The Ashkee Indians

DAVID H. PENTLAND University of Manitoba

In 1719 recorded in the account book that he had given presents to 5 leading Indians, to encourage The Trade & keeping Peace, Viz., Vaupissoo, at the head of Churchill River; Weeshcai, at the head of Severn; Maytuhkohp epoet, a Stone Indian, at the head of Albany near where the French are; Ashkee Ethinu, about the Mountain Near Redd Deer River; [and] Apishtathineecau, at the head of Port Nelson (PAM HBCA B.239/d/10, fo. 3a).1

These five were among the very large number of Indians who visited York Factory in the spring of 1719. On June 13, Kelsey wrote "here is more Indians now then ever I saw att one time & all well freight'd with furrs" (B.239/a/5, fo. 52d). The flood of Indians began with eight of "Strangers" on May 21, and included large numbers of Uplanders, Sinne Poets or Stone Indians (), Sturgeon (a group), and others not specifically named, in addition to the Woods Cree who lived closer to the fort (B.239/a/5, fo. 50-52). By June 17 all the Upland Indians had traded their furs and left for home, but not before Kelsey had interviewed the leaders and entered the information they provided in his journal. The main piece of news that spring was that "the french Woodrunners are very breif up in the Lakes", at a lake called

JI have supplied all the punctuation in the quotations from Kelsey's journal and account books; all other additions and alterations to quotations are indicated by square brackets. I would like to thank the staff of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives for their assistance in a wide-ranging hunt through the documents in their care. 151 152 DAVID H. PENTLAND

Thucummaumewan which "lyes nearer this place then it does to Albany" and has connections both to the Nelson River and "towards Kennedy [Canada]". There were said to be about 40 Frenchmen under a leader the Indians called "Moosooh" (Monsieur?), who promised to bring 100 men more the follow­ ing year to drive the English into the sea. However, many of the young men who went to trade with them were killed by the Sioux, and the Uplanders were sure "that the french Decoy'd them into that snare" (B.239/a/5, fo. 51, 52). The following day Kelsey made further inquiries, seeking especially those Indians "whose Country lyes nearer the fore sd Lake then any [other?] Indians that comes here does"; these told him "it is all lyes and that their is no french their, but the Indians talk of their Coming there" (B.239/a/5, fo. 52d). However, the more than 100 -loads of Uplanders who not only believed the French to be there but could also name their leader and his location were probably right: Zacharie Robu- tel de La Noue had set off from Montreal in 1717 to establish posts at Kaministikwia, Rainy Lake, and, if possible, Lake of the Woods. He remained at Kaministikwia until 1721, and in 1718 had sent Jean-Daniel-Marie Viennay-Pachot to Taka- mamiouen, the outlet of Rainy Lake (Margry 1888 (6):508).2 To reach Pachot's little post on Rainy River the Uplanders would have had to pass dangerously close to Sioux territory, and it is hardly surprising that the Sioux attacked them in this traditional border area. However, the French were as put out by the attacks as the Uplanders, and had no idea they were drawing them into an ambush. That some Indians denied the Frenchmen's existence may mean only that Kelsey had asked people from the wrong district. It is also possible, however, that they not only knew of the French but had traded with them, and feared losing their usual presents from the English for coming to York Factory and having to share the French trade with other tribes if they admitted that Pachot was at Rainy River. Those who had been invited by the French to trade at Rainy River were "some of the Mountain Indians" (B.239/a/5, fo. 51). Ray (1974:55-57) identifies them as or , since

