Images of Red River: A Selection of Readings Concerning the Period from 1790 to 1870

By Ken Medd

This is a collection of historical readings about the Red River Settlement and some of the events that occurred there during the period from about 1790 to 1870. The events are interesting in themselves and, when read in sequence, illustrate many of the changes that took place in the settlment during the period. The readings offer glimpses into the competitive and highly aggressive relations between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company before the companies merged in 1821. They reveal a complex human environment, including delicate and challenging relationships among the European occupiers, the French Canadian, Scottish and English Metis of Red River, the local Saulteaux and the neighbouring Cree, Assiniboine and Sioux. The readings also include census counts and several physical descriptions of the settlement, which extended for miles along the banks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781105894855

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Images of Red River: A Selection of Readings Concerning the Period from 1790 to 1870

Images of Red River:  A Selection of Readings Concerning the Period from 1790 to 1830

Copyright

Copyright for the original material in this publication is held by Ken Medd of Ottawa, Canada, as of June 2012.

Introduction

This is a collection of historical readings about the Red River Settlement and some of the events that occurred there during the period from about 1790 to 1870.  The motivation for assembling the readings was the 200th anniversary, in 2012, of the arrival of the Selkirk settlers at Kildonan in what is now the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Most of the readings have been taken from well known books that were published during the period.

The readings tend to be centred loosely around the Forks where the Assiniboine River flows into the Red River near Upper Fort Garry.  They also include reports of other incidents from a larger area surrounding the Forks, bounded roughly by Lake Winnipeg to the north, Brandon to the west and the Pembina Plains to the south.

Wherever possible, the readings are accounts of events that were recorded contemporarily by actual participants.  More frequently, however, the readings are recollections of persons who witnessed the events several years or even decades before recording them.  They also include reports by historians and other persons, who wrote either contemporarily or retrospectively about events that they had not actually witnessed.

The events described in the readings are interesting in themselves and, when read in sequence, illustrate changes that took place in the Red River Settlement during the period.  The earliest texts reflect a time when there were no permanent structures at the Forks.  Only the remains of some long abandoned trading posts from the French era, including La Verendrye’s Fort Rouge, were in evidence.  The later narratives speak of a thriving community around the Forks, connected to the outside world by well-established trails and steam navigation.

The readings offer glimpses into the competitive and highly aggressive relations between the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company before the companies merged in 1821.  They also illustrate the danger and intercultural violence that characterized the early history of the settlement.  They reveal a complex human environment, including delicate and challenging social relationships among the European settlers, the French Canadian, Scottish and English Métis of Red River, the local Saulteaux and the neighbouring Cree, Assiniboine and Sioux.  The Cree, Saulteaux and Red River Métis were related by blood and marriage and frequently fought with the Sioux on the plains to the west and south of the Red River Settlement.  The Sioux had been allies of the British during the War of 1812 and occasionally visited the Red River Settlement during the period covered by the readings.

The readings include several physical descriptions of the Red River Settlement, which extended for miles along the banks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.  The time lapses between the descriptions help to keep the material from becoming repetitious.  Ideally, through the accounts of various writers from different time periods, readers will begin to feel familiar with the geography and the evolving societies of the settlement.

The readings contain numerous references to the upper and lower rivers and to traveling up or down the Red or Assiniboine rivers.  Those usages, of course, refer to the direction of the flow of the rivers.  The Red River flows generally from south to north and ultimately drains into Lake Winnipeg.  Accordingly, traveling up the Red River is traveling from the north toward the south.  The Assiniboine River flows generally from west to east so traveling down the Assiniboine means traveling from the west toward the Forks where the Assiniboine flows into the Red River.

Ideally, the selections will encourage readers to examine the very rich and exciting source documents from which they were taken.  For the most part, the contents reflect the perceptions, values and prejudices of relatively privileged, Protestant English and Scottish residents.  The views and values of the Saulteaux, Cree, Assiniboine, Sioux, Métis, French Canadian and other working class residents of Red River are much less evident in the historical record.  Hopefully, readers will also be encouraged to seek out other recollections of the same events as seen from alternative perspectives.

1790 to 1809

John Tanner

John Tanner was born in Kentucky around 1780.  His family subsequently moved to Ohio, where John was captured by a group of Shawnee in 1789.  Approximately two years later, Tanner was adopted by an elderly woman of the Ottawa tribe in the north.  Shortly after that, Tanner and his Ottawa family moved to the Red River area.  Eventually, Tanner became a successful hunter, married twice, and had several children while living among the Ojibway in the general vicinity of Red River.

With the assistance of Thomas Douglas, the Earl of Selkirk, Tanner was reunited with his relatives in America following a separation of almost thirty years.  Later, Tanner wrote A narrative of the captivity and adventures of John Tanner, (U.S. interpreter at the Saut de Ste. Marie,) during thirty years residence among the Indians in the interior of North America, from which these excerpts are taken.

Tanner’s narrative was written in the late 1820s and published in 1830, decades after his earliest experiences in Red River.  The first excerpt recounts the arrival of Tanner’s family, sometime around the year 1790, first at Lake Winnipeg, then at a large Indian encampment at the Forks.  It also describes his trip up the Assiniboine River to hunt and trap through the winter in the vicinity of Portage la Prairie.  The second excerpt concerns Tanner’s return from the Souris River, down the Assiniboine River, past the Forks and on to Lake Winnipeg in the early 1790s.  Tanner would have been about ten to thirteen years old at the time of these incidents.

