After passing the Delta in 1850 its

journey had ended in the Central Arctic where it was entombed by ice, and from there its crew two years

later trekked to rescue on the Atlantic side. Only after further delays did they get back home. So the

public did not read their reports until nearly a decade after they left Britain.

Miertschings diary was lost, reconstituted by himself, and not published till a century later. But it

shows what sentiment he conveyed to others on board. As he saw it, tribes on the coast were ripe for the

message of Jesus. Delta natives put Christians to shame by their thrift and hard work, 107 and others

further east shouted in amazement when he told them of God. Why, he cried, has the Lord banished

these folk here where no missionary can reach them?(Neatby 54,63)

The 1857 book by ships surgeon Alex Armstrong reflected these thoughts. He lauded Eskimos

ingenuity, tenacity, and endurance. They were unequalled to any other race on the face of the globe.

Most striking was their kindness and civility towards whites. (Armstrong 198, 167) That made it all the

more deplorable to find in the Empire a people so utterly neglected.

Armstrong does not tell whom he spoke to on reaching home, but his stance exactly matched that

of Isbister and the APS. That no one had lifted heathen darkness did not surprise, for monopoly blocked

progress. Parliament should destroy the one consisting of the HBC. Only when its grip had gone could

Eskimos use the North to their own permanent advancement and happiness. (Armstrong 156, 198-9) By

such reasoning the Company did as much wrong where it was not as where it had long been.

In a last-minute footnote, Armstrong told how happy he was that Colonial Secreterary

Labouchre had raised the matter in the House of Commons. Its committee was now digesting the sadinformation as it deliberated what to do with the HBC. (Armstrong 198)108

The 1857 Parliamentary Hearings

At the 1857 parliamentary hearings on renewal of the HBC licence, several of the star witnesses,

most prominently Isbister, had spent time in the Mackenzie. He answered more questions than anyone

else, and was the only witness allowed two full day sessions, separated by several months.


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His style had changed from that of an attack-dogthe tone was quite calm, the wording

moderate, the reasoning confident, even though he he had not been in the Northwest for fourteen years.

There was a tactical retreat as he claimed that a decade earlier he had had nothing to do with the wording

or content of the Red River petition, and that his role had been entirely restricted to presenting it to

parliament. And evasion showed when he was asked if opening the Companys lands to colonists would

harm natives. Much to the frustration of the one parliamentarian who supported the Company, he refused

to say yes or no. Since a great deal depended on the issue, his interrogater wondered why of a sudden this

most vocal of HBC critics could not speak.

That Isbister took this new, more confident, more gentlemanly and learned approach had to do

with several factors. For one, his campaign against the HBC had born fruit and he knew that a number of

the committee members were allies. In fact he met with some after hours to prepare them for the next

session. So he himself could now speak in a more subdued tone. Morover, these hearings were themselves

a means to boost the respect he had long wanted, and his appearance there would help boost his career.

There was also a matter of impending academic recognitionan honorary M.A. from the faculty

of arts at the University of Edinburgh. Somehow he had arranged to have it bestowed, and in the

meantime had to be on best behavior, showing himself worthy of the laurel. One might speculate that the

sponsor was a former professor at Aberdeen with whom he had a private relationship, or one of the

committee members who wished to thank him for his role in preparations for the hearings.

Also a candidate is Lady Jane Franklin, who might have wanted to thank him for his work against

the HBC, including his testimony before the committee. Perhaps, too, she wished to show in this way her

gratitude to his uncle William Kennedy, who had left his business in Upper Canada in 1853 and, despite

knowing nothing of sailing, led an arctic searching expedition for her husband. Whoever or whatever was

behind it (senate records from the university in Edinburgh reveal neither) the recognition was to be

formalized exactly a year after the start of the parliamentary hearings.

The one time Isbister resorted to abusive language was in discussing the churches. That they had

not complained about HBC tactics towards missions was due its giving preachers at each post an

emolument for teaching school. The money was a sop designed to halt criticism of its dreadful

treatment of natives and its constant block of missions.

The Rev. Corbett, and Anglican cleric at odds with most of his Red River colleagues (he was

funded by the high wing of his church, rather than the evangelical one to which the others belonged)backed the charges up, along with numerous others designed to show the HBC blocked the spread of the

gospel. But when the Anglican bishop of the Northwest was asked about the sop, he instantly denied it,

pointing out that the church itself would have paid its men for teaching had the Company not done so.109


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Sir George Simpson testified in a single session that took up parts of two consecutive days. And

since Isbister attended, it gave him time in the evening to speak to allies on the committee and help them

focus questions. Three issues came up time and again.

