C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

NotestoPoges33-35 251One day we visited the hospitalSt Ann's Roman Catholic Hospital opened in 1914 and serveda huge area of the North for sixty-five years before it was closedin 1979 ("Grey"). In the 1920s, all hospitals in the NWTwereoperated by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches(Dickerson 44-5).On Sunday we went to the ROlIlan Catholic churchSt Isidore Roman Catholic Church was built in 1923, threeyears before Vyvyan visited it.the chief, whose nalIle was SquirrelPierre Squirrel was the Slavey chief of the Fort Smith band.According to Philip Godsell, who met him in 1920, he spokeCree as well as Slavey (Arctic 186). Local Fort Smith historianand genealogist Marie Swanson states that he was born in 1848.He married Marguerite Mandeville on 28 May 1878 in FortSmith; they had eight children together, and adopted severalmore. After Marguerite's death, he became a newlywed again,when on 15 August 1924, at age seventy-six, he married AdeleMcKay in Hay River; they adopted one child. Squirrel died on4 May 1939 and is buried in the cemetery at St Isidore Church,Fort Smith. Unlike Vyvyan, who seems to find him quaint ifnot risible, Agnes Deans Cameron considered him authoritativewhen she met him in 1908 (148-49; rev. ed. II4);however, Vyvyan accurately reported his appearance. KennethConibear remembers that in the 1920S "Pierre Squirrel ... didindeed usually wear a blue serge suit and a yachting cap. I thinkwe never saw him in full paint and feathers, and I do not recallever seeing him with long grey hair. He was a good, and honest,customer at our store."Chief Squirrel's political role in the emerging North wasnot insignificant. In 1920, "in addition to a number of whitemen," he told F.H. Kitto that "venereal diseases were introducedto the district, and the native population contaminatedby them during the time of the Klondike rush" (Kitto,"Report" 27), and he asked Kitto to convey "his respects to thenew Commissioner and to tell him that he would like to receivea warm suit of clothes for winter wear" (29). In 1922, heinformed the Indian agent at Fort Smith of his people's alarmat the prospect ofliving on a reserve (Fumoleau 122). Thatsame year, he voiced the opposition of the Fort Smith - FortFitzgerald Band to any plan to create a buffalo park if itimpinged on his people's traditional hunting and trappinggrounds (Fumoleau 255). In 1928, his expression of alarmover the feared effects on his people of the federal government'shastily initiated policy of closed seasons on fur andgame animals issued in an alteration to the policy (Fumoleau281 -82), a policy which the bishops of both churches, as well asDepartment of Indian Affairs official (and poet) DuncanCampbell Scott, also opposed (Dickerson 52-3). Howeverromanticized a picture of him Vyvyan is inclined to paint,Squirrel was of the generation of native leaders who made thetransition from paint and feathers to yachting cap and othervestiges of bureaucracy.A bearded French priest preached in French and then inChipewyanRev Pere Alphonse Mansoz omi was the superieur oblat at theH6pitale Ste-Anne and Maison provinciale du Territoire duNord-Ouest from 1924 to August 1926 ("Fort SmithChroniques") .Mr Brabant arranged for a gas boat ... pulled close to aneddy below the rapids ... we landed on a flat pink graniteislet ... there were waves with crests flung backward againstthe current, and rocky islets in Il1id-river, each one lonelyand helpless as regret.Vyvyan here conflates her account of an outing made in theboat on Saturday, 12 June-only in the middle of which did shelearn that the place where she wanted to visit to see pelicanscould be approached by boat only from Fort Fitzgerald-withher account of a walk that she took with Dorrien Smith toMountain Rapids on Tuesday, 8June; thereby, she creates themistaken impression that she is describing the rapids nearest toFort Smith. These are the Rapids of the Drowned, the soundof which had played on her ears during her stay at Fort Smith.By comparing her description of the rapids with a moredetailed one of Mountain Rapids (two sets upstream), writtenby British naval explorer George Back 106 years earlier, onesees not only Vyvyan' s narrative method but also her interest inthe same details that captured the eye of the explorer-artisttrained in the enduring English landscape conventions of thesublime and picturesque:On crossing the Mountain Portage there is an extremelyfine view breaks upon the Sight from the hill which you areascending - The River is about 3 miles broad - perfectly