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

Captain Cameron ... We found him on the shoreThe identity of this man is uncertain, but it seems likely that heis Samuel "Scotty" Mclntyre, who spent three years (19°9-12) asan assistant to Ernest Leffingwell during his cartographical andgeological survey of the Alaskan coastline west of HerschelIsland. In August 1912, Leffingwell gave McIntyre the yawl, Aw>,which had been used for their surveys. This was done "inpayment of his wages, according to agreement, and a few dayslater he proceeded eastward with it into Canadian territory"(Leffingwell 16), provisioned for three years, apparently tobecome a trader with the Copper Inuit. Another referencelocates him at Herschel Island on 26 August 1912 (Bockstoce).At Baillie Island, east of the Mackenzie Delta, on 22 August1923, Arnold Liebes reported meeting "Capt. McIntyre."Liebes, whose father operated the Liebes Fur Company out ofSan Francisco along the Alaskan coast, sold him some tradegoods and wrote, "McIntyre and Dr. Steffany will leave forEastward in the morning. Mclntyres schooner named Argo"(Liebes). McIntyre was then trading out ofT ree River(Bockstoce), and this was at about the time of the murders inApril 1922 for which Tatamagana and Aligoomiak wereconvicted by jury at Herschel Island in the summer of1923. Aphotograph reproduced in this volume from Lucien Dubuc'sscrapbook identifies McIntyre at Herschel Island with JudgeDubuc that summer, probably as a member of the jury panel. Inthe photograph, Mcintyre's dress exhibits some of the featuresnoted in Vyvyan's book, "knitted brown cap running to a point,... mukluks made of seal-skin reaching to his knees," even an"old black pipe." In the photo, he would seem to be of about theright age to have come north in plenty of time to participate inthe Klondike gold rush. Presumably, he was returning from thetrial at Herschel Island when Liebes met him at Baillie Island.According to Vyvyan's book, by the time the women methim three years later, McIntyre had lost the Argo as well as theBon7l)l Belle (perhaps they were one and the same "ship" and shechanged its name as she had his surname, but the field notesoffer no such evidence). Dorrien Smith's field note for 26June includes more details about him, "Capt McIntyre, whohas been in the North since '79 having come with the whalingschooners, came and had a yarn. He has spent most of his timewith the Eskimos, and knew Uluksuk, the murdered man, intimately,and had great respect for him as a hunter with his threewives." McIntyre's knowledge of Uluksuk makes sense in lightof the fact that both were in Tree River in 1923.Captain Cameron." held the most rigid notions about theimpropriety of white men marrying Indians or EskimosThe mixed-blood population of Aklavik originated in theliaisons of American whalers at Herschel Island with Inuitwomen, and, more Significantly for Aklavik, fur-trademarriages between British men and Gwich'in women at FortMcPherson. According to Shepard Krech, the genesis of thelattercan be traced mainly to three marriages .... In 1858, awestern Kutchin woman married Alexander Stewart, aScotch [sic] Hebrides Islander who had arrived at FortMcPherson in 1852 as a laborer, carpenter and blacksmithfor the HBC. In 1875, Stewart's halfbreed daughtermarried John Firth, an Orkney man who became renownedin the western Arctic during more than forty years (1872-1920) with the HBC. Firth managed the Fort McPhersonpost from 1893-1920, and his iron hand helped maintainorder during the turbulent whaling era. The third importantmarriage of a White took place in 1912, when A.N.Blake, an Englishman who arrived in Fort McPherson as amember of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, andwho subsequently worked both for the HBC and as an independenttrader, married a Kutchin woman .... Stewart hadfour married sons [one of whom established Aklavikl, onemarried daughter and approximately 20 grandchildren.Firth had 13 natural and four adopted children, at leastseven of which raised families in the Mackenzie Delta. Andsix of Blake's sons, most of whom remained in the FortMcPherson region, fathered 46 children. ("Interethnic"II4-16)Vyvyan has her Capt Cameron express an opinion aboutinterethnic relations that is not uncommon among thosenorthern men who experienced guilt over siring their ownmixed-blood progeny (see, for example, MacLaren, "HBC's"478-79 n23). Citing the published version ofVyvyan's interviewas a case in point, Honigmann and Honigmann observedthatdespite some intermarriage between whites and natives, atwo-part class structure consisting of whites and natives didtend to emerge in a large community like Aklavik wherewhites were numerous. The strongest proponents of social