First, there was the occurrence of cannibalism among native tribes. No one at the hearings, other

than HBC staff, recognized that the Far North could support only a very small human population and that

the smallest vagary could bring about disaster. In Isbister and the committees view there was no such

thing Machiavellis necessitmatters humans cannot change, so they laid all hunger and misery at the

Companys feet.

Here Sir George made a major error in denying that cannibalism ever occurred. Since the

committee had copies of letters giving the exact time and place, including one from William Kennedy

during his days in Ungava, and another from John Bell at Peels River by Loucheux outside his own

gates, the governor looked deceptive. In defence he might have brought up the incident in 1842 on the

trail between Peels River and Good Hope, showing that his own men lost their lives over a natural

calamity (the disappearance of wildlife) that recurred every six or seven years. He may have been

influenced by his perception that no matter what the Company did or how its men behaved, outsiders

would turn it against them. It may also be that his memory was failing.

Similarly, Isbister had the committee primed to get at the 1850 killing of Kukpugmiut at Point

Separation and the participation of Manuel in that affair. Here Simpson was either exquisitely foxy or

again short of recall, for he managed to turn the attention of his interrogators (who could not grasp fine

distinctions of locations and tribes) to an incident two decades earlier near Great Bear Lake where HBC

men, laborers at the lowest level, had killed Indians to gain access to their wives. One of the perpetrators

had been sent to Montreal for trial.

When it came to shabby treatment of retired company servants, Simpson failed to mention that

the Company often provided permanent help to native widows of company men and to laborers injured on

the job. Only after HBC staff reminded him of this did he tell the committee on returning the second day.

But rear action of that sort did little to dispel the sense that he either did not know important facts about

HBC rule, or was hiding them from view.

This sense of deception on the Companys part was heightened by the appearance of Rae, who

because of his story of cannibalism by Franklins men had become a widely known figure. In the public

mind it was he, more than anyone else, who represented HBC values. At the very time he was appearingbefore the committee Dickenss play theFrozen Deep wasdestroying his claim and showing he could not

be trusted. So it did not help when Rae at the hearings attempted to explain how the Companys barter

looked unfair when viewed from a single angle, but that overall it served natives best and kept the balance

of animal life intact.


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By paying too little for the best of fur, Rae explained, and too much for that least wanted, the

Company ensured that certain creatures got a chance to live, and thereby ensured a continuing source of

income to natives. And if they paid what seemed an extravagant amount for a single needle, there was

ample compensation through their being able to buy other items at unduly cheap cost.

The argument might have held water except that Rae used his experience in the Mackenzie to

back it up. While in charge of that district in 1849-1850, Governor Simpson had become concerned about

the ugly publicity generated by Isbister in London. The former apprentice had given wide circulation to

the list of exchange used while he was at Fort Simpson and Peels River. By telling people only of the

high prices charged for trifles, he was showing Britain that the Company was abusing native people. In

response, Simpson ordered Rae to have the prices changed.

Rae told the committee of these instructions, but then volunteered he had ignored them, feeling

that matters were fine as they were (he had, in effect, refused to bow to outside critics). To make matters

worse, when he was asked to explain the made beaver system of trade he botched it completely and at

last admitted he had never really understood it himself. So instead of defending the Company, Rae

inflicted a major wound. As effectively as Dickens, and while meaning to do the opposite, he created

doubt about the integrity of himself and his employer.

Apart from cannibalism and the high price of trifles, a major subject pre-occupying the committee

was the agricultural potential of the Mackenzie. This followed from Isbisters relentless drive to tie his

own mission of revenge to Christian views about farming and conversionand also to white colonists

desire for Company land. If it could be shown that the Mackenzie would support farms then there would

be two good reasons to end Company rule.

First, it would show that Indians could have been brought in from the woods to till land and learn

of Jesus. Second, there would be no loss to the economy if HBC men were no longer present, for white

colonists could remove the trees, produce crops, and grow livestock. And if this held for the Mackenzie,

the Companys most remote terrain, all of the terrain south of it (which presumably would be even

warmer) could also be devoted that purpose. The potential for immigration was immense. What fed that

thought was that Isbister and MacLean had made the government aware of the HBC farm at Fort

Simpson, and the potatoes, barley, and milk it provided.

