Literature continued

Heather Conn, “Thanadelthur,” Canadian Encyclopedia, January 15, 2018, James Knight quote under “Death,” reproduced, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/thanadelthur

Mark Collin Reid, “An Epic Tale,” Canada’s History, April – May 2020, reproduced page 24

This work by Franklin Arbuckle is an important example from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s calendar paintings, in that it is one of a vanishingly few images that featured women, and the only one to depict a woman in a position of power. Women were essential contributors to the functioning and maintenance of the fur trade, through their labour and survival skills (trapping, fishing, cultivating, sewing) as well as the ways in which they opened up new social, familial and economic relations between Indigenous and European communities through marriages and kinship bonds.

Here, the central figure is Thanadelthur, a young Dënesuline (Chipewyan) woman who was a skilled interpreter and negotiator. In 1715, she led the HBC trader William Stuart—seen here on the left—along with a small contingent of Cree, the traditional enemies of the Dënesuline, from York Factory into Dënesuline territory, with the goal of ending the skirmishes between the two people and opening new trading partnerships with the HBC. Thanadelthur is depicted in the midst of discussions between the rifle-armed Cree and the skeptical Dënesuline with whom she had made contact. The negotiations were ultimately successful: on the back of the peace accords, the HBC would go on to establish a trading post at what is now Churchill, Manitoba.

Thanadelthur was a vital figure in shaping the development of what would become Western Canada, and her contributions were recognized even by her contemporaries. At her untimely death from illness just two years later, on the eve of another expedition, HBC Governor James Knight proclaimed, “She was one of a very high Spirit and of the Firmest Resolution that ever I see in any Body in my Days and of great Courage.”

For more information on the Hudson's Bay Company Calendar Paintings in PDF format, please click here.