*** In the morning, we perceived that the shore was such as she [Tanner’s adoptive Ottawa mother] had described, and that in utter darkness, we had landed, where, with such a wind, the boldest Indian would not venture by day light.  We remained at this camp great part of the next day, which happened to be calm and fair, to dry our baggage, and towards evening, embarked and ran for the mouth of the Red River.  We did not enter the mouth of the river until late at night, and perceiving a lodge, we landed and laid down without kindling a fire, or making any noise to disturb the people, as we did not know who they were.  In the morning they came and waked us, and we found them to be the family of one of the brothers of Taw-ga-we-ninne, and the very people we had come to seek. *** ***

After a few days, we started to go up the Red River, and in two days came to the mouth of the Assiniboine, where we found great numbers of Ojibbeways and Ottawwaws encamped.  As soon as we arrived, the chiefs met, to take our case into consideration, and to agree on some method of providing for us.  These, our relations, said one of the chiefs, have come to us from a distant country.  These two little boys are not able to provide for them, and we must not suffer them to be in want among us."  Then one man after another offered to hunt for us; and they agreed also, since we had started to come for the purpose of hunting beaver, and since our hunters had died on the way, that each should give us some part of what they should kill.  We then all started to go up the Assinneboin river, and the first night we camped among the buffaloe.  In the morning, I was allowed to go out with some Indians, who went to hunt buffaloes.  We killed one of four bulls which we found.   We continued to ascend the Assinneboin about ten days, killing many bears as we travelled along.  The Assinneboin is broad, shallow and crooked, and the water, like that of the Red River, is turbid; but the bottom is sandy, while that of the Red is commonly muddy.  The place to which we went on the Assinneboin is seventy miles distant by land from the mouth; but the distance by water is greater.  The banks of the river, on both sides, are covered with poplar and white oak, and some other trees, which grow to considerable size.  The prairies, however, are not far distant, and sometimes come into the immediate bank of the river.  We stopped at a place called Prairie Portage, where the Indians directed the trader who was with them, to build his house and remain during the winter.  We left all our canoes, and went up into the country to hunt for beaver, among the small streams.  The Indians gave Wa-me-gon-a-biew and myself a little creek, where were plenty of beaver, and on which they said none but ourselves should hunt.  My mother gave me three traps and instructed me how to set them by the aid of a string tied around the spring, as I was not yet able to set them as the Indians did.  I set my three traps, and on the following morning found beavers in two of them.  Being unable to take them out myself, I carried home the beavers and traps, one at a time, on my back, and had the old woman to assist me.  She was, as usual, highly gratified and delighted at my success.  She had always been kind to me, often taking my side, when the Indians would attempt to ridicule or annoy me.  We remained in this place about three months, in which time we were as well provided for as any in the band; for if our own game was not sufficient, we were sure to be supplied by some of our friends, as long as anything could be killed.  The people that remained to spend the winter with us, were two lodges, our own making three; but we were at length joined by four lodges of Crees.  These people are the relations of the Ojibbeways and Ottawwaws, but their language is somewhat different, so as not to be readily understood.  Their country borders on that of the Assinneboins, or Stone Roasters; and though they are not relations or natural allies, they are sometimes at peace, and are more or less intermixed with each other.

After we had remained about three months in this place, game began to be scarce, and we all suffered from hunger.  The chief of our band was called As-sin-ne-boi-naise, (the Little Assinneboin,) and he now proposed to us all to move, as the country where we were was exhausted." *** ***

"After they had gone, I started with Net-no-kwa and the remainder of the family for Lake Winnipeg.  We were compelled still to use the old moose-skin canoe, as none of the birch ones were finished, and we did not wish to remain any longer at Mouse River.  We had left the trading-house but a short time, when we discovered a sturgeon, which, by some accident, had got into such shoal water, on a sand-bar, that considerable part of his back was to be seen above the surface.  I jumped out of the canoe and killed him with little difficulty; and as this was the first sturgeon I had ever taken, the old woman thought it necessary to celebrate the feast of Oskenetahgawin, or first fruits, though, as we were quite alone, we had no guests to assist us.

*** ***

The mouth of the Assinneboin [at the Forks] is a place much frequented by the Sioux war parties, where they lie concealed and fire upon such as are passing.  We did not approach this place until dark, intending to pass through late at night; it was accordingly after midnight, when carefully avoiding either shore, we floated silently out into Red River.  The night was dark and we could not discern distinctly any object on shore; but we had scarce entered Red River, when the silence was broken by the hooting of an owl, on the left bank of the Assinneboin.  This was quickly answered by another on the right bank, and presently by a third on the side of Red River, opposite the mouth.  Net-no-kwa said, in a whisper scarcely audible, We are discovered, and directed to put the canoe about with the utmost silence.  In obedience to her direction, we ascended with the utmost caution, endeavouring to keep near the middle of Red River.  I was in the bow of the canoe, and keeping my head as low as I could, I was carefully watching the