That the concept of Mackenzie River farming was mostly myth no one at the hearings seemed to

grasp. So, time and again, from this angle and that, committee members probed to make it seem such aproject was a reasonable thought. When Rae was asked about farming at James Bay, where he had long

worked , he replied that nothing had come of it, as fields were prepared and natives handed potatoes, but

that after an initial planting they never came back. [see mission picture of potato fields at Moose Factory].

The person most suited to puncturing dreams of farming in the Far North was General John

Lefroy, an expert on natures magnetic force, who had in the spring of 1844 when still a junior army


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officer spent several months at Fort Simpson (while Peers and MacLean were there). He pointed out that

it sat on island created by alluvial soil, carried there by the river, and happened to sit in a spot where

warm winds from the mountains sometimes reached the shore . But everywhere else, permafrost extended

deep into the ground, and the yield of crops would be next to nil.

Unfortunately for the HBC, Lefroy happened to mention, just as he ended his testimony, that

while traveling on a Company boat downstream from Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie he had had to share

space with a cow (almost every post then had one or two, and sometimes a bull as well). That made it

seem husbandry of all sorts of creatures might easily be achieved in that distant location. It added another

blow to HBC prospects, and gave further credence to what Isbister and MacLean had been saying all

along.

Missionaries on the Mackenzie

At the very time that HBC prestige was day-by-day being chipped away in London, Anglican

Rev. James [xxx] Hunter in 1857 asked the Church Missionary Society for leave from his Red River

Settlement parish. He yearned to go north to convert the Eskimos of the Delta. 110

Thirteen years earlier, he had come from Britain to Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan

(near the upper end of Lake Winnipeg) an important post since it was there brigades turned north toward

the Mackenzie. 111When his wife died shortly after, leaving him an infant son, he soon married again

this time to Jean, daughter of Donald Ross at Norway House, the most influential chief factor in that part

of the world, and a confidant of Governor George Simpson. The young woman, who had at one point

briefly been betrothed to McLean, spoke fluent Cree and provided much help in the young missionarys

work.112 In 1849, he was promoted to archdeacon.

Five years later Hunter moved to the Red River Settlement, with its high societal stress. The Rev.

xxxx Corbett, Anglican clergyman in an adjacent church, held rabid anti-Company views and stoked

them among the English-speaking population. Still, there was hope for improving Hunters life. The

bishop113 was aging, and he may have thought to gain the prelates post. One way to raise his chance was

to scout remote terrain.

Hunter also had religious motives. Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the shock-troops of their faith,

had bypassed Anglican sites and nearly reached the Mackenzie. 114He planned to drive right throughtheir ranks to Fort Simpson and Peels River. Papal darkness would still hold the center, but rays of

the Protestant truth would rule the far side. The trip meant absence from home and wife (a fourth child

had just arrived), but he looked forward with pleasure to planting the cross on the coast. 115 [also HBC

personnel sheet]

That prospects were good was shown by Peter, an Eskimo servant who with his master, an

Anglican cleric, had just arrived from Ungava. Remarkable in honesty and truthfulness . . . faithful,


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unsophisticated and diligent, he showed the hopeful nature of his people. It affirmed Raes words

(apparently prior to his 1848 trip to the Delta) that they were the countrys fairest tribe and the easiest

to bring under Christian instruction.116But nothing came of plans to learn Peters tongue and take him on

the journey, for he drooped and passed awayit was said because of the climate.117

The death did lessen Hunters drive, for in addition to Inuit he hoped to convert the Mackenzies

Dene tribes. As he told the CMS, they well disposed toward the gospel and must at once be brought

into the Protestant fold. Delay meant yielding them to Rome, for if priests gained hearts it could not be

reversed. Hence his rush to get possession of Fort Simpson. Success was likely, for Bernard Rogan

Ross, in charge of the district, had asked him in.118 They knew each other well from the years both had

spent at posts on the Saskatchewan River. More than that, they were brothers-in-law, for Bernard had

taken one of Chief Trader Donald Rosss younger daughters as partner. [ ]

Hunter left for the blessed work on an HBC brigade in June 1858. 119 As he passed certain posts,

he wistfully thought of the two young Oblates who had opened missions there and had already been

promoted to bishop.120 At Fort Resolution he met Father Henri Grollier, a man of sharp words and

fanatical views who was making his mark. In winter he had married Charles Gaudet, a young trader from

Catholic Montreal, and his mixed-blood wife. (Payment 1-14) As it pained him to see the enemy

advance, he chose to leave the local work and travel at Hunters side. 121[ref.]