2In 1721 Charlevoix requested that (Viennay)-Pachot be assigned him as a guide to the Lake Superior region (Hayne 1974:105), and makes some very complimentary remarks about his abilities (Margry 1888 (6):529). THE ASHKEE INDIANS 153 a group of Mountain Indians who visited York Factory in 1715 and 1716 told that they grew Indian corn, had moose, buffalo, and red deer, wore ornaments of white and yel­ low metal, and had mountains in their country so high that the tops could not be seen except in good weather. But one of these Mountain Indians also told Knight that he had been to Fort Al­ bany on 16 years before, and the whole tribe seems to have been perfectly at home in birchbark canoes: it was not one or two adventurous young men who first made the trip to York Factory, but a party of 30 canoes. Ray quite reasonably discounts the allusions to silver and gold, since they were un­ doubtedly in response to leading questions from Knight, but can see nothing incompatible in the rest of the statement. He does not identify the tall mountains in the Mandan country, nor does he explain where the Indians picked up their canoeing skills. I think we must discard this identification (as well as several others made by Ray), and look elsewhere for the home of the Mountain Indians. At this early date it is unlikely that the visitors to York Factory were from the most obvious place, the Rocky Moun­ tains. The Hudson's Bay Company sent a number of men inland in the mid-18th century in an attempt to attract the Blackfoot and their neighbours, but were never able to get them to make the long trip to the Bay because they lacked canoes and other skills necessary for survival in the forest area (Cocking 1908:106, 111). The Athapaskan Indians of northern — presumably the Beaver and the Slavey — were more willing to trade, but Captain Swan, sent out by James Knight as "peace maker", brought back only "a sample of that Gum or pitch that flows out of the Banks" of the Athapasca River.3 He also reported that

3Besides the "Gum or pitch", Captain Swan also brought "a sample of the other Stuff that is ty'd to itt" (B.239/a/5, fo. 52); Kelsey had apparently received another sample of tar-sand the year before, when some Cree who had been on a peace mission (which turned into a massacre) brought "a Sample of Minerall whose name is Thapewin" (B.239/a/5, fo. 25). They also traded to Kelsey two boys they had captured in the attack, and a Northern Indian ("little heads boy") who happened to be at York Factory said "they are their freinds & that he understands some of their words" (B.239/a/5, fo. 24 [letter from Kelsey to Knight, 15 June 1718]). The boys therefore spoke an Athapaskan language, but not -Dogrib-Yel- lowknife. 154 DAVID H. PENTLAND

the Natives of that Country are so fearfull that altho he winter d with them & they promised to come here with him, which they did till they come in the boarders of this peoples Country, but all the perswasions he could use he could not gett them any further (B239/a/5, fo. 52)

Captain Swan arrived at York Factory in 1719 in company with a large convoy of "Stone Indians & Uplanders from Red Deer River", and it was to the latter, not to Swan, that Kelsey looked for more accurate reports of the Mountain Indians and French traders. I conclude that to Knight and Kelsey the term "Mountain Indians" was little more than a synonym for "Up­ land Indians", and in the present context probably referred to whatever tribes lived in the "mountains" of the . Not only the references to gold and silver, then, but also the claim that the mountain tops were in the clouds must be put down to exaggeration, mistranslation, or wishful thinking. Everything else said about the Mountain Indians will fit the Assiniboine and Alqonquians who lived in the Riding Mountains, Duck Mountains, and Porcupine Mountains west of Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis: they lived in an area where moose, red deer and buffalo could all be obtained, and at least some of them traded regularly with the Missouri River tribes for corn. They lived close enough to York Factory that they could send 30 canoes in 1715 and 60 in 1719, yet were also located in an area that would allow reasonable access to Rainy River and even to Fort Albany should more adventurous souls care to make the journey. Another group first mentioned by Ray is the Ashkee In­ dians, whom he identifies as the Atsina, or as they are sometimes known. The only reference to a primary source which Ray gives concerning this tribe is the 1719 York Factory account book: one of the five "leading Indians" to whom Kelsey gave presents was Ashkee Ethinu, from "about the Mountain Near Redd Deer River". Apparently recognizing that "Ethinu" is the Woods Cree word for 'man, person, In­ dian', Ray has interpreted the personal name "Ashkee Ethinu" as 'Ashkee Indian', thus discovering the tribe of which he is the chief. To this he adds the information (from no source that I can discover) that the Ashkee Indians were from the grasslands, not the wooded areas nearer York Factory, and concludes THE ASHKEE INDIANS 155

the chief must have come from the Nut Mountain or Touchwood Hills area near the upper headwaters of the Red Deer River .... Pre­ sumably, therefore, the Ashkee Indians were the Gros Ventre since they were not considered to be a band of either Cree or Assiniboine. (Ray 1974:21)

