Chipewyan hunting groups on the Hay River, 1800-1845.

Ferguson, Theresa A.

At the time of first contact with the European fur traders, the Chipewyan people lived as caribou-hunters in the forest-tundra region west of Hudson Bay. Although there were few fur bearers in that area, the Chipewyan carved a niche for themselves in the fur trade. They acted as middlemen between the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) posts on Hudson and James bays to the east and the trappers to the west at Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River.

The arrival of the North West Company (NWC) in the latter areas and in the Athabasca district to the south eliminated this geographic advantage. The Chipewyan responded by moving further west and becoming trappers in the boreal forest where fur species were more abundant. The western edge of their territory expanded to include the south-east side of Great Slave Lake, south up the Slave River to Fort Chipewyan, and up the Athabasca River to Forts Mackay and McMurray, and south to the Cold Lake area. (1)

While this is understood to be the western boundary of occupation, various groups of Chipewyan conducted 'resource raids' much further west of this line in the 1820-30s, (2) while one group of Chipewyan, led by Grand Blanc, occupied the upper Hay River region from at least as early as 1800.

Hay River rises in north-western Alberta and loops through northeastern British Columbia where it is fed by several lakes before flowing back into Alberta. It then widens into the Hay-Zama lakes and flows north-east to the community of Meander River, and then north to Great Slave Lake. A major tributary, the Chinchaga, rises in the same height of land and then joins the Hay River just downstream from the Hay-Zama lakes. Other tributaries drain the western slopes of the Caribou Mountains.

The trading chief, Chienalize, or Grand Blanc, provided the first description of the upper Hay River, as quoted in 1800 by James Porter, the trader at the NWC Slave Lake Post: (3)

   above the Rapides of the Hay River the
   water is Very Still and flat swampy
   Lands on both Sid[e]s to the S. East in
   going up the river is the Carribou
   Mountain & to the N. West is the Slave
   mountain & another that he [Grand
   Blanc] Gives no name, between the
   mountains there is numbers of small
   Rivers and little Lakes entirely Choaked
   up with Beaver Lodges--he says that he
   with a Good many of his relations
   [including his brothers, Tranquille and
   Beguirre (4)] Killed all the Beaver that they
   Brought from that Country in one
   [author's emphasis] of these Rivilets so of
   course they must be very numberous for
   he alone brought 170 Pluies exclusive of
   Robes Capots etc. for Himself & family
   & he adds that if there was a fort
   Established in that country that they
   would Double the Quantity of furs but
   the Distance is so Great from this Place
   that they are obliged to leave of the
   trench very Early. (5)

In the summer of 1806 the NWC followed Grand Blanc's advice and built a post above the Alexandra Falls. Murdoch MacPherson's 1824 map, "A Chart of the Mackenzie's River Department" locates this post at the confluence of the Chinchaga and the Hay rivers. (6) As described by Alexander Mackenzie, (7) this post was to be manned by one clerk, three men, and an interpreter for the Chipewyan. In 1818 the post was reportedly blown up by powder and rather than rebuild, the NWC decided to relocate to the Liard River. (8)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As a consequence, in 1819 the Hay River trappers tried to initiate trading relations with the Hudson's Bay Company. (9) The NWC's withdrawal from Hay River represented a good opportunity for the HBC, but the Company had difficulty in expanding beyond the Peace River. As a new arrival on the Peace in 1818, the HBC was not so well connected with local peoples, nor so well supplied with trade goods as the NWC. The Hay River trappers were asked to save their furs and provisions for the HBC, (10) but the promised trading parties from the Peace River posts in the years 1819-1821 were thwarted by lack of provisions and goods. (11) Simpson reported in 1821 that the previous year the hunters had waited for the HBC well into the summer and then delivered their goods to the NWC on the Liard River. (12)

In 1822-23, many of the Grand Blanc hunting group took their hunts into Fort Chipewyan. (13) The HBC officers there encouraged their own Chipewyan trappers to exploit the Hay River as an area less depleted of fur and game than the western end of Lake Athabasca. Those from Fort Chipewyan who consequently hunted with Grand Blanc included The Fool, Pis, Ezalthee, Cadien; and the brothers, Charleau and Joseph Mercile. (14) Beaulieu and his hunting group occasionally hunted separately on the Hay River. (15)

