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Tag Archives: Paul Kane

Gabriel Franchère’s Narrative of a Voyage (Part One)

06 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Sharing, Travel Literature, Voyageurs

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Alexander Ross, Chief Wickaninnish, Emily Carr, Gabriel Franchère, J. V. Huntington, John Jacob Astor, Paul Kane, The Haida People, The Tonquin, Voyage from New York to Fort Astoria

Paul Kane, 1846
Paul Kane, 1846

Buffalo Bulls Fighting by Paul Kane

Paul Kane, 1846, watercolour on paper. Kane visited the West when the bison were still numerous (courtesy Stark Foundation, Orange, Texas)

(Photo and caption credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

Progress Report

We are now at the mouth of the Columbia River, aboard the Tonquin, when the War of 1812 broke out, ending John Jacob Astor‘s dream of a monopoly on the fur trade in North America.  John Jacob Astor (17 July 1763 – 29 March 1848), had just founded the Pacific Fur Company (PFC). The demise of the Tonquin, a bark, at the Clayoquot Sound, was a factor in the collapse of the Pacific Fur Company. Chief Wickaninnish and members of his tribe, murdered most of the Tonquin’s crew.

At Fort Astoria, in the Oregon country, nearly everyone was British. Fort Astoria quickly became Fort George. The Montreal-based North West Company, rivals to the Hudson’s Bay Company, bought the Pacific Fur Company‘s assets.

Gabriel Franchère

Gabriel Franchère (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

I am reading online publications of Gabriel Franchère‘s narrative of the journey that took him from New York to short-lived Fort Astoria, as well as my own copies of such works as Alexander Ross’s account of his adventures in the Oregon country.

Gabriel Franchère, a clerk, was one of John Jacob Astor’s most trusted employees who, as it turns out, would become an author. Franchère wrote a detailed Relation, a narrative, of the trip that took him and all men aboard the Tonquin, from partners in the Company to the lowliest employees, from New York to Fort Astoria, around Cape Horn.

In 1836, John Jacob would commission famed author Washington Irving (3 April 1783 – 28 November 1859; Rip van Winkle) to write Astoria. Consequently, Franchère’s narrative was requisitioned. Gabriel Franchère was a mere clerk.

In Franchère’s Narrative, translated and edited by J. V. Huntington, Aboriginals are often referred to as “barbarians” and “savages,” but Franchère observed that it was best to treat them as equals and thereby avoid hostility. I don’t know what led Chief Wickaninnish to murder most of the crew of the Tonquin.

A Honeymoon 

Coincidentally, my husband and I spent our honeymoon at Wickaninnish Inn, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, in the area where the Tonquin was destroyed. The food was extraordinary and we were in the company of celebrities who flew to the Inn regularly to “get away from it all.” At the time, there was no road to Wickaninnish Inn. We had Long Beach all to ourselves. Emily Carr had lived in that area. So we visited and worshipped.

Haida Totems by Emily Carr

Haida Totems by Emily Carr (Photo Credit: Google Images)

When we returned to Vancouver, I took a course on textile and was taught the Haida people‘s techniques for spinning, dyeing, and weaving wool. I still have wool I spun decades ago, but I gave my artwork. I believe it was destroyed, which could be what it deserved. 

The years I spent on the west coast were my happiest.

Sources and Resources

  • Ali Alizadeh Interviews Paul Kane, Cordite Poetry Review
  • pen.org/Paul Kane
  • Irving, Washington, Astoria, Gutenberg [EBook #1371]
  • Franchère, Gabriel and J. V. Huntington: Narrative of a voyage to the northwest coast, Gutenberg [EBook #15911] EN
  • Franchère, Gabriel and J. V. Huntington: Narrative of a voyage to the northwest coast (Internet Archives) EN
  • Franchère, Gabriel: Relation d’un voyage à la côte du Nord-Ouest de l’Amérique septentrionale (Internet Archives) FR
  • Ross, Alexander: Ross’s Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813 (Internet Archives) EN
  • Ross, Alexander: Ross’s Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813 (Internet Archives) FR

With kindest regards ♥
_________________________

I am  inserting a brief video on Emily Carr (The Canadian Encyclopedia). Simply click on the link below and use the arrows to see the video:

Emily Carr (click)

I am also inserting, once again, Canada’s National Film Board‘s documentary on Paul Kane. It is a 1972 production by Gerard Budner (1972: 14 min 28 s.). It cannot be embedded, but one is a mere click away, below:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/paul_kane_goes_west (click)

untitled

Boat Encampment, Sketch made by Paul Kane on the Columbia River, BC, c. 1846, watercolour. (Courtesy Stark Foundation, Orange, Texas). (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