The minister feared Grollier would gain souls, for Oblates had the support of French-speaking

half-casts (descendants of fur-trade servants born in Quebec) and native wives, all adherent to Rome.122

Meanwhile his opponent felt certain God wanted it that way: it was his happy role to take possession of

the Mackenzie, which the machinations of fanatical Orangism, (i.e. Chief Trader Bernard Ross, raised

in Northern Ireland) would otherwise have handed to Hunter. [citation?] That Ross hated Rome was clear,

for when Indians at Fort Simpson flocked to the priest, he sent him back south at once.

That winter at another Mackenzie District post123 Hunters work was marred by a half-breed

woman (baptized a Catholic years earlier in the South) who told everyone the difference between priest

and minister. Indians now understood Hunter was lhomme dune femme, a man linked to a woman,

while Oblates belonged to God. For making that point Grollier thought she deserved limitless

recognition. [ref.?] But her tone in 1858-9 may have been especially sharp, for her daughter was the wife

of Gaudet, who had just renounced his Catholic faith and adopted that of Hunter.124

Peer pressure likely caused the move, for the Oblate advance had raised officers ire, especiallythat of Bernard Ross.125 Now that a priest had arrived on the Mackenzie, Gaudet may have feared that

being a Papist would stall his career. His switch that winter was Hunters only success, for natives

(except for a few who did so briefly) would not come his way. Grollier gleefully wrote that in July he left

in shame to rejoin his dear other half. [ref.?]


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Hunters view of the people on the coast had by now greatly changed. Rather than peaceful and

eager to learn, they were a very treacherous and blood thirsting race.126 A Loucheuxs recent murder of

his Eskimo wife had made them vow revenge, so given the risk he had not gone past Good Hope.

The threat was overblown, for that very year an HBC clerk127 visited the Kukpugmiut on the

coast. Well received, he found them anxious for a settled intercourse with whites. Still, given the hatred

between them and Loucheux, Chief Trader Bernard Ross felt they must not come to Peels River. And he

dared found no post in the Delta without a competent translator.

If some Loucheux were capable of communicating with the Kukpugmiut, as other parts of this

story seemingly show, they seem to have lost that skill when it suited them. Having lost the battle in terms

of keeping whites away from the coast, one might well conclude they were using language to keep up a

barrier. Whether is true or not, Ross was frustrated by the inability to explain his fur-trade plans and

needs to the people on the coast. Why, he impatiently asked Sir George, was it not possible to get a

translator from Ungava or Hudsons Bay, where the HBC had long dealt with these people? 128

The need was strong because he had sent another clerk, Roderick MacFarlane, to the tribe at the

mouth of the Anderson, east of the Mackenzie. If a post were built there, it would serve not only nearby

bands but people from the Delta. The latter through frequent contact would soon turn docile and a

second fort, just for them, could then be built. The site had already been picked129130

From the Kukpugmiuts point of view, the HBC plan changed their plight. If a fort on the

Anderson came about, they would share whites attention with other tribes. Travel there would be mainly

overland, and besides would not fit their spring migration through the Delta. Fortunately (as they may

have seen it) MacFarlanes two forays to the coast did not go as well as he had hoped.131 The presence of

Dene in his party caused problems. [reference?]

To avoid such issues, MacFarlane asked for a boy to take south for training as an interpreter.

Though he failed, Ross hoped a similar request by Gaudet (who had taken over at Peels River) would

bring success. His stay with the Kukpugmiut in 1858 boosted HBC fortunes, as he enjoyed their

hospitality and got many pelts.132 But it seems his suggestion a youth go and live among whites needed

time for discussion.

Families on the coast, with few exceptions, consisted of four people: an adult couple, a boy, and a

girl (a formula that changed in tandem with the number of wives the man might have). Other offspring

were left to die or given up for adoption. By the time a boy reached ten he was capable of helping withhunts. The same held for girls assisting their mother. To give one up at that stage meant great loss in

terms of day-to-day life and security for the future. Besides, bonds of love were tight.

