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In 1892 two missionaries, an Anglican and a Catholic (an Oblate of Mary Immaculate) started a battle
for the allegiance of the Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta, and when two years later the Oblate lost, it set
a trend for the tribe¶s subsequent religious course. The strife is worth a look in terms both of local
history and of evangelization elsewhere. To what extent, for example, did a cleric¶s personality
equanimity and patience versus aggression and boastfulness²play a role in shifting ³heathen´
peoples to the Christian side or, to be more exact, to his denomination when he competed against the
representative of another church?

Other questions of interest to general mission history also present themselves. Did the faith and conduct
of non-mission whites (Hudson¶s Bay employees and American whalers in this case) influence how
an unconverted tribe responded to clerical overtures? Was the nearby presence of another
Christianized tribe nearby (the Gwich¶in branch of the Dene) of importance? How much did prior
exposure to clerics (McDonald, Bompas, and Canham on the Protestant side; Grollier, Séguin and
Petitot on the Catholic) or the memory of unpleasant details about them, effect decisions?

Why did tribes so often act in unison and seemingly of a sudden when new religious ideas were about?
What was the part of chiefs (whose influence, in the case of the Inuit, has often been downplayed in
non-mission literature) ? Was it crucial to missionize from above by gaining the friendship of leaders
(Toweachiuk for the Catholics, Kokhlik and Takochikina for the Anglicans), or would time spent
with lower strata of the tribe have brought equal results?

Though religious belief itself is beyond understanding, worldly issues affecting missions are fair game
for study. In the case of the Mackenzie Inuit in 1892, one might look at the reason for that particular
timing, the vagaries of mission funding (the Church Mission Society in London had begun to demand
that the Anglican Church in Canada fund its own evangelization); the shortage of mission recruits in
Europe (hence the use of young clerics from Canada).

Ethnic pride played a role in that Stringer came from Ontario, thoroughly believed in the God-given
superiority of the British Empire, and spoke English, while Lefebvre came from Quebec and spoke
French. Prior missionaries to the Inuit had, with the exception of McDonald, all been from the other
side of the Atlantic. And within mission organizations there were issues related to nationality. Most
Oblates were from France, and held a sense that those from other nations lacked the endurance to
tackle difficult missions. In Britain the evangelical Church Missionary Society had begun to resent
 paying for missions in Canada, and thought it was time the country, independent since 1867, provide
its own funds and recruits. Here the argument was that Canadians could do as well as Britons if only
they would make the effort²and the CMS pushed hard to ensure that occurred, gradually transferring
its works to the Anglican Church in Canada.

The status and efficacy of senior clerics also played part. On the Catholic side, two ageing bishops
(Faraud and his auxiliary Clut) saw weakness in the Anglican position in the late 1880s found two
recruits in Quebec to start a mission at Fort McPherson. Father Giroux to take care of the region¶s
Catholic Gwich¶in and draw Anglican ones to his faith; Father Lefebvre to convert the Mackenzie
Inuit. In 1890 Giroux moved there to build a mission and when Lefebvre joined him that summer he
was in the company of a vigorous young French Oblate priest, Father Grouard, who acted as the
senior bishop¶s representative and would replace him within a year.

The bishop on the Protestant side was William C. Bompas, a strange character who related poorly to
people, spent large portions of time alone studying and doing Bible translations, and supposedly
finding a form of poetry in the Bible that others had failed to see. His arrival in the Mackenzie in the
mid-1860s had soon been followed by friction with the senior cleric (W.W. Kirkby), which was
resolved temporarily by letting Bompas give in to his endless desire to travel, a so-called traveling
commission. It did not resolve issues, as Bompas spent far too much time away from the Mackenzie.

Kirkby left, and when a new diocese was set apart that included the Mackenzie, Bompas was put in
charge. He disliked HBC men and their sins with liquor and women, made few friends, accused the
Anglican Church of adopting Catholic tenets and not caring whether natives belonged to Rome or
Canterbury. Though he married, his wife was often absent for years at a time and they had no
children. One wonders about his sexual orientation, but nothing solid about it appears in the archives,
(except perhaps the unusual circumstance of his 1906 death, seated in his library with an native girl¶s
head on his lap). He became a figure of bemusement and ridicule among those who saw him the
most, though he was made much of outside as a courageous and highly competent missionary.

