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Page 3
Walter Traill's journal continues..
"Other courses consisted of gollet made from two sacks of Red Dog flour, also especially imported, tea from two huge kettles, sugar and tobacco, all served out-of-doors and apparently much appreciated ... When the braves were enjoying their after-dinner smokes and were in an unusually happy frame of mind I proceeded to unfold for their benefit the improvements of my revised tariff. . . (13)
"Next comes the foraging for local sources of food to relive the present demands being made on our store of pemmican. To this I am now devoting most of my time and have discovered a mountain lake teeming with jackfish. An Indian fisherman has been engaged who is taking so many that we shall have a winter's supply of fish for the train dogs. Previously they have been fed with pemmican hauled all the way from Fort Ellice. There is now an abundance of ducks and geese in this neighbourhood and these I am preserving in quantity for the men and myself by the simple process of freezing.
"Since writing the above, I have been south on an elk hunt.
"The Indians, I fear, are continuing in accordance with their reputation to be a bad lot. . . The Indians here are perfect devils . . . the worse in the District.
"It is now well into January and we are having a beautiful winter. I have just received word from a party of Indians outfitted by us that they want someone to come from here to get their furs and to bring more goods to trade. Their camp is a day's journey to the east of us, which means taking food for two days for men and dogs ... Four days later we are back again at Riding Mountain House. When we reached the point where the Indians are camped it was to find that they had moved on towards Lake Dauphin. Next morning we followed their trail which was due north but not overtaking them before nightfall we made camp again. The following morning we discovered that all our dogs were missing and on following their trail to the crest of the hill near which we had camped we saw the Indian camp just beneath us.
"As we were approaching it, there came to meet us several of our own dogs packing what we thought was the leg of a moose. At their heels followed a little Indian boy who looked at us inquiringly, and by way of conversation, I asked him if someone had killed a moose. He explained in a matter-of-fact manner with the aid of the interpreter that it was his grandmother's leg, pointing to a raised platform at some distance . . .
"The trade I have made here is a good one, the receipts of fur for the winter being more than three times those of last year, which has established Riding Mountain House as one of the most important posts in the Swan River District and has resulted in my being instructed to build a permanent post. . .
"We have traded between 3 and four thousand pounds of pemmican at two shilling per pound, and can put all the fur on one dog sled, but mink, martens and fishers are nearly worth their weight in gold. Can you imagine putting seven hundred martens in a pack two feet square? Each of these skins is worth 30 to 40 shillings so that a boat of cargo is a very valuable thing.
"I have harvested more [skunk skins] than this outpost has received for many a year. The pelts are not the only source of value that the Indians derive from these furbearers, for they esteem the meat a great delicacy to be preferred above all other. . ."
"We have managed to plough three acres and sow them with barley and wheat seed in order that we may raise our own grain for our saddle horses. . .
"Back at Riding Mountain House [in the fall of 1868] it is to find that a freetrader has taken advantage of my absence to establish himself quite close to my Post. . . Always in this locality the Indians have caused us much trouble, and now they will be more independent and unmanageable than ever. But after they have been trading with freemen for two years, or at the longest four, they come back to the Company and are the truest Indians we have. Then they see that they are fools to think that the freemen pay them more for their fur because at times they give more for some skins. But they sell only liquor on which they make an exorbitant profit...
"The Indians have learned that my neighbour . . . pays them far less than I do for their mink. He gives half a pint of alcohol for a mink while I give a large Hudson's Bay Blanket for two mink. The price of one pint of alcohol is one shilling in Red River while a blanket costs eleven shillings in London . . ." (14)
Traill sent a requisition to York Factory for merchandise and tools for the new post:
3 large stock locks, 2 double padlocks, 1 doz shawls, 1 silk handkerchief, 7 men's black felt hats, fancy cut steel buttons, 1 doz sampler belts, 1 doz hunting knives, 20 yards gold ribbon, 1/2 doz nipple feeders, 12 fancy regent shirts, 5 pieces Canadian cloth, 1 carpenters bench wooden screw, 1 blacksmith's plate, 1 chain, 1 doz cowbells. (15)
Footnotes
13 Traill believed he had fooled the Okanase people by showing how he had greatly reduced prices on items which were popular in other areas of Canada but not used in the North West, and offering greatly increased prices for furs and skins from animals which were not known in the Riding Mountain area. The prices for the ordinary buy-and-sell were left the same. (back)
14 For further research: HBCA B.337/z/1. Riding Mountain, Miscellaneous Items, 1869. Requisition on York Factory for Sundry articles wanted at Fort Ellice for use and trade at Riding Mountain House Outfit 1869. (back)
15 1869 Additional Requisition on York Factory for Sundry Articles wanted at Fort Ellice for Use & Trade at Riding Mountain Hose Outfit 1869, signed Fort Ellice 20 May 1869, William McKay. Walter J.S. Traill. The entry for cowbells could lead to a variety of conclusions: Okanase was raising cattle at that early date, or possibly they were used for horses? (back)
