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Vancouver Historians 2 A Word from Adrian Clark at Work President of the Vancouver Historical Society In this issue of BC Historical News, I proudly present the text oftalks given 3 History is Alive and Well last spring at the FUR TRADE DAYS by Morag Maclachian ON THE LOWER FRAsER symposium at the Vancouver Museum and Fort 4 The Founding of Fort Langley Langley. by Morag Maclachian I hope that this collection of pa- pers will be of interest to our read ers, particularly to those living away 9 You are Asked to Witness from the Lower Mainland or who by Morag Maclachian could not attend for other reasons. The symposium, organized by the 10 The Coast Salish in the Journals Vancouver Historical Society, at by Wayne Suttles tracted a large audience: members of the VHS, local historians, and de scendants ofthe Hudson’s Bay Corn- 13 Natives in the Fur Trade: pany employees. Also present at the Looking at the Fort Langley Journals events were of course First Nations by Keith Carison descendants of those on whom the fort people were so much depend ent. 16 Family Life at Fort Langley I owe the presenters at the two- by Jean Barman day symposium a warm”thank you” for immediately agreeing to submit 24 Family Life at Fort Langley their talks for publication in BC His torical News. A special word by Bruce M. Watson ofthanks goes to Adrian Clark, president of the Vancouver Historical Society, who 31 Archibald McDonald’s Fort Langley Letters wholeheartedly supported the by Jean Murray Cole project. I am also indebted to Morag Maclachlan, who shared illustrations used in The Fort Langley Journals 37 The Apprenticeship ofJames Murray Yale 1827--30 and helped assuring the by Yvonne Klan timely submission of all manuscripts. This is a unique edition of BC 43 Book Reviews Historical News. Enjoy it. Next time we are back to our usual format. 46 News and Notes the editor Any country worthy of a future should be interested in its past. W. Kaye Lamb, 1937

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL t999

2

BC FALL NEWS

HISTORICAL 1999 -

to tion the

excellent on trade history fur talks ON THE LowER FRASER. ‘‘ soul should be....”

Langley National in Site, Historic it addi where the possible society for to host DAYS FuR what TniDE truly a great mind/

arrangements. The was at second held day and thanks shining all Fort example having its of made to for supporters of me

themselves lucky—a the symposium of and all the Society support collateral that will these hopes articles enjoy you

who him can knew count Museum the day for of first provided bookstores the venue and libraries. Historical TheVancouver

head

heart.

Everyone and

to the of success the symposium. subjects and The be other Vancouver found can local at your

physical size matched by

also a devoted of great deal and his time lished and authors resources their trade the works fur on

bigness of the man, in

at Officer,

Fort

National Langley Site, Historic the find you that pub of will many are presenters

to I show wanted

the

Gerry Borden,

&Volunteer should history Liaison Partnerships pique the on subject your interest

She

writes: of Most all,

. “.

.

to museum spread the word events. about the talks. of these If presenters’ essays the trade on fur

the permission of artist.

and

meetings

the employed arm publicity ing of pages only are the edited slightly versions mostly here reproduced with kind

Vancouver all Museum of planning attended broader the the audience. succeed in What follows Brenda Gillespie Guild

Public Plouffe, David Officer, be at Programs the still a of the for recorded in benefit permanently 1994 painted by

a of Dr. portrait teers from Lamb deserve external agencies special will that meaning this merit. these symposium, essays

page: Opposite of Detail to make success. the symposium for a from to offering volun Two talks publish generously the

a energy a deal is of great individually—contributed member, Historical Vancouver Association

the to Historical couver Columbia many name of Society—too Historical which Federation,

of the the News, of the the British lumbia Van from Many sessions. journal Historical volunteers

Co also and The carried 1998 cember the society Government. thanks dates until through British

BC a the from in for Planning by was grant made sium De started the available symposium

this for events. the sympo for State University Funding staging land

Site Langley and Historic National Suttles, Fort of Museum Port Anthropology; Emiritus Professor

to Vancouver also the by Wayne the journals

Cole

pho you Thank McHalsie. of nographic significance

Sonny and Wayne Suttles eth on the commentary

Maclachian, Morag Klan, a and Morag Maclachlan

Yvonne Watson, Bruce by essay introductory

Site: National Langley an Press with Columbia

Fort And at Carison. of British University the

Keith and Suttles by 1998 in September

Wayne Maclachlan, was published 1827—30,

Morag Barman, Jean Langley Journals, Fort

Jean Cole, were: senters book, the The journals.

pre our Museum couver edited and transcribed

Van At the history. trade painstakingly College,

fur on talks prepared and well intelligent their at Langara instructor history a former Maclachian,

for symposium at the the of presenters all thank Morag Columbia. of British mainland

to wishes Society Historical Vancouver The lower the of history recorded the of earliest some

unnamed gentleman) tory. on a dialogue up to open an and opportunity

riht Gerry an (as Borden his local in interest greater promoting of tive achievement of Morag’s a as celebration ceived

to

and her

McDonald,

objec its further and thereby audience broader con was and journals Fort Langley of tion the

descendant

bald

ofArchi

a to accessible events the make to able was ciety edi Maclachian’s of Morag version soft

cover the

a Cole,

direct side

Alan is

so the venues, separate two having by of course, release

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with the

coincided The symposium

left the her Th Bg House.

staff.And,

knowledgeable and collection artifact LowER FRASER. T1uDE ON THE tory: DAYS FuR

to and piper Q Co/in

Barret

excellent site’s the place through historic the of his trade fur on symposium

two-day

(as Ken Smith Yale) Mr.

sense a real get to opportunity an from

a

benefited

produced Society

Historical couver Morag follows Maclachlan

programme

day’s

that in

participants presented, the Van 1999 3 20 APRIL ANI) MARCH N Heroic entrance. Right:

Society Historical Vancouver the of President

Clark Adrian from A Word History is Alive T is with great sadness that we and Well have to report the death on Au fl.f Ii J gust 24th, ofDrW Kaye Lamb, Morag Maclachian by a pioneer and founding father of British Columbia historical studies. Born in New Westminster in 1904, HE Vancouver Historical Society has a Dr Lamb received his early educa proud record of promoting local his tion in NewWestminster, later at the T tory. Some outstanding achievements University ofBritish Columbia, and in the recent past include the establishment of earned his Ph.D. at the London the Vancouver Bibliography, the False Creek School of Economics. He returned Oral History project, and assistance with the to Victoria in 1934 as Provincial Li publication of Bruce McDonald’s Jncouver brarian and Archivist, was Head Li Atlas and Cyril Leonoff’s books based on the brarian at the University of British work of Leonard Frank and Otto Landauer. Columbia from 1940 until 1946, But for creative energy and enthusiasm there when he was invited to go to Ot W. Kaye Lamb has seldom been a year to match 1998—99. In tawa to head the Dominion Archives the past the projects have been undertaken by and to set up a national library. He ticular interest has always been individuals or small groups, with the approval remained in Ottawa until 1969, maritime history, he has also pub and support of the membership. Under the when he and his wife retired back lished major works on the Cana presidency ofAdrian Clark, the executive has to Vancouver. dian Pacific Railway, continental involved more people in projects.A high stand— While Dr Lamb was widely ac exploration and Canadian politi ard was maintained for the usual work—pro claimed for his role in fostering Ca cal history. His major retirement ducing a newsletter and planning the monthly nadian studies, he made a very spe project was to edit the Hakluyt So meetings. In addition the VHS has published cial contribution to British Colum ciety’s scholarly four-volume edi the results of Elizabeth Walker’s research on bia history and to the B.C. Histori tion of Captain Vancouver’s Jour the Street names of Vancouver, and, in col— cal Association. At the 1935 Annual nals, which has become the stand laboration with the Vancouver Museum and General Meeting Dr Lamb proposed ard reference edition on George the Fort Langley Historic Site, planned the a thorough reorganization of the As Vancouver. Even a week before his highly successful fur trade symposium which sociation. Shortly thereafter the As death, the New Yorker magazine was is featured in this issue ofBC Historical News. sociation, formerly a Victoria soci trying to get in touch with Dr On behalf of our membership, I wish to ety, was broken down into a federa Lamb to clarif,r some points on the thank our very active executive for their en tion ofsections, initiallyVictoria and Inside Passage! ergy and enthusiasm, and let them know how Vancouver, and laterjoined by other Dr Lamb was President of the much we appreciate their efforts. Kudos to past areas; this basic organization remains British Columbia Historical Asso president Donna MacKinnon who recruited the same to this day. Dr Lamb ciation from 1936 to 1937 and some of our new members, and to the mem founded the British Columbia Histori Honorary President of the British bers of the current executive—Adrian Clark, cal Quarterly in 1936, to provide an Columbia Historical Federation Wes Knapp, Jos Dyck, Kathleen MacKinnon, outlet for his friend Judge Howay’s from 1986 to 1989. Until less than Ida Gibbard, Alida Kulash, Kelsey McLeod, writings and those of others. He ed a year ago he contributed book re Christine Mellenia, and Helen Shore.We know ited the Quarterly until his departure views to the British Columbia His they have great plans for the future. We take to Ottawa in 1946. During the life torical News. His final review; dic off our hats and wish them well! of the Quarterly, Dr Lamb contrib tated to his daughter from his bed, Adrian’s interest in history was enhanced uted no less than twenty-five schol was on his friend Barry Gough’s when he studied under UBC professor Robert arly articles and an equal number of book on Alexander Mackenzie, McDonald—a long time supporter ofthe Brit book reviews. There is little doubt whose journals Dr Lamb had ed ish Columbia Historical Federation.These days that many members at that time ited in 1970 for the Hakluyt Soci we hear lamentations about how poorly our joined the Association for one rea ety history is served. Perhaps the naysayers should son only - to subscribe to the B. C. With Dr Lamb’s passing we have take a closer look at the British Columbia Historical Quarterly. lost British Columbia history’s fin Historical Federation and its member socie Dr Lamb’s scholarly output has est scholar and a generous friend. ties. ‘•‘ been phenomenal; although his par- Anne Yandle

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 3

4 FALL BC NEWS - HISTORICAL

McMillan George, to to Fort return On his on travelled Sound, Puget an portaged inlet 113. Merk,

a They River, Black the Langley. tributary, followed 129-30 2 Spaulding, and

Fort and Fort John Vancouver between Work. used they frequently ascended. the the of mouth which Chehalis

Annance Francis and most and safest the become shortest, to of coast followed the would which the side and mouth river

the in by journals kept a route the to from Columbia, Fraser the north on of route the land the bia, neck portaged across

be are Details

to

found

a transport as the tested Cowlitz had the Colum of McMillan mouth at the the Astoria former

come. had they way the charge, in returned from 18 George, Fort travelled They November. 1

Annance, and Francis McKay two set out on in clerks,Thomas and charge put was the expedition

with party, the rest of the Cowlitz the while via its and on report Fraser McMillan suitabffityJames

six returned men, and Laframboise Michel Work, the to to party ploring lower examine the north

with John return McMillan, the an journey ex sent He On immediately of his concerns. one

George. at Fort traded the regularly who was in to deadline that 1824, ten—year Pacific

a middleman was however, chief, the trip Cowlitz his made first Simpson Governor When

Scanawa, of fear area reprisal. 2 for the a avoided as route. that transport be could used parallel

had as the traders a result an and Iroquois of of the find north a to

waterway imperative

49 th

death the to avenge in order valley the be invaded was lost, it by should the sea. Columbia If out

had a party raiding earlier years A few Cowlitz. were they where to shipped Fort bia Vancouver

the and people the fort blood bad between Colum by the down water there and Lake, from

been had there fact that the probably to was Cowlitz from Okanagan to Kamloops land Kamloops,

the for avoiding reason Another the Fraser. taken over Alexandria, to Fraser Fort the

to route shortest the became the Cowlitz pleted, down brought were New from Caledonia

corn— was that winter, built was which couver, furs old Northwester, an Stuart, of John

Van Fort once to go. way However, fastest the urging At the problems. presented route

was coast up the traveffing felt that have he may this even but Bay, Hudson via sent out be

Columbia, the of the mouth from leaving were to Caledonia New furs from permitted

they Because north? travelling when this route which the merger to leading the factors

of advantage taken not McMillan had Why of one was This long. too was line supply

available. area was the with familiar escort the but in Montreal, headquarters their

an that relieved obviously was and Fort George from to and continent the across plies

to back him send to needed but McMillan man sup and furs transported had Company

sick the for portage uncomfortable an This meant West North The 1846. until made be

Valley. Cowlitz the through back Potvin to take would decision no final that was foreseen

volunteered who a

Native with made were

ments not was What parallel. the on

insist

49 th

arrange new and down broke the negotiations would Americans the that improbable

but coast, the along and River Chehalis the via not seemed it Columbia, as the south far

come, had they way the back him to take Chehalis as their holdings maintain to hoped they

the of

one for

arrangements

made McMillan Although slope. the Pacific to rights trading ish

John

Work.

George.

to Fort back be sent to he had

leg

that

sole Brit the in 1821, Company West the North and Annance Francis

and

foot a swollen with incapacitated so come with by kept merged journals Company, Bay Hudson’s the gave

of edited

the versions be

had

men, of the one Potvin, journey, ward government British The years. ten for

obtain

to

on

working

presently

north

their

on point this

At

River. Black to the was provision This British. and Americans both

is

She retirement.

back

portaged and

Sound Puget

through

coast to accessible be should 40’ 54° and 42° tween her until Vancouver

the

along

south

then mouth, its to Fraser the ing be in College Rockies Langara the of west area the that was 1818,

at

history follow Canadian

journey

return their began then Slough, of Convention the at made decisions the

of

One

and Columbia

Hatzic as

as far

upstream went

Fraser.They to the Rockies. the to

Lakes Great the from boundary

British taught Society,

I

them

took which

River

Salmon the to

portaged the as chosen was

parallel the

1812,

Historical Vancouver

49 th

then

could,

they as far

as followed they which of of the War member active the after Americans the and British

Maclachlan,an Morag Nicomekl the of

mouth the

to coast the along

the between negotiations protracted TF N

by Maclachian Morag

Langley Fort of Founding The wrote a favourable report which probably was a where John Stuart was in charge.5 We cannot be See Suttles in major factor in the decision made by the Gover sure what Stuart told the governor, but we do Maclachian, 257—8. nor and Council to establish a post on the lower know that he put in writing his approval of the “PRO Fo 5/208. See Fraser in 1826. In view of the treacherous nature project.John Stuart had been with Fraser in 1808, also Merk, 248-50. of the Fraser Canyon, it is difficult to understand and he was one of those who pioneered the route 5Merk, 154—5. 6 Ibid. 265. why this report was favourable. Could it be that from New Caledonia to the Columbia via the Details to be found in McMillan misunderstood the Natives?3 Their lan Okanagan. Why, with the knowledge he had of the journal kept by Al guages were almost impossible for Europeans to the country and the recollections he must have exander McKenzie. master, but communication was possible through had ofthe disasters the Fraser expedition encoun the trade languages that developed. The estab tered through the canyon, did he approve this lishment of a fur trade post in their territory was project? of advantage to the Natives. It is unlikely that the There are no clear answers, but it may have people McMillan encountered would do any had something to do with Simpson’s admiration thing to discourage such a project.While on the for men of courage and stamina. Both Proveau lower Fraser, the party saw few European goods and Stuart may have felt that to talk of danger and many village sites which suggested an area would have indicated weakness on their part.John ripe for exploitation. They met a Native who Stuart was unhappy with the changes made after could name all the groups from the lower Fraser the union of the companies and spoke of retir to the Thompson River and were assured that ing, but obviously, not seriously, for he stayed on the river was navigable to Kamloops though “with until 1839.We know from Simpson’s correspond a strong current.”4 ence that he had serious doubts about the feasi McMillan accepted the information. He bility of the project,6 but the orders had been chose not to go further upstream to examine the given and the plan went ahead. river because, as he reported, he did not have The vessel William andAnn, newly purchased, adequate equipment to deal with ice and snow arrived on the coast and in May 1825 was sent It is also important to note that he led a very north on an exploratory trip.7 Alexander large expedition consisting of three clerks, an McKenzie, a clerk at Fort George, was sent with interpreter and thirty-six men. Food supplies must instructions to contact as many Native groups as have been a major concern. Some geese were possible in order to assess the trading prospects. caught and, though the party saw numerous elk American vessels had been engaged in the mari and killed several, not all attempts to obtain meat time trade for almost fifty years, and now the were successful. The party had left Fort George Hudson’s Bay Company had plans to enter into on 18 November. One group returned on 30 competition. Many of the American traders had December and the other on 31 December, in begun to look for new resources and markets and time for Hogmanay, an important time for cel were abandoning the Pacific trade, but there was ebration in fur trade society. McMillan may have still considerable opposition for the company to made a choice between learning more about the meet. McKenzie kept a journal on the 1825 voy nature of the river and maintaining the co-op age from which we know that he informed many Below: Cover page ofThe eration of the thirty—six men on the expedition, of those he came in contact with—the Clallam, Fort LangleyJournals ed. many of them former Nor’Westers, who had not the Kwantlen, the Cowichan in particular—that Morag Maclachian, with a been required to perform such arduous duties in a trading post was to be built in the area. contribution by Wayme Suttles. UBC Press. the dead of winter. The voyage was considered unsuccessful be An even more puzzling question is why peo cause Captain Hanwell refused to go close to most ple who should have known, did not warn of the of the villages and absolutely refused to enter the TIlE FORT LANGLEY dangers of the Fraser Canyon. Proveau, one of Fraser. This particularly incensed McKenzie be JOURNAhs the men on the expedition, had been with Simon cause he had met Shashia, a Cowichan chief, who A Fraser when he explored the river in 1808. He had never before seen a white man, and he had was able to identify landmarks so that McMillan promised to visit his summer village. Shashia sub knew that the river they were on was indeed the sequently became a frequent visitor to the fort Fraser.Why did Proveau not speak up? Even more and in 1849 was sketched and painted by Paul surprising is the fact that when Simpson returned Kane. (See front cover) east in the spring of 1825 after seeing Fort Van The fort on the lower Fraser was to be estab couver established, he stopped at Fort Carlton lished in 1826, but McLoughlin put the plan on

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL iç 5 ____

sS. Canyon in 1828., there was no longer any ques

Fort S tion about the unsuitability ofthe Fraser Al5xandna0 as a trans . port route, and Fort Langley would have been S * . E.tqpneut .‘ ‘5 ‘ abandoned ifit had not been for the rich salmon .t% ;;di: . resource and the possibilities for establishing ag - riculture. There was no immediate need for an 4 ‘d* - ‘ - -“ *15 - _SS alternative IL. route to transport furs, and the c. Okanagan-Columbia system continued to be S 5- - .çj, .. • --S s S 5 ICIuiloops used until the boundary was finally settled. After • Ebotefl5y

5’ several attempts .45 to find a new route to the Pa _5 ,‘otka :. cific, the fur brigade followed the Coquihalla to . Fort •; Sound Fort Hope and the lower Fraser to Fort Langley. : In the meantime FortVictoria replaced FortVan Sg . - - - couver as the headquarters. Within •; Calvile . a decade the OklusaW*u gold rush occurred, mainland British Columbia . - became a British colony and the Hudson’s Bay Ca)al -+ SpOkne House Flathead Company lost its monopoly on the Pacific slope. 5. 044 .5 From the journals available to us, those kept - ‘ f . Sfle4 by Work and Annance on the 1824 trip and the Fort Langley journals, we know a great deal about 0 - FOIl- ‘Fort 0Fort the day-to-day events from 1824 to 1830, as seen tS8000- Vancoswer WaUa WaIk Qcorge 0 43 f and recorded by the fort people. For some in . Cocmbi sight into the impact of the fort, we have to read ‘o. 1OOmbs 55 • I between the lines. Two events are of interest in S 1QOkiameUm S speculating about the effect of the fort. Reproduced from The Fort Langleyiournals, 1827—30,UBC Press,with kind permission from Morag Maclachlan There are a number of murders recorded in the journals. In time for the Christmas of 1827 Above: Map of thefur hold because he was short-handed. Archibald Alexander McKenzie arrived from FortVancou trade posts in the Coluni McDonald, who had been sent to take charge of ver with news and supplies. On his return jour bia district. Kamloops, explored the Thompson River to the ney he and the men with him were attacked and Fraser and James Yale explored the Fraser from killed by the Clallam Indians as they travelled Fort Alexandria to Kamloops.Their reports were through Hood Canal.9 On 16 May 1828 thejour

not favourable, and McLougblin knew that the nal records that Scanawa , the Cowlitz chief, was men had “a dread of the Fraser.”8 Nevertheless, killed.10 in late June of 1827, under the indomitable lead Why did these murders occur? The first re ership of James McMillan, three clerks and action of the fort people was that in both cases twenty-one men went up the Cowlitz River and the victims had been killed so that their murder portaged to Puget Sound. When they reached ers could seize their property. In the case of Protection Island they met up with the Cadboro Scanawa, however, they later came to accept the commanded by Aemilius Simpson. McMillan explanation they were given that Scanawa’s death checked out Point Roberts, but decided it was was an act of revenge on the part of relatives of a unsuitable for a fort, and insisted that the Cadboro Snohomish who had spent the winter with enter the Fraser in spite of Simpson’s reluctance. Scanawa and who had drowned when he fell The ship went up to the mouth of the Salmon through the ice. In the case of the Clallam the River, the site of the present fort, but it was im fort people decided that the murder was treach possible to get close enough to the shore to un ery because McKenzie had believed that Ai a load the Cadboro and to feel secure. Hundreds of waston, one ofthe Clallam, had become a friend. Rich, 32. Natives were passing up the river to fish at the This brutal savagery had to be met with even Maclachlan, 51, 213—5. falls (near the present town of Yale). The ship more brutish force. An expedition set out some cLoughlin, 34d, 35. drifted downstream about three miles where the months later and did serious damage to a Clallam 0 Maclachlan, 63. Cadboro anchored close to shore and the con village. It was expected that this would teach all Dye, 18. See also rmatinger 20 June struction of the fort began. the Natives a lesson. There has never been a sat 828. When Simpson came through the Fraser isfactory explanation for the motive behind the