Bompas¶s negative attitude toward native catechists may have helped the Catholic Church consolidate
its solid hold among nearly all Dene tribes along the Mackenzie River. Had he not been replaced in
1890 [check] the Inuit, too, might have gone to the Anglican side. But the appointment of a new
Bishop, William Reeve, led to an intense personal recruitment campaign by the latter in early 1892 in
 Toronto. There, at Wycliffe college he met a senior student, Isaac Stringer, who agreed to go that
same year to counter the Catholic threat.







 






 







 
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From the 1880s on, steam engines changed Inuit-white relations. Railroads by then reached from
Atlantic ports into the Northwest, and the Hudson¶s Bay Company replaced its oar-driven boats (with
a difficult transfer at the Methye or Grand Portage) with steamers between what is now northern
Alberta and the arctic coast. The first went downstream to near Fort Smith, just beyond Lake
Athabasca; the second, The h
 (which entered service in 1887), from that post to Fort
McPherson on the Peel, near the Mackenzie Delta.

The steamers allowed Catholic and Anglican bishops to more easily inspect missions, address needs, and
counter threats to their flock. New recruits, much needed, reached their posting in a shortened time.
On the negative side were worries that the crews might bring alcohol and immoral habits, as might
whites seeking fortune or adventure.

Newcomers that made their way to McPherson on the h
 included the mysterious Count de
Sainville, supposedly a French noble, who arrived in 1889 and stayed half a decade. Though a
Catholic, he had friendly relations with both Anglican and Catholic clerics. Another visitor, later
Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of the American consul to Winnipeg, and the first female tourist to the
Mackenzie, came in 1892, boarded at the Anglican mission two nights, traded with the Inuit, took
photos of them, and sketched the mission house.

Sainville earlier that year had gone south, possibly as far as Great Slave Lake, and joined the h
 as
it headed north, so he and Taylor were for a time fellow passengers. What he told her gives us an
early glimpse of the Mackenzie Inuit and their home terrain, where he had stayed several times.


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The Kukpugmiut had for centuries made an annual spring journey to the Mackenzie Delta¶s southern tip,
where they traded with the Gwich¶in. After whites appeared on the Mackenzie River in the late
 eighteenth century, the Gwich¶in played an intermediary role in trade between them and the Inuit. and
used force to maintain it. Hence no Inuit reached Fort Good Hope on the Mackenzie (initially situated
two days¶ canoe travel south of the Delta).

A few decades after its founding Good Hope was moved further south, but in 1840, in part to continue
its links with the Gwich¶in, the HBC built Fort McPherson on the Peel. Killings by Gwich¶in
occurred if bands from the Delta approached (the former had guns, the latter did not), so it was not
until 1853 that Inuit entered the site. Thereafter they established a pattern of visiting in large numbers
in spring, and leaving a week or two later for the outer Eastern Channel to hunt belugas (small white
whales). In September a few came back to meet the HBC trader as he returned with new goods from
his summer journey to Fort Simpson, HBC headquarters on the Mackenzie.

That seasonal pattern changed after the h
 started service. The Inuit still arrived at McPherson after
ice had left the Delta, but many stayed till the steamer arrived and discharged its goods. During this
visit their number was larger than before, but almost none came in September, if they came at all. The
only time a missionary could now meet them at Peel¶s River was in late June and early July, and if he
arrived himself on the h
, there was but a day or two of contact before they took off.

To spend more time with the Inuit, clerics had no choice but to visit their home at Kittigazuit (called the
Eskimo Village by whites) in the outer Eastern Channel of the Delta, and stay through August and
early September. Another means was to reach them by snowshoes on the ice in late fall or in spring.
In the case of the latter, the missionary could travel south with the Inuit in their 

, or women¶s
boats, to McPherson. So if mission success had to do with the number of contact days with potential
converts (a very large if), then a cleric like Camille Lefebvre, who was loath to travel under hard
conditions, had a disadvantage vis-à-vis an opponent such as Isaac Stringer, who relished such
challenges, and always felt best on the trail.



Two years after the h
 appeared on the Mackenzie, other steam vessels, larger still and in far
greater number, altered the Inuit¶s world. In 1889 whalers from San Francisco first came west along
the coast from the Behring Strait to the mouth of the Mackenzie²though driven by sail they had
extra power from steam engines, which lessened fear of getting stuck in summer ice. Finding many
whales, they returned the next year and set up base at Herschel Island, off the Yukon Coast near the
 Delta. Overwintering there, they hunted off the edge of the ice in spring and as soon as conditions
permitted, resumed hunting with ships. That way not a day of whaling was lost. So vast were profits
that by 1895 a dozen ships and six hundred men spent the entire cold season waiting for another
chance to get rich.

