THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH
Fort Chmio is situated upon the east bank of the Koksoak River and
about twenty-five miles from its mouth, where the river is nearly a
mile and a half wide. There are two trading posts here; one, that of
the Hudson's Bay Company, consisting of a dozen or so buildings, which
include dwelling and storehouses and native cabins; the other that of
Revellion Brothers, the great fur house of Paris, colloquially referred
to as "the French Company," which stands just above and adjoining the
station of the Hudson's Bay Company. This latter Post was erected in
the year 1903, and has nearly as many buildings as the older
establishment. We used to refer to them respectively as "London" and
"Paris."
The history of Fort Chimo extends back to the year 1811, when Kmoch and
Kohlmeister, two of the Moravian Brethren of the Okak Mission on the
Atlantic coast, in the course of their efforts for the conversion of
the Eskimos to Christianity cruised into Ungava Bay, discovered the
George River, which they named in honor of King George the Third, and
then proceeded to the Koksoak, which they ascended to the point of the
present settlement. The natives received them well. They erected a
beacon on a hill, tarried but a few days and then turned back to Okak.
Upon their return they gave glowing accounts of their reception by the
natives and the great possibilities for profitable trade, but they did
not deem it advisable themselves to extend their labors to that field.
In the course of time this report drifted to England and to the ears of
the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were attracted by it,
and in 1827 Dr. Mendry, an officer of the Company at Moose Factory,
with a party of white men and Indian guides crossed the peninsula from
Richmond Gulf, through Clearwater Lake to the head waters of the Larch
River, a tributary of the Koksoak, thence descended the Larch and
Koksoak to the place where the Moravians had erected the beacon, and on
a low terrace, just across the river from the beacon, established the
original Fort Chimo. The difficulties of navigation and the consequent
uncertainty and expense of keeping the Post supplied with provisions
and articles of trade were such, however, that after a brief trial
Ungava was abandoned.
The opportunities for lucrative trade here were not forgotten by the
Company, and in the year 1837 Factor John McLean was detailed to
re-establish Fort Chimo. This he did, and a year later built the first
Post at George River. During the succeeding winter he crossed the
interior with dogs to Northwest River. Upon their return journey
McLean and his party ate their dogs and barely escaped perishing from
starvation; one of his Indians, who was sent ahead, reaching Fort Chimo
and bringing succor when McLean and the others, through extreme
weakness, were unable to proceed farther. In the following summer
McLean built the fort on Indian House Lake, and the other one that has
been mentioned, on a large lake to the westward--Lake Eraldson he
called it--presumably the source of Whale River. Later he succeeded in
crossing to Northwest River by canoe, ascending the George River and
descending the Atlantic slope of the plateau by way of the Grand River.
His object was to establish a regular line of communication between
Fort Chimo and Northwest River, with interior posts along the route.
The natural obstacles which the country presented finally forced the
abandonment of this plan as impracticable, and the two interior posts
were closed after a brief trial. This was before the days of steam
navigation, and with sailing vessels it was only possible to reach
these isolated northern stations in Ungava Bay with supplies once every
two years. Even these infrequent visits were so fraught with danger
and uncertainty that finally, in 1855, Fort Chimo and George River were
again abandoned as unprofitable. In 1866, however, the building of the
Company's steamship Labrador made yearly visits possible, and in that
year another attack was made upon the Ungava district and Fort Chimo
was rebuilt, George River Post re-established, and a little later the
small station at Whale River was erected. With the improved facilities
for transportation the trade with Indians and Eskimos, and the salmon
and white whale fisheries carried on by the Posts, now proved most
profitable, and the Company has since and is still reaping the reward
of its persistence.
Dr. Milne, as has been stated, was not a permanent resident of the
Post. Regularly stationed here, besides Mathewson, there is a young
clerk, a cooper, a carpenter, and a handy man, all Scotchmen, and a
comparatively new arrival, Rev. Samuel M. Stewart, a missionary of the
Church Mission Society of England. Of Mr. Stewart, who did much to
relieve the monotony of our several weeks' sojourn at Fort Chimo, and
his remarkable self-sacrifice and work, I shall have something to say
later.
The day after our arrival we took occasion to pay our respects to
Monsieur D. The'venet, the officer in charge of the "French Post." Our
reception was most cordial. M. The'venet is a gentleman by birth. He
was at one time an officer in the French cavalry, but his love of
adventure and active temperament rebelled against the inactivity of
garrison duty and he resigned his commission in the army, came to
Canada, and joined the Northwest mounted police in the hope of
obtaining a detail in the Klondike. In this he was disappointed, and
the outbreak of the South African war offering a new field of adventure
he quit the police, enlisted in the Canadian Mounted Rifles, and served
in the field throughout the war. After his return to Canada and
discharge from the army, he took service with Revellion Brothers.