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL xçc Clallam massacre. However we note that on the’ well have threatened the credibility of the head 12 McMillan 15d. 1825 voyage McKenzie, travelling on the William men by this behaviour. On 4 April 1828, a few u See Suttles in and Ann, had promised the Clallam that a fort days before his murder, Scanawa was assaulted by Maclachian, 185-7 14 would be built in their area. He visited the re McMillan who reported that he gave the chief Maclachian, 58. gion again in 1826, and while we have no record “two or three knockdown blows which soon of this trip, it is likely that McKenzie felt he had brought the great man to his senses.”4 Did this cemented a friendship begun in 1825 and it is humiliation of the chief make him more vulner highly probable that the promises were repeated. able to his avengers? It is impossible to say that Though the North West Company had been this was a factor in the murder of Scanawa, but much more aggressive than the Hudson’s Bay one thing is clear: those closest to the fort be Company in pushing across the continent, once came the chief traders in the area. Archibald they took over Fort George, the former Astoria, McDonald, in charge of the fort from October during the War of 1812, they became much less 1828 until he left in 1833, did his best to deal adventuresome. Pre—occupied with attempts to directly with every trader, but in spite of his ef get into the Canton market and with the prob forts, middlemen did emerge. Scanawa, left out lem of their long supply line to and from Mon of the loop, died before his time; Shashia, a Cow treal, they stayed close to the fort and let the ichan, whose people had summer villages in the Natives bring the furs to them. As a result the lower Fraser, lived until 1870, probably attaining Clallam had achieved an important role as mid at least his three score years and ten.Any attempt dlemen. Scanawa, the Cowlitz chief, had also gath to solve these murder mysteries is highly specu ered furs and become an important middleman lative, but the exercise does provide some evi trading to Fort George. By establishing Fort dence of the disruption which must have been Langley, the company was moving into his hin caused by the decision to establish a fort on the terland.We have evidence that he was not happy lower Fraser. about this. McMillan reported that Scanawa was In 1827 a group of twenty-five men estab reluctant to provide the 1827 expedition with lished a post on the lower Fraser.They were very horses for the portage. And we know from later fearful of the hundreds of Natives who swarmed accounts that he obtained a high price for the up the river to the fishing spot at the “falls” (near horses.11 We know also that McLougblin insisted the present town ofYale).They were initially very that he begin to trade at Fort Langley instead of cautious about moving out of the fort and they Below: “Flathead Woman going to Fort Vancouver.12 By establishing the were dependent on obtaining fish from the Na Spinning Yarn. “by Paul fort in the lower Fraser, Scanawa had to endure tives for food.Within three years they had estab Kane (1810—1871). seeing the fort traders move into his hinterland, lished links with local Natives by allowing each VVatercolour on paper and the Clallam, whose role as middlemen was single man to take a native wife, they had estab— 12.4x 17.8 cm. considerably reduced, may have felt that the bro ken promises constituted a “treachery” that de manded reprisal. Whether or not these facts ex plain the murders, they do give us some insight into the sort of disruption of existing patterns that must have occurred as a result of the estab lishment of Fort Langley. The fur trade society that developed within the Hudson’s Bay Company was hierarchical and in the first decade of the eighteenth century be came even more rigid, a system that was retained after the merger. The social structure within Na tive societies was much different.The chiefs were influential men, but they did not possess the au thority that the title “chief” would imply to Eu ropeans.13 There are many incidents described in the Fort Langleyjournals which indicate that the fort people assumed they could control the Na tives by controlling their leaders. They may very Courtesy Stark Museum of Art OrangeTexas — No.3131 .78,WWC 97

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 7 lished a fishery and were beginning to export Elliot,T.C., ed. “Journal ofJohn Work.” Washington salmon, they were employing Natives to load and Historical Quarterly 3 (October 1912): 198—228. unload the Cadhoro, were using the women in McKenzie, Alexander. Remarks on board the brig the fort to perform many tasks, and by 1834 had William and Ann, Henry Hanwell master from established a large farm in the Salmon River val Fort George Columbia River to Observatory Inlet. 28th May 1825. HBCA ley. The Europeans had absorbed many Natives B.223/a/1. Maclachian, Morag, ed. The Fort LangleyJournals into their highly structured society A unique fur 1827—30. Vancouver: University ofBritish trade society developed which collapsed with the Columbia Press, 1998. settlement that followed the gold rush of 1858. McMillan,James. Colonial society freed the fur trade employees a. Letter to McLoughlin. 14 September, 1827. from the firm control of the Hudson’s Bay Com HBCA D.4/l21:14-15d pany but relegated the Natives to its lowest level, b. Extract from Mr. ChiefTrader MacMillan’s and left many of the people between—the wives Report of his voyage and survey from the and children of the traders—diminished in sta Columbia to Frazer’s River. Columbia 3lSt. December 1824. London: tus. ‘-‘ Public Record Office, Fo 5/208. Merk, Frederick, ed., Fur Ti’ade and Empire: George BrnLIoGiPHY SimpsoncJournal, 1824—25. Rev. ed. Cambridge, Annance. Francis N. A journal of aVoyage from Ma: Harvard University Press, 1968. fort George (Columbia River) to Fraser River in Rich, E.E., ed. McLoughlinc Fort T4incouver Letters, the winter of 1824 and 1825. HBCA B.76/a:1- 1825—38. Toronto: Champlain Society for the 9d. Hudson’s Bay Record Society 4, 1941. Dye, Eva Emery. “Earliest Expedition against Puget Spaulding, Kenneth A., ed. The Fur Hunters of the Far Sound Indians: Notes connected with the West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, Clallam expedition kept by Francis Ermatinger.” 1956. First published in London: Smith, Elder VVashington Historical Quarterly 1 (January, 1907): and Co., 1855 for authorAlexander Ross. 16-29. Work,John.Journal of a voyage from Fort George Ermatinger, Francis. Notes connected with the to the northward, winter 1824. BCAA/B/40/ Clallam Expedition, fitted out under the Com W89.2.11 mand ofAlexr. Roderick McLeod ChiefTrader at FortVancouver upon the l7thJune 1828. HBCA D.4/123, 8-15d.

Right: “H,B. Co. Fort Langley, Left Bank of Fraser Rivet” by James Madison Alden of the US. Boundary Commission, 1858. Looking northfrom Fort Langley accross Bedford Channel at McIvIillan Island and the Kwantlen village. In the background the Golden Ears.

8 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 You are Asked to Witness by Morag Maclachian

Left: Sonny McHalsie speaking on 3 April 1999 at the symposium at Fort Langley.

:L .i Photo by Cyril Lonoff

e were privileged to have Sonny It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t look so Scottish. McHalsie participate in the fur trade [Take a look at his picture to get the joke.] I must Wsymposium at Fort Langley, represent clarify the origin ofmy surname and the best way ing the Stó:lo people upon whom the traders at that I can do this is by sharing the story. I come from a mixed background. Fort Langley were so dependent. He spoke of My father was NI’akapamux and my mother was Stó:lo. My pa the importance of the Fort Langley journals as a ternal grandfather as a boy was known as Bagupsh. reference source for his people and he paid trib As a young man he was known as N’axetsi and as work ute to the life ofWayne Suttles, who con an elderly man he was known as Meshk. When tributed to the published journals. the missionaries arrived they baptized my grand Sonny shared with his audience some of the father and gave him the name Antoine.When the knowledge he has acquired as a result of his study Indian agent came to the community to register under numerous elders as well as his acquaint my grandfather on the band list, he asked my ance with the academic literature. He began by grandfather what he wanted for a surname. My identifying the Stó:lo territory and the groups grandfather stated that he wanted his two adult names, Meshk and N’axetsi. who share it. Many of his stories had to do with So the Indian agent wrote down McHalsie. One of my elders, the late food sources—sturgeon, steelhead, salmon, Annie York1 passed on to me my father’s name eulachon, deer, ducks, and geese, and some of the which is N’axetsi. I am in the process of working means of capturing prey, like the dipnets and the with my extended faniily to acquire a Stó:lo name. shovel-nosed canoes used in sturgeon fishing. He According to Keith Carison, Albert “Sonny” spoke not only about the methods of capture and McHalsie, who has worked for the Stó:lo Na the legends relating to the animal world, but also tion since 1985, has become a recognized ex about the times of food scarcity—the hungry pert in the oral traditions of the Stó:lo people. times or q’ole. He spoke ofwarfare and how peo In his capacity as Cultural Advisor he seeks to ple fortified themselves against raiders. He de ensure that Stó:lo culture and history are inter scribed the masks, the house posts, the burial fig preted and presented accurately and respectfully. ures, and the ceremonies of his people. But per He represents his extended family on the haps no part of his talk was more interesting than Shxw’owhamel Band Council and continues his own personal history. This is how he intro to exercise his Aboriginal right to catch and sell results duced himself salmon from his hereditary family owned fish ofAnnie York’s collaboration with My name is Sonny McHalsie. I am Stó:lo, which in ing spot in the Fraser Canyon. He co-authored our HaIq’emeylem language means “river,” so we Andrea Laforet have been a chapter entitled “Spoken Literature,” in the call ourselves the “river people.” I ani from the com published in a book enti publication entitled You AreAsked to Witness:The munity ofShxw’owharnel, which means “where the tled Spuzzum: Fraser Can river levels and widens “This is about ten kilometers Stó:lo in Canada’s Pacflc Coast History. ‘‘ yon Histories 1808—1939. west of Hope. When I introduce myself, people of UBC Press in association ten assume that the “Mc” part of my name must with the Museum of mean that I have a Scottish background or ancestry. Civilization, 1998.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 999 9

10

FALL NEWS BC HISTORICAL i -

at on Johnstone time have the been that who in among current probably were anthropologists

journals), etc. the of right Lekwiltok that Native false (theYucletaw, the peoples the about notions

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Journals the in Salish Coast The Strait. She and some of the other captives were ransomed by a Lekwiltok woman who was mar ried to a man of the Kwantlen people, the near est neighbours of the new fort. While at Fort Langley, Scanewah bought a Lekwiltok slave from a Thompson (Nlakapamux) man, who had come downriver from his home country around Lytton. Another man from the Interior, an Okanagan, was spending a winter with Scanewah, but fell through the ice and drowned.This man was mar ried to a woman from the Duwamish people, whose home county includes the present Seattle. After his death she reportedly made her way home by an inland route through Nooksack, Skagit, and Snohomish country.This death caused some hos tihty for Scanewah; perhaps he was held liable and did not compensate the widow enough. Fear ing for his safety he started back to the Cowlitz, but on the way he was killed. Later a Skykornish marriage going back at least to the late 18th cen Left: I44iyue Suttles man was suspected of the murder but released tury. Archaeological evidence shows that trade surrounded by the art of for lack of evidence.The Skykomish lived inland has been going on for thousands of years. Paul Kane. from the Snohornish.The Duwamish widow may 2. A second questionable notion is that the have passed through his village, and the Coast Salish were a peaceful, non—aggressive peo Skykornish may have had, like other inland Puget ple, neighbouring tribes always living on good Sound peoples, ties with the Interior Salish, even terms with one another. This is a notion that the Okanagan.The suspicion of murder may have comes in part from the image, which I will turn been reasonable. to later, of the Coast Salish as the helpless victims What the journals tell of the career of this one of northern raiders and partly from the reality of man shows connections among peoples on the the wide networks just mentioned. Marital and coast from the Columbia toJohnstone Strait and economic ties certainly were the basis for these into the interior as far as the Thompson and networks. But in stressing the importance ofthese Okanagan rivers. It might be suggested that these ties, as I have done in my writing, I’m afraid that wide contacts are a product of the fur trade. To I too have underrated conflict.The journals con some extent this may be true.The marriages be tain many accounts ofconffict, even between close tween distant tribes—a Cowiltz man with a neighbours speaking the same dialect ofthe same Clallam woman, a Lekwiltok woman with a language. However, it was evidently not total and Kwantlen man, and a Duwamish woman with unlimited conflict. an Okanagan man—must have been made be One incident suggests there were ways of keep fore the founding of Fort Langley, but the ties ing conflict between close neighbours under con they established may have been motivated by trade trol. In May of 1828 there were Kwantlens and with the outer coast and the interior. We may Musqueams at the fort. The Musqueams were suppose that Scanewah’s Lekwiltok slave was from their camp across the river, the Kwantlens probably not a captive taken in a recent conflict, from their village nearby. A Musqueam girl and a because after Scanewah bought him, he ran away, Kwantlen woman got into a quarrel, about their not to get back to Lekwiltok country but to get virtue, according McMillan. The quarrel spread back to Thompson country, where presumably to the other women and then to the men, he felt at home. But his original capture would Musqueams on one side and Kwantlens on the have occurred long after the beginning of trade other. Representatives of each side made speeches. on the outer coast, which may have promoted The Musqueam men went and got their knives. Lekwiltok raids on their southern neighbours and The five Kwantlen men who were there stood retaliation. Other evidence, however, suggests fast but sent for reinforcements. Soon they were these connections are old. Genealogies elicited facing about fifty armed Musqueams, who took in the 1940s indicate a wide network of inter- turns haranguing them with all the wild gestures

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 11 Left: “A Quantlin and grimaces imaginable, and the Kwantlens an back with her and the others, for whom he had [Kwantlen]from the swered in kind. But before the Kwantlen rein paid all of his property Now why didn’t the Mouth of Fraser Rivefl” by forcements arrived the Musqueams withdrew. Cowichans simply seize the man’s property and Paul Kane (1810-1871). They later told McMillan that if they had fought, enslave or kill him? Clearly this was not total war Watercolour and pencil on they would have grabbed their enemies by the between the Cowichan and the paper. 18.lx 13.0 cm. Sumas, but con hair and used their flict between knives on them. some of each, But since the with limits on Musqueam men who could do did not go for their what to whom.As bows and arrows in the history of and guns, it seems our own legal sys likely that they had tem, the impor not intended to go tance of property beyond a show of must have played defiance.They may a crucial role. have thought the 3.Athirdques- issue too trivial, tionable notion is but had to make a that the northern show for the Indians and the women.At any rate Coast Salish were the conflict was in a predator-prey kept in check. As relationship. The far as I know, we fierce northern do not have other people—the reports ofconfron Haida are men : tations with wild tioned especially grimaces and ges often—swooped tures in this region, down on the poor y,.g1... / but they are well oc ‘ peaceful Salish, Courtesy Stark Museum of Art, OrangeTexas.—No. 31 .78/33,WWC 33 known from other carrying them off parts of the world. And perhaps they were used as slaves. However, in the daily account of events by ancestors of our journalists. I am thinking of over three years, there is no mention of any raid the scene in the movie Braveheart in which the ers from the north other than the Lekwiltok.The Scots collectively moon the English. only other northern people mentioned by name Lethal conffict did occur between Musqueams are the Kwakiutl, who were at the near end of and Kwantlens in another series of incidents, but Queen Charlotte Strait. The Haida and others what occurred seems to have been more like a farther north are not mentioned, and there seems feud, a case of a life for a life, which ended when to be no reason to believe that they were coming the score was even.There is nothing in the jour this far south beforeVictoria became a commer nals to suggest that neighbours as close as the cial centre. At that time they came for commerce Musqueam and Kwantlen raided each other for and raided a bit on their way home. loot and captives. But Island and Downriver During the first years of Fort Langley the Halkomelem people did raid the Upriver Lekwiltok did indeed come as raiders, and the Halkomelem, though revenge was evidently still Kwantlen and others on the Lower Fraser were the pretext. afraid of them. But they were also afraid of the The surprising thing about this kind of con Cowichans, who came over from Vancouver Is flict is that there seem to have been rules gov land each summer to fish, and who spoke the erning behaviour afterwards. After a Cowichan same language. The Lekwiltok may have raided warrior and his raiding party captured some more often, but at least one intermarriage is re Sumas women and children, a Sumas man went ported, at least two efforts to ransom captives are over to Cowichan country with a canoe-load of reported—one successful and one unsuccessful property to ransom his wife and successfully came but with no harm to the Coast Salish ransomer.

12 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 The unsuccessful attempt was by the Musqueam headman Shientin who went north to recover Natives in the Fur Trade: his wife and daughter—presumably the one who had not already been seized by the Cowichan Looking at the warrior Lammus. He learned they had already been sold farther north, and so he abandoned Fort Langley Journals the quest, but he returned safely. Occasionally By Keith T. Carison alliances were formed. That famous Cowichan chief Shoshia may have been affied with them. At one point, expressing outrage at their attacks, he persuaded the fort to give him the ammuni— HE recent publication of Morag Keith Carison is the tion to attack them. But it turned out he prob Maclachian’s edition of the Fort Langley editor of You are Asked ably went north and sold them the ammunition T journals provides the public with easy to Witness: The Stó:Io in instead, After many threats the Coast Salish later access to an important historical document which Canadas Pacific Coast did mount retaliatory expeditions. In the light until now has been cloistered in the archives. History. He has worked for StO:Io Nation since of all of this it appears to me that the image of Records relating to the Pacific Northwest Coast’s 1992. the Coast Salish as perpetual victims is a myth early land based fur trade era are relatively scant and that relations between Salish and Salish and compared to most other parts of Canada. Two between Salish and Lekwiltok differed only in fires and the intrigue of international compensa degree not in kind. tion claims between the British Hudson’s Bay 4. The fourth questionable notion is that the Company (HBC) and the United States follow Northwest Coast was so rich in natural resources ing the dividing of the Oregon Territory along and these were so reliable that the Native peo the 49th parallel in 1846 have resulted in histori ples could get all the food they needed during ans having to make more ofless in terms ofdocu the warmer seasons and spend their winters en mentary records. For scholars ofAboriginal his gaging in ceremonies and the arts.This notion, tory and Native-European relations this has meant once standard among both popular writers and that the typical records relied upon by historians anthropologists, is no longer a common vie of the Canadian subarctic, for example, are gen but if we need any more evidence to dispose of erally absent or available only in miniscule pro it, the journals provide it. Even in the three years portions for BC’s coast.Journals for Fort Langley they record, the salmon runs fluctuated greatly. exist only for the brief three-year period 1827— In 1827 the fish were abundant, in 1828 they 1830, despite the fact that the HBC operated the were scarce and the Natives were reluctant to fort from its establishment in 1827 through to sell them and were later hungry, but in 1829 the 1890s. How then do the Fort Langley records they were so plentiful that the fort was turning contribute to our understanding of BC’s Abo the would-be fish sellers away. Sturgeon also fluc riginal history, and how does the information tuated in abundance. It is also clear that there contained within them relate to the historical was no season during which the Native people interpretations of earlier generations of scholars? could simply live off their supplies. They seem The first historian to seriously consider the to have been out in the river fishing for stur role ofAboriginal people in Canada’s economic geon whenever conditions permitted it. and social history was Harold Innis. In The Fur I know there is much more of anthropologi Trade In Canada (1930), Innis presented his now cal value in the Fort Langley journals than I famous “Staple’s Thesis” in which he articulated have described in my contribution to the book. the argument that Canada’s political institutions I hope that now that the UBC Press has made were shaped by the centralizing forces of the con them available, others will mine them further. I tinental mercantile fur trade: the fur trade cre am grateful to Morag and to UBC Press for ated Canada by linking diverse geographical re letting me play a part in the publication. But we gions into a single economic unit. In his analysis all must be grateful to Barnston, McMillan, and he recognized the role of Native economic agency McDonald for their work as journal keepers. and commented on what he saw as the deter ministic influence of European technologies on Aboriginal culture. He argued that as economic demands outstripped local production levels cer—

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 13

FALL 1999 NEWS HISTORICAL - BC 14

them- entries journal neighbours.The their and interracial Amelia, wife and Metis his Douglas

Salish Coast speaking of Haiqemeylem the ture Governor between by the relationship onstrated

cul the of discussion readable and insightful an dem As children. and “mixed-blood” wives nal

provides ethnography Suttles’s Dr. journals, edited Aborigi their through communities Native with

Maclachlan’s with in conjunction Read Suttles. relations long—term meaningful, lasting, formed

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sen the by compiled significance, ethnographic dur marriages interracial through ships forged

their of discussion an is excellent journals lished relation personal of the importance emphasizing

pub the to Appended relations? by tive-European literature the enriched himself Fisher lacking.

Na about say they do What history? social and been hitherto had that historians macy among

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contrib they do What mosaic? historiographical and literature thesis on enrichment the elaborated

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Langley Fort published newly the do then How thesis.” as be “enrichment the known

right. Aboriginal an are sales to came writings these Together, era. settlement

market that position the support would change the subsequent during evaporated trade partners

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de key

advancing

and engaging for forum mary the fur that made was argument the Man, White

pri the

been

have

courts the recently, Most the of Impact booklet popular Duff’s in refined

coercion. military as and People on Native Trade Fur Maritime

and

oppression

violent

was too so contact, early the of Impact “The dissertation Ph.D. published

of

feature a

was

if “enrichment” that conclude un InWike’s Barbeau. Marius and Duff Wilson

Gibson

and

Gough

trade,

fur maritime initial Wike, Joyce anthropologists the were thesis)

the

with

associated

encounters violent the and as “degeneration” the known be to came what

admiralty;

British the

and communities Native (or interpretation Howay’s challenging Directly

diverse the

between relations

military at the ing people. Native for

Look

Howay. of

analysis

earliest the unlike not end the of beginning the in ushered fur trade the

conclusions new

drawn

have

they so In doing sis. Howay, For as manipulative. interactions social the

the

enrichment the revisited

recently have Goods and as exploitative exchange the regarded He ties.

China

and

Ships

Boston

Skins, Otter

in Gibson communi Aboriginal for devastating been have

James

and

Frontier Gunboat

in

Gough Barry to trade fur the by caused disruption economic

communities. massive the interpreted Howay period. same the

two

the

between

understanding and

munication of HBC the and (NWC) Company West North

com the

shaping in

a role

merchants—played lish of the activities based Bay Hudson’s and rence

Eng or

clansmen

Europeans—Highland the of Law St. the of activities economic the dwarfed

background

cultural

the how

discussed also

ticular trade maritime Pacific the Canada, central and ern

par

in

Brown

social.

the as

well as

realm

nomic east in events broader to marginal ways many in

eco

the into

stretched wives Native

of

tribution While England. New in depositories

in various

con

the that

showed

women.They

Native

and housed records trade fur maritime voluminous the

traders

fur

between

relationships

sexual and

cial of use meticulous make to first the was

Howay

so the

detail

greater

much in explored Kirk

Van Howay. EW. Hon. the

judge-cum-historian, the

Sylvia and

Brown

sources,Jennifer

centered

Valley by considered being were history

Aboriginal of

River

Red

Manitoba

heavily

with

Working aspects and trade fur the Coast, West the

On

era. settlement

modern

the of

niarginalization motivations. economic same on

the premised

and

exploitation

driven

conffict the

into fur

trade were trade fur the in participation

European

the

of

forces

enriching the

turned

that labour,

and Native both that assumed analysis

His furs.

or

generosity

Native

upon

depend

not

did who

of suppliers distant more and HBC

the between

ones

colonists,

European of

community new a

as brokers acting middlemen as roles

influential

of

arrival the was It

successful. be could

relations assumed communities and individuals Native tam Left: “Interior of a Lodge with Family Group. “by Paul Kane (1810—1871). Watercolour on paper 14 x 23.5 cm. Sli’htly cropped.

S - V

VL V

V:VV

V

Courtesy Stark Museum of Art Orange,Texas.—No. 31 .78/87,WWC 88 selves, however, speak directly to the sexual, and other more subtle and gendered re historiographical debates introduced above. quirements and needs among the individuals and From the journals we learn that the market communities involved. exchange ofsalmon was not something the Coast Enrichment must be tempered as an explana Salish had to learn from Europeans. Indeed, the tory model, however, by recognition of the om HBC struggled to modify the Stó:lo economy nipresent threat of force behind all HBC activi away from salmon exchange and into the fur trade. ties. Cannons were mounted in the fort’s bas Failing in this endeavour; they then adapted them tions, torture was used to extract information and selves to the local salmon economy and became confessions from the slaves of the Native wives middlemen in an expanded version of the tradi who married into the fort’s community, and tional Aboriginal economy. Similarly, the jour Natives who arrived and refused to trade accord nals show that cedar bark, sturgeon isinglass, ber ing to European standards of market exchange ries and even slaves were also part and parcel of sometimes found themselves receiving a swift kick the dynamics ofAboriginal-European exchange in the groin. associated with Fort Langley. Violence was a common feature of life on the In terms of the debate of “enrichment,” the Fraser River in the 1820s. The fort journals de Fort Langley journals indicate that Native peo scribe inter-community raids and retaliatory raids ple did indeed enjoy and benefit from the intro involving the Cowichans, Musqueam, Kwantlen, duced European technology They were just as Chiffiwack, Scowlits and others. Larger scale con eager as the Europeans to secure the benefits of flicts are also described between the Yukletaws the fort for their own use, and arranged mar (fromJohnstone Strait) and the Coast Salish.The riages with the HBC employees to get an edge HBC generally refrained from involving them over their Native competitors.The HBC, on the selves in these conflicts, but considered supply other hand, found marriages to Aboriginal ing the Coast Salish with guns to counteract the women at Fort Langley not only important for technological imbalance created by the Ameri trade purposes, but also for staffmorale.Thejour can sale of arms toYukletaws to the north. nals describe the comic and tragic case of one Readers of all interest levels, from armchair lonely servant who, frustrated with Fort Langley’s history buff to academic scholar, will find things isolation, attempted to walk his way south to civi ofinterest within the Fort Langleyjournals. Like lization only to return naked, hungry, covered in wise, those with interests in ethnography and mosquito bites and delirious a few days later. Fort anthropology will not be disappointed either.This Langley’s chief trader determined that marriages publication provides the reading public with easy into the local community were the “only means access to primary records previously available only ofreconciling” the men to the place.These niixed through archival manuscript collections. Its en marriages resulted in long term meaningful rela tries are thick with detailed description and titil tionships that fulfilled a host of social, economic, lating accounts of a host of matters. ‘‘

BC HISTORICAL NEWS . FALL ‘999 15

16

BC FALL HISTORICAL

NEWS 1999 -

Press,

1980).

to be

to

be packaged as shipped out, for instance

the future career the prospects of officer charge. in

Country

(Vancouver:

UBC

commodities be that might sold had usefully also

the difference loss, and profit between hence and Company Families in Indian

in.

