Perfect Kneeling 3

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Perfect Kneeling:

The Mackenzie Inuits First Contact with Missions

Walter Vanast McGill University

Introduction

According to some authors1, conversion of the Inuit of Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta was

remarkably quick, giving rise to competing theories as to why. Ethnologist and religious cynic Viljhalmur

Stefansson ascribed it to fashion, like a new style of hats, spreading east from tribe to tribe along the

coast; missionaries, to the flowering of tenderly cared-for seeds. Whichever concept is right (and any new

one put forward) must explain that the road to baptism was in fact very slow: its sudden acceptance by

nearly all in the Delta, starting in 1909, was preceded by fifty years of contact with Anglican and Catholic

clerics. This article describes their first meeting.

Missionaries on the Mackenzie:

Hunter and Grollier

When in 1857 Anglican Rev. James Hunter wanted to leave the Red River Settlement (now

Winnipeg) and visit the Mackenzie, he had several reasons, some of which he could not state. It was a

time of turmoil, for the Hudsons Bay Companya, which ruled locally and over much of British North

America, was under siege. In London it was the subject of enquiry as to renewal of its Northwest

Territories licence, and its long-held charter to giant Ruperts Land was soon to end. In the Settlement

itself a fellow clergyman fiercely stoked rebellion against it. Hunter, as a result, may have needed

escapewhat today would be called a sabbatical or a period of rejuvenation.

Concern for career also spurred the quest. As he had been among the first churchmen sent to a

Northwest site (his early work was on the Saskatchewan River) and had already become archdeacon, he

was a likely candidate for the chair of his aging bishop. One way to raise his chance was to scout far

terrain and blaze a path for missions.

The rationale for the trip that Hunter stated to his sponsor, the Church Missionary Society in

London, was competition with Rome. Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the shock-troops of their faith, had

bypassed Anglican sites to reach Great Slave Lake,b

and he planned to push right through their ranks

aHBC or Company hereafter

bRobert Choquette s recent history of their work, The Oblates Assault on Canadas Northwest, uses military terms throughout. (Choquette)


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down the Mackenzie. Papal darkness would still hold the center, but rays of the Protestant truth

would rule the far side. The journey meant absence from home and wife (a fourth child had just arrived),

but he looked forward with pleasure to planting the cross on the coast. 2

That prospects were good was shown by Peter, an Inuk who with his master, an Anglican

missionary, had just arrived at the Settlement from Ungava. Remarkable in honesty and truthfulness . . .

faithful, unsophisticated and diligent, he showed the hopeful nature of his people. It affirmed what John

Rae, explorer and senior HBC officer, had said of the Inuit of that part of the country: that they were its

fairest tribe and the easiest to bring under Christian instruction.3 But nothing came of plans to learn

Peters tongue and take him on the journey, for he drooped and passed awayit was said because of

the climate.4

The death did not lessen Hunters drive, for in addition to Inuit he hoped to convert the Far

Norths Indians, the Dene people. As he told the CMS, they were well disposed toward the gospel and

must quickly be brought to the Protestant fold. Delay meant yielding them to Rome, for once priests

converted them it could not be reversed. Hence his rush to get possession of Fort Simpson, headquarters

of the HBCs Mackenzie District.

Success was likely, as Bernard Rogan Ross, the trader in charge, had asked Hunter in.5 They

knew each other well from years both had spent on the Saskatchewan. More than that, they were brothers-

in-law: each had as domestic partner a daughter of Donald and Maria Ross, at one time the lead couple at

a major Company station on the inland route from Hudsons Bay. [ ]

Hunter left for the blessed work on an HBC brigadec in June 1858. 6 As he passed certain posts,

he thought of the two young Oblates who had opened missions there and had already been promoted to

bishop.d

At Fort Resolution he met Father Henri Grollier, a man of sharp words and fanatical views who

was making his mark. In winter he had united in marriage Charles Gaudet, a young Company clerk born

in Montreal and his mixed-blood wife. (Payment 1-14) As it pained him to see the enemy advance, he

cA group of trade canoes or York boats.

dBishops Tach and Grandin. Hunter did not hear of Grandins promotion until he reached Fort Resolution. Hunter to CMS Aug. 12, 1858.


