Back in December, I said I would write a series on the motivation various people have thought was behind Lord Selkirk’s establishing the Red River Settlement. Sorry to have kept you waiting so long!

I thought I would start with Alexander Ross’ list for a couple of  reasons. It’s where I first met with a published list in my own reading. It’s also probably the first widely read publication that considered all the reasons that were floating around in a period close to the actual colonisation of Red River (Ross’ Red River Settlement was first published in 1852).

1st. According to the North-West creed, his lordship planted the colony to ruin their trade. From the jealous and hostile feuds carried on in the country at the time, by the partisans of the two rival companies, the North-West and Hudson’s Bay, it was alleged by the former, and with some degree of reason, that Lord Selkirk, who was a large shareholder in the latter, endeavoured to check the physical superiority of his opponents, and by means of the new colony secure to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and to himself, not only the extensive and undivided trade of the country within their own territories, but a safe and convenient stepping-stone for monopolizing all the fur trade of the far west; which would have been a death blow to their concern.

~ Alexander Ross, The Red River Settlement, p. 16.

Ross himself did not believe that this was the real motivation behind Selkirk’s philanthropic work at Red River, as we shall see later. But he does indicate that what is important is that this is what the Nor’ Westers believed, and it was this belief that led to the “hostility and enmity, on their part, [and] was the cause of all the troubles and misfortunes the colonists had to contend with for many years afterwards….” [pp. 16-17] That little word ‘all’ is surely an exaggeration, but Ross certainly makes a point!

Restricted to Descendants of Original Selkirk Settlers. Contestants must be 18 years of age or less.

Topic:

Fort Douglas and Its History

Maximum word count:

1000

Format:

Typed on letter-size white paper, with title and page no. of total pages (1 of 2) at top of each page. Name of entrant must not appear anywhere on the essay, but on a separate page together with title and contact information and line of descent from an Original Selkirk Settler.

Entry Fee:

$10, which includes one year’s membership in TLSARL.

Entry Deadline:

15 August, 2010.

Prize:

$50, winning essay read at the Annual Reunion & AGM and published in the TLSARL Newsletter

Entries must be postmarked no later than 15 August, 2010, and sent to: Mr. Roy McLeod, 125 – 3161 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3R 3R1.

Fort Douglas, painted by Peter Rindisbacher 1822. National Archives of Canada C-001938

An interesting article about Kildonan Church appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press this weekend. If you would like to read the online version of the article, please visit the Winnipeg Free Press website.

Thanks to Cathie for the heads up!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the settlement lately. I have been for several years, but before this year, most of it was primary material – first-hand accounts written by eyewitnesses to the events. Little of that discussed Selkirk’s motives in establishing the RRS as such.

I’ve seen and heard various opinions over the years, too. The most negative ones I’ve brushed off as leaning toward racist or as NWCo. propaganda. I haven’t really thought about it that much, myself, except that I’ve always known in my heart that Selkirk was a hero and a good man. He gave my people a home when their own was taken from them and the alternative offer was starvation or, at the very least, extreme poverty and hardship. And my own family, and that of other descendants I’ve come to know, seem to hold a similar view of him. Witness all the Selkirks, Thomases, Douglases and combinations thereof in the family trees.

Oh, we know he had his faults. But in our books, well, let’s just say that our books wouldn’t have been written if it hadn’t been for Thomas Douglas, the Fifth Earl of Selkirk. He’s a bit of all right as far as most of us are concerned!

But in reading Alexander Ross, J. M. Bumsted, and, most recently, Donald Gunn, I’ve found myself questioning and considering the reasons they say Selkirk had in beginning the Red River Settlement. Time to put some of these speculations out for you to consider with me, I think!

I picked up a Biblio Life reprint of this 1910 publication the other day. It is an interesting little booklet for anyone studying the settlers of the pre-1915 desertions. Essentially, it consists of copies of documents in the Selkirk Papers that help to identify exactly which people arrived as settlers in the 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814 groups.

You’d think that would be a pretty straightforward thing to figure out – just look at the ships’ lists! In actual fact, though, it isn’t very easy at all. Some of the ships’ lists have gone missing. Not all the people who were recruited and show on those lists embarked on the journey. Some of those changed ships during the voyage. Some decided to work for the HBCo. before joining the settlement, others went directly to the Colony. Some were sent home before the rest made the trek from York Factory inland. Several died on the voyage and at Churchill Creek.