Foodstuffs to raised had be acquired. or Other Strangers in Blood: Fur and grounds language whose Trade made brute labour

and Jennifer S.H. and Brown. transported

new out and trade goods brought to two dozen illiterate back of men diverse

Oklahoma

Press, 1980),

hard

brute to had labour. Furs traded, be packed,

a sibly to

clerk with assist a him,

dozen oversaw

(Norman: Umversity of

or glamorous romantic.What they was demanded an a sea Aboriginal pos where

officer, gentleman

Trade Society, 1670—4870

the most of

jobs

fur

in the trade in way were no

then was This Fort isolated Langley, dot an in Ties: Tender in Women Fur—

The other point that logically follows Sylvia is Van that Many Kirk, Red River. from

3.

eties themselves. cluding from Iroquois eastern Cree and Canada

BCARS, Add. Ms. pt. 182,

anced the trade fur and also the soci Aboriginal

lishmen, men Scots, of and in mixed descent,

and 82 passim,

typescript,

ers gave local that people new choices unbal

and

a the Kanakas, third Eng of combination p. at years Fort Langley,”

once been.The of newcom of thousands arrival the second as indigenous Murray Yale known Hawaiians and 30 his

and Letters

ofJames pale as but Langley, what of reflections they had groups. three first were The French Canadians,

“An

Unsung Pioneer: Life

a operation in continued did as for time, Fort

who employees, divided equally roughly into

James See

Andrew

Grant,

the trade of essentially fur collapsed. Some posts plus Fort hundred contract at were men Langley

the gold and out rush broke 1858 in the world and Jane the growing Klyne of family. other All

was Once gold along discovered the Fraser River of case in the House,” McDonald wife his with

aue isolated nature, an dots world. Aboriginal within and McDonald “Big lived Yale the in who then

of half the by century, nineteenth were, their very was It through from 1833 Yale, mid-century.

the tered across Pacific during first Northwest the 1833, to Murray and James successor, his 1828

three the Langley scat dozen or and two others from were there Archibald McDonald, important

ing that trading meant them.This Fort posts, like most ten clerks.The officers or or were eight two

to for few with had acquir or no offer options than 1858, 1827 more whom and no of tween

trap fur to and that the and traders goods want be Fort 120 Langley at men About worked

to to able to people hunt continue be had both and generally illiterate. background modest

intact. reasonably nal Local societies remained very of were contracts usually who on three-year

as only The long trade Aborigi so worked fur hired were men These called servants. the HBC

beaver hats. what were time at in one posts point any west

to clothing from for trimming ranging desire, North at Pacific the of or other any Langley Fort

of into products turned furs when were these at stationed to men dozen two dozen other The

a profit make enough rate an to low exchange gentlemen. as of might think we what and reer,

at goods for to furs trade people Aboriginal local ca a as in trade fur the literate, in background,

Columbia frontier. goal to persuade was to a out The make profit. Scottish or generally who English were officers,

on formed British the a enterprise was in private 1827, as establishment men two known or one post just had Each

and the families

they

Langley’s Fort time of the by Pacific Northwest families. 2 and their ficers

and trade rush— gold

the of across the u trade fur ran which talking about Bay Company, really only are Brown, Jennifer

arrived fur the with

by The Hudson’s business. a was

it Blood in

that and Strangers portantly, Kirk Van by Sylvia

newcomer men—

im Ties recognize, most to a and whole ‘Thnder as fur Many notably trade life, family about have

Aboriginal and women

the on reflect we we studies to have published Fort at ally few Langley, and the particular, In trade.

on manuscript

gener of fur the life, family the

equated origins with To most have we understand often whom a completing

officers is the the it same, All barrels. in salmon CONTEXT is She currently

Columbia.

family life. including

of History British

on, went also more much that realize and a

point as

starting

them we use as so long these images beyond the West:A

with

wrong nothing is There wilderness. 1 the in out together hung less or more Kanakas “obliging” the

author of West The

W

and sped along, their canoes as singing be to seemed always who voyageurs going” British is Columbia and

“easy Scots, minded” “tough day, the at University earlier an of of clichés use the to which, in game man’s a

as teaches Barman Jean it of I conceived long assumptions. of sets particular our trade to fur the each bring E

Barman Jean

Langley at Fort Life Family ORIGINS OF FAMILY LIFE Family life came about because, quite simply, it served the economic self—interests of the fur trade and, more specifically of Fort Langley, also the self-interests of the Aboriginal peoples all around them. Kwantlen, Musqueam, Nanaimo, and Co— wichan peoples regularly passed by Fort Langley as they went up and down the Fraser River, some times in the hundreds.3 It is only to be expected that they would be curious about this new strange place in their midst and were soon jostling with each other for best advantage. What better way to get access than to have someone trustworthy on the inside? Given that these newcomers were mostly men alone, without women, who better than a daughter or a sister? Mural at the entrance 10 the visitors centre of Ford Langley National Historic Site. McDonald, as the officer in charge during Fort Langley’s early years, was just as eager as were and sexual desire. The woman’s appeal is evident For instance, 26 June, 20 local peoples to establish ties in order to encour in the reference in aYale family history, based on July, and 21 October 1828 age more furs to be offered. The interplay be stories originating with Yale himself, to her entries in Morag tween the two sides, how each sought to ma “laughter, that prodigal laughter so characteristic Maclachian, ed., The Fort LangleyJournals, 1827-30 visible by looking at of the generously proportioned squaws and lis nipulate the other, becomes (Vancouver: UBC Press, the first test case, so to speak. some maidens of the Indian race in his own 1998), 66, 69, 81. It was in November 1828,just over a year after haunts, laughter such as few white men hear, 13 November 1828 entry Fort Langley’s establishment, that McDonald melodious ripples from the midst of the groups in Maclachlan, 82. 25 November 1828 entry made a suggestion to his young clerk, James of Indian maidens in the village.”8 Thus, a week in Maclachian, 86. MurrayYale, so he reported in his journal: “The after being turfed out on discovering that she 626 November 1828 entry

“Quaintkine [Kwantlen], ... being the principal was twice “married,” “Mrs. Yale Came home in Maclachian, 87. Indians of the neighbourhood & [the only ones] 9again.” 26 November 1828 entry who at all exert themselves to Collect Beaver, we Soon the tide turned once more. Just weeks in Maclachlan, 87. later, so the post journal recorded, “Mr.Yale has Grant. have thought it good Policy in Mr.Yale to form 95 December 1828 entry a Connection in that family—and accordingly found means to get rid of his Lady that has Cost in Maclachian, 88. he has now the Chiefs daughter after making So much goods.”° 020 December 1828 entry them all liberal presents.”4 Then Yale reversed himself yet again and the in Maclachian, 90. 115 January 1829 entry in to be unfolding to the Kwantlen chief Nicamous, to quote the journal, At first events seemed Maclachian, 92. newcomers’ advantage. However, within two “brought back his Daughter in Consequence of 1213 January 1829 entry in weeks, it became clear that both Yale and her husband regretting having given her Conge Maclachian, 93. McDonald had been taken in.The Kwantlen chief [discharge] Some days ago.” 1313 January 1829 entry in Maclachian, 93. calmly informed them that he was under claim It was the Kwantlen chief’s turn to press his 14Jarnie Morton, Fort advantage. Less than two weeks later he turned of “heavy damages for giving away his daughter Langley. An Overview of the in marriage to Mr.Yale [when shej was already up at Fort Langley to claim his reward for bring Operations of a DiversjjIed the lawful wife (in their way) of a Scatchad ing the couple back together. “Without much Fur Trade Post 1848 to 1858 [Skagit].”5A day later the chief’s brother got into ceremony [he] asked his daughter for [a] Blanket and The Physical Context in & she just as unceremoniously walked in[to the 1858 (Ottawa: Microfiche the act. He sought to benefit from the confusion Report Series, Canadian by turning up at the post “with a grand total of store room]—took it out, & with a pin buckled Parks Service, ten and three or four Young Girls to dispose of it on round his neck.”12 Such audacity was more Environment Canada, them in marriage if he can.”6 As if this were not than McDonald could tolerate, so “with Still Less 1980), 214. enough, within the day “it turns out they [these Ceremony {he, McDonald] took the liberty of new women being offered up] are all married removing it & told Master Nicamous to be off wives & of course all negotiations with the men with his own good new, white Blanket.”3 The broke off.”7 woman likely stuck withYale, for in March 1830 Even this was not the end of the story. Yale the post journal noted the birth of a “young became caught between the fur trade’s interests daughter” to “Mrs.Yale.”4

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL iç 17

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Officer’s surnames FULL in CAPITALS

y

7 Wavicareerea, Robert 1853- 5 Hawaiian Fraser stayed Valley in

y

7 Taylor,James 1853- 5 Brit/Scot stayed Valley in Fraser

y 1 Dionne, Cyprien 1853- 5 Canadian French

y

3 Danneau, Antoine 1853-56 3 French Canadian Victoria to

2

Latrielle, Alexander y 1851-58 7

French Canadian 7

y 3 Ayotte, Firmin 1850- 8 French Canadian Victoria? to

y 3 Dease, Napoleon 1850-54 4 Brit/Scot died

Kekoa 1848-55 7 Hawaiian

y

1 Apnaut/Ohulu, Peter 1848-49, 1850-55 6 Hawaiian stayed Valley Fraser in

y

3 Robertson, Samuel 1847- 11 Brit/Scot stayed Valley Fraser in

Kekapalale 1847-54 7 Hawaiian

y 7 CromartyWffliam 1845- 13 Brit/Scot stayed Valley Fraser in

y 3 Ohier 1845-56 11 stayed Hawaiian Valley Fraser in

y 2 Augustin Wiffing, 1843- 15 French Commission Canadian Boundary to

Holland, George 1843-46 3 Brit/Scot home returned

y Mokowhehe 5 1842-47 Hawaiian returned home

y 1 George Borabora, 1841-52 Hawaiian 9 to Victoria

y Taheenou 6 1841-47 Hawaiian home returned

y 1 Bell,John 1856-57 14 1840-53, Brit/Scot died

y Allard,Ovid 7/8 1839-53, 1858- 15 French Canadian stayed Valley in Fraser

y Laowala 1839-48 9 Hawaiian died

y 8 Fallardeau, Narcisse 1838- 20 Fraser Canadian French stayed Valley in

y 1 McPhail, Angus 8 1838-46 Brit/Scot Victoria to

y Minie,Frederic 7 Victoria 5 1838-43 Canadian to French

y 5 Vautrin, 1837-52 Cowichan 15 French to Canadian Xavier

y to Hawaiian Peeannau,Joe Victoria 13 1837-50

y Valley in Canadian Brousseau, Fraser stayed French 23 1833-34, 3 1836— Basil

y home returned 5 1 Brit/Scot 1835-39 Brown, 1832-33, William

died 4 Hawaiian Hereea 1833-37

y home returned Brit/Scot 15 Rendall,James 1831-46 ?

y Valley in Fraser stayed 23 1830-53 2 Hawaiian Wavicareerea

y 18 died Hawaiian 1830-48 Taii

y Victoria Brit/Scot YALE,JAMES 31 to 1828 3 MURRAY

y Cowlitz,WA Canadian French to 12 Louis Delonie, 1828-41 4

Vancouver, y WA Fort Canadian French to 9 2 1828-37 Etienne Oniaze,

Quebec y to Brit/Scot 5 McDONALD,ARCHIBALD 1828-33 14

y Canadian French 33 1827 3 Pepin/Magice, Etienne 7

Valley in Fraser stayed y Hawaiian 25 1827-52 (Peeopeeoh) 4 Piopio

Victoria to Canadian y French 18 1827-45 Louis 3 Satakarata,

Cowlitz,WA to Canadian y French 13 1827-40 4 Pierre Charles,

WA Vancouver, Fort to y Hawaiian 12 1827-39 3 Como

Cowlitz,WA to y Brit/Scot 9 1840-42 1827-34, McDonald,Anawiscum 5

Cowlitz,WA Canadian to y French 8 1827-35 6 Dominique Farron,

OR Williamette, Canadian to y French 4 1827-31 Louis Ossin, 4

died Canadian French 3 y 1827-30 Pierre Therrien,

Cowlitz,WA to Canadian French 3 y 1827-30 Plamondon, Simon 11

Cowlitz,WA Canadian to 3 French y 1827-30 Francois Piette, 2

home returned Brit/Scot 3 y 1827-30 JAMES MAcMILLAN, 7

died Brit/Scot 3 y 1827-30 Kennedy,John

OR Williamette, to Canadian French 3 1827-30 Louis Boisvert,

OR Williamette, to Canadian French 3 y 1827-30 Amable Arquoitte, 8

home returned Canadian French 3 y 1827-30 ANNANCE, NOEL F 5

AFTERWARDS YRS TOTAL YEARS CHILDREN WIFE

LANGLEY AT FORT YEARS

I TN MO1 MEN TWO TLE — This little drama made clear to McDonald that Country.”22 1526 November 1828 desire could easily spin out of control. Realizing This observation reveals McDonald’s second entry in Maclachian, 87. 1627 November the situation, local people became ever more de reason for encouraging family life and that was 1828 entry in Maclachian, 87. termined to gain entry to the post through their to keep this disparate lot of men satisfied and to 1 January 1829 entry in women, so McDonald recorded. “Ever since the make them want to stay at Fort Langley, once Maclachlan, 91. fields are Cleared of the potat[o] es—Swarms of their three—year contracts expired. McDonald “26 November 1828 women & Children are daily Sauntering about understood that “those of the men that had not entry in Maclachian, 87. ‘9 20 January 1829 entry in Collecting what they can and this unavoidably been lucky enough to Come in for a Chance of Maclachlan, 94. Language leads to a meeting with our men, who rather this kind have no inducement at all to remain at of”Fort Langley Journal,” Seek than avoid it.”15 The very next day some of the place.”23 As he put it, “to reconcile the bucks transcribed by Winnifreda the men requested permission, which McDonald to Fort Langley without Some indulgence of this Mcintosh, 9 January 1963, in rejected as “impudent,” “to go out and Stop for nature is utterly out of the question—to leave British Columbia Archives, preferred. the night” in the nearby camp. 16 Worse yet, dur them to prowl about in the [Indian] Camp would 28 February 1829 entry ing the New Year festivities heralding 1829, the be the worst policy of all—What remains for us, in Maclachian, 99. post journal recorded, “the drunken Sot then, is to make the best & wisest Selection [of a 21 7 March 1829 entry in [Quebecker Louis] Delanis had Contrived to woman that] we Can for every man.”24 Maclachlan, 100; also “two more of our men took haule [sic] one ofthe Quaitline [Kwantlen] dam McDonald very cleverly linked permission to wives from the Indian sels up by a port hole in one of the Bastions.”17 have a wife to a willingness to continue in the Camp” in 23 May 1829 McDonald became determined to wrest con company’s service. A man had to be “Engaged entry, 114, and “another trol of the situation and, as we can read in the [by the company] for two years” to be “allowed one of our men took to himselfa wife” Fort Langley journal, established a system to take a woman.” 25 The timing was clearly in in 18 September 1829, 128. whereby cohabitation became less an end in it tended to encourage contract renewal for another 22 18 November 1829 self than the first stage of family life. Men were 3-year term so as not to be separated from a entry in Maclachlan, 131; permitted to make “a formal application for newfound love. The policy worked. McDonald also Etienne Pepiri being wives,”18 a policy which worked because it also reported in 1830 how “it has had the effect of given permission in 14 January 1830 entry, 137; suited the interests ofAboriginal fathers, who had reconciling them to the place and removing the also 23. to indicate their willingness accepting 233 by gifts inconvenience and indeed the great uncertainty March 1829 entry in comparable to, or better than, they would have of being able to get them year after year replaced Maclachlan, 99. 243 required of an Aboriginal suitor.Thus, when “one from the Columbia.”26 “All our [fifteen] Men have March 1829 entry in of our men Pierre Therrein [a Quebecker] was taken Women.”27 Maclachlan. 99-400. 2514 January allowed to take a wife out of the Aiskimnum’s 1830 entry in Although no journals survive after 1830, we Maclachlan, 137. [Chinook chief’s) family—He gave a Gun & 4 do have glimpses of subsequent events. The re 26 Archibald McDonald, Blkts.”19 port from one of the first visiting Catholic mis Report, 25 February 1830, Each union was also recognized within the sionaries, in 1843, stated that all of the “about reproduced in Maclachian, 222. post, likely encouraging greater stability than twenty men.. .ernployed there” have “wives and 27McDonald, Report, 25 otherwise would have been the case. As noted in children after the fashion of the country.”28 February 1830, the journal, “one of the Engages—[Quebecker] We can also trace the men as individuals, which reproduced in Maclachlan, Louis Ossin is allowed to take a woman from the Bruce Watson and I have been doing over the 222. 211 Notice no. Camp & each man had a half pint liquor on the past number of years. By putting together HBC 5,January 1843, cited in Notices & occasion in the evening.”20 The Kwantlen chief records with baptisms and marriage records of Voyages of the Famed Quebec whose daughter was cohabiting with Yale soon visiting priests, we can get some idea of what Mission to the Pacific also had his sister ensconced within the post. happened. Just over half of the men left within Northwest, Beinç the Hence, when “Corno—an Owhyhee [Hawaiian], two years of arriving at Fort Langley, not sur correspondence, notices, etc., of Fathers Blanchet and Deiners, & one of our best men here is married to the prising given the difficult working conditions of together with those of Fathers Sister of Nicarneus—the Quaitline [Kwantlen] the fur trade. What is more surprising is that the Bolduc and Laoglois Chief—all hands had a half pint & a hop on the other half stayed on longer, sometimes much (Portland: Champoeg Press occasion.”21 Another time, “Annawuskum longer. for the Oregon Historical Society, 1956), McDonald [an Iroquois and] our [Kitchen] Serv Table 1 lists the men who stayed at Fort Langley 104. ant, having taken a woman last night, our people more than two years and hence were able to take were treated with a decent Ball on the occasion, a wife and likely began a family. What we see is which, with other moments of relaxation they that most of them did so. Fort Langley retained a have, Seem to make them think that they Can strong core of men, in part at least because of the not be much happier in any other part of the opportunity for family life. It is not surprising

I3C HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL i999 19

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NEWS içsçç FALL BC - HISTORICAL

currence of her relations

others and around was Prairie French Press,

the was that women themselves embodied.There

Stellamaris Mission (St. Paul: & her requested

return, which the Con with

and rank or nicity in the race, differences indeed

Volumes

land

II,

and

And his so,”after

over was followed he work

her,

status, in grounded religion, eth language, and

Northwest. J4incouve,

was The she man her with wanted living back.

of Records the Paqfic Family never life overcame larger divisions

“watched to walked her off and time camp.” the

Munnick, Catholic Church on.

for with

mother Harriet her talking Duncan the

near gates

40

was it so birth. “Mrs. gave Annance” And who

July Vancouver, 1927), 21.

had by

been husband” with” “remonstrated “her

A of later couple Simon] months Plemondon. 42

Scientific Association of

one

from journals, a the example who woman

to a past born utes [Quebecker was Girl midnight, Art,

Historical

and

to space To lose to retrieve face. or her take just

1827—1927 (Vancouver: a “At next min March, The the few whites).” 41

to left, the

male forcing Aboriginal either enter Fort

Nelson,

Langley

being (I this in the born among quarter first mean

Creek,” citing Denys

to not Unhappy made be simply submit. women

& Husband He Son a presented heir, wi[t]h her

“The

naming of Kanaka

time Langley women learn to some could that “

of [sic] fair Fort the the how Laddies “one of

BCARS.

at the and took Fort other It men McDonald

on journal 1828 noted post Similarly, 2July the Allard’s reminiscences in

to back be

again.” 35

CARS, B citing Jason to work. ing

wing for lands friends the on them ever keeps and Creek,” typescript,

with families, site the at commut their original

of

naming Kanaka

their Indians, own to their all “like attachment

live to and continued Hawaiians other the Piopio

120. Maclachlan,

time. conceded McDonald of

that, Even period

about 1840 in miles Langley upriver three moved

1829

July

entry 13 in

put a stay to by for obliged specified contract

Maclachlan, 118—19. Fort Kwoithe When woman.” 4 ° [Kwantlen?]

the far did freedom who men, than more were

3 entry 1829 July

in a and of daughter “natural the as Pehopuho 1841

99. Maclachlan, space. They possessed Aboriginal into back pear

in visit first priest’s the Catholic during baptized

March 3 1829 in

entry

disap simply women could Their Fort Langley.

was who by years Sophie, few a later and Mayo 39

258. Morton,

work and at them came make they

whence them

as a known by son quickly followed 1827, in 258. Morton,

that

brought they femininity and with masculinity

Cullen, also in 90; 33 Allard born was Paiva to Aglace cohabit.A daughter first

the about assumptions could take simply not men

222.

the was among post. new Piopio the construct

reproduced in Maclachlan,

to Newcomer survive. unions for on sides both

to sent two the of dozen one was and 1827 in

1830, February

was and essential accommodation Flexibility

Fort

Langley became what for

location suitable

Report, 25 32 McDonald,

walls. 34

a for prospect to one dispatched men been 1979), the of 90.

of the outside dwellings private some built men

Canada (Ottawa: Parks 20 had 1824 in who was Piopto, Their leader life.

and sense permanence, a History Archaeology of acquired relationships

to

family establish the were earliest The Hawaiians

in Occasional

Papers

Where inside fort.” 33 the quarters had company

relationships. term long forged which children of

Lengley, 1827-96.

of the the employees “all

recalled

that servant

arrival the was factor, other any than it More The of History Fort Cullen,

a longtime The of son to

lowance themselves.” 32

C in appendix Mary morning.” 37 camped this

al n ample and the from

regular derive

they

what

1924, October 25

de wives men’s our of “one that elaboration,

Province, “Reminiscences,”

save they none, have them for

journal,”provisions

curtly, without noted

journal post

the later days

O.Allard,

31 Jason

in noted his he As for families. their

got

perks no

ten just for lived,

short was victory

again.” 36

The

74. 1973), Society, Record

men his House,” ‘Big

in from

Apart

McDonald

trouble Such to us to put never best them be for Bay (London: Hudson’s

week. 31 half a each days for

and

five

sunset until

Simpson 1—42 184 would that it Natives the & acquainted Fort the

morning Sir

from From early George Inward Men

worked

and crannies.

