ALBERTA HISTORY 1800-1849

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IN THE BEGINNING

The Clan of Garneau

This is the story of the Clan of Garneau, the Metis, who brought a Ojibwa, Wendat (Huron), Cree, Dakota Sioux, Iroquois, Celt, Pict, and Viking (Scottish, English, and French) background from the 17th and 18th century to this Province of Alberta.  It also speaks to the integration of religious, political, and business beliefs and values.  It speaks of maternal and paternal societies, of killing cultures and cooperative cultures, of Aboriginal peoples and European peoples.   To this Metis mixture would be added: Austrian-Hungarian, a dash of Welsh, more English and Scottish via Acadia.

Alberta, however, was occupied long before the Clan of Garneau arrived.  The first Albertans may represent some ancestors of the Garneau Clan, in the form of the Algonquian speaking peoples, who migrated from California to Alberta some time prior to 1450 A.D. but were lost to antiquity.

A brief history of Alberta's occupation follows:

78,000 B.C.  

Global cooling resulted in an ice sheet covering most of Alberta about this time.  Some contend there were ice free passages during the cooling periods.  This is highly speculative.

50,000 B.C. 

Some researcher speculate that America was peopled at this time or earlier but evidence is sparse.  It is interesting that during my life time it was thought that people only occupied America from about 8,000 B.C. and now writers are saying 50,000 to 100,000 B.C. might have been their arrival.  I have discovered that reality is more bazaar and exciting than scientific speculation of the past or present.  

The Blackfoot, Blood and Peigan People of Alberta contain the highest incidents of type 'A' blood in the world.  It is noteworthy that Europe is also high in type 'A' blood type.  This may suggest these Peoples are the decedents of the same Caucasian People's who migrated to Europe from the Middle East about this time until 25,000 B.C.  However blood type A is believed to have mutated about 20,000 B.C. in central Europe.

40,000 B.C.  

Stone choppers and scrapers have been discovered below the glacial deposits in Grimshaw, Bow River and Lethbridge dated to 40,000 - 20,000 B.C.  Others challenge this dating.  The problem is that glaciations has destroyed definitive artifact dating.

35,000 B.C. 

Genetic research suggests a major migration of peoples into America occurred about this time.   It is therefore possible that humanoids existed in Alberta about this time using west to east. ice free passages.

30,000 B.C.  

A child's skull, found in 1961 near Taber, Alberta, is carbon dated to 30,000 B.C. and is believed to be one of the oldest inhabitants discovered in Alberta.  Some contend the dating is in error and is closer to 4,000 B.C.  However, other finds include; 23,000 B.C. artifacts found at Crowsnest Pass, 9,700 B.C. artifacts at Vermilion Lakes, 8,000 B.C. artifacts at Lake Minnewanka, 5,000 B.C. artifacts Cypress Hills, and 3,000 B.C. artifacts at Strathcona that would become the first Garneau homestead in Alberta.  There is much controversy in archeology circles, especially as to the dating of these discoveries.  As mentioned earlier the biggest problem is that glaciations has destroyed definitive artifact dating.  We can conclude that Alberta is first inhabited by peoples some time during the period of 11,000 to 50,000 B.C., either arriving from the North or South depending on which theory prevails.  Most evidence suggest they came from the south, likely California region..

23,000 B.C.  

Grizzly bears are in the Edmonton, Alberta area at this time suggesting it was not covered by glaciations as some suggest.  It's reasonable to assume that some areas of Alberta were ice free, we know that the Cyprus Hills in southern Alberta escaped glaciation.

21,000 B.C.  

According to long held theory, Alberta is covered with continent sized ice sheets from glaciations. This period is believed to be 25,000 to 21,000 B.C.   This however is not supported by facts.  Gravel pits near Edmonton reveal that during this time the area is teeming with wildlife.  One gravel pit yielded 900 bones, including an extinct giant bear, a North American lion, mastodon, wolves, giant bison, cow sized ground sloth, camels and herds of horses.  It is believed the ice age didn't affect this area until after 20,000 B.C., based on the bones.  Calgary is believed to be glaciated and preliminary digs below the glacial gravel suggest the presence of man.  The evidence of human activity consists of artificially flaked quartzite and hard limy siltstone cobbles found in the upper Bow River near Calgary.

20,000 B.C. 

Genetic research suggests a second major migration of peoples into America occurred about this time.  There is little doubt that our ancestors were in Alberta within the past 15,000 years.  However they were likely confined to southern locations.  

18,000 B.C.  

Evidence discovered west of Calgary (Alberta) at Varsity Estates suggests human occupation dating to this period.  Many are skeptical of these findings.

16,000 B.C.  

It is believed a period of Global Cooling occurred 18,000 B.C. to 16,000 B.C. causing ice sheets to cover most of Alberta.

13,000 B.C.  

Conventional belief is that the ice sheet began retreating from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan between now and about 10,000 B.C.  Greenland ice core studies suggests conventional beliefs may not accurately reflect what actually transpired and many have come and gone in relatively short periods of times (maybe ten years, more or less).  Others suggest this Global Warming period lasted to about 1 AD when a Global Cooling period set in that lasted until about 1830 as recorded in Alberta.   

Genetic research suggests a third major migration of peoples into America occurred about this time

10,000 B.C.  

Knife River Silica from the south Missouri River is trading as far north as Jasper and Edmonton, Alberta.

The People of this area have been using Cypress Hills (Alberta/Saskatchewan) as a wintering site  from about this time.

9,200 B.C.  

The footprints of mammoth, camel, muskoxen and horses are perfectly preserved at St. Mary River (Alberta).

9,000 B.C.  

Kananaskis Country west of Calgary, Alberta appears to have been occupied since about this time.  Over 100 archaeological sites have been identified.

The oldest habitation site in the Bow Valley Banff is at Lake Minnewanka .  It is noteworthy that it has not been determined when the Bow Valley in Banff was ice free.

Clovis man is hunting horses in the St. Mary Reservoir area of Alberta.

8,800 B.C.  

Glacial Lake Vermilion (Alberta) was a camping site of Clovis People.  One important early development was the buffalo (bison) jump in southern Alberta.

8,500 B.C.  

Wyoming obsidian is trading into the Edmonton area.  A band of hunters built a hearth beside Vermilion Lake (Alberta).  Some suggest this is the oldest site in Alberta.  This is highly unlikely as humans have been in the America since earlier than 50,000 B.C. based on the Pedra Furada, Brazil excavations.

The Clovis People lived on the shorelines of the "Water of the Spirits" (Lake Minnewanka, Alberta).  The area was abundant in fish and wild life.  

8,000 B.C.  

On the banks of the Oldman River, near Taber, Alberta that is West of Lethbridge, a Paleolithic hunter butchered a bison (buffalo).  Dr. L.A. Bayrick discovers the site.  Some believe that glacial ice still covers much of the Edmonton and Calgary area, a period of global cooling.  Some ultra conservatives, however, do not believe man has entered North America until about 4,000 B.C.  Others suggest 50,000 to 100,000 B.C. is more likely.

Global warming began melting the Antarctic ice sheet at a fairly constant rate of 5cm per year and is expected to be gone by 12,000 A.D.  Other studies of Greenland ice sheet suggests global warming and cooling occurs in relatively short time periods of time, like 10 years. 

Others suggest a severe drought was extensive throughout Alberta from 8,000 to 6,000 B.C. 

The Alberta oil sands contain spear points, knives, scrapers, stone flakes and micro blades with evidence of mammoth kills. 

7,000 B.C. 

Two spearheads are discovered dating to this period at Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta.  There are about 100 bison (buffalo) jumps in north America.  The use of animal jumps is believed to date back to at least 40,000 B.C.

Near Chin Coulee in southern Alberta, hunters with spears trapped and killed a bison (buffalo) herd.

70 km east of Calgary, near the Bow River is a medicine wheel with sophisticated astronomical attributes.  It is called and open-air sun temple predating Stonehenge and Egypt's pyramids.  We continually under estimate the intelligence of our ancestors.

6,500 B.C. It is believed early man camped at Fish Creek Valley (Calgary, Alberta) about this time.

6,000 B.C.  

On the top of a high ridge, 500 meters above the Crowsnest Pass, ancient miners hewed out lumps of multicolored Etherington chert.  The chert was heat-treated to make it harder and easier to shape into tools.  The hunters in Alberta are using dart throwers.

5,000 B.C.  

Cypress Hills, believed spared from glacial ice in southern Alberta, is an early stopping place for early hunters.  The French fur traders who first came across these un-glaciated Cypress Hills called them Montages de Cypres, meaning Jack Pine Mountains, and the Indians called them Thunder-Breeding Mountains due to the sudden storms generated there.  It is believed the climate was more humid for the next 1,000 years.

Between 5,000 B.C. and 1,500 A.D. many Indian tribes traveled the Bow Valley region of Banff National Park.  Some include The Besant people, the Shuswap, Kootenay, Blackfoot and Stony.   The oldest habitation site is at Lake Minnewanka dated to 9,000 B.C.  Only recently have the Besant Culture who were believed to be a prairie people been discovered to pass through the Bow Valley near Banff on a regular basis.  

4,850 B.C.  

Mount Mazama (Crater Lake) in Oregon exploded and spread a thick layer of volcanic ash across central and southern Alberta and is used as a marker for dating.

3,200 B.C.  

The Oxbow People are believed to have migrated from Saskatchewan to Alberta bringing with them the medicine wheel.  It is believed they also introduced the process for making pemmican.

3,000 B.C.  

Strathcona (Alberta), the future homestead of Lawrence Garneau (1840-1921), has indications of occupation at this time.  The plain's people are driving bison (buffalo) over cliffs for food and some wear large wooden plugs called labrets in their lower lips and skewers in their noses.

2,500 B.C. 

Alberta is considered the core area for Medicine Wheels and likely started about this time.  One Medicine Wheel was however located in Wyoming.  We tend to underestimate the mobility of our early ancestors.  No one is sure what they represent. Archaeologists and First Nations people agree that some of them were places of prayer and power, perhaps related to the sun dance; others may have been death lodges or even astronomical observatories. At several, spokes and cairns appear to point to the summer solstice sunrise and to the risings of bright stars.

2,000 B.C.  

Aisinai'pi or Writing on Stone Provincial Park, Alberta, on the Milk River, has been in use from this period of time based on artifacts discovered.  The actual writing are estimated from 1,500 to 1,700 A.D., although some could date back to 1,000 A.D.

Some suggest wetter, cooler winters resulted in reactivation of mountain glaciers in Alberta.

1,000 B.C.  

There is evidence to suggest that Writing-on-Stone (Provincial Park) has been used for sacred writings since this time.

The Alberta People have been trading for copper items from the Great Lakes, stones from Oregon and North Dakota, shells from the Pacific Ocean and shells from the Gulf of Mexico.  It is not known if this trade was direct or via other traders.

1 A.D.  A camp site was discovered near the future site of Edmonton on the North Saskatchewan River, Alberta daring to this period.  They were making arrow heads and feasting on bison.  They were also eating soup made from prong horn, rabbit, whitefish, trout wild onion and sunflower.

500

Indians from the Dakota's are hunting bison (buffalo) near Taber, Alberta.  Arrow heads discovered are made from Knife River flint.

Archaeologist at Spring Point, Alberta, at a buffalo (bison) jump found knives, spears, arrow points, bone smashers, hide scrapers, drills, awls, pottery and bake ovens.  

900

West central Alberta, 200 km west of Edmonton, near Whitecourt a chunk of an asteroid estimated to be a metre in size caused a crater 36 metres wide and 6 metres deep.  The crater was found by local residences.

1190

The glaciers in the Rocky Mountains, Banff, Alberta advanced from 1190 to 1250.

1250 The rock art of Milk River, Alberta is believed to have been created by the Shoshoni Indians who occupied this area about this time.

1280

The glaciers in the Rocky Mountains, Banff, Alberta advanced from 1280 to 1340.

1450

Some time prior to this the Garneau ancestors arrived in Alberta.  These people were called the Algonquian speaking peoples.  They spread across Canada from Alberta to the Atlantic ocean.  They evolved into the Blackfoot, Cree, Ojibwa, Micmac, Sauk, Gros Ventre, etc., to name a few.  The Garneau family traces their ancestry to the Cree and Ojibwa peoples.

1600 

The bow and arrow began to replace the spear in Alberta.  This also marked the appearance of teepee rings, stone cairns, bison (buffalo) effigies, medicine wheels, rib stones, pictographs and petrography.  The Neutral Hills north of Concert, Alberta contains effigies of bison, turtles, and snakes.

1630 

It is believed the Blackfoot brought the first horse into Alberta about this time.  Some say it came by way of the Old North Trail, which is said to run from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic.  The trail passed near to Kapasiwin Beach on Wabamun Lake, some forty miles west of Edmonton.  If this horse story be true then it must have died.  It is noteworthy that the Old North Trail was not used by the fur traders in the Edmonton District.

1654 

Some suggest the following people reside in Alberta at this time: Atspu, Beeny, Feather, Grizzly Going and Pimotewiw Sisip. 

1680 

A severe drought occurred in southern Alberta that lasted 40 years (1680-1720) according to tree ring analysis. 

Others suggest the coldest periods of the Little Ice Age (1550-1850) are 1550-1620, 1680-1700.  