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Late that decade the HBC built Fort Yukon across the mountains. But much of the trade it drew

had formerly gone to Peels River, and so the latters profit dropped. The only means to bring it back up

was to cut out the Gwichin, draw bands from the coast, and barter with them directly. That, however,

proved a difficult tack, for the Inuit thought the HBC gave Gwichin guns to kill them; it took years and a

number of tries (by means of emissaries with gifts) to convince them otherwise, and a massacre of Inuit

by Gwichin in 1850 made for a serious set-back. It was not until 1854 that a chief and two men dared

ascend the Peel and enter to the Companys buildings.

Traders on the Coast

The threat that in 1858 kept Hunter from the Delta was overblown, for that year an HBC clerkh

visited the Inuit in their homes. Well received, he found them anxious for a settled intercourse with

whites. Still, given the hatred between them and Gwichin, Chief Trader Bernard Ross felt they must not

come to Peels River. And he dared found no post in the Delta without a translator good at his work.

If some Gwichin were capable of speaking the Inuits language, they lost that skill at strategic

times. Having failed to keep physical space between whites and people from the coast, it seems they used

language as a barrier. True or not, Ross was angry that his plans were not well explained. 8

The need for translation was strong because he had sent another clerk, Roderick MacFarlane, to

the tribe at the mouth of the Anderson, east of the Mackenzie. If a post were put there, it would serve not

only nearby bands but those of the Delta. The latter, he felt sure, would soon turn docile through

frequent contact with the HBC. Another post, just for them, could then be built. ij

From the Mackenzie Inuits point of view a fort on the Anderson lacked attraction. If it came

about, they would share whites attention with another tribe. Travel there would be mainly overland, and

besides would not fit their annual spring migration through the Delta. Fortunately (as they may have seen

it) MacFarlanes forays to the coast did not go as well as hoped. The presence of Indians in his party

caused problems. [reference?]

To avoid such issues, MacFarlane asked for a boy to take south for training as an interpreter.

Though he failed, Ross hoped a similar request by Gaudet (now in charge at Peels River) would bring

hJames Lockhart.

iLockharts report is not included with the transcript of the B.R. Ross letter in the HBC correspondence book. I have not yet searched for it

elsewhere.

jThe letter also advised that people from Cape Bathurst (very friendly) would shield the new post from damage by those from the Delta. Ross

to Simpson, 1858, 11, 29. HBCA B200/b/33.


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success. His stay with the Delta Inuit in 1858 boosted HBC fortunes, as he enjoyed their hospitality and

got many pelts.9

But his suggestion to let a youth go needed time for discussion.

Inuit Youths for the HBC

On average, families on the coast consisted of a mother, father, and two childrena formula that

changed in tandem with the number of wives a man possessed. Other offspring were left to die or given

up for adoption. By age ten a boy helped with hunts, and girls with chores; giving one up meant loss of

labor in the present, and less security in the future. Besides, bonds of love were tight.

On the other hand, some children were miserably unhappy. For those who were orphaned or

given away past the infant stage, the relation with adoptive parents was often that of slaves. Though

worked the hardest, they were last to be fed, and wore decrepit clothes. [reference from Nuligak]

In winter the following may have happened: the Mackenzie Inuit decided to let two youngsters

go, but in return, they wanted a post in the Delta. On hearing their wish in spring, Gaudet advised it

would carry more weight if posed directly to Chief Trader Bernard Ross at Fort Simpson . Then he

arranged for Tiktik, one of the chiefs, and the children to accompany him there a few months later.

