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Article Excerpt
I would warmly recommend to your notice the Canadians; these people I believe, are the best voyageurs in the world; they are spirited, enterprising, & extremely fond of the Country; they are easily commanded; never will you have any difficulty in setting a place with them Men; however dismal the prospect is for subsistence, they follow their Master wherever he goes. (1)
Colin Robertson
On 10 January 1810, Colin Robertson wrote to the Hudson s Bay Company's (HBC) London Committee in an effort to convince them to hire French-Canadian voyageurs for a fur-trading expedition to the Athabasca region. (2) So glowing was his portrayal of these voyageurs that he argued that they would "sing while surrounded with misery, the toil of the day is entirely forgot in the encampment; they think themselves the happiest people in existence; & I do believe that they are not far mistaken." (3) Dominated initially by the Montrealbased traders of the North West Company (NWC), the Athabasca had become one of the most coveted and profitable fur-trading regions in North America. (4) Depleted beaver stock in the east prompted the NWC to push further westward in search of furs, and the natives who trapped and traded them. The HBC had traditionally remained close to their trading posts on the Bay. The extension of corporate competition into the northwest by the NWC meant that the HBC could no longer continue to depend on the natives to bring furs to the posts. In 1815, five years after Colin Robertson's initial recommendation, the HBC began to hire French-Canadian voyageurs out of Montreal for expeditions to the Athabasca region. (5)
This was not the first time that French-Canadian voyageurs had been hired by the HBC, but the size and scope of the expedition did mark a departure from the company's regular hiring practices. The 1815 expedition starkly contrasted with the HBC's trend of hiring Scottish Orkneymen as their primary labour source, and it pitted the voyageurs of the Honourable Company against those of the Montreal Merchants. (6) Most importantly, it prompted a radical change in the geographical nature of fur-trade competition, extending it not only westward, but also eastward to the island of Montreal.
While the XY Company and the NWC had engaged in fierce competition out of Montreal from 1798 to 1804, both companies belonged to a common fur-trading tradition. (7) Conversely, the competition in Montreal between the HBC and NWC intensified a struggle for dominance of the fur trade by companies that belonged to two distinct fur-trading traditions. (8) Competition between the HBC and NWC in the northwest was particularly violent, characterized by assaults, the taking of prisoners, and the use of starvation tactics. The battles and deaths that occurred as a result of this violent corporate competition have been described collectively as the Fur Trade Wars. (9)
Voyageur identity became fragmented and disjointed as a result of this corporate competition. Voyageur identity was made up of a set of criteria strong enough to embrace those elements that characterized voyageurs as a distinct group, such as culture and hierarchy, but loose enough to allow crossover into other identities. (10) By this definition, a voyageur could identify as a voyageur, a Catholic, and a French-Canadian, all simultaneously. This lack of mutual exclusivity among identities makes the process of defining voyageur identity challenging, but not impossible. Voyageur culture was a complex mix of work, geography and religion. (11) These three elements fused together to make a distinct voyageur culture and identity, with multiple hierarchies and rights of passage that distinguished voyageurs not only from others in the fur trade, but also from their French-Canadian cousins in Lower Canada. Integral to voyageur culture were two highly integrated hierarchies based on work and geography in the fur trade.
Fur trade servants were highly aware of the short ice-free canoeing season, the dangers they faced, and the escape routes and rescue strategies that were available. Fur trade companies established forts near points of no return, which represented the furthest west that a canoe brigade could travel, and still make a return voyage before winter set in. The NWC freight canoes could not reasonably complete a return voyage from beyond Fort William and Lac la Pluie in one season, as the requirement of supplies from Montreal determined the separation of seasonal and year round fur trading. The HBC was able to push farther inland to Lake Winnipeg using lighter express canoes precisely because they could rendezvous with brigades and supplies from York Factory. (12) Transportation routes were often divided into two segments. In the first segment, voyageurs transported supplies to posts at, or near, the points of no return, and then departed for home with furs that had been collected in the interior. In the second segment, wintering voyageurs exchanged their furs for the newly arrived goods, before returning to the interior to continue trapping. For voyageurs, the points of no return represented one last opportunity to escape one's brigade and head for home, thus avoiding the harsh conditions of the interior. The HBC voyageur points of no return in one canoeing season at Norway House, Grand Rapids, and the Red River Settlement became a "Great Divide" that was both imagined and real. (13) It divided the seasonal and year-round fur trade, and the identities of those who worked in the trade.
During the Fur Trade Wars, increased corporate competition became a defining element of voyageur identity on either side of...
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