Where the River Takes Me

by Julie Lawson

  Mariage à la façon du pays had more than economic advantages. Since there were no white women in Western Canada for over a hundred years after white men arrived, and since most traders spent much of their lives in the wilderness, the only way they could have a family life was to take a First Nations wife.

  Until the union of the two fur trading companies in 1821, mariage à la façon du pays was an informal arrangement, more in keeping with First Nations traditions than European. The ritual involved the woman’s consent, the consent of her relatives, and the payment of a bride price — often a horse, sometimes several hundred dollars worth of trade goods. Once that had been settled, the couple would be escorted to the fort and recognized as man and wife, their marriage deemed to be as binding as any performed in a church.

  By the early nineteenth century the fur trade society had begun to change. Marriage between Europeans and full-blood First Nations became less common as mixed-blood daughters came of age. These daughters had the best of both worlds — knowledge of traditional ways as taught by their mothers, and familiarity with European ways, as taught by their fathers. These young women, having grown up in a fur trade post, were ideally suited to serve as links between the two cultures and as interpreters for, in many cases, they were fluent in several First Nations languages.

  It wasn’t long before marriage between traders and mixed-blood women became the norm. The traditional mariage à la façon du pays gave way to a more European ritual, with the couple exchanging vows at a post before a Chief Factor or senior officer. After the union of the two companies, it became even more official, a form of civil marriage, in which the couple signed a marriage contract and agreed to be married by a clergyman at the first available opportunity. The contract, introduced by the HBC, also stressed the husband’s economic responsibility.

  Mariage à la façon du pays was widespread among officers. In 1828, for example, James Douglas, then stationed at Fort St. James, took sixteen-year-old Amelia Connolly, the daughter of a Chief Factor and a Cree woman, as a country wife, and made her his legal wife thirteen years later. Amelia bore him thirteen children and lived to become Lady Douglas when her husband was knighted in 1863.

  The often lonely and monotonous life of a fur trader, and the severe winters he had to endure, were undoubtedly made bearable by having a wife and children — or what Douglas, a devoted family man, called “the many tender ties.”

  Fur trade fathers took an active role in their children’s upbringing, especially during the long winter months when they were more often at the fort, and were encouraged to give them a basic education that included Christian virtues. They were particularly mindful of their daughters for, unlike the boys, the girls were seldom sent overseas to further their education. Instead, they were groomed for a good marriage, preferably with an incoming trader of the officer class. Many such traders undoubtedly furthered their career prospects by marrying a senior officer’s daughter.

  The most significant changes in fur trade society began with the arrival of missionaries and white women. Missionaries considered mariage à la façon du pays to be immoral, and judged native women according to European standards. And with the marriage of Governor Simpson to a young English lady in 1830, traders began to look at white wives as status symbols, despite the fact that such women were extremely ill-prepared to handle a wilderness life.

  By the mid-1800s, the “custom of the country” had become a custom of the past and was no longer acceptable. In more settled areas, such as the Red River Colony, native skills were no longer required. European women considered themselves superior to mixed-blood women, and the already-entrenched class system of the HBC became all the more apparent.

  As for the First Nations wives, what became of them when their husbands left Rupert’s Land, as many eventually did? Though some traders abandoned their native families with no second thoughts, others did so reluctantly, recognizing that their wives would find it difficult to adapt to a life in the Canadas or overseas. What’s more, wives who had spent their lives inside a trading post might find it difficult to return to life with their tribe. The social problem that resulted gave rise to a custom known as “turning off,” whereby a retiring husband might seek to have his wife marry, or his family come under the protection of, another trader.

  Many traders remained loyal to their native families and, judging by the private correspondence that has survived, expressed affection towards their wives and children. Concerned about their future, they put money in trust to support their families in case of death or after they left the Company. They endeavoured to find employment for their sons within the Company, and suitable husbands for their daughters — preferably among Company employees.

  THE END OF AN ERA

  In 1858 gold was discovered in the Fraser River and, when the first gold reached San Francisco in early April, the Fraser River Gold Rush was on. For miners coming from the United States, Victoria was the first stop. Almost overnight, gold prospecting became the major industry in that part of the HBC’s territory and, to formalize its hold on the Pacific Coast, Britain established the Colony of British Columbia. James Douglas, after severing his ties with the HBC, was appointed Governor in November 1858, thus becoming the Governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.

  In 1869, two years after the Confederation of Canada and almost two hundred years after the HBC had received its Charter, the Company sat down with the British and Canadian governments to barter away its monopoly of trade and its vast territorial holdings in North America. Just over a century later, in 1970 — in celebration of its three-hundredth anniversary — the HBC headquarters was moved from London to Canada — a fitting move for a Company that had long been a Canadian icon.

  * * *

  A number of people who appear in Jenna’s diary were historical figures. Their names are listed below. Another historical figure mentioned in the diary is George Simpson, Governor of the HBC.