Gaudet did not know it, but the scheme fit perfectly with pressure from HBC governor Sir George

Simpson, who wanted a fort near the coast built at once. You will apply yourself with energy he

ordered Ross, to the early accomplishment of that object. The Company could send no interpreter from

the East, so the only remedy was to offer sufficient inducement to the Esquimaux to allow one or two or

more children to be raised among staff. For both this and the fort there was no limit to cost.10

Ross got the letter in July 1859 when, as each year, he took the Mackenzies furs on a month-long

journey to Portage La Loche, where he exchanged them for new trade goods brought by another brigade

from the South. Debarking at that point was Hunter who was returning home (where his daughter Mary

would die before he arrived) and coming aboard was his replacement, the Rev. William Kirkby, whose

task it was to found permanent missions.

The governors missive told that the HBCs licence to the Northwest Territories had not been

renewed. So the Companys role in helping Anglicans in the Mackenzie was no longer as governing body,

but as private individuals. That applied as well to Father Grollier, who was to join Rosss brigade on its

route back to Fort Simpson, and stay there until boats left for the Lower Mackenzie. He planned to start a

mission at Good Hope.

Implicit in all this was HBC concern for its hold on Ruperts Land, whose 1670 charter would be

up for review in a decade. After the nasty things said about the Mackenzie District at parliamentary

hearings in London two years before, in recent books about the Far North, and in reports by naval visitors


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to the Far North and widely publicized attacks by former fur-trade employeesk, it was here the Company

had to act. Support of missions was one route to burnishing its image.

What gave evangelization of the Inuit special significance to Christians was the biblical phrase

the end of the world. Final words of Jesus s Great Commission, they were interpreted as an order to

take the gospel to the globes most distant sites.lAn old testament text, He shall have dominion also

from sea to sea, and from the river until the ends of the earth, was thought to presage it. m

To recover the Companys reputation, it had to be seen trading with Inuit, whom outsiders said it

deliberately ignored, and assisting clerics to bring God to this remotest of tribes and other far-off peoples.

Since public relations (not law or obligation) forced these measures, they had to be put in place even

though the Mackenzie was not part of Ruperts Land.

Sir George, as a result, ordered Ross to avoid all conflict with missions and help them to the full

extent conditions permittedhe had already chastised him for sending Grollier off the prior year.[ ] The

effect was that traders gathered at Fort Simpson might shun the priest while he was there, but he was free

to roam around.

Perfect Kneeling

At each Mackenzie District post, the clerks summer departure was timed to reach Fort Simpson

just as the chief trader returned with new goods from the South. That way the crews, whose number

approached a hundred, only briefly strained supplies. In 1858 Ross arrived from the portage on August

14, and Gaudet from Peels River less than twenty four hours later. What made for excitement was the

presence on board of Tiktik and four other Inuit: a man, a woman, their boy, and a nine-year-old girl,

Attingarek, who had come without her parents.11

kAlexander Isbister had quit after working as an apprentice at Peels River in 1840-1841; John McLean, after assisting the chief trader at

Simpson in 1843-1844, and as clerk at Fort Resolution in 1844-45.

lThe Great Commission, KJV Matthew 28:18-20, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have

commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. More recent translations such as the New Century Version

translate the last words as the end of this age." For British fascination with the Arctic see the turgid, overly academic volume by David (David).

mPsalms 72:8, King James Version; Vulgate 77:11. The idea for this line came from Martha McCarthys From the Great River to the Ends of the

Earth, (McCarthy), a superbly researched, fluent account of Mackenzie missions south of the treeline. In quoting the bible on the frontispiece

page, McCarthy makes a perhaps intentional change in the biblical text. It is true, as she points out, that natives along the Mackenzies more

southerly reaches referred to it as the Great River (Decho), butneither the KJV nor other English bibles include the adjective great, and simply

say from the river to the ends of the earth.


