FORT Garry and the Red River Settlement

ARTIST as BUFFALO HUNTER Paul Kane and the Red River Half-breeds

TEN YEARS after the American painter Bay. The next spring he set out on a far George Catlin made his long-remembered more extensive journey, which was to oc­ visit to the Pipestone Quarry of western cupy over two years and take him west­ Minnesota in 1836, a Canadian artist, Paul ward to Fort Vancouver on the Pacific.'^ Kane, set out for the Far West. Like Cat­ In May, 1846, Kane traveled from To­ lin, Kane was attracted by the Indians — ronto via the Great Lakes to Fort William, their costumes, their customs, and the scen­ followed the Kaministikwia River route in­ ery of the "almost unknown country'" in land to the border waters, paused to view which they lived. and sketch spectacular Kakabeka Falls, A native of Ireland who had spent his and went via Rainy Lake, Lake of the youth in Toronto, Kane became interested Woods, and the Winnipeg and Red rivers in the Indians during his boyhood in that to the Red River Settlement and Fort frontier Canadian community, which was Garry, the Hudson's Bay Company post on known as York when his family settled the present site of Winnipeg. The artist there about 1818. He received some train­ arrived a few days after the local half- ing in drawing from a teacher in the local breeds had departed for a buffalo hunt. "As grammar school, and later he was able to I was very anxious to witness buffalo hunt­ spend four years studying art in Europe. ing," writes Kane, "I procured a guide, a His desire to portray Indians was first sat­ cart for my tent, &c., and a saddle-horse for isfied in 1845, when he journeyed westward myself and started after one of the bands." to Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac, and Green The adventures which followed provided the artist with material which he eventu­ ally recorded not only in pictures, but in ' For information about the artist's life, see Law­ rence J. Burpee's introduction to Kane, Wanderings colorful narratives. of an Artist among the Indians of North America, The primitive folk of the Red River xi-xxxvii (Toronto, 1925). Kane's book was originally published in London in 1859. country whose strenuous life he shared for

December 1959 309 a few June days were a unique group. In comes dry it shrinks and is so tight that it them Kane saw "a race, who, keeping never falls off, and lasts as long as the cart themselves distinct from both Indians and holds together." During their hunting ex­ whites, form a tribe of themselves; and cursions, the half-breeds lived like nomads although they have adopted some of the in "lodges formed of dressed buffalo skins," customs and manners of the French voya­ hke Indian tepees, which could be carried geurs, are much more attached to the wild easily in their crude carts. and savage manners of the Red man." - Three days after leaving Fort Garry, These "descendants of the white men in Kane joined a band of about "two hundred the Hudson's Bay Company's employment hunters, besides women and children" who and the native Indian women" proved to welcomed him "with the greatest cordial­ be "a very hardy race of men, capable of ity." The meeting took place near the in­ enduring the greatest hardships and fa­ ternational boundary on the Pembina tigues," but "neglecting their land for the River, where Kane "found the band cutting more exciting pleasures of the chase." poles which they are obliged to carry with The artist was interested chiefly in the them to dry the meat on, as after leaving half-breeds' buffalo hunts, which, he notes, this no more timbered land is met with "are conducted by the whole tribe and take until the three bands meet together again place twice a year — about the middle of at the Turtle mountain, where the meat June and October." On those occasions, they have taken and dried on the route is "the tribe is divided into three bands, each made into pimmikon [pemmican]. This taking a separate route for the purpose of process is conducted in the following man- falling in with the herds of buffaloes. These bands are each accompanied by about five ' Kane read a paper describing the half-breeds and hundred carts, drawn by either an ox or a their buffalo hunt before the Canadian Institute on horse. Their cart is a curious looking vehi­ November 13, 1855. It appears under the title "Notes ot a Sojourn among the Half-breeds, Hudson Bay cle, made by themselves with their axes, Company's Territory, Red River," in the Canadian and fastened together with wooden pins lournal of Industry, Science, and Art, 1:128-138 (New and leather strings — nails not being pro­ Series — Toronto, 1856). With some revisions, it is incorporated in Wanderings of an Artist, 49-66. Pas­ curable. The tire of the wheel is made of sages relating to the hunt here quoted are from the buffalo hide and put on wet. When it be­ original version.