1690 

The glaciers in the Rocky Mountains, Banff, Alberta advanced in the 1690's.

1700

The glaciers in the Rocky Mountains, Banff, Alberta advanced in the early 1700's.

The Beaver People arrived from north of Peace River to other side of the Saskatchewan River, from the future site of Fort Edmonton.  The area became known as Beaver Hills and later Strathcona before being absorbed into Edmonton city. 

1704

Some suggest the following people are in Alberta about this time: Apikuni, Api Kutenai and Sky Red.. 

1715

The Cree told Knight, of the Hudson Bay Company, of the existence of Lake Athabasca and the Great Athabasca River.  Captain Swan, the Cree explorer, explored Alberta for the Hudson Bay Company and discovered the Athabasca Tar Sands.  He brought back a sample of the brimstone oil to York Factory.  He made peace with the Beaver Natives in the Athabasca Valley.  The Beaver Natives at this time occupied the area between Edmonton and Peace River.  To the east, west, and north are the Chippewa, Slave and Sekani people.  The Sarcee occupied the Athabasca and upper North Saskatchewan River.  The Blood, Piegan and Blackfoot occupied the prairies south of the North Saskatchewan River.  The foothills dominated by the Kootenay and to the southwest the Shoshoni (Snake).  The Cree is entering Alberta from the northeast and the Assiniboine and Gros-Ventre from the southeast.

William Stewart of the Hudson's Bay Company was the first Eurpoean to travel in the MacKenzie watershed. He tried to make peace amont the Indians and encouraged them to bring their furs to the Hudson Bay forts.

1719

Swan, The Cree, brought a sample of the Athabasca tar sands to York Factory. It was thought to be worthless.

1720 

The Alberta drought of 1680-1720 ended this decade according to three ring analysis.

1730

The Blackfoot acquired the horse. They referred to time before this as the dog-days.  Saukamappe, a Cree living with the Piegan, reported seeing a horse between Eagle Hills, south of Battleford, and Red Deer River.  He also reported the Piegan had acquired guns from the Cree in trade.

1743

Some claim La Verendrye junior sighted the Stony (Rocky) Mountains January 1, 1743, but supporting evidence is scant.  Others claim he may have reached the tip of the Province of Alberta this year.  It is believed that the French Metis or Coureurs de Bois are wintering on the Saskatchewan River this season.

James Isham complained to London that the French were beating the bush and running away with the hair (intercepting the fur trade).

1745

The Hudson Bay Company reported that French Traders from Montreal are on the Saskatchewan River, intercepting the Bays trade. This is according to reports from the Cree and Assiniboine.

1747

 (I)-Anthony Henday, HBC man (1750-62) claimed to have wintered near Three Hills in central Alberta south of Edmonton. Does this refer to his alleged 1754 trip? 

1749

A number of Montreal men have been wintering with the Indians on the Saskatchewan River over the past few years, but their names are unknown.  The Indians said the river started in the shining mountains.  Based on this information, this year it is reported De Niverville searched for the sources of the Saskatchewan River toward the Rocky Mountains.

Pierre Gautier Chevalier de la Verendrye (Verandrye) returned from the extreme West and donated a slave, Jean Francois Regis, born 1743 (age 6 years), to the Jesuit Mission at Michillimakinac ,who baptised him April 6, 1750.

1750  

Some claim that Fort La Jonquiere (Calgary) is established by the Metis and abandoned about 1759-1760.  Others suggest it was built 1752 at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, most likely Calgary area but abandoned shortly thereafter.  Lots of various opinions about this Fort.

Trade goods from the Gulf of Mexico, in the form of masks, are discovered in Southern Alberta, some 2,000 miles from their source.

Peonon Point, on the Saskatchewan River, is a French house.

April:  Anthone Henday believed born the Isle of Wight (suggestion he was a Frenchman) signed on in London as a net maker and general laborer for York Factory.  He was a convicted smuggler. 

1751

A French expedition reached the Stony Mountains (Rocky Mountains) and established a temporary Fort at Rocky Mountain House, aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches.  Later they established Fort Le Jonquiere at the junction of the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers.  By 1753 the French had establish Fort Saint Louis, north of Kinistino, Saskatchewan.  Another version of the same story is as follows: Boucher de Niverville sent off two men in two canoes to ascend the Paskoyac (Saskatchewan) as far as the Rocky Mountains, where they made a good fort, May 29, 1751, named Fort La Jonquiere of de Niverville on the south Saskatchewan River..  They also made a considerable store of provisions, expecting the arrival of De Niverville, who is to follow in a month, but did not arrive due to illness.  In November, Legardeur de Saint Pierre arrived Fort La Jonquiere and reported that De Niverville had arrived.  This second account is based on the memoir of Saint Pierre, found in the report of the Canadian Archives of 1886.  Others contend Boucher de Niverville sent 10 Frenchmen (Metis?) to establish Fort La Jonquire on the Bow River near Calgary, Alberta.  In the course of 1751 Boucher de Niverville sent ten Frenchmen from that post at the forks of the Saskatchewan up the river, who erected a fort (La Jonquière) on the Bow River, where Calgary now stands.  Bow River is believed to have acquired its name from wood found there which was suitable for the manufacture of bows,  Others suggest it was because of the curve taken by the rivers course.

May 29:   The Chevalier Jacques Repentigny LeGardeur of Saint-Pierre (1701-1755), originally commander of Fort Michilimackinac, dispatched a party on ten men in two canoes this spring (May 29) to build a trading post near the forks of the Saskatchewan that they called Fort La Jonquiere (Nipawin, Saskatchewan).  LeGardeur is actually stationed at Fort La Reine (Portage la Prairie, Manitoba) from 1750 to 1752.  Some contend this fort is built near Calgary, Alberta and was abandoned in 1759.  This story suggests a party of ten Frenchmen were dispatched by Boucher de Nioerville (Niverville), Lieutenant under command of Jacques LeGardeur of Saint Pierre (1701-1755), to established Post La Jonquiere, on the Saskatchewan River, near the mountains.  Bishop Emile Tardiff, in his writings, supports the story that De Niverville built Fort La Jonquieret at or near Calgary.  These stories, or expeditions, were fueled on the 1745 reports from the Cree who said the Poskoyac River (Saskatchewan) started in the very lofty mountains and over the mountains a great lake exists in which the water is undrinkable.

1752 

Joseph Robson of HBC reported the French Canadians travel many hundreds of miles overland from Canada to the head waters of of the rivers of the Hudson Bay and erected huts and settled considerable factory upon the lake at the head of the Nelson River.

1753 

The Hind Post is established on the Hind or Wabish River (Red Deer River)

Louis de la Corne, chevalier built Fort La Corne same time as the second Fort Paskoya was built.  Fort La Corne aka Fort des Prairies was built a little lower than the Saskatchewan River Forks at the mouth of the Peonon Creek.  Fort de la Corne has also been known at different dates as Fort St. Louis and Fort Nippeween. This fort was the furthest known west French outpost in North America at this time.  It was likely rebuilt in 1857 at the forks.

1754 

The Metis are reported trading to the upper reaches of the Saskatchewan River.  The Cree report 30 Canadians in 7 canoe are intercepting furs of the Assiniboine River in Saskatchewan/Manitoba.

Elizabeth Grouard claimed February 14, 1754 to be a Cree from the Grouard Band of Lesser Slave Lake (Alberta) to have married this year Henry Newhall (Newell) but others dispute this claim.  However if true, Henry Newell likely visited Lesser Slave Lake (Alberta) pre 1754.

It is known that the original journal of Anthony Henday or any of his notes do not exist.  Only edited, altered copies are on file.
The four known versions of Anthony Henday, HBC man (1750-62) journals are as follows:

            A.  B.239/a/40, fos. 1-45, the version sent to London from York Factory in about 1755.  Andrew Graham, an assistant writer at York, created this version which tries to put a favorable light on Henday's travels.  We would say altered to be politically correct to achieve the desired results from London.  Graham was hard pressed to explain how every Indian wanted to trade HBC yet not a single one came back with Henday.  The fact that Henday had taken on a country woman (a bed mate) was edited out of this version.  Henday says he traveled inland 1,546 miles.  C. says he only traveled 1,130 miles.  There is serious doubt that Henday saw the Rocky Mountains.

            B.  E.2/4, fos.35-60, included in a volume of Andrew Graham's Observations dated 1768-9.  This journal is not made in Andrew Graham's hand writting and contains errors Graham would not make.  The journal is dated 1755-56 instead of 1754-55.

            C.  E.2/6, fos.10d.-38d, included in another volume of Graham's Observations dated 1767-9, this journal is in Andrew Graham's hand writing.  Henday says he traveled inland 1,130 miles.

            D.  E.2/11, fos. 1-40d included in a volume of the Observations whose date of compilation is uncertain but is prior to 1782.
                This version is most often used by many historians.  This journal is in Andrew Graham's hand writing.

It is noteworthy that Anthony Henday was to repeat his year journey to the interior but returned in a week on the plea that the apprentice boy sent with him was quite jaded.  The London Committee thought little of the explorer's (Henday) competence.  They apprehended that Henday is not very expert in making Drafts with accuracy or keeping a just Reckoning of distance other than by guess which may prove erroneous.  He would try again in 1759-60 to reach the prairies with Joseph Smith to take a true and Exact acct. but little account survives.

Attickasish, a Cree Merchant, agreed to take Anthony Henday, HBC man (1750-62) into Alberta, September 11, 1754.  Anthony Henday, HBC man (1750-62) traded a gun for a horse from the Assiniboine. The English believed he was lying about the Indians having a horse.  They traveled to the foothills of Alberta and visited the Blackfoot south of the Red Deer River where two hundred tents cover over three-quarters of a mile.  The chief's tent could hold fifty people. The Blackfoot referred to Anthony Henday, HBC man (1750-62) as a very white man, clearly indicating that he was not the first European they had known.  The Ojibwa and French Metis from Fort La Pointe (Wisconsin) explored and traded  this region during their past forty years of trading.  Anthony Henday requests the Blackfoot  trade with the Hudson Bay Company.  The Indians turned down the request as they are trading with the French.  Anthony Henday then traveled to the mouth of the Sturgeon River, a favorite French location, then on to the French Fort St. Louis in Saskatchewan.  It is suggested Anthony Henday (HBC service 1750-1762) first encountered the horse at Buffer Lake, Saskatchewan and bought his first horse at Sounding Creek, Alberta.  It is highly questionable if he even made this journey.  See the Metis section for a more complete account of the forgery surrounding this alleged expedition. 

June 24 Anthony Henley attached himself to a departing Cree party who are going to the land of the Blackfoot below the great Stony Mountains. It is important to understand that there are four known differing journals of the 1754-1755 Henley trip with serious discrepancies and contradictions.  Much of this trip is open to question.  Anthony Henday married a Cree Girl named Enteiskwew or as he called her his 'bedfellow'.

English historians would have us believe Anthony Henday was a brave figure, dominated his Cree companions, won solemn pledges from the Assiniboine and Blackfoot to trade down river to the Hudson Bay, the first European to walk the Alberta Prairies, a striking personal achievement.  However the four journals produced for this venture paint a very different picture.  He was never promoted in the Hudson Bay Company because this and other attempted ventures were unsuccessful.  He died in obscurity in England after 1762.  Henday admits a French Canadian or Metis in command of 20 canoes is in Red Deer, Alberta at the same time as himself.  One journal suggests he traveled 1,546 miles whereas another suggests he traveled 1,130 miles.

Some suggest the follow people are in Alberta this year: Asis Atik, Leader French, Anthony Henday, Kokamanakiwiw. Wapi Kona, Tete La Grosse, Beouf Le Petit, Wapenesew and Piyew Wapi.

July 22:  Fort Paskoyac, Henday said the French and English had equal rights to the interior lands and the French are living in a hogstye and are very lazy.   Other versions of his journal deleted ownership claims and said the French are very genteel.  Henday appeared uncertain even frightened of the French and would have turned back if it wasn't for the Cree Attickasish (Little Deer) who appeared to act as the leader of the expedition.  

July 31:  Henday encountered either 2 or 10 tents of Senipoets, Aseenepoet, Assinepoet or Asinepoet Indenians depending on which journal you read. Two journals say these Indians will come to Hundson Bay to trade next spring.  Two other accounts say they will NOT as they are strongly attached to the French and the Frenchmen's House of Trade.

August 4:  Henday encountered 7 tents of Esinipoets who agreed to go to Hudson Bay to trade.  Other copies of the journal says no way will they go to Hudson Bay as they have strong attachments to the French.

September 20:  Henday encountered the Assiniboine who reject the opportunity to trade Hudson Bay and didn't need English trade goods and besides its a long way.  The other journals eliminated this exchange.

September 26:  Henday went hunting and killed a moose and the Indians were overjoyed that I killed it by myself.  The other versions eliminate the self glorifying verbage by simply saying I killed a moose and the Indians killed a great many.

October 14:  Henday claims to arrive near Red Deer, Alberta and met Earchithinue on horseback with 40 scouts and they took us to their main camp of 400 tents.  No mention is made of trade negotiations, whereas the other journals are full of gloomy negotiations.  Bottom line Hudson Bay is too far.

