Perfect Kneeling u
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Transcript of Perfect Kneeling u
Perfect Kneeling: The Mackenzie Inuit’s First Contact with Missions
Walter Vanast McGill University
“Everything goeth, everything returneth . . .
for every here rolleth the ball turning there . . .
crooked is the path of eternity.”
F. Nietzsche
Introduction
Conversion of the Mackenzie Inuiti, now known as the Inuvialuit, is said to have been remarkably
quick,ii giving rise to competing explanations. Ethnologist and religious cynic Vilhjalmur Stefansson
ascribed it to fashion, like a new style of hats, spreading east along the coast; missionaries, to the
flowering of seeds gently tended. But whichever concept is right (and any others put forward) must
address that the road to baptism was in fact quite slow: its “sudden” acceptance in 1909 followed fifty
years of contact between Inuit and clergy. This article describes their first meeting, the events that
brought it about, the link between trade and evangelization,iii and the fate of some of the players.
Hudson’s Bay Company Terrain in the 1850s:
A Thumbnail Sketch
At the time of this story the Hudson’s Bay Company (by means of its 1670 Rupert’s Land
charter, valid for two hundred years) ruled most of what is now northern Quebec and Ontario, as well as
the near entirety of the prairies. Terrain north of the prairies to the Arctic Coast was known as the Indian
or Northwest Territories, and to this in 1821 the HBC had also gained an exclusive licence. Two decades
later a first renewal was easily obtained, but in 1857 as the second approached free trade was all the rage,
and the Company was vigorously examined by a parliamentary committee in London.
At the continent’s center near the border with the U.S., the Company owned the Red River
Settlement,iv now the cities of Winnipeg and St. Boniface. Here its staff lived out their retirement, many
families had farms, and Anglicans and Catholics each had a bishop. As private business grew, people
chafed under HBC control and at mid-century sought repeal of its charter.
Until events depicted here, Anglican ministers had not entered the Territories, but Catholic
priests, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, had been there since 1851.v In half a decade their work extended to
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Great Slave Lake, where in 1858 with the arrival of Father Henri Grollier they opened a permanent
mission. vi A driven man, nasty even to Oblates, he planned soon to visit the length of the Mackenzie.
Three fur-trade sites are relevant to this early mission saga: Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie’s
southern leg, Fort Good Hope to the north by the Arctic Circle, and beyond that Fort McPherson near the
Mackenzie Delta. Located on the Peel, the last was referred to as Peel’s River post or simply Peel’s
River.vii
The journey by boat from the Red River Settlement to Fort Simpson covered twelve hundred
miles, and it was another eight hundred to the Inuit’s homes at the mouth of the Mackenzie. A straight
line on the map from the Settlement to that point cuts through Fort Simpson and closely approximates the
water route of the 1850s.
Missionaries on the Mackenzie:
Hunter and Grollier
When in 1858 the Rev. James Hunter took leave from his Settlement church there were several
reasons, some of which he could not state. It was a time of social turmoil, for the HBC, with which he
had warm ties,viii was under siege: its charter was being challenged, its licence was under review, and
rebellion against it was stoked by a local colleague. So he needed escape—a period of rejuvenation.
Ambition also played a part: Hunter had already been promoted to archdeacon,ix and was likely to
be considered for the post of his ageing Anglican bishop. One way to raise the chance was to blaze a path
for new missions.
The reason Hunter gave in public (1857, 1858a-c) was to battle Rome, whose priests were about
to enter the Mackenzie River. His plan to “push right through them” meant long absence from home (a
fourth child was just born), but he yearned to plant the cross among the Inuit.
Hunter’s intended route, as far from London as one could go on British terrain, played directly
into whites’ fascination with the Arctic. Moreover, he would follow the steps of famed explorer John
Franklin, whose 1826 journey to the ice had started here. Franklin’s ventures were widely known, and
even more so at midcentury were those of parties trying to find him after he was lost while looking for the
Northwest Passage. The world was transfixed by news of the searches, and some of the latest reports had
just appeared.
As well, the Arctic held special meaning to Christians, for to them the last phrase of Jesus’ Great
Commission, “unto the end of the world,” was an order to tell of God at the globe’s most distant sites.x An
Old Testament text, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river until the ends of the
earth,” was thought to presage it.xi
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That Hunter’s prospects were good was shown by a converted Inuk from near Hudson’s Bay who
had recently come to the Settlement and whose gentle ways confirmed his people as “easiest” to make
Christian. xii Having him along might have helped evangelize the Inuit of the Mackenzie, but he passed
away, supposedly because of the climate. (Hunter 1858a)
The death did not blunt Hunter’s drive, for he also hoped to convert the Dene, the Mackenzie’s
Indians, who lived south of the Delta along the river’s edge. “Well disposed toward the gospel,” they had
to be seen before Oblates could reach them. Hence his rush to get to Fort Simpson, headquarters of the
Mackenzie District, whose officer-in-charge, Bernard Rogan Ross, had asked him in. (Hunter 1858b)
They were friends from years both had spent at posts further south and besides, they were kin—their
partners were sisters.
In June Hunter left for the “blessed work” (1858d) on an HBC brigade—a flotilla of oar-driven
vessels, each with a crew of twelve. Months later near the Mackenzie he met Father Grollier, who was
making inroads among the Indians and who had recently sealed the marriage of Company employee
Charles Gaudetxiii and his mixed-blood wife. (Payment) As it pained Grollier to see the “enemy” advance,
he dropped his local work (he was building a chapel) and joined Hunter on the boats to Fort Simpson. But
when Dene there embraced the priest, Chief Trader Ross at once sent him back. (Grollier; Hunter 1858e)
Though Hunter now had the Mackenzie to himself, it brought no advantage: many Dene had ties
to French-speaking fur-trade servants or their mixed-blood descendants,xiv so their attraction to clerics
with long robes was greater than to those who spoke English and dressed like HBC staff. Besides,
Hunter’s work was hurt by Gaudet’s mother-in-law, a forceful Métisse, who spread word that a minister
was “l’homme d’une femme,” a man linked to a wife, while priests belonged to God. (Grollier) Her tone
that winter may have been extra harsh because Gaudet had just left the Roman Church and joined the
Church of England.xv
Career concern likely nudged the young man’s act: recently promoted from labourer status, he
was the only Catholic officer in the district, while the chief trader, an Orangistxvi from Northern Ireland,
hated all that had to do with the pope. The switch was the minister’s only success, for no Dene, except a
few who did so briefly, adopted the Protestant faith. In July, as Father Grollier gleefully put it, Hunter left
in shame to rejoin his “dear other half.”