CART train of Red River half-breeds bound for a buffalo hunt CAMP of the Red River buffalo hunters

ner: The thin slices of dried meat are The half-breeds pushed westward for pounded between two stones until the fi­ several days "without meeting any buffalo," bres separate. About fifty pounds of this is although they "saw plenty of indications put into a bag of buffalo skin with about of their having been in the neighborhood forty pounds of melted fat and mixed to­ a short time previous." Then, writes Kane, gether while hot, and sewed up, forming a "I was gratified with the sight of a band hard compact mass; each cart brings home of about forty buffalo cows in the distance, ten of these bags, and all that the Half- and our hunters in full chase. . . . They breeds do not require for themselves is succeeded in killing twenty-five, which were eagerly bought by the [Hudson's Bay] distributed through the camp and proved Company for the purpose of sending to the most welcome to all of us, as our provisions more distant posts where food is scarce. were getting rather short, and I was abun­ One pound of this is considered equal to dantly tired of pemmikon and dried meat. four pounds of ordinary meat." The fires being lighted with the wood we On the morning after Kane joined the had brought with us in the carts, the whole hunters, they broke camp and set off for party commenced feasting with a voracity the open plains of Manitoba and the area which appeared perfectly astonishing to south of the border that was to become me, until I tried myself and found by ex­ part of Minnesota Territory within three perience how much hunting in the plains years. The women and children rode in the stimulated the appetite." carts, each of which was "decorated with For the next few days only single ani­ some flag or other conspicuous emblem on mals or small herds were seen. Eventually, a pole, so that the hunters might recognize however, the "scouts brought in word of their own from a distance." As the caval­ an immense herd of buffalo bulls about two cade "wound off in one continuous line miles in advance of us. They are known in extending for miles, accompanied by the the distance from the cows by their feed­ hunters on horseback," the artist made a ing singly and being scattered wider over sketch on which he later based the oil the plain, whereas the cows keep together painting reproduced herewith. for the protection of the calves, which are

December 1959 311 TWO Assiniboin Indians running a buffalo always kept in the centre of the herd." So is vividly described by the artist. He that he could see the buffaloes feeding be­ writes: "Every thing being adjusted, we all fore the hunt began, Kane set out with a walked our horses towards the herd. By the single half-breed early the next morning in time we had gone about two hundred advance of the party. They were able to yards, the herd perceived us and started approach within a quarter of a mile of the off in the opposite direction at the top of herd, which they saw "stretched over the their speed. We now put our horses to the plains far as the eye could reach." full gallop, and in twenty minutes were in Within an hour, writes Kane, "the hunt­ their midst. There could not have been less ers came up to us, numbering about one than four or five thousand in our immedi­ hundred and thirty, and immediate prepa­ ate vicinity, all bulls, not a single cow rations were made for the chase. Every man amongst them. The scene now became one loaded his gun, looked to his priming, and of intense excitement: the huge bulls thun­ examined the efficiency of his saddle-girths. dering over the plains in headlong confu­ The elder men strongly cautioned the less sion, whflst the fearless hunters rode experienced not to shoot each other, a cau­ recklessly in their midst, keeping up an tion by no means unnecessary, as such ac­ incessant fire at but a few yards distance cidents frequently occur. Each hunter then from their victims. Upon the fall of each filled his mouth with balls which he drops buffalo the successful hunter merely threw into the gun without wadding; by this some article of his apparel — often carried means loading much quicker, and . . . by him solely for that purpose — to denote whilst his horse is at full speed," his own prey, and then rushed on to an­ The eagerly awaited hunt which followed other. These marks are scarcely ever dis-