October 15:  Henday's journal makes no mention of trade discussions with Archithinue.  He also fails to record the gift of two Indian slave girls but one died at York Factory in 1765.  The other journals speak of intense trade discussion, gift giving and that every man is given a side of meat (not likely plausible) and claims the Indians committed to trade Hudson Bay (which is not likely). 

December:  Only 2 men, 5 women and 4 children remain at Red Deer, Alberta.  One woman is Henday's bedfellow (Enteiskwew), 2 women are slaves.  Henday's bedfellow (Enteiskwew) Cree tried to explain the trading business to her husband.  He was bewildered and resented that the Indians didn't want to trade with the Hudson Bay Company.  The Indians were angry with Henday for pushing the idea the People should trap animals.  They told him to speak no more of trapping and threatened hard to his woman if she doesn't stop.   The said they had more furs than they can carry through trade with others.  The journals sent to London omitted any mention of Henday's bedfellow (Enteiskwew. Cree) as well as the fact the Indians liked the steel sled blades.  It is noteworthy that a Frenchman or Metis was at Red Deer, Alberta who commanded 20 canoes and promised to visit Hudson Bay.  Most journals didn't report this important entry.

1755

  Some historians contend Anthony Henday wintered 1754 and 1755 in the Blindman River Valley Northwest of Lacombe, (Alberta).  These are the same folks who claim a 1747, Three Hills, (Alberta) is a wintering site.  Some contend Anthony Henday encountered the Asinepoet Nation using horses as pack animals on the South Saskatchewan River.  Some believe Henday camped at Birch Hills this year at the mouth of the Sturgeon River in what is now called Fort Saskatchewan (Alberta).  Birch Hills aka Fort Saskatchewan (Alberta) is a traditional manufacturing site for canoes. The Indians called this location 'Birch Hills'.  The mouth of the Sturgeon River that flows into the North Saskatchewan River provided a plentiful supply of raw materials and a good flat location for canoe building.  This would be the future site of Fort Augustus of the North West Company.  Henday had no map making training so it is uncertain where he went.  Some claim he sited the Rocky Mountains but this is unlikely.  To confuse matters further their are four differing versions of his diaries known to exist.  

May 12:  Henday departs Red Deer, Alberta area for the Saskatchewan River.

May 15:  Henday encounters 127 tents of Earchithinues who one journal says they will go to Hudson Bay to trade.  The other journals say no way.

May 16:  Henday talked with 30 tents of Archithinues who had the finest horses he had ever seen.  The English contend he was lying about the horses.  Again all promise of trade with Hudson Bay was rejected.  Other journals say the Archithinues promised to trade.

May 21:  Henday traded all his guns, hatchets and knives mostly for wolves skins.  It is noteworthy the French would not accept wolf skins in trade.  They departed down river with 60 canoes for the French Fort.

May 23:  The 60 canoes arrived Fort LaCorne and 5 or 6 French came out to great them.  One journal suggests the French got very little in trade from the 60 canoes.  The other journals suggest the French traded for 1,000 of the finest skins, refusing wolves, bears or damaged beaver skins.  The Indians refused to leave the hospitality of the French.

May 29:  Henday reached the French fort at the Pas.  One journal says the Indians were just busy.  Other journals say the French traded cassed cats, martins and beaver of the finest quality.  Henday say the Frenchmen are masters of all Indian languages.  

May 31:  Trading at the Pas continued in earnest and Henday departed for York Factory, arriving June 23.  The Henday expedition was a failure and the four know accounts have serious problems of reliability and authenticity.  The original journals have not been discovered.

1757  

Some believe Fort des Prairies aka Fort La Corne aka Nipawee, the French fort was built about this time.  Others suggest it was built in 1753.  James Findlay visited the post in 1769.  It is believed to have been frequented many years before (III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte Sr. (1723-1803) of Sault St. Marie visited it in 1775.  In 1805 it was still considered a NWC post of considerable importance.   Nepiwa means the wet place.  A number of forts were referred to as Fort des or La Prairie in the North West Territories.  In 1844 a Fort des Prairie existed at Lac Ste Anne.  Some suggest Fort Des Prairies refers in 1804 and during the period 1817-1821 to a fort on the North Saskatchewan River.  Fort Edmonton was occasionally referred to as Fort Des Prairie.  I really means the fort on the prairies which could at various times refer to just about any fort considered on the prairies.

1759  

Anthony Henday HBC man (1750-62) and Joseph Smith wintered near Rocky Mountain House, aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches and returned the following year with sixty-one canoe loads of furs.  This account is highly questionable.  The Metis at this time abandoned Fort La Jonquiere (Calgary).

1763

  The Metis established posts far up the Saskatchewan River, had seen the Stony Mountains and were aware of the Oregon River.  It is noteworthy that the Metis reached the Stony Mountains (Rockies) some two decades before Daniel Boone pushed the American frontier west to Kentucky.

1765

June 27:   (I)- Matthew Cocking (1743-1799) employed HBC (1765-1782), departed York Factory up the Saskatchewan River and reported seeing old Franceway's House (built 1761) and old Finley House (established 1760).  

1766

Thomas Curry ventured to the valley of Saskatchewan.  He entered into partnership with a (I)- James Finlay, d-1797 who persuaded him to build a trading post.  

The Metis trader, (III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte Sr. (1723-1803), from Sault Ste Marie, who was the only one who held his fort during the Pontiac war,  Alexander Henry (1739-1824), the elder,  (I)-James Finlay, d-1797, Montreal  and Peter Pond (1740-1807) went into the Saskatchewan and Athabasca country to establish contact with the Chipewyan, Red Knives, Dog Rib, Caribous and Stone people.  They participated in opening up a trading territory to Athabasca country that covered a territory equivalent to Western Europe and is the most lucrative fur farm in America.  From a European perspective it was a no mans land waiting for the taking.  

Isaac Batt d-1791 is claimed to have wintered 1766/1767 Alberta.  He was a free trader but worked for the HBC (1754-1775).

1767 

(IV)-Joseph Barthelemi Blondeau (1743-1790) of Michillimahnac is reported on the Assiniboine River this year.  He would spend the next twenty years exploring and working the North West Territories.   

Thomas Curry and (I)- James Finlay, free traders, re-established Fort Nipawee on the Saskatchewan River, built on the opposite shore from old Fort Nipawi.  

William Pink is likely the first European to visit the St. Paul des Metis area of Alberta during a bison (buffalo) hunt.

1768 

(II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) aka (Jacco, Jaccot, Jacko, Joeko and Jacquot) is born at Fort Finlay on the south bank of the South Saskatchewan River about 50 miles from the forks, son (I)-James Finlay and Christiana Youel, Chippewa Woman.  (I)-James Finlay is the chief factor of Fort Finley, N.W.C..

William Pink of the Hudson Bay Company is claimed to have wintered near Fort Edmonton.

1769 

(I)-James Finley free trader of Montreal and 12 Frenchmen are at Nipowin.  A (I)- James Finlay free trader is reported on the Saskatchewan River.

1770 

Buffalohead (Pierre or Paul) St. Germain, a Metis guide, is working the Athabasca Region this decade.

Some believe the Iroquois, and Iroquois Metis, free traders are working Alberta at this time or earlier.

1771

Francois Beaulieu, Metis (1771-1882) born Salt River a tributary of the Slave River, son a  French trader Jacques Beaulieu and a Montagnais Chipewyan woman.  Others suggest she was a Montagnais from the east.  Francois was born Salt River, Alberta which is the lowest point in Alberta where the Salt River enters the Slave River.   He had 7 wives during his long life time and claims to have killed 12 men.  He was chief of the Yellowknife tribe.  He was chief trader of the HBC Salt River trading post.  Letter in like he got religion and set aside 6 of his 7 wives.  

Henry Pressick wintered with the Blackfoot in southern Alberta.  (I)-Samuel Hearne (1745-1792) and his band of Chipewyan, led by Matonabbee, is recorded at Athabasca Lake in north eastern Alberta and north western Saskatchewan.  It is believed Hearne and company visited Athupusco or Etcharrottine Lake aka Great Slave Lake this year.  It is also believed that (I)-Samuel Hearne (1745-1792) visited Lesser Slave Lake des Metis this year.

It is noteworthy that the Metis and Coureur de Bois at lesser Slave Lake carried on aggressive farming operations as well as trading for furs.  The also settled, Lac La Biche,  Buffalo Lake (west of Stettler, Alberta) Metis Settlement 50 km SW Lac La Biche,  Sturgeon Lake, 24 km N.W. Grande Prairie, Bear Lake, 22 km from Grande Prairie, Saskatoon Lake 24 km N.W. Grande Prairie and Flying Shot Lake, just west of Grande Prairie.  Some were established at this time or earlier, while others are established over the next thirty years.  Some do not consider these Metis Settlements until occupied on a continuous basis.  

Thomas Cory of Montreal did so well with his Saskatchewan River trade that within two trading seasons he could retire

.

1772

Matthew Cocking of the HBC was sent west from York Factory to encourage Bay-bound trade. He observed "pedlars" at every turn of the North Saskatchewan River and warned his employers that the HBC was in danger of losing the competition with the aggressive Montreal traders who dominate the fur trade by using tobacco and liquor as trade items.

(I)-Samuel Hearne (1745-1792) went overland from Hudson Bay to the Coppermine River and the Arctic Ocean.

Le Doyen Beaulieu, the Metis, is born Salt River, Alberta, the son Francois Beaulieu (1771-1872) and a Montagnais mother and he spent most of his life around Lesser Slave Lake.  His Father journeyed to the Pacific in 1793 with (I)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820).

Ten canoes departed from Montreal under permit for Francois Le Blanc, born 1712, also known as (Franceway, Saswee and Shish),a voyager of Michillimahnac, who is in the Northwest.  (IV)-Joseph Barthelemi Blondeau (1743-1790) of Michillimahnac, with forty canoes, began working the North West Territories.  This year he is reported on the Red Dear River.  William Bruce, an independent trader, is also on the river having fled Basquia, Mississippi, after killing an Indian.

1773

A travel permit is issued to Maurice Blondeau and 22 men.  Blondeau is up the Saskatchewan River.  (IV)-Joseph Barthelemi Blondeau (1743-1790), of Michillimahnac, is on the Red Deer River. 

(IV)-Joseph Barthelemi Blondeau (1743-1790), of Michillimahnac, is reported to have worked the Saskatchewan River this year.  Charles Paterson (d-1788) of the Michilimackinac Company stayed on the Saskatchewan.

Charles Bruce is reported at Red Deer River.  Bruce is from the Mississippi where he killed an Indian and had to depart that region.   William Bruce and four men are at Pasquia on the Saskatchewan River.  

Francois Le Blanc, born 1712, also known as (Franceway, Saswee and Shish) voyager of Michillimahnac, dispatched 15 canoes among the various routes to pursue Indians on their way to York Factory.  (I)-William Pink of York Factory has spent the last 7 years attempting to direct trade from the Peddlers to the Hudson Bay Company, especially on the Saskatchewan.  Matthew Cocking, the bigamist (d-1799), returned to York Factory having for the past two years traveled the Blackfoot Territory.  He would spend the next two years on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.  He said he finds himself practically defenseless against the Peddlers.  Those Montrealers are monopolizing the fur trade on the Saskatchewan River.  He had to travel to Eagle Hills, south of Battleford.

(I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) began working the Saskatchewan River (1774-1790)

May 11:  (I)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820) encountered a band of Beaver Indians near the site of the future Fort Dunvegan site.

1775

Word was out of the great fur potential of the Athabasca, Peace and Mackenzie Rivers.  The Frobishers were recorded as being at the Isle a la Cross, (Saskatchewan) this year.  They met some Chipewyan Indians who were en route to Fort Churchill.

Charles Patterson (d-1788) is trading and wintering out of the Assiniboine with Alexander Henry the elder (1739-1824) and Holmes.  The native traders told Henry of the Peace River.

Travel passport is issued to James McGill (1744-1813), (I)-Benjamin Frobisher (1742-1787), his brothers, and (III)-Maurice Regis Blondeau (b-1706) for 12 canoe and 78 men for Grand Portage and beyond.  Alexander Henry (1739-1824), the elder, reported that 4 different interests on the Saskatchewan joined forces this year.  Peter Pond (1740-1807) entered the North West with the backing of Simon McTavish (1750-1804), who would engineer the formation of the North West Company.

Some sixty canoes a year are going West from Lake Superior and these probably excluded many free traders.  Peter Pond (1740-1807), who is born Melford, Connecticut, left the Mississippi fur trade after killing a fellow in a duel and with two canoes and seven men went to Saskatchewan River near Prince Albert (Saskatchewan).  On the way he teamed up with (III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte Sr. (1723-1803), (I)-Thomas Frobisher (1744-1788), (I)-Joseph Frobisher (1740-1810), William Paterson and (I)-Alexander Henry (1739-1824), the elder, making a company of one hundred and thirty men in thirty canoes.  The permit dated April 10 lists a Michel Cadot likely (III)-Michel Cadotte (1729-1784) and Francois Giroux among the crew.  The group had bought sufficient wild rice in Red River to last until they reached the Saskatchewan.  (I)-Alexander Henry (1739-1824) the elder wrote that without the wild rice obtained at the Lake of the Woods, the voyage beyond the Saskatchewan River would have been impossible to complete.  He had purchased 100 bushels of rice from the previous year's crop from an Ojibwa village of only 100 people at the Lake of the Woods.  He also noted 50 lodges of Ojibwa at Rainy Lake.  This is interesting in that most traders believed the woods Indians didn't store their harvests.  They also processed and stored fish and fish oil.   (III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte Sr. (1723-1803) separated at the forks and he went to Fort des Prairies (Edmonton, Alberta) in October.  This is not likely as Fort Edmonton was not established until 1795.  This confusion is caused by at least 3-4 different Fort des Prairies over time.  This one is likely near the forks of the Saskatchewan Rivers, Fort La Corne.

