CHIPEWYAN MATONABBEE AND SAMUEL HEARNE’S 3rd EXPEDITION RETURN FROM COPPERRMINE RIVER
Born circa 1737, Matonabbee, a noted Chipewyan caribou hunter who lived around the Prince of Wales Fort (near current Churchill, Manitoba) served as an important intermediary in the fur trade between the Hudson’s Bay Company and other Dene tribes farther west. In the 1750s he was an ambassador among the Cree leading Samuel Hearne to the Coppermine River. Hearne became famous on his 3rd expedition for his overland journey to the Arctic Ocean (1770-72), but it was Matonabbee who made the trip possible with his leadership and knowledge of the Indigenous way of travel and living off the land. At the same time, he and his followers were responsible on this trek for the Bloody Falls Massacre of a group of unsuspecting Copper Inuit, also called “Esquimaux,” in July of 1771. Bound to the fortunes of the fur trade, Matonabbee committed suicide when the French destroyed the fort in 1782.
Sources:
David Lee, “Matonabbee,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2/7/2006, updated 12/16/2013. Retrieved 3/29/2023, Matonabbee | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Beryl C. Gillespie, “Biography – MATONABBEE – Volume IV (1771-1800),” Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved 3/23/2023, Biography – MATONABBEE – Volume IV (1771-1800) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography (biographi.ca)
Wikipedia
Painting: Arthur H. Hider, 1922. Fort Prince of Wales, 1734, the Hudson’s Bay Company 1922 calendar.
Fair Use. Source: Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Calendar Art Series P-386. Strother Roberts, Manitoba History: The Life and Death of Matonabbee: Fur Trade and Leadership Among the Chipewyan, 1736-1782 (mhs.mb.ca) 6/2007.
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