After the 1821 amalgamation of the HBC and NWC, opinion regarding the organization of the fur trade in the Athabasca district initially favoured the building of a post at Hay River. Simpson's Athabasca Report of 1821 recommended an establishment with two officers, an interpreter, and eight men, with 30 Pieces of goods. (16) In July of 1822 a group of Chipewyans--l'Anglais, Cadien, and the sons of both Mandeville and Fournier and an unnamed person of the Dunneza or Beaver tribe also petitioned for a post. (17) The July 1823 minutes of the Northern Department directed that the Hay River post be set up and managed by Chief Trader Allen MacDonnell, (18) but in September of 1823 the Fort Chipewyan clerk reported that:

   from this establishment was also
   furnished at the beginning of the summer
   an assortment of goods for Hay River
   under the management of a Mr. Clouston,
   Clk, & 3 engages, the object of which
   was to supply and concentrate
   conformably to prior arrangements with
   Governor Simpson in Winter, about
   upwards of 30 Chipewyan, partly to be
   drafted from here and G. Slave Lake who
   were to collect provisions in summer &
   give in their Hunts the ensuing winter--on
   the faith of which that Post was
   directed per minutes of Counsel to be
   re-established which a jarring &
   discordance among these Chipewyan
   occasioned by the revival of something
   connected with the murder of one of
   them the preceding winter rendered
   abortive--of upward 30 expected only
   about Vi that number could be relied on
   for that post. (19)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

There is no evidence of some of the Fort Chipewyan trappers--The Fool, and the brothers, Joseph and Charleau Mercile--trapping on the Hay River after 1823; this may be due to the 'jarring & discordance' or to the lack of a post.

In the summer of 1824, a confrontation at the Chutes on the lower Peace River between a hunting party of Chipewyans, led by the Fool and the Perdrix Blanche, and four young men from a Dunneza hunting party led by Grand Cheveux, resulted in the deaths of the four youths. (20) The Chipewyan spread rumours throughout the upper Mackenzie and the Liard rivers that the Dunneza would form a war party and come north. Although Grand Blanc was not involved in the Chutes affair, he avoided Hay River that year out of prudence and trapped on the 'West Branch' [Liard R.] west of Fort Liard. (21) The Fort Chipewyan records from the spring of 1825 noted that the Fort Liard brigade carried five packs of furs, the hunts of Chipewyans who were creditors of Fort Vermilion. (22) The Dunneza did not carry out any revenge killings against the Chipewyan hunting party, let alone send war parties among the Mackenzie River/Fort Liard people. They sent peace envoys to Fort Chipewyan instead. (23)

The numbers of trappers on Hay River did not recover. In subsequent years, seventeen to twenty hunters, not thirty hunters, formed the core of the Grand Blanc hunting group. Fort Chipewyan continued to encourage its Chipewyan trappers to hunt in Hay River, despite the complaints of the Fort Vermilion traders at this intrusion. Le Pis and Cadien and their followers continued trapping in the Hay River until at least 1836.

Establishing new posts was not a priority for the HBC in the post-1821 period. Governor Simpson focussed on balancing two main priorities: reducing the cost of the trade; and securing sufficient provisions for the posts. The strategies of the competitive period (prior to May of 1821) had included large populations at the posts to 'run after' trappers and to protect against attacks by the opposing company. In consequence of the need to feed so many people, game populations in the Peace River region were seriously depleted. (24)

While the Hay River still provided furs, its main importance post-merger was as a plentiful source of dried provisions, mostly obtained through the summer hunt. Governor Simpson made the decision to avoid the expense of maintaining the Hay River post, but to improve transportation to this important hinterland area by building up the horse herds of the Peace River posts. (25)

The Chipewyan persisted in their request for a post through the spring of 1827. They threatened to leave the Hay River if no post were built, but the Fort Vermilion I post trader was advised by the district headquarters at Fort Chipewyan that:

   In regard to the Chipewyans of Hay
   River we are not authorized to comply
   with their request, but I presume they
   will not leave that country untill they
   have your answer, therefore, you may
   give them their usual supplies & if they
   insist on leaving it, use no persuasion to
   make them remain, they will pay
   wherever they make their appearance, &
   to the Credit of Peace River. (26)

The negotiations were successful from the Fort Vermilion trader's point of view and he noted later that the Chipewyan "are well inclined to have given up the idea at present of leaving Hay River." (27)