Charles Paterson (d-1788) of the Michilimackinac Company, (IV)-Joseph Barthelemi Blondeau (1743-1790) of Michillimahnac, William Holmes, (I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819), the German some say Dutch and many other employees occupies Fort La Corne (Fort des Prairies) and are working the Saskatchewan River.  Franceway on the Saskatchewan acquires two Blackfoot women slaves whom he takes to Montreal and sells.  He also took out 170 bundle fur of 90 pounds each.  (I)-Robert Longmoor of Hudson Bay Company is robbed of his trade goods and roughly handled by Indian's who accompanied him.  He is abandoned without provisions on the trail to Cumberland House.

The Norway rat is introduced to the eastern coast of America and starts its slow vourney west.

April 10:  A permit is issued to Alexander Henry (1739-1824) and (III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte Sr. (1723-1803) for 4 canoes to Sault Ste Marie and Grand Portage and  included a crew of 31 men.  Included in the crew is Michel Cadott, a possible relative of (III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte Sr. (1723-1803), a Francois Giroux.  This historic voyage covered Lake of the Woods, Winnipeg River, Lake Winnipeg, and the Saskatchewan.  They encountered Peter Pond (1740-1807) and the Frobisher brothers (I)-Joseph (1740-1810) and (I)-Thomas (1744-1788).  Some of the party reached the Rockies.  It is noteworthy that they had to pay a toll on Rainy River to the Ojibwa who possessed the ability to stop all trade to the interior.  The Ojibwa have villages at Lac La Croix, Rainy Lake and Rainy River.
St. Jean LaVigne - Pierre LaVigne - Jacques Primake - Michel Cadott -Lafrance Laborde - Francois Valtige - Joseph Montmmois - Pierre Camsse - Pierre Gouiltan - Nicolas Demars - Louis Lapointe - Charles Boulteau - Albert Donaus - Francois Demit - Fabien Robert - Louis La Poretin - Etisne La Carter - Michel Content - Jacques La Gameya  - Joseph Potorin - Joseph Gaul  - Pierre Pilette - Charles Deneau - - Emett - Charles Nutier - Joseph Denieu - Faweaiger  - Joseph Maloux - Francois Giroux.

October 14:  (III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte, Metis (1723-1803),  Charles Paterson d-1788, (IV)-Joseph Barthelemi Blondeau (1743-1790) and (I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) were on the Saskatchewan River this season.  Twenty three canoes were reported with (I)-James Finlay, (I)-Thomas Frobisher (1744-1788), (I)-Joseph Frobisher (1740-1810) as was Alexander Henry (1739-1824) with 10 canoes.

October 14: Mathew Cocking (1743-1799) of Cumberland house reported Alexander Henry (1739-1824) passed by to Beaver Lake (Amisk Lake) then Alexander Henry (1739-1824) proceeded on the Saskatchewan River to Fort des Prairies (Fort-a-la-Corne). 

1776 

James Deering and William Pink wintered in Alberta and Peter Pond (1739/40-1807), in 1778,  would order the building a trading post forty miles up the Athabasca from its mouth.  It was built by 1778  and called Fort Achipewyan.

Laurent Leroux, b-1759 Quebec, died 1854 and (I)-Cuthbert Grant, Sr. founders of competing trading posts at Fort Resolution visited the Great Slave Lake.  He would build a trading post there in 1786.

(I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819), a Dutchman, some say German, married at Fort of the Prairies (Alberta) on the Saskatchewan a Cree Indian girl, they had one son recorded, Bastonnais Pangman, Metis b-1778.

(I)-Thomas Frobisher (1744-1788) a free trader with 4 canoes went up the Churchill and established Fort Ile a La Crosse on Lake Ile a La Crosse.  He left Louis Primot in charge and Thomas went on to winter on the Saskatchewan River.

(I)-Joseph Frobisher (1740-1810) was wintering at Ile a la Crosse this year.  Both Frobisher and Peter Pond (1740-1807) pushed into the Athabasca.  (I)-Thomas Frobisher (1744-1788) returned from the Saskatchewan to Grande Portage leaving their merchandise in the field and in the care of (I)-Joseph Frobisher (1740-1810).

(III)-Jean Baptiste Cadotte Sr. (1723-1803) went up the Saskatchewan with four canoes. 

Fort Sturgeon also called the Lower Settlement and later called Fort Saskatchewan contained Booty Graves, Charles McCormick, William Bruse, Peter Pond, (1740-1807),  Peter Pangeman (1744-1819), Nicholes, Mature (Montour) Bartw, and (IV)-Joseph Barthelemi Blondeau (1743-1790).   Joseph Frobisher (1740-1810) had departed for supplies.   Three peddlers working out of Fort Sturgeon are killed by the Indians because of bad treatment at the fort.  Fort Sturgeon or more correctly Sturgeon Creek Post aka Fort Saskatchewan was down river from Fort Edmonton.

1778

North Saskatchewan River, birth, (II)-Bastonnais Pangman, Metis son  (I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) and Cree woman

Some claim Peter Pond (1739/40-1807) as a free trader built Peter's House, aka Old Establishment and Athabasca House aka Fort Chipewyan) on the west bank of the Athabasca River about 40 miles from its mouth.  It is claimed to be the first trading post in Alberta and was taken over by the N.W.C. in 1789 and abandoned shortly thereafter.

Seven free-trading partners including Alexander Henry Sr. (1739-1824) and (I)-Thomas Frobisher (1744-1788), at the mouth of the Sturgeon River, pooled their resources and agreed to hire Boston born Peter Pond (1739/40-1807), who was an officer of General Amhurst and who stormed Montreal in 1760), to trade the Athabasca.  With four canoes, he would be one of the first French to report on the Athabasca oil sands.  He wintered at Pine Lake.  On this trip, that lasted until 1779,  Peter Pond (1740-1807) virtually traded the shirt off his back and collected so many fine black beaver skins that he had to leave half his load behind.  Later,  Peter Pond (1739/40-1807) also produced the first known map of Alberta, scrawled in a Quebec bar while soliciting investment capital.  It was obvious he collected information from the natives rather than had any first hand  knowledge.

The following known traders are on the Saskatchewan River:  Blondeau with 6 canoes, McCormick of Ireland with 6 canoes, Gibush (Waden) with 3 canoes, (I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) a German, some say Dutch, with 5 canoes, Graves of Britain with 5 canoes, Homes of Ireland and Robert Grant of North Briton with 5 canoes between them.  This represents some 120-150 men, women, and children.

Laurent Leroux, b-1759 Quebec, died 1854 and (I)-Cuthbert Grant, Sr. d-1799, built competing trading posts at Fort Resolution on the south shore of the Great Slave Lake.  Some suggest this was 1786 he only visited the area about this time?.

Peter Pond (1740-1807)  crossed the Methy Portage and built Pond's Fur Trading Post on the Lower Athabasca River, forty miles form Lake Athabasca near the Embarras Portage. It was the first fort in the Arctic Drainage System and Alberta's first white settlement

1779

A party of Ojibwa are trading at Sturgeon River and Hudson House on the north Saskatchewan River near what was later Fort Carlton.  The Ojibwa of Berens River claimed their ancestors lived west of Lake Winnipeg in the 1770's.

Peter Pond (1740-1807) and six men built a fort at Eagle Hills near Battle River and (I)-William Tomison in the field (1760-1811), an Orkney who replaced (I)-Samuel Hearne (1745-1792), sent (I)-Robert Longmoor up-river, twelve days paddle, against the current to build Hudson House above the Canadians. The H.B.C. were immediately joined by two sets of Canadian traders. (I)-William Tomison in the field (1760-1811), an Orkney that had arrived too late in the season and had to accept a poor unfinished house on loan from (I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) the German or Dutch, who then continued to intercept all Native trade. The Indians were determined to direct the bison (buffalo) from Hudson House region. They reasoned the English would be unable to procure their own rations and they would acquire all the goods at famine prices. The Cree and Assiniboine set fire to the plains but they drove the bison (buffalo) so far a field that they entered into starvation and had to beg the forts for food. Or so reported (I)-Robert Longmoor. William Holmes, with eighteen men, was more blatant and used threat of force to ensure no natives traded with (I)-Robert Longmoor of Hudson Bay Company.  It is noteworthy that (I)-Robert Longmoor married an Indian woman.  (I)-William Tomison in the field (1760-1811), an Orkney, had instructions from London to build more trading posts.  He built his own house called Cumberland House, a thirty-seven by twenty-seven foot structure, including a garden of turnips and radishes.

BishopAlexander Tache (1823-1894 suggests after 1850 that Battle River was so named because of many contests between the Crees and Blackfoot.

Peter Pond (1740-1807) grew potatoes and other vegetables at Pond's Fort, 30 miles up the Athabasca River from Lake Athabasca.  Excluding unrecorded Metis efforts, this is believed the earliest effort of agriculture in Alberta.

(II)-Francois Xavier Finlay (1779-1859), Metis, is born Alberta, brother (II)-Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) son (I)-James Finlay and Christiana Youel, Chippewa Woman

1780  

Michael Calihoo, a Metis,  two hundred and fifty Iroquois and Metis from Montreal, at the request of some merchants, traveled to the Rocky Mountains to trap and trade furs.  Some crossed the mountains, many married native women and some settled near Edmonton (Lac St. Anne alias Devil Lake) including Michael Calihoo's Group.

When Peter Pond (1740-1807), of the General Store Company of Michilimakinac, returned to Athabasca to his winter hut, it still contained over one hundred and forty packs of fur.  Not fully appreciating the basic honesty of the Natives he recorded his surprise that they are still intact .

Some contend Rocky Mountain House, aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches,  is home to three French trading posts and ten shacks of free traders.  Alec Kneau and Alphonse Bouchet are believed among the free traders.

The Pedlars aka French Canadians and Metis have established fur trading posts on the Athabasca, Slave and Peace Rivers.  Moccasin Flats on Bear Creek is an ancient Indian meeting place and was likely called Grande Prairie by the Metis.  They liked to call every important location Grande something.

A fort at Eagle Hill Creek was burned by the Crees this year and the ruins were later reported in 1800.

1781

 Peter Pond named Great Slave Lake after the Awonak or Slave People, so named by the Cree who considered them a servile people.

A smallpox epidemic, from last year, spread as far north as Saskatchewan River system and this year reached the Athabasca region and the Barren Ground, where ninety percent of the Chipewyan in the Barren Ground died. 

1782

Joseph Desjarlais, Metis, son Joseph Desjarlais, b-1754, Quebec and Okemakwe; married 1820 Josephte Suzette Cardinal, Metis, b-1800, Lac La Biche daughter Joseph Cardinal, b-1756, Quebec and Lizerre Maskegan a Native.  

October:  Louis Kwarakwentha Callihoo L'Iroquoise, born October 17, 1782 Quebec and Marie Tekanise Patenaude.  They are in Peace River in 1834.

1783

Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District (I)-Patrick Small, Sr. an Irishman and free trader (1783-1790) married a Cree Indian woman.  It is not known when he entered the North West but he appears to have lived among the local natives for about 7 years before being driven off, leaving wife and two children behind.

1784  

Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District birth (II)-Charlotte Small, Metis (1784/5-1848/1856) daughter (I)-Patrick Small, Sr. an Irishman and Cree Indian woman; married March 1799 at Lac lIe-a-la-crosse (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857).  

(I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) was a seasoned Saskatchewan River Trader (1774-1790) but was excluded from the NWC but teamed up with John Ross of the N.W.C. this season.  Peter married 1st a Cree woman and had one son Bastonnais Pangman, Metis; later he married 2nd Grace MacTier and had a son and daughter.

Pierre Bonneau guided the Edward Umfreville party to Sturgeon Lake.  Edward Umfreville, Venance St. Germain, Jean Roy, Dubay and Raymond established Umfreville house on the Saskatchewan River, that remained in operation until 1787.

The Iroquois fur traders were penetrating into Alberta in small numbers working for the North West Company and by the 1790's they arrived by their 100's.  Most of the Iroquois were from Caughnawaga, Quebec.

1785  

Jean Marie Boucher (Bouche) employed NWC (1785-1786) Athabasca.  HBC classified him as a deviant.  In 1803 he was a petty trader on the Kaministiquia canoe route.
                    RECORDED CHILDREN
            Jean Marie Boucher (Bouche), Metis, employed NWC (1820-1821) or (1812-1821) and HBC (1821-1836)
            Francoise Boucher (Bouche), Metis, married John Thompson, 6 children included in will of 1824
              

In the years 1785/1786 (I)-Cuthbbert Grant, Sr. d-1799 and Joseph Preux built a fort on the north shore of Lake Athabasca.