to lady the ordered my I address

in itegallantry little

London Correspondence

nooks the into to fit

had It

Langley. easy

Fort at

very when with Village to [Indian] the ceeded

ed., GlyndwrWiffiams,

was never family

life

prevalence, its of all For

pro

with &

them

immediately arms men under 1841, November in

LIFE

FAMILY OF

NATuRE

5 “called McDonald basis that Vancouver, On 25 Fort husband.” ted

Bay

Company, Hudson’s

outwit her of arms to & the to Fort the return business. good was it because but

to Simpson

‘ Convenient when & e paramour her gratifying of

romance,

or sentiment for not policy, a as ued

trade. fur the was

“an opportunity quote, I and was,

wanted really contin was

and at Langley Fort life originated 231.The exception 1840,

woman this what that rationalized So he them.” family sum, post.” 3 ° In 20 Vancouver, well very a March regulated been

to Simpson, Fort George

Correct to never bound down are “the husbands time of length a for “has Langley Fort how 1841

John

and McLoughlin 215;

persist, to allowed were women the

that, if ted in enthused America North across Company

1943), hmli Society Champlain

fret McDonald superiority; male of sumptions Bay Hudson’s the of head The

manner.” 29 perous

1839-44 Series (Toronto:

as

contemporary

Reflecting triumph. would pros most the in on going business is “the that ofJohn McLouglilin, Second

might newcomers’ if ed., as The E.E. Rich, seemed Letters time a For it later year a and state” a flourishing in continue

1839,

in

cited October

property;” necessary the with yet as Langley] Post this o Fort [of at on carried business

14 Vancouver, Fort

Secured entirely or treated Kindly not was

She

of branches “the several in how 1839 noted pany

Bay

Hudson’s

Company,

that pretexts frivolous under refused positively Com

Bay the Hudson’s from report a that then Douglas to 29 James never a single family life at Fort Langley, apart cause you but little surprise when you are in _1972), first listing, pages from brief moments in time. Christmas was one formed that almost all the Co’s. wives are the 66-67. 41 2 of the few occasions when the women cohabit native squaws, their children, which are called July 1828 entry in Maclachian, 67. ing with Hawaiians, and thereby 42 deemed infe half breeds, as a general thing, being fair, docile 12 March 1829 entry in rior, were permitted into the post. Even then, and inteffigent. The ball was conducted with the Maclachlan, 100; also 24 one year, they got into an almost immediate best possible decorum.The music was sweet, from June 1829 entry confrontation with “the women who were mar the violin, and the dancing was performed in the concerning”Mrs. Annance,” 117. ried to white men, were related to the chiefs” most graceful manner, by the Indians and the half 43Allard in Cullen, 90. and considered themselves superior. According breeds, who took a very prominent part of that n Grant. to the son of one of the French Canadians: “The occasion.”49 45AUard in Cullen, 90. Kanaka women were accused of passing remarks 46 13 November 1828 LEGACY OF FAMILY LIFE about their white sisters and then from one im entry in Maclachlan, 82. Family life did not disappear just because the 47The dance is described aginary insult or slight the fight was on. There fur trade fell into decline. We all too often think only in 1 January 1830 was no prancing or sparring. It was run and grab entry in of settlement, be it in the Fraser Valley or else “Fort Langley for the hair of the head. A regular tug-of-war Journal,” transcribed by where in British Columbia, as beginning with ensued. Finally they were separated by their hus Mcintosh. the gold rush. This was most certainly not the 482 bands and all was peace and quietness.”43 January 1830 entry in case. Table 1 summarizes the subsequent lives of Maclachlan, 136. There were three times each year—Christmas, the men who remained at Fort Langley more C.C. Gardner to editor New Years, and the fur trade brigade’s arrival in of Islander, 17 March 1858, than two years. What the lives tell us, most im the summer—when, to quote the Yale family cited in Morton, 230. portantly, is that family life at Fort Langley history,”the obligations ofbusiness ceased to regu 50William Burton counted. A few men returned home, almost cer Crickmer, “Story of the late seniority of rank and trade.”44 Christmas was tainly by themselves, but most looked for an in planting of the English not just for squabbling, it also strengthened fam termediate place where they could continue to Church in Columbia,” ily life. “In the afternoon of Christmas Day the Christian Advocate and live satisfactorily with their wives and children. men’s wives were invited to the big hail where Review, s.d., 780, in Many of the first families went to earlier places Vancouver they were given two or three ‘shots’ ofwine after Public Library. of newcomer settlement in the Pacific North which their baskets (they were told to bring them) west, such as the WillametteValley in the Oregon were filled with cookies, cranberries and blue Territory or to Cowlitz in the future Washing berry jam and ships biscuits.”45 On New Year’s ton state. day, there was dancing. “The men, and in succes Wherever they headed, families to some ex sion the women were received into the Hall & tent turned inwards. They settled in clusters. To treated withjust enough ofthe ‘Oh bejoyful’. .so understand the reasons, we need to keep in mind that we could all again meet in the evening with the thousands of newcomers from Britain, the propriety”46 for a “merry reel,”47 but “without United States, and elsewhere that flooded into any indecent frolick.”48 the Pacific Northwest during these years.We need The strength of family life at Fort Langley is to remind ourselves of the attitudes that many of visible in the accounts of outsiders, most who them had toward persons perceived as different often used racist rhetoric to explain away what from themselves. It was not just the Maritime observed rather take it they than having to seri gold miner who ridiculed Fort Langley’s fur trade ously. In his description of the dance held in 1858 families. The Anglican cleric who held religious to mark the brigade’s arrival, a Maritime gold services at Fort Langley during the early settle miner admirably evoked the sense of commu ment years came close to ridicule in his observa— nity that for brief moments did bind together tion:”Very unsatisfactory was the state into which the families of Fort Langley. “To this ball I re many of the Hudson’s Bay employés had degen ceived an invitation, which I, with much pleas erated: living insulated, from boyhood often to ure attended, and was not a little surprised at see gray hairs, amongst debased savages, they had ing the company composed of so heterogeneous married squaws, and their half-bred offspring but a kind. There were English, Scotch, French, and too often were mere degraded savages like the the Kanackas present, and their offspring, and all ‘50 so thoroughly mixed with the native Indian blood, If growing racism forced families to look in that it would take a well versed Zoologist to de wards for marriage partners, other aspects of cide what class of people they were, and what changing times worked to their benefit. Chil relation they had to each other; though that will dren, as well as some members of the first gen

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 21 eration, who wanted to settle near Fort Langley, halfbreed sisters who were of the old Feledew “Reminiscences of Old were given a very important economic boost by family.”62 Langley,” appendix B in Cullen, 89. the pre-emption policy put in place for the Brit The Hawaiian group, headed by Piopio, par 52 Morton, 259 and 261, ish Columbia mainland at the beginning of 1860. ticularly benefited from the preemption legisla and genealogical material Men could take up 160 acres, even if the land tion. They were already formed into a cluster. in possession of Christy were not yet surveyed. Men employed at Fort When the daughters of Piopio reached adoles Wong. Langley, and some of their sons, were in a par cence, Morton, 185. they were, not unexpectedly, partnered 54Verbal information from ticularly advantageous position both because of with Kanakas working at Fort Langley.63 When Christy Wong. proximity and due to the nature of theirjobs.As contracts expired, enough of them had not re British Columbia recalled by one ofYale’s daughters, “the men of newed so that by 1857 sufficient “free Kanakas” manuscript censuses for the fort, with some Indian lads, used to go to were living around Fort Langley for 1881. NWS, family 198, the Hud and 1891,NW (1 1), family Langley Prairie to cut the grain which they had son’s Bay Company to request that the “seven 255, and birth certificate sown in the Spring.”51 They had in effect received able men among their number” help transport of Samuel Cromarty in an apprenticeship in farming, including insider an especially large load of goods.64 possession of Christy knowledge as to the most fertile land. Table 2 Then came disruption.The land on which the Wong. Mary and David lists some of the fur trade families who settled in Hawaiians had informally were named in the will of settled near the origi William Cromarty, 15 the FraserValley, including information on which nal site of Fort Langley was surveyed and auc April 1875 families preempted. tioned offin the fall of 1858 for a townsite named 56John Gibbard, “Early Each of the families and clusters of families Derby, which many expected to become the capi History the Fraser of Valley, settling in the Fraser Valley have their own story tal of the new mainland colony brought into 1808-1885” (unpublished to tell, and princi M.A. thesis, University of I can only sample each of the being by the gold rush.65 Although legally dis British Columbia, 1937), pal ethnic groups here. possessed. the Hawanans held on. A government 112-13. WILLItvi CROtviRTY, who arrived from the official who stopped by in January 1859 found 57Typescript enclosure in Orkneys as head barrel maker in 1844, took simi still there “a large body ofKanakas—a mixed race Deann Cleveland to Jean lar pains to give his family a sense ofsecurity.52 If half Indian half Sandwich Islanders.”66 In Barman, Armstrong [early the spring 1995], in author’s technically a servant, he likely enjoyed a certain spring of 1859 GovernorJames Douglas was pe possession. status above the rank-and—file. For some time titioned by Piopio, who stated that he “had cleared Deann Cleveland to Jean there had been complaints that the barrels used and had been in occupation of a piece of land Barman, Armstrong, 8 to export Fraser River salmon were leaking, there, from which he was ejected when the site April 1995, in author’s whereas had to airtight fish possession. they be for the to of the town, of which it formed a part, was de Donald E.Waite, The arrive edible at its destination, and Cromarty was cided upon.”67 Piopio wanted 47 acres on the Lang/c)’ Story illustrated:An an experienced cooper.53 He settled down virtu other side of the Fraser River as reparation and Early History oft/ic ally immediately and remained with Salum’mia wanted it now so that he could plant that year’s i’vluriicipality of Langley until her death in 1 869. Son William was born crops. (Altona: Friesen, 1977), 265. in about 1846,followed by seven other children.55 The preemption legislation of 1860 allowed Cleveland to Barman, in In 1852 Cromarty requested and was given per the Hawaiians to acquire the land that they sought. author’s possession. mission to purchase a cow; by which time he had Almost immediately, on 23 January, Piopio’s son- Typescript enclosure in his own house located “just outside the western in-law “Peter Apponette” took up 160 acres, and Cleveland to Barman, in wall.”56 I quote from the preemption document, “situ author’s possession. 2 Robert Emmett Hawley, NARctssE FAiLDEAu joined the Hudson’s Bay ated on the north bank of the Fraser River op Skqee IvIus or Pioneer Days Company from Quebec in 1837 and spent his posite the town of Derby, bordered on the east On tile Nooksack entire career at Fort Langley. Almost immediately, by a Creek (name unknown) the said claim to (Bellinghan1: Whatcom he settled down with a Kwantlen woman,57 pos have a frontage of 33 chains on the river 48 MuseuIn of History and month later, February, Art. 1971, orig. 1945), sibly named Ellen.58 Catherine was born in back.”68 Just a on 23 178. 1839, followed by five more daughters and also Piopio’s son “Magno Papu [Mayo Piopiol” fol “The naming of Kanaka two sons who died young.1 Fallardeau’s position lowed suit, as did other Hawaiians. The group’s Creek,” citing Jason as Yale’s cook and servant allowed his family to continuing presence is attested by Piopio’s grand Allard’s reminiscences in live in the kitchen of the Big House. The eldest son being elected to the Maple Ridge council in BCARS. 1879.69 James Douglas to James Fallardeau daughter Catherine was wed to Fort MurrayYale, 1 July 1857, Langley blacksmith James Taylor in the summer Lest you think all of this was so very long ago, cited in Morton, 159. of 1858.61 As for her sisters, three white new in March 1999 I had the pleasure ofvisiting with Morton, 258; and comers, “products of the Fraser River Gold Piopio’s great—great grandson and of hearing him Cullen, 61. when small January 1859 entries in Rush,” so an acquaintance recalled, “married tell me how, he was a boy, his great-

22 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 999 grandmother, Piopio’s daughter Sophie, would At the end of the twentieth century, family Arthur Bushby,Journal, “sit with us and tell us stories about Hawaii [and life at Fort Langley is not so distant from us as we cited in Morton, 288. 67 to how] it was all sunshine.” I was transported back might sometimes want to believe. We have a rich Douglas, 1 April 1859, BCARS, in time almost two hundred years, for these were and diverse human heritage all around us which, Colonial Correspondence, almost certainly stories that Sophie Apnaut Nel in the case of Fort Langley’s fur trade families, film 915/26, cited in son, born in 1830, had herself heard as a child stretches back a century and three quarters, yet is Morton, 288. 68 from her father about his life in Hawaii before very much part of who we are today as British EW Laing, Colonial Farm Settlers on the Mainland of he sailed to North America and became part of Columbians. ‘-‘ British Columbia 1858- the adventure which was Fort Langley. 1871 (Victoria, 1939), 99. 69 Sheila Nickols, ed., Maple Ridge:A History of TLE 2 Settlement (Maple Ridge: Fui. TruDE CONTINun’Y INTO THE SECOND GENERATION IN THE FIsERVLEY Municipal Hall, 1972), 33; and Waite, The Langley Story Illustrated, 102. ALLARD, Ovid Sennie + David Hamburger/Yale Jason + Seraphine of Port Townsend Lucy + *Kenneth MoRRIsoN BRoussEAu, Basil Marie + *Peter Baker Basil Jr. + Sarah Pierre *William + Lucy of Cheam Elizabeth + *Henry Dawson James + Annie Cliton *Davjd Mary + *Joseph Hairsine Samuel + Caroline Garner XDEASE, Napoleon Mary + Godfrey McKay *EMpTAGE,Wjlljam Wiffiam Jr. + Sarah Elkins *FLARDEAU, Narcisse Catherine + *James TAYLOR Harriet + Daniel Kilcup-US Louisa + Henry West-US Matilda + George Rehberger-US Rose + James Ibbotson Mary + Wiffiam Worley *Lacrojx, Michel Michel + Mary Dixon (New Caledonia) Gabriel + Sarah Jane Wells Joseph +Annie James Helen + Alonzo Baker Mary Louise + Gabriel Galland/George Newton *P1OpIO *Joseph MAYO Sophia + *Peter APNAuT/*William Nelson Paiva + OHIER Henry Pound + Margaret *Robertson, Robert *Andrew Robertson (New Caledonia) L. Charlotte + Frank Owens Mary + Joseph Garner Barbara + Henry Garner Andrina + Charles Robert Garner Samuel Mary + *Thomas Shannon Donald + Mina Rehberger James + Christine Yates WAvIcAREEREA *Robert WAvIcAREERA + Marguerite Sta-ei-els

SMALL CAPSworked at Ft Langley *Early land preemption x=Died before settling

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 23

24

NEWS

FALL BC HISTORICAL i999 -

the East don: South Indian, Indian,West

to Sea and three on families contracts, five—year with either

J.J.Abert, 1838.

various other largely companies, based backgrounds in their away drawn from and Lon all were under of direction Colonel

Topographical Engineers land out of Company Trading Copenhagen and very servants, were modest or from poor regular

by

compiled

Bureau

of

can Company of the out St. old Green Most older Petersburg, and skilled if tradesmen. were

they

it.”

announce

From map

of other as such companies the Russian they labourers, Ameri years 18 and 20 were between

ultimatum and so may you

was This not profitability unlike the of the were experience they the needs If themselves. men This is quarter. our

the the local to two its people for own that powers The and protection were for third in family reason formation

the between

territories of cnm,the economy, to had Company itself ingratiate trade families.

boundary permanent

settlement whole venture imposing new a fur establish son

marriage to and

relationships

the to Pacific

the as

Ocean

existing Native economy a rather view than rea was people, the of of colonial there every native

now where it terminates,

a As land. tapping into enterprise, commercial for point From the were an sexual these only 3 liaisons the of Stoney Mountains

from 49 of the side eastern and area, added possessed arable the it away be of although marriage in given bonus sometimes

line

the of

on

the

parallel

a on to the river which New drained others’ and Caledonia wives, even with daughters, rived

1818, of and the extension

was was ideal, ar was parallel, the Chiefs was 49th above for no Langley fort. Fort exception. it

the of Article Convention

by

Langley The the boundary the of

Fort coast. 1 to marry

those family site members having annulment of Third the

of to Great to of extension demand Britain privilege position the their continue anxious this to authorised the propose

are differently:”You then were of ranks was from to to his instructing State retary higher made. be the Those Minister

it saw Representatives),

had U.S. trade, Sec new and an By boundary. the

areas lel, adjustments impatient 1826, gathering

of Cong.1.Sess.House

food to of secure vehicles traditional 49th the south of possible were paral loss territory liances

doc. (see 199.20th

al and social a As their in political relocation. 2 against was in area posed the hedge 1827 the pany to Britain Minister Great

op Albert Mr. Gallatin, vigorously also posts but Bay such Com Hudson’s The new around the of existence very

19 June 1826 .19 to letter

only clustered Natives reveal not that records Langley families.

a U.S. in Secretary State, of

fort. trade the Fur to close moving in by of ence Fort resulting some the and examine further

Clay, However, HenryW

pres their established by they Firstly, those reasons marriage. explore will

paper thernselves.This

p. D. C., Washington, 632.

and kind in presence their to had establish they servants contracted the needs and of the pany, Powers I, 1776-1909,vol.

States and United Other this, do to order in it.Thus, with trade the to Com social wishing with relationships political and

and

the Agreements

between

those from tariffs exact could so they and economic, to property need cement Natives’ the workforce,

Acts, International Protocols

their it

considered They their in territory village its to need anchor Bay Company’s Hudson’s

Treaties, Conventions,

of wealthy a

was It back kind yard. into the their

reasons: for

three

flourished and emerged ten as in years” cited

parachuted being store department virtual a a post, life family such open, by the for and of happenstance, term Rather than

free .be mountains..

shall.. such at families of the establishment to life. promote family alive with was Langley Fort gallery.

Stony

[Rockyl

reason good very a also had

Natives the local on The as played they be heard or Salish—could

the westward

of

America,

families. trade fur in Chinook mothers French, their by admonished

of coast Northwest

the

of

creation for the motivation commercial being

cries children—perhaps of the traded fish, by party the on either

a was clearly may claimed “that there be area So Natives. local the to riages Natives and metal, bare from coaxed tools smith

I the all 1818 stated

that

mar encouraged HBC the as such ing black company the barrels, his and winched steamed

in and Americans British

trad a workforce, isolated its and anchor

itability the cooper while of Langley, Fort existence

the by signed convention

prof

protection, secure In to order Companies. the of

years

thirty

first bustling smoky, TI-tE N of III a Article

descendants. with comes material interviews Other oral from Society. Record

Bay

Hudson’s the of publications sources include primary Printed information. settlement provided 1858.

records pre-emption Columbia British Colonial Island

and Vancouver Colonial U.S.A.

newspapers. and 1774 between

and

Canadian contemporary as well as and various censuses later Canadian 1881 later censuses, U.S.

on

Pacific slopes the

and 1850

from

comes information and settlement

U.K. Biographical Archives, Orkney Kirkwall, Idaho;

and explorers traders

Boise, and Archives, Library Society State Historical Idaho Portland;

Library Society Historical Portland

fur of dictionary

Olympia; Archives, Washington Archives,Victoria; BC from drawn is material Other 1821—60. Books,

a

currently

completing

Correspondence PostJournals, various Statements; District Accounts, Servants’ of Abstracts Victoria

is He College. nity Fort and Vancouver Fort Factory contracts;York HBC 4series, E4 (1811-21), Books NWC Account

include Archives Company Bay Commu from at Hudson’s Vancouver Documents 1993—. MB, Saint-Boniface, de Historique

Societe des “Liste 1788-822” Voyageurs, from: drawn material otbiographical most is stated, otherwise Bruce hes

by Bruce M.Watson

Langley Fort At Life Family 2 For a description of

TLE A - EMPLoYEEs: OCCuPATIoN AND WORK PER ETHNIC GROUP 1827—185 8 native protest over the 30 I. officers / gentlemen August 1834 relocation of II. clerks / postmasters Fort Simpson, Nass to III. traders—including those who worked in the cooperage in later years (de—facto coopers) Dundas Island, see The IV. status canoemen (steersmen & bowsmen) Journals of[.Vilhiam Fraser Tohnie, Mitchell Press, personnel employed: and by V. total ethnic group Vancouver, BC, 1963, pp.290-91. [mployees by occupations I II III IV V Fort Langley Journals 106 3 10 12 7 74 1827-30, M. Maclachan, 100% 3% 10% 11% 7% 70% ed., U.B.C. Press, 1998, (Whitlakenum’s brother “Came in with... three or Employees by ethnic group and occupation fourYoung Girls to 106 I II III IV V dispose of them in marriage if he can”, 26 French Canadians 32 - 3 % 6 % 19 % 72 % November 1828) - p.87. Hawaisans 30 - 3 % - 97 % Rule 73 of the Mixed descent 7 - 43 % 43 % - 14 % Company’s “Standing Scottish Rules and Regulations” Orcadians 10 - 10 % 30 % - 60 % stipulated that “no person

Highlanders 8 25 % 38 % - - 37 % be permitted to take a

Lowlanders 5 - 20 % - - 80 % wife at any Establishment,

- Iroquois 5 - 20% 80 % without the Sanction of English* the Gentleman in charge 7 14 % 29 % 14% - 43 % of the District”, BCA, Others 2 - 50 % - - 50 % Add. Mss 220, “H.B.C. * includes English from both Great Britain and British North America Standing Rules and the intention of returning with some money, or screened and sanctioned by the officers of the Regulations”, p.40, Rule 7. to start a new life abroad. Almost all came from fort who, in the best interests of the company, Fort Vancouver pre—industrial societies.They were French Cana reflected and sustained the ranking within both [Columbia] dians, Hawaiians, men of mixed descent, Scots communities . To reinforce these relationships, Correspondence Book, (Orcadians, Highianders and Lowlanders), servants had to agree to provide for any wife if 1837—1838, B.223/b/1 9, James Douglas’s 16 Iroquois and English (see table A). The French they left the area on their own volition. For ex October 1837 letter to Canadians and Scots generally came from sub ample, William Brown was not allowed to leave Gov. & Committee, sistence farms which could not sustain an increas Fort Langley and had to stay behind until his (addressing Brown’s ing population. This, coupled with the fact that child was old enough to travel with him.3 Some complaint of being cruelly only the eldest inherited the farm, meant that times the men brought in their own wives as we held back because of child under 12 months) fos. 14- they had little to return to. The Hawaiians, hav can only assume that some did into Fort Langley. 16d; ibid, 1837-38, B.223/ ing seen the population decline by 65 percent, In short, families formed under the watchful eye b/22, James Douglas’s 16 faced bleak prospects at home. The independ of the company itself. Of course, matters didn’t Augsut 1838 letter toJ. M. ent—minded Iroquois were continuing their always turn out like this. On iJanuary 1829 Louis Yale, (Brown to be Sent away with child) fo. 24d. found hauling woman Diaspora dating back to the English-French wars Delome was a Kwantlen Fort LangleyJournaLc of the eighteenth century. Those of mixed de up by a porthole in one of the Bastions.6 Simi 1827—30, M. Maclachian, scent were often second and third-descent fur larly, Camil Raymond at Fort Simpson [Nass] ed., U.B.C. Press, 1998, traders whose antecedents had worked in a vari was caught smuggling another person’s wife (“...the drunken Sot Delannis had Contrived to of In summary: we have poor, young, through the drain hole. He picked up stakes and ety posts. haule one of the Quaitline and robust men toiling away in isolatiori.The serv went to the Russians but was promptly returned.7 damsels up by a port hold ants’ lives could be made more meaningful by At other times, female slaves were peddled for in one of the Bastions.”, I the formation of locally based families. sexual liaisons.8 In Fort Stikine, the servants shot January 1829) p. 91. How were marriage liaisons formed? Such and killed the chief trader who wouldn’t let them Fort Simpson (Nass) Post Journal (1838—40) B.201/ arrangements were not as easy as a local chief bring in women from the outside.9 Family for a/4, (Raymond brought showing up at the gate with female relatives in mation was not a clear—cut matter. woman in through drain, tow, or HBC servants independently seeking The nature of work at Fort Langley made the went to Russians, 5-10 wives within the native villages, although both families interdependent.The jobs of the fur trad October 1839) fos. 141d- 143. were part of the process. Liaisons and dowries ers had evolved. By this time the HBC was not had to be negotiated with the Natives, and only securing furs, but also supplying salmon to

