Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands (West Unbound)

432 Pages·2011·7.79 MB·English

by  Sarah Carter, Patricia Mccormack

Recollecting
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The West Unbound:
Social and Cultural Studies
Series editors: Alvin Finkel and Sarah Carter
Writing on the western halves of Canada and the United States once focused on the
alienation of the peoples of these regions from residents of the eastern regions. The
mythology of a homogenized West fghting for a place in the sun blunted interest
in the lives of ordinary people and the social struggles that pitted some groups in
the West against others, usually the elite groups that claimed to speak for the whole
region on the national stage. The West Unbound series challenges simplistic defn-
itions of the West and its institutions. It focuses upon the ways in which various
groups of Westerners — women, workers, Aboriginal peoples, farmers, and people
of various ethnic origins, among others — tried to shape the institutions and at-
titudes of the region. This series draws on a variety of disciplines and is intended
for both university audiences and lay audiences with an interest in the American
and Canadian Wests.
Series Titles
Expansive Discourses:
Urban Sprawl in Calgary, 1945–1978
by Max Foran
Icon, Brand, Myth:
The Calgary Stampede
edited by Max Foran
The Importance of Being Monogamous:
Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915
by Sarah Carter
Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance:
Indigenous Communities in Western Canada, 1877–1927
by Keith D. Smith
One Step Over the Line:
Toward a History of Women in North American Wests
edited by Elizabeth Jameson and Sheila McManus
The West and Beyond:
New Perspectives on an Imagined Region
edited by Alvin Finkel, Sarah Carter, and Peter Fortna
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Recollecting
Lives of Aboriginal Women of the
Canadian Northwest and Borderlands
edited by Sar ah Carter
and
Patricia A. McCormack
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© 2011 Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack

Published by AU Press, Athabasca University
1200, 10011 – 109 Street Edmonton, AB t5j 3s8

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Recollecting : lives of Aboriginal women of the Canadian northwest and borderlands /
edited by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack.

(The West unbound, social and cultural studies, issn 1915-8181)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Also available in electronic format (978-1-897425-83-1).
isbn 978-1-897425-82-4

1. Native women — Canada, Western — History.
2. Native women — Canada, Northern — History.
I. Carter, Sarah, 1954–
II. McCormack, Patricia Alice, 1947–
III. Series: West unbound, social and cultural studies

e78.c2r4114 2011 971.004’97 c2010-904523-8

Cover and book design by Natalie Olsen, kisscutdesign.com.
Cover image: Frances Nickawa during her early performance years: Sweet Heart (1924),
Young Family Fonds, 94.094P/1. Courtesy of The United Church Archives, Toronto.
Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printing.

Athabasca University Press gratefully acknowledges support received from the
Royal Alberta Museum, Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, towards publication
of this volume.