I cannot find anything in the single reference which Ray gives, or in other sources, to confirm the statement that Ash­ kee Ethinu was from the grasslands. In the account book he is said only to be from "about the Mountain Near Redd Deer River", with no further qualification to allow a positive identi­ fication from among the many hills and "mountains" south of the River. Nor have I found any evidence that there was more than one Ashkee Ethinu. Many Cree Indians had names ending in "Ethinu", and others had personal names which are identical to the Cree names for other tribes. For instance, at Cumber­ land House a century later there were men named "Miskugu Ethinue", "Papumethawe Ethinue", "Petisk Ethinue", "Pemis- kiwe Ethinue", and "Wapeke Ethinu", this last a boy under the age of 15 (B.49/z/l, pp. 121-122), and others named "Mith- cocuman" (i.e., '', another young boy) (B.49/z/l, pp. 121-122), and "the Snake Indian" (B.49/a/44, fo. 8d). There were also people named simply "Ethinue" ('Indian') and "Huggemaw" ('chief') (B.49/e/l, fo. 5d), but neither seems to have been a person of any special importance. The chief Ashkee Ethinu is mentioned in a second source (not cited by Ray, though he was probably aware of it): the reports Kelsey gathered in the York Factory journal concern­ ing a French establishment on the Rainy River. On June 12, 1719, "in the Eving a fleeto f Cannoes about 60 in Number came down this River of Stone Indians &; Uplanders from Red Deer River, and they all Verifie the report of the french set­ tling at the afore sd Lake" (B.239/a/5, fo. 52). The next day Kelsey "inquired of those Indians that came Yesterdy about the french" and was told by some of them that "it is all lyes"; he also learned that in March "the Poeticks [Sioux] came up with 2 tents of these poeple & Killd them". He was also given "a sample from the mountains" by Ashkee Ethinu (B.239/a/5, fo. 52d). This time the chief's name is spelled "Aske Ethinne", but this variation is well within the tolerances for 18th-century English spelling of Cree names. Thus all that is really known about Ashkee (or Aske) Ethinu 156 DAVID H. PENTLAND is that he visited York Factory in 1719 in the company of a large party of Assiniboine (Stone) Indians and unidentified "Uplanders from Red Deer River", and was treated by Kelsey as a chief. The rock sample might have provided further clues to his home, but although Kelsey attached a ticket to it and presumably sent it to along with Captain Swan's tar- sand specimens, it is no longer to be found in the Company's archives. Before I had discovered that Ray's "Ashkee Indians" rested on such a slim foundation, I had attempted to identify the tribe by analyzing their name. Since the second half of "Ash­ kee Ethinu" is the Woods Cree word for 'Indian', the firstpar t is probably Woods Cree as well. The most obvious source is /askiy/ 'land, earth', but Kelsey's spelling with "sh" makes an identification with the "Gens de Terre" (Henry 1901:62) extremely unlikely. The only common root that fitswithou t emendation is /aSki/ 'raw', but "Raw Indian" seems odd as either a personal or a tribal name. A longer form, such as /a§kahtikwidiniw/ 'greenwood Indian' (cf. "Strongwood Cree"), or /aSkekinidiniw/ 'rawhide Indian' (cf. Chipewyan 'pointed hide [Indian]') would be more usual, as a group name at least. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find that there was a "Flesh Indian" (Cree /a§ki-wTyas-idiniw/ 'raw-meat Indian') who lived in the same area 50 years later. On June 23, 1774, set out from York Fac­ tory to establish Cumberland House, "accompany'd by Me-sin- e-kish-ac an upland leading Indian, and 3 others of his crew" (Tyrrell 1934:97). The name /mihslni-kl§ik/ means 'great sky' in the Saulteaux dialect of Ojibwa, and this Uplander is there­ fore clearly Ojibwa rather than Cree. Three years later he is mentioned again, but he has been considerably disguised. In a letter to Humphrey Marten dated March 8, 1777, Matthew Cocking mentioned that he was accompanied to Cumberland House by a North River Indian named "Metunekishock (old Ketakow's Son)" (Rich and Johnson 1951:126). The North River is the Nelson — traditional Cree territory — and the man's name is also Cree: /mitoni kiSik/ 'very [sic] sky'. A year later Cocking wrote to Robert Longmoor, who was wintering at Hudson House on the west of Prince Albert: "You will also endeavour to get the Flesh Indian and others who You know to be trusty to assist in going down to THE ASHKEE INDIANS 157