In the spring of 1837, Grand Blanc was installed as a trading chief along with the Dunneza chief, Dents malfaits:

   The Hay River Chipewyans arrived
   along with our Beaver Indian chief & two
   or three others ...--all these Indians have
   paid their debts besides having Furs over
   and above to trade--For their industry &
   good behaviour the Br Indian &
   Chipewyan Chief (28) received each a
   cloathing, consisting of a Scarlet Laced
   Coat, a Com [common] Wool Hat &
   Cock Feather, a Com: Striped Cotton
   shirt, a Sm: Blk Silk Hdkf [handkerchief],
   & a PairGurrah [see footnote] Trousers." (29)

In 1827, post traders were asked to census local populations. The Chipewyan on Hay River numbered 62 persons. (30)

The upper Hay River and tributaries served to link the Dene of the Peace River with those of Great Slave Lake and was hunted over by both groups. In the mid-1820s and later, it was the territory of the Dunneza trading chief, Dents malfaits and his hunting group, also the Cadottes. Relations between the Grand Blanc/l'Anglais/Fournier group and the Dunneza on the Hay River were quite friendly. Members of the two groups often appeared at Fort Vermilion together to trade and to report on cached produce. (31) In the mid-1830s to mid-1840s, it was Fournier specifically who accompanied Dent malfaits. This may indicate a closer relationship. Intermarriage between the families of these two groups would have been seen as desirable, although the trade journals make no comment on such social events. According to the 1827 Hudson's Bay Company census, Dents malfaits had an adult daughter and Fournier, emerging as a leader, would have been a good match.

By the 1830s, in an effort to cope with the continuing depletion of game, Fort Vermilion was moved downstream to its current location, closer to the fishing lakes of the Caribou Mountains. Also, more consistent efforts were made at the fort to maintain cow-calf operations and grow potatoes, barley, and other vegetables. Nonetheless, game meat was still required to sustain the post and the brigade, so the Hay River area remained a significant hinterland for Fort Vermilion. The Fort Vermilion clerk noted in October of 1834 "we are now, thanks to the Chipewyans at ease on the head of Provisions." (32)

The name, 'Horse Track' was applied to both the trail between Fort Vermilion II and Hay River and the terminus on the Hay River, the community now called Meander River. It was estimated by Mackenzie, the postmaster, in 1912 to be about 90 miles long, a considerable distance. (33) The Hay River hunters/trappers were accommodated with caches built, sometimes at 'the end of the prairie' (34) and sometimes at the confluence of the Hay and Meander rivers. Runners from the Hay River trappers came in to Fort Vermilion in the spring and fall to report the caching of their furs and/or dried provisions and the post then sent men with pack horses or dog trains to retrieve the goods.

The early-mid 1830s were disastrous for the Hay River trappers. The trading leader, Grand Blanc, and his brother, Tranquille, died of starvation in the mountains west of Fort Liard in the outfit year 1831/1832. A group of over 50 persons had been supplied at Fort Vermilion in the spring for an expedition to the mountains. They visited Fort Halkett (located on a tributary of the Fort Nelson River) in October and then went on to the beaver trapping grounds but were unable to kill any game. According to reports,

   unable to proceed the Grand Blanc,
   Tranquille and others retraced their steps
   but growing to [sic] weak, fell poor
   fellows to rise no more as well as all their
   families Say 11 men & Lads, 9 Women &
   18 children of the Vermillion Indians and
   Naw dwicks from Great Slave Lake
   besides a Fort Liard Indian who
   accompanied the party from Fort Halkett,
   forming a total of no less than 40
   sufferers. (35)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A third brother, l'Anglais, with Mandeville and Bedsugu and their families--a total of about 13 persons--continued on and were fortunate enough to fall in with a camp of the Fort Liard Indians. Capot Rouge carried word to Fort Liard and they were transported to the fort to recover. L'Anglais briefly became the new head of the hunting group on Hay River but in October of 1835 the Chipewyan were struck down by influenza on their return from Fort Vermilion. As the traders' pack train went back and forth, emptying the Hay River caches, a post employee, Cataphaar, reported on the spread of the illness. First, the flu victims were left in camps along the track; then followed the death of Bougon; and then he reported that many were ill, including Mandeville and the chief, l'Anglais. There was no further reference to l'Anglais in these journals. (36) The Fort Chipewyan journal (37) reported the death of La Pis' daughter at Hay River and noted that Cadien had also lost family members in that epidemic. Subsequently, La Pis and Cadien trapped elsewhere.