On the other hand, contrary to the perception many southerners still hold have of that world,

some children were miserably unhappy. For those who past the infant stage had been orphaned or given


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away, the relationship with parents was that of master and slave. Though worked the hardest, they were

last to be fed, and wore decrepit clothes. [reference from Nuligak]

During the winter the following may have happened. The Kukpugmiut decided to let two children

go. But in return, they wanted a post in the Delta. On hearing their wish in spring, Gaudet advised it

would carry more weight if posed directly to Ross. Then he arranged for emissaries (Tiktik and his group)

to go with him a few months later to Fort Simpson.

Gaudet did not know it, but the scheme fit perfectly with new pressure from Sir George, who

wanted a fort near the coast built at once. You will apply yourself with energy he ordered Ross, to the

early accomplishment of that object. The Company could send no interpreter from the East, as none

were in its employ, so the only remedy was to offer sufficient inducement to the Esquimaux to allow one

or two or more children to be raised among staff. For both this and the fort there was no limit to cost.133

Ross got the letter in July 1859 on arriving with the districts furs at Portage La Loche. Debarking

at that point was Hunter who was returning south (where his daughter Maria would die before he got

home) and coming aboard was his replacement, William Kirkby. The new mans role was to stay in the

North and start a mission and school at Fort Simpson.134

The governors missive also told that the HBC licence to the Far Northwest had not been

renewed. So its role in helping Anglicans was no longer as governing body, but as private individuals.

That applied as well to Father Grollier, who would join the brigade as it made its way north and stay at

Fort Simpson until the boats from the Lower Mackenzie went home. He was on his way to start a mission

at Good Hope.

Implicit in all this was HBC concern for its hold on Ruperts Land, the giant area from Ungava to

the Rocky Mountains for which its charter would be up for review just a few years on. After the nasty

things said about the Mackenzie District at the 1857 parliamentary hearings and made public in preceding

years (much of it through Isbisters machinations), it was here that the Company had to show its

willingness to trade with the people of the Arctic Coast. As well, it had to been seen supporting churches

in the endeavor to teach them of Jesus. And that held true even though the Mackenzie was not a part of

Ruperts Land.

Sir George, as a result, ordered the Mackenzies chief trader to avoid all conflict with clerics and

help them to the full extent local conditions permitted. [ ] He had already rapped Ross for shipping

Grollier south the prior year, [ref.] after his bishop had lodged a complaint.[reference?] The immediateeffect was that whites gathered at Fort Simpson might shun Father Grollier while he was at the post, but

he was free to roam around.

Perfect Kneeling

At each Mackenzie District post, the clerks summer departure was timed to reach Fort Simpson

just as the chief trader returned there with goods from the South. That way crews (whose number came


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close to a hundred) only briefed strained supplies. Gaudet arrived August 15, less than twenty four hours

after the Portage brigade. With him was James Flett and family from a site subsidiary to Peels River.135

But what made for excitement was the presence on board of Tiktik and his companions: a man and wife

and their boy, and nine-year-old Attingarek, who had come without her parents.136

The crowd was thrilled by their height, intelligence, good nature, exotic dress and remarkably

fine looks. The children would pass among a number of Europeans without notice. Kirkby was beside

himself with joy. Here, he wrote in his journal, is a new tribe to the Redeemer. May his glorious

Kingdom be speedily established among them.137

The promise seemed especially strong because these people spent part of the year in permanent

dwellings. Given were they lived, they could not, of course, be made to farm, thesine qua non of

approaches to conversion in the South. But there was no need to collect them in communal settings since

they already did so themselves. Their large villages on the coast were all so many facilities to the

progress of the Gospel. Already, Ross had promised accommodation at the fort to be built nearby.

Grollier, too, had asked to go, but was not allowed.138

To Tiktik and his fellow Kukpugmiut the link between mission and trade must have seemed very

close. In the mess room the day after their arrival Ross told them he would place a post wherever they

wished. But he needed an interpreter and asked that the boy and girl be left with Kirkby for training.

When the men agreed, Kirkby lept with joy. He could not believe his good fortune. Within days of

reaching his posting he had the privilege of training two young Eskimos in the ways of the Lord. They

were means for carrying the glorious tidings of salvation to the whole of their numerous countrymen.

