Paul Kane's Journal of his Western Travels, 1846-1848 - History and ...

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forty years developed the strengthened business into a continental dominion, knowing nearly every post firsthand and the business of all of them intimately. His record-breaking trip in 1824, which reached Fort George (Astoria) at the mouth of the Columbia, eighty-four days after leaving York Factory on Hudson Bay, exemplified his tenacity, eagerness, and sheer devotion to his job. (He even had his bride. Frances Ramsay Simpson, spend their honeymoon on a fur trade route [see fourt Franas/Fort Frames].) Only three of his forty years' service did not include an extensive trip. Kane did well, indeed, to keep up to and to impress him, for Simpson's concerns during 1846 were riveted on the Oregon BoWldary dispute and the ramifications of its settlement for the HBC. Silmon a brother in law of the Governur, Mr. Identified as W. Simpson in WA (67), this is Wemyss M. Simpson (1825-1894), the youngest brother of Frances Ramsay Simpson, Governor Simpson's cousin and wife. Wemyss Simpson joined the HBC in 1841. When Kane met him in July, 1846, he was stationed at York Factory and at Oxford House (on the Hayes River, between NOlway House and York Factory). Simpson had been in charge of the post of Sault Sainte Marie for some time when the HBC began to curtail its operations after 1860. Simpson remained, however, serving first as Indian Commissioner at the Sault, and then, in 1867, when Canada came into being as a dominion, as the Algoma constituency's fust Member of Parliament elected to the House of Commons in Ottawa. slave ~ See Barriere portage. Smtheers, the reverant Mr. The Reverend John Smithurst (1807-1867) went to Grand Rapids (St. Andrew's), on the lower Red River, in 1840 as a deacon missionary of the Church of England. He was the first Anglican missionary to attempt to learn an Indian language. During 1846, when he hosted Kane, Smithurst was voluntarily conducting garrison services for the 6th Regiment of Foot, detachments of which were posted at Lower Fort Garry (see erNey, Mr. and COI&IbIe, Mr.). After being embroiled in a dispute between the Metis and the HBC regarding secular matters, he resigned, returning to England in 1851. Soto Saulteaux are the westernmost Ojibwa in Canada (Chippewa in Wisconsin). During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many of those Ojibwa and Ottawa who hired on as freeman trappers with the North West Company at Lachine (west of Montreal) stayed in the West. Moving beyond the Great Lakes in the 1780s, the Saulteaux - these Indians were named by the voyageurs after the "jumping waters" of Sault Sainte Marie - took up territory along the Winnipeg River, on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, and, when aligned with the Metis, on the prairie west of Red River. Because the smallpox epidemic of 1836 diminished their numbers less than it did other tribes', it appears that the Saulteaux had built an immunity to the disease from earlier contact with Europeans. spder Islands See Lake Winapeg. the spocan The Spokane River, a tributary of the Columbia, flows out of Coeur d' Alene Lake in Idaho, joining the Colwnbia near its first great bend in American territory, in northeastern Washington state. Spokan Fort/spocan Fort Spokane House was not visited by The American Art Journal/Volume XXI • Number 2 Kane. The North West Company established a fort on the Spokane River in 1810. It was situated on the east bank at Spokane Falls, ten miles northwest of modem Spokane, Washington. In 1826, the HBC abandoned the post in favor of Fort Colville. stincun river In 1860, on the map made by the British exploring expedition, under Captain John Palliser, "Riviere Sale or Stinking River" is shown flowing from west to east into the Red River just south of the forks of the Red and the Assiniboine (at Upper Fort Garry). The river's name today is La Salle, a euphemistic but confusing homonym that improves sale, the French for "dirty," into the name of the celebrated discoverer of the Mississippi River, who never set foot in the region of lower Red River. Although the low-lying land through which Kane was strug gling often flooded for miles around when the Red River overflowed its banks, Kane seems to have encountered a notably wet season. Palliser's map describes the area a.