Paul Kane’s Journal
This is the second section of artist Paul Kane’s journal, written as he makes his way toward the Rocky Mountains and the Columbia District in 1846. He is travelling with…
Read moreWicked River
The Rivière Maligne, otherwise known as the Wicked River, earned its ferocious nick-name over the years. The Maligne was, of course, the Sturgeon-Weir River that led the early free-traders, the…
Read morePaul Kane
I have not paid enough attention to Paul Kane, and I am beginning to regret that fact. He is a very useful guy when it comes to west-of-the-Rockies history, and…
Read moreJohn Whalika
Who was John Whalika? He was one of my great-great-grandfather’s First Nations slaves — a Haida man who James Birnie rescued from the Indian slave trade that flourished up and…
Read moreMeasles and Dysentery
I wrote about the 1847-1848 measles epidemic in my first book, The Pathfinder, in which I said: Measles began to sicken a few Dakelh around the fort [Fort Alexandria, Fraser…
Read more