Tag Archives: ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763

The Métis in Canada

04 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Aboriginals, Canada, Métis

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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 Tecumseh

Artists as Chroniclers

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

Sources and Resources

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
WordPress

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 (Indigenous Foundations)

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Aboriginals, Canada

≈ 12 Comments

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The_Trapper's_Bride

The Trapper’s Bride by Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810-1874), 1850 (Photo credit: Joslyn Art Museum)

 Put simply, Canada’s Aboriginal peoples were here when Europeans came, and were never conquered.

Canadian Aboriginal Art at the Senate

The history of Canadian Aboriginals in Canada differs from the history of American Aboriginals. The French did exploit Amerindians by providing them with alcohol and trinkets in return for precious pelts. However, François de Laval (1623 – 1708), the bishop of Quebec, threatened to excommunicate the “sinners.”

As for Amerindians, they tortured to death several missionaries. The best-known is Jean de Brébeuf. Mohawks, allies of the British, captured and tortured Europeans. One of their victims was Pierre-Esprit Radisson (1636 – 1710), who was saved by his Amerindian family and eventually escaped. He and his brother-in-law, Médard des Groseillers (1618 – 1696), discovered the sea to the north, the Hudson Bay. Fur traders could henceforth travel by boat to collect beaver pelts.

The French Régime

the settlers’ dependence on Amerindians
anedda
birch-bark canoes
voyageurs
Métis
pemmican

In 1535, the year after he claimed Canada for France, Jacques Cartier failed to return to France before the onset of winter. Several members of his crew started to die of scurvy. Amerindians supplied Cartier with infusions of thuja occidentalis, white cedar, and saved his men. Jacques Cartier was at Stadacona, an Iroquoian (Mohawk) village near the current Quebec City. This was Cartier’s second trip to what would become New France in the first decade of the 17th century. He was returning his sons, Domayaga and Taignoagny, to Chief Donnacona.

The French also owe Amerindians their birch-bark canoes. These were light and could be built in very little time with material nature provided. How would Canadiens have become voyageurs and guides to explorers without the birch-bark canoes? The voyageurs learned Amerindian languages—there were and are several—and Amerindians prepared their food, pemmican.

More importantly, given that France had sent very few women to New France until 1663, when the King’s Daughters, les filles du roy, started arriving, a significant number of French settlers married Amerindian women.

So did Voyageurs. Some signed a three-year contract and stayed at the trading posts during the winter. They often married an Amerindian woman. They founded a people: the Métis, recognized aboriginals who speak Michif, a mixed language. Recognized aboriginals comprise the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis.

The best-known Métis is the ill-fated Louis Riel, the “Father of Manitoba” and the grandson of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and Marie-Anne Gaboury “the first woman of European descent to travel to and settle in what is now Western Canada.” (See Marie-Anne Gaboury, Wikipedia)

Pierre Le Royer, coureur des bois, 1889
Louis Riel, the “Father of Manitoba”
Arrival of Radisson in an Indian Camp, Charles William Jefferys, 1660
Conference between the French and First Nations leaders. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Proclamation of 1763: the Indian Magna Carta

When New France became a British colony, Amerindians feared for their survival. Settlers wanted their land. England’s answer was the Proclamation of 1763. The Proclamation of 1763 protected the French and it also protected aboriginals.

This story resembles that of the Quebec Act of 1774 which put England’s new French colony on an equal footing with British settlers by allowing them to keep their language, their faith, their seigneuries and their Code civil.

Where aboriginals are concerned, the Proclamation of 1763 became their Magna Carta. It in fact turned 250 years old in 2013 and is enshrined in the Canada Act of 1982.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/royal-proclamation-of-1763-canada-s-indian-magna-carta-turns-250-1.1927667

If one is looking for the underpinnings of the Constitution of 1867 and Patriated Constitution of 1982, the Canada Act, the Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774 are fundamental texts.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development

Canada has a Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development and a Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Jean Chrétien, a former Prime Minister of Canada, was Minister of Indian Affairs for six years.

