Duncan Livingston of quaintedwith the use of tobacco and who did not possess ironl? Interestingly, the Mac- the North West Company kenzieEskimo to thenorth were already trading for iron, presumably with the Rus- A little-known account of the death, in 1799, siansls. The prospects of trade led to the of Duncan Livingston, a trader of the North constructionby Roderick Mackenzie, in1790, West Company, is presented in this paper to- of a winter post on a small island at the en- gether with a brief account of the historical trance to the Mackenzie river. background to the narrative. Through rather halting beginnings,regu- LakeAthabasca, the Upper Peace and lar trade was established at Lac la Martre, Slave rivers, and the shores of Great Slave in 1793, to acquire command of the riverls. Lake, were the exclusive habitat of the Dog- Another post (Old Fort) was erected eighty rib, Hare and Slave tribes of the Athapaskan miles below Great Slave Lake, on the right Indians in the aboriginal period1.2. The Cree bank of the Mackenzie river, by Duncan of the Algonkianlinguistic stock began to Livingston of the North West Company, in migratewestward fromthe Hudson Bay 1796. Over a three-year period, a profitable region at the beginning of the eighteenth trade wasestablished with the Dogrib and century under the influence of thefur Slave, and by 1799 Livingston was attempt- trade5.6.7.s. Armedwith guns and seeking ing to extend it to the Eskimo. furs, they moved gradually into the territory The fur-trade journals of 1800 and later of the Slave, Dogrib, and Hare, with whom contain conflicting reports on the ensuing they wereinvolved in recurrent intertribal death of Duncan Livingston, three Canadians warfare over a period extending roughlyfrom and an interpreter. In most of them, itis 1694 until 17914A10J1J2. These Athapascan suggested that the Eskimo killed Livingston’s groups were displaced into the boreal forest party about eight-days march north of Old along the Mackenzie river to thenorth of Fort. It is fortunate thata differing, and more Great Slave Lake. detailedaccount of their murder was re- Althougha few Dogrib, Hare and Slave cordedin one of the fewsurviving North may have occasionally goneto York Factory WestCompany journals, formerlykept at on Hudson Bay before 17173, it was not until Great Slave Lake. 1786 that traders of the North West Com- On 15 December 1800, a Chipewyan trad- pany began to establish trading relationships ing chief, Grand Blanc,gave James Porter, within Athapaskan territory. In thatyear, another trader of the North West Company, Peter Pond, then prominent in the affairs of an account ofLivingston’s death. Although the Company,dispatched CuthbertGrant thenarrative is not always clew, it is ap- and Laurent Leroux to build a post on Great parent from it that Eskimos were not respon- Slave Lake with the purpose of encouraging sible for themurder of his party. Rather, direct trade with these “Farr” Indians. The Grand Blanc‘s story suggests that Living- immediatesuccess of this newpost (Slave ston’s Slave guides werethe perpetrators.The Fort or Old Fort Resolution) at the mouth Slave were often called Beaver Indians in the of Slave River, led to the building of a fort early journals and letters of the North West farther north; in 1786, Roderick Mackenzie, Company. This rare account of Livingston’s also of theNorth WestCompany, con- death runsas follow@: structed what later becameknown as Fort . . . Note - Cheenalizc? or Grand Blanc Providence, onthe north shoreof Great Slave gives this very strange relation as follows Lake near the mouthof the Yellowknife river. that theRed Knives Pellowknife] who A large number of natives from the country past the last winter and part of the pro- surroundingLac la Martre werequickly ceeding Summeramong theBeaver Indians drawn into the fur trade, and a temporary [Slave] of McKenzieRiver had seen the post was built on that lake in 1789. Before place where the deceasedMr. Livingston its establishment, the nativeswere obliged and his people had been killed & that they to make winterjourneys lasting almost a found a great deal of Powder Shot & Ball month over distancesof some 200 miles (over Part of whichthey Brought along with 300 km), back-packing their furs or dragging them the latter articles was scattered over them on sledgesl3. the ground & the Powder was covered over As late as 1789, the year of Alexander with a piece of the Barkof the Large Canoe Mackenzie’s expedition down the river which of which were several with part of their now bears his name, there were still groups Sails, Broke & Cut to small Pieces & Small of Dogrib and Slave Indians living along it pieces of Cloth that he calls Chief Cloth who possessed no articles derived from trade. which appears to be someof Mr. L[Living- Mackenzie refers in his journal to natives he ston’sl cothCels that they had Cut up there met four or five miles above the mouth of he also says that it was not the Esquimawr the Great BearRiver who were still unac- that killed them Because they were never 188 SHORT PAPERS