312 MINNESOTA History puted, but should a doubt arise as to the not however fafl, but stopped and faced ownership, the carcase is equally divided me, pawing the earth, bellowing and glar­ between the claimants. ing savagely at me. The blood was stream­ "The chase continued only about one ing profusely from his mouth, and I hour, and extended over an area of from thought he would soon drop. The position five to six square mfles, over which might in which he stood was so fine, that I could be seen the dead and dying buffaloes, to not resist the desire of making a sketch. I the number of five hundred. In the mean accordingly dismounted, and had just com­ time my horse, which had started at a good menced, when he suddenly made a dash at run, was suddenly confronted by a large me. I had hardly time to spring on my bull, that made his appearance from behind horse, and get away from him, leaving my a knoll within a few yards of him, and gun and everything else behind. When he being thus taken by surprise, he sprung to came up to where I had been standing, he one side and getting his foot into one of turned over the articles I had dropped, the innumerable badger holes with which pawing fiercely as he tossed them about, the plains abound, he fell at once, and I and then retreated towards the herd. I im­ was thrown over his head with such vio­ mediately recovered my gun, and, hav­ lence that I was completely stunned, but I ing reloaded, again pursued him and soon soon recovered my recollection. Some of the planted another shot in him; and this time men caught my horse, and I was speedily he remained on his legs long enough for remounted. ... I again joined in the pur­ me to make a sketch." suit and, coming up with a large bull, I had Kane reports that the "camp was now the satisfaction of bringing him down at moved to the field of slaughter for the the first fire. greater convenience of collecting the meat." "Excited by my success I threw down Next day the "hunters sighted and chased my cap, and, galloping on, soon put a bullet another large band of bulls, with good through another enormous animal. He did success." The encampment and the sur-

HED River half-breeds attacking a buffalo herd rounding plain "now resembled one vast artist set out on his westward trek to the shambles; the women, whose business it is, Pacific.^ being all busily employed in cutting the Kane returned to Toronto in the autumn flesh into slices and hanging them in the of 1848, carrying with him about four hun­ sun, on racks made of poles tied together." dred sketches. Of the scores of oil paintings The artist estimated that "the Half-breeds that he based upon them, a hundred were alone destroy thirty thousand" buffaloes commissioned by George William Allen of annually. Toronto, the generous patron to whom By this time, Kane seems to have had Kane dedicated his Adventures of an Artist. enough of buffalo hunting, and he was anx­ Many years later the entire Allen collec­ ious to return to Fort Garry. His guide, tion was purchased by Sir Edmund Os­ however, had become seriously ill, and he ier and presented to the Royal Ontario would consent to accompany the artist Museum in Toronto.* Five of the six pic­ only if he could "ride in the cart, and not tures here reproduced, depicting the Red be expected to attend to the horses or River Settlement and the half-breed and cooking.'' Kane was forced to agree to this Indian hunters of 1846, have been used arrangement, since none of the half-breeds through the courtesy of that museum. The would accompany him "from fear of the view of Kakabeka Fafls appearing below Sioux, in whose territory we then were, and is in the Coe Collection owned by the Yale whom they dreaded." The journey proved University Library. B.L.H. to be full of hazards, and it was only after being lost in a swamp that Kane reached " Kane, Wanderings of an Artist, 67-72. ' Burpee, in Kane, Wanderings of an Artist, xxiv, the fort. On July 5, he obtained passage on xxix. See also p. xxxviii-xlviii for a "Catalogue ot a sloop belonging to the Hudson's Bay Paintings by Paul Kane" in the Royal Ontario Mu­ Company, bound for the mouth of the Red seum. Fifteen of the pictures, largely relating to the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Northwest areas, are re­ River and Norway House at the north end produced in color in the August, 1959, issue ot Amer­ of Lake Winnipeg. There on August 14 the ican Heritage (p. 43, 46-53),

KAKABEKA Falls near Fort William on the Kaministikwia River

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