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The crowd was thrilled by their height, intelligence, good nature, exotic dress, and remarkably

fine looks. The children would pass among a number of Europeans without notice. Kirkby was beside

himself with joy. Here, he wrote in his journal, is a new tribe to the Redeemer. May his glorious

Kingdom be speedily established among them.12

The promise seemed especially strong because these people spent part of the year in permanent

dwellings. Given where they lived, they could not be made to farm, the sine qua non of conversion tactics

in the South. But there was no need to collect them in communal settings since they already did so

themselves. Their large villages on the Deltas eastern coast (some contained dozens of driftwood

homes) were all so many facilities to the progress of the Gospel. Already, Ross had promised Kirkby

accommodation at the fort to be built near them. Grollier, too, had asked to go, but was not allowed.13

To Tiktik and his fellow Inuit the link between mission and trade must have seemed very close. In

the mess room the day after their arrival Ross told them he would place a post wherever they wanted. But

he needed an interpreter and asked that the boy and girl be left with the minister for training. When the

men agreed, Kirkby lept with joy. He could not believe his good fortune as within days of beginning his

work he had the privilege of training two young Inuit. They were means for carrying the glorious tidings

of salvation to the whole of their numerous countrymen.

As the session ended, the chief trader was about to make gifts when he asked Kirkby to hand

them out instead, so as to establish attraction between cleric and future converts. 14 Next morning, a

Sunday, they came to worship in the same packed space and behaved with the greatest decorum. They

stood, sat, and kneeled as if they had been used to it for years. Never before had Kirkby so strongly felt

the gracious assistance of his God.n

On Monday in Kirkbys room (in the officers quarters upstairs) the visitors left nothing

untouched. A clock and umbrella intrigued them most, but they were not content just to look. Wanting

goods to take home, they made signs for knives, scissors, and needles, and Kirkby took them to the store

and purchased it all. Then Gaudet brought a translator, a Gwichin who had come on the journey from

Peels River, so that Kirkby could speak at length of Jesus and salvation.15

By Tuesday all except the woman appeared in European clothes. The men and the boy proudly

wore suits, the girl a dress and bonnet made by the tailor. But Kirkby was aghast, for the priest had hung a

crucifix from their necks. The figure, he had told them, was the child of the sun and if worn without fail

(like the amulets on their native clothing) would save them from harm. Gaudet threw the crosses to the

nWhile closing the service, Kirkby thanked HBC personnel on behalf of the CMS for their noble efforts to erect a church.


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ground while raising a hand as if in horror and disgust, afterwards explaining this was the best way of

preventing Delta people from ever again accepting such items.16

It was not until a week after the Inuits arrival, as they boarded Gaudets boat for home, that the

boy realized he was to stay at Fort Simpson. He wailed so loud and clung to his mother so tight that, to

Kirkbys immense distress, she relented and took him along. Only Attingarek, without parents to appeal

to, was left behind.

At Peels River, where a large number of Inuit met the boat, the delegates told of their excellent

treatment. So good was the news, many offered to go the next year. But when matters related to

Attingarek came up, conflict arose. Ross had sent a present to the girls father, and as he stepped forward

to claim it another man wanted it also. It turned out she had belonged to two families in sequence. At

some point one had given her up to the other, and there she was raised. It was the second father who

argued the gift should go to him, for he was taking the greater loss. As a fight was about to erupt, Gaudet

proposed the gift be shared, to which the men agreed.17

Attingarek becomes Maria

For the next few weeks Attingarek, the poor little Eskimo girl, remained dull and withdrawn. 18

Only a Gwichin boy, an orphan Gaudet had brought south, and who knew her tongue well enough to

converse, brought her some comfort.

Also at Fort Simpson that winter was an HBC postmaster (the lowest officer rank) whose

Gwichin wife spoke some of the Inuit language, and it was with her that Attingarek stayed. Each day

with the boy and four others she went to Kirkbys school, and as they gained skill in saying letters and

body parts, she cheered up. Smart as the rest, she was perfectly happy and anxious to learn.19

In 1861 one of Attingareks fathers, also a chief, came to Peels River and told Gaudet he wanted

to see her the next year. 20 But to go to Fort Simpson by Company boat he needed consent from Ross, who

in spring refused it, preferring he come the next year.21

And by then something had happened to the

chiefs relationship with Gaudet, who ruled against his going. o So reunion of the two never took place.