© Micheline Walker
6 June 2015
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The Métis in Canada

04 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Canada, Métis

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Countryborn, John Brant, John Norton, Louis Riel, Métis, Norma J. Hall, Paul Kane, Peter Rindisbacher, ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763, War of 1812

art-canada-institute-paul-kane_cun-ne-wa-bum_one-that-looks-at-stars_HR
Cunnawa-bum, Metis (Plains Cree and British ancestry) by Paul Kane, c. 1849–56 (Courtesy: Art Institute of Canada)

The Métis in Canada

“The term ‘Métis’ does not mean any white person who believes they also have some Native ancestry.” (See Métis, Wikipedia.)

Many Canadians combine European and Amerindian ancestry to a lesser or greater extent. In the early years of the colony, French settlers married Amerindian women. After the arrival, between 1663 and 1673, of the “Filles du Roy,” men could marry French women.

However, we can’t presume that Quebecers of French ancestry stopped marrying Aboriginals, the minute the King’s Daughters arrived in New France. People of European extraction still marry Amerindians, but their children are not necessarily Métis in the narrow sense of the word. They are Métis if one uses the word Métis in its broadest acceptation. In other words, all Canadians who have some Aboriginal ancestry are métissés(e)s.

“Geneticists estimate that 50 percent of today’s population in Western Canada have some Aboriginal blood.” (See Métis People Canada, Wikipedia).

The Métis Nation

However, persons with aboriginal ancestry are not necessarily members of the Métis Nation. In this matter, the word “nation” makes all the difference. The people who took a dim view of the Earl of Selkirk’s endeavor to settle the Red River, which they inhabited and suddenly recognized as their home, were members of the Métis Nation, and so are their descendants. These may be the great or great-great grandchildren of French-speaking voyageurs, men who paddled canoes, but also men who managed the fort during the winter but not exclusively.

There were indeed Scottish, Irish and English fur traders who also married Amerindian women. Cuthbert Grant was a Métis. It could be that Canadiens were less reluctant to marry Amerindians. But Cuthbert Grant’s father, also named Cuthbert, nevertheless chose his wife, a woman he loved, and created a family. In short, there were Anglo-Métis, also known as Countryborn.

Cuthbert Grant (1793 – 15 July 1854) was an Anglo-Métis who may have been educated in Scotland. (See Cuthbert Grant, Wikipedia.) Young Cuthbert Grant led the Métis at the Battle of Seven Oaks, which has been called a massacre. The Métis outnumbered Governor Robert Semple and his settlers. Approximately 65 Métis fought some 28 settlers and their governor, Robert Semple. However, given that the Métis were realizing that the Red River was their territory; given, moreover that Amerindians were protected by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, it was imprudent of Governor Semple to leave the safety of Fort Douglas and venture out with settlers. However, did he know he was facing danger?

With respect to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, I should note that Cuthbert Grant, a genuine Métis, was never prosecuted. In fact, one wonders to what extent the Indian Act of 1876 (Canadian Encyclopedia) was valid. The enfranchisement or assimilation of Amerindians, advocated by Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald, reflects the tenets of his age, i.e. the belief that the white race was the “civilized” race. The Indian Act could therefore be viewed as an encroachment on the Royal Proclamation of 1763. So could, for that matter, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald’s role in the execution of Louis Riel, the leader of the Métis Nation. This fascinating question is for historians and constitutional scholars to debate.

506px-Map_of_territorial_growth_1775.svg

To the left is a map showing the Proclamation Line. After the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 18 February 1815), which opposed Britain and the United States, the border between Canada and the United States was drawn mostly along the 49th parallel, which means that after the Treaty of Ghent, a number of voyageurs were suddenly living in Minnesota. Many were Canadiens voyageurs who had been employees of John Jacob Astor. These voyageurs retired in Minnesota.

Louis Riel

Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) is the most famous Métis. He was born to a Métis father and the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and Marianne Gaboury. The latter is the first woman of European descent to settle in the Red River Colony. So Métis would be the descendants of such persons as Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont, individuals for whom the arrival of settlers was an invasion of their nation, the Métis Nation, a people that was not recognized as Aboriginals, let alone a nation, until the Canada Act of 1982. The Canada Act or Patriated Constitution includes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.[3] The Métis stood in the wings for a very long time.