  At Fort Edmonton:

  John Rowand, Rev. Robert T. Rundle, Paul Kane

  At Jasper House:

  Colin Frazer

  At Fort Colvile and Fort Langley:

  Alexander Caulfield Anderson, James and Eliza Anderson, James Murray Yale, Aurelia and Bella Yale

  At Fort Victoria:

  James Douglas, Amelia Douglas, Rev. Robert Staines, Mrs. Emma Staines, Horace Tahourdin, Roderick Finlayson, Dr. Alfred Benson, James Yates and Mrs. James Yates, Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken, Governor Richard Blanshard, Frédèrique Minie, Jacques Beauchamp, Rev. Honoré-Thimothée Lempfrit, Mr. Field

  At Staines School:

  Four Douglas sisters, including Jane Douglas (who is mentioned by name), four girls and a boy from the Work family, James and Eliza Anderson

  Epilogue:

  Captain Langford and his family, Martha Cheney

  Images and Documents

  Image 1: The first page of the Charter that formed the Hudson’s Bay Company in May 1670, granting it exclusive trading rights to all the land in the Hudson Bay watershed — an enormous area comprising over a third of present-day Canada.

  Image 2: Made-Beaver (MB) tokens. Through a die-maker’s error, N instead of M appears at the bottom of the token “face” shown on the right. The tokens were about the size of a twonie.

  Image 3: Paul Kane painted Fort Edmonton during his visit there in 1846. The large house rising above the stockade is the residence of Chief Factor John Rowand. In the foreground stands a Home Guard Cree encampment. The horse is dragging a travois, a frame used by Plains tribes for carrying loads.

  Image 4: Transporting furs and supplies to and from York Factory would have been impossible without light but sturdy canoes, and the skill of the paddlers who manned them.

  Image 5: Voyageurs paddled many hours a day, stopping at times for une pipée — the amount of time it would take to smoke a pipe.

  Image 6: Voyageurs made annual expeditions to take furs to Hudson Bay — a huge distance that often involved hauling cargo and canoes aroun
d unnavigable rivers. Portages were feats of endurance that required great stamina.

  Image 7: Heavy York boats, so-called because they were first built at York Factory, could carry three times as much cargo as a large canoe. Unlike canoes, however, they could not be carried on a portage but had to be dragged over log rollers. Fort Edmonton eventually became the centre for York boat construction, and boat builders from the Orkney Islands were hired for that purpose.

  Image 8: The HBC Trade Store was where First Nations people would come to trade. Here they exchanged Made-Beaver tokens (received in exchange for pelts) for European goods.

  Image 9: Furs and pelts were stored in a post’s fur loft, where they would be weighed, pressed and packed into bales called “pieces,” in preparation for transport. Animals were usually trapped in winter, when their fur was at its thickest.

  Image 10: Brigades that had crossed the Rockies on horseback and by foot via the Athabasca Pass would eventually reach Boat Encampment on the Columbia River. From there, they would continue their journey to the Pacific in boats specifically brought up for that purpose from Fort Vancouver.

  Image 11: A Songhees village located across the harbour from Fort Victoria.

  Image 12: A Songhees woman weaving. Special white “wool” dogs (now extinct) were shorn and their hair mixed with mountain-goat wool to create the blankets.

  Image 13: The family of Alexander Caulfield Anderson. James and Eliza feature in Jenna Sinclair’s fictional diary. James’s unpublished recollections included stories of his days at Staines School.

  Image 14: This sketch of the interior of Fort Victoria shows the southeast corner of the yard. Bachelors’ Hall, with Staines School and the dormitories, is the second building from the left.

  Image 15: Fort Victoria with the West Gate facing the harbour and the Songhees village on the left. The 8-sided bastion is on the right, as well as sections of the Company’s farm. In a letter dated June 21, 1844, Sir George Simpson stated that the country and the climate were “remarkably fine” and that the place “would become important.”

  Image 16: In 1849, Rupert’s Land dwarfed Canada West and Canada East. The boundary with the United States had just been drawn in 1846.

  Image 17: Small brigades sometimes travelled from Fort Edmonton to the Pacific via the Columbia River. After 1846, brigades in New Caledonia began to use a new route, following the Fraser River from Fort Hope to Fort Langley. From there, pelts were shipped to Fort Victoria.

  Acknowledgments

  Every effort has been made to trace ownership of visual and written material used in this book. Errors and omissions will be corrected in subsequent updates or editions.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following:

  Cover portrait: Detail from The Little Knitter 1884 by William Bouguereau.

  Cover background: Detail from View of Victoria, Vancouver Island. Drawn by H. O. Tiedemann. T. Picken, lith. Created/published London, Day & Son, 1860, U.S. Historical Archive.

  Image 1: The Hudson’s Bay Company Charter. The Hudson’s Bay Company Charter is a trade-mark of, and reproduced with the permission of, Hudson’s Bay Company. Image courtesy of Hudson’s Bay Company, Archives of Manitoba HBCA 1987/363-C-25/6.

  Image 2: HBC made-beaver tokens from Eastmain, Hudson’s Bay Company Archives/Archives of Manitoba HBCA 1987/363-M-39/5.

  Image 3: Fort Edmonton, Paul Kane. With permission of the Royal Ontario Museum © ROM.

  Image 4: Running a Rapid on the Mattawa River, C. Butterworth, engraver, after Frances Anne Hopkins, Library and Archives Canada, C-013585.