Attingarek further lost connection to home when her name was changed. It probably happened in

an informal way at first, but was documented when in early 1863 McFarlane arrived from Good Hope for

a visit, and received orders to build a fort near the coast. The site, however, was not in the Delta as Tiktik

oGaudet did not say why he did not want the chief to go, but the proscription did not apply to others, for in a letter to Ross he added if I can

get some good Esquimaux voyagers I will bring 2 or 3 of them up in the boats. To date I have seen no confirmation that he did. Gaudet to Ross,

Feb. 9, 1862, B200/b/34.


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had hoped, but on the Anderson River. Kirkby, who failed to grasp how far from their homes that would

be, quickly baptized Attingarek and the Gwichin boy so MacFarlane could report the news to their

friends. [xxxx]

Baptism in that era involved assigning a new first name, often one from the bible. Rarely,

however, did ministers choose one of special liking to the Roman Church. So it may seem strange that

Kirkby called the girl Maria, after Jesus mother, to whom Rome gave what Protestants thought was

idolatrous praiseand that all the more so since the pope a few years before had formally proclaimed the

dogma of her immaculate conception (i.e. that unlike other humans she was born without sin). In Rome

strong push for the doctrine had come from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the very order whose priests

in the North were the Anglicans opponents.

Yet the minister probably had no choice, as many women related to HBC men were called Mary,

including the sister of Chief Factor Bernard Ross, as well as his deceased mother-in-law (wife of Donald

Ross, the former chief factor at Norway House), who held the same relationship to Archdeacon Hunter.

Perhaps also in play was the 1857 death of the latters daughter Maria. In any case, Attingarek was now

Maria Ross.

Despite the hope raised by Tiktiks visit to Fort Simpson, Kirkby made no effort to contact the

Inuit and instruct them further. Three years later, on his way to the Yukon, he came across a group at

Point Separation. The men had knives and arrows, but used none as they grabbed his boat and stole some

goods. In an account published by the Smithsonian Institution, Hunter featured their good looks, which he

thought reflected an intellect higher than that of Indians, a claim he bolstered by referring to Attingarek.

Left with him not long before, she now spoke and read English with considerable accuracy.(Kirkby

416-20) Despite that fine result, however, she brought him no help in evangelization.

Girls on the coast became sexually active when still children by todays standards, often

experiencing trial marriage before setting up a permanent home. And in the fur-trade men took very

young brides. As explorer John Franklin noted on a Mackenzie journey earlier that century The girls at

the forts . . . are frequently wives at 12 years of age, and mothers at 14.22

So it is no surprise that

Attingarek at age thirteen became partner to William Brass, a postmaster who spent time at Fort Simpson.

In telling the Church Mission Society of the marriage, which seems to have occurred la faon

du pays during his absence, Kirkby failed to hide dismay in noting her new station: As far as earthly

things go she has a comfortable home for her future life. He made no mention of the hereafter, even as

he hoped she might still help his work. Brass had been assigned to a post well south of the treeline,23 but

if plans came through to place him at Peels River (where he had been before), Attingarek could tell her

poor countrymen something of Jesus.24 None of that came about.


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The next year Brass included private matters in a business report to Fort Simpson, but since that

broke the usual code, he was thoroughly chewed out.[citation?] None of it was transcribed to the

correspondence book and no personal letters by him have to date been found. How long Attingarek stayed

his wife, whether she bore children, or what age she attained, no one seems to know. p

LEnvoi

Governor Simpson died in 1860 after a series of convulsions (he had had them as far as two

decades back).25

The life of the Little Emperor had come to an end, and so before long would that of his

empire.

Next to leave this world was Father Grollier. Shortly after meeting Tiktik and his fellow

emissaries, he founded a mission at Fort Good Hope, and from there visited Peels River, where he laid

dubious claim to being the person responsible for bringing permanent peace (under a cross held aloft)

between Inuit and Gwichin. Shortness of breath sapped his zeal and felled him in 1863, at age 35.