York Fort" (Rich and Johnson 1951:286). Longmoor obviously complied with these orders, since in his letter to Humphrey Marten of May 29, 1780, William Tomison referred to "The flesh Indian Miss'nee-kis'och and some others, who Mr. Long- moor through his great persuadings built eight Canoes for Trade, also small Canoes for themselves to assist him Down with furrs from Hudson House" (Rich and Johnson 1952:50). The final link is provided by the Cumberland House journal, which recorded on August 13, 1780, the return of "the Flesh Indian, sky" from York Factory (Rich and Johnson 1952:112). We therefore know that "Miss'nee-kis'och", "Metunekishock", "Sky", and "the Flesh Indian" were all one and the same per­ son. In the 1815 district report, "Messina Keeshick" is listed as one of the fivechief s at Cumberland House, although Alexan­ der Kennedy shows some exasperation when he adds "but tho these Old Men assume the title of Chiefs they have no right to it as they have no controul over the young men whom they call their adherents" (B.49/e/l, fo. 5). Ten years later "Missinekegick", now a widower with two children, appears in the census of Cumberland House Indians, but the "upland lead­ ing Indian" of 1774 is now said to be one of the "Home Guards from York Factory" rather than a Cumberland Indian, Ojibwa or Saulteaux, or one of the "Pelicans from Lac Ouinipeck". That we are still dealing with the same person, however, is confirmed by James Leith's note: "An old man, formerly the great Chief at York Factory" (B.49/z/l, p. 121). Missinekegick was still alive and working a trapline in 1828 (B.49/a/44, fo. 9), but must have died not long after. He had been a chief for at least 55 years, and was presumably therefore at least 75 years old. Missinekegick is the only "Flesh Indian" mentioned in the early Cumberland House journals, so his tribe cannot have been very well represented in the area. Whether the other possible "Flesh Indian", the Ashkee Ethinu who visited York Factory in 1719, was his ancestor will probably never be known. Ray's search of all the York Factory journals from 1715 to 1775 turned up no further references to the man. If the two are connected in any way beyond the fact that they both lived in the Cumberland House area, the tribal distribution maps for the 18th century will have to be considerably revised, since the 158 DAVID H. PENTLAND

Ojibwa are usually said to have first arived in the . The Hudson's Bay Company traders at York Factory and its dependencies invariably spoke Woods Cree, and -far more often than has been generally realized they altered names to fit this dialect. Thus Missinekegick, with his unmistakeably Ojibwa name was called Metonekishock in 1777, even if the translation was less than perfect. In 1799 John Richards de­ serted to the Nor'Westers, and Peter Fidler complained that since he was the only Hudson's Bay Company employee inland from York Factory "who understood the Bungees and the Ot­ toways" - Richards was born at Henley House - their trade would undoubtedly suffer (Johnson 1967:216). Ojibwa Indians had been coming to York Factory for years, but James !sham had not thought it necessary to list more than a dozen words of their language (!sham 1949:191), since they could under­ stand enough of his pidgin Cree to trade. It is thus possible that there had been Ojibwa speakers in the Cumberland House area for 50 years before they were first· noticed by the traders. The picture is obscured by the general shift westward of the much more numerous Cree and Assiniboine Indians. Some of the Ojibwa who were later reported to be in Saskatchewan had come in the 1770s in search of better trapping territo­ ries, and many more were to arrive in the next 20 years as they helped to fill the vacuum left in western Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan by the withdrawal of the earlier inhab­ itants. Two "N a,ka,wa,vouck, Indians" visited Cumberland House with their families in December 1777 and January 1778, but it was not until January 6 that Joseph Hansom discovered them to be "an old Bungee Leader and Family belonging to York Fort" (Rich and Johnson 1951:208). By the late 1790s, Peter Fidler at Buckingham House near Frog Lake, Alberta, and James Bird at Setting River (today the Sturgeon River, west of Prince Albert) both had to report that "There are very few Indians at this place save Bungees" ( Johnson 1967:87, 182); and in the summer of 1799 a Nor'Wester conducted a band of "Bungee and Ottaway Indians" from House north­ east to Lac la Biche (Johnson 1967:195-196). If Ojibwa from the Cumberland House area had moved west with the Cree and the Assiniboine Indians they would probably have been submerged in the large number of later immigrants who spoke the same language. THE ASHKEE INDIANS 159