\ "Level Plains with long rich grass, being an Ancient Lake bottom." Not so ancient, Kane was finding. Stone Fort Red River/Iowr fort Lower Fort Gany (est. 1831) was visited by Kane June 13-14, and again on July 5, 1846. This fort, at St. Andrews, twenty miles down the Red River from Upper Fort Garry, was built with a distinctive solid stone wall around it. straits/Strates By "straits," Kane seems to mean Juan de Fuca Strait; by "Strates," the Strait of Georgia. The first is the ocean between Vancouver Island and the northern coast of Washington state. The Reverend Samuel Purchas reported in Hakluytus Posthumus (1625) that one Michael Lok told him of meeting in Venice in 1596 Apostolos Valerianos (also known as Juan de Fuca), who claimed that, while serving on Spanish ships, he had discovered, between 47° and 48° latitude, the Strait of Artian, the mythical canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. However apocryphal, the story was recalled in the eighteenth century by the British merchant, John Meares, who named the strait "John de Fuca" in 1787. -The Strait of Georgia was named for George ill in 17fJ2 by its discoverer, the British explorer Captain George Vancouver. sturgun river See Lake Winapeg. Sursees Sarcee are a fonner Athapaskan, or Dene, tribe who split from a northern tribe and moved south to the Plains, aligning themselves with such disparate tribes as the Blackfoot, Cree, and Stoney. Their retention of the Athapaskan language distinguishes them from other Plains tribes. Their hunting took them across the northern Plains; their reserve today is on the Elbow River, contiguous with the southwest limits of the city of Calgary, Alberta. ToImey, Dr. Trained as a surgeon, William Fraser Tolmie (1812- 1886) joined the HBC in 1833, serving at posts on the northern Pacific coast before starting the Puget Sound Agricultwal Company's fann at Nisqually in 1843. He was promoted to Chief Trader the month before Kane met him, and to Chief Factor in 1855. In later decades, Tolmie turned his career to administration, politics, and private fanning on Vancouver Island. Tom-a-quin Chief of the Cascades (Watlala), a tribe of the Chinook family, Tomaquin returned the Hawaiians who had 85
·\ .. { Paul Kane. WHITE MUD PORTAGE. August 4 or 12,1848. Waterco!or on paper, 5'/4x9 J /8". Collection, Stark Museum of Art. The scene depicts one of two portages named White Mud. The upriver direction of the portagers indicates that the picture was not made in 1846 when Kane was traveling downriver. deserted from the brigade of John Lee Lewes and Donald Manson at the Cascades. Kane almost certainly meant to write that in transporting the deserters back into the brigade's custody, Tomaquin and his cohort held their knives in their mouths, "not thare hands while paddeling": WA (181) confinns as much. Kane's landscape and portrait log says that he first met Tom-a-quin December 6, 1846, when he painted his portrait. Tuem/the Tush8y See River Tueh8/the Tush8y. a valley called long gI'tiS Between forts Pitt and Edmonton, Kane followed the horse trail overland. No valley bears the name of Long Grass today, but the general area between the modem villages of Alcurve and Marwayne, Alberta (near the Alberta/ Saskatchewan border, about twelve miles south of the North Saskatchewan River valley) has several valleys whose location and topography would make Kane's name appropriare. vanwuvairs Island Vancouver Island, lying off southern British Columbia in the Pacific Ocean, was visited by Captain Cook in 1778 and discovered to be insular by Captain George Vancouver in 1792. The HBC selected it for its Pacific headquarters in 1843 (see Fort victoria). Kane was the first painter to visit the Indians of this island and the mainland opposite. vancouvr/vancouver Fort Vancouver (est. 1824) was visited 86 by Kane December 