The whalers brought with them Inuit from Alaska, then referred to by whites as Nunatagmiut, whose
number, about two hundred, equaled that of the region¶s main original group of native people, who
lived in the Eastern Delta. Whites referred to the latter with local terms such as Kogmolliks (meaning
people from the East) or Kukpugmiut (people of the large water) and it is they who are the subject of
the story told here. For until the arrival of the Nunatagmiut, bands from the Delta¶s western side
seldom went far south in the Delta or visited Fort McPherson.


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What that happy story does not tell is that the Kukpugmiut were a jealous people²though they took to
Stringer during his summer stays in the Eastern Delta, they were concerned about his visits
immediately afterwards to the Nunatagmiut at Herschel Island . And when in 1897 he moved there
fulltime it was proof he had abandoned plans to live at Kittigazuit. His home was now among
Nunatagmiut, a people who had only recently arrived in the region, and who were, in many a sense,
intruders.

Though the Kukpugmiut traded with whalers, they otherwise kept their distance, and with few
exceptions took no employ with the fleet. Kokhlik, their chief, led the tribe in keeping to its own
ways.

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The whalers¶ presence altered the Kukpugmiut¶s world. Within a week¶s travel by boat or sled across
the mouth of the Delta they had access to a white community many times their own size, with
tobacco, tea, a wide variety of trading goods, and alcohol brought from San Francisco.

The whalers used liquor, among other things, for access to native women, and to barter for meat and
furs. Most of that affected the Nunatagmiut, but the Kukpugmiut in the early 1890s began a pattern of
fall and spring travel on the ice to the ships, and whalers sent Nunatagmiut delegates with liquor and
other items to trade in the Eastern Delta.
Stringer was in the Eastern Delta in the 1894 spring when Inuit traders from the ships arrived and the
chief and many others got drunk. Determined to stop the traffic, he composed an appeal to the
whalers in conjunction with others at Fort McPherson (visitors such as his bishop and an HBC
inspector, along with the local HBC clerk) and in summer presented it to the captains in person. It
cost him no friends, as he was liked by officers and crews, and itraised the respect he held.

Î 


 

From the time in the late 1850s that competing Anglican and Catholic clerics first appeared in the
Mackenzie District, the region¶s Indian almost uniformly joined the Roman side. Contrary to what
Anglican clerics said back home, they had almost no converts. The swath of Roman adherents
extended to Point Separation, the upstream tip of the Mackenzie Delta, where Inuit terrain began.
Here, near the river¶s northernmost point, was the only instance of a sharp tribal division along
Christian religious lines. Adherent to Rome was the south-eastern branch of the Gwich¶in (a Dene
tribe then referred to by whites as Loucheux), who lived along the (Arctic) Red River and the nearby
Mackenzie; adherent to Anglicans were Gwich¶in to the west and north on the Peel and across the
mountains in the Yukon.

One reason why the Catholic church did so well along the Mackenzie was natives¶ long exposure to
French-speaking men from Quebec. From the late eighteenth century on, when Montreal-based
traders entered the district, their oar-driven boats were powered by Quebec voyageurs from deeply
religious Catholic homes. Many stayed on site and had children with native women. When in 1858
competing Christian clerics arrived on the Mackenzie on the same HBC brigade (a group of vessels),
the crews favored the Catholic priest and eased his contact with natives. As it was, Dene flocked to
the former and ignored his Protestant opponent.i

Because of the early connection to voyageurs, French was the main European language along the
Mackenzie River, and combined with native terms served as a commercial and social bridge between
low-rank fur trade employees and native people.

Why Gwich¶in along the Mackenzie became Catholic has to do with those same dynamics²Fort Good
Hope, founded in 1804, sat within their terrain just a day or two¶s travel south of the Delta. The
extent to which French played a role in the local white economy is reflected in one of the post¶s early
names²Fort de Nancy (after a trader¶s daughter). When in 1826 the Hudson¶s Bay Company took
 over the post, one of the first clerks (a former North West Company employee) was Catholic. And
when the post was moved a week¶s travel further south, it was to the terrain of the Peaux de Lievres
[check!] as whites knew them, the Rabbit Skins, or Hares, whose connection with voyageurs was as
strong as that of any tribe on the Mackenzie. It was to this new site that the Gwich¶in now traveled to
do their trading.

In 1859 Fort Good Hope had its first visit by an Oblate Priest, Father Hernri Grollier, so aggressive and
zealous that even his bishop and fellow priests expressed concern. Grollier founded a mission that
grew despite his death a few years later, when Father Séguin took over. For thirty years the latter had
the strong support of the local HBC trader, Charles Gaudet, a Catholic from Montreal. No Anglican
mission, as a result, was built on site, nor did protestant clerics visit to try to win adherents. Gaudet
had a formidable mixed-blood wife who fervently supported Catholic works and that included the
Grey Nun school further south on the Mackenzie to which she sent her daughters.