Although this booklet presents the extant lists as they occur either as lists proper or as part of a longer document, all the information presented is available on the Internet for free, or through interlibrary loan of the Selkirk Papers microfilms. A good detective will want to look at other documents to further determine who was actually present at the RRS in the early days and not limit themselves to what Martin has collected here. There is little biographical material on any of the settlers here – just lists.

This is a handy reference for the RRS research library, perhaps, but the lists are printed in other books. You might want to save $15 and invest it elsewhere!

Map from Canadian Heritage Rivers System (www.chrs.ca)

The Hayes River was a major route used by fur traders and native people. This was also the way the Selkirk Settlers took to reach Lake Winnipeg and then the Red River Settlement, after landing off Hudson’s Bay. The river begins near Norway House and runs NE through Oxford and Knee Lakes, reaching Hudson’s Bay at York Factory, a distance of 600 kms.

A loading dock on the Hayes River at York Factory c. 1880 (National Archives of Canada)

I wrote about Donald Gunn and his egging expedition for the Smithsonian a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned in the first entry that someone had requested a copy of his book History of Manitoba from the Earliest Settlement to 1835. As I didn’t have the book in my own Red River collection, I decided I’d like to obtain a copy.

I couldn’t find a first edition anywhere. I don’t normally purchase print to order books, but I saw that Cornell University Library had scanned and published a facsimile reprint. I hate these types of reprints because the quality of reproduction, especially of any pictures, is generally horrible. But in this case, I really only wanted a copy to read. If I found a first edition after fulfilling my customer’s request, then maybe I’d spring for a copy to replace this one.

The book arrived last week, in paperback format. I’m really very pleased with it. It was scanned from a relatively clean library copy, and the reproduction is excellent. I would highly recommend this edition to anyone who would like a copy for a reasonable price (mine was just under $50 CAD. First editions are going for at least six times that price.). Email me through the Contact Us page if you would like me to find you a copy. I will donate a portion of the purchase price to TLSARL.

At some point I will do a few blog entries on aspects of this work. As Donald was an original settler, much of what he wrote about is an eyewitness accounting of events, so this will be of particular interest to members!

Peter Rindisbacher c. 1834. Self Portrait

Peter Rindisbacher set himself up in a studio in St. Louis Missouri during the latter years of his life. It was there that he earned a reputation as a miniature portrait artist. Although the image to the left is in black and white, there is a colour reproduction of both this and portraits of his parents and some of his siblings in the book The Artist was a Young Man. They are rare examples of portraits of original Selkirk Settlers.

I’ll leave you this week with another scene of life at the Red River Colony by Peter Rindisbacher:

Winter Fishing on the Ice of the Assynoibain and Red River, 1821 (National Archives of Canada)

A few more Rindisbachers related to the RRS:

Métis Family ca. 1826 (Bata Shoe Museum P80.982)

Chippewa mode of traveling in spring and summer by Peter Rindisbacher c. 1825 (Virtual Museum of Canada; West Point Museum Art Collection)

Settlers at Red River, early 1820s. (Canadian Heritage Gallery) This drawing depicts a Swiss immigrant wife, husband and two children, a German, a Scots Highlander, and a French Canadian

Peter Rindisbacher was the first artist of European descent to portray the First Nations people of the Great Plains. He was meticulous in recording the detail of their garb and ornaments, and was recorded as painting very accurate likenesses, also.

The Artist was a Young Man shows some of his earliest portraits, those he executed of Inuit people encountered at various points along the Colonists’ northern sea route. Even as a teenager he was able to capture facial expressions and details in the unique clothing in the short time he was able to meet these people. Having attempted the same in art classes where the model was actually posing for a portrait, I can vouch for this being a tremendous skill (one I did not excel at, I might add)!

Rindisbacher’s scenes were portrayed by someone who had obviously been there and studied carefully the means, attitudes, apparel, and environment of the people he painted.

A Labrador Eskimo in a sealskin kayak, c. 1821 (Canadian Heritage Gallery)

Inside an Indian tent 1824 (National Archives of Canada)

Indian hunters pursuing buffalo in the early spring ca. 1822 (National Archives of Canada)