Jacques Beauliev, a Metis living with his family on the Salt River, N.W. journeyed the Peace River.  James Gaddy wintered with the Piegan in Southern Alberta and spent the next three winters in the field taking others with him including (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) in 1787, a lad of seventeen.  This sounds highly unlikely.

1786  

Peter Pond (1740-1807) sent (I)-Cuthbert Grant, d-1799, the elder down the Slave River to Great Slave Lake.  He lost 5 men and 2 canoe to the 'Rapids of the Drowned'  between Fort Fitzgerald and Fort Smith.  (I)-Cuthbert Grant d-1799 of N.W.C. established a trading post on Great Slave lake called Fort Resolution. 

(I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) of H.B.C. traveled to Manchester House on the North Saskatchewan River near present North Battleford.

Laurent Leroux built a trading post on the north side of Great Slave Lake this year.

1787

(I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) is believed to have wintered on the Bow River with the Peigan this year.  I don't believe (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) reached the Bow River until October 1800 with Duncan McGillivan d-1808.

Fort Carlton, west of Duck Lake on the North Saskatchewan River, is established by the Hudson Bay Company.  It is also known as the Crossing Place and Fort DuMonte.

The Hudson Bay Company began establishing posts up the Saskatchewan River, often setting down cheek-by-jowl with the North West Posts.  The Hudson Bay had forty- four men in the field, compared to the one hundred and eighty of the North West Company.  Peter Pond (1740-1807), back in the Athabasca country, got involved in another killing, a John Ross (d-1787) of the Gregory and MacLeod Trading Company.  Pond's associate is charged with murder but not convicted.

This winter season (I)- Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820) was under the tutorage of Peter Pond (1739/40-1807) and was greatly influenced by Pond's conception of the region's geography.

1788 

(I)-James Bird Sr., aka James Curtis (1773-1856), arrived in York Factory with the Hudson Bay Company from Middlesex County, England.  He worked here until 1792.  It would appear this was his second tour of duty, as children attributed to him were born 1781, 1783 and 1785, or there was another James Bird in the employ of HBC.  It is known that he had at least three Indian Metis wives.  He would spend most of his assignment in the Saskatchewan River District, mostly Fort Edmonton and neighboring posts.

(I)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820), had his cousin, Roderick MacKenzie, relocate Pond's House to Old Fort Point on the south shore of Lake Athabasca. The new fort was called Fort Chipewyan.  Roderick MacKenzie, of the North West Company and cousin of (I)-Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820), built Fort Chipewyan on the south shore of Lake Athabasca about eight miles from the mouth of the Athabasca River, on a rocky point projecting into the lake.  Some suggest it wasn't completed until 1789.   They traveled and traded five hundred miles up the Peace River.  Red River Fort (Fort De La Riviere Rouge) is built by a Free Trader.  This fort is built at the junction of the Peace River and Mikna River (Little Red).

(I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) wintered near Fort Augustus (Edmonton or Fort Saskatchewan).  He was considered  short-tempered, vigorous, and cantankerous.

Charles Boyer's Trading Post for the N.W.C. is established on the mouth of the Boyer River to Peace River at north of present day Fort Vermillion.  Fort Boyer was also called the 'Old Establishment' not to be confused with the 'New Establishment' built 1792.  Boyer grew turnips, carrots and parsnips.  This fort was relocated in 1831 by the Hudson Bay Company to its present site.  Fort Vermillion is named after the red ochre deposits nearby that the natives used.  Fort Chipewyan was also establish this year by the North West Company's Roderick MacKenzie, a cousin of (II)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820).  It was located at the hub of the Athabasca, Peace, and Slave Rivers.  This was the scene of a fierce struggle between the dominate North West Company, the XL Company and the Hudson Bay Company for this strategic trading location.

The Cree ambushed a party of Gros Ventres at Battle Creek and robbed the group of their first.  They took the head man, cut off his arms, head. private parts and took out his bowels.  The Cree attacked the normally peaceful Gros Ventres between 1788-1795 mostly for furs to trade with the HBC.   Gros Ventres began to attack HBC posts.

1789

Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District birth (II)-Patrick Small. Jr. Metis (1789-1846) son (I)-Patrick Small, Sr. an Irishman and Cree Indian woman

(I)-Thomas Stayner (1770-1827) employed HBC (1787-1801) assigned Manchester House, Saskatchewan District.

(II)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820) with 12 men and their wives, guided by English Chief crossed the Great Slave Lake.  The Little Ice Age impeded their progress.  This global cooling period lasted until about 1850 but was especially severe this year.  (II)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820) left Fort Chipewyan to seek a short route to eastern fur markets. He reached the Arctic Ocean by his River of Disappointment, later called the MacKenzie River. He took 102 days and was looking for the Pacific Ocean.

(I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832) of the North West Company built a fort called Anshaw just west of Bonnyville, Alberta.  He also built a trading post called Lac da L'Original at Moose Lake (Alberta) also called the place of many storage cellars.  The first settlers of Bonnyville were unrecorded Metis who were attended to by Father Francis Bonny who brought French settlers in 1907.  They called the place Bonnyville in his honor.

Fort Lac d'Original (Moose Lake Fort or Shaw's House) is established by (I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832) of the North West Company at the southwest end of Moose Lake, (near Bonnyville, Alberta).  The North West Company builds a La Martre (Martins Lake) north of Great Slave Lake. Some suggest it was (1789-1809?).   There was also a HBC Moose Lake in Manitoba.

Edward Umfreville, an ex-Hudson Bay Company man, joined the North West Company and is working the Saskatchewan River.  He noted the Orkney are trading among the natives in small numbers.

1790

Jean Baptiste (Nechokapow) Desjarlais, Metis, b-1790, Lac La Biche des Metis, (Alberta) died 1871, Little Fork, Qu'Appelle Lakes, Saskatchewan son Joseph Desjarlais Sr., b-1754, Quebec and Okemakwe;  married about 1805 Lac La Biche des Metis, (Alberta) Lisette Cardinal, 2nd married 1825 Red River Charlotte Cardinal, b-1810..

Rocky Mountain House, aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches, (Alberta), birth, Lizzette Laval (Duval), Metis, who died February 12, 1861 Sault au Recollet, Quebec daughter Paul Laval (Duval) and Snare Shuswap woman; she married August 19, 1819 Fort William, Ontario, Daniel William Harmon born February 19, 1778, Bennington, Vermont, died April 1843 Sault au Recollet, Quebec. 

(I)-Peter Pangman (1744-1819) wintered near Rocky Mountain House, aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches, where he carved his name and date in a spruce tree.  Peter Pangman of the North West Company had ascended the North Saskatchewan as far as the site of Rocky Mountain House, that is not to be confused with Rocky Mountain House, later name Jasper's House in Jasper (Alberta)

Frank Oliver in 1930 believes the first fort in Edmonton, Alberta was built by the XY company before 1792.

Some believe (II)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820) is the first European to describe the Athabasca Tar Sands.  It is noteworthy the natives used the tar sands to patch their canoe for years.  A Cree named Swan brought a sample of the tar sands to HBC in 1719 but they said it was worthless.

Roderick MacKenzie built a library at Fort Chipewyan. It eventually had 2000 books.
Philip Turnor and Peter Fidler conducted the first survey of the Athabasca and Slave areas. They were Hudson's Bay men hired by the British Government to check Pond's map.

Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District was first established this year by (I)-Peter Fidler (1769-1822), (I)-Malcom Ross (1754-1799) and (I)-Philip Tunor aka Turner and Turnor (1751-1799)

During the 1790's while the competition was fierce between the NWC, X.Y. HBC and even the free traders would later become more cut-throat, traders on the North Saskatchewan River were rather co-operative.  Post residents even visited back and forth and exchanged goods and supplies on occasion. 

June 9, (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) departed Cumberland House to survey the Saskatchewan River system.  He had learned surveying and mapmaking while recovering from a broken leg.  Some time between 1789 to 1792 Cumberland House was relocated about a mile and a quarter to its present location.  The North West Company also maintained a post nearby.

McCleod's Fort is built on the Peace River by the North West Company.

A severe drought occurred in southern Alberta this decade according to tree ring analysis. 

1791 

Isaac Batt, a free trader, is killed by the Blackfoot while hunting bison (buffalo) but his companion John Thompson was not harmed.

 (II)-John Finlay, Metis of the North West Company, built Fort de Tremble forty miles north of Fort Vermilion and Archibald MacLeod built a fort at Whitemud Creek, thirty miles south of the Peace River Town site.

(I)-Peter Fidler (1769-1822) lived among the Chipewyans January to April.  He then journeyed from Buckingham House (near Lindberg, Alberta) to the Rocky Mountains on the North Saskatchewan River.

(I)-Jean Peter Pruden (1778-1868) and employed HBC (1791-1837) mostly on the Saskatchewan River  beginning 1795 Carlton House.  He retired 1837 Carlton House and is appointed 1839 to the Council of Assiniboia.  He married Nancy Cree Indian Woman (1785-1837) about 1803 Inland, likely on the Saskatchewan, 11 Metis children are recorded; his second marriage December 4, 1839 was to Ann Armstrong. (1800-1887) no children recorded this 2nd marriage..

The North West Company built Fort Chesterfield 12 miles below present Empress, Alberta on the north bank of the South Saskatchewan River.

The Hudson Bay Company reported reaching the Athabasca to see for themselves the resources of the region and  the extent of the North Western Company activities.  They are in awe when they reach Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca.  They discovered that the fort had supplies of trade goods to last two seasons.  The essence of this report appears to support the contention that earlier reports of Hudson Bay Company exploration maybe based on second hand Native reports and not first hand English reports.  The Hudson Bay Company also reported that 900 employees of the North West Company owed the Company more than the wages of 10-15 years employment.  This however could be propaganda, designed to discourage Hudson Bay men from entering the field.

August 31:  Fort Carleton, North Saskatchewan River, marriage Aratha Michel L'Iroquois daughter Louis Kwarakwentha Callihoo L;Iroquoise, born October 17, 1782 Chaugawaga, Montreal, Quebec and Marie Sekanaise Katis (Montagnals Nation); married Bazil Larence, B-1789, Quebec.

1792

(II)-John Finlay, Metis built the New Establishment, replacing Boyer's Post (The Old Establishment, 1788) and it was called Finlay's Post, Old Aspin Fort, and Fort Du Tremble, 40 miles upstream north of Fort Vermilion (Alberta).  It was abandoned in 1799.

(I)-George Gutcher b-1775 employed HBC (1792-1810) is assigned to Saskatchewan District (1793-1810)

Jacques L'Hyrondelle married, 1792, Lesser Slave Lake des Metis (Alberta) Josephte Pilon.

The North West Company built Fort Fork on the Peace River 10 miles upriver from present day Peace River town.. They planted a garden.  The Hudson Bay Company built a fort at Peace River it must have been Fort McLeod on the Peace River as a garden was reported.  

The NWC abandoned Fort Lac d'orignal just north of the Saskatchewan river near Bonnyville to build Fort George on the north bank of the Saskatchewan River.  (I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832) of the N.W.C. built Fort George.  In 1799 the fort was temporarily abandoned in favor of Fort de I'Isle 20 miles upstream.  Fort George was completely abandoned in 1802..

(I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832) employed sixty men, mostly Metis in the spring, for the North West Company, to build Fort George on the North Saskatchewan River, near Elk Point on highway 41, on the north bank of the river in Eastern Alberta.  Archaeological evidence suggests that free traders had already previously established a trading post at this location.

Later in the summer, the Hudson Bay Company built Buckingham House, with mostly Orkney men, within three hundred yards of Fort George.  That both forts are built a quarter mile from the river is still puzzling.  The traders fanned out from these posts to live with the natives in their home territories.  (I)-William Tomison in the field (1760-1811), an Orkney, Factor, constructed Buckingham House, (1792/93-1800),  a short distance from the earlier constructed Canadian trading post, Fort George (NWC), approximately 100 miles downstream from what was, later, Edmonton House (13 km southeast of Elk Point. The following spring it is nearly lost by fire.).  (I)-William Tomison claimed it was ordered set by (I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832), the trader in charge of Fort George.  These forts remained side by side until 1799 when Buckingham House is abandoned..

Peter Fiddler, a surveyor and mapmaker, joined the Piegan at their homeland south of Calgary and met with the Kootenay peoples.  

(I)-Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820). wintered at the Fort Fork, of the Forks, 6 miles up the Peace River from the mouth of the Smoky River.  At this time he was told of the Slave Lake 120 miles away.  He named the Mackenzie River, 'River Disappointment' because it didn't lead to the elusive Western Sea (Pacific Ocean).  He closed Fort Fork and established McLeod's Fort across the Peace River which was closed in 1799 and business returned to Fort Fork.

1793

(I)-James Bird aka James Curtis (1773-1856) employed HBC (1788-1824) is in charge of South Branch House (1793-1794) at the forks of the Saskatchewan Rivers.

Toussaint Charbonneau Metis b-1758 is employed NWC on the Assiniboine River NWT.. 