Though he never entered the Delta, Catholic histories tell how Grollier realized his ideal, which

was to take the cross all the way to the Pole.(Champagne 121)26

That claim parallels the inscription on

his grave: Je meurs content, O Jsus, votre tendard estlev jusquaaux extrmits de la terre. (I die

content, Oh Jesus, for your standard has been raised even unto the ends of the earth.)(Choquette

photograph, 58)

Similar words marked Canadas founding four years later. When delegates sought to name it a

kingdom and the United States objected, the solution (a dominion) was found in one of the bible texts

that, as we saw above, served as a basis for mission: He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and

from the river until the ends of the earth.q Given that heady mix of national pride with Christian

triumphalism, as well as colonists pressure for soil, the HBC recognized its charter would not be

renewed, and after negotiating gave up its rights in 1870.

pBrass had a number of children (though I have not sorted out by whom) and in 1878 while in charge of Fort Nelson (on the Liard in the

northeast corner of what is now British Columbia) sought someone to school them. For that reason, as an internal Oblate history tells it, [ref?]

he agreed with local Indians demand for an Anglican cleric. But when that same year he stopped downriver at another post, a priest offered to

send a colleague capable of teaching both English and French. Brass assented, and no Protestant was invited.

qLeonard Tilley, government leader in New Brunswick, suggested the text. (Morton 97-98) The word dominion had extra symbolic weight

because of its role in an early attempt to open the bible to ordinary people: thirteenth-century English monk John Wycliffes interpreted it as

the god-given birth-right of a lord to rule over common men, and as the biblical basis for its loss in case of abuse. This led him to question the

authority of Rome and to translate the bible into English so that it would be accessible to even the lowest strata of society. For that he was

burned at the stake. (Moorman 118-21)


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Charles Gaudet in 1863 moved to Good Hope, where he stayed many years. His only white

companions there were two Oblate priests and a brother at the Catholic mission. Soon he secretly reverted

to the Catholic faith,rbut in public did not show it till a decade later. (Payment 5)

Hunters Mackenzie journey did not lead to his becoming the next Anglican bishop.27 In 1862 at

the Red River Settlement he had to deal with scandal involving the medical missionary who had whipped

up rebellion against the HBC, who after making a servant girl pregnant had tried to abort the foetus. The

nastiness that followed contributed to Hunter being brushed aside for the episcopal post. He moved to

London, where he became a much-loved preacher.

For a long time nothing came of missions to the Mackenzie Inuit. Each spring clerics might have

spent weeks with them during their stay at Peels River, or followed them to their homes in the outer

Deltaand sometimes they didbut sexual scandal, mental illness, scarce funds, or lack of drive nearly

always negated those efforts. That is not to say that this was a cause of the failure to obtain Inuit

convertsit may well be that no matter how intense and constant the contact had been, the people of the

Delta were not ready to adopt Christian tenets. Whatever the process was that would one day lead to

conversion, it had not yet taken its course.

The same might be said of the tactic of extraction, i.e. the removal of a person from a heathen

tribe to a mission site, where they acquired bible concepts and the evangelizers language before going

home to share what they had learned. After Attingarek other youths from the coast stayed at HBC posts

from time to time and learned English well enough to translate, but their close exposure to divines and

eventual contact with their own people never helped (as far as one can tell) the Christian cause.28

Tiktiks people did not get a fort in their midst, and found little use for the one on the Anderson

River. Bernard Ross in 1861 confidently wrote Sir George (not knowing he was dead) that it would bring

an important and lucrative trade, 29 but when instead for two years it only brought cost, the HBC chose

to move it to the Delta. 30 New lumber was cut and frames readied for shipmentand then the plan was

dropped.

Given reprieve, Fort Anderson made further loss and by 1865 stood empty. Inuit later burnt it

down for nails. Promise of a new one for the Delta was made from time to time, especially when Russian

trade (via tribes along the coast) hurt profit at Peels River, but that, too, came to naught.(Vanast)

When in 1889 Americans began to whale the Beaufort Sea, the HBC again planned a post for the

Mackenzie Inuit. But it was whalers themselves who installed one at their nearby supply base at Herschel

r

The information comes from Father Emile Petitot: [Dans ma dernire lettre du 30 Septembre 1864] je pense vous avoir annonc mon dpart

pour le fort Anderson, dit des Esquimaux, comme prochain. Il et lieu , en effet le samedi 4 mars courant, sous les auspices de la bonne vierge.