This project was funded in part by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, Attribution-
Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada, see www.creativecommons.org.
The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is
given to the original author. Please contact AU Press, Athabasca University at
Contents
List of Illustrations – vii
Acknowledgments – ix
Lifelines: Searching for Aboriginal Women of the Northwest and Borderlands – 5
Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
part one: Transatlantic Connections
(1) Recovered Identities: Four Métis Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rupert’s Land – 29
Susan Berry
(2) Lost Women: Native Wives in Orkney and Lewis – 61
Patricia A. McCormack
(3) Christina Massan’s Beadwork and the Recovery of a Fur Trade Family History – 89
Alison K. Brown, with Christina Massan & Alison Grant
part two: Cultural Mediators
(4) Repositioning the Missionary: Sara Riel, the Grey Nuns, and Aboriginal Women
in Catholic Missions of the Northwest – 115
Lesley Erickson
(5) The “Accomplished” Odille Quintal Morison: Tsimshian Cultural Intermediary
of Metlakatla, British Columbia – 135
Maureen L. Atkinson
(6) Obscured Obstetrics: Indigenous Midwives in Western Canada – 157
Kristin Burnett
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part three: In the Borderlands
(7) Sophie Morigeau: Free Trader, Free Woman – 175
Jean Barman
(8) The Montana Memories of Emma Minesinger: Windows on the Family, Work,
and Boundary Culture of a Borderlands Woman – 197
Sarah Carter
part four: The Spirit World
(9) Searching for Catherine Auger: The Forgotten Wife of the Wîhtikôw (Windigo) – 225
Nathan D. Carlson
(10) Pakwâciskwew: A Reacquaintance with Wilderness Woman – 245
Susan Elaine Gray
part five: Challenging and Crafting Representations
(11) Frances Nickawa: “A Gifted Interpreter of the Poetry of Her Race” – 263
Jennifer S.H. Brown
(12) Blazing Her Own Trail: Anahareo’s Rejection of Euro-Canadian Stereotypes – 287
Kristin L. Gleeson
Notes – 313
List of Contributors – 409
Index – 413
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Illustrations
Map of the North American West – 2
i.1 Lifelines – 14
1.1 Rupert’s Land, 1859, showing the route taken by the Southesk party – 30
1.2 Slipper-style moccasins, made by Mary Monkman Tate – 35
1.3 Gun case, possibly made by Lisette Courteoreille Waniyande – 41
1.4 Fire bag, possibly made by Mary Sinclair Christie – 46
1.5 Mitts, possibly made by Geneviève Savoyard dit Berthelet – 53
2.1 The Orkney Islands – 62
2.2 The Isle of Lewis – 63
2.3 Bella Wood and Susan Wood Johnston, of Harray – 76
2.4 Sandy Annal, of South Ronaldsay – 78
2.5 Thomas Cusitor, of South Ronaldsay – 78
2.6 Roderick Wedger Mackay, of Tolsta – 83
2.7 Mary Ann Maciver (née Morrison), of Borve – 83
2.8 Blackhouse at Arnol, Lewis – 87
3.1 Loom-woven beadwork bands – 91
3.2 Henry C. Moir, c. 1915 – 92
3.3 Ronald Moir, Christina Moir (Massan), and Tom Moir, c. 1918 – 96
3.4 Christina Gibeault (Massan) at York Factory, c. 1925 – 108
5.1 Odille Quintal Morison, Victoria, c. 1880 – 144
5.2 Charles, Odille, Vicky Morison Aldous, and grandsons, Metlakatla, c. 1918 – 155
8.1 The Minesinger family in Alberta, c. 1894, in southern Alberta – 199
8.2 A letter to Emma from her mother, Nellie Minesinger – 207
vii
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recollecting
8.3 Emma and her second husband, Andy Magee, c. 1920s – 207
8.4 Marie Rose (Delorme) Smith with her husband, Charles Smith, and their
daughter Mary Ann, c. 1890s – 213
8.5 A beaded bag made by Emma – 216
8.6 Another example of Emma’s beaded bags – 217
8.7 Buckskin beaded jacket, made by Emma – 218
8.8 A beaded bag for powwows and ceremonies, made by Emma – 218
8.9 Emma Minesinger and a friend on the Flathead Reservation, 1927 – 219
8.10 Emma Minesinger on the Flathead Reservation, 1940s – 220
9.1 Map of the Athabasca District – 227
9.2 Trout Post, c. 1870 – 234
9.3 A woodpile near the Trout Lake wîhtikôw grave – 240
9.4 Marie and Édouard Beauchamp – 243
11.1 Frances Nickawa, age four – 265
11.2 Frances Nickawa, early performance years – 268
11.3 Nickawa with husband Arthur Mark and Hannah (“Auntie”) Riley – 278
12.1 Anahareo, Camp Wabikon, c. 1925 – 288
12.2 Anahareo, c. 1927 – 292
12.3 Anahareo, c. 1935 – 303
viii
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Acknowledgments
The editors thank all of the authors of the articles in this book for their
patience with and enthusiasm for this project. We are grateful for the com-
ments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript.
Thanks to everyone at Athabasca University Press, including Walter Hilde-
brandt, Pamela Holway, Kathy Killoh, Tiffany Regaudie, Natalie Olsen, and
Renata Jass, and to indexer Adrian Mather. We are particularly grateful to
the Royal Alberta Museum, for providing the funding that permitted us
to include colour plates in the book.
ix
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