To assist Séguin, the Oblates in 1865 [check!] sent him Father Emile Petitot, and in a tactic to which
they often used, assigned each man the missionization of specific tribes. In addition to Indians who
traded at Good Hope, Séguin was to go north each summer to take care of Gwich¶in already in the
Catholic fold and to draw in members of the Protestant side of the tribe. Petitot¶s task, among other
things, was to convert the Inuit. Neither of them succeeded in drawing a single new soul to Rome.


 
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Why the Peel River and Yukon Gwich¶in were the only people to adopt the Anglican faith en masse is
itself worth a study. It cannot have been because HBC traders at Fort McPherson and Fort Yukon
held anti-Catholic views, for that held true at all posts on the Mackenzie. What may have played a
role, however, is that for decades the Loucheux wife of the McPherson trader was particularly vicious
in her treatment of Catholics, and that held true of the Loucheux wife of Anglican minister
(eventually archdeacon) Robert McDonald.

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In 1887, the year the h
 entered service, Oblate Father Constant-Alarie Giroux, destined to play a
large part in a new Catholic effort to convert the Inuit, was ordained in Quebec. The next year he
 joined ageing Father Séguin at Good Hope. The summer after saw the arrival at Fort Norman (on the
Mackenzie near Great Bear Lake) of Father Camille Lefebvre, another novice from Quebec. He
joined Seguin and Giroux in early 1900. As soon as he reached them, Giroux left for Fort McPherson
to start building a mission.

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In 1890 Fort McPherson had for decades consisted of two main structures: the HBC post and the
Anglican mission. When that year the Oblates sent Father Constant-Alarie Giroux to build a structure
(a small chapel combined with a residence), they faced two strongly anti-Catholic characters, each of
mixed blood, born in what is now southern Manitoba, and trained at the Anglican school at the Red
River Settlement to go north as missionaries. Though Joseph Hodgson, the HBC man, had left the
mission for the fur trade, he remained an ordained deacon. Yet solidarity was not what it seemed:
Hodgson detested the archdeacon, and few people got along with the latter and his Loucheux wife.


  

 


The Oblates¶ withdrawal, as Isaac Stringer found out, did not translate into adoption of his creed orto a
change in native ways. After Father Lefebvre had lost the Roman cause, the Inuit did not become
Christian. Part of that, one might argue, was due a social insult to Kokhlik, the Kukpugmiut chief, by
the white community at Fort McPherson just days after he had declared he would no longer visit the
Catholic side, and told the priest not to visit the Inuit in the Delta.

After having left his own son with Stringer an entire winter to live with the missionary in the latter¶s
room at the mission, Kokhlik was denied access to a dinner at the HBC post to which all of
McPherson¶s important whites (other than the priests ) were invited. His attitude toward the
Protestant mission shifted abruptly, and though he and Stringer retained respect for each other
(Kokhlik sold him meat in 1899 his camp by the Eskimo Lakeswhen Stringer was short of it at
Herschel Island) warmth toward the mission and the Christian cause never returned.

In 1900 Inuit were still taking on extra wives, and the next year when Stringer left the North, there was
not a single native Christian to show for his work. It took nearly another decade of mission work (by
a cleric much less liked, and often feared) for Inuit conversion to occur²a wave that included nearly
all the tribe.
Stringer had used every technique known to missionaries: handing out and trading much-sought-after
southern goods, visiting Inuit in their homes (missionizing from below), developing close
relationships with the chiefs (missionizing from above), taking a young man home with him for the
winter to Fort McPherson (extraction), traveling with the Inuit on their sleds and in their boats during
their spring migration and showing he could shoot caribou with a gun as well as they (they said he
was ³as good as a Kukpugmiuk) , becoming a trader (from 1897 on he lived in and operated the
trade-post of the Pacific Whaling Company on nearby Herschel Island), teaching the Inuit to sing
hymns and other songs (they loved music), and bringing his wife north so that his family grew up
among his future congregation. None of this made any visible difference.

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1878, 03, 22. Seguin to Fabre, (Petit. fears Esk, McPh, ¶77) OAR, File #?