Louis riel

Riel, Louis and the Provisional Government Riel’s (centre), first provisional government, 1869 (courtesy Glenbow Archives/NA-1039-1). (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The War of 1812 and Amerindians

Amerindians and Métis played a role in the War of 1812. American expansionism was a threat to Amerindians, so they fought alongside the British and their valor has been recognized.
https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1348771334472/1348771382418

Shawnee chief Tecumseh was killed on 5 October 1813 at the Battle of the Thames (Moraviantown). Both Métis Mohawk Chief John Brant  and Métis John Norton, Six Nations War Chief, also distinguished themselves in the War of 1812 (The Canadian Encyclopedia).

http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/?q=eng/Topic/29

Chief John Norton
Chief John Norton
Chief Tecumseh
Chief Tecumseh

Artists as Chroniclers

  • Peter Rindisbacher
  • Paul Kane
  • Alfred Jacob Miller
  • etc.

We have seen some watercolours by Peter Rindisbacher. Swiss-born Peter Rindisbacher’s family moved to the United States. Peter settled in St. Louis, but he had lived in the Red River Colony and had made watercolours, a portrayal of the life of Amerindians and Métis. Consequently, he alone depicted Assiniboia itself.

Red_River_summer_view_1822

Homes on narrow river lots along the Red River in 1822 by Peter Rindisbacher with Fort Douglas in the background (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rindisbacher_fishing_1821_large_(1)

Winter Fishing on the Ice by Peter Rindisbacher, 1821 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

However, Paul Kane (1810 – 1871) bequeathed a more complete tableau of Canada’s Amerindians, including Métis, than Peter Rindisbacher. I have therefore included a National Film Board documentary on Paul Kane. However, American artist Alfred Jacob Miller‘s “Trapper’s Bride” has to appear on the front cover of the book telling the story of the children born to voyageurs, fur traders and, perhaps, bourgeois. Companies hired voyageurs, but so did bourgeois. 

Conclusion

In short there are Métis and there are Métis. Thousands of Canadians have Amerindian ancestry, which makes them Métis if the word is given its broadest meaning. People belonging to the Métis Nation are the descendants of the people engaged in the fur trade who married Amerindian women and whose children were “Countryborn.” They live in Manitoba and Saskatchewan or they originate from these two prairie provinces. Louis Riel was executed in Regina, Saskatchewan, not Manitoba.

I have read many books on the voyageurs and started with Grace Lee Nute’s The Voyageur, first published in 1931. The Voyageur is a perfect introduction to the topic of voyageurs and their songs. Pierre Falcon was a Métis singer-songwriter who composed a song celebrating the Métis victory at Seven Oaks: La Chanson de la grenouillère [from frog, grenouille].

Norma J. Hall, Ph.D.

But we have reached the end of this post. WordPress author Norma J. Hall, Ph.D. has published authoritative posts on Assiniboia and provided lovely images. I would encourage you to read her articles. (See Sources and Resources, below.)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • The Red River Settlement (30 May 2015)
  • Louis Riel as Father of Confederation (22 May 2012)

Sources and Resources

  • Provisional Government of Assiniboia, by Norma J. Hall, Ph.D. https://hallnjean2.wordpress.com/the-red-river-resistance/children-of-red-river/
  • Aboriginal Contributions to the War of 1812
  • (Masson) Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. vol II (Internet Archives) EN
  • (Masson) Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. vol I (Internet Archives) FR
  • (Dr J. J. Bigsby) The Shoe and Canoe. vol I (Internet Archives) EN
  • War Museum Canada, 1812
    http://www.warmuseum.ca/1812/

With kindest regards. ♥
____________________

[1] Voyageurs were mostly Canadiens, but the Bourgeois who hired them originated from various countries. St. Louis, Missouri where Peter Rindisbacher moved, was a city founded by Frenchmen Pierre Laclède, a fur trader, and Auguste Chouteau, a Louisiana fur trader. St. Louis was in French Louisiana, before its purchase by the United States in 1803.

[2] The Canada Act of 1982

35. (1) The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.

(2) In this Act, “aboriginal peoples of Canada” includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.

(3) For greater certainty, in subsection (1) “treaty rights” includes rights that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired.

(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the aboriginal and treaty rights referred to in subsection (1) are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.

Paul Kane Goes West: a NFB/onF Documentary  

Short documentary by the National Film Board of Canada. It is a 1972 production by Gerard Budner (1972: 14 min 28 s.). (Simply click on the link below to see the film.)

https://www.nfb.ca/film/paul_kane_goes_west

Paul Kane Project, Royal Ontario Museum

Individual_of_the_Sautaux_First_Nation,_standing_in_a_winter_landscape,_wearing_a_winter_cape,_and_holding_a_bow_and_arrows

© Micheline Walker
4 June 2015
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