Peter Fidler observed coal near Drumheller.  John Garneau (1885-1949) in the mid 1920's worked these deposits.  Traveling with the Piikani (Peigan) People they showed him coal in the banks of Kneehills Creek not far from Carbon, Alberta 60 miles east of Calgary.  Fidler put some of the coal on the fire in the tent of the chief.  The People were upset as it was taboo to burn coal in a teepee.    Fidlers woman told him it was a heinous offence.  The chief would not enter his own tent and remained out in another tent, very much affronted.  Some suspect the People believed the burning coal released evil spirits that killed (carbon monoxide) in sealed teepees in the winter.

(II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) son (I)-James Finlay and Chippewa Woman; married Alberta, a Chippewa? Cree? Metis? named St. Germain?

Catherine L'Hyrondelle is born 1793, Lesser Slave Lake des Metis (Alberta), daughter of Jacques L'Hyrondelle (L'Hirondelle) and Josephine Pilon; married in1808, a Joseph Belcourt Sr. d-1863.

(I)-Duncan McGillivray (1770-1808), brother (I)-William McGillivray (1764-1825), and nephew to (I)-Simon McTavish (1750-1804), spent most of his career (1793-1802) working the North Saskatchewan River. 

Frank Oliver believed George Sutherland and John Pruden of Edmonton, England built the first Edmonton trading post so named by Proden on the North Bank of the Saskatchewan River in 1793 near the present Fort Edmonton location.  This was a major misunderstanding as this Fort Edmonton was not built until 1819.  He also believed Fort Augustus was built on the south side of the river across from the Edmonton post.  He also contends the XY company built a fort in the general area before either the HBC or the NWC.  Edmonton was not considered an important trading location by the Hudson Bay Company.  Oliver contends the XY Company fort in Edmonton was the first in that location.  He suggests it was located on the south side below the high level bridge being better situated to the bison (buffalo) plains of the south.  Maybe he is confusing the XY Fort Meadows with the NWC Fort Augustus as others suggest the XY Fort Meadows was on the meadows where the parliament building are located.  At this time Fort Augustus was across the Saskatchewan River from Fort Saskatchewan.  Frank Oliver agrees there is much confusion in the establishment of Edmonton and Fort Augustus.  That it was built is not in question but where is the question..

Battle River Settlement, alias Crossing alias Nonteen A Quee was named some time before this date.  

May 9: In Peace River (Alberta) (I)-Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820), of the North West Company, expressed his determination to follow Peter Pond's (1739-1807)  second great river to the Western Sea (Pacific Ocean).  He expected to trade with the Russians who had a string of trading posts from Alaska to California. Alexander McKay and six Metis, Jacques Beauchamp, Francois Beaulieux (Beaulieu) Metis scout (1771-1882), Baptiste Bisson, Francois Courtois, Charles Ducette,  Joseph Landry,  two natives as guides, interpreters, and hunters and a large dog left Fort Fork, following the Peace River into the Rocky Mountains,  for the Pacific.  The Parsnip and Sekani helped direct (I)-Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) to the great river and stinking lake, the Pacific, where white-men arrived in ships.  The Sekani drew a map that suggested the stinking lake was a moon's journey away.  They met the Carrier and Bella Coola Natives.  (I)-Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) appears more fascinated with the native culture, their honesty, and architecture than with finding the Pacific Ocean.  It is noteworthy that at Bella Coola (before July 20) they encountered Natives with metal spearhead and European beads.  Had those Metis reached the Pacific before him?  They arrived near King Island, at the top of Fitz Hugh Sound, on July 23.  These Nor'westers returned to Fort Chipewyan having covered two thousand eight hundred and eleven miles.  It is worth noting that these Metis, Indians, and Mackenzie officially crossed the continent twelve years before Lewis and Clark.

May 11:  (I)-Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820), of the North West Company, at Dunvegan (Alberta) is accosted by the Beaver Indians.  Fort Dunvegan would be built on this spot by the N.W.C. in 1805 to become the major trading center of the Peace River (Alberta). 

July 22:  (I)-Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820), of the North West Company,  reached the Pacific Ocean. The overland route was not practical for the fur trade. MacKenzie returned to Ft. Chipewyan on September 24, 1793 and spent the winter here.

Summer:  The Cree killed the occupants of 16 Gross Ventre tipis asleep near South Branch House near the forks of the Saskatchewan Rivers.  They killed all but a few children, whom they kept as slaves.  The Gross Ventre assumed HBC had a hand in the slaughter and retaliated in June 1794.

September 24:  (I)-Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) returned to Ft. Chipewyan and spent the winter there.

October 18:  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) visited South Branch House near Gardepui's Crossing on the South Fork of the Saskatchewan River about 20 miles north of Batoche (Saskatchewan). 

October 31:  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) of H.B.C. reached Buckingham House on the Saskatchewan River near present St. Paul, Alberta.  He traveled to the future site of Fort Agustus (Fort Saskatchewan) and returned to winter Buckingham House by November 29, 1797.  William Thompson was there and a few 100 yards at Fort George built in 1792 for the N.W.C. containing Angus Shaw, John McDonald of Garth and relations were most harmonious between these rivals.  He mentioned an Island House near the old site of Manchester House where he spent the winter.  He recorded a Turtle River house (section 4, township 36, range 18, west 3rd meridian) before he reached the Elbow, which was likely Cole Post of 1780.

1794 

A large group of Ottawa/Ojibwa traders are in the Red River colony visiting their relatives before trading on the Saskatchewan.

(I)-James Bird aka James Curtis (1773-1856) employed HBC (1788-1824) is in charge of Nepawi House (1794-1795). 

Joseph Cardinal, b-1756 St. Laurent, Quebec, died September 1, 1854, Lac La Biche des Metis (Alberta), 1st married 1794 Rose Cree, N.W.; 2nd married 1798, Lizette Maskegan most likely Lac La Biche des Metis, (Alberta); 3rd marriage to unknown.  Joseph Cardinal may have had two wives at same time, maybe more?  Joseph was in Alberta and British Columbia in the 1790's.

(II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) is at Gardepui's crossing near Duck Lake, Alberta. 

(II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) is the chief factor of the Upper Bow Fort for the North West Company on the south fork of the Saskatchewan River.  The Hudson Bay Company had a fort nearby called the South Branch House.

(III)-James Finley (1794-1853/54), Metis, was born the Fort of the Upper Bow, Saskatchewan River, Alberta son (II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) and Indian woman.  (III)-James married May 7, 1844 Porte d'Enfer (Hell Gate) Montana a Susanna Matilda.

(I)-Duncan McGillivray (1770-1808) reported three Iroquois traders are on the Saskatchewan near Prince Albert. 

(I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832) built Fort Agustus on the Saskatchewan river up stream from Fort George.

In 1794-1795, it has been reported that approximately 1,000 people had passed through Fort George, on the North Saskatchewan River (Alberta) this included the people in charge, their Metis families, the employees, other traders, the buffalo hunters, and the Indians.  Their trading area for the two posts extended from the Rocky Mountains, south to the Montana border, and north into present day Peace River country.

June:  About 150 Indians, likely Gros Ventres or Dakota Sioux attacked the H.B.C. South Branch House killing 8-9 men.  Those killed included Magnus Annel, Hugh Brough, William Fea, a woman and two Metis children.  Two women  were carried off presumably as slaves.  The NWC post was 200 yards away with (II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828), in charge of three men and several women and children.  The Cree Beau Parlez was in the NWC fort.   John McDonald of Garth said Finlay,  Cree Beau Parlez and another man killed or wounded 14 Indians and escaped into the night having saved one H.B.C. Man named Vandereil.  They escaped down river to Chesterfield House at the Red Deer River.   The Indians pillaged and burned the HBC South Branch House.

June 24:  Peter Findler says South Branch House was plundered and burned but the NWC House nearby escaped.

July 26: (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) H.B.C. spent the winter at Reed Lake House (Grass River Provincial Park, Manitoba) with Malcom Ross.  In 1795 they returned to York Factory.

 1795

Betsy Ballindine is born in Cumberland House, daughter John Ballindine and Jani Indian, She would marry in1812, William Rowand.

(I)-James Bird Sr.(aka James Curtis) (1773-1856) is the son of James Bird and Elizabeth Curtis of London.  Bird is in charge of Carlton House (1795-1797) and a trader at Carlton House 1797-1799) He then moved to Edmonton House.

Toussaint Charbonneau Metis b-1758 with NWC is on the Lake of the Woods.

(I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832) and (I)-Duncan McGillivray (1770-1808) of the North West Company built Fort Augustus near the mouth of the Sturgeon River on the Saskatchewan River near present day Fort Saskatchewan, the Hudson Bay later in the same year either (I)-William Tomison or George Sutherland built Edmonton House nearby.

(I)-James Bird Sr.(aka James Curtis) (1773-1856) is the son of James Bird and Elizabeth Curtis of London.  Son employed HBC (1788-1824) and is in charge of Carlton House on the North Saskatchewan River (1795-1799).
    CHILDREN OF James Bird and Elizabeth Curtis
            Elizabeth Bird baptized December 3, 1777
            William Bird
            George Bird baptized June 4, 1779
            Charles James Bird b-1795 employed HBC (1805-1818) maybe son of James Curtis Bird
            Levi Bird baptized April 11, 1782
            Mary Downes baptized January 8, 1784.

    CHILDREN OF 2nd wife Elizabeth [Montour] Metis, or Swampy Indian, born before 1789, married 1792. churched March 30, 1821, Red River, died November 1, 1834, Red River, (she is likely the daughter Nicolas Montour d-1808 of NWC or his son Nicolas Montour Jr. of NWC, born about 1789 who married Susanne Umperville) 
            (II)-George Bird (1793-1855) b-Inland York, married 1825 Red River, Anne Thomas
            (II)-James Bird Jr (aka James John or Jimmy Jock) Metis, (1798/1800-1892) at Sturgeon River, (Alberta), married 1825, Sarah Butts, Piegan, b-1809, 2nd marriage Elizabeth b-1808
            (II)-Joseph Bird (1800-1878) Metis, b-Edmonton House, married El9izabeth (Betsy) Thomas b-1808, epouse Richard story Robins & James Russel.
            (II)-Levi Bird (1801-1864) Metis,  b-Edmonton House
            (II)-Henry Bird Metis, b-1805  b-Edmonton House, married Harriet Calder, son John James?
            (II)-William Bird Metis, b-1805 b-Edmonton House, married Venus Hay b-1801
            (II)-Elizabeth Bird Metis, (1806/1811-1845) b-Edmonton House, married (II)-James Sinclair Metis (1806-1856) son (I)-William Sinclair (1766-1818) and Margaret (Nahoway) Cree Metis or Cree; Jamrs epouse Mary Canpbell b-1826
            (II)-John Bird Metis, (1808-1837) b-Edmonton House
            (II)-Letitia Bird Metis,  (1810-1897)  b-Edmonton House, married Charles McKay, moved to Columbia District (Oregon) 1841
            (II)-Thomas Bird Metis, b-1815  b-Edmonton House moved to Oregon 1854, married April 21, 1836, (II)-Helena (Ellen) McDermot Metis baptized August 12, 1821 Norwat House daughter (I)-Andrew McDermot (1783-1881) and Mary Indian baptized May 6, 1832.
            (II)-Philip Bird Metis,  b-1818 Carlton House (Alberta), moved to Oregon 1854, married Mary Fidler
            (II)-Chloe Bird Metis,  d-1842 Oregon married James Flett
            (II)-Arthur Bird Metis,  b-1822 or 1811? moved to Oregon 1854
            (II)-Nicholas Garry Metis,  b-1824 Red River, moved to Oregon 1841
            (II)-Peter Bird Metis,  b-1826, Red River
            (II)-Mary Bird Metis,  born October 11, 1829 Red River, married McKenzie

    CHILDREN OF 3rd wife Mary Kelly Lowman b-1801, married January 22, 1835, died 1873 Cheshunt Herts
            (II)-Curtis James Bird (1837-1876) b-Red River, married Frances Ross and Annabella Ross
            (II)-Elizabeth (Eliza) Margaret Bird born January 4, 1840 married Mat 14, 1863 Red River, (II)-Charles John Griffin son (I)-Doc George Griffin of Ireland
            (II)-Harriet Isabella Bird born June 6, 1842, Red River, baptized October 23, 1843, died before 1855 

Antoine Cardinal, Metis, b-1795 son Joseph Cardinal, (1756-1854) and Rose Cree; married Marie (Godin) Demontigny Comptois b-1795 daughter Comptois man and Suzette Godin.

Gabriel Dumont, Metis, b-1795 to 1801, Alberta son Jean Baptiste Dumont and Josette a Sarcee Native; married Suzanne Lussieur, Metis, daughter Francois Lussier and Cree or Metisse (Metis).

Marie Godin Demontigny Comptois, b-1795, daughter, a man called Comptois and Suzerre Godin; 1st married 1815 B.C. Peter Hogden; 2nd marriage 1820, Jasper house (Alberta), Antoine Cardinal, Metis, b-1795 son Joseph Cardinal, b-1756, Quebec and Rose Cree.; 3rd marriage 1855, Fort Edmonton (Alberta) Joseph Allard.

Fort Edmonton Area, birth (III)-Thornburn Finlay b-1795 son (II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) and Indian woman.

Fort Edmonton Area, birth (III)-Bonhomme Finlay, Metis,(1795-1821)  son (II)-Old Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) and Indian woman.  He maybe same person as Thornburn or a different mother or the son of brother Xavier??

