Liquor was largely used by both companies in trade, and
scenes of riot and violence ensued upon the arrival of the Indians
at the fort in spring, and whom he describes otherwise as "reserved
and selfish, unhospitable and beggars, but honest and affectionate
to children." They painted round the eyes, the cheek-bones and the
forehead, and all the race, except the Dog Ribs and the Beavers,
believed that their forefathers came from the East. The Northern
Indians, Franklin says, suppose that they originally sprang from
a dog, and about A.D. 1815 they destroyed all their dogs, and
compelled their women to take their place. Their chiefs seemed to
have no power save over their own families, and their conjurers
were supported by voluntary contributions of provisions. These
are some of the chief characteristics Franklin notes of the Indians
who frequented Fort Chipewyan, at which point he spent several
months. One extraordinary circumstance, however, remains to be
mentioned. It is that of a young Chipewyan who lost his wife in
her first pregnancy. He applied the child to his left breast,
from which a flow of milk took place. "The breast," he adds,
"became of an unusual size." Here he and Back, afterwards Admiral
Back, were joined by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, who had come
from Cumberland House by the difficult Churchill River route,
and on July 18th, at noon, the whole party left the fort on
their tragic expedition, the party, aside from those named,
consisting of John Hepburn, seaman, an interpreter and fifteen
voyageurs, including, unfortunately, an Iroquois Indian, called
Michel Teroahante.
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