Hunter’s view of Inuit (still based entirely on hearsay) had by now greatly changed: rather than
peaceful and eager to learn, they thirsted for blood and were deceitful. (1859g) A Gwich’in, a member of
the Dene tribe adjacent to the Mackenzie Delta, had killed his Inuit wife, for which her people vowed
revenge. So Hunter, despite knowing he could spend but a year in the North, had not gone to the Peel’s
River post near the Delta, which Inuit had begun to frequent.
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Traders on the Coast
The threat of injury by the Inuit was overblown, for a clerkxvii from Peel’s River had just stayed in
their homes and found them “anxious” for contact with whites. Though the post had been founded in
1840, Inuit had not come because of fear of Gwich’in, who had long been middle-men in trade between
them and whites, and who readily killed to hold that position. In 1852, at last, three Inuit had visited
Peel’s River (Peers 1852), and since then a few more had done so each spring. What they wanted now was
a link to the Company such that all the tribe could barter directly for goods—and that touched several
issues.
Because profit at Peel’s River had lagged for some time, the Company wanted all furs from the
coast it could possibly get. Yet if Inuit in number came up the Peel, violence between them and Gwich’in
might fatally flare. One solution was to place a post directly among the Inuit, but that Chief Trader Ross
(1858) would not do without access to good translation.
That interpreters were hard to find seems strange, for (as three decades of HBC records show)
peace between Inuit and Gwich’in lasted longer than conflict, a Gwich’in chief made an annual trading
journey to Inuit terrain, and the tribes lived side by side in spring at the Delta’s southern tip.xviii They had
heard each other speak for years.
Similarly, Gwich’in had long dealt with whites.xix But though some interpreted well between the
Inuit’s language and English, others (at least, so it seems from today’s perspective) lost that skill at
strategic times. When the HBC approached bands in the Delta, translation could be frustratingly poor.xx
Chief Trader Ross (1859) also worried about translation further east at the mouth of the Anderson
River, where he had sent a clerkxxi to find a site for a fort. That location, he assumed, would serve nearby
Inuit as well as those of the Mackenzie. But the visit did not go well—the presence of Dene in the HBC
group caused friction.
To avoid such issues in future, the clerk asked his Inuit hosts for a boy to train as interpreter. And
when that was turned down it was hoped a similar request by Gaudet, now in charge at Peel’s River,
would bring better results. The signs were good, for while with the Mackenzie tribe in late 1858 he
“enjoyed their hospitality” and got many pelts. (Ross 1859) The giving up of a child, however, begged
reflection.
Youths for the HBC
Inuit families consisted on average of a mother, father, and two children who by age ten helped
with many chores and hunts. Giving one up meant loss of labour now and of security in the future—and
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besides, bonds of love were tight (except, at times, for orphans and youngsters taken in beyond the infant
stage, who might be worked hard and treated almost as slaves).xxii So for the Inuit to agree to the HBC
request, benefits had to be major.
The following may have happened. In winter the tribe decided to let two children go, but in return
wanted a post among themselves. Then in spring Gaudet told them their request would carry more weight
if discussed directly with Chief Trader Ross, and arranged for Inuit spokesmen to go with him later to
Fort Simpson, a month’s journey upstream on the Mackenzie.
Gaudet did not know it, but his scheme perfectly fit a command just written by Governor George
Simpson (1859) to build a fort near the coast without delay. And since the Company had no interpreter to
send in, he ordered that Inuit receive “sufficient inducement” to let some children be raised among
whites. Cost for this and the fort had no limit.
Chief Trader Ross got the letter in July when his brigade reached Portage La Lochexxiii far to the
south to exchange the year’s furs for new supplies.xxiv Debarking here was Archdeacon Hunter, who was
going home, and coming aboard was his replacement, the Rev. William Kirkby.
The governor’s missive told that the Territories licence had not been renewed, so the Company’s
role was no longer as a ruling body, but as “private individuals.” Clerics would now be charged for travel
and freight, but that did not mean less assistance—quite the contrary. Kirkby was to have free board at
Fort Simpson until a house for him had been built, and Father Grollier would also be going there: he was
to join Ross during the brigade’s return journey north, and stay at the fort until a boat left for the lower
Mackenzie.
Implicit in all this was concern for the HBC’s hold on giant Rupert’s Land, the charter to which
would end in just over a decade. The licence to the Territories had just been lost, and the charter, too,
might not be extended if the Company’s image, badly hurt by recent events, did not improve quickly.
In the 1830s, prior to seeking a first renewal of the Territories licence, the Company had stopped
selling alcohol to natives, installed missionaries on the trade route southwest of Hudson’s Bay, and sent
two of its officers to explore the Far North.xxv That last measure had worked spectacularly well—large
parts of the coast had been defined and new terrain, later found to be an island, had been named after just-
installed Queen Victoria. As a result, the Company’s governors ( George Simpson in North America and
another in England) were knighted, and renewal of the licence was smoothed.
In the 1850s, too, it had seemed that journeys to the coast by HBC men would help gain renewal,
and the loss of Franklin made for serendipitous timing. Where naval ships with large crews and supplies
had failed to find him, small parties living off the land might succeed and boost the Company’s prestige.
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Unfortunately, this initiative brought the converse of its intent. A first effort, by the officer then in
charge of the Mackenzie District,xxvi produced nothing useful. A second, by Chief Factor John Rae, in
charge there before him, triggered a disaster in public relations.
Travelling alone with his Inuit helpers, Rae learned that Franklin’s last surviving men had eaten
the flesh of deceased fellow sailors before perishing themselves. Rushing to England with the news, he
expected praise for his work, but instead faced derision: the awful story could not be believed and led to
distrust of both him and the HBC. A campaign to question the Company’s credibility came afoot, pushed
by Franklin’s widow and supported by Charles Dickens, who wrote a play to show that British seamen
could not have committed such acts. Queen Victoria came to see it and was deeply touched. (McGoogan;
Brannan).
While the play was on stage, witnesses told the 1857 parliamentary committee of high Company
prices for trifles, blindness to native needs, failure to back missions, and payment of “sops” to stifle
clerics’ complaints. Sir George was made to look deceitful when he denied cannibalism had ever occurred
among starving natives and a letter was produced describing that very act by Gwich’in outside the gates at
Peel’s River.xxvii Indeed, much of the testimony touched the Mackenzie, and Rae made matters worse by
botching his explanation of Company profit, admitting he had never understood its tariff, and telling that
while in charge of the Mackenzie in 1849-1850 he had ignored an order to lower the cost of goods.xxviii
Adding to the bad impression were recent jeremiads against the HBC, pamphlets from the
Aborigines Protection Society, reports by naval visitors during the Franklin search, and campaigns against
the company by former employees. And since many of these alluded to the Mackenzie,xxix it became a
focus of committee questions. If the HBC wanted to regain public favour, it was here it had to act.
To raise its repute among churches and other influential groups, the HBC had to be seen trading
with Inuit (whom outsiders accused it of ignoring) and helping to Christianize them and other far-off
tribes. And since public relations, not law or obligation, dictated this approach, it had to be put in place
even though the Mackenzie was not a part of Rupert’s Land. In fact, that would make it all the more
effective. So the governor ordered Ross to aid missions as much as he possibly could.xxx
Perfect Kneeling
The clerk’s summer departure from each district post was timed so he would reach Fort Simpson
just as the chief trader returned from the Portage with new goods. Ross with the Reverends Kirkby and
Grollier aboard arrived on August 14, 1859, and Gaudet from Peel’s River the next day. What made for
excitement was the presence on the latter’s boat of Tiktik (a chief) and four other Inuit: a man, a woman,
their boy, and a nine-year-old girl, Attingarek, who had come without her parents.xxxi
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The crowd ashorexxxii was thrilled by the Inuit’s height, intelligence, good nature, exotic dress, and
“remarkably fine” looks—the children could easily pass for Europeans. Kirkby (1859a) marvelled at so
quickly seeing people from the coast. “Here,” he wrote in his journal, “is a new tribe to the Redeemer.
May his glorious Kingdom be speedily established among them.”
Though Inuit could not be made to gather on farms (then a sine qua non of conversion tactics
among southern natives), they spent part of the year at permanent villages with driftwood homes and
central halls, which Kirkby (1859i) thought “all so many facilities to the progress of the Gospel.” Already
the chief trader had invited him to the fort to be raised near them. Father Grollier had asked to go, but
would not be allowed.
Five days later Chief Trader Ross met the Inuit in the mess room, packed with observers. Saying
nothing of plans for a post on the Anderson River, he told them he would place one wherever they
wished. But he needed an interpreter and asked that the boy and girl be left with the minister for training.
When the men agreed, Kirkby “lept with joy.”
At the session’s end the chief trader was about to hand out gifts when he had Kirkby do it instead,
as that would forge a link between cleric and future converts. (Kirkby 1859b) Next morning, a Sunday,
the Inuit came to worship in the same crowded space, standing and kneelingxxxiii as if they had been doing
it for years (one wonders who coached them). Never had Kirkby so strongly felt “the gracious assistance”
of God.xxxiv
On Monday in Kirkby’s room the visitors left nothing untouched. A clock and umbrella intrigued
them most, but they were not content just to look. Wanting goods to take home, they made signs for
knives, scissors, and needles, and Kirkby took them to the store and purchased it all. Then, with the aid of
a translator, a Gwich’in who had come on the boat from Peel’s River, he spoke at length of salvation,
intent to make them “fully understand it and feel it, so as to carry it back to their countrymen.”(Kirkby
1859c) That shows either that the Gwich’in could translate very well, or that the minister had no idea how
few of his words were getting through —a common feature of nascent missions.
By Tuesday the men and the boy wore European suits, the girl a dress and bonnet newly made by
the tailor. But Kirkby (1859d) was aghast, for Father Grollier had hung a crucifix from their necks and
explained it was “the child of the sun”—if worn like the amulets on their own clothes it would unfailingly
protect. Gaudet threw the crosses to the ground while raising a hand “as if in horror and disgust,” later
explaining this would prevent such items from ever again being accepted.
Not until Friday, when the Inuit boarded Gaudet’s boat, did the boy realize he was to stay. Then
he wailed so loudly and clung to his mother so tightly that, to Kirkby’s distress (1859e), she relented and
took him along. Only Attingarek, without parents to appeal to, was left behind.
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At Peel’s River in mid-September a large group of Inuit met the boat, and when the delegates told
of their excellent treatment, many offered to go the next year. Yet matters related to Attingarek caused
conflict, for Ross had sent her father a present, which another Inuk wanted as well. At some point, it
turned out, the girl had been given away by her family, and the adoptive father thought the gift should go
to him, as he was taking the greater loss. When a fight was about to erupt, Gaudet (1860) wisely proposed
the item be shared, to which the men agreed.
Attingarek becomes Maria
Meanwhile Attingarek, “the poor little Eskimo girl,” stayed dull and withdrawn for weeks.
(Kirkby 1859f). The only one to comfort her was a Gwich’in boyxxxv, an orphan from Peel’s River who
spoke her language. Also acquainted with her tongue was a Gwich’in womanxxxvi at the fort, and it was
with her that Attingarek stayed. Each day she and others went to the Rev. Kirkby’s school, and as they
gained skill in saying letters and body parts, she cheered up. Smart as the rest, she turned out “perfectly
happy and anxious to learn.” (Kirkby 1859g-h)
Attingarek further lost connection to home when her name was changed. It happened in an
informal way at first, but was documented in March 1860 when the chief trader ordered a start on a post
on the Anderson River. Not realizing how far from the Delta that would be, Kirkby (1860j-k) quickly
baptized Attingarek so HBC staff at the new post could tell her friends at home.xxxvii
Baptism of natives in that era involved assigning a European name, often one from the Bible, and
only rarely did ministers choose one of liking to the Catholic Church. So it may seem out of line that
Kirkby called the girl after Jesus’ mother, to whom Rome gave what Protestants thought idolatrous
praise.xxxviii Yet he probably had no choice, as many women related to HBC men were called Maria,
including the sister of Chief Trader Bernard Ross, his mother-in-law Maria Ross, and Archdeacon
Hunter’s little girl, who had passed away during his trip to the Mackenzie.
The person who had chosen the new name was Bernard Ross’s wife. When the latter had a baby,
she took on Attingarek as a nurse, and found her “a good, intelligent, and obedient girl,” who learned with
ease and followed instructions exactly. But she found her employee’s native name so “unmanageable” she
called her Maria.xxxix
In addition to that break with her culture, Attingarek was denied the chance to meet again with
one of her fathers, an Inuit chief. In 1861 he came to Peel’s River and told Gaudet he wanted to see her.
But permission for him to go by Company boat was several times delayed (Gaudet 1861, 1862; Ross
1861b) and in the end no reunion between parent and daughter took place.xl
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Despite the hope raised by Tiktik’s stay at Fort Simpson, the Rev. Kirkby did not contact the
Inuit, and it was by chance that three years later he met a group near the Delta. Writing up the encounter
for the Smithsonian Institute, he claimed their good looks reflected high intellect, and backed it up by
telling of Attingarek: from knowing no English when she first came under his wing, she now spoke and
wrote it well. (Kirkby 1865). That fine result, however, brought no help with evangelization of her
people.
Youngsters in the North became sexually active when still children by today’s standard, and
whites took very young brides. As Franklin noted earlier in the century, “The girls at the forts . . . are
frequently wives at 12 years of age, and mothers at 14.” (Van Kirk, 101) And that is exactly what
happened to Attingarek. Mrs. Ross had come to depend on her so much and got along with her so well,
she had hoped to take her along with the family on a journey to England. But her husband refused
because William Brass, one of his traders, wanted her for a wife.xli The marriage occurred when she was
carrying his first child and was likely performed à la façon du pays (i.e.by a signed HBC contract without
the blessings of the church) during Kirkby’s absence.
The missionary’s report of Maria’s new status failed to hide dismay: “As far as earthly things go
she has a comfortable home for her future life.” What made it hard to take was that the newlyweds had
been sent to a post well south of the treeline.xlii Yet there remained a chance something positive would
happen. If plans came through to transfer Brass to Peel’s River, his new partner might still “tell her poor
countrymen something of Jesus.”(Kirkby, 1862) None of that came about.
L’Envoi
Governor Simpson did not live to see the outcome of his mission policies. He had long suffered a
form of spells, and at the 1857 parliamentary hearingsxliii it was already clear his memory had begun to
fail. In 1859 he declared he would soon resign, and early the next year, while paralyzed from a stroke or
multiple seizures, he passed away. (Galbraith)
Next to leave this world was Father Grollier. Shortly after meeting Tiktik and his group he
founded a mission further north at Fort Good Hope on the Mackenzie and from there made forays to
Peel’s River to meet the Inuit. Shortness of breath felled him in 1864 at age thirty-eight. (Carrière) He had
never entered the Delta, yet Catholic histories tell how he realized his ideal, which was “to take the cross
all the way to the Pole.”(Champagne 121) The line paraphrases his last words, inscribed on his grave:
“Jesus, I die content, for your standard has been raised unto the ends of the earth.”xliv
Similar words marked Canada’s founding three years later. When plans emerged to name it a
kingdom and the United States balked, the solution (a dominion) was found in a text that, as we saw,
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served as basis for missions: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river until the
ends of the earth.” xlv Given that heady mix of national pride with Christian triumphalism, as well as
colonists’ pressure for soil,xlvi the HBC recognized its charter would not be renewed, and after negotiating
gave up its rights in 1870.
Charles Gaudet was promoted from postmaster to clerk in 1863. That same year he moved to
Good Hope, where his companions were priests who spoke French,xlvii the language of his youth in
Montreal. Soon he reverted to the Catholic faith, xlviii but did not show it in public till a decade later.
(Payment 5) The conversion did not stall his receiving, in 1878, the title of chief trader, but it came
without change in duty, and he was never in charge of the district.xlix He ran the Good Hope post nearly
five decades.
Archdeacon Hunter’s Mackenzie journey did not lead to his becoming the next bishop of the
Northwest. In 1862 at the Settlement he had to deal with a scandal involving the missionaryl who had
preached rebellion against the HBC: after making a servant girl pregnant, the medically trained cleric had
repeatedly tried to abort the foetus. Much nastiness followed and contributed to Hunter being denied the
episcopal post. Returning overseas, he became a renowned London preacher. (Peel)
Maria Ross Brass gave birth to a boy in 1863. Five others survived as well and wereli registered at
Fort Nelson in Canada’s 1881 census. Their mother’s ethnic origin was given as “Esquimaux,” but in
later years in other documents as Indian and Métis (the former is not unusual given that some whites until
early the next century referred to Inuit as Esquimaux Indians). At one point they sought to bring an
Anglican minister to the fort so as to provide a proper Christian schooling for their children, but when
Brass stopped in at Fort Liard, an Oblate priest talked him into importing a Catholic one instead. When
years later William retired to southern Manitoba, Maria went with him, and it was there, at St. Andrews,
that she died on Jan. 20, 1897.
Maria’s daughter Margaret was the great-grandmother of John Brownlee, now living in
Edmonton, who saw early drafts of this article on the web, and realized that Attingarek (known to him
only as Maria Ross) provided a last link in a story he had long tried to define. In return, he kindly offered
details he had found of her first years at Fort Simpson (such as her employ as servant by the chief trader’s
wife) and those in the paragraph above. In his youth Brownlee’s nearest relatives denied there was any
link to native blood, then considered a shame—but he followed a hunch and doggedly traced through the
decades. He and his family proudly bear their Métis status.
For decades nothing came of missions to the Mackenzie Inuit. Some years clerics met them
during their spring stay at Peel’s River, and on occasion stayed in their homes in the Delta, yet scandal,
mental illness, low funds, lack of drive, fear of violence, or some other issue nearly always negated those
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efforts.lii That is not to say this was a cause of the failure to gain converts—it may be that no matter how
solid the churches’ efforts, the Inuit were not yet ready to change their beliefs.
The same might be said of extraction, the process of taking “heathens” to an established white
site, teaching them the Bible and the evangelizers’ language, and then deploying them to spread their new
faith. After Attingarek other youths from the coast stayed at HBC forts from time to timeliii, but as far as
one can tell from surface events, exposure to ministers or priests and later contact with their own people
never helped the Christian cause.
Tiktik’s people found little use for the fort on the Anderson River, which did not fit their annual
spring journey south through the Mackenzie Delta. When it opened Chief Trader Ross (1861a) wrote to
Governor Simpson (not knowing he was dead) that it would bring “an important and lucrative trade, ” but
instead it took in few furs and led only to loss (Dallas 1863). Abandoned five years after construction, it
was burnt down by Inuit for the nails.liv
It would be understandable if Tiktik felt bitter about his journey far south on the Mackenzie, for
despite Attingarek’s remaining with whites, the HBC had not put a fort where he had asked. In 1871, in
response to yet another HBC promise that one would soon be constructed, he and his tribe withheld their
furs in anticipation.(Hardisty 1871a, b) When again nothing was built and the HBC decided instead to
send a boat from Good Hope to trade in the Delta under the command of Gaudet, the Inuit planned to
attack it and seize all the goods.
Despite being forewarned Gaudet undertook the trip, and was forced to leave when angry Inuit
grabbed the fur he had collected and threw it overboard. The project, which had foreseen yearly journeys,
was then entirely abandoned.(Hardisty 1872a, b). Promise of a fort for the Delta was again made from
time to time, especially after 1889 when American whalers began to trade nearby, but that, too, came to
naught.
Nowhere is it recorded whether Tiktik was with those who alerted Gaudet or those who took part
in the assault on his boat, but the next year the Inuit leader was again trading at Peel’s River (PRJ 1873).
It is likely he went there on annual basis, though some years danger may have kept him on the coast,
where he played a central part in a feud that brought many killings. (Stefansson 1916)
Also causing demise was epidemic illness. When it claimed Tiktik’s wife in late 1885, she was
brought to Peel’s River and lay frozen in the warehouse beside three Gwich’in. (PRJ 1885) That she was
taken there for eventual burial, rather than left above ground, was perhaps a first sign of willingness to
adopt Christian rites. It did not, however, point to a receptive attitude to the teachings of novice clerics,
Isaac Stringer for the Anglican Church and Father Camille Lefebvre for the Catholic, who reached them
seven years later.
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Details of the two men’s faiths, let alone conflicts in dogma, eluded the Inuit, but they were much
aware of a difference in tone. The priest’s hell-fire words soon led to his exclusion from the Delta, while
Stringer’s calm approach won friendship and respect.lv
Initially based at Peel’s River, Stringer moved in 1897 to Herschel Island (in the Beaufort Sea
within easy reach of the Delta), which the whalers had left for points further east. They had built a depot
to replenish their ships and a trading post for the Inuit, enterprises that the minister now managed. Living
with wife and children in the whaling-company house,lvi he simultaneously took care of its interests and
conducted his Christian work. As during Tiktik’s visit to Fort Simpson, commerce and evangelization
could not have been tied more closely. Yet neither that nor Stringer’s engaging persona brought converts.
It was only after another near-decade of mission, and that by an unpopular cleric, that acceptance of Jesus
took place.
Around the time Tiktik lost his wife he had a new daughter, Sukayak (the fast one), perhaps the
offspring of a more junior woman in his household. lvii She worked briefly for the Stringers in 1901,
sewing beautiful caribou coats in which in the fall on their way home the clerical couple was
photographed, and in which years later they were received in the palace at London by the King and Queen
of Britain.lviii
Sukayak and her husband survived an epidemic just after the turn of the century that killed eighty
of the two hundred in their tribe, and on a summer tour in 1909 Stringer (now a bishop based in the
southern Yukon) held “a hearty service,” with many present, in their tent.lix During that trip a few adults
were baptized, and soon after nearly all the Inuit of the region, including two hundred who had moved
there from Alaska, joined the Anglican Church.
Details about the Christian path of each (confirmation, marriage, etc.) can easily be had, including
that of a second Tiktik, who in 1914 was one of a group who volunteered to tell of Jesus to another tribe
far east along on the coast. lx In the same way that Europeans had taken the gospel to the Delta, these new
converts felt compelled to take it to the end of their world. It could not happen just yet, as foul weather
stopped their advance, and it took other people and efforts. But in time the Great Commission’s final
phrase was (in its geographic sense) fully effected.
12
Archival Sources and Abbreviations
American Museum of Natural History, New York
R. M. Anderson photos (Anderson-Stefansson Expedition)
Anglican Church of Canada.
General Synod Archives, Toronto (Stringer Papers)
Public Archives of Alberta (Register of Baptisms etc.)
National Archives of Canada
Church Mission Society Papers CMS at NAC
R. M. Anderson 1910 photos
Dartmouth College Library (Stefansson Papers)
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online DCBO
Hudson’s Bay Company HBC or Company
Hudson’s Bay Company Archives HBCA
Fort Simpson correspondence books
Fort Good Hope post journal
Peel’s River post journal PRJ
National Archives of Canada (Anderson photos) NAC
Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Rome (E. Petitot correspondence)
Old Dartmouth Historical Society (whaling records)
Questions and answers by number at the parliamentary
committee hearings concerning the HBC, 1857 Q+A
Note concerning dates
All correspondence is cited by year-day-month.
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13
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Hardisty
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1871b to governor, 1871, 30, 11. HBCA B200/39/vol. 1
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1885 1885, 04, 11.
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1858b to CMS, 1858, 09, 04. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.
1858c to CMS, 1858, 11, 05. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.
1858d Journal, 1858, 08, 06. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.
1858e Journal, 1858, 11, 08. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.
1858f Journal, 1858, 16, 08. NAC MG17-B2, CMS Reel A91.
17
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1859d Journal, 1859, 23, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.
1859e Journal, 1859, 26, 08. NAC MG17 B2, CMS Reel A93.
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1995 From the Great River to the Ends of the Earth. Edmonton: U. of Alberta P.
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Owram, Doug
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19
2000 “James Hunter.” DCBO. Web. 2007, 12, 04.
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1858 to HBC governor 1858, 29, 11. HBCA B200/b/33
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Van Kirk, Sylvia
1983 Many Tender Ties. University of Oklahoma Press.
22
i Until the late nineteenth century only Inuit from the Delta’s eastern side came each spring to its southern tip,
and it is they who are the actors in this account. Whites in the 1890s sometimes refer to them as Kukpugmiut, i.e.
people of the large water, a name the tribe applied to itself. Some modern authors name them as just one of
several original Eastern Delta groups, which include the Kittegaryumiut (McGhee 9). For an excellent, well
illustrated history of the Inuvialuit see Alunik et al.’s Across Time and Tundra.
ii For debate about sudden Inuit conversion see Vanast, whose work came after Ernest S. Burch’s outstanding
study of that process on the Alaska coast.
iii For Britons’ providential view of the conjuncture of Christianity and commerce see A. Porter. Stanley tells
why it was expected to reach complete “consummation” between 1857 and 1860 and why that failed.
iv Settlement hereafter.
v Wesleyan missionary James Evans had visited Lake Athabasca and the Peace River in the early 1840s.
vi For early Oblate work in the Territories see Levasseur ch. 5, “Jusq’au Grand Nord.”
vii A fur trade post was called a fort, a house, or a factory. Some posts were referred to by location, hence “Peel’s
River post.” Most authors left out “post” and the apostrophe, making it “Peels River. ”
viii Hunter was married to the daughter of deceased Chief Factor Donald Ross from Norway House and his wife
Maria, a respected HBC couple, and had long worked at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan, where he
made friends among HBC personnel.
ix Archdeacon since 1853, Hunter was secretary of Northwest missions for the Church Mission Society. In 1855
after study in England he gained A Lambert M.A. from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
x The Great Commission, KJV Matthew 28:18-20, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world.” The New Century Version translates the last words as “the end of this age." For British
fascination with the Arctic see the turgid volume by David.
xi Psalms 72:8, KJV. The idea for this line comes from Martha McCarthy’s From the Great River to the Ends of
the Earth, a superbly researched, fluid account of Mackenzie Dene missions.
xii Hunter (1857) had years earlier heard these kind comments about Inuit of the Hudson’s Bay region from HBC
surgeon Dr. John Rae and was unaware of his harsh view of Mackenzie Inuit, met during his 1848 Franklin
search expedition with John Richardson.
xiii Gaudet was then postmaster, the lowest officer rank. The next levels are clerk, chief trader, and chief factor. In
this article chief trader designates both the title and the responsibility for the district.
xiv Most HBC labourers spoke French and favoured Rome, in contrast to officers, who were English-speaking and
Protestant.On meeting Grollier, Hunter (1858e) noted the priest would be “much assisted… by the Canadian half
casts and their wives who are all Papists.” While descending the Mackenzie, Hunter (1858f) wrote that “the
Roman Catholics in the Brigade do all for him they can with the Indians.”
xv “Mr. Gaudet was last year admitted into the Church of England by Archdn. Hunter.” (Kirkby 1859b)
xvi An Orangist: a member of the Orange Order, or Orange Lodge, founded in 1796 by Irish Protestants at a time
of intense sectarian strife. The name refers to William of Orange, the Dutch prince who became King of
England, Scotland, and Ireland in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and who two years later defeated Catholic
James II in Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne. (Wikipedia).
xvii James Lockhart, whose report was not transcribed into the Fort Simpson correspondence book, but
paraphrased in a letter by Ross (1858).
xviii Early in the century, when Fort Good Hope belonged to the Northwest Company, Gwich’in profited from war
with Inuit, for then, as in 1817 and 1819 when Peter Dease was in charge, they received gifts from the post to
end it.(Simpson 102) For conflict and contact between the tribes after 1821 see the Good Hope Journal (1822,
16, 10, HBCA B80/a/1; 1826, 22, 06 and 1826, 08, 09, B80/a/5; 1828, 20, 09, B80/a/7; 1829, 20, 06 and 1829,
21, 07, B80/a/8; 1830, 22, 06, B80/a/9; 1834, 23, 06 and 1834, 23, 08 and 1834, 14, 09, B80/a/12) and the Fort
Simpson correspondence books: Brisebois 1825, Bell 1826, 1829, 1830, 1831a and b; Smith 1826, 1830a and b,
1831, 1832. In general, conflict emerged if Inuit wished to meet whites or were about to do so. In 1840 Gwich’in
massacred a dozen Inuit men, as well as women and children when the Peel’s River post, near the Delta, was
about to open (H. Mackenzie). A few years later they shot Inuit entering the Peel (Richardson 214-15), and Inuit
as a result thought whites gave Gwich’in guns to kill them (Peers 1849). In 1850, when Inuit met an HBC boat
near the Peel, Gwich’in ensured they would not get invited to the Peel’s River post: “The Indians first traded all
the bows and arrows of their foes then crept into the surrounding bushes and deli1berately shot them” (Bell
1850).