known to have been so far up River for ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS according to his account it is not a very 1 am grateful for the permission I received Great Distance below the Fort at a place to do research in, and quote from, materials where there is a Great many Islands in the in the Alberta Provincial Archives, the Brit- River, he says the Beaver Indians account ishColumbia Provincial Archives andthe is entirely false & the wounds he had thro Hudson’sBay Company Archives. The re- the flesh or rather the Skin of his arm had search was supported by a Canada Council been done byhimself to make it appear Doctoral Fellowship. asif he had been wounded by an enemy I. C. Yerbury with arrows thebetta toconceal hisCrime Department of Sociology and as an accomplice of the Bloody action - Anthropology he likewise adds that the other two Indians Simon Fraser University who were along with them & reported to Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5AIS6 .be killed are still alive & that one of them hasa Gun & Kettle that he took away REFERENCES after the action thefather of the same IMackenzie, A. 1801. Voyagesfrom Mont- youngman told this to the RedKnives real on the RiverSt. LawrenceThrough whoreside near Lac la Merde[Lac la theContinent of NorthAmerica to the Martre] that he toldhis son not to take Frozen andPacific Oceans in the Years awaythose things that belongedto the 1789 and 1793. Editedby W. K. Lamb. dead white people because they might bring London:Cambridge University Press, him Bad Luck & Perhaps kill him but he 1970. pp. 174,238. would not be persuaded and carried them ZDyen, I. and Aberle, D. 1974. Lexical Re- off neverthelesshe is still alivewith out construction:The Case of theProto- anyevil Consequences fromthe Gun & AthapaskanKinship System. London: Kettle. the RedKnives would have told CambridgeUniversity Press. pp. 249-51. this to Mr. Thomson last spring but he 3Hudson’s Bay Company Archives: B239/a/l. having Pillaged their furs & treated them 4 B239/a/2 -p. 28. roughly they were afraid to Speak think- 5 B239/a/5. ing / thro their simplicity / if he was to GMcKenzie, A. 1805. Journal of Great Bear know that they had the ammunition that Lake.(LJnpublished manuscript, Victoria belonged to his dead relations that hewould Archives,British Columbia). be still more exasperate against them con- TRich, E. E. (ea.). 1958. The History of the sequently they Set off to their land & took Hudson’s Bay Company, 1670-1 763. Lon- the amm’t along with them it is Probable don:Hudson’s Bay Record Society. (vol. they may Come here in the Course of this 21). p. 436. winter which if they do we shall Know the SRay, A. J. 1974. Zndians in the Fur Trade. truth of the above assertion . . . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. For the most part, the foregoing narrative pp. 21-23. reflects the unsettledconditions of the era. WrCmie, N.1720. TwentyYears of York Traders penetratinginto the vast regionnorth Factory, 1694-1714. Translation from the of Lake Athabasca were beset with innumer- French. Ottawa: Thmburnand Abbott, able difficultiesduring thelate eighteenth 1926. pp. 20-21. century. Spurred on by the intense competi- Wyrrell, J. B. (ed.). 1931. Documents Relat- tion of thefur trade, andencumbered by ing to the Early History of Hudson Bay. lack of satisfactory means of transportation Toronto: Champlain Society. pp. 265-6. and communication, the traders were forced 11 1934. Journal of Samuel Hearne to rely to a large extent on the local Indians andPhilip Turner. Toronto:Champlain for supplies and provisions. Although success- Society. pp. 498-9. ful relationships depended on the individual IzDobbs, A. 1745. An Account of the Coun- abilities of the traders involved, who needed triesAdjoining to Hudson’sBay on the a long apprenticeship,fundamental mattersof NorthwestPark of America. London: organization required all due attention. Fol- Robinson. p. 44. lowing the murder of Duncan Livingston and IsMasson, L. R.1960. Les Bourgeois de la hismen, there occurred a gradual develop- Compagniedu Nord-Ouest. Vol. 1. New ment of an elaboratesupporting system of York Antiquarian Press. p. 95. transportation, communication, and manage- IrMackenzie, A. (see Reference 1) pp. 182-3. ment which culminated in the amalgamation 16 192. p. of the Hudson’s Bay and North West com- loporter, J. 1800. North West Company Jour- panies in 1821. By the early eighteen-thirties, nal of SlaveLake. (Unpublished manu- the Indians had in the main become subject script,Provincial Archives of Alberta, to its control. Fxlmonton, Alberta).