As the session ended, the chief trader was about to make gifts when Gaudet asked for a change in

procedure. To establish an attraction between cleric and future converts, he suggested Kirkby hand out

the goods. And that was how it was done.139

Next morning, a Sunday, the Eskimos came to worship in the same packed room and behaved

with the greatest decorum. They stood, sat, and kneeled as if they had been used to it for years. Never

before had Kirkby so strongly felt the gracious assistance of his God.140

On Monday in Kirkbys room in the officers quarters 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. Kirkby took them to the store and purchased it all. Then

Gaudet brought a translator (a Loucheux who had come on the journey from Peels River) so that Huntercould speak at length of Jesus and salvation.141

By Tuesday all except the woman appeared in European clothes. The men and the boy proudly

wore suits, the girl a dress and bonnet, which Ross had had the tailor make. But Kirkby was aghast, for

the priest had hung a crucifix from their necks. The figure, he had told them, was the child of the sun

and if worn without fail (like the amulets on their own clothing) would save them from harm. Gaudet


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threw the crosses to the ground while raising a hand as if in horror and disgust, afterwards explaining

this was the best way of preventing Delta people from accepting such items again.142

It was not until a week after the Kukpugmiuts arrival, as they boarded Gaudets boat for home,

that the boy realized he was to stay at Fort Simpson. He wailed so strongly and clung to his mother so

tightly that (to Kirkbys immense distress) she relented and took him along. Attingarek, without parents to

appeal to, was the only one left behind.

At Peels River, where a large number of Kukpugmiut met the boat, the delegates told of their

excellent treatment. So good was the news, many offered to go the next year. But when matters related to

Attingarek came up, conflict arose. Chief Trader Ross had sent a present to the girls father, and as he

stepped forward to claim it another man wanted it also. It turned out she had belonged to two families in

sequence. At some point one had given her up to the other, and there she was raised. It was the second

father who argued the gift should go to him, for he was taking the greater loss. As a fight was about to

erupt, Gaudet proposed the gift be shared, to which the men agreed.143

Attingarek

HBC postmaster James Flett (who remained at Fort Simpson that winter) and his Loucheux wife

next received Kirkbys attention, as he sanctioned their marriage and baptized their brood. None of it

impressed Attingarek, the poor little Eskimo girl, who looked dull and withdrawn. Many tried to keep

her busy, but without success.144 The only one to comfort her was a pure Loucheux boy, an orphan

Gaudet had brought from Peels River who knew enough of her tongue to converse. Though called

William Flett, he had no tie to families with that name.

Mrs. Flett spoke some Eskimo, and it was in her home that Attingarek stayed.

145

Each day withWilliam and four others she went to Kirkbys school. As they gained skill in saying letters and body parts,

she pulled out of her depression. Smart as the rest, she was perfectly happy and anxious to learn.146

Over time she became fluent in English.

In 1861 one of Attingareks fathers, also a chief, came to Peels River and told Gaudet he wanted

to see her the next year. 147 But to make the trip to Fort Simpson by Company boat he needed consent

from Bernard Ross, who in spring refused it, preferring he come the next year.148 And by then something

had happened to the chiefs relationship with Gaudet, who counseled against his going.149150 So reunion

of the two never took place.

Attingarek further lost connection to home when her name was changed. It may at first have

happened in an informal way, but was documented when Augustus Peers, though long dead, arrived at the

fort. During postings at Fort Norman and Peels River, he had often expressed a strong dislike, in the

event of his death, that his bones should rest at either spot. So in early 1863 Gaudet dug his well-

preserved body from the permafrost at Peels River and took him to Good Hope. From there Roderick

MacFarlane, clerk at that post, brought him the rest of the way.(MacFarlane 12-15) All along strange


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howling was heard at night, and at Fort Simpson, as Ross and MacFarlane spoke in the dark from

adjacent beds before falling asleep, they had a sudden, overwhelming sense that Peers was present and

trying to speak with them.

The trade Peers had started with the people of the Delta was about to take a leap, for MacFarlane

was during that visit instructed to build a fort near the coast. But it was on the Anderson River, and not in

the Delta as the Kukpugmiut had hoped. The Reverend Kirkby, who seems not to have grasped just how

far that would be, quickly baptized Attingarek and the boy William Flett, so MacFarlane could report the

news to their friends. [xxxx]

Baptism in that era involved assigning a new first name, often one from the bible. Rarely,

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

Kirkby called the girl Maria, after Jesus mother, to whom Rome gave what Protestants thought was

idolatrous adulationand that all the more so since the pope a few years before had proclaimed her

immaculate conception (i.e. that unlike other humans she was born without sin). In Rome strong push for

the doctrine had come from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the very order whose priests in the North

were the Anglicans fierce opponents.