M. The'venet invited us to dine with him that very evening, and we were
not slow to accept his hospitality. His bright conversation, pleasing
personality and unstinted hospitality offered a delightful evening and
we were not disappointed. This and many other pleasant evenings spent
in his society during our stay at Fort Chimo were some of the most
enjoyable of our trip.
Here an agreeable surprise awaited me. When we sat down to dinner
The'venet called in his new half-breed French-Indian interpreter, and
who should he prove to be but Belfleur, one of the dog drivers who in
April, 1904, accompanied me from Northwest River to Rigolet, when I
began that anxious journey over the ice with Hubbard's body. He was
apparently as well pleased at the meeting as I. Belfleur and a
half-breed Scotch-Eskimo named Saunders are employed as Indian and
Eskimo interpreters at the French Post, and are the only ones of M.
The'venet's people with whom he can converse. Belfleur speaks French
and broken English, and Saunders English, besides their native
languages.
None of the people of Ungava, with the exception of two or three,
speaks any but his mother tongue, and they have no ambition,
apparently, to extend their linguistic acquirements. It is, indeed, a
lonely life for the trader, who but once a year, when his ship arrives,
has any communication with the great world which he has left behind
him. No white woman is here with her softening influence, no physician
or surgeon to treat the sick and injured, and never until the advent of
Mr. Stewart any permanent missionary.
The natives that remain at Fort Chimo all the year are three or four
families of Eskimos, a few old or crippled Indians, and some half-breed
Indians and Eskimos, who do chores around the Posts and lead an
uncertain existence. The half-breed Indian children are taken care of
at the "Indian house," a log structure presided over by the "Queen" of
Ungava, a very corpulent old Nascaupee woman, who lives by the labor of
others and draws tribute from trading Indians who make the Indian house
their rendezvous when they visit the Post. She is and always has been
very kind, and a sort of mother, to the little waifs that nearly every
trader or white servant has left behind him, when the Company's orders
transferred him to some other Post and he abandoned his temporary wife
forever.
The Indians of the Ungava district are chiefly Nascaupees, with
occasionally a few Crees from the West. "Nenenot" they call
themselves, which means perfect, true men. "Nascaupee" means false or
untrue men and is a word of opprobrium applied to them by the
Mountaineers in the early days, because of their failure to keep a
compact to join forces with the latter at the time of the wars for
supremacy between the Indians and Eskimos. Nascaupee is the name by
which they are known now, outside of their own lodges, and the one
which we shall use in referring to them. In like manner I have chosen
to use the English Mountaineer, rather than the French _Montagnais_, in
speaking of the southern Indians. North of the Straits of Belle Isle
the French word is never heard, and if you were to refer to these
Indians as "Montagnais" to the Labrador natives it is doubtful whether
you would be understood.
Both Mountaineers and Nascaupees are of Cree origin, and belong to the
great Algonquin family. Their language is similar, with only the
variation of dialect that might be expected with the different
environments. The Nascaupees have one peculiarity of speech, however,
which is decidedly their own. In conversation their voice is raised to
a high pitch, or assumes a whining, petulant tone. An outsider might
believe them to be quarreling and highly excited, when in fact they are
on the best of terms and discussing some ordinary subject in a most
matter of fact way.
In personal appearance the Nascaupees are taller and more angular than
their southern brothers, but the high cheek bones, the color and
general features are the same. They are capable of enduring the
severest cold. In summer cloth clothing obtained in barter at the
Posts is, worn, but in winter deerskin garments are usual. The coat
has the hair inside, and the outside of the finely dressed, chamoislike
skin is decorated with various designs in color, in startling
combinations of blue, red and yellow, painted on with dyes obtained at
the Post or manufactured by themselves from fish roe and mineral
products. When the garment has a hood it is sometimes the skin of a
wolf's head, with the ears standing and hair outside, giving the wearer
a startling and ferocious appearance. Tight-fitting deerskin or red
cloth leggings decorated with beads, and deerskin moccasins complete
the costume.
Some beadwork trimming is made by the women, but they do little in the
way of needlework embroidery, and the results of their attempts in this
direction are very indifferent. This applies to the full-blood
Nascaupees. I have seen some fairly good specimens of moccasin
embroidery done by the half-breed women at the Post, and by the
Mountaineer women in the South.