His [Jean Chrétien’s] one bold attempt to change how Ottawa traditionally dealt with native Canadians – the 1969 White Paper on “Indian Policy” – was so spectacularly repudiated by Indian leaders as a denial of their special status in Canada that it took him years to overcome their suspicions about his underlying motives.

Conclusion

We are not ready for a conclusion. This story is a very long one and it has a few sad chapters. However, we have seen that the bonds that developed between Amerindians and the French were often dictated by need, but they were true bonds. For instance, the French needed not only canoes, but snowshoes and the appropriate clothes. They used what the Amerindians used.

Moreover, after New France was ceded to Britain, both the inhabitants of New France and Amerindians were protected by Britain. The British may have had a motive: the Thirteen Colonies wanted their independence. There would be a war. Therefore, it was best not to alienate those who might help or to make sure they remained neutral. However, what seemed to be temporary became permanent. The rights given Amerindians became permanent rights. Such is also the case with the Quebec Act of 1774. There are separatists and extremists, but there has also been a long and mostly compatible partnership.

My kindest regards to all of you. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

In these Fairylike Boats …
The Singing Voyageurs
The Voyageur Mythified
The Voyageur from Sea to Sea
The Voyageur & his Canoe
The Voyageurs & their Employers
The Voyageurs: hommes engagés (hired men)←

Sources and Resources

Jacques Cartier, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Mohawks, Proclamation of 1673, Louis Riel, Canadian Encyclopedia
indigenous.foundations.arts.ubc.ca (University of British Columbia) 
How did the Seven Years War Affect Native Americans?
The war that made Canada (National Post)
http://www.cbc.ca/revisionquest/
Canadian Aboriginal law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Aboriginal_law
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 1991

—ooo—

According to 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 Metis 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.

35.1 The government of Canada and the provincial governments are committed to the principal that, before any amendment is made to Class 24 of section 91 of the “Constitution Act, 1867”, to section 25 of this Act or to this Part,

(a) a constitutional conference that includes in its agenda an item relating to the proposed amendment, composed of the Prime Minister of Canada and the first ministers of the provinces, will be convened by the Prime Minister of Canada; and

(b) the Prime Minister of Canada will invite representatives of the aboriginal peoples of Canada to participate in the discussions on that item.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

And whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to our Interest, and the Security of our Colonies, that the several Nations or Tribes of Indians with whom We are connected, and who live under our Protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such Parts of Our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them, or any of them, as their Hunting Grounds — We do therefore, with the Advice of our Privy Council, declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure, that no Governor or Commander in Chief in any of our Colonies of Quebec, East Florida. or West Florida, do presume, upon any Pretence whatever, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass any Patents for Lands beyond the Bounds of their respective Governments. as described in their Commissions: as also that no Governor or Commander in Chief in any of our other Colonies or Plantations in America do presume for the present, and until our further Pleasure be known, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass Patents for any Lands beyond the Heads or Sources of any of the Rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the West and North West, or upon any Lands whatever, which, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us as aforesaid, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them.

And We do further declare it to be Our Royal Will and Pleasure, for the present as aforesaid, to reserve under our Sovereignty, Protection, and Dominion, for the use of the said Indians, all the Lands and Territories not included within the Limits of Our said Three new Governments, or within the Limits of the Territory granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company, as also all the Lands and Territories lying to the Westward of the Sources of the Rivers which fall into the Sea from the West and North West as aforesaid.

And We do hereby strictly forbid, on Pain of our Displeasure, all our loving Subjects from making any Purchases or Settlements whatever, or taking Possession of any of the Lands above reserved, without our especial leave and Licence for that Purpose first obtained.

And We do further strictly enjoin and require all Persons whatever who have either wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any Lands within the Countries above described. or upon any other Lands which, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such Settlements.