Yet the minister probably had no choice, as many Scottish women were called Mary, including

the sister of Chief Factor Bernard Ross, as well as his deceased mother-in-law (long the wife of a Chief

Factor at Norway House), who held the same relationship to Archdeacon Hunter. Perhaps also in play

was the 1857 death of the latters daughter Maria. In any case, Attingarek was now Maria Ross.

Despite the hope raised by Tiktiks visit to Fort Simpson, Kirkby made no effort to contact the

Kukpugmiut and instruct them further. Three years later, on his way to the Yukon, and quite by accident,

he came across a group at Point Separation. The men carried knives, spears, and arrows, but used none as

they grabbed his boat and stole some goods. In an account published by the Smithsonian Institution, he

featured their good looks, which he thought reflected an intellect higher than that of Indians, a claim he

bolstered by referring to Attingarek. Left with him not long before, she now spoke and read English with

considerable accuracy.(Kirkby 416-20) Despite that fine result, however, she brought him no help in

evangelization.

Girls on the coast became sexually active at a young age and often experienced trial marriage

before setting up a permanent home. And in the fur-trade world (Isbisters father is an example) men took

very young brides. As Franklin noted on his Mackenzie journey four decades earlier, The girls at theforts . . . are given in marriage very young: they are frequently wives at 12 years of age, and mothers at

14.151So it is no surprise that Attingarek at age thirteen became partner to William Brass, a postmaster

who spent time at Fort Simpson.

In telling the Church Mission Society of the marriage (which seems to have occurred la faon

du pays during his absence) Kirkby failed to hide dismay in noting her new station: As far as earthly


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things go she has a comfortable home for her future life. He made no mention of the hereafter, but hoped

she might still help his work. At present Brass was at a post well south of the treeline,152 but Kirkby hoped

that if plans came through to place him at Peels River (where he had been before), Attingarek could tell

her poor countrymen something of Jesus.153 None of that came about.

The next year Brass included private matters in a business report to Fort Simpson, but since that

broke the usual code, he was thoroughly chewed out.[citation?] None of it was transcribed in the

correspondence book and no personal letters by him have to date been found. How long Attingarek stayed

his wife, whether she bore children, or what age she attained, no one seems to know.154

Envoi

Despite their Fort Simpson visit, the Kukpugmiut did not get a fort in their midst. Nor did they

find much use for the one on the Anderson River. Chief Trader Ross in 1861 confidently wrote Sir

George (not knowing he was dead) that it would bring an important and lucrative trade. 155 When

instead for two years it led only to costs, a decision was made to move it to the Delta. 156 A site was

chosen, wood was cut, and frames for buildings prepared. Then that plan, too, was stopped.

Given reprieve, Fort Anderson made further loss and by 1865 stood empty. Inuit later burnt it

down for nails. Promise of a new establishment among the Kukpugmiut was made from time to time,

especially when Russian trade via coastal tribes hurt profit at Peels River, but that, too, came to naught.

(Vanast)

When in 1889, as William Kennedy had warned, Americans began to whale the Beaufort Sea, the

HBC once more planned a post in the Delta. It was in such a place Stringer thought he would stay on first

coming north. But it was whalers themselves who at Herschel Island put up a trading post, and after theirdeparture for better whaling further east, Stringer from 1896 to 1901 ran it for them. He lived in one of

their buildings and established his mission there. As in 1859, trade and evangelization could not have

been more closely bound.

What Tiktik thought in later years of his stay at an HBC post and his talk with white shamans we

will never know. It is likely he came many times to Peels River in spring, but the only time it was noted

was in 1873 when he arrived among the earliest at the post.157But there may have been years when

quarrels at home stopped his travels, as he played a central role in a cycle of killing between his own and

another family.158

Also causing decline in Kukpugmiut numbers was epidemic illness, which swept through

Loucheux and Inuit bands alike. When Tiktiks wife died in November 1885, she was brought to Peels

River, and lay frozen in the warehouse beside the bodies of three GWichin.159It seems likely that in

spring she was buried in the same grounds where Peers had for a decade lain. Were she dug up today her

features would be starkly intact (as in the case of some of Franklins men, disinterred a century and a half

after death).[ ]


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Of Tiktik no word can be found past his wifes demise. He was no longer there when in 1892

Anglican missionary Isaac Stringer arrived from his familys farm in Ontario (on the very terrain that in

the 1830s had raised Aboriginal Protection Society ire because of the removal of Indians). The young

clerics ally was soon Takochikina, whose people had been Tiktiks opponents in the feud.

