The Chipewyan played an important role in the nonIndian exploration of western Canada. Fur-trading companies had early contacts with them. The Hudson’s Bay Company founded the trading posts of York Factory in 1682 and Churchill in 1717 on Hudson Bay, establishing a trade relationship with the tribe. Samuel Hearne, who explored the Churchill, Coppermine, and Slave Rivers all the way to the Arctic Ocean for the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1768 to 1776, had a Chipewyan guide named Matonabbee. Alexander Mackenzie, an explorer for the North West Company and the first nonIndian to cross the entire North American continent, from 1789 to 1793, also had the help of Chipewyan guides. His base of activity was Fort Chipewyan, founded on Lake Athabasca, in the heart of the tribe’s territory, in 1788.
The arrival of the fur traders and the establishment of trading posts in their territory changed the life of the Chipewyan. For one thing, French traders armed the neighboring Cree with guns. The Cree, who had been longtime enemies of the Chipewyan, were then able to take over some Chipewyan land. The traders also carried disease to the Chipewyan. A smallpox epidemic ravaged most of their bands in 1781, killing more than half their people.
The first missionary to the Chipewyan was the Catholic priest Henri Faraud in 1858 at Fort Resolution. He translated an abridged version of the New Testament into the Chipewyan dialect.
World History