And whereas great Frauds and Abuses have been committed in purchasing Lands of the Indians, to the great Prejudice of our Interests. and to the great Dissatisfaction of the said Indians: In order, therefore, to prevent such Irregularities for the future, and to the end that the Indians may be convinced of our Justice and determined Resolution to remove all reasonable Cause of Discontent, We do, with the Advice of our Privy Council strictly enjoin and require, that no private Person do presume to make any purchase from the said Indians of any Lands reserved to the said Indians, within those parts of our Colonies where We have thought proper to allow Settlement: but that, if at any Time any of the Said Indians should be inclined to dispose of the said Lands, the same shall be Purchased only for Us, in our Name, at some public Meeting or Assembly of the said Indians, to be held for that Purpose by the Governor or Commander in Chief of our Colony respectively within which they shall lie: and in case they shall lie within the limits of any Proprietary Government, they shall be purchased only for the Use and in the name of such Proprietaries, conformable to such Directions and Instructions as We or they shall think proper to give for that Purpose: And we do, by the Advice of our Privy Council, declare and enjoin, that the Trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our Subjects whatever, provided that every Person who may incline to Trade with the said Indians do take out a Licence for carrying on such Trade from the Governor or Commander in Chief of any of our Colonies respectively where such Person shall reside, and also give Security to observe such Regulations as We shall at any Time think fit, by ourselves or by our Commissaries to be appointed for this Purpose, to direct and appoint for the Benefit of the said Trade:

And we do hereby authorize, enjoin, and require the Governors and Commanders in Chief of all our Colonies respectively, as well those under Our immediate Government as those under the Government and Direction of Proprietaries, to grant such Licences without Fee or Reward, taking especial Care to insert therein a Condition, that such Licence shall be void, and the Security forfeited in case the Person to whom the same is granted shall refuse or neglect to observe such Regulations as We shall think proper to prescribe as aforesaid.

And we do further expressly conjoin and require all Officers whatever, as well Military as those Employed in the Management and Direction of Indian Affairs, within the Territories reserved as aforesaid for the use of the said Indians, to seize and apprehend all Persons whatever, who standing charged with Treason, Misprisions of Treason, Murders, or other Felonies or Misdemeanors, shall fly from Justice and take Refuge in the said Territory, and to send them under a proper guard to the Colony where the Crime was committed, of which they stand accused, in order to take their Trial for the same.

Given at our Court at St. James’s the 7th Day of October 1763, in the Third Year of our Reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING

George III (See Indigenous Foundations)

 

 

The Aftermath & Krieghoff’s Quintessential Quebec

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Aboriginals, Art, Canada

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—Bargaining for a Load of Wood by Cornelius Krieghoff (1815 – 1872), 1860
 
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff
http://www.klinkhoff.com/gwk/home/gwkexhbrowse.asp?WID=769&artist=75
 

“After Canada was ceded to Britain in 1763, new British laws respected the private agreements and the property rights of francophone society, and the seigneurial system was maintained.” The Canadian Encyclopedia

—ooo—

In 1755, the British deported thousands of Acadians but, in 1874, nineteen years later, the Quebec Act made French-speaking Canadians full-fledged British subjects.

At first, there were difficult years on both sides. But, as stated in the Canadian Encyclopedia, after Canada was ceded to Britain in 1763, “new British laws respected the private agreements and the property rights of francophone society, and the seigneurial system was maintained.”[i] For details regarding this question, one can read Michel Brunet’s French Canada and the early decades of the British Rule (go to pages 3 and 4).

The Royal Proclamation and the Quebec Act

The ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763 renamed Nouvelle-France the Province of Quebec, but made it rather small, which would no longer be the case in 1774. According to the Quebec Act, “which received royal assent 22 June 1774 and became effective 1 May 1775,”[ii] the Province of Quebec would “include Labrador, Ile d’Anticosti and Iles-de-la-Madeleine on the east, and the Indian territory south of the Great Lakes between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers on the west.” This enlarged Quebec would have an elected assembly and Catholics could be elected into office.

Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester

The Quebec Act came into effect under General and Right Honourable Sir Guy Carleton 1st Baron Dorchester, KB [Order of Bath] (Strabane, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, 3 September 1724 – 10 November 1808 Stubbings, Maidenhead, Berkshire), Governor of Quebec (1768–1778) and Governor General of the Canadas (1786–1796). But Lord Dorchester opposed the Constitutional Act of 1991 that created two Canadas: Lower Canada and Upper Canada.