If Missinekegick's people remained at Cumberland House, they will have been among the groups that were all but wiped out by the smallpox epidemic of 1781-1782. William Tomison reported that "The whole tribe of U'Basquiou [] Indi­ ans ... are extinct except one Child, and that of the Several Tribes of Assinnee Poet[,] Pegogomew and others bordering on Saskachiwan River he realy believed not one in fifty have survived." Matthew Cocking added that the smallpox "is now raging among our poor Pungee Deer Hunters of whom almost every one that has been seized with it have died" (Rich and Johnson 1952:298). Among the survivors were Missinekegick and his parents, but they may have been alone. It is certain that there was at least one family of Ojibwa at Cumberland House from the day it was founded in 1774. It is also possible (but no more than that) that a few Ojibwa were there much earlier, at least three-quarters of a century before the tribe became numerous enough to be noticed regularly in the area. While I agree with Ray that the Atsina were living in central Saskatchewan during the 18th century, I can see no reason to connect them with the man who visited York Factory in 1719.

REFERENCES

Hudson's Bay Company Archives (Provincial Archives of Manitoba) B.49/a/44. Journal, Report & Correspondence, Cumberland Distct 1828/29.

B.49/e/l. Report on Cumberland House 1815 [by Alexander Kennedy].

B.49/z/l. [Cumberland House miscellany]. (Pp. 121-122 are "Cumberland House Indians 1825", a census compiled by James Leith.)

B.239/a/5. The Journall of York Fort For 1717, 1718, 1719 & 1720, Cap1 Henry Kelsey Gouernor.

B.239/d/10. Ace* Book at York Fort Anno Domini 1719, And For 1720. 160 DAVID H. PENTLAND

Cocking, Matthew 1908 An Adventurer from : Journal of Matthew Cock­ ing, From York Factory to the Blackfeet Country, 1772-73. Lawrence J. Burpee, ed. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series 3, 2(II):89-121.

Hayne, David M. 1974 Charlevoix, Pierre-Francois-Xavier de. Dictionary of Canadian Biography 3:103-110.

Henry, Alexander (the Elder) 1901 Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the Years 1760 and 1776. James Bain, ed. : Morang.

Isham, James 1949 James Isham's Observations on Hudsons Bay, 174$ ... E. E. Rich and A. M. Johnson, eds. Toronto: Champlain Society.

Johnson, A. M., ed. 1967 Saskatchewan Journals and Correspondence: Edmonton House 1795-1800, Chesterfield House 1800-1802. London: Hudson's Bay Record Society.

Margry, Pierre, ed. 1888 Decouvertes et etablissements des Francais dans I'ouest et dans le sud de I'Amerique Septentrionale (1614-1754): 6epartie, Ex­ ploration des affluents du Mississipi et decouverte des Mon- tagnes Rocheuses (1679-1754). Paris: Maisonneuve et Ch. Leclerc. Ray, Arthur J. 1974 Indians in the Fur Trade. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Rich, E. E., and A. M. Johnson, eds. 1951 Cumberland House Journals and Inland Journal 1775-82: First Series, 1775-79. London: Hudson's Bay Record Society.

1952 Cumberland House Journals and Inland Journals 1775-82: Sec­ ond Series, 1779-82. London: Hudson's Bay Record Society. Tyrrell, Joseph B., ed. 1934 Journals of Samuel Hearne and Philip Turnor Between the Years 1774 and 1792. Toronto: Champlain Society.