Duncan M'Gillivray, of the N.W.C., is stationed at Fort George on the North Saskatchewan River.

(I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) HBC reports the Piegan Indians, who live near the source of the Saskatchewan River, made a 1,500 mile journey on foot in a direct line, stole horses and mules from the Spaniards, then rode back.  Thompson was at Reed Lake House (Manitoba) about this time?  see July 26, 1794 above.  This must be confused with a later date or another trader?

Carlton House, which came to be known as Fort Carlton, was established in 1795 near the junction of the North and South Saskatchewan rivers. The original post was abandoned around 1804 and re-established some 150 kms (90 miles) to the southwest, on the South Saskatchewan River in 1810, the post was moved west to its present site on the North Saskatchewan River near Duck Lake..

In the spring, the NWC built Fort Augustus (actually Fort Augustus was built 1792 by Angus Shaw, maybe not at this location?) at the mouth of the Sturgeon River on the north side of the North Saskatchewan River.  This site was called Birch Hills as it was a traditional manufacturing site for canoes.  Later this year the George Sutherland HBC and John Prudens built Fort Edmonton near the NWC Fort Augustus.  The HBC post was at the mouth of the Sturgeon River on the Saskatchewan River.  As a youth we used to walk the fields to collect Indian arrow heads.  Two other independent trading posts settled nearby.  

(I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832) of the North West Company chose the present day site near Fort Saskatchewan location hoping to attract the Cree and Assiniboine.  He assumed the Blackfoot, Piegan, Blood, and Gros Ventre would continue to trade at Fort George.  (I)-Duncan McGillivray (1770-1808), brother of William and Simon of the North West Company, reported John MacDonald of Garth, James Hughes, d-1823 and twenty men built Fort Augustus on the west bank, two miles north of Fort Saskatchewan this summer.  This later would become Fort Edmonton, which means happy helmet.  (I)-William Tomison of South Ronaldsay, Orkney Island, working for the Hudson Bay Company, is away at York Factor and couldn't respond to the move until the fall.  Tomison, the Orkneyman, is the Inland Chief who constructed the original Edmonton House.  The 'XY' Company and Ogilvie Company also built Forts in the Fort Saskatchewan area.  The Indians abandoned Fort George for the closer Fort Augustus.  Twenty miles east of Edmonton was a place called Beaver Hills and it was loaded with beavers.

A band of Ottawa/Ojibwa traders are reported near Fort Augustus.  These likely represent some Metis free traders who are known to travel with the people.

May:   Beaubien, a long time free-trader, brought three canoes to the Saskatchewan River,  got 9 packs of furs at Nipawin and 3 at Fort Augustus/Edmonton House, facing opposition from the two large companies as well as from Peter Grant's men at both places.  It is noteworthy that two other independent trading posts where built in this area within a stones throw of the N.W.C. and Hudson Bay trading posts.

August:  A group of Ottawa (likely from among the Lake Superior Ojibwa) traders is reported at Edmonton House at Birch Hills and many more came to Red River Settlement last year with the new Company.

October 5:  William Tomison built Edmonton House near the mouth of the Sturgeon River (Alberta), within a musket shot of the the North West Company's, Fort Augustus.  This location would later be called Fort Saskatchewan.  As a teenage the author used to ride our bikes out to this area to hunt gophers and search for Indian arrow-heads.  Most arrow-heads were traded with friends for other articles of interest.

November 29: Buckingham House (Alberta), death (I)-James Spence (1754-1795) joined HBC (1773-1795), he married Nostisho (Nestichio) Batt, Metis, daughter Isaac Batt and Indian  Four Metis children were recorded, (II)-James Spence, (II)-Andrew Spence, (II)-George Spence and (II)-Margareth (Peggy) Spence.

1796  

Paul Niyawekanis Durand, Metis, b-1796, Rocky Mountain House, aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches, son Paulette Durand and Sosephte (Josephte) a Sarces Indian;  `married 1816, Fort Edmonton, Marie Ahskekahmuahtaht; 2nd marriage 1846 Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan, Kewtchit.

Amable Hogue, Metis (1796-1858) born opposite La Riviere des Prairies, Saskatchewan District, employed HBC (1821-1834) married March 24, 1831 Red River (II)-Margaret Taylor daughter (I)- George Taylor

Duncan Livingstone was sent to build a fort eight miles from the source of the Mackenzie River (near Fort Providence).

The Lethargic Hudson Bay Company moved next to Fort Saskatchewan this year having been previously located one hundred and twenty five miles down river and called their post Edmonton House.  Some believe Edmonton was named by Tomison in honor of Edmonton Estates, ancestral home of the Deputy Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, James Winter Lake.  George Sutherland of Wick, Caltness, Orkney became Inland Chief at Edmonton House.  Lodgepole, of the Northwest Company, built Boggy Hill and Hudson Bay built Pembina House at Wabamum Creek mouth.  The North West Company built Whitemud and Hudson Bay built Nelson House.

(II)-Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) was chief factor Fort des Prairies at Edmonton, (Alberta).  He was the highest paid man of the Northwest Company.  Some suggest this was the reason that (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) of the H.B.C. took a dislike towards him.  At this time Finlay built a number of trading posts east of the Rocky Mountains.  It is believed he discovered Finley Pass a.k.a. Howse Pass and the headwaters of the Columbia River and maybe even the Pacific Ocean over the next 4 years.  He was also in Montana where there is a Jocko River, Jocko Valley and Jacko Mountain Range, named after him.  He is the founder of Spokane House, Columbia District. in 1810 and he died May 20, 1828 Spokane House.

(III)-Emelie Finlay, Metis, (1796-1847) was born Fort des Prairies (Edmonton, Alberta) daughter (II)-Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) and Indian Woman; she married Alberta 1st Pierre Antoine Bercier (1778-1833) and married 2nd April 8, 1839 Cowlitz Prairie, Washington, Simon Plpmondeau (1801-1900).

(I)-John Park (1768/71-1847) with the HBC joined (I)-Malcolm Ross (1754-1799) in a expedition to Athapascow, Athabasca District.

Fort Brule HBC was attacked by the Gros Ventres and burned but when they attacked the NWC fort they were beaten off, these forts were located on the Battle River.

.

1797

(I)-Peter Fidler (1769-1822) at Buckingham House reported the Iroquois traders are coming and going. 

John Finlay of the N.W.C. built Rocky Mountain Fort, later called Hudson Hope Post at Tea Creek where it enters the Peace River 4 miles west of Fort St. John.

Francois Gladu, born December 25, 1763 married about 1797, N.W.T.,  Josephte Cartrand, b-1773.

Louis Lacerte Sr. born December 27, 1782, NWT, son Louis Lacerte dit Vacher, b-1752, Quebec and Francoise Dienne Lacerte; married, February 19, 1927 Drummond Island, Michigan, Josette Marie Martin, Metis, born December 25, 1797, Athabasca District daughter Simon Martin and Lisette a Native.  

Simon Martin, b-1775, married 1797 Athabasca District, Lisette a Native.

Fort La Montee, three miles upstream from Fort Carlton, Alberta is established by the North West Company.

Fort Vermillion, (Alberta), birth, Mary Spencer, Metis, born 1797, Fort Vermillion (Alberta), died 1877, Victoria, (Alberta) located 90 km NE Fort Edmonton, (Alberta) daughter Magnus Spense Sr. and Christiana Cree; married 1820, Red River,  James Whitford, Metis b-1792 son James Peter Whitford, b-1771 and Sarah Native.  

May 8: (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) departed, some say deserted the H.B.C. for the N,W.C.  Thompson wanted to do exploration survey work and H.B.C. was only interested to fur trading.  The N.W.C. charged him with locating all N.W.C. posts to conform with the Jay Treaty which required all N.W.C. forts on American property to be removed.

November 28:  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) of the N.W.C. visited the Mandan Village with 9 men on the Missouri River where they stayed until January 1798.

December 25:  Athabasca District, birth, Marie Josette Martin, Metis, daughter Simon Martin, b-1775, married 1797 Athabasca District, Lisette a Native; married February 19, 1827 Drummond Island, Michigan, Louis Lacerte, born, December 27, 1782 N.W.

1798

(II)-James Bird, aka Jimmy Jock, Metis, born 1798/1800  North Saskatchewan River d-1892 son (I)-James Bird (1773-1856) and Mary Kelly Indian born 1777 North West territories, listed St. Andrews, Red River census 1870.  (II)-James  1st  marriage Sarah Butts Piegan Indian b-1809 North West Territories, 2nd marriage Elizabeth b-1808,.  This could be in error as (I0- James Bird Sr arrived HBC 1788 but had children from 1781, 1783 & 1785 making his birth day closer to 1760 or we are dealing with two James Bird.

                                James Bird Sr. is at Carlton house (1797-1799) and Edmonton House (1799-1803)
                       (so I will leave all the various accounts on my web site and leave it to others to correct this mess)

(II)-James Curtis Bird, Metis born 1773 son (I)-James Bird aka Curtis and Elizabeth married Cumberland House Elizabeth Oo-menahomisk this marriage was 1816?.  It is noteworthy he gave the surname Curtis to his children.  Some suggest this James Bird is same man as (I)-James Bird Sr., a.k.a. James Curtis (1773-1856), who is at Cumberland house this year.   Other records put (II)-James Bird as (1783-1892) and (1800-1892) and (1798-1800)  Other records suggest (II)-James Bird, Metis, b-1798 Sturgeon River, North Saskatchewan River and married Sarah Butts..

Joseph Cardinal, b-1756 St. Laurent, Quebec, died September 1, 1854, Lac La Biche des Metis (Alberta) 1st married 1794 Rose Cree, 2nd married 1798 Lizette Maskegan both most likely Lac La Biche des Metis, (Alberta).  Joseph Cardinal had two wives at same time, maybe more?

Jacques Cardinal, Metis, b-1798, Moose Mountain, Pitt (Saskatchewan), son, Joseph Cardinal (1756-1854), born Quebec and Rose Cree; married, 1814, Lac La Biche, (Alberta), Josephte Tcikak, b-1780.

Louison Gladu, b-1798, N.W.T. son Francois Gladu, born December 25, 1763 married about 1797, N.W.T.,  Josephte Cartrand, b-1773.

James Hughes d-1823 NWC built the New Fort Augustus this year on the site of present Edmonton (Alberta).  The XY Co. also built a post nearby which was a new concern to HBC and NWC.  A man named King working for John Ogilvie operated this fort and Mr King was an old south trader in his prime and pride as the first among bullies.  XY also had a post by Fort George..  

Jean Baptiste La Fleur on the N.W.C. built La Fleur's Post to trade with the Beaver Indians up river from N.W.C. Fort Vermilion.  Native people powdered the red vermilion stone, mixed it with fish oil, and used it to decorate and dye deerskin cloths and snowshoes.  

(I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) N.W.C. noted a large group of Iroquois Indians engaged in the fur trade, at least half of them Iroquois from Quebec. Part of them went up the Red River and about 250 of them came up the Saskatchewan, in company with the canoes of the Fur traders, to the upper post called Fort Augustus (Edmonton, Alberta) of the North West Company. He didn't start mapping Alberta until March 1799.  He completely mapped the fur trading territories east of the Rocky Mountains.  In 1806 he would commence the surveying of lands, west of the Rocky Mountains.

(I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) of the North West Company, with wife (II)-Charlotte Small, Metis (1784/5-1848/1856) built a fort at Lac La Biche des Metis (Alberta).   He wintered there 1798-1799 .  He didn't marry Charlotte until June 10, 1799 so this was likely during his March 1799 venture.  The fur companies built and abandoned a number of trading posts in this area but the French Canadian Metis built a community, that settled on the shores of Lac La Biche, (known as Portage La Prairie) starting pre 1790.  This location was a traditional and strategic meeting place for the People to connect between the Saskatchewan and Athabasca river systems.  Peter Fidler of H.B.C. built Greenwich House nearby in 1799 but was abandoned in 1801.  When Gabriel Franchère passed through on his journey from the Pacific Ocean in 1814, he met the daughters of one the Metis of the area.  The Metis hunted and trapped on their own accounts and some also engaged in some trade of their own acquiring furs from different First Nations groups for resale to the HBC or NWC.  This is the reason so little is known about this early community.

Lac La Biche (Alberta) is believed to be the site of the first wheat grown  in Alberta

James Hughes, d-1823 of the North West Company built Upper Fort des Prairies aka Fort Augustus on the site of the future Fort Edmonton (Alberta) but wasn't a fort it was more of a trading post.  Only the XY Company fort was considered a Fort the others were just out-posts.

N.W.C. built Grand Marias on Peace River, 50 miles above Peace Point which was abandoned by 1804. 

The North West Territories at this time was more populated than we realize.  The following is a list of North West Company forts and trading posts operating this year:

Athabasca: (Alberta) commanded by (II)-John Finlay, Metis and clerks Simon Fraser, (1776-1862), James MacKenzie, Duncan Livingston, John Stewart, James Porter, John Thompson, James Macdougall, G.F. Wintzel and John Heinbrucks.