Sukayak

Very close to the time of the death of his wife, either sometime before or after, Tiktik had a new

daughter. It may be the child was her, or that like a number of Kukpugmiut men, he had several wives,

and that after the loss of the older one, the younger one remained. It may also be that he took a new

woman into his household at this time. Perhaps the name the little got Sukayak (the fast one) reflected the

speed with which she arrived, though it is more likely it came from someone who died. It may even have

been Tiktiks deceased wife.

Married when very young, Sukayak she lost her husband to a stray bullet, fired from inside a tent

by a whaling captain in 1896. Soon after, she became the wife of Ivitkuna, a Kukpugmiuk who each year

made a journey to Herschel Island. Conversely, they were among the people who welcomed Isaac

Stringer when he visited them in winter far in the Eastern Deltaas at Koowachuck and Tapkok, well out

on the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula.

In the spring of ending in 1901 the couple worked briefly for the Anglican mission, where Isaac

took a photograph of them that has to date not been found. He did chores such as bringing in wood from

the Yukon coast; she sewed beautiful caribou coats (trimmed with beaver and wolf, and finely crafted

strips of white skin from intra-uterine deer) for Isaac and Sadie and their two children. It was in these

garments that in the fall they had themselves photographed in a studio in San Francisco. They also worethem years later to tour Britain and meet the king and queen.

Ivitkuna and Sugkajoq left for the Eastern Delta in April 1901 and Stringer met them there when

he visited as bishop eight years later. Contrary to the claim of anthropologists such as Diamond Jenness

that their culture had been wiped out, they were among the many Kukpugmiut (about 120 of 200) who

survived back-to-back 1901-1902 viral epidemics. They were camped with others at Nalugogiak and it

was there, in Ivitkunas tent, that a a hearty service was held. Stringers successor Charles Whittaker

baptized them the next summer at Kittigazuit.

What made it into books about Kukpugmiut in the early twentieth century comes in part from

Tiktiks daughter and her husband. Nuligak writes about the couple at that time (he and his uncle with

Ivitkuna went fishing), and when Stefansson met them at Kangianuk in 1906 he measured their heads.

On his second expedition his companion Anderson visited them at Baillie Island, where they lived in a

snowhouse, which he thought a structure only rarely used by these people. He took pictures of them there,

and more near Kittigazuit later that year.


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In April 1912 Stefansson found them at Igloryaraluit (which whites sometimes spelled

Iglogzyooit) surviving on ptarmigan alone. But matters improved and late the next year they made a

Christmas offering of a red fox to the Anglican Church. Their ties to that institution remained strong, and

when in 1921 their son was married by Christian rite, a man named Jerry Tiktik (of whom more below)

was a witness.

The last we hear of them, and therefore of the original Tiktiks line, is in 1924, when they were

interviewed by Knud Rasmussen, who mentions them in hisNotes. But their descendants are surely alive

and with a little work could easily be found today.

Between 1898 and1900 Stringer mentions a younger Tiktik five times.160 Ethnologist V.

Stefansson reported how this man and his wife Julia (then forty-one years old) in 1907 gave a baby to a

chief. As it was unwell, the latter spoke to it in shamanic language with exclamations, declarations,

and questions, to which an adult audience at times replied. A separate snowhouse was then built so the

child would have quiet.161

Three years later the couple was among many baptized and married by Anglican rite at

Kittigazuit,162 and a few summers thereafter they were among a group that were photographed [see

picture] as they volunteered to take the gospel to the mouth of the Coppermine, though weather stopped

them from getting there. Another child arrived the next year and was named after the apostle Mark.

Tiktik had by then learned to write and in the 1914-15 winter exchanged worried letters with

other Inuit about a shaman who still practiced his skills.163It would be nice for this story if it could be

shown that this protector of the Christian faith had at his birth (1872 by notoriously vague church

estimate) been given the name of the one who half a century earlier had seen Fort Simpson, and thereby

become that person. But given what we know at present, that is stretching a point. 164

After visiting Fort Simpson in 1859, the first Tiktik of this st

theatre part 1x

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