By the 1840s the Chipewyan trapper most often mentioned on the Hay River and in the adjacent Caribou Mountains was the mixed-blood Chipewyan-French Joseph Fournier. He is assumed to be the son of the NWC employee, Jacques Fournier, who had served at Great Slave Lake. (38) Listed as an unmarried man on the 1827 census, by the mid-1840s Joseph aka Montagnais Fournier had a growing family and his own hunting group. Three of his wives are identified in the church records: Nedayle, Marie Mellethe, and Kislin. (39) After the death of Fournier's "old wife" during the 1865 scarlet fever epidemic, (40) Marie Mellethe and Fournier were married at Fort Vermilion. Four Fournier sons are named in the fur trade journals and church records in subsequent years: Chief or Methi'dekale, Satloolay, Jacquot, and Pierrot. A fifth son, Paul, is cited in the church records of the late 1860s but is absent thereafter. (41) Aside from his sons, other members of Fournier's hunting party up to the 1860s included Mandeville, Tsehade, Anathdary, Shaly, and Abitzelay. (42)

In October, 1843, the first reference is made in the Fort Vermilion journal to a new migration of northern hunters and trappers into the upper Hay River, the Dene th'a or Slaves. Reported the fort journalist,

   Arrived early this morning 16 Slave
   Indians /men/ with some furrs with 5
   others before is now 21 men of that tribe
   who have come in with their furs &
   provisions--I have according to
   instructions delivered the message sent
   to me that they should never come here
   again but nothing will ever induce them
   to go back saying that they have adopted
   this Country as their home, having for
   that purpose formed alliances, by
   intermarriage with the Beaver Indians ...
   The Slave Indians left this to join their
   families somewhere about Hay River,
   whether they will ever go back to their
   Country is hard to tell but I think they
   will never be prevailed upon to leave this
   District, except it may be a few, who have
   not as yet formed any connection by
   marriage with the Beaver Indians. (43)

These Dene th'a also formed connections with the Chipewyan. A boy, Kazazy, joined Fournier's hunting group (44) and Fournier's children and grandchildren married Dene th'a as well as Chipewyan and Dunneza partners. Joseph Fournier died in 1882 (45) and in 1899 his descendents accepted Treaty Eight with the Dunneza of the Beaver First Nation at Boyer River.

Note: This article is dedicated to the memory of an 'old Bay boy,' Ron Henriet (1943-2012) who had fond memories of life in the Meander River community. Thanks to Fort Vermilion Museum and Heritage Centre for furnishing the photo of Narcisse or Retsinza Fournier; to the Parish Council of St. Henri for permission to access the church registers; to the Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba, for the use of quotations from the post journals.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

For a Penny

Canada is most certainly a country of magnificent dimensions. A postman has recently been sent on a new route who will deliver no more than half the year, but who will travel for more than half the year and cover 3,000 miles in doing it. The Dominion postal authorities have not heretofore delivered mails north of Fort Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca, which is an out-of-the-way Hudson's Bay Company post some four hundred miles north-east of Edmonton, the present northern limit of the railway, Edmonton being in turn a thousand miles north-west of Winnipeg.

Now, however a courier is to be sent with the mail bags once a year away up to Fort MacPherson, within the Arctic Circle, and two mails each year are to be sent to Fort Resolution, between five hundred and six hundred miles north of Edmonton. The "postman" on all of these routes will be Hudson's Bay Company couriers who will carry the mails by means of dog sleighs. From Manchester to Fort Resolution a letter can now be sent--three thousand miles by steamer, across the Atlantic, three thousand miles by Canadian railways, and half three thousand miles by dog train--all for a penny.

Dundee Evening Post, November 17, 1904

NOTES

(1) J. G. E. Smith, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., 1981. "Chipewyan," 271-84, in June Helm, ed. vol. 6, Subarctic. William Sturtevant, ed. Handbook of North American Indians.

