Guiding Page 1 | 2
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There was another line of business in which the Métis had made a large
contribution, and that was in the field of guiding which began to open
up in the mid-nineteenth century. These expeditions were the result of
the Victorian zeal for exploring and the need to finish the work of
explorers from the Elizabethan Period. The Sir John Franklin Expedition that set
out to map out the North-West Passage from Europe to Asia was assisted
and augmented by fur trade brigades and guides. Another major expedition
by traders was that of Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson (1836–39)
to explore the coast of the Arctic Ocean in Canada and Alaska from the
mouth of the Mackenzie River to Point Barrow. The many trips to the
North to search for the missing Franklin1 and his team kept the Canadian
North in the public awareness and popular interest.
Franklin’s expeditions were significant for many reasons, including
their scope and sophistication. However, most interesting was the fact
that on the final expedition Franklin and his team went missing. When
their remains were found it appeared that they had resorted to
cannibalism to survive. By following Franklin’s published
accounts,2
it is possible see how he prepared for his disastrous first
expedition (1819) to the Arctic. He first hired Orkney boatmen, but by
Fort Providence in August 1820 he recorded that they had hired another
voyageur and that their expedition included three women and three
children. A list of the expedition members in a footnote revealed that
they had seventeen voyageurs and two interpreters, one of whom, Pierre
St. Germain, was a "Chipewyan Bois Brule" or Métis.3
Franklin ran the expedition under strict hierarchical rules and any Métis and Aboriginals
would have had fairly low status even if their role was significant.
Before the end of the first expedition, nine of Franklin’s men had died
and one was executed. Franklin was greeted as a hero on his return to
England. For more on what really happened during that expedition, George
Back’s journal has more detail on the lives of the crew.4
Franklin’s second expedition, in 1825 – 1827 with Richardson, was
more successful; he had learned from his first expedition. He made sure
there was plenty of food and had small sturdy boats made up for travel
in the extreme conditions of the Arctic. He also evidently decided to
depend more on English sailors than voyageurs. This was recorded by
Franklin while wintering at Fort Franklin on Great Bear Lake:
The number of persons belonging to the establishment amounted
to fifty: consisting of five officers, including Mr. Dease; nineteen
British seamen, marines and voyageurs; nine Canadians; two Esquimaux,
Beaulieu and four Chipewyan hunters; three women, six children and
one Indian lad; besides a few infirm Indians, who required temporary
support.5
The interpreter, Beaulieu, helped manage the hunters, making sure
that the expedition was not dependent solely on pemmican. He stored
dried reindeer meat and fat, and prepared for sustenance on fish, as did
people in the northern forts. The group split up in the spring, at the mouth of
the McKenzie. Franklin and his group explored the Arctic coast west,
while the group under Dr. John Richardson explored east to the
Coppermine River. Both groups made it back to Great Bear Lake without
fatalities.
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