Seguin to Fabre

N. D. de Bonne Esperance

22 Mar. 1878

Mon très Révérend Père

Je serais peut-être resté plus longtemps avec eux [les Loucheux] , mais je craignais pour le P. Petitot, car
il n¶était pas content de ceux qui avaient été au fort, il les avait entendu (commîson ordinaire) débiter
mille calomnies aux Esquimaux à son sujet et il était surexcité autant qu¶on peut l¶être. Il avait la
figure comme lorsqu¶il avait eu autre fois des accès et je craignais en restant plus longtemps avec eux
de le voir tomber dans un de ces accès. Nous arrivâmes saint et sauf le 1 juillet à Good Hope. Le P.
Petitot étant assez bien rétabli quelques jours après il se mettait à peinturer notre petite chapelle. . .

Votre tout devoué fils en J. C. et M. I.

Seguin, J., O.M.I.

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1882, 06, 06. Séguin to Fabre re Esk at McPh. 1881. OAR .

Séguin to Fabre

6 juin 1882
Mon très Rd. et bien aimé Père

Je fus reçu à ce poste [Peel¶s River] à bras ouvert pour ainsi dire, par les serviteurs catholiques qui
m¶avaient fait demander pendant l¶hiver. . . Les Esquimaux font aussi bien pitié. Il y en avait 35
loges. C¶étaient nos plus fidèles visiteurs, ma tente en était encombrée toute la journée. Mais je
n¶avais point d¶interprète pour les instruire. Ils ne veulent point du ministre, qui a une femme comme
eux. Jusqu¶à présent ils résistent à toutes les sollicitations des ministres, mais s¶il ne nous arrive
point de renfort à Good Hope, je crains bien qu¶ils n¶embrassent l¶hérésie, car il vient [illegible],
l¶automne prochaine, un frère morave du Groenland pour s¶occuper de leur conversion. En somme,
mon voyage a été à peu près inutile.

Oblate archives, Rome, file# ?

Seguin to Favre

N.D. de La Bonne Espérance

1 Juin 1887

A pareille époque l¶année dernière j¶avais le bonheur d¶être en compagnie de Mgr. Clut. Mais Sa
Grandeur est bien loin d¶ici maintenant et depuis qu¶elle m¶a quitté je suis resté seul avec le bon frère
Kearney. Aussitôt après le départ de Monseigneur je me rendis comme à l¶ordinaire sur les terres des
Loucheux.

Je les trouvai bien peinés de ce que Sa Grandeur n¶avait pas pu m¶accompagner chez eux. Pour marquer
leur douleur, les pauvres gens, surtout les femmes, se prenaitent le nez entre le pouce et l¶index et se
le tortaient dans tous les sens en criant chacun de son coté: ³R
R
R
R
,´ ce qui veut
dire c¶est ma faute, c¶est ma faute. Si le Grand Priant est malade et n¶a pas pu venir me voir. Si mon
idée (personnifié par le nez) n¶était pas si mauvais, il n¶en aurait pas été ainsi; pour ta peine attrape
cela. Et ils torturaient leurs nez à qui mieux mieux et jusqu¶a le faire saigner.

Tout le temps que je restais avec eux ils disaient tous les jours un chapelet pour la guérison de Sa
Grandeur et ils promirent de continuer après mon départ. J¶espère que le bon Dieu aura écouté leurs
prières et que Monseigneur pourra venir bientôt les visiter et donner le Saint Esprit par la
confirmation que la plus grand nombre n¶ont pas encore reçue.
Si un prêtre pouvait rester plus longtemps que j¶en fais au milieu d¶eux, je ne doute pas qu¶avant peu de
temps, la plus grande partie des Loucheux de Peel¶s River²qui sont maintenant protestants²se
feraient catholiques. Ceux qui ont envie de bien faire sont de plus en plus dégoutés de leur
protestantisme.

Dans un seul hiver il y a eu quatre des leurs qui ont été faire un voyage, disent-ils, au ciel et ils en sont
revenus avec chacun un sorte de religion. Le ministre a tout approuvé et les a établis priants pour
leurs parents. Chacun veut faire prévaler son idée et ce sont parmi eux des disputes sans fin. . .

En terminant, je prie votre Paternité de vouloir bien bénir

votre tout devoué fils en J. et M.I.

Seguin, J. , O.M.I.

Oblate archives, Rome. File #?

Seguin to Dir. Gen. Fabre

N. D. de Bonne Espérance

6 juin 1888

Mon très Rd. et cher Père

. . . Le printemps dernier nous avons eu le plaisir de voir à Good Hope un steamboat que la compagnie à
fait construire pour le transport de ses marchandises et de ses pelletteries. En le voyant ma première
pensée a été celle-ci. