[PREAMBLE
It is recommended that the reader study this chapter before proceeding to “NO. 6 MARTIN HUNTER SERIES – Nipigon”. In the No. 6 chapter, the writer, T.A. Reynolds, makes these remarks: “…[A drunken] Indian came staggering over the threshold . . . When liquor was first brought into the country the Indians nearly ruined themselves body and soul . . . ” These remarks lack proper context. This author of Canadian Wilds (1907) was writing of his experience in Nipigon in the year 1908. As a retired fur trader, T.A. Reynolds was recalling in his book, Canadian Wilds, his sojourn at Long Lake Post, near present-day Longlac, in the years 1876-8. His book and subsequent manuscripts make not a single reference to the trauma suffered by Indian families when their children were, effectively, kidnapped and incarcerated in government residential schools. In “End Notes”, this chapter, No. 7, provides the context.]
The two years I passed in charge of the Hudson’s Bay Post of Long Lake, situated on the water-shed between Lake Superior and Hudson’s Bay, was the happiest of any period of my long service.
The conclusion I have arrived at, after considerable experience, is that Christianizing(2), in no matter what form, has only made the Indian worse.(3)
It is the verdict of all who have had to do with the red man, that he copies all of the white man’s vices and very few, if any, of his virtues. Indians I found at Long Lake, in the middle seventies, were Pagans, but they were honest, truthful and virtuous.
We locked our tradeshop, not to prevent robbery, simply to guard against the door being blown open. Not one of these Indians would have taken a pin without showing it to me first and saying: “I am going to keep this,” holding up the pin.
My predecessor had been stationed at that post in an unbroken charge of over twenty years. He was a man of system and everything went by rote. There were certain fixed dates for out-fitting the hunters; certain dates for those short of ammunition to come and get it in the winter; and, best of all, certain dates for them to arrive in the spring and close their hunts. This assured us of getting only prime, seasoned skins, and such skins it was a pleasure to handle, since the paper upon which this is printed is not whiter than every skin that passed thru my hands in those two years.
I am writing of the days before the Canadian Pacific Railway(4) passed thru that country when there were no whiskey peddlers going about demoralizing the Indians.(5) There being no opposition we regulated the catch of furs. When we found, by general report of the hunters, that a certain kind of fur was becoming scarce, we lowered the price for that particular animal’s pelt so low as to not make it worth their while to trap it. For instance, while I was there, the beaver was having our protection, and, as a consequence, in three years every little pond or creek became stocked with beaver. The Indian hunter did not suffer, because we paid the most liberal prices for the skins that were most plentiful. This policy, however, could only be carried out at places where there was no competition.
The gentleman in charge was the representative of the “Great Company” and what he said was law. Our interests and those of the Indians ran on parallel lines.
It was to our interest to see all that the Indian required should be of the very best. That he should have good, strong, warm clothing, good ammunition and double-tower proved guns was essential to his ability to hunt, his comfort and his very life.
It was drilled into the hunters at each yearly send off, that if he did not exert himself to hunt sufficient to pay the advances given him, that the “Great Father”(6) would not, or could not, send goods for the next year.
It was explained to them that their furs were bartered in far off countries for other new guns, blankets, twine, capots, duffle, copper kettles and other wants of the Indians. As we wanted the hunters to be well clothed and supplied with necessaries we imported no such useless trash as the frontier posts were obliged to keep to cope with the free traders.
END NOTES
1 Philip H. Godsell , born in England in 1889, joined the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1906, working until 1929. He then forged a new career as a writer and journalist, producing many books, short stories, radio broadcasts, and articles. One book, Arctic Trader: The Account of Twenty Years with the Hudson’s Bay Company, features a great story about Longlac.
2 “Christianizing” refers to the introduction of religious concepts and practices entirely foreign to Anishinaabe and Mushkegowuk cultures (Ojibway and Swampy Cree). The author correctly identifies one of the major factors leading to the demoralizing of Indigenous people. And, Christians assumed control of government residential schools. However, along with the majority of Canadians in early 20th century, the author was totally oblivious to the connection between the residential school system and the despair of First Nations.
3 St. Mary’s Residential School, founded in 1897, taught children from Wauzhushk Onigum Nation (pronounced Waa-JUSHK oh-KNEE-gum) as well as from other places. WON reserve was located 3 kilometres from Rat Portage (since renamed Kenora). It is probable that the CPR conveyed some of the abductees to attend this institution. Credit Wauzhushk Onigum Nation | The Canadian Encyclopedia . Recently, ground penetrating radar revealed anomalies that suggest 170 unmarked graves. However, to date, of many hundreds of such anomalies detected on the grounds of former residential schools in Canada, not one has been positively identified as a grave.
4 The CPR was not operational on the Superior North Shore until late 1885. The Canadian Northern Ontario Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (aka National Transcontinental Railway) would access the Greenstone Region (Longlac, Nakina, etc.) much later. It would be another 30 years before they serviced this region. During the construction of the CPR along the North Shore, 1883-5, whiskey pedlars plagued the workers and the management.
5 Whiskey pedlars were arms of the Canadian fur trade from its beginning in the 1600s. Daniel and Claude Dulhut, and Pierre La Vérendrye and his sons, early traders in Northwestern Ontario, used “whiskey” ( i.e., French brandy) in trade, even if only to “sweeten” their deals. “Free traders” refers to traders not associated with big corporations such as Hudson’s Bay Company and Revillon Frères. However, the histories of HBC attest to its use of whiskey as a trading tool. To be fair, no authoritative source has claimed that the HBC Long Lake Post used whiskey. Indeed, it was a free trader that drew the author to Long Lake in 1876 to compete with a “desperado”. Refer to No. 1 chapter https://bit.ly/4f0VPOS .
6 “Great Father” may have been a reference to Sir John A. MacDonald, Prime Minister of Canada in the late 19th century, or to Sir Wilfred Laurier in early 20th century. Or it may have been a reference to the King of England, King Edward VII, who succeeded Queen Victoria in 1901.
(Continued in Part 2)