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 25 Servants’ procuring

sexual services at a price TLE B - FORT LAI’tGLEY EMPLOYEES: 25 FEBRUARY 1830 was discouraged at many I Years in fur trade before Langley IV Wife or wives from Northwest Coast of the posts. See: Fort II Years at Fort Langley V Total number of children LangleyJournals 1827-30, III M. Maclachan, ed., U.B.C. Total years in fur trade VI settled in Northwest Coast area Press, 1998, (one of the men “proposed to go out I II III IV V VI and stop for the night with Master Quaitland’s Indian Annance, E N. 9 3 17 5 St. Francois, Que. and his Seraglio. The Charles, Pierre 2 13 22 y 4 Cowlitz proposition was answered Charpentier, Charles 17 2 22 ? 7 2 with indignity of Course Como 9 12 32 and a resolve made if not y 3 Ft.Vancouver, Wash. this very night early Delonie, Louis H. 13 12 27 y-y 4 Cowlitz tomorrow morning to Fannons, Dominique 12 8 27 y Cowlitz have the whole Gange Kennedy,John [a] 13 3 16 ? died early in service banished from the Mcdonald, Wiscum 2 9 20 plantation”, 27 November y 5 Cowlitz 1828) p.87; In Fort McDonald, Arch. 15 5 31 y-n 14 St. Andrew’s, Que. Stikine, marriage was Oniaze, Etienne 17 9 40 n-y 2 Ft.Vancouver, Wash. preferable to the purchase Ossin, Louis 8 4 30 n-n 4 Willamette val, Ore. of sexual services. HBCA Peeopeeoh 10 Stikine Post Journal, 25 35 y 4 Derby area 1840—1842, B.209/a/1, Pepin, Etienne [1] 33 33 y 3 Langley area? (“On the 11th Simon got Piette, Francois 10 3 21 n 2 Cowlitz a wife and the 12th Flurry, Plamondon, Simon 8 2 16 y-n-n 11 Cowlitz making six men now Satakarata, married here which will Louis 13 18 36 y? 2 Victoria put an end to this sort of Therrin, Pierre 9 3 12 ? died early in service trade.”, Oct. 12, 1840) p. Yale,James M. 11 31 42 n-y-y 3 Victoria 17. “The murder investigation of the son of Chief Factor areas of the Pacific and foodstuffs to the north.1° the east of the fort, back up the hill and inside Dr.John McLoughlin, As self-sufficiency was the rule of the day for the fort, where the mother would churn it into ohn McLoughlin Jr., is each post, large gardens one of the most well and dairy farms devel butter.The children might feed the chickens, tend documented and debated oped. So, besides trading manufactured goods the sheep and cows, or groom the horses. There n the Hudson’s Bay from the store for furs, our “fur trader” could be was little room for education. Unlike Forts Van Company Archives. For sowing seeds, weeding, hoeing, thrashing, milk couver,Victoria and Simpson there was no teacher ublished primary sources, ing cows, making barrels, boiling brine, curing at Fort Langley.The children had to pick up what ee McLoughlins Fort Vancouver Letters, 1839— fish and working at a forge making any number little education they could get from their parents 1844 and 1844—1846, E. E. of metal tools. Although spared the endless cut or another interested person. And so we have a Rich, ed., HBRS, vols.VI ting and squaring oflogs to replace buildings and picture of the sights and smells of a bustling fam &VII,Toronto, 1943 & pickets in the palisade, the wives secured and pre ily life at Fort Langley. as well as George 944, pared the food, sewed, kept the children in tow, Social ranking within the post also affected impson’s Narrative of a ourney Round the World, made clothes, etc. This veil of domesticity belies families. The gentlemen—the McDonalds and During the Years 1841 and the importance of the wives’ extended ties to the Yales of the big house—led a decidedly different 1842, Henry Colburn, wider community not to mention their knowl life from the skilled tradesmen, that is the coop ondon, 1847, pp. 181- edge of and ability to survive in the area. Almost ers, blacksmiths and boat builders in the men’s 82. For an analysis of the as soon as the children were able to handle it, quarters. They in turn were relatively better off volution of the fur trade they were put to work. They might be beating than the labourers. Some of the Hawaiians, near n the Pacific slopes into furs to get rid of the dirt and bugs, some ofwhich the bottom of the scale, appeared to have stayed hat of a more would have bitten them, leaving sores.While the outside the fort at the original Derby site. Na operation, see ultifaceted clerk or officer might be negotiating fish sales at tives were allowed into the trading shop only one ichard Mackie’s Trnding eyond the Mountains: The the wharf, the children would have to carry the or two at a time. Invisibly, these differences were ritish Fur 7iade on the fish up into the fort where their mothers would reinforced when acquiring goods from the HBC. acflc, 1793-1843, UBC split the fish and put them in brine. As soon as For example, a gentleman, generally English, could ress, 1997. they were able, the children might be carrying purchase goods from the company at cost plus milk from the dairy cattle from the large field to 100 percent. This would ensure the company

26 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL profit. A skilled tradesman, generally Scottish, Plomondon left Fort Langley around 1830 and Information obtained could purchase goods at cost plus 100 to 300 worked at several more posts until he retired to from G. E. (Gerry) Borden, Heritage Programs, percent. A Canadian, that is a French speaking farm in the Cowlitz area, an area with which he Fort Langley National Historic person from Lower Canada, paid cost plus 300 was well connected. After the death of his wife Site, 1999. to 500 percent. Goods for a Hawaiian Kanaka he remarried twice, first a metis, then a French 2Jason O.Allard, could be purchased at cost plus 500 to 700 per Canadian. Events eventually overtook “Reminiscences,” 77,e cent, whereas the local native people could pur Plomondon. During the tense 1850s his wife Province, 25 October 1924. 3 Fort LangleyJournals, chase goods at cost plus 1,000 1This di went live to in Vancouver and Oregon City and 182 7—30, M. Maclachan, vision depended not only on ethnic background his appointment as Indian Agent came to an end ed., U.B.C. Press. 1998, but also on skill and educational level. Rank also because the illiterate Plomondon was deemed too (murder of Scanewah) pp. dictated who would be permitted into the post sympathetic to the Native peoples.14 63, 65. ibid, and that sometimes caused altercations. For ex Another early Fort Langley fur trade family (editor’s biography of Plomondon) pp.231- ample, Jason Allard told of a confrontation at a was that of Louis Satakarata, otherwise known as 232. Christmas party This was a rare occasion when Rabesca. He had joined the North West Com ‘ HBCA: Fort Vancouver seniority and rank were put aside and Hawaiian pany in 1814 and had worked for 13 years before Correspondence, 1839, wives were permitted on the post. However, af coming to Fort Langley. It is not known whether B.223/b/28,jaines M. Yale’s April 15, 1840 Fraser ter the other wives perceived that they were be he brought a wife with him, or married again River letter to John ing insulted by the wives of the Hawaiians, a hair— locally. By 1845, he was sent over to Fort Victo McLoughlin, (blame for pulling fight broke out. Peace was restored when ria where he was to spend the rest of his career fire placed on Brule) fo. they were separated by their husbands. 12 and he possibly died there. One son, Francois, 28. John Stuart’s arduously A brief look through the Fort Langley jour also carried on a career with the HBC and raised penned Fort McLeod nals of February 1830 shows that many servants a family in Victoria. Another child of Satakarata journals of 1823 reveal a were old-time fur traders who had worked in may have been Louis Langley, of the Fort Langley picture of the scene at Fort the fur trade at least 17 years before coming to journals. George; however, a more Fort Langley. They obviously had established li One cannot speak of Fort Langley without concise description of the murders can be found in aisons elsewhere, and may have brought wives speaking ofJean Baptiste Brulez. He had been in HBCA: George Simpson’s with them. Some continued working at Fort the fur trade from 1831.When he came to Fort Report, 1824, D.4/87, fo. Langley for up to 25 years. Many ended up with Langley in 1839 he may have had a wife, Mar 43d. wives from the Northwest Coast cultural area guerite Sooke, and her son,Joseph.While a small and had families of two to eleven children. Na hut was being built for him, he was allowed to tive wives usually moved withm familiar terri occupy part ofthe blacksmith’s shop. On 11 April tory rather than across cultural areas and so fur 1840, while he was absent from the blacksmith’s traders tended to be anchored in the region of shop, a fire broke out and, fanned by high winds, their wives. The families settled in Washington, quickly spread consuming almost the entire fort. 15 Oregon, and British Columbia, depending on the Brulez stayed around to rebuild the fort but then cultural areas of their wives. was sent to Snake Country, perhaps as a form of Let us look briefly at three early faniilies that punishment. He quit soon after and retired to started at Fort Langley and then went away (see the Willamette, then to the Nisqually area and table B). Simon Plomondon started his family finally to Sooke, the home turf of his wife. around the time of the murder of his father—in That brings us to some of the fur trade fami law, Scanewah, the Cowlitz native trader at Point lies that stayed, and which we normally associate Roberts.13 Plomondon, who may have met his with Fort Langley (see table C). James Murray wife while coming north, had an interesting be Yale—short in stature and equally short-tempered, ginning. His New England colonial ancestors had and some say mean-spirited—took over Fort been taken in a raid by the Abenaki and he was Langley after Archibald McDonald left in 1834. raised as Abenaki. He left his St. Francois, Que Yale represents the privileged upper class. The bec home uneducated at 14, unlike his second first marriage at Fort George (New Caledonia) cousin Francois Noel Annance who achieved the of this Canadian-born clerk ended in murder and rank of clerk. Plomondon later joined the North mayhem with his wife running off with her West Company working in Athabasca and New lover. 16 His second marriage at Fort Langley to Caledonia. His partnership at Fort Langley ap the daughter of a chief—an arrangement which parently was his first try at marriage and on 12 his boss thought most appropriate—ended in fail March 1829 a child was born, probably Sophie. ure when he found out that she had previously

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 27

28 BC NEWS FALL 1999 - HISTORICAL

at Fort are Children shown Langley born underlined

- Simon (c1798—?) (1855—?) Isabel, Kwantlen +

(c.1838—?) — [Maille, Francois (c.1835—?); Magice] Marie woman Uiskwin +

Pepin Etienne wife 1830 + — 7

Maty Samuel (1869—1923) (1858—1889);

(1850—?);Jain (1855—1884); (c.18l 4 —l 875 ) (1853—1936);David Ann

William (1848—1881); Salurn’mia ;William (1847—1883) (c.1830—c.1869) Cromarty Elizabeth - +

(c.1824—18 97 ) (1861—?) James Lewis

(1857—1887); Donald Mary Samuel Casimir (1853—?); (?—1884) Julia (c.1851—?); Robertson Helen - +

(?—?) (c. Henry 1798—?) Sophie (c.1830—?);

Maillot (c.1826—?); (c.1824—?);Joseph Algace/Paiwa — Peeopeeoh Kwantlen Catherine, [Maillotj +

(?—?) (?—?); Marie (c1862—?); Sara (?—?);Joseph Eugenie

1851—1860); (c. (c. Laurent 1851—?); Mathilde 1823—1907) (c.

(1848—1931); Ovide (c.1842—1924);Jason - Lucie (1817—1874) Justine, Cowichan +

- (c.1837—?) Hall Sennie woman Ovide Native Fort Allard +

(1840—?) Isabella (1839—1931); Aurelia wife Native - +

Quaitlin Nicamus, Chief

(c1824—?) — Eliza of (1796—1871) daughter +

- children no Carrier ofTalpe, James daughter MurrayYale +

(c. widow 1809—?)

(c.1831—1860) Brulez (?—?) JosephThomas - Sooke Marguerite Brulez Jean Baptiste +

(?—?) Rabesca Therese (c. 1830—?); Francois (c. (Rabesca) 1794—?)

(1828—?); Louis Langley? - Louise (c.1820—1850); women or woman Native Louis Satakarata +

(c.1849—?) - Francis (c.1812—?) Pelletier Louise +

1843—?) (c. Baptiste (1841—?); Angelique (1796—c.1847)

(1840—?); (1838—?);Moyse (1837—?);Daniel Lena [Finlay] Bercier Emily +

1836—?) (c. ;Genevieve (c. 1834—?) Anne Marie (?—1836) trader. Cowlitz (c.1802—1900)

(c.1831—?); (c.1831—?);Therese — (c.1830—?);Simon Sophie Scanewah, of daughter Simon Plomondon +

TEXT THE IN MENTIONED

C FAMILIES SELECTED TLE -

i bags his packed Allard that so unbearable became he where and Boise, Hall Forts at working

temper him,Yale’s bitten had it after dog Yale’s area, River Snake the in an to area first assigned

shot had and trader non-Company a to barrels was Allard Ovide Company. Bay Hudson’s the

provided had Allard after day, One boss. pered up with joined Canadian French tall young, a

short-tem his with run-ins his usual had himself in 1834, Lachine in office notarial a articling for

Allard sea. at lost were husband and her daughter While family. Allard the is Langley Fort with

This short-lived. was rediscovery the of ment associated trade family fur enduring Another

excite fields.Any gold the in store husband’s her nsolitude. in

to

throughYale passed daughter the when futed years declining his spent and friends and family

re

was story the later years 20 Some drowned. by abandoned virtually was oldYale poor strokes,

and

river the in fallen had child the that band or more one had having and after Victoria in ing

hus her

telling trader, passing a McKay, Mr. a retir after life, later his in However, respectively.

to

daughter Snake-River-country Allard’s Ovid Jr. Simpson George and Peers Newsham Henry

away gave

Justine jealous A floor. the up from officers, HBC married daughters Both cated.

pulled

boards from made coffin a in buried be edu be to Victoria to off daughters sent his he

to

had and

poison drank accidentally daughter however, class, privileged the of Being daughters.

young

a for however, bliss, was all Not dren. two more had and again married it,Yale about

chil

five least at had they and T’Soshia, Chief, thinking of years nine After byYale. eraised be to

Confederacy

Cowichan a of sister the 1907), Langley Fort at

left and mother the by abandoned

93.

(c.1823—

withJustine, partnered

he clerk, a being was marriage of this born

One child

daughter.

p. by away

MacDonald),

17

Langley,

Fort at

arrived he

After

him.

with child a his keep to off paid be to had and eventually was taken then which

brought

he 1839, in Langley Fort to assigned blanket was a Nicarneus given back, her sent return, her rejected father Her back.

Chief

(Kwantlen he

when

but area), cultural her within remained wife his sent men,Yale his of two of the lives cost

1998 Press, ed., U.B.C.

have may

(she wife to his happened what

known

had triangle love George Fort the

that her.Aware

Maclachan, 1827—30,

M.

not

is It

woman.

native

local a with partnered yet claimed not had who a to

man

married

been

Journals, Langley Fort ‘ lB Most of the Jason! TLE D - MEN WHO SPENT THREE OR MORE OUTFITS AT FORT LAIsTGLEY, Ovide Allard stories and AND MAY HAVE BEGUN, HAD, OR HAVE HAD FAMILIES. many anecdotes of family FRENCH CANADIANs life at Fort Langley, come Ovide Allard, Bazil Brousseau, Louis Delonie, Cyprien Dionne, Narcisse Fallardeau, Dominique Farron, Etienne through Jason Allard and Pepin (Magice), Francois Piette, Pierre Renard Urno, Pierre Therrien, Francois XavierVautrin, Augustin Willing should be viewed with a HAwAUANs critical eye.A newspaper George Borabora, Como, Hereea, Keahanele, Keea, Kekoa, Laowalla, Joseph Maayo, Mokowliele, Charles Ohia, source would be Jason 0. Peter Ohule,Joe/John Peaennau, Peeopeeoh,Taheenou,TaI,Waikanoloa,Wavicareea, Robert Wavicareea Allard’s “Reminiscences,” BR! rISH ISLES The Province. 25 October English: William Harkness; George Holland 1924; another would be Highlander Scots: Archibald McDonald, Donald Walker,Angus McPhail Noel Robinson’s, “Jason Shetlander-Orcadian Scots: William Brown,William Cromarty, Gavin Hamilton,James Rendall, Samuel Allard Passes”, Museum and Robertson,James Taylor, WilliamYates Art Notes, September 1931, Irish: John Kennedy Vol.Vl, No.3, p.95. B.A. IROQUOIS AND MIXED DESCENT McKelvie’s “Jason Allard: Iroquois: Thomas Atariachta, Etienne Oniaze, Louis Satakarata, Francois Xavier Tarihonga fur trader, prince and Mixed descent: Francois Noel Annance,John Bell, Napoleon Dease, Kenneth Logan gentleman,” B. C. Historical Quarterly,Volume IX, October 1945, No. 4., p. 243-257 and his Fort and went toVictoria to turn in his resignation to mon birth, as reflected by his non-high ranking Langley, Outpost of Empire, James Douglas.A brief stint at Nanaimo allowed name. His endurance in the fur trade may have Vancouver Daily Province, his son Jason to get a formal education, and after prompted the monarch of the Company to ask 1947, reflect interviews with Jason. a few years ofposting atYale,Allard came back to Peeopeeoh to he a leader amongst the Kanakas. Fort Langley where he lived out the rest of his Peeopeeoh joined the North West Company in life, dying on 2 August 1874. His son Jason Allard 1817 and worked at a variety oflocations before followed his father into the fur trade. He was of joining the HBC in 1821. He was part of the high ranking birth and retained the traditional exploratory expedition and the initial building hereditary rights within the Cowichan group. He of Fort Langley at the first site, a short distance made his mark, however, not through lineage or down-river from the present fort. He married a education but by having a cheese named after Kwantlen and raised a family possibly on the him. While he was working at the border post of original Derby site. This would mean that he, as Fort Shepherd he ordered 200 pounds of cheese well as the other Hawaiian families who may have for nearby Fort Colvile. However, a gremlin lived there, would take a canoe, walk or ride to slipped an extra 0 on the order form.When 2,000 work each day through their 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 lbs. of cheese arrived on horseback at Fort Colvile, p.m. shift. When the site where he lived was go Jason was beside himself not knowing what to ing to be taken over for the planned develop do with a ton of cheese. Finding the Fort Colvile ment of Derby, Peeopeeoh pre-empted land just warehouse full, the exasperated young clerk lo across the river in an area now known as Kanaka cated some recently emptied rum barrels and, Creek. Also his son Joseph Maayo joined and wrapping the 2,000 lbs of cheese in cloth, he briefly worked for the HBC. He too, pre-empted sealed it in the barrels which he left outside. Over land and raised a family across the river.This family time the cheese melted and rum flavour fused has gone on to spread into various communities into it. When his boss, Angus McDonald, tasted across the Pacific Northwest. the cheese he was very impressed and ordered it An Orcadian Scot who nurtured a family at for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.Word got around Fort Langley was Samuel Robertson. The and soon U.S. Army officers were coming in from Orcadians, of course, were very familiar with the as much as 100 miles just to get a taste ofAllard’s fur trade. In the late 1700s, 75 percent of the cheese. 18 workforce of the HBC was from Orkney. Hawaiians also had families at Fort Langley, Robertson came from a marginal subsistence one example being Peeopeeoh. Interestingly, al background and, like many Orcadians, had rela most 10 percent of the Sandwich Islanders men tives in the fur trade. He was raised in a small tioned as working on the Pacific slope worked at croft cottage on a nine—acre farm at Sandwick, Fort Langley. Oral tradition has Peeopeeoh linked Orkney. In 1830 his older brother David went to the royal family of King Kamehameha but my off to work on the Pacific slopes, returning in Hawaiian informant believes him to be of corn- 1839.As the heir—apparent, David married, had a

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 29

FALL NEWS 1999 HISTORICAL BC - 30

of

George Barnston. great-grandaughter

pages. following the on about More McDoNALD ARcHtBLD

a is

Johns Mrs. and years the

Margaret 1828. 1827

district. Mountains ofTwo Lake the charge of career in

for

Above:

journal keeper

the of

Barnston, George

his ended he and different very were skills required management the where River

Red at farm large a experimental of establishing put charge in he was Fort Langley

founding After factor. chief of rank the to promotion his ensured skills. This agement

man his and physical stamina his with impressed was most Simpson George Governor

amalgamation. the decade a before slope for Pacific the on posts various at and was

DavidThompson, with travelled district, the Saskatchewan in served He pany 1802. about

West Com North the of Langley.Jamesjoined Fort the is founder McMR.LAN JAMES

1826. at in Vancouver Fort

Douglas David with meeting his with interest originated Society.This Natural History

the in role active an he played where Montreal in long a retirement and enjoyed factor

chief of rank the achieved he Eventually Rockies. the of posts east several in and served

company the rejoined he a resignation, spite hasty In of Bay Company. the Hudson’s

with company that of amalgamation after the advancement of at lack his disappointed

was but in 1820, West Company North the he joined man, had energetic educated,

well year.A that for copy the made he and 1828, February 27 until left FortVancouver

party

founding the when 1827 June 27 from journal the kept BARNsT0N GEORGE

inWinmpeg. Archives

T

Company Bay Hudson’s the in are year each for made Copies Archives. lumbia

Co British in the are and survived miraculously have McDonald Archibald

and McMillan Barnston,James George by kept journals Langley Fort first he

Journals the of The Keepers

his of rest

the

for

stay to was he

where

A.lbion,

Langley. Fort

to

back

roots family their trace ‘-‘“

land

in on

his

claim

out pre-emption a took

can

today

the

world of

parts different ple from

he 1858,

7 on February

and retired,

Robertson

peo fact,

In

Northwest.

of Pacific the states ern

Samuel

Langley, at Fort

capital

its

with

temporary

north

and

province

the

shape help to on went

formed was

Columbia British

of Colony

The

and

endured

Families

education.

receive to lucky

happened. things

three In

1858,

employees.

HBC

were

children

your

rank, or

educated privileged

former for activity

an

unusual not

was

houses

the

of were you

if and

structure

ranked a in isted

road- up

Setting

Albion. in

House”

“Whatcheer

ex

families

The itself.

post

very

the not if wives,

and

roadhouse,

saloon

combination a

built himself

their

of

areas cultural

to

the

least at

“fur traders”

he Derby,

nearby

in be

situated

might lumbia

the

anchored

families and

wives The alliances.

Co

of British

Colony

about-to-be-formed

the

Native

and

necessity

Company of

out grew lies

of capital

the

that

rumours were there

Albion.As

fami

These

Langley.