The Nascaupees are not nearly so clean nor so prosperous as the
Mountaineers, and, coming very little in contact with the whites, live
now practically as their forefathers lived for untold generations
before them--just as they lived, in fact, before the white men came.
They are perhaps the most primitive Indians on the North American
continent to-day.
The Mountaineers, on the other hand, see much more, particularly during
the summer months, of the whites and half-breeds of the coast. Most of
those who spend their summers on the St. Lawrence, west of St.
Augustine, have more or less white blood in their veins through
consorting with the traders and settlers. With but two or three
exceptions the Mountaineers of the Atlantic coast, Groswater Bay, and
at St. Augustine and the eastward, are pure, uncontaminated Indians.
The line of territorial division between the Nascaupee and Mountaineer
Indians' hunting grounds is pretty closely drawn. The divide north of
Lake Michikamau is the southern and the George River the eastern
boundary of the Nascaupee territory, and to the south and to the east
of these boundaries, lie the hunting grounds of the Mountaineers.
These latter, south of the height of land, as has been stated, are
practically all under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and
are most devout in the observance of their religious obligations. While
it is true that their faith is leavened to some extent by the
superstitions that their ancestors have handed down to them, yet even
in the long months of the winter hunting season they never forget the
teachings of their father confessor.
The Nascaupees are heathens. About the year 1877 or 1878 Father P'ere
Lacasse crossed overland from Northwest River, apparently by the Grand
River route, to Fort Chimo, in an attempt to carry the work of the
mission into that field. The Nascaupees, however, did not take kindly
to the new religion, and unfortunately during the priest's stay among
them, which was brief, the hunting was bad. This was attributed to the
missionary's presence, and the sachems were kept busy for a time
dispelling the evil charm. No one was converted. Let us hope that Mr.
Stewart, who is there to stay, and is an earnest, persistent worker,
will reach the savage confidence and conscience, though his opportunity
with the Indians is small, for these Nascaupees tarry but a very brief
time each year within his reach. With open water in the summer they
come to the Fort with the pelts of their winter catch. These are
exchanged for arms, ammunition, knives, clothing, tea and tobacco,
chiefly. Then, after a short rest they disappear again into the
fastnesses of the wilderness above, to fish the interior lakes and hunt
the forests, and no more is seen of them until the following summer,
excepting only a few of the younger men who usually emerge from the
silent, snow-bound land during Christmas week to barter skins for such
necessaries as they are in urgent need of, and to get drunk on a sort
of beer, a concoction of hops, molasses and unknown ingredients, that
the Post dwellers make and the "Queen" dispenses during the holiday
festivals.
Reindeer, together with ptarmigans (Arctic grouse) and fish, form their
chief food supply, with tea always when they can get it. All of these
northern Indiana are passionately fond of tea, and drink unbelievable
quantities of it. Little flour is used. The deer are erratic in their
movements and can never be depended upon with any degree of certainty,
and should the Indians fail in their hunt they are placed face to face
with starvation, as was the case in the winter of 1892 and 1893, when
full half of the people perished from lack of food.
Formerly the migrating herds pretty regularly crossed the Koksoak very
near and just above the Post in their passage to the eastward in the
early autumn, but for several years now only small bands have been seen
here, the Indians meeting the deer usually some forty or fifty miles
farther up the river. When the animals swim the river they bunch close
together; Indian canoe men head them off and turn them up-stream,
others attacking the helpless animals with spears. An agent of the
Hudson's Bay Company told me that he had seen nearly four hundred
animals slaughtered in this manner in a few hours. When bands of
caribou are met in winter they are driven into deep snow banks, and,
unable to help themselves, are speared at will.
Of course when the killing is a large one the flesh of all the animals
cannot be preserved, and frequently only the tongues are used. Of late
years, however, owing to the growing scarcity of reindeer, it is said
the Indians have learned to be a little less wasteful than formerly,
and to restrict their kill more nearly to their needs, though during
the winter I was there hundreds were slaughtered for tongues and sinew
alone. Large quantities of the venison are dried and stored up against
a season of paucity. Pemmican, which was formerly so largely used by
our western Indians, is occasionally though not generally made by those
of Labrador. When deer are killed some bone, usually a shoulder blade,
is hung in a tree as an offering to the Manitou, that he may not
interfere with future hunts, and drive the animals away.
The Indian religion is not one of worship, but one of fear and
superstition. They are constanly in dread of imaginary spirits that
haunt the wilderness and drive away the game or bring sickness or other
disaster upon them. The conjurer is employed to work his charms to
keep off the evil ones. They evidently have some sort of indefinite
belief in a future existence, and hunting implements and other
offerings are left with the dead, who, where the conditions will
permit, are buried in the ground.
Sometimes the very old people are abandoned and left to die of
starvation unattended. Be it said to the honor of the trading
companies that they do their utmost to prevent this when it is
possible, and offer the old and decrepit a haven at the Post, where
they are fed and cared for.
The marriage relation is held very lightly and continence and chastity
are not in their sight virtues. A child born to an unmarried woman is
no impediment to her marriage. If it is a male child it is, in fact,
an advantage. Love does not enter into the Indian's marriage
relationship. It is a mating for convenience. Gifts are made to the
girl's father or nearest male relative, and she is turned over, whether
she will or no, to the would-be husband. There is no ceremony. A
hunter has as many wives as he is physically able to control and take
care of--one, two or even three. Sometimes it happens that they
combine against him and he receives at their hands what is doubtless
well-merited chastisement.
The men are the hunters, the women the slaves. No one finds fault with
this, not even the women, for it is an Indian custom immemorial for the
woman to do all the hard, physical work.
The Mountaineer Indians that we met on the George River, and one Indian
who visited Fort Chimo while we were there, are the only ones of the
Labrador that I have ever seen drive dogs. This Fort Chimo Indian,
unlike the other hunters of his people, has spent much time at the
Post, and mingled much with the white traders and the Eskimos, and, for
an Indian, entertains very progressive and broad views. He was, with
the exception of a humpbacked post attache' who had an Eskimo wife, the
only Indian I met that would not be insulted when one addressed him in
Eskimo, for the Indians and Eskimos carry on no social intercourse and
the Indians rather despise the Eskimos. The Indian referred to,
however, has learned something of the Eskimo language, and also a
little English--English that you cannot always understand, but must
take for granted. He informed me, "Me three man--Indian, husky
(Eskimo), white man." He was very proud of his accomplishments.
The Indian hauls his loads in winter on toboggans, which he
manufactures himself with his ax and crooked knife--the only
woodworking tools he possesses. The crooked knives he makes, too, from
old files, shaping and tempering them.
The snowshoe frames are made by the men, the babiche is cut and netted
by the women, who display wonderful skill in this work. The
Mountaineers make much finer netted snowshoes than the Nascaupees, and
have great pride in the really beautiful, light snowshoes that they
make. No finer ones are to be found anywhere than those made by the
Groswater Bay Mountaineers. Three shapes are in vogue--the beaver
tail, the egg tail and the long tail. The beaver-tail snowshoes are
much more difficult to make, and are seldom seen amongst the
Nascaupees. With them the egg tail is the favorite.
The Ungava Indians never go to the open bay in their canoes. They have
a superstition that it will bring them bad luck, for there they say the
evil spirits dwell. Of all the Indians that visit Fort Chimo only two
or three have ever ventured to look upon the waters of Ungava Bay, and
these had their view from a hilltop at a safe distance.
It is safe to say that there is not a truthful Indian in Labrador. In
fact it is considered an accomplishment to lie cheerfully and well.
They are like the Crees of James Bay and the westward in this respect,
and will lie most plausibly when it will serve their purpose better
than truth, and I verily believe these Indians sometimes lie for the
mere pleasure of it when it might be to their advantage to tell the
truth.
One good and crowning characteristic these children of the Ungava
wilderness possess--that of honesty. They will not steal. You may
have absolute confidence in them in this respect. And I may say, too,
that they are most hospitable to the traveler, as our own experience
with them exemplified. For their faults they must not be condemned.
They live according to their lights, and their lights are those of the
untutored savage who has never heard the gospel of Christianity and
knows nothing of the civilization of the great world outside. Their
life is one of constant struggle for bare existence, and it is truly
wonderful how they survive at all in the bleak wastes which they
inhabit.
NOTE.--It must not be supposed that all of the statements made in this
chapter with reference to the Indian, particularly the Nascaupees, are
the result of my personal observations. During our brief stay at
Ungava, much of this information was gleaned from the officers of the
two trading companies, and from natives. In a number of instances they
were verified by myself, but I have taken the liberty, when doubt or
conflicting statements existed, of referring to the works of Mr. A. P.
Low of the Canadian Geological Society and Mr. Lucien M. Turner of the
Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, to set myself right.