  Image 5: Detail from Voyageurs at Dawn, Frances Anne Hopkins, Library and Archives Canada Acc. No. 1989-401-3, C-134839.

  Image 6: At the Portage, Hudson’s Bay Company’s Employees on their annual Expedition, H.A. Ogden, Library and Archives Canada C-082974.

  Image 7: York boat under sail near Norway House, Manitoba, 1913; photographer: R.A. Talbot, Hudson’s Bay Company, Archives of Manitoba HBCA 1987/363-Y-2/56 (N14645).

  Image 8: Indians Trading Furs, 1785, C.W. Jefferys, Library and Archives Canada C-73431.

  Image 9: The Fur Loft at a Hudson’s Bay Post, Beckles Willson, Taken from The Great Company, pub. 1900, Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, 1987/363-F-225/2 (N81-221E).

  Image 10: Boat Encampment, 1846 (sketch), Paul Kane, Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas WWC 100; CR IV-276.

  Image 11: A Sangeys Village on the Esquimalt, 1847 (sketch), Paul Kane, Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas WWC 66; CR IV-526.

  Image 12: Interior of a Lodge with Indian Woman Weaving a Blanket, 1847 (sketch), Paul Kane, Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas WWC 73; CR IV-552.

  Image 13: Alex Caulfield Anderson’s sons [sic] and daughters, B.C. Archives Collections, A-07789, Acc. No. 193501-001.

  Image 14: Interior of the Hudson’s Bay Company fort No. 2, Sarah Crease, B.C. Archives Collections PDP02892, Acc. No. 199104-002.

  Image 15: Vancouver Island — the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Establishment, 1848 (Fort Victoria), Hudson’s Bay Company, Archives of Manitoba P-164 (N5350).

  Images 16 and 17: Maps by Paul Heersink/Paperglyphs. Map data © 2002 Government of Canada with permission from Natural Resources Canada.

  We thank the Hudson’s Bay company for its co-operation and contribution in allowing us permission to use the company trade-mark on page 263.

  Thanks to Dr. Sylvia Van Kirk, author of Many Tender Ties, for her expert advice and guidance, particularly regarding the importance of First Nations women during the fur trade era. We are grateful to her book and her many articles, which form the basis of “Partners in the Fur Trade” in the Historical Note.

  Thanks to Barbara Hehner for her careful checking of the manuscript; to Tyrone Tootoosis for his assistance with the Cree sections; and to Sylvia Olsen for her advice re the Songhees sections. Thanks also to Michael Payne, City Archivist of Edmonton, and James Gorton of the HBC Archives, as well as to Dr. Bill Waiser and his colleagues (Dr. Carolyn Podruchny, Dr. Nicole St-Onge, Jim McKillip and Robert Englebert) for weighing in on what we thought would be a straightforward question: What route did the brigades usually travel?

  To Patrick, who held the fort during my HBC sojourn and sustained me with an abundance of treats and laughter

  Author’s Note

  Three sources were particularly helpful during the writing of this book: the unpublished recollections of James Anderson, former student of Staines School, The Reminiscences of Doctor John Sebastian Helmcken, and Fort Victoria Letters, 1846–1851, written by James Douglas and published by the Hudson’s Bay Records Society.

  Nancy J. Turner, Professor, and Dr. Brenda Beckwith, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, were invaluable sources of information concerning camas, as was Cheryl Bryce, Lands Manager of the Songhees First Nation.

  I am grateful to Dr. Sylvia Van Kirk for her generosity in lending me books, recommending reading material and providing me with copies of her articles. Through her writings, I came to appreciate the significant role played by First Nations women in fur trade society, and how the very existence of that society may have been a reason why the history of Western Canada was so different from that of the “Wild West” of the United States.

  Once again I had the good fortune to work with my gifted editor, Sandy Bogart Johnston. Her unwavering support, patience and humour made her a “Chief Factor” par excellence throughout the writing of this book.

  About the Author

  Much of Where the River Takes Me is set in Julie Lawson’s very own neighbourhood. She lives in the area that was once the HBC’s Fort Victoria and its surroundings, near Beacon Hill and the camas meadows and what was once Beckley Farm — places explored by her character Jenna. Nothing remains of Fort Victoria itself, but “I can walk around the perimeter of where the stockade once stood (the east side, on Government Street, is marked by bricks in the sidewalk), and see the exact spots where the belfry stood, Bachelors’ Hall with
the dormitories and Staines School, the west gate leading to the water and the east gate opening onto Fort Street (once a dirt road leading out to the HBC farms). I can look at the Empress Hotel, make it disappear in my mind and see the mud flats of James Bay. I can walk around the Bay, cross the stream, and continue on to Beacon Hill.”

  The research for this book, because it involved several HBC forts, was a huge challenge, involving a number of different historical advisors. Julie got so deeply into the research that she found herself “unintentionally talking like Jenna and writing emails using her voice. I went blank when I picked up the phone, not knowing where I was. I wrote 1850 on cheques. I dream-walked to town and along Victoria’s waterfront, my body here, but my mind on a brigade route somewhere else.”