Peace River:(Alberta)

Beaver River: (Alberta)

Isle a la Coors:

Lac la Ronge: (Saskatchewan)

Lac du Carriboux:

Fort Augustus: (Alberta) see Upper Fort des Prairies aka Fort Edmonton

New Fort George: built near Edmonton upriver from Old Fort George

Fort Dauphin: (Manitoba) commanded by A.N. McLeod, and clerks Hugh McGillis, Michel Allary, Alexander Farguson, Edward Harrison, Joseph Grenon, Francois Nolin, and Nicholas Montour.

River Qu Appelle: (Saskatchewan)

River La Souris: (Saskatchewan)night

River au Pembina: (Manitoba)

Micabanishi:

Lac le Biche: (Alberta)

Upper English River: (Ontario) commanded by (I)-Angus Shaw (before 1777-1832), and Donald MacTavish and clerks Alexander MacKay, Antoine Tourangeau, Joseph Cartier and Simon Reaume. 

Lower English River:  (Ontario) commanded by Alexander Fraser, and clerks John Macgillivray, Robert Henry, Louis Versailles, Charles Messier, and Pierre Hurteau.

Rat River: (Mackenzie Delta, NWT)

Lower Fort des Prairies: (Saskatchewan River) clerks Pierre Belleau, Baptiste Roy, J.B. Filande and Baptiste Larose.

Upper Fort des Prairies and Rocky Mountains: (Alberta) commanded by Daniel Mackenzie, and commanded by John McDonald, and clerks James Hughes d-1823, Louis Chatellian, James King, Francois Decoigne, Pierre Charette, Pierre Jerome, Baptiste Bruno, (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857), J. Duncan Campbell, Alexander Stewart, Jacques Raphael and Francois Deschamps.

Swan River:

Fort Winipic: (Manitoba) commanded by William MsKay and clerks John Cameron, Donald Macintosh, Benj. Frobisher, Jac Dupont, Joseph Laurent, Gabriel Attina, and Francois Amoit. no problem

Upper Red River: (Manitoba) commanded by John MacDonell and clerks George MacKay, J. Macdonell. Jr., Joseph Auger, Pierre Falcon, Francois Mallette, William Munro and Andre Poitvin.

Lower Red River: (Manitoba) commanded by Charles Chaboillez, and clerks Alexander Henry, J.B. Desmaris, Francois Coleret, Antoine Dejarlet and Louis Giboche

Lac La Pluie: (Ontario) commanded by Peter Grant, and clerks Arch. MacLellan, Charles Latour and Michel Machard.

Nipigon: (Ontario) commanded by Duncan Cameron and clerks Ronald Cameron, Dugald Cameron, Jac. Adhemar, Jean Baptiste Chevalier, Allen MacFarliane, Jean Baptiste Pominville and Fred Shults. 

Pic & L. River: clerks Jean Baptiste Perrault and Augustin Roy.

Francois Roy, L'Anse:

Fond Du Lac: (Wisconsin) commanded by John Sayer and clerks Jean Baptiste Cadotte, Charles Bousquet, Jean Coton, Ignace Chenier, Joseph Reaume, Eustache Roussin and Vincent Roy.

M & M Cadotts:

Michepicotton and the Bay:  clerks Lemaire St-Germain, Baptiste St-Germain and Leon Chnier

Batchewoinan Bay:

Grande Portage: (Ontario) clerks Doctor Munro, Charles Hesse, Zacharie Clouthier, Antoine Colin, Jacques Vandreil, Francois Boileau, and Bruce. 

Sault and Sloop "Otter", clerks John Burns and John Bennet

South of Lake Superior: (USA) partner Michel Cadotte, partner Michel Cadotte, and clerks Simon Charrette, Charles Gauthier and Pierre Bejarge (Baillarge)

Other Companies with posts in the North West are:

1778 Forest Oaks

1778 Charles Chaboillez

1778 Ezekil Solomon

1778 John Askin

1784 John Askin and Thomas Wilkson and Company

1778 Perinault

1796 Todd & McGill

1786 Askin

1810 Michilimackinac Company

1795 John Sayers and Company Fon du Lac.

1798 Forsyth Richardson and Co.

1799 John Askin

The lands north of Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca was called 'The Land of Little Sticks'.

Fort Chipewyan was relocated this year to its present site on the northwest shore of Lake Atabasca.

February 3:  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) visited McDonneil's House at the mouth of the Souris River.

February 28:  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) charted a route between Red & Mississippi Rivers and Grand Portage.  He surveyed the rest of the Assiniboine to the Forks (Red River, Winnepeg).  He then ascended the Red to Red Lake River to Red Lake.  There he reached the house of Jean Baptiste Cadotte on March 24 where he stayed until spring break up.

(I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) wintered at Lac La Biche having come from Red River.  A Metis called Laderoote guided Thompson over the Portage La Biche which was used as access to Lesser Slave Lake and on the way to the Athabasca.  It's most likely Laderoote discovered this route years earlier as a free trader.

1799

Porter's Post aka Lake Claire Post on the west side of Lake Claire (Alberta) is built this year and abandoned about 1800.

(I)-Benjamin Bruce (1771-1823) Ireland, employee HBC (1789-1823) York Factory, assigned to Saskatchewan District (1799-1823).  He had wife and one child in York Factory, (II)-Nancy (Anne) Bruce, Metis (1794-1799) who married 1817,Iie-a Ila-Crosse, (Saskatchewan District), (I)-Patrick Cunningham (1789/94-1831), they were likely with Benjamin on the Saskatchewan assignment. of (1799-1823)

(I)-James Bird aka James Curtis (1773-1856) employed HBC (1788-1824) is in charge of Edmonton House on the North Saskatchewan River (1799-1816).  Some suggest he was in charge of Edmonton House (1804-1816)

(I)-James Bird Sr.(aka James Curtis) (1773-1856) built Action House HBC this year opposite Rocky Mountain House NWC.

Francois Decoigne of the N.W.C. built Slave River Post on the Athabaska River at the mouth of the Slave River (Alberta).

(I)-George Gutcher b-1775 employed HBC (1792-1810) is assigned to Saskatchewan District (1793-1810) in 1799 he was ordered to go from Edmonton House to Beaver River but he refused and was fined.  It appears he was sick.

 (I)-Joseph Howse (Howes) (1774-1852) employee HBC (1795-1815) is posted Carlton House (1799-1801) at the junction of the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers.

(II)-John Richards, Metis son (I)-William Richards, Surgeon,  is at Greenwich House, Lac La Biche built and operated (1799-1823)as interpreter for HBC.  John has been active in trading 1783-1803 with HBC, NWC and as a free trader.

(I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) visited the House at the Forks, at the confluence of the Athabasca and the Clearwater Rivers.  Fort McMurray was built by the H.B.C. on the same site in 1870.

John Thompson who succeeded Duncan Livingstone at a fort eight miles from the source of the Mackenzie River (near Fort Providence).  He was killed by the Esquimaux (Inuit or Eskimo) on the lower reaches of the Mackenzie.  Soon after a post was established on the west end of Great Bear Lake, known as Fort Franklin. 

The North West Company built Upper Fort Terra Blanche at White Mud Creek in Edmonton.  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) of the North West Company re-established Rocky Mountain House (1799-1821), aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches, having been previously established years before by Metis free traders.  Others suggest Thompson didn't arrived Rocky Mountain House until 1800.  Still others suggest (II)-Jacques Raphael (Jacko & Jocko) Finlay, Metis (1768-1828) chief factor Fort des Prairies  (Edmonton, Alberta), had built Fort Rocky Mountain House (1799-1821), aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches, that was used to stage his trips to the Columbia River system.   The Hudson Bay Company built a temporary Action House and by 1819 only the North West Company remained.  Rocky Mountain House, aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches, was located at the confines of the Clearwater River and Saskatchewan River because it had been in longtime use by the free traders.  Most of the supplies came from Fort Benton on the Missouri River, 400 miles south  overland.  Fort Edmonton was only 100 miles down river but the numerous rapids made it impractical.  Round trip to Fort Benton by red river cart took 60 Days.  Some suggest three HBC Houses were built at Rocky Mountain House #1 (1799-1834) #2 (1835-1861) #3 (1865-1875), each connected by a trail but this house moved south to be near Calgary in 1875.  Others suggest HBC Rocky Mountain House was built by John MacDonald of Garth.

Marie Godin Demontigny Comptois, b-1795, daughter of a man named Comptois who 1st, married Josephte Flagnant, Metis, b-1799; 2nd married Suzette Godin (Mother Marie); Marie married 1st. 1815 (British Columbia) Peter Hogden; 2nd married 1820, Jasper House (Alberta) Antoine Cardinal, Metis, b-1795 son Joseph Cardinal, b-1756, Quebec and Rose Cardinal a Cree.

(II)-James Curtis Bird, Metis (1773-1856), son (I)-James Bird aka James Curtis and Elizabeth Curtis, married Cumberland House Elizabeth Oo-menahomisk, is appointed to the Hudson Bay Company Edmonton shack 1799 to 1816.  Curtis Bird would retire to Red River in 1824.  Some suggest he was the one who gave 'Edmonton House' its name.  Bird built Action House for the H.B.C. a short distance from Rocky Mountain House.  It was closed 1807, reopened in 1819 but finally abandoned in 1821 in favor of Rocky Mountain House..

(I)-Peter Fidler (1769-1822) of the HBC is unable to persuade any Indian around Bolsover House at Meadow Lake to guide him to Lac La Biche des Metis (Alberta) because all the Indians in this quarter are frightened of the Bungees (Ojibwa) there.  The Ojibwa are trading medicines from Lake Superior to the Cree and Assiniboine.  However he eventually established Greenwich House near the NWC Lac La Biche des Metis (Alberta) post.

Alexander Mackenzie of the X.Y. Company built Fort De L'Isle (1799-1801) about 20 miles above Fort George and immediately both N.W.T. and H.B.C built built rival posts to squeeze X.Y. out of business.  N.W.C. absorbed X.Y. Company in 1804.

H Duncan McGillivray (1770-1808) is placed in charge of Fort Rocky Mountain (house), aka Poste de la Montagne de Roches (Alberta).  

Fort George of the N.W.C. is located south of (Elk Point, Alberta) and this year William Tomison of H.B.C. built a fort called Buckingham House next door to compete.  They shared a common well and defense.  Buckingham House was abandoned in 1799 and finally permanently closed 1802.

Some attribute the discovery of Grouard's Lake (Lesser Slave Lake (Alberta)) to (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857), but this is a ridicules claim as the Metis were farming this area by 1771 or earlier.  The Lesser Slave Lake Town was formally called Sawridge.  It is noteworthy that there is no evidence the Slavey Indians occupied the area.   The Chipewyan, Beaver and Cree however did occupy the area.  Some claim Laderoute was in Lac La Biche before 1798 and Desjarlais before 1790.

The North West Company built a fort on Lesser Slave Lake.

Upper Fort Vermilion or La-fleur's Post was located 17 miles below the mouth of the Keg River.

North West House was built by the N.W.C. on the North Saskatchewan River, they say eight hours by boat downstream from Rocky Mountain House.

Adjoining posts were built by N.W.C. and H.B.C. on the North Saskatchewan River downstream from Wabamun Creek.  The N.W.C. post was called White Mud House or Terre Blanche Fort and the H.B.C. post was called Nelson House..  Both were likely abandoned about 1801.  

March (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) of N.W.C. began charting northern Alberta, he covered Fort Agustus, Pembina & Athabasca Rivers to Lesser Slave Lake.  He traveled up the Clearwater aka Methy Portage River to present Fort McMurry, then portaged to Methy Lake and back to Lac-lie-a-la-Crosse arriving May 20th..

April:  At Fort Augustus (Edmonton, Alberta) (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857), for the NWC, three men and 5 horses of the North West Company journeyed to Lesser Slave Lake des Metis, a long standing Indian and Metis settlement called Sawridge.  Others suggest there were 11 Ottaways and 5 Bungees who built the fort called Mirror Landing and wintered there.  The Indians and likely Metis build canoes for the expedition and stashed them at 54° 15' 4" N.  They followed the Peace River Trail also called the Slave Lake Trail.  Francois Decoigne was in this expedition to build the fort in May, at the mouth of the Slave River (Smith, Alberta).

June 10:  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) married (II)-Charlotte Small, Metis, b-1785 (age 14), daughter (I)-Patrick Small a free trader and Cree Woman.  Others suggest he married 1798 Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan DistrictIle-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District but this is not likely as he was in Lake Superior and Red River at that time.   It is noteworthy that (I)-Patrick Small had abandoned his family when he returned to England.  Some suggest he had to abandon his wife and two children because the Indians at Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District viewed it unacceptable for Indian women to marry whites.  

June 10: Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District, (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) married (II)-Charlotte Small, Metis (1784/5-1848/1856) daughter of an Irish trader (I)-Patrick Small, Sr and native woman.  He took his wife on most of his trips with such children as had arrived.  William Thomison, while working at Fort Edmonton, got stabbed in the leg and returned to England for three years to recover.

June 10:  (I)-David Thompson (1770-1857) returned to Grande Portage, returning with John McDonald of Garth, to Fort George near present day St Paul, Alberta) where they wintered.

August 23:  Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan District, (I)-William Auld (1770-1830) arrived.

November 12:  Peter Pond (1740-1807) built Greenwich House at Lac La Biche (Alberta).

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ALBERTA HISTORY 1800-1849