OCTOBER 11, 1754

BLACKFOOT ENCOUNTER FIRST EUROPEAN IN ALBERTA

Anthony Henday, working for the Hudson’s Bay Company at York Fort, Manitoba, undertook a mission to encourage distant tribes to come and trade. Setting out with Cree guides in June 1754 via the Hayes River and along the Battle River Valley, by autumn, they made it southeast of present-day Red Deer, Alberta. Travelling in what Henday called “Muscuty plains,” they came across a man named “Attickasish” with two “Archithinue” (Blackfoot) who had never seen Europeans. His Cree guides were wary of them. On October 14, a Blackfoot man approached and asked if they were friend or foe. That evening Henday and his guide met & smoked with the Blackfoot leader who opposed sending some of the tribal members back to York Factory saying that his people could not paddle and that the York Factory was too far away. The leader also knew that his people would be travelling uninvited into Cree territory. However, in 1759, Henday went west again for a year, returning this time with Blackfoot members.

Sources:  
“Anthony Henday,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 6/23/2008.  Retrieved 3/31/2022, Anthony Henday | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
Map:  Alexrk2, August 2010. Permissive Use.