Je partis en traineau avec Mr. G, officier traiteur du fort Good Hope et catholique en secret. Petitot to Fabre, 18 65, 03, 21, OAR.


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Island. And after their depletion of local bowhead stocks and departure for points further east, Anglican

missionary Isaac Stringer from 1897 to 1901 ran it for them. Living with wife and children in their plant,

he established his mission there. As during the Inuits visit to Fort Simpson, trade and evangelization

could not have been more closely bound.

Nowhere is it told what Tiktik thought of his journey south on the Mackenzie and his meeting

with the districts chief trader, but it would not surprise if he felt bitter. Attingarek had stayed among

whites, yet the HBC had not built a fort among the Delta people. Nevertheless, he continued to come to

Peels River in spring,s though there may have been years when danger kept him home, as he played a

central role in an endless feud between his family and another.31

Also causing decline in Inuit numbers was epidemic illness, which from time to time swept

through Indian and Inuit bands alike. After Tiktiks wife died in November 1885, she was brought to

Peels River and lay frozen in the warehouse beside three Gwichin.32

That was twenty six years after her

husbands Fort Simpson visit, and the fact that she was taken to whites for burial (rather than left above

ground at a local site) may be the first sign of Inuit willingness to adopt Christian practices.

Around that time Tiktik had a new daughter, Sukayak (the fast one), perhaps the offspring of a

more junior woman in his household. In 1901 she and her husband worked briefly at Herschel Island for

the Stringers, she sewing beautiful caribou coats trimmed with spotless white skin from unborn fawns. t It

was in these that in the fall on their way home the clerical family was photographed in a San Francisco

studio33

and in which in later years in Britain they were received by the King and Queen.

The Inuit couple couple survived the 1902 viral epidemic, and on a summer tour seven years later

Stringer (now bishop of the Yukonu

) held a hearty service, with many present, in their tent in the

Eastern Delta.v

During that trip a few Inuit were baptized, and soon thereafter nearly all the people of the

Mackenzie Delta, the Yukon Coast, and Herschel Island (including those who had moved there from

Alaska the prior twenty years) joined the Anglican Church. Details about the Christian path of each

confirmation, marriage, etc.can easily be had, including that of a second man named Tiktik, who in

1914 along with other Delta Inuit volunteered to take the gospel east along the coast to another tribe.34

s

It was only directly noted only in 1873. Peel River HBCJ 1873, 06, 05.

t

Stringer took two photos of Sukayak and her husband in April 19 01 that have not yet been found.

u

Stringer inspected not only the Yukon coast, but as commissary to the Diocese of the Mackenzie, inspected its coastal missions as well. In

any case, he traveled through the Delta to get to Herschel Island.

v

At Nalugogiak


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But how one wishes that in the vast repository of northern archives something would turn up that

tells us more of Attingarek.

1Ernest S. Burch (Burch 1994)Vanast, etc(Vanast 2007),

2Hunter to CMS, Nov. 4, 1857, Feb. 11 and May 11, [see also two refs below; check] 1858, CMS reel A91,

NAC.

3Hunter to CMS, Nov. 4, 1857, CMS reel A91, NAC.

4Hunter to CMS, Feb. 11, 1858, 02, CMS reel A91, NAC.

5Hunter to CMS, April 9, 1858, CMS reel A91, NAC.

6Hunter journal to CMS, June 8, 1858, CMS reel A91, NAC.

7Hunter journal for CMS, Nov. 30, 1858, CMS reel A91, NAC.

8B. R. Ross to Simpson, 1858, 11, 29. HBCA B200/b/33

9B. R. Ross to Simpson, 1859, 03, 26. [file number?]

10Simpson to Ross, 1859, 06, 15. B200/b/34.