Fort

bustle

around indeed

at river the

across

live to

chose he

some time,

did

life

family that

this from

conclude

can We

but, at Langley of Fort palisades the within lived

CoNCLusIoN

he long how known not is It community native

land. pre—empted and on stayed often the in rights hereditary for line in be naturally

generation

following D).The table (see families would children and his so SkahTil Chief Stó:lo of

raise

suspect,

we least at or families, raise to on daughter the Casimir, Julie wife his as took He

went

not,

some recorded, some others, Many family. a raised and carpentry in worked he years,

Langley. 19 11 next the for where, 1847, by Langley Fort

Fort at

buried were

wife his and he Both at was hand, other the on Samuel, in 1852. him

p.

trees.

crab—apple

onto 98. varieties etc.) hardier mptions, grafting claimed consumption” but “fierce area Flatheads

(pee 1939,

BC.,

Victoria,

and

Scotland from trees

fruit importing Albion, the and Colvile Fort in

work to ily—went

1858-1871, Columbia,

in

farm to

continued

Samuel

through.

passing fam growing David’s by out squeezed probably

British of Mainland

miners

thirsty

the of trade

the capture to meant

1847—

in cottage the leave to had also who James, the on Settlers Farm Colonial

name,

unpretentious not-altogether a Company,” Laing, brother, F.W, p.3; younger Rodgers) still carpenter.A and builder boat

Liquor

James a

with working

Columbia British

“The as Langley Fort sa as used be could his skills where in 1843, slopes

House Cheer

or What

of

palisades at

the it

upriver reconstructed

and

Pacific the to He came leave. to but choice no

uly

(advertisement 1858,

House”

“Whatcheer

dismantled he 1860, life. In had Samuel farm. the over

to take

was and child,

21 Gazette, The Victoria “ Archibald McDonald’s Fort Langley Letters by Jean Murray Cole

RCHIBALD McDonald’s Fort Langley let already going on back in England and Simpson Writer-historian Jean ters form part of a much larger collec was expected to apply his London mercantile Murray Cole, a former Ation of correspondence that covers experience when the new organization took journalist, has written twenty-four years ofhistory in the Pacific north form. He came under the patronage ofAndrew numerous books, west—years that began with the merger of the Wedderburn Colvile, who had assumed greater monographs and articles on the history Hudson’s Bay and the North West companies in prominence on the Hudson’s Bay Company Lon of Peterborough 1821 and ended when McDonald retired to the don committee after the withdrawal ofLord Sel County and on the fur east in 1844, the year after the building of Fort kirk, his brother-in-law. trade in the Pacific Victoria. This too was the time that the bound It was not until Simpson returned from Northwest. Jean Cole is ary negotiations were going on, leading up to Athabasca to Norway House in June 1821 that a direct descendant of the signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, which he learned that the merger agreement had been Archibald McDonald. resulted in the total revamping of the affairs of signed three months earlier and he was to be gov the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Columbia ernor of the Northern region. He decided then district. to send McDonald west ofthe mountains to look These were important—if neglected—years over the North West Company posts. These had in the history of the Pacific slope. In the quarter suddenly become part ofthe domain ofthe Hud century that McDonald spent there, the Hud son’s Bay Company, who until then had had no son’s Bay Company’s Columbia district embraced presence in the Columbia district. all the lands west of the mountains from New Thus McDonald, who arrived over land at the Caledonia and the upper Fraser river to Califor mouth of the Columbia river early in Novem nia. His correspondence touches on all activities ber 1821 with ChiefTraderJohn Lee Lewes, be and developments throughout the region, and he came one ofthe first two Hudson’s Bay men west played an active role in—or at least was a knowl of the mountains.They found a large contingent edgeable observer of—all the major events dur of Nor’Westers scattered throughout the region, ing those years. The McDonald letters are sig and in the succeeding months McDonald met nificant in that they provide a broad and percep them all, as he went about from the headquarters tive picture of that time. at Fort George to the other three existing posts McDonald, born in Glencoe, Scotland, first at Okanagan, Spokane and Walla Walla. His de came to North America in 1812 at age 22. He tailed report back to Simpson included invento was a protege of Lord Selkirk, and brought the ries of all the forts, which revealed extravagances second largest group of settlers to the Red River and reliance on European goods not at all to the colony. During the years that followed he was governor’s liking. much involved in the ups and downs ofthat con Within two short years Simpson himself ap tentious enterprise. In fact his reputation as a peared in the Columbia, where he spent the win scribe might be dated back to those Red River ter of 1824-25, completely reorganizing the af days. His published accounts of events at the fairs of the district. Before he left in the spring of colony became an important element in what 1825 he moved the headquarters sixty miles up Dr.WS.Wallace later called “the paper contro the Columbia river from Fort George (Astoria) versy over the Selkirk settlement.” to the new FortVancouver, he ordered the build In 1820, when Lord Selkirk was near death in ing of Fort Colvile up river at Kettle Falls to France, his visions for the Red River settlement replace Spokane, and at the same time he ap shattered, McDonald sought a more hopeful fu pointed McDonald to take over the Thompson ture, and joined the Hudson’s Bay Company. He river district. This was a significant move as it spent his first season in the Athabasca district, was decided that the New Caledonia furs from along with another new company recruit, George the north would from then on be shipped south Simpson,just arrived from London. Negotiations to FortVancouver, rather than carried east through for the merger ofthe two trading companies were the mountains as they had been before. Kamloops

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 31 and Okanagan, the two Thompson river posts, he reported on all aspects of affairs in the fur were a key link in this new trade route, their role trade—good or ill; he discussed political affairs not being only to trade for furs with the local in the east where he planned to live in his own Natives, but also to provide the horses and ra retirement; and he revealed his true nature when tions—mostly of dried salmon—for the south he talked about his beloved wife and the chil ward bound New Caledonia fur brigades. dren, “the greatest treasure I have.” This was a change that gave McDonald a de In his Fort Colvile years—1833 to 1844— gree of independence and freedom that was not McDonald’s personal correspondence expanded possible at headquarters, especially as John greatly—although it was always extensive. Writ McLoughlin took over the helm when the gov ing to John McLeod from Langley in February ernor departed. Okanagan was the main post for 1831 he mentioned casually that McLeod’s re the district, but McDonald spent most months cent letter was one of thirty—two private letters of the year at the winter house at Kamloops be that “came to hand five days ago via Puget Sound tween 1826 and 1828. It was here that he again after a march of 11 weeks thro different tribes took up his pen and began to keep the fortjour— between Vancouver and this.” Only a handful of nals and letter books that he carried on at his these 32 correspondents turn up in the collec later postings at Fort Langley and Fort Colvile. tion of several hundred letters I have gathered Colvile was located a short distance below what together. As always, the historical documentation later became the border. is fragmentary and thus the picture is incomplete. What gives distinction and interest to Ifhe had preserved his incoming mail, McDonald McDonald’s writing—and particularly to his let would have been unable to carry it back east when ters—is his frankness, and the fullness of his ac he retired. What remains to us was kept by the counts ofwhat was going on. Brevity was not his recipients and found its way into our own archi long suit. Unlike McLougblin at headquarters, val institutions and others such as the library of and James McMillan, who preceded him at Fort Kew Gardens, the British Museum, Scottish ar Langley, both of whom wrote briefly and to the chives, and the missionary papers in the Beinecke point, McDonald enjoyed writing at length and Library atYale. It is enough to tell us a great deal. had a considerable talent at it.The originality of At Colvile there were new friends, not just his literary style, his candid observations and his old fur trade cronies, but also letters to scientists ironic wit, especially when writing informally to who shared his interest in natural history and for old friends, are both entertaining and illuminat whom he gathered specimens of plants and ani ing. mals to ship back to the British Museum and A few examples show how his letters broaden Kew Gardens; and there are many to the mis our understanding beyond the more businesslike sionaries—both protestant and Roman Catho content of the journals. In correspondence the lic—who located in the vicinity. As in the Fort tone shifts subtly, sometimes conveying a slightly Langley years there are confiding letters to col different picture from the official record. leagues like Peter Skene Ogden and Frank McDonald spent four and a half years at Fort Ermatinger in the Columbia, a counterpoint to Langley. The surviving post journals end in the official, more deferential correspondence with summer of 1830 and the existing fort letter book McLoughlin and Simpson. And there are reveal ends with the summer of 183 1,but there are long ing letters ofinstruction to subordinates that dem personal letters to Edward Ermatinger and John onstrate vividly the reality of the hierarchy of McLeod that carry on to record events through the Hudson’s Bay Company. 1832 and 1833. In his first year on the Fraser river McDonald The letters to Ermatinger are particularly sig felt totally isolated. He arrived with a flourish in nificant because the first, written in March 1830, the entourage of Governor Simpson, fresh from marks the beginning of this rich annual corre the fellowship of the annual meeting of the spondence which continued until 1846, when Northern Council at York Factory.1 After a few McDonald was settled in retirement near Mon days the travelling party moved on to Fort Van treal. To Ermatinger, an old fur trade friend who couver without him, taking Langley’s former chief had retired to a business career in Upper Canada James McMillan with them. From that day in after 1829, McDonald confided his hopes and October 1828 until the following summer, dreams; he gossiped about their former colleagues; McDonald did not hear a word from McLoughlin

32 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 at headquarters—although he himself sent mes ing against the Dr., on the contrary we are the ‘Peace RiveA Canoe Voyage sages up the river “by means of the Indians” to same good friends as heretofore, & I know he is from Hudsons Bay to the Okanagan in February, hoping they would be harassed, but I also know Edward that he is him Pacific, McDonald’s journal of that trip west, was forwarded down to FortVancouver—and a month self the cause of much of his trouble & unhappi published in 1872, edited later despatched a strong party led by James Yale ness...” by Malcolm McLeod, and and Francis Annance to Puget Sound to find a This lapse was not repeated, and you will not reprinted by Cole’s (1970) “trusty Indian” to carry another packet ofletters find it in the journals, although years later when and Hurtig (1971). down via the Cowlitz. McLougblin’s son was murdered at Stikine, the When the company ship (Cadhoro) arrived with resulting scandal so deranged the father that let the year’s outfit inJuly 1829 the captain (Aemelius ters flew back and forth amongst virtually all of Simpson) delivered McLoughlin’s first letter. It his officers complaining of his irrational behav contained an account ofthe sinking ofthe William iour. These letters are well documented in fur andAnn, the Hudson’s Bay supply ship from Eng trade literature. Nevertheless, McDonald re land, with the loss of all hands—and the year’s mained loyal and never forgot the difficulties trade goods—at the mouth of the Columbia that under which McLoughlin laboured. spring. It explained the more recent silence, but McLoughlin had taken command of the Co that fall McDonald—mindful of “the doctor’s lumbia in 1825 just at the time that the fur trade Below: Archibald short notes”—determined to go to FortVancou was beginning to decline, and when growing McDonald took charge of ver himself to have first hand discussions with American interest west of the mountains meant Fort Langley when he his chief about the management of Fort Langley. greater competition. American ships from Bos arrived with the Simpson We all have a picture of McLoughlin.We have ton sailed up and down the Pacific coast trying expedition in October seen the stern portraits, the wild hair, the rather to pick up from the Natives what furs there were 1828. He took on the task forbidding countenance, and it is clear from his before they got to the Hudson’s Bay forts. In spite of keeping the journal and letters, and from accounts of some of the more of the decline in demand back in Britain, with made copies for 1828—29 notable instances of his differences of opinion the popularity of the silk hat replacing that of and 1829—30. He was with his associates, that affability was not his style. the once requisite beaver, there was constant pres well suited to the changes brought about by Writing in March 1830 to his friend Edward sure to keep the returns up to previous standards. Simpson in 1824 and was put in Ermatinger, who had served as McLoughlin’s As early as 1826, McDonald had explored and charge of Fort Colvile accountant during his first years in the Colum mapped the Thompson river region with the help where he managed a large bia and knew him well, McDonald gives a highly of the Okanagan chief Nicolas. He reported to farm so successfully that he personal picture of the Fort Vancouver scene McLoughlin then that the beaver were “incred was made a chieffactor during his fall visit: ibly scarce” in the interior, and he expected they His informative reports “We all seem in the dumps with each other would “fall far short oflast year’s Returns.”A few and the many letters that since you left us. At Vancouver I remained 12 months later he wrote to Simpson that “A per have survived are a boon to days & then was heartily glad to be off. Never son can walk for days together without seeing historians. was the poor Dr. half so much tormented in his the smallest quadruped, the Courtesy Jean Murray Cole life: [J.E.j Harriot who came out of New Cal little brown squirrel ex— edonia with a mad wife was his second & ac cepted.” cornptant—Dr. [Richard] Hamblyn, his trader & With the Boston ships in man of business among pork, molasses &c and mind, the London commit looking after the women—Squire [John Warren] tee provided more ships to Dease a kind of volunteer that went down in trade along the coast. In 1829 poor health &, Fort Vancouver being rather an Captain Aemelius Simpson unfinished garrison, [was] dissatisfied with all the brought the Cadhoro to Fort marks of distinction shown him as next senior Langley, but had little in the officer ofthe Honbl Company—and poor James] way of trade goods to do any McDougall had quite enough to do to look after bartering around the straits or his crutches—this is a kind ofpicture ofthe scene. on his expedition to the But when I tell you that he [the Dr.] & the first northward. The following two were hardly on speaking terms & that some year McDonald’s letters are thing worse existed between him & the third full of the news of the two you will be astonished. Saying this much to you schooners (the Cadboro and I say more than I have said to many; I have noth— the J4incouver) and the brig Ea

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 33 gle that arrived at the Fraser river, bringing the tribes themselves. Life at Langley was sometimes outfit in to Fort Langley, and picking up the large rather precarious as a result, and McDonald was quantity of pickled and dried salmon that had ever aware of the need for a strong—if in our been traded and processed at the fort, At the same eyes small—complement of men at the fort. time Captain Simpson took Peter Skene Ogden Friendly intercourse with the local tribes was up the coast to establish Fort Simpson, the new essential. post at the Nass river, and managed to do enough Unfortunately the local tribes were frequently trading in the Sound and along the coast to se victims of attacks from the more aggressive verely cut into the number of furs that Ameri “Yewcultas” (Lekwiltoks) from the Gulf of Geor cans managed to gather in. After the 1831 season gia, and on occasion the visitors engaged travel McDonald was able to report to John McLeod, ling HBC parties in crossfire too. Accounts in back in Labrador,”Here we got rid of our oppo the Journals describe these in some detail for of sition, a very fortunate circumstance [resulting ficial perusal. In letters he sums it up more suc in] a considerable increase in trade. Fort Langley cinctly this year is up from 1400 to 2500 Beaver—[and] One instance,in March 1830, clerksJamesYale the Tariff rose from one to two skins the 2 1/2 and Francis Annance, returning to Fort Langley pt. blanket.” from Puget Sound with a party often men, were McDonald wrote much, too, about the devel— ambushed near the mouth of the Fraser by a fleet opment of the fishery which was expected to of canoes manned by an estimated 240 Natives. make up for declining profits on furs. He was an By clever manoeuvring “with the flag up and a enthusiastic participant, though he quickly real cheerful song” the small boat rushed on. Finding ized that the Cowichans were so skilled at bring themselves blocked by a semicircle of nine war ing in the salmon that there was no point in train canoes each with about 30 men, some firing their ing his own men to do it. He found that in ten guns, the Langley party; numbering 12, put to days in 1829, he was able to trade a total of 7,544 shore. Somehow in the confusion they “rendered fish averaging six pounds each for about 14 the position taken so formidable to the blood pounds worth of trade goods.The following year thirsty villains that in about 15 minutes the whole the Natives brought in 15,000 fresh salmon be Brigade of not an Indian under 240 was repulsed, tween 25 August and 15 September in return for and down the main branch and out into the open the equivalent in goods of 30 pounds. gulf before our party reembarked.” His biggest worry was making enough sound This is a briefsummary of McDonald’s report barrels, and while his carpenter tried valiantly to on the affair to Governor and Northern Coun fill the need they were far from the ideal. Over cil. His letter goes on to say: “Tis most fortunate and over he begged McLoughlin to send him a that none ofour people was hurt; nor can we say, skilled cooper.”They say a cooper is come across with the exception of Mr. Annance and his rifle to me, but we saw nothing of him as yet,” he shot, our small guns are likely to have made very wrote to John McLeod in February 1831. “In great execution among the Natives .The Blun— consequence ofmy casks last year losing the pickle, derbusses if they did not carry their length at the Dr. sent nine of them to market, but sent his least made a noise.” Even McDonald wondered own & kept ours for home consumption, so the whether the Natives actually “had a fixed design end is always answered.”The same year he shipped on the Establishment” or whether they “merely 10,000 hand hewn dressed cedar shingles toVan came to catch what they could.” couver, hoping to expand timber exports too. When Yale was sent to headquarters a few Dependency on the native population—both months later McDonald’s written instructions for the salmon fishery and for trade in furs— advised caution. “With your small force of six aside from their helpfulness in carrying messages men, you ought not to throw yourself much in and acting as guides on exploratory trips—made the way of the Whidbey Island Indians or indeed amicable relations with the Natives of the re any tribes along the Sound’ he warned. gion of uppermost importance. As is amply dis The incidents are innumerable—and impossi cussed in the Journals, and in different versions ble to go into at any length here. One of the in McDonald’s letters, this was not always easy at important aspects of the correspondence is not Fort Langley, complicated as it was by the feud just the descriptions of events, but McDonald’s ing amongst the various families and among the references to the people involved in them. The

34 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 officers and clerks get frequent mention in fur Langley, in 1830, all of the 18 men were married trade literature, but seldom are personal refer and they had a total of 11 children. ences to the other men on the fort to be found. McDonald’s own family was a favourite sub Over the years, not just at Fort Langley, but often ject, especially in letters to Edward Ermatinger. serving with McDonald at other forts in his Ranald, his firstborn son, was orphaned when charge, many ofthese rugged servants ofthe com his mother, Princess Raven, daughter of the pany take on a persona.They become real people Chinook chief Comcomly, died soon after his with distinctive characteristics, with a family life birth in 1824. The following year McDonald and normal human qualities. wed—”in the custom of the country”—Jane Just one example—and this one is from Fort Klyne, daughter of the Jasper House postmaster Colvile. Early in the summer of 1842 Canote Michel Klyne and his native born wife Susanne Umphreville—”a good and faithful servant of3l Lafrance. This marriage, which was solemnized years standing in the Columbia,” the most expe in a Church ofEngland ceremony at Red River rienced of all the Columbia river guides, was 10 years later, produced 12 sons and one daugh steering the boats from Colvile down to Fort ter, so throughout the years in the Columbia there Vancouver as he had done six times a year as long was always a tumble of children in the house as anyone there could remember. His son, young hold. Canote, his son—in-law Pierre Martineau and In the Fort Langley years McDonald ran what David Flett, McDonald’s personal servant, were he described to Ermatinger as a “thriving school” with him when they capsized in the “overwhelm with Jane at the head of the class—an “excellent ing whirlpools” at the Dalles near Fort Okanagan, scholar” as he said—and the little boys learning and all but young Umphreville drowned, along to read by the New Testament, and beginning with two of the paddlers. their “Copy” in their sixth year. Jane arrived at Writing to Sir William Jackson Hooker, di Langley on the Cadboro inJuly 1829 with Ranald rector of Kew Gardens, McDonald explained: and her own two sons, and two more were born “These mighty vortexes are of such a nature that during their years there. She soon progressed suf one boat is swallowed down when others a few ficiently to become the teacher herself and her minutes after pass in perfect safety”To Archibald husband spoke proudly ofher to Ermatinger.”You McKinlay at nearby Walla Walla, he was more have always her good wishes; every letter I begin emotional. “Excuse me if I don’t write more she gives a peep over my shoulder and asks ifit is the lamentable tale you will have heard has thrown for le petit amis. I say no, and the reply is ‘then me into a painful state of mind—My Guide, My you’ll be forgetting him & saying you have no Miller, & My Own Servant gone!!!” His heart time when all the others are served’—this I do went out too to Martineau’s widow:”What a sad assure you is a true bill.” blow poor Martineau’s wife has sustained within Later, at Fort Colvile, where five more sons the short space of three days—after she lost her were born, including the much—adored twins father, her husband, and nearly her brother, her Donald andJames, McDonald again describes the only boy ofjust six years old was killed here on scene about him as he is writing to his friend: the spot by the rolling down upon him of one of “Were you at this moment to see them [the twins], our fence rails while in the act of climbing over assisted by an elder brother going on five years it.” who thinks himself amazingly wise with tables, We sometimes forget that most of the men chairs, sofas, cushions, tongs, broomsticks, cats, who were attached to permanent posts during dogs and all other imaginable things they can lay this time had wives and children. A fort was like their hands on strewed about me, you would say a small village and the children grew up together. ‘tis a delightful confusion, & then exclaim Most of them quite naturally married the sons ‘McDonald, how the deuce can you write with and daughters of other Hudson’s Bay employees such a racket about you.”And then he went on and family inter-relationships were the norm. to apologise for taking up space with such trivia. Alexander Kennedy reported in 1824 that all of “Did I not know that I was addressing himself an the 37 men at Fort George had wives and there indulgent father, I would not presume to dwell were 35 children in all; at Kamloops in quite so long on the subject.” McDonald’s time 11 of the 15 men had wives More of the twins’ mischief is revealed in one and there were 17 children at the fort in 1827; at of the many letters to Rev. Elkanah Walker, one

BC HISTORICAL NEWS — FALL igg 35 ofthe New England missionaries who established alog writing down the names and dates of all theTshimakain mission 60 miles south of Colvile. his 12 brothers and sisters and their marriage These families provided Jane’s first contact with partners—and tracing his ancestry generations white women and she was invited to become back to Alan Dubh, who fought with Montrose one of their Columbia Maternal Association, the in 1645. His father Angus had been at Culloden, first women’s group west of the mountains.Their his grandfather John, as a child, had escaped to records included the names and birthdates of all the hills from the massacre at Glencoe in 1692. the members’ children, and in March 1842 In his methodical way he wanted to keep the McDonald wrote to his neighbour with a “strange record up to date. request.” The McDonald letters are full of such treas “Will you have the goodness to tell the doctor ures and these are but a sampling of the subjects [Marcus Whitman] that we would much wish to discussed in them. Whether discoursing on the have from Mrs.[William H.] Gray the age of our fur trade and its players, the native people, the children.. .The fact is, the two little chaps, when missionaries, the plant gatherers, the Oregon set their mother was indisposed last season [birth of tlers—or even political affairs in the east—whose son Samuel], took a wonderful liking to Books newspapers he perused with great avidity when and. pictures & behold, the leaf with the names ever he could lay his hands on them—, McDonald in the prayer book disappeared.” had opinions on them all and his correspond Back at Fort Langley, on a cold December night ence lets us look upon the scene from a different

in 1830, McDonald had recorded his own gene- window ‘‘

From the BC Archives:

Gary Mitchell, Provincial Archivist, whose roots are firmly planted in Fort Langley, has selected for this issue a 1901 photo graph by an unknown photographer showing Jason Allard (on horseback) and Chief Casimir of the Kwantlen, in front of the old Hudson’s Bay Company trading post at Fort Langley. The building is the only surviving original structure at Fort Langley Historic Site. It was built around 1840, after the fire.