Lord Guy Carleton[iii] was largely responsible for the Quebec Act, which helped to preserve French laws and customs (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-2833). (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

I will discuss the Constitutional Act (1791), which Lord Dorchester opposed, in a later post. For the time being, it suffices to tell about the life of the Canadien after the Treaty of Paris. France could have kept New France but it preferred to keep sugar-rich Guadeloupe. However, the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which protected Quebec, were respected.

It has been said that it was in Britain’s best interest to give full citizenship to the Canadiens in a formal Act, the Quebec Act. Its thirteen colonies to the South were threatening to part company with England. Therefore, why alienate the French Canadians? Yet, it has also been said that Britain acted in the best interest of its new British subjects.

Cornelius Krieghoff

So, let us remember Cornelius Krieghoof’s quintessential Quebec: a snow land, un pays de neige: snow as a country.

— Winter Landscape, c. 1889 (Photo credit: Art.com) 
 

Cornelius David Krieghoff (19 June 1815 – 8 March 1872) was born in Amsterdam and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Germany, in c. 1830. He moved to New York in 1836 and enlisted in the US army the following year, 1837. In 1840, he deserted the US army and married Émilie Gauthier.  “They moved to Montreal, where he participated in the Salon de la Société des Artistes de Montréal. While in Montreal, he befriended the Mohawks living on the Kahnawake Indian Reservation and made many sketches of them from which he later produced oil paintings.”[iv]

In 1844, the Krieghoffs travelled to Paris and Krieghoof made copies of works located in the Louvre under the direction of Michel Martin Drolling (1789–1851).  Krieghoof was invited to participate in the first exhibition of the Toronto Society of Arts, held in 1847. So the Krieghoffs returned to Montreal in 1846 and moved to Quebec City in 1853. Krieghoff returned to Europe twice. He did so briefly, in 1854, and at greater length, from 1863 to 1868.

He then moved to Chicago to retire, and Chicago was his last destination. He died on 8 March 1872 at the age of 56 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. The Great Quebec Fire of 8 June 1881 destroyed many of his sketches, “then owned by John S. Budden, who had lived with the artist for thirteen years.” (Wikipedia). Cornelius Krieghoof is considered the finest Canadian artist of the nineteenth century. However, although called a Canadian, he could be labelled a Dutch master.

The Habitant and his Seigneur

Just below is a painting of habitants, the name given censitaires or tenants under the Seigneurial System, abolished in 1854. They had been called habitants since the seventeenth century. The word has now become pejorative.

Habitants, painting by Cornelius Krieghoff

Habitants, 1852 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two Major Themes

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia:

“Krieghoff early on established in his repertoire two major themes that he would revisit throughout his career and for which he is perhaps best known: rural francophones and aboriginals. His HABITANT scenes cover a range of situations: in some, for example, folk greet one another en route, play cards, race their sleds, fraternize at the local in, or attempt to settle a tract of un-arable land – granted to them by the government – in the hinterlands of Québec.”[v]

The hinterlands would be Maria Chapdelaine’s Peribonka: les pays d’en-haut (the countries above), a story told by Frenchman, Louis Hémon.  As for the aboriginals, when he served in the US army, Krieghoff was assigned for service in the Seminole Wars in Florida.  Krieghoff had made sketches of the Second Seminole War.  The Seminoles were Amerindians.

— Wyandot hunter calling a moose, c. 1868 (print)

Track 25 Beethoven Rondo in C major C-Dur; ut majeur Op. 51.1, Louis Lortie
(please click on Track 25 to hear the music)
© Micheline Walker
_________________________
[i] Jacques Mathieu, “The Seignorial System,” The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/seigneurial-system  
[ii] Nancy Brown Foulds, “Quebec Act,” The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/quebec-act 
[iii] S. R. Mealing, “Guy Carleton,” The Canadian Encyclopedia  http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/guy-carleton-1st-baron-dorchester 
[iv] “Cornelius Krieghoff,” Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Krieghoff 
[v] Arlene Gehmacher, “Cornelius Krieghoff,” The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/cornelius-david-krieghoff