xix The first Fort Good Hope, opened in 1805, was located on the Mackenzie a few days’ travel from the Delta; in
the late 1820s it was moved a week’s travel upstream to just south of the Arctic Circle.
xx For translation problems see J. Anderson 1852a and b; A. Mackenzie 1855; Ross 1858 and 1859.
xxi Roderick MacFarlane
xxii See Nuligak’s tale (13, 30, 32, 54, 58, 120, 127) of his 1890-1910 youth as “a poor orphan. ”
xxiiiPortage La Loche, twelve miles long, in what is now northern Saskatchewan.
xxiv The Mackenzie’s trade year went from late June one year to late June the next.
xxv Barr gives an exquisite introduction to his edition of the diary of Peter Dease, who in 1836-9 with Thomas
Simpson explored the Alaskan and Central Coast. See Fitzgerald for sarcastic 1849 comments (119-120) on the
HBC’s tactics prior to the licence renewal. Coates has discussed the self-serving aspects of the HBC’s 1836-39
Dease and Simpson explorations.
xxvi James Anderson, to whom Gov. Simpson’s instructions ended with the line “I rely on you sparing no effort to
distinguish yourselves by success and so to secure for the Honourable Company and their [sic] officers the
approbation of Her Majesty’s Government and the English public” (1854)
xxviiOn being read an account by William Kennedy of cannibalism in Labrador, Simpson had insisted (Q+A 1558-
1564) that famine was “never” severe enough to bring such ends. The letter read to him (Q+A 1606-7) re Peel’s
River was from Ballantyne’s 1848 adventure book Hudson’s Bay. Ballantyne, a former HBC clerk, had not been
to the Mackenzie, but had a friend in the district. Besides, when he left the Northwest he traveled to Montreal
with HBC foe John MacLean.
xxviii All Rae’s testimony: Q+A 365-696; not understanding the tariff: 482-484; not lowering prices: 532.
xxix The Company’s sins were painted as bad treatment of natives and failure to aid missions. The latter charge
related to its enemies’ claims that the Mackenzie could support agriculture—which meant natives could change
from a nomadic life to farming, thought essential to conversion. James E. Fitzgerald’s 1849 jeremiad against the
HBC commented (119-20) on the Mackenzie’s fine weather and soil, even at Peel’s River. General Sir John
Lefroy, an expert on magnetic force, who had passed 1843-44 in the Mackenzie District, denied at the hearings
(Q+A 158-364) that farming there could support colonists, yet on a final note (Q+A 361) mentioned he had
shared the HBC boats with domestic cattle, which were kept at several posts. John McLean, who denigrated the
HBC in his 1849 book, had assisted the trader-in-charge at Fort Simpson in 1843-44, and was in command at
Fort Resolution in 1844-45 (the first year it was part of the Mackenzie District), after which, faced with lack of
promotion, he quit the HBC and became its opponent. Endless charges came from Alexander Isbister, former
HBC apprentice at Fort Simpson in 1839-40 and at Peel’s River in 1840-41, who spoke in London for
disgruntled citizens of the Red River Settlement, spearheaded a written assault on the company’s rights,
concocted an 1856 tract against it (Aborigines Protection Society), and testified at length at the 1857 hearings.
( Q+A 2392-2598 and 6072-6098). See Cooper for an irritating, ostentatious, theory-soaked hagiography of him.
Thomas Kennedy, Isbister’s young uncle, after leaving the HBC led searches for Franklin sponsored by the
latter’s widow, whipped up opposition in Upper Canada to the Company’s monopoly, and spoke to Toronto
businessmen about the Mackenzie’s wasted riches (Aborigines Protection Society). Like Fitzgerald, he had not
been in that district and likely got his information from McLean and Isbister. Naval Lieutenant W. H. Hooper
told in 1853 (366-74) of an HBC man’s part in a massacre of Inuit by Gwich’in. Naval Surgeon Armstrong 1857
(155, 167, 198) praised the Inuit and pointed out that clergy had done good work among them on the Labrador
coast, yet none could be found on the Arctic Coast.
xxx By aiding Rome, it is true, the HBC might offend evangelicals, but it had other power groups (including
Catholics in Lower Canada) to consider. To show an even hand, the Company fostered comity by helping
Anglicans set up at certain posts, Catholics, at others. It was not a policy that could last.
xxxi Kirkby journal, CMS reel A93, NAC. The girl’s age: 1859, 08, 09; the rest of the paragraph, 1859, 15, 08.
Tiktik’s name, 1860, 19, 03.
xxxii Over a hundred people were present, including crews of boats from most district posts to pick up goods, and
those of the chief trader’s brigade (who spent winter at the Mackenzie’s Big Island).
xxxiii The evangelical or “lower” branch of the Anglican Church included kneeling in its liturgy.
xxxiv At the service’s end, Kirkby thanked HBC staff for their “noble efforts” to erect a church.
xxxv “William Flett—8 years old, speaks Loucheux and Eskimo. He is from Peel’s River, a pure Indian, and
unbaptized though called by the above name.” (Kirkby 1859g)
xxxvi She was the wife of James Flett, who had been at La Pierre’s House, a subsidiary to Peel’s River west of the
Mackenzie Mountains. The couple and their children had come south on the same boat as the Inuit. The husband
had no relationship to the orphan boy.
xxxvii Hunter also baptized the Gwich’in boy, and said of the two: “Oh, that they may prove as first fruits of an
abundant harvest that shall yet be gathered into the heavenly garrison from their respective tribes.”
xxxviii That was all the more so since the pope had recently proclaimed the doctrine of Mary’s immaculate
conception. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate had pushed for the doctrine in Rome.
xxxix Healy, W.J. Women of Red River: Being a Book Written from the Recollections of Women from the Red River
Era. Winnipeg: Women’s Canadian Club, 1923. Web. Reference provided by John Brownlee.