36 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL içg The Apprenticeship ofJames Murray Yale by Yvonne Mearns Klan

F we think ofYale at all, we probably think of nel Murray, met Yale, and took him on as ap Yvonne Klan has a cantankerous, anti—social little man whose prentice clerk. published several I only pleasures derived from watching Fort The Nor’Westers were determined to put articles on BC history Langley prosper and sniping at James Douglas. down once and for all the bothersome English and is currently working on a biogra This is a fairly reasonable assessment ofYale—he forays into Athabasca.This contest would be par phy of James Murray was a man who could not forgive and would ticularly ugly, pitting brother against brother, com Yale. never forget. rade against comrade. Some partners resigned James MurrayYale was born rather than engage in the strug about 1798.According to fam gle. Simon Fraser refused to go ily history, his father drowned but was threatened with dire fi in 1805, his mother abandoned nancial consequences ifhe didn’t. him, remarried and went to John McLoughlin was Cohn Scotland. A Colonel James Robertson’s good friend and ab Murray, who was a friend of solutely refused a posting to Colin Robertson, fosteredYale. Athabasca. The partners huffed Robertson had been a clerk that his behaviour was irrespon with the NorthWest Company sible, but allowed him a different and could never understand posting, possibly because they why the Hudson’s Bay Com feared he mightjoin Robertson’s pany didn’t use their geo cause. graphic advantage to wrest a In May 1815, Yale and share of the rich Athabasca Robertson embarked with the trade from the Nor’Westers. Bay’s Athabasca brigade, which When Robertson left the comprised two partners, 18 Nor’Westers he approached the Bay’s London clerks, 140 voyageurs, 7 Native hunters and 20 Committee. He told them of the enormous prof canoes. its the Nor’Westers reaped by making “a voyage Near Lake Winnipeg Robertson encountered of 4 months to purchase beaver at the threshold a group ofterrified Selkirk settlers who were flee of your doors.” He recalled the Bay’s past feeble ing from their homes.The Metis had killed their efforts to penetrate Athabasca, all ofwhich ended cattle, torched their crops and threatened their in humiliating defeat when the mighty lives. They implored Robertson to take charge Nor’Westers drove them out of the country. ofthe colony’s affairs, so he reluctantly gave com Robertson put forth a proposal for establish mand of the expedition to John Clarke, an im ing Athabasca, which was revolutionary in that it petuous, swashbuckling 33-year-old who had had no place for servants recruited from Britain. joined the Nor’Westers in 1800 and had served In Montreal Robertson would hire voyageurs— in the Mackenzie, Athabasca and Peace River those hardworking, colourful Canadians on districts. whose backs the success ofthe NorthWest Com At Lake Winnipeg two more clerks joined the pany was founded. He would recruit French- expedition: George McDougall, whose brother speaking officers, ex—Nor’Westers who had sur James was a Nor’Wester in New Caledonia, and vived northern winters and who knew how to Roderick McKenzie, who kept the onlyjournal manage the volatile voyageurs. ofthe expedition.Yale for the first time witnessed The London Committee engaged Robertson a clash between the companies at Cumberland to carry out his plans and in 1815 he was in House, where the Nor’Wester’s fort was man Montreal putting together the Bay’s Athabasca aged by William Connolly. One of the Baymen Centre: Portrait ofJames Expedition. One day he visited his friend Cob- had deserted and Clarke suspected Connolly was Murray Yale. I 860s. harbouring him. He confronted Connohly, a Unknown Photographer.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 37 melee erupted, and, McKenzie recorded: “Mr. slow-moving brigade in charge ofYale and the Clarke drew his pistol and would probably have other young officers, and took George blown Mister Connolly’s brains out had I not McDougall and the strongest voyageurs in two taken it.”The combatants allowed themselves to canoes to try to out—race the Nor’Wester. But be separated and each faction retired claiming his paddlers were too weak; he fell further be victory. hind. By the time he reached Fort Vermilion After leaving Cumberland House the brigade McIntosh had cleared all Natives from the area was overtaken by Simon Fraser. It was an awk and was keeping watch on his men to make sure ward moment—Clarke and Fraser were former they didn’t give their starving countrymen a few comrades. Nonetheless Fraser hovered around the morsels of their rations. brigade for the remainder of the journey, trying For days Clarke and his men lived on rose hips to coax Clarke’s men to desert, but with little while they waited forYale’s brigade. They even success. tually found a camp of Natives but they refused On 2 October, 19 weeks after leaving Mon to help. This is what they said: treal, officers and men spruced up, the voyageurs We are afraid.The NorthWest says you are not strong, chorused a rousing song and with Hudson’s Bay you have only two canoes and no goods, that they Company flags flying, the brigade swept past the will soon drive you away and those who assist the Nor’Westers’ Fort Chipewyan in grand style. English now will have no ammunition from the NorWest Company when you are gone But the Nor’Westers had prepared for them so we and our children will be pitiful. . . we like the English and had stationed men around the entrance to but we are still more fond of our children, and you Lake Athabasca to keep Natives away from the are not strong enough for the North West Com Bayrnen. If the Natives resisted the Nor’Westers pany. seized their furs and game, beat them, and/or im To get the Natives’ assistance Clarke had to show prisoned them. them the full strength of his expedition, so he By 4 October, two days after they arrived, sent McDougall down river to meetYale’s long- Clarke was out of food. His fishers and hunters overdue brigade, load three ofits best canoes with had no success and no Indian dared help him. trading goods and the strongest men, and to has The country could not sustain so many men, so ten back with them. The weakest men were to Clarke sent small groups to outlying areas. return immediately to Fort Wedderburn. Clerks McKenzie, the journal keeper, remained at Yale and Cook were to stay at Wabasca River Athabasca Lake to build Fort Wedderburn; and and take charge of the remaining men and prop Clarke led Yale, 7 other officers and 48 men up erty the Peace River to FortVermilion, 320 miles away. ButYale’s brigade was in desperate trouble. The They had no food, depending on their hunters young clerks,Yale and Cook, could not control and any Indians they might meet along the way. the starving men.When the hunter bagged some Clarke had served four years at FortVermilion game he shared only with clerk Cook. These and was confident the Indians would swing their worthies then offered to sell bits of meat to their allegiance to him. Now the fort was in charge of colleagues. The guide challenged them, saying if William McIntosh, described as “a cold-blooded, the food wasn’t shared equally the others would black-hearted, revengeful Man. . . capable of any help themselves. Cook cocked his rifle, and said thing that is bad.. . cruel and tyrannical without he’d kill them if they tried. Too feeble and de honour or integrity” McIntosh and Clarke had moralized to paddle on,Yale’s brigade camped at once been brigade companions. Now they would Wabasca River, where McDougall found them. meet as enemies. But at Athabasca Lake the But far from proceeding with all haste, as or Nor’Westers got wind of Clarke’s plans and sent dered, McDougall opened the rum kegs and, as a clerk to warn upriver posts of his approach. Yale reported,”remained a number of days, dur The Nor’Westers’ clerk soon overtook Clarke’s ing which time McDougall and men were in a scrawny voyageurs and though he was shocked continual state of intoxication.” by their “meagre emaciated appearance,” he nev When the hungover men pulled themselves ertheless ordered his men to drive game and Na together the weakest paddled off to Fort tives away from the hungry Baymen. Wedderburn, McDougall led a brigade to Fort Clarke knew that unless he got ahead of the Vermilion, andYale’s group huddled around their Nor’Wester his men would starve. He left his fires in the shriveffing cold.

38 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL i The next day McDougall’s canoes were caught At the end of by ice, forcing the men to continue on foot.They the seasonYale re had walked 75 km when starvation forced them turned from Fort T to halt. A party of Nor’Westers camped beside Vermilion seeth them but refused to give them provisions unless ing with fury. McDougall signed over the men’s contracts and “The indignities I all the company property, including that at received from Wabasca River. To save his men McDougall Wm. McIntosh,” agreed. he fumed, were Meanwhile, back at FortVermilion, Clarke was “so numerous and in a fever of anxiety.Where was McDougall? Had of so unhuman a everyone turned back to Fort Wedderburn? He nature that they set out in search of his lost men and came upon surpass my knowl what was left of McDougall’s camp; one of the edge to explain.” voyageurs had died, and the Nor’Westers had And George taken all the property and ambulatory men. Clarke McDougall, delivered a blistering rebuke to McDougall then smarting from hurried on to Yale’s camp where he foundYale Clarke’s rebukes, and all hands “reduced to the very last extrem— made his way to ity”Three more voyageurs died. Fort St. James in Shortly after the latest death McIntosh arrived New Caledonia to with provisions to collect his booty. But Clarke join his brother as refused to give up anything, whereupon a Nor’Wester. McIntosh—in front of the starving men—began Thus ended Yale’s throwing lumps of pemmican to his dogs. Inco first winter as a fur trader. • Fraser hovered around herent with hatred, Clarke and McIntosh bawled Nor’Westers and Baymen alike agreed that the brigade for the insults at each other and exchanged shots. But in Clarke should not have gone up the Peace River remainder of the journey, the end Clarke too, was obliged to give up the without provisions. He was a former Nor’Wester, trying to coax Clarkec property to save his men. He led a group back to schooled in the ruthless techniques of fur trade men to desert Simon Fort Wedderburn butYale was too weak for the wars, and should have known what to expect. Frasers well-known face appears on the screen as trek and was taken by the Nor’Westers to Fort Robertson, the architect of the Athabasca Cam Yvonne Klan speaks at Vermilion. paign, learned of the disaster and lamented “Poor Fort L.angley about “most Meanwhile, two scrawny men from the group Clarke has dreadfully mismanaged the business. I wanton and atrocious acts of weak voyageurs arrived at Fort Wedderburn. cannot write him—indeed I cannot think of him of unparalleled cruelty.” They told McKenzie that half a day after they without pain.” leftWabasca River their canoes became icebound, London officials, as yet unaware of the failure, forcing them to walk to Athabasca Lake some were shipping outfits for 1816—17,”trusting that 300 km away. The men broke into tears as they Mr. Clarke’s party have at last established them told of starvation and death and said if Mr. selves in a respectable manner.” McDougall had sent them off immediately as he And in Montreal Lord Selkirk was recruiting was supposed to everyone would have reached a brigade of reinforcements for Athabasca. The safety They thought other survivors might be on reinforcements would enable Clarke to firmly their way. McKenzie was in a quandary The one entrench himself, and to establish posts on the man he had in the fort didn’t know the country, Peace River. At break-up Clarke paddled to the and he had only ten fish in his larder. Much as depot at Lake Winnipeg to pick up his 1816—17 he hated to, he asked Simon Fraser for help. Fraser outfit and his reinforcements. However due to immediately ordered one of his men to take a calamities in Selkirk’s colony, Lord Selkirk de sled-full of provisions and guide McKenzie’s man cided he needed the brigade to transport his in a search. They found three corpses but evi military settlers to Red River. He undertook to dence of cannibalism filled them with such hor pay the brigade’s expenses out of his own pocket ror they abandoned the search. Sixteen people and therefore, he reasoned, “I must be allowed to died ofstarvation in the Bay’s 1815—l6Athabasca employ them to the best advantage.” He assured Campaign. London that except for the “unavoidable delay”

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL i999 39 118 116 L

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Detail of a map from J.N.Wallace, The Wintering Parties on Peace River from the Earlier Records to the Union In 1827, with a Summary of the Dunvegan Journal, 7806. Ottawa, 7929. 1. Here the clerk from Fort Chip overtook and passed Clarke and here Clarke and McDougall parted with the main brigade. 2. Yale and the rest of the brigade camped here too weak to proceed further. 3. At FortVerrnilion Clarke tried unsuccessfully to recruit Natives while he waited forYale’s brigade to catch up with him. 4. Approximates the spot where McDougall, after leavingYale’s brigade and returning to Clarke, was found to camp, unable to go further due to starvation.

in forwarding goods and reinforcements to or imprisoned.Yale was a frequent victim, charged Athabasca, the Bay would sustain no loss. He was variously with “disturbing the peace,” “escaping quite wrong. Without reinforcements Clarke arrest,” or “being insolent to one of Her Majes would hardly be able to hold his own, let alone ty’sJustices of the Peace.” establish the Peace River. Clarke later sent Yale to winter at Pierre au Outfit 1816—17 was Yale’s second year. This Calumet, a provisioning post on the Athabasca year the Nor’Westers sent Partner Archibald River. Directly across the river stood the Norman McLeod to take charge of Athabasca. Nor’Westers post in charge ofJohn Stuart. (Stuart (McLeod Lake is named after him.) He and Clarke had been Simon Fraser’s second-in-command in had once been Peace River colleagues. Now New Caledonia and had voyaged down the Fraser McLeod was returning armed with papers ap River with him. Stuart Lake and Stuart River pointing him Justice of the Peace and a fierce were named after him) .This wily veteran kept all determination to drive Clarke out of the coun Natives away from the Baymen and there was no try. He soon overtook Clarke’s returning bri trade in furs or provisions. In January l8l7Yale, gade, poured a torrent of invective over Clarke, looking forward to a bit of revelry, set off for the stormed ahead to Athabasca Lake, and loudly pro bright lights of Fort Wedderburn, unaware, as he claimed to all that he had not come to trifle. was mushing northward, that the Justice was crip Simon Fraser, he grumbled, had been “entirely pling the Athabasca Campaign. The Justice had too lenient” last winter. learned that Lord Selkirk had captured the Justice McLeod terrified the Natives and toyed Nor’Westers Fort William and retaliated by seiz with the Baymen as a cat toys with mice. He’d ing Fort Wedderburn and keeping its men and send his bullies over to insult the Baymen and officers under house arrest. He would keep Clarke when the inevitable donnybrook erupted he imprisoned at Fort Chip until all the Bayrnen called court.The Baymen, of course, were always surrendered all their arms. Clarke immediately found to be guilty and were fined, or put in irons wrote to his clerks, ordering them to give their

40 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL iç arms to the Nor’Westers. He warned them “If and fishers but fish were scarce; and when the you do not obey this order you will become per wind blew the guards were unable to paddle to sonally responsible for a penalty of fifteen hun their fort for provisions. Captives and guards alike dred pounds.” Needless to say, the clerks quickly went hungry for days and ate whatever fish they complied. Clarke was released but kept under found rotting on the beach. One day they found house arrest at Fort Wedderburn along with the a duck nest with eight eggs and though the eggs rest ofthe Baymen.WhenYale arrived from Pierre were beginning to hatch, they added a little flour, au Calumet for a bit of socializing he was made a cake and divided the feast between the promptly seized and thrown in with his col four of them. leagues. The fear of being murdered was ever-present Clarke brooded over his defeat and began plan and each had a club. Clarke hid a carving knife ning an attack on Fort Chip. Most of the officers under his pillo but even when they retired, he —now without arms—considered this sheer fool said, “we could not enjoy repose.” hardiness butYale, ever ready for action, supported They passed ten weeks on the cinder-coated the idea.The Justice learned of Clarke’s plans and islet and in August were returned to Athabasca his wrath struck like a thunderbolt. The Lake, unharmed. This marked the end ofYale’s Nor’Westers stormed Fort Wedderburn, took all second season as a fur trader. Senior officers had property; provisions, and canoes to Fort Chip, and remarked his courage, energy; and fierce loyalty; again imprisoned Clarke.They banishedYale and Robertson wrote “your conduct has met with the voyageurs to distant fisheries, held the other the entire approbation of your superiors—your officers in Fort Wedderburn, and prohibited all sufferings have been great and though a boy, you communication between officers and their men. bore them like a man.” But the officers had also Without arms, canoes, or provisions the officers notedYale’s lack of education. Robertson coun were humiliatingly dependent on the selled him to improve his writing by copying two Nor’Westers for their very subsistence.They had or three pages from some good author every day no word from Clarke, who was held at Fort Chip, and urged senior officers to help “my little friend or Yale, who had been sent to a far-off fishery, Yale, whose education has been much neglected.” and didn’t know what had become of their men. Over the remaining three years of his appren At break—up the Justice returned east andJohn ticeship Yale endured more hardships and priva Stuart, now in command, allowedYale to return tion at the hands of the Nor’Westers. He went to Fort Wedderburn. InJuneYale went to Fort hungry when Samuel Black and his men de Chip to pick up some belongings he’d left there stroyed the Bay’s canoes and cut their fishing nets. during one of his imprisonments. He was He heard with horror the gruesome details of promptly seized and told to get ready for a voy— Peter Skene Ogden murdering a Native who had age. He refused, struggled furiously with his cap traded with the Baymen. He was involved in skir tors, but at length was dragged to the beach and mishes with Roderick McLeod and with Peter thrown in a waiting canoe beside Clarke. They Warren Dease. (Dease would later achieve fame were being taken to Great Slave Lake. as an Arctic explorer; Dease Lake was named af Along the way, the foreman confided that in a ter him.) William McIntosh, the black—hearted, council of Nor’Westers one of the partners pro reportedly tried to poison him.And he exchanged posed that Clarke andYale be taken to Great Slave blows with brawny Simon McGillivray Jr. Little Lake and murdered. Of all those present only Yale recorded his version of this event in Fort Edward Smith, Master at Great Slave Lake, ob Wedderburn’sj ournal: jected. Early next morning when the paddlers Mr. McGiilivray very treacherously tramped upon him several times... thought everyone was sleeping, Clarke overheard Mr.Yale’s snow shoes and struck Mr.Yale at last got off his snow shoes when he vig. one brag to the other that Mr. Keith had hired orously attacked McGillivray and in less than five to kill Clarke. As a reward he would have him minutes the latter was happy to call out for Quar property and be maintained for Clarke’s wife and ters after receiving a bloody nose, a black eye and a was the pri the rest of his life. Though Clarke swelled face. Mr.Yale received no mark whatever. witnesses. mary victim there were to be no By 1821, after years of sacrifice and suffering, on a small island Clarke andYale were landed the Baymen had gained the upper hand in the was ankle deep that had been overrun by fire and Peace River and Athabasca. When they received arrived to act as guards in ashes.Two Nor’Westers word that the rival companies had negotiated a 41 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL ‘g merger, some were bitterly disappointed. Cohn Caledonia coincided with that of Governor Robertson spoke for many when he wrote: “It Simpson who was on his way to the Columbia. pains me that our implacable and insolent oppo Simpson gaveYale no time to brood over Amelia nents should acquire by negotiation what they but immediately sent him on an errand to have not been able to obtain by the most wanton Kamloops.Yale rejoined Simpson at present-day and atrocious acts of unparalleled cruelty” Lytton, voyaged down the Fraser Canyon with Immediately after the mergerYale was sent to him, and arrived at Fort Langley 10 October 1828. New Caledonia. He experienced many more HereYale would spend the remainder of his days hardships, adventures and misadventures, but be as a fur trader. cause he could neither forgive nor forget one of The 1 830s were disappointing years for Yale, his biggest challenges was having to work with who hoped for some recognition of his long and former enemies. New Caledonia was managed conscientious service. But in this decade it was by John Stuart, now a chief factor of the Hud his old enemies who garnered rewards. Peter son’s Bay Company—Stuart, who had beenYale’s Skene Ogden in New Caledonia, and Samuel formidable foe at Pierre au Calumet and who Black in Kamloops, had been initially excluded had been complicit in the plot to murder him from the Hudson’s Bay Company because of the and Clarke at Great Slave Lake.Yale and Stuart atrocities they had committed during the did not get along. Privately Stuart wrote thatYale Athabasca contest. They had later been taken in “has much to learn and not a little to unlearn as chief traders and now were promoted to chief before he becomes an Indian Trader” but offi factors. Roderick McLeod and Peter Warren cially Stuart was more charitable and reported Dease, both ofwhom had provoked violent quar Yale “is clever and wants only experience—which rels withYale in Athabasca, also became chieffac he is fast acquiring—to be an able Trader.” tors. James Douglas, now formally married to With scenes of the bitter winter of 1815—16 Amelia, was promoted to chief trader in 1835 seared in his memory, Yale found that he now and became a chief factor in 1839. had to work closely with George McDougall, And Simon McGiilivrayJr.,Yale’s sparring part whose dalliance atWabasca River had caused the ner and now a chief trader, successfully led the deaths of sixteen persons. He learned, too, that voyage ofdiscovery from Babine Lake to present- Wiffiam McIntosh, who had taunted the starv day Hazelton. This was an exploration Yale had ing Baymen by throwing bits of pemniican to longed to undertake when in New Caledonia. his dogs, had rapidly risen to the rank of chief Not until 1844 was Yale promoted to chief factor. William Connolly, who Clarke had con trader.The 1840s saw the passing of a number of fronted at Cumberland in a skirmish over a de the old Athabasca veterans. Cohn Robertson serter, was now a Chief Factor and took over passed away in Montreal. Roderick McLeod died management of New Caledonia in 1824. Yale while on furlough; Simon McGihivray Jr. col courted Connolly’s young daughter Amelia, and lapsed on his way to a posting in Athabasca. In there was an understanding that they would marry Kamloops a Native murdered Samuel Black. But before this could happen Yale’s arm be William McIntosh died at Lachine, and John came inflamed and he had to go to FortVancou Stuart was laid to rest in Scotland. ver for medical advice. When he recovered he Yale hoped and waited in vain for promotion was assigned to an expedition being sent to pun to chieffactor, and it was probably just as well he ish the Clallam Natives for murdering some didn’t know that though Simpson wrote prais Baymen. The expedition was led by another of ing his courage and activity he concluded that Yale’s old enemies—Roderick McLeod, who had Yale’s “want of education precludes all hope of headed the force that captured FortWedderburn his succeeding to an interest in the concern.”Yale’s and who had instigated many of the Athabasca 30 years in Fort Langley were relatively peaceful; skirmishes which resulted inYale’s imprisonment. at least he was now eating well. His fisheries pros The Clallam Expedition was an ugly, contro pered and his crops flourished in Fort Langley’s versial affair andYale was happy to return to New nourishing soil. But the seeds of bitterness also Caledonia in September 1828. Unfortunately he flourished—seeds that had been sown in the hos

found that during his absence ex-Nor’Wester tile soil ofAthabasca. ‘‘ James Douglas had married Amelia Connolly. It was perhaps fortunate that Yale’s arrival in New

42 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL Book Reviews Books for review and book reviews should be sent to: Anne Yandle, Book Review Editor BC Historical News, 3450 West 20th Avenue,Vancouver BC V651E4

James Sirois child ofAmy and Doc Gildersleve. Her mar Afloat in Time. riage to Walter Sirois lasted about four years. Afloat in Time. James Sirois. Skookum Press, Box 310, In retrospect at least, James did not see the REvIEwED BY LESLIE K0PAs Hagensborg, BC VOT iSO, 1998.271 PP. breakup as a disaster, The autobiography be Illus. $25 paperback. WH.Bell gins: “I came to realize, years later, that the REvIEwED BY LESLIE KoPAs Beyond the Northern Lights: summer of 1933 was the beginning of the A Questfor the Outdoor Ljfe. Most of us believe our lives have been inter most interesting and wonderful childhood REVIEWED BY KELSEY McLE0D esting, at least in parts. Sometimes, after we that I could have wished for.” have related our best personal stories, an en It was a childhood ofsummers at the log Warren Sommer and Kurt Alberts thusiastic soul says,”you should write a book.” ging camp and winters at school at Ocean Langley 125:A Celebration. Ifwe are lucky, before embarking on a fool’s Falls. For two grades, provincial government REVIEWED BY M0RAG MAcLAcHLAN errand, we are taken aside by a realist and correspondence courses permitted winters at persuaded that our life has been quite ordi the logging camp, too. Morag Maclacblan nary. InevitablyJames Sirois learned to be a log The Fort LangleyJournals, James Sirois, however, did indeed have a ger. (His account of the trials of a teenage 182 7—30 unique childhood. Afloat in Time is an anec whistlepunk brought back chagrined memo REvIEwED BY BRIAN G0BETT dotal autobiography, a collection ofbriefsto ries to this reviewer.) Although an interest ries and sketches ofchildhood and youth on ing way of life, logging was a hard one. The Lisa Hobbs Birnie the central British Columbia coast. Its sig University ofBritish Columbia was the ticket Western Liçhts: Fourteen nificance to readers is alluded to in the sub out. Distinctive British Columbians. title: Growing Up on the Raft ofa Gyppo Log Fifty photographs and a glossary fill out REVIEWED BY SHERYL SALL0UM ger in the Coastal Canyons of British Columbia the book. The glossary is mostly definitions 1930—1950. It describes an unusual way of ofloggingjargon. Under the letter”M,”how Frances Hanson, comp. life, that of a peripatetic contract logger who ever, there is a recipe for matrimonial cake. Memories of Osland. moved his business and home from place to Afloat in Time is like that, a conversational REVIEWED BY PHYLLIS REEVE place on rafts. bunch ofstories and descriptions, not neces James Sirois is proud ofhis pioneer herit sarily in chronological order, about life on age. He succinctly relates his grandparents’ the central coast halfa century and more ago. history on the British Columbia coast from You get it all, right down to the recipes.’’ their arrival from Oregon in 1916.They be Reviewer Leslie Kopas lives in Bella Coola. gan logging at the mouth of the Nootum River near Restoration Bay. According to Beyond the Northern Lights: A Questfor legend, his grandfather George Harrison the Outdoor L!fe. Gildersieve acquired the moniker Doc by WH.Bell. Surrey: Hancock House, 1998.284 delivering his children at his isolated float pp., Illus.. $23.95 paperback. camp. On maps today, Doc Creek flows out REvIEwED BY KEL5EY McLE0D ALSO NOTED: of Gildersieve Lake, and Amy Creek (after Doc’s wife) flows into Nootum River. The subtitle of this volume would make a Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and The autobiography has an unusual bal better title, for this autobiography of the life Indian Identities around Puget Sound. ance in that the main character isJames Sirois, ofWH. Bell shows his early obsession with Sandra Harmon. Berkeley: University of but the hero is Doc Gildersieve. Doc holds the outdoors. He played hooky from school California Press, 1998. 393 pp. Illus. $40 to be outdoors, and the mama never left him. US. the book together, just as he held together his small floating community between 1917 The amazing thing is that after a lifetime of Meadow Muffins: Cowboy Rhymes and and 1956. If Doc Gildersleve is the psycho the outdoors he ended up taking years out Other B. S. Poetry by Mike Pallullo. logical centre, then Ocean Falls is the geo ofthis life to gain an engineering degree from Cartoons byWidney Liddle. Surrey: graphical centre. As though on an invisible UBC. Hancock House, 1999. 64 pp. Illus. $7.95. leash, the Gildersieve camp moved north, The saga took him from Alberta to Brit A Guide to Medicinal Wild Fruits & Berries. south, and east of the Ocean Falls pulp and ish Columbia, to Fort Resolution, to Sas Julie Gomez. Surrey: Hancock House, paper mill for nearly forty years. katchewan, and countless points in all these 1999. 63 pp. Illus. $7.95. James Sirois’s mother Elate was the oldest locations. He was a game warden, fire war-

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Cowichan of the $20

Illus.

paperback.

and

1821 in Company West the North

one

including Kane,

by

Paul pp.

eral paintings by 77 1998.

