Text 8173, 91 rader
Skriven 2011-03-09 22:35:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ELEANOR CREIGHTON
Ärende: the Beaulieu saga
=========================
Francois Beaulieu (Beaulieu the Elder) was a French-Cree Metis
originally from Quebec. He was an independent trader who brought his
furs to Red River (Winnipeg) back when it was just Fort Rouge, from
as far north as Kugluktuk (Coppermine) in Nunavut and as far west as
Tsiigehtchic (Arctic Red River) in the NWT near the Yukon border.

When the Dene guide Matonabee took Samuel Hearne up the Coppermine
River to the Arctic Ocean in 1770 he was helped by a map drawn by
Beaulieu who had been there already. Matonabee paid Beaulieu $20 in
gold for that map. Hearne of course got all the credit in the
history books, not Matonabee or Beaulieu.

In 1779 he also went up the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean with
Alexander Mackenzie. It was a great hardship for Mackenzie and his
men but Beaulieu had been doing it routinely all his life.

In 1792 he accompanied him again into new country, going up the
Peace River, then the upper reaches of the Fraser River, followed an
established Native trading route by ascending the West Road River,
crossing over the Coast Mountains, and descending the Bella Coola
River to the Pacific.

In 1820 he met Arctic explorer, John Franklin, and provided him with
valuable information regarding his base camp on the Dease Arm of Great
Bear Lake for his planned exploration to the mouth of the Coppermine
River.

It took two years to get from Tsiigehtchic to Winnipeg by canoe and
portage. He always overwintered at Salt River near present day Fort
Smith where he had a wife, one of many.

His son Francois II (Beaulieu the Younger) AKA "Old Man Beaulieu"
was born on the shores of Great Slave Lake near present day Fort
Smith. His mother was Chipewyan. The cabin still exists. He took
eight wives from seven tribes along the route from Winnipeg to Great
Slave Lake to Inuvik and set up a large trading network with his
various sons.

He was multi-lingual and a diplomat who settled several tribal wars.
Being married to all those wives helped him in those endeavors as
it gave him kinship. He was also a shrewd businessman who worked
with both the British Hudson Bay Company and the French Northwest
Company while staying independent. He was also a great hunter, a
warrior, a stone cold killer and for a while chief of the
Yellowknives even though he wasn't a Yellowknives himself.

(The Akaitcho connection: Akait Cho means "Big foot" as he was a
traveller. He was a Yellowknives Chippewyan. Ran a trading post at
Old Fort Rae starting in 1790 and prospered. His older brother
travelled with Matonabee and a sister was one of Beaulieu the
Younger's wives. He rescued Franklin on his disastrous second trip
and refused to go on the third and fatal one in 1845.)
                   
Later in life Beaulieu converted to Christianity and divorced seven
of his wives. But all his sons continued to work together in the
family business. He died in 1872 at the age of 101 years at his
cabin at Salt Lake.

One of those sons: Joseph "King" Beaulieu (1836-1916). His mother
was Catherine St. Germain. He married Marie Anne Flamand. He is also
an ancestor of my BIL Matthew King.

After the death of his father "Old Man" Beaulieu, who had
established the Salt River post, King Beaulieu built a new post
south-east of Salt River along the Slave River which was the
beginnings of the town of Fort Smith.

Around 1880 he was sent to Fond du Lac (Eastern Arm of Great Slave
Lake) to open a trading post that was known as "King Post." This
later became the community of Snowdrift, now called Lutselk'e. Years
later Joseph King Beaulieu went to Fort Vermilion, Alberta to
establish another trading post and he died there in 1916.

The Beaulieus, Matonabee and Akaitcho were all larger than life
heroes, multitalented, multilingual, multicultural, successful
politicians and diplomats, astute businessmen and epic travellers.
They were also all extremely polygamous and ancestors to tens of
thousands of Canadians today from Winnipeg to British Columbia to
the high arctic.


Cheers

YK Jim


... In A Small Town the ZIP code is a fraction.

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