Uncovering Manitoba's Historical Aboriginal Women

In the shadows of Manitoba history lives Aboriginal Women's voice and story

To uncover the voice and story of Manitoba's Aboriginal Women is to acknowledge some of the most extraordinary history of the province. Recovery of such history is indeed complex and complicated because historically Aboriginal women lived solely in an oral culture through which time has silenced nearly all their voices.

However, it is still possible to capture fragments of identity, voice and story from 18th and 19th century Aboriginal women who lived in the northern landscapes of Manitoba. Bits of detail linger among the written word of European fur traders who sailed to North American in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company in search of furs and fortune.

Although the written passages are brief, intermittent interpretations, influenced by both emotion and prejudice, the pieces are valuable resources to reconstruct a partial view into the lifeways and kinships of early Aboriginal women, and to learn and understand their often unknown and unacknowledged contributions toward the development of Manitoba. Women were not passive observers of life but instruments of change within their families, their communities, and themselves.

I began working in this important area of research several years ago after I discovered my direct connection to many women from that era and region. Born to generations of Cree grandmothers and Orkney grandfathers, all of who resided throughout the northern territories of Manitoba from the early 18th century, I felt empowered to seek after their stories and put them to paper to preserve them for generations who will follow.

Our Native American grandmothers were skillful, independent, stylish women, wise in their knowledge and courageous in their actions. They were proficient manufacturers who made and carried their own tools and utensils. They were butchers ~ cutting and slicing animal carcasses and cooking the meat for their families. As the family's primary tanner, women meticulously scraped animal hides, a task that gave them exceptionally strong wrists and arms.

They were amazing sewers, expertly transforming animal hide into clothing that they decorated with exquisite design using organic seeds, porcupine quills, animal bones, and glass beads. They were women of superior fashion, wearing comfortable, practical clothing yet striking in appearance. They were caregivers who worked hard to provide for their families and were respected members of their community. Some women were literate in the sense that they had access and the ability to use graphite rocks for rock painting. They were the first teachers to their children and keepers of the old stories ~ stories they shared with younger generations.

Women were specialists in medicine, knowing which roots and herbs to use for specific ailments. They gathered various plants, grasses and barks for ceremonial purposes and took leadership roles in ceremonies. They taught the rites of passage to young girls, prepared them for marriage (often deciding who their daughters would marry), guided expectant mothers along the prenatal journey, and chose names for newborn babies.

Women of long ago carried heavy loads of responsibility, performed countless everyday jobs and household tasks, and assumed many different roles. They were: interpreters, navigators, steerswomen, pilots, hunters, trappers, butchers, cooks, tanners, gatherers, traders, builders, seamstresses, artists, midwives, medicine women (including doctoring and nursing), and mapmakers. Within the community they held the positions of daughter, sister, cousin, aunt, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend.

Many Aboriginal women ensured the success of European men in the business of trading furs. Women translated between European men and the Cree people, guided men through treacherous waterways and mosquito-infested bush, and produced warm clothing, footwear, and snowshoes for their winter travels. Eighteenth century northern Aboriginal women were the invisible foundation of the legendary Hudson's Bay Company.

In my search to uncover the lives of historical Aboriginal women I discovered the identities of several of my own foremothers. One of them stands above the rest in visibility. Her name is Nahoway. Born to the shores of Hudson Bay (Churchill River) around 1775, Nahoway was the daughter of an unidentified Cree mother and European father. Her early years were spent at or near Prince of Wales Fort, a massive stone fortress owned by the Hudson's Bay Company.

In 1782 when Nahoway was only a little girl three French warships arrived in Hudson Bay filled with armed military troops ~ a result of the America Revolution. The troops seized the great stone fortress, destroyed the fort with cannons, and forced the HBC men on board the ships as prisoners of war at which time they sailed to Europe.

Terror filled Nahoway and her family as they watched the madness unfold from the sideline. With little food to eat and no place to trade their winter furs, Nahoway and her kin walked to York Factory, another HBC post situated between the Hayes and Nelson River, about 150 miles away.

It was a walk to death for some, about 17 people perished. Nahoway survived but suffered from exhaustion, starvation, and sorrow. Oral family story says she was unable to speak above a whisper and was therefore given the name Nahoway, which in Cree means distant voice or barely hear from a distant.

I spent the past eight years in search of Nahoway using historical records and oral family traditions. Fragments of her life came forward and were rejoined in a biography about her, which I have entitled Nahoway, A Distant Voice, (currently in press). Nahoway's story helps to show it is possible to go back in time and pull out something extraordinary.

- Donna G. Sutherland

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