Revolution,

Digital signed

the absorbed HBC Bay Company: Hudson’s

sev

Unfortunately,

slavery. and war,

and flict De Ltd.

Gallery of

BC

Birthplace

Langley:

the

for of transition era an were 1820s The

con

commerce,

ceremonies, groups, social Fort and Alberts. Sommer Kurt Warren

and

life domestic

Native

relationships, trader

G0BETT. BY BRIAN REVIEWED A Celebration. Langley 125:

Native- including topics of a variety ining $19.95 paperback. cover,

in exam literature secondary relevant of the $75 pp. hard maps. Illus., 279 1998. Press, Society. Historical couver

and

the journals of knowledge an intimate Columbia of British University the T4zn- of Vancouver: a is member McLeod Kelsey Reviewer

displays

Suttles

ofthejournals. understanding Maclachan. Morag by Edited experience. personal

a

contemporary

to

contribute can nography of Journals, Langley the 1827-30. Fort discomfort details The without ground

eth

how show

to

and

to ethnography nals back authentic want who novelists and for

jour

the of

the value

to illustrate two-fold: Press. really like, is what nature with living learn

is aim

Suttles’s

University.

State

at Portland UBC 1827—30, to JOURNALS, LANGLEY want who FORT for those invaluable resource

of anthropology

emeritus professor Suttles, of the editor is THE achlan Mac? Morag Reviewer an be will and is book interesting, the less,

by Wayne

essay

a

lengthy

in explored is

nals to.

like would who all those ‘-‘-‘ Neverthe are lights” unnecessary. “northern

our

ofthej

significance

ethnographic The and

Langley in live who those all for place of after borealis” of “aurora insertions stant

(p. 99 ). a sense creating in role important an play edly con the and difficult, reading makes times

about”

prowl

“to

men the

leaving to erable undoubt will book disquieting.This be at must life his earlier to flashbacks many The

pref

case, any

in

were,

and

advantages pany ofdevelopment pace rapid the old-timers for park. in the a level stroll of to the fades

Com

the

offered

sometimes

relationships and neighbourhood, immediate their with Odyssey Homer’s that wildest at its nature

these

indeed,

desirable;

longer

no

was

wives

identify probably newcomers, of them many with misses near many so bou, are etc.There

Native

taking not of policy

former

the

that

so in Langley, people Obviously the book. of cari moose, buffalo, wolves, a one: lengthy is

acknowledged

McDonald

Native,Archibald

production the supported businesses and pie animals wild with encounters list of The

female and

trader male between

tionships

ofpeo— number a that indicate credits The reading. the for is here peratures

rela of nature

ambiguous

the on

example,

veloped. tem freezing under the wilderness in camp

For

and culture.

life

Native

of

aspects

ing

de

how and it when of account brief a and up set to how of up. detail Every freezes ing

elucidat source

ethnographic

an

as act

nals

area each of a description munities”provides plumb the when do to

what book, including

jour

The

economy.

self-sustaining

more

a

Corn

of Community “A entitled chapter this in is teams dog

to know about

wanted

to

Natives

from

obtained

foodstuffs on ency

last

the and Abbotsford, and Surrey tween you ever Everything overcome.

eventually

depend

from fort

the

of

development the

be

wedged up Langley, make which areas was stench an overpowering a

with session

the trader,

of

activities

daily the

into

insight

various

the shows map clear A very centres. Lake Sturgeon coverage.At given exhaustive

frequent offer

journals

the

and

quirements,

many its with township sprawling this in sity is had he posting

of every

detail Every

re

these

beyond

went often entries nately,

diver the to recognize is aim third The barge

or

riverboat

Fortu

men.

the

by

accomplished

work

the

readable. and clear is text the but tory, by in shipped .and

a year.. once

ordered

and

visitors, done,

trading

the

weather,

the

his

than

hearsay like more reads history the were foods staple

family’s “our Later:

come?

to record

four-fold:

was

task

Its

of

dailyjournal.

some

Unfortunately

theme. the fit to sen to years the

of shape was

the

know

she it

a

keep to

was post

trade fur HEC Each

cho

photographs, and paintings, with trated outhouse—did an water, no electricity, no

journals. the in

mentioned

illus

are

churches and transportation, tions, Calgary: of

outskirts

the on house

chicken

tribes 27 or

26 of the

names

the of

discussion

occupa

period, settlement the trade, the fur a converted was home

first

Their this life.

useful

especially

an

including

volume, the

landscape,

the river, the with dealing chapters of version wife’s his to hear be

interesting

conclude appendices of

a series

and

journals

themes.The

central around organized well is would It employee.... Bay a Hudson’s den, however, point more to the fact that too lit Duthie’s rise to “queen of the West Coast they happen to appear, without the benefit tle work has been done on the ethnological book world.” ofchronology; index, or cartography.The sin and anthropological traditions in the Pacific Birnie captures the twinkle in their eyes gle map, a map of Osland, orients Emerson’s Northwest, a gap that this volume will cer as well as the determination and drive ofthese boat house in relation to Kristmanson’s Gen tainly help to fill. fourteen intriguing individuals.Their “hun eral Store, but fails to orient Osland to the Reviewer Brian Cobbett is a doctoral student at ger for undiscovered territory” and their rest of the world, except for DeHorsey Is the University ofAlberta. “contributions to the fabric of British Co land, which does appear on some maps of

lumbia” are fascinating. ‘‘ British Columbia. T¾stern Lights: Fourteen Distinctive Brit Reviewer Sheryl Salloum is the author of This is too bad.The book is dedicated “in ish Columbians. MALcou1 LOWRY: VANcouvER DAYs, and UN memory of all Osland pioneers and is for Lisa Hobbs Birnie, with illustrations by DERLYING VIBp.ATI0Ns:Ti-iE PHOTO Gp.A PHYAND their descendants.” But those descendants, Anthony Jenkins. Vancouver: Raincoast LIFE OFJOHN VANDERPANT. lacking first—hand experience of the com munity; are liable to be as puzzled Books, 1996. 146 pp. $17.95. paperback. as this re Memories of Osland. REVIEWED BY SHERYL SALL0UM viewer. Mrs. Hanson and her associate should Compiled by Frances Hanson. provide a chronological framework for their Anthony Jenkins’s pen and ink drawings are Prince Rupert,BC, 1997.104 pp.. Illus. $22 memories before it is too late. In gathering the perfect introduction to each ofthe indi Paperback. these poignant snippets ofautobiography, she viduals in this engaging book. Like the illus REVIEWED BY PHYLLIS REEVE has provided a glimpse ofa little-known part trations, each interview is a briefbut reveal ofWest Coast history and demography. In 1913, or thereabouts, Icelandic settlers, ing sketch that manages to successfully con I found one aspect of the story especially some coming by way ofManitoba, established vey the character, talents, and idiosyncrasies striking. The little school opened early in the tiny community of Osland, on Smith Is of some of this province’s more colourful Osland history.When, in the early 1 930s, their land at the mouth of the Skeena River, near personalities. children were not quite numerous enough Prince Rupert, Port Essington, and the Can Lisa Hobbs Birnie is a deft interviewer to justifr the government’s appointing a neries. Most of the men worked as fisher who has spoken with fourteen high-profile teacher, the Icelandic families invited three men or carpenters, but Osland had indus BC personages regarding their various en Japanese families to move to the island. It tries of its own: the granite quarry, the deavours. A talented writer, her subtle wit was a happy solution for these Canadians Johnson/Oldson shingle mill, Skeena and insights complement the personal from such differing heritages. Two photo piledriving, Osland logging, Steini’s goat glimpses ofher subjects. For example, Birnie graphs on one page tell eloquently what hap farm, and later Sakamoto’s boat building.The describes Bill Vanderzalm as looking “like a pened next. In summer, 1939, ten girls stand government provided a wharf and, from guy with a franchise on success,” Vicki in the sunshine; their names are Riteuko, 1920—1 953, a post office. Several generations Gabereau as one who “devours any infor Nom, Ayako, Evelyn, Lena, Frances, Mary, of children attended school at Osland.Then mation like a vacuum sucking up lint,”Jack Dorothy, Chiyoko and Junko. Three years it all came to an end. Munro as flying “by the seat ofhis made-to- later,June 1942, Chiyoko and her family are One of the former Osland children is measure pants,” Svend Robinson as “a horse shown on board a departing boat “the day Frances Olafson Hanson.As people dispersed fly always ready to sting a somnolent politi they had to leave Osland.” Chiyoko, and the or died, and only ruins and a few cal body,” andAlberto Menghi as having”the summer other Japanese Canadians who contributed homes remain of the little settlement, she sealed lips of a confessor, the energy of a their memories of Osland, write of “good contacted as many former Oslanders as pos Ferrari, and the food sense of a culinary gen and honest people, generous in heart and sible—the wonder is how many had kept in ius. spirit, with dignity and respect for each touch—and urged them to write down their From their stories the reader learns ofthe other.”After they left, Osland again had too of Osland. Her efforts and their tragedies, passions, and joys that have shaped memories few children, and the school was closed. responses resulted in this book, an obvious these notable British Columbians: the diffi Gradually the families moved to the main labour of love, but a formidable challenge to cult early years of the late Bruno Gerussi, land and spent only the summer in their is a reviewer. the alcoholism that once plagued Roy Henry land homes. Osland took a long time to die, With the removal ofits post office, Osland Vickers, the “very lonely” path chosen by and even now welcomes a few returning disappeared from atlases, gazetteers, and lists L.R. Wright, Rick Hansen’s need to push vacationers, but Osland as a community was of place names. I found a brief mention in “the edge of the envelope,” the way Vicky a casualty of war. the Sailin,g Directions for the British Columbia Husband “lives her life at double speed,” Reviewer Phillis Reeve lives on Gabriola Island Coast (North Portion). The few facts required Myfanwy Pavelic’s “restless search for artistic for informed reading eluded the resources perfection,” Frank Ogden’s ability to “target of a substantial public library and came to BC Historical News his audiences, [andj rattle their brains like light only after a call to Victoria. Yet Mrs. Index Volumes 26-30 marbles in a can,” Nicola Cavendish’s “con Hanson has sent forth her collection ofsub stant analysis of things” to the point that she Interested in a good deal? Receive a missions with little editing, and no context. wants to “unzip” her head and put her “brain copy of the Index 1993-1997 when Her introduction tells us how the book came box in a cupboard,”Joy Kogawa’s ability to you send a note and $2 in postage to to be, but not how Osland came to be, or the Editor BC Historical News. lay “bare the knowledge of others gained how it ceased to be. The uninitiated, non While through her own life’s journey,” and Celia quantities last. Oslander, reader has to gather hints where

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 45

46

FALL BC

NEWS HISTORICAL 1999 -

30 than more The years.

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Notes and News is fossil a collection from the lateJoe Pollard. HERITAGE TRUST The members are assisting with the prepara The Trust’s new chair is Anne Edwards of Letter to the Editor tion of a history of Princeton which is now Moyie. Appointments by Minister Ian celebrating 140 years since the earliest DEAR SIR: Laura set Waddell filled three vacancies created by Duke’s article “Against a tlers arrived in the district. Tide of those who completed their term, and a di Change: an Interpretation of the Writings of Simrna SILVERY SLOGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY rector who moved to another province.The I-Jolt, 1960-1974” (BC Historical News. 32:2, Their museum in New Denver is in the Bank new directors are George Atamenko of Spring 1999) is an adroit, if revisionist, view of Montreal building that served the com Williams Lake,Jarnie Forbes oflrail, Dorothy of the writings of Mrs. Holt, which no munity from 1897 to 1969.The local society Hunt ofVancouver, and Pamela Madoff of doubt will earn Ms. Duke an A-grade as a university has done a wonderful restoration ofthe build Victoria. term paper. Nevertheless I must agree with your corre ing towards which the bank belatedly do WINN WEIR HoNoUriD spondent Mrs.June Wilson of Kimberley, B. nated $15,000.An archives and reading room Winnifred Weir of Invermere was chosen as C. (BC Historical News, Summer has been created with bookcases and filing 1999) that one of 14 citizens to receive the Order of the article cabinets gradually is too narrowly focussed and does being filled. British Columbia in June 1999. Winn is a not do justice to Simma Holt’s career as an writer, historian, SURREY HISTORICAL SOCIETY and community leader. She investigative reporter, author, parliamentar has been active The November 1998 meeting was held at a in Girl Guides, sat on the ian, and humanitarian. From the advantage school board, volunteered for novel site; the members participated in Old the Cancer ofcontemporary perspective, Duke criticizes Society was Time Days at the Fraser Downs Racetrack. a leading speaker in Toastmas Mrs. Holt and her work using characteriza ters, curator of the At other meetings they heard proposals for Windermere District tions that lack balance, are sometimes inac Museum, the separation of Cloverdale from Surrey, and an officer of the BCHF curate, and often are not substantiated. development plans for the Tynehead area, and FERNIE LIBRARY For example, Duke depicts Simma Holt the history of the Clova Theatre. as the Fernie’s former post office and customs house product of an upper middle-class life style and a member VANCOuvER HISTORICAL SOCIETY has been lovingly restored to serve as the of the ruling cultural mainstream, and this is simply The Great Fire ofl3June 1886 was the basis public library. The sponsoring group was not the case. Simma Holt is a member of for a special event in June 1998 in down given the “OutstandingAchievementAward.” a cultural mi

- nority she is Jewish - and her father, town Vancouver. In March of this year the by the Heritage Society ofBC for the work Louis Mimer, was an immigrant to VHS produced the fur trade history sympo on this building. The award was presented Canada from the Ukraine in 1906. sium and book launch ofMorag Maclachlan’s onJune 25th. As well, rather than being”something ofa redTory” as described Fort LangleyJournals, 1827— 1830. In May the ARMSTRONG FAIR by Duke, Simma Holt was essentially society held its annual Incorporation Day apo For 100 years now Armstrong has held the litical until 1974 when she was recruited dinner as well as the book launch of Eliza Interior Provincial Exhibition early Septem because ofher public and feminist profile by beth Walker’s Street Names of Vancouvet ber every year.The Armstrong Spallumcheen the Trudeau Liberals as candidate for Van Museum and Arts Society couver-Kingsway - VICTORIA HISTORICi S0CIEI-Y has prepared a hardly an upper middle- comprehensive history of this class riding. She This first “branch” of the BCHF now regis remarkable won the election handily, “country fair.” This book, with over pic thereby earning the distinction ters 110 members, despite competition from 200 of being tures, will sell for $20.00, plus mailing Canada’s first femaleJewish 30 other heritage groups in the capital re costs Member ofPar and may be ordered from: ASMAS, liament and her government gion. They have good speakers at evening P0 Box fostered 3089.Armstrong,BC,VOE 1BO, or by multiculturalism in Canada. meetings plus two outings.The 14 May 1999 phon ing (250) 546-8318, With regard to my sail on the Oriole, a navy training sailboat, concern that some statements made by Ms. Duke about Simma took the guests to tea at Dunsmuir’s Hatley COOSE TO KASLO Holt were not adequately substantiated, I Castle which is now a private college. Some The Nelson Eectric Tramway donated a 1929 would point as examples to her claims that members conduct guided tours of the Em CPR caboose to the Kootenay Lake His Mrs. Holt conformed to “traditional gender press Hotel. torical Society. The caboose came to Kaslo roles,” adhered to “mainstream” and “con on a low bed trailer, with accompanying OTHER NEWS: rails servative values,” had “little sympathy for the and ballast, to be carefully set in place beside Doukhobors,” that she “stressed the inipor— the wharfbetween the CANADIAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION SS Moyie and the sta tance of collective stability over private free tion. AWARDS dom.” These are broad generalizations that British Columbia had two winners. We ex CFUW EAST K00TENAY were not justified by Duke’s cursory excerpt tend congratulations to Mary-Ellen Keim for In May The Cranbrook chapter of the Ca ing from Mrs. Holt’s own work. However her book Colonizing Bodies:Aborginal Health nadian Federation of University Women they do serve to assign Mrs. Holt to broad and Healing, 1900—1950, and to Alice hosted the provincial annual conference. categories useful for the purpose of theo Glanville of Grand Forks, our past president Delegates were treated to workshops and retical argument.This suggests that there may ofthe BCHF”for contributions towards the taken on a tours. Donna Lomas a staff mem be a wider framework of historical social promotion of British Columbia history and ber from the College of the Rockies was debate through which Duke was analyzing regional history of the Boundary Area.” the after dinner speaker. Mrs. Holt’s writings, but there was no men tion of such a framework in the article.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 1999 47 There is a lack of discussion and support greatest woman reporter ofher time” (Peter BRrrIsH Coumuv, HIsrolucAL in other areas as well. Ms. Duke presents as Worthington, Toronto Sun, December an undisputed conclusion that it was inap 9,1993). FErp.TIoN propriate for Mrs. Holt and other social ac Her 5-year parliamentary career was pro SCHOLARSHIP 1999—2000 tivists of the time to side against the gressive. Vice-chair of the Justice Commit Applications should be submitted Doukhobor community tee, she was also a mem before 15 May 2000 to Cana ber of Sub-Commit in its resistance the The British Columbia Historical over property tee the dian laws on Penitentiary Federation annually awards a $500 and The rights, citizenship, the System in Canada. re scholarship to a student completing sultant Report to schooling of Doukhobor Parlia third or fourth year at a British children; or as Ms. Duke ment, which was drafted Columbia college or university. phrased it “(t)otai.ly for largely by Mrs. Holt, view formed the basis for eign to Holt was the sub To apply for the scholarship, candidates that people might not sequent prison reform in must submit: want to conform to the Canada. Later she was on 1. A letter of application. dominant values of mid the Parole Board of 2. An essay of 1500-3000 words on a topic dle—class Canadians.” Canada. Her humanitar relating to the history ofBritish Columbia. However, as a business ian interest led to mem The essay must be suitable for publication employer of many ethnic bership in the Canadian in British Columbia Historical News. peoples, including Parliamentary Helsinki 3. A professor’s letter ofrecornmendation. Doukhobors, my experi Group and observer status ence has been that many at the 1977, 35-nation SEND SUBMISSIONS TO: FacEs GuNDRY, have welcomed the free conference in Belgrade, CHAIR, B.C. HISTORICAL FEDERATION Phote courtesy cyril E.Leonoff dom of breaking away which attempted to have SCHOLAaSIIIP COMMITTEE, 255 NIAGA1 Above: Simma Holt displaying her from parental and ethnic dialogue with the Soviets STREET VICTORIA BC V8V 1G4 “Politician’s Smile,” restraints to enjoy fulfill self-described on human rights and free (250) 385-6353 (HoME) (250) 387-3623 (woRK) during an interview, December 1998. ing careers in mainstream dom behind the Iron Cur [email protected]. CA tain. All of this back Canadian society. This The winning essay will, and other selected or explored. ground information on Simma Holt is read possibility was not presented submissions rny be published in British Duke presents no follow-up examination as ily available, and if the intent of Duke’s arti Columbia Historical News. to how the counter-culture movement ofthe cle was a critique of Mrs. Holt’s career and 1950s and 1960s, critiqued by Mrs. Holt, was writings, then I would have expected his ANUSCRIPTS for publication not enduring and many of the hippie gen torical impartiality to require inclusion and M should be sent to the Editor eration have settled down to the mid-life discussion of such positive and notable ac BC Historical News, P0 Box 130, middle-class lifestyle of their parents. complishments. Whonnock, BC ,V2W 1V9. Submis Ms. Duke’s article was As well, the article does not balance its I appreciate that sions should not be more than 3,500 fair appraisal of the charac written as a submission for a student com criticisms with a words. Illustrations are welcome and ter and accomplishments of Simma Holt. I petition. However, it was published in your should be accompanied by captions, had the opportunity to learn more about Mrs. journal on equal footing with other contri source information, registration num Holt when I participated in interviewing her butions, and without any editorial proviso applicable, and permission for the oral history program of our Society. to introduce it as an inaugural effort. Given bers where At a time when women reporters were a tar that the article aimed rather brutally at a per for publication. Photographs are pre ity Mrs. Holt coveredVancouver’s waterfront son whose career and character deserved ferred over laser copies.They will be and skid road beat, where few men dared to more careful and more qualified analysis, I returned uncut and unmarked. Please tread. Here she broke many a front-page story believe that it therefore requires a rejoinder. include a diskette with a digital copy for the Vancouver Sun; at different times her I am pleased to advise that, at age 77, of the manuscript if possible. as dynamic tenaciousness saved three men from the gal Simma Holt is alive and well and Authors publishing in BC Historical was a as ever. Widowed in 1985, she now lives lows by proving their innocence. She News for the first time will receive a social concerns of the day. A modestly in suburban Coquitlam. Still ac crusader on the one-year complimentary subscription meticulous researcher, she travelled as far as tively writing, she has a number ofprojected to the journal. If they wish, this com Uruguay to research her book on the Sons books in her computer, including an autobi plimentary subscription may be as ofFreedom Doukhobors. In the 1960s Mrs. ography which we have encouraged her to their Holt was named Canada’s Woman oftheYear finish and publish. signed to another person of won the Bowater Award choice as a one—year gift subscription. for arts and literature, Cyril E. Leonoff, There is a yearly award, directed at ofMerit for her series on teenagers, and was The Jewish Historical Society 3-time winner of the top news award for of British Columbia amateur historians and students, for women. In a 30-year journalism career, the Best Article published in BC His Ms. Dukec article was indeed clearly identified as a has been called “perhaps the Simma Holt student essay torical News.

48 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL sg

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