MANITOBA CANADA: FIRST NATIONS CREE AND THE YORK FACTORY

 

From the internet

Many of you may be familiar with the Canadian retail group known as The Hudson’s Bay Company.  Its subsidiaries include the retail department stores Hudson’s Bay, Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue.  For much of its existence, however HBC was known as a fur trading operation from the 17th to 19th Centuries.  How did it get there?  English merchants were granted a fur trading monopoly on a vast track of land surrounding Hudson Bay.  This land was named “Rupert’s Land” after Prince Rupert who was the cousin of King Charles II of England (in a later post I will explore in more detail not only this theft, but also the continuing travails of the indigenous people who inhabited Canada long before the Europeans laid claim).

While HBC organized fur auctions, ordered trade goods and arranged for shipping of goods, the First Nations Cree in the area were the expert trappers, so they became middleman, trapping and also collecting furs from other communities and bringing them to the forts built on Hudson Bay to trade them for rifles, ammunition, pots, cloth, axes, knives and even glass beads.  These First Nations people where originally called Swampy Cree as they inhabited the swampy regions of Manitoba.  Eventually they also became known as the York Factory First Nation.

From the internet – C.W. Jeffreys was a late 19th Century Canadian artist

The Cree established seasonal communities around the factory and developed a more permanent village settlement at York Factory itself.  Initially the Cree worked as trappers, traders, wage laborers and consumers, but HBC eventually restricted the Cree to only working at the most menial of manual labor.

The York Factory  became a victim of the advent of the railways,  its goods shipping declined, and the site was finally closed in 1957.  The closing forced  the Cree to leave their homes and relocate to a much less desirable area known as York Landing,

Cree Elders who were present during the relocation still remember today how they were forced to leave their homes and go to less desirable land.  The old York Factory site is now operated by Parks Canada.

Much of my research on the York Factory was gleaned from the book “Voices from Hudson Bay:  Cree Stories from York Factory” which was compiled and edited by Flora Beardy and Robert  Coutts.  Flora Beardy is a respected elder of the York Factory First Nation people and Robert Coutts worked as a historian with Parks Canada for over 30 years.  I discovered this amazing collection of interviews of the York Factory Fist Nation people through a lecture given by Antonina Kandiurin, a bright young woman whose family member were among the Cree workers at York Factory.

Now that I have set the stage with the history of the York Factory, my next post will offer a sampling of the fascinating remembrances of the Cree who worked and lived at the York Factory compound.

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4 thoughts on “MANITOBA CANADA: FIRST NATIONS CREE AND THE YORK FACTORY

  1. Very interesting. You don’t have to leave North America to find huge gaps in our knowledge. Travel sure shows how much we have to learn. Thanks.

    • Thanks Wes – I have often said one of my pleasures in travel is that I am a constant student – I love discovering and learning and there is never a lack of subjects! I know you have been enjoying your journeys as well! Best Regards- Cindy

  2. Hi Cindy, me and my husband looking for information about a Cree woman called Sally Wapsik.
    My husband’s great great great grandfather, Donald Sutherland, was working for the Hudson Bay Company from 1795 – 1824 when he met the mother of his four children. He was stationed in Albany, York Factory, Red Deers River, Pidgeon River and Berens River. From 1823 to 1824 he resided in Norway House.
    As far as we know her name was Sally Wapsik or Wapsuk. They had 4 children all born in Manitoba. The last child was born in 1820 at Berens River Division No 19. As far as we know, Sally passed away in 1878 aged 88.( I think there is something wrong with the date)
    I hope you can help with finding more information about Salle and planning my visit to Manitoba. I know it is a long long time ago but maybe you have some records about the Cree people from this time in the 1800th.
    Do you actually live I Manitoba?
    Can’t wait hearing from you
    Inge

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