11 Kirkby journal, CMS reel A93, NAC. The girls age is from Sept. 8, 1859, the rest of the paragraph from

Aug. 15, 1859. Tiktiks name is from a letter from Gaudet brought to Fort Simpson on March 19, 1860,

when Kirkby partially repeated its content in his journal.

12Kirkby journal, Aug. 15, 1859.

13Kirkby to CMS, Nov. 10, 1859, CMS microfilm A80, p. 469-70, NAC.




17Gaudet to Kirkby, letter that reached Ft. Simpson Mar. 19, 1860.


14/15

14

18Kirkby journal, 27 Aug. 1859.

19Kirkby journal, Sept. 8 and 9, 1859.

20Gaudet to B. R. Ross, Feb. 2, 1861, HBCA B200/b/34.

21Ross to Gaudet, Mar. 26, 1861, HBCA B200/b/33.

22Quoted by Van Kirk(Van Kirk 101).

23Fort Halkett, on the Liard.

24Kirkby to CMS, 1862, 11, 29. CMS reel A93, NAC.

25

26(Champagne 121),

27Anonymous, July 14, 2007.

28The main examples are George Greenland (Arveuna), David Copperfield, and Kalukotok. References to

these can be found in Oblate correspondence with their orders headquarters in Europe (now in the

Oblate archives in Rome); the HBC Peel River journal, Mar. 18, 1889, NAC reel IM1018 B157/a/6; in

Warburton Pikes Barren Ground, 162, 168, 180, and 206-211; in the Isaac Stringer diaries on multiple

occasions between 1892 and 1901; in the Whittaker Memoranda, p. 7, in his June 12, 1897 circular

letter, and in his bookArctic Eskimo, p. 42. In the circular letter Whittaker says of David Copperfield

with him as interpreter, I was able to teach the people many things, which they heard gladly, but may

heed little.

29Bernard Rogan Ross to HBC Governor etc, 1861, 03, 20, HBCA B200/b/33.

30

A. G. Dallas to W. L. Hardisty, 1863, 05, 22, HBCA 200/b/3

4.

31IOS 1899, 07, 01. VS typed diary transcript, DCL, Stef. MSS 98 (5):V-9.

32 Peel River HBCJ 1885, 11. 04.


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33For references to Sukayak and her husbands (the first died accidentally in 1895) see the whaling diary

of Captain Porter, June 4, 1895; Bodfish, Chasing the Bowhead, 124; the Isaac Stringe diaries (May 13,

1895, Aug. 14-15, 1895, Jan 1 and 9 and Nov. 26 1898, Nov. 26, 1898, Mar. 5 and July 7 1900, Apr. 4, 9-

10, 13, and 15-18, 1901, July 27, 1909); the Sadie Stringer diaries (April 4, 10-13, and 15-18 1901); I

Nuligak, 7; the V. Stefannson diary, Dec. 17, 1906, Feb. 5, 1907, and April 18, 1912; the Anderson photo

album, National Archives of Canada (162, C23955, Baillie Island: Snowhouse of Sam Ivitkuna and [his

brother] Aurliak Apr. 5, 1910,; 176, C23955 Ivitkuna... with his adopted son, June 18, 1910; 180,

C23950, Shukaiyak, wife of Sam Ivitkuna, Sinnekpiak, wife of Jimmy Memoranna, near Kittigazuit, June

18, 1910; Anglican church ecclesiastic records; Rasmussen Notes, 1924.

34For this second Tiktik, or Tyiktik, as whites also spelled it, see the Isaac Stringer diary (Nov. 20, 1898,

Jan. 31, Feb. 1-2, 1899, July 20, 1900, July 30, 1909, July 12, 1912, when the offer to go east to the

Copper Inuit occurred, and July 25-16, 1927); the V. Stefansson diary, Jan. 28, 1907, AMNH version, p.

179; Stefannson typed diary transcript, Dartmouth College Library, Stef. MSS 98 (5):V-9; Anglican church

register of baptisms, marriages, births, June 8, 1910, July 10, and 12, 1912, Nov. 1, 1913, Jan. 21, 1921.

Perfect Kneeling 3

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