8, 1846, to January 10, 1847,andFebruary 7 to March 25, and June 20 to July 2, 1847. After its merger with the North West Company in 1821, the HBC determined to build a central depot on the Pacific Slope. Choosing the site on the north shore of the Columbia River, where Vancouver, Washington, now stands across from Portland, Oregon, they named it after the British explorer, Captain George Vancouver (l757-1796), whose expedition charted the Columbia River up to the mouth of the Willamette River (six miles downstream) in 1792. Victoria, Fort See Fort Victoria. Wabes-a-mong the White Dog See Belcour, Mr. Wacker See Eales/~. Walker and EaIIs mishon See Eales/EaUs. the walla walla [river] The Walla Walla River, in southeastern Washington state, parallels the lower Snake River, entering the Columbia from the east on the outside of the great river's final dramatic bend toward the Pacific Ocean. The Whitman mission. like Fort Walla Walla, stood on the Walla Walla, upriver from its confluence with the Colwnbia. walla walia/waD a walla Fort Walla Walla (also known as Fort Guide
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Volume XXI • Number 2 • 1989
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THE AMERICAN ART JOURNAL Published
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I rite this part of my jurnal over
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Paul Kane. CLACKAMAINDIANS, WILl.AM
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ngman of North Dakota and outhem Ma
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Paul Kane. FALLS ON THE UPPER PELOU
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PAUL KANE. c. 1859. Photograph. Col
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dently seen the e two books t thoug
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I 1--- MAP TO ILLUSTRATE M'- KAN E
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Paul Kane. ENCAMPMENT, WINNIPEG RIV
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still smoking after having erupted
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Paul Kane. PIN PORTAGE. May, 1846.
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miskitas and black flies verrey bad
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Paul Kane. METIS CAMP AND HUNTERS.
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Paul Kane. TWO PORTRAIT STUDIES: AN
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u vrry ciod and good mlUl I rcmaned
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t' Paul Kane. FORT EDMONTON. Septem
Page 35 and 36: Paul Kane. TO-MA-QUIN A ASCADE CHIE
Page 37 and 38: Paul Kane. MOUNT HOOD FROM FORT VAN
Page 39 and 40: Paul Kane. MOUNT ST. HELENS. March
Page 41 and 42: Paul Kane. SAW-SE-A, A COWICHAN CHI
Page 43 and 44: Paul Kane. RETURN OF A WAR PARTY. A
Page 45 and 46: ." Paul Kane. OLD COX, A SANDWICH I
Page 47 and 48: Paul Kane. LOWER FALLS ON THE PELOU
Page 49 and 50: Paul Kane. MISSION STATION OF WALKE
Page 51 and 52: Paul Kane. THE LITTLE DALLES. Octob
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Page 55 and 56: Paul Kane. CUN-NE-WA-BUM, ONE THAT
Page 57 and 58: Paul Kane. FRAN~OIS LUCIE, A CREE H
Page 59 and 60: for the first day by a Mr. Prude ne
Page 61 and 62: Paul Kane. BRIGADE OF BOATS. July 2
Page 63 and 64: Paul Kane. PETER JACOBS. WESLEY A
Page 65 and 66: farlle fairly lose loose; lose fe~t
Page 67 and 68: Guide to People and Places in Kane'
Page 69 and 70: Coffin Rock Various Coast Salish tr
Page 71 and 72: Coulitz R. The Cowlitz River, a tri
Page 73 and 74: Ea MAP TO ILLUSTRATE in the TERR1TO
Page 75 and 76: Dam has transfonned this stretch of
Page 77 and 78: I • La hed (" Otter Head" in WA [
Page 79 and 80: his right hand. He was noted as the
Page 81 and 82: Paul Kane. NORWAY HOUSE. July or Au
Page 83 and 84: Winnipeg, to which it is connected
Page 85: George Simpson to open a trail from
Page 89 and 90: Selected Bibliography The author wi
Page 91 and 92: Index Allan, George William, 8-9. 2
Page 93 and 94: Mayer, Frank BlackweD, 14,21n. Mear
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