xl Perhaps it was feared that since no fort had been built in the Delta, the man would insist on taking Attingarek
home, or that he wanted more gain. But it may have been a matter of true affection.
xli Healey, Women, web.[page?]
xlii Fort Halkett, on the Liard.
xliii Q+A 702-2125, Feb. 26 and 27, 1857.
xliv “Je meurs content, O Jésus, votre étendard est élevé jusqu’aux extrémités de la terre.” (Choquette
photograph, 58). The same quotation appears on the title page of a 1937 history of northern missions, Mid Snow
and Ice, by Father Pierre Duchaussois (Duchaussois O.M.I.) who held a doctorate in literature. Its original
version, Aux Glaces Polaires, published in Paris, won him membership in the Académie Française. The wording
in the English volume: “Oh my Jesus, I die happy, since I have seen the Sacred Standard of Thy Cross lifted up
at the very ends of the earth.”
xlv Leonard Tilley, government leader in New Brunswick, suggested the text. (Morton 97-98)
xlvi See Owram’s informative Promise of Eden about the West’s appeal to farmers and politicians.
xlvii Father Grollier until his death in 1864, Father Jean Séguin starting in 1861, and Father Emile Petitot, from
1864 on. Also present was Oblate religious brother J. P. Kearney, for whom Grollier’s imperious ways were a
cross to bear. Séguin and Kearney stayed half a century, as did Gaudet. Breton’s 1963 hagiography of Kearney
shows a photo of a nasty-looking Grollier (opp. p. 16) and one of Charles Gaudet and his family with the
comment “staunch friends of the missionaries ” (opp. p. 80). The book softens Grollier’s deathbed words (p. 53)
so as not to imply he reached the pole: “I die happy now that your standard is raised here at the ends of the
world.”
xlviii Petitot to Oblate Director General Joseph Fabre in Rome, Mar. 21, 1865, Oblate Archives, Rome
xlix HBCA personnel sheet. HBCA. Web. http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical
l Griffin Owen Corbett belonged to the high Anglican Church (another reason for his not getting along with
Hunter). In addition to stoking Red River’s populace against the HBC, he testified to its anti-mission stance at
the 1857 hearings (Q+A 2656-2888, p. 150-169 ). A fine précis of his twisted personality and bizarre ecclesiastic
path tells that the local bishop called him “a most dangerous man.” (Boreski).
li By descending age, Margaret, Jane , William, John, and Thomas.
lii A conclusion based on my transcription of Oblate and Anglican correspondence related to the Mackenzie Inuit
from 1860 through 1890 and written up in as yet unpublished articles such as “‘Une faute d’orthographe’: a
sexual history of missions to the Mackenzie Inuit.” The faute was the Oblates’ way of referring to Rev. Robert
McDonald’s fathering in the 1860s of a child by the Peel’s River HBC trader’s wife—which required him to stay
away for several years in the Yukon. Later Anglican missionaries include McDonald’s brother Kenneth, who left
because of his own sexual scandal, Wm. Carpenter Bompas, who stopped his Inuit work when made bishop, and
Thomas H. Canham, who disliked McDonald and feared Inuit violence and so arranged in the 1880s to get
moved from Ft. McPherson west across the mountains. The Catholic clerics were Jean Séguin, superior at Good
Hope, and one his priests, Emile Petitot. Séguin made a long visit to the Delta Inuit’s homes and wished to
return, but was not allowed by the Oblate hierarchy. Petitot was never able to control his homosexual appetites
and suffered with paranoid schizophrenia that quickly cut short all four of his stays with the Delta Inuit; his
experience of them may be far less than his writings tell. He did the same with Yukon Gwich’in—after visiting
them he told stories that required his knowing the language when in fact (as Séguin pointed out) he did not.
liii The main examples are three males: George Greenland (Arveuna), David Copperfield, and Kalukotok.
liv “I visited the Kogmollit [at sandspit between Baillie I. and Cape Bathurst]... Long talk in my tent with
Naoyniak, Taligoak, and Izyatooagzyook... They used to visit Fort Anderson. They tell how some of the natives
burnt the buildings after they were deserted to get at the nails” I. Stringer journal, 1900, 08, 08.
lv These comments are based on my transcription of the diaries and correspondence by and about the two men in
church and HBC archives.
lvi Formerly a pool hall for sailors and quarters for the Pacific Whaling Company’s on-shore captain.
lvii For Sukayak and her husband Ivitkoona (and a prior one accidentally shot by a whaler) see Sophie Porter,
1895, 04, 06. Bodfish 124. Isaac Stringer 1895, 14-15, 08; 1897, 13, 05; 1898, 01 and 09, 01; 1898, 26, 11;
1900, 05, 03; 1900, 20, 07; 1901, 08-18, 04; 1909, 27, 07. Sadie Stringer 1901, 08-18, 04. Stefansson 1906,
1907, 1912. R. M. Anderson June 1910, photos #162, 176, and 180. Anglican church registers 1910, 05, 08;
1921, 01, 01; 1925, 13, 07. Nuligak 86. Rasmussen 44 (in 1924 at Igdluk).
lviii The fame the royal visit brought, as well as stories about his time in the Arctic, helped make Stringer
Archbishop of Rupert’s Land, one of the Anglican Church in Canada’s most senior positions.
lix At Nalugogiak
lx For this second Tiktik, or Tyiktik, as whites also spelled it, see Isaac Stringer diary, 1898, 20, 11; 1899, 31, 01;
1899, 01 and 02, 02; 1900, 20, 07; 1909, 30, 07; 1912, 12, 07 (when the offer to go east to the Copper Inuit
occurred), and 1927, 25 and 26, 07; Stefansson, 1907, 1916; Nuligak, 91; Anglican Church registers, baptism
#64-5, 1910; marriage #32, 1910, 06, 08; baptism #219 of Tiktik’s daughter, 1912, 10, 07; her marriage, 1912,
12, 07; baptism #270, of Tiktik’s son Mark, 1913, 11, 01; Tiktik married again, 1922, 01, 01; Tiktik confirmed,
1925, 29. 06.