(2) The Chipewyan also went up the Athabasca River and over to Lesser Slave Lake and Sturgeon Lake. The 1899 scrip application [RG 15, vol. 1360, reel C14991] of Charles Montagnais [aka Sourichaude or Weskapamininakusiw; his own descendants took the surname of Big Charles] from Lesser Slave Lake. He identified his father as Philip Montagnais, a Chipewyan. Montagnais was the French term for a Chipewyan, so, as was common for outsiders to a community, the ethnic identity was used as the surname. Members of the Montagnais family took either Metis scrip or adhered to Treaty Eight.

(3) According to Lloyd Keith, ed. 2001. North of Athabasca: Slave Lake and Mackenzie River Documents of the North West Company, 1800-1821. Montreal: McGHI University Press, 14, this post was located on what is now called Ring Lake near mouth of Slave River.

(4) Lloyd Keith, op. cit, 90 [see his footnote 22] transcribes the last brother's name as Reguirre, noting the difficulty in determining whether it began with an 'R' or a 'B'. He chose 'R' and made a connection to the French verb, reglr. Nonetheless, I'm inclined to think this was Beguirre since this name [but not necessarily the same person] appear In other trade records of Fort Chipewyan and Fort St. Mary.

(5) Lloyd Keith, op. cit. 91.

(6) Lloyd Keith, ed. op. cit, 45, Murdoch McPherson, 1824. "A Chart of the Mackenzie's River Department." Adapted from Archives of Manitoba, Hudson's Bay Company Archives (hereinafter AM. HBCA), Gl/52.

(7) Lloyd Keith, ed. 2001. op. cit. "Alexander Mackenzie's journal of 1805-1806," 249.

(8) E. E. Rich, ed. 1938. Journal of Occurrences in the Athabasca Department by George Simpson, 1820 and 1821 and Report. Toronto: The Champlain Society, 417, citing an unreferenced letter, November 1818, Duncan Campbell to James Bird. The ammunition of the guns used by the hunters comprised powder and ball. Powder magazines always constituted a risk to post buildings, particularly during forest fire season.

(9) E.E. Rich, ed, 1938. op. cit., 387.

(10) E.E. Rich, ed, 1938. op. cit. Letter, George Simpson, Fort Wedderburne to Laronde, Colvile House, Dec. 7, 1820, 192.

(11) E.E. Rich, ed, 1938, op. cit. entry of January 24, 1821, 237,417; Rich, ed. 1939, Letter, Colin Robertson at Fort St. Mary to William Williams, January 25, 1820, 264-65 of Colin Robertson's Correspondence Book, September 1817 to September, 1822. The Champlain Society: Toronto.

(12) E. E. Rich, ed. op. cit., 386-87.

(13) AM. HBCA. B 39/a/21b, Fort Chipewyan Journal, entry of July 6, 1822.

(14) AM. HBCA. B 39/a/21b, Fort Chipewyan Journal, entries of July 6, 1822; June 2, 1823.

(15) AM. HBCA. B 39/a/20, Fort Chipewyan Journal, entry of April 20, 1822.

(16) E.E. Rich, ed. 1938. op. cit., 386.

(17) AM. HBCA. B. 39/a/21b, Fort Chipewyan, entries of July 6, 7, 1822.

(18) R. Henry Fleming, ed. 1940. Minutes of Council, Northern Department of Rupert Land, 1821-1831. The Champlain Society, Minutes 42, 48, pgs 42-43.

(19) AM. HBCA. B. 39/a/22, Fort Chipewyan Journal, entry of September 3, 1823, 25.

(20) AM. HBCA. B. 39/3/23, Fort Chipewyan Journal, entries of September 1, 1824.

(21) AM. HBCA. B. 200/ a/6, Fort Simpson Journal, entry of June 12, 1825.

(22) Provincial Archives of Alberta (hereinafter PA A). 74.1, item 115. Fort Chipewyan Journal, entry of September 4, 1825.

(23) AM. HBCA. Fort Chipewyan B. 39 a/23, Fort Chipewyan Journal, entry of September 29, 1824.

(24) Theresa A. Ferguson, 1993. "Wood Bison and the Early Fur Trade," in Patricia A. McCormack and R. Geoffrey Ironside, eds. The Uncovered Past: Roots of Northern Alberta Society. Circumpolar Research Series No. 3. Edmonton: Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta.

(25) E.E. Rich, ed. 1938, op. cit., 380.

(26) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/2, Fort Vermilion Journal, October 4,1826, letter from Alex Stewart to Colin Campbell.

(27) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/2, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of October 14, 1826.

(28) The trade companies created "chiefs" to acknowledge those leaders of trapping groups who brought in many furs.

(29) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/2, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of April 2, 1826; 'gurrah' is apparently a coarse muslin from India, although this hardly seems suitable for bush life in the north.

(30) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/2, Fort Vermilion Report, 1827, at end of daily journal [p. 53].

(31) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/3, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of April 13, 1828; B. 224/a/5, Fort Vermilion Journal, entries of October 13, 1836, April 11, 1837; B. 224/a/6, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of April 16, 1839; B. 224/a/7, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of October 8, 1840; B. 224/a/8, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of April 15, 1842.

(32) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/4, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of October 19, 1834.

(33) Alexander Mackenzie, nd. op. cit. PAA 74.333. This Alexander Mackenzie is not the explorer of the late 1700s but a HBC postmaster in the Peace River Crossing area in the late 1800s.

(34) Now sometimes used to refer to the High Level area which is directly west of Fort Vermilion on Hwy 58, but the Horse Track angled north-west from Fort Vermilion. It is unclear just how far north the grassland area extended at that time.

(35) AM. HBCA B. 39/a/28, Fort Chipewyan Journal, entry of April 21, 1832.

(36) AM. HBCA, B. 224/a/5, Fort Vermilion Journal, entries of November, 15 & 25, 1835 & March 6, 1836.

(37) AM. HBCA, B. 39/a/31, Fort Chipewyan, report of obituary, Fort Chipewyan Indians of Winter, 1835. The journal ends in February 1836 and this listing of the dead appears after the last entry.

(38) Keith, ed, op. cit., p. 396; Oblate files, 1942 census of the Castors at Eleske [near Fort Vermilion], on file at Aboriginal Affairs, Province of Alberta.

(39) Notes in possession of author from PAA. Fort des Prairies Baptemes, Mariages Register: Baptism at Fort Vermilion, 1946, Kislin cited as mother of Jacques; Baptemes, Fort Vermilion, 1866, Nedasyle cited as mother of Madeleine Dlune' Mariages, 1866 cite Marie Meliethe as bride of Fournier.

(40) AM. HBCA. B. 224 a/13, Fort Vermilion Journal, entry of November 1, 1865.

(41) Notes in possession of author from PAA, Fort des Prairies Baptemes, Mariages; and from Fort Vermilion St. Henri Baptemes, Mariages et Sepultures. The Fournier genealogy is deposited at the Fort Vermilion Museum and Heritage Centre.

(42) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/8, entries of March 3-4, 7, 1842.

(43) AM. HBCA. B.224/a/9, Fort Vermilion Journal, October 26-7, 1843.

(44) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/11, Fort Vermilion 1860 Accounts.

(45) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/18. Fort Vermilion Journals, entry of November 21, 1882.

A Chipewyan hunter, with his wife and child, prepare to leave Fort Chipewyan for their trapline.

Theresa Ferguson teaches anthropology at Athabsaca University and researches Treaty Eight ethnohistory.

Table I: Census of Chipewyans on the Hay River, Outfit 1826-271

Hunter                  Men   Women   Boys   Girls   Total
                                                     Persons

Grand Blanc, chief      1     3       3      1       8

L'Anglais               1     4       3      1       9

Tranquille              1     1                      2

Estohyousai,            1     1              1       3
Grand Blanc's 1st son

Chrennay, Grand         1                            1
Blanc's 2nd son

Cattahethe,             1     1       1              3
Tranquille's 1st son

Kelly, Tranquille's     1     1                      2
2nd son

Sauldathe, Grand        1     2       3              6
Blanc's soninlaw

Mandeville (a           1     2       1      1       5
half-breed)

Fournier (half-         1                            1
breed)

Bob (half-breed)        1     1       1              3

Bougon                  1     1       2      2       6

Yadah                   1     1       1              3

Chahade or One          1                            1
Ear

Pointrux                1                            1

Chroye                  1                            1

Widows and                    3       3      1       7
orphans N=7

                        16    21      18     7       62

(1) AM. HBCA. B. 224/a/2, Fort Vermilion Report,
1827, at end of daily journal [p. 53]

This chart identifies most of the
Chipewyan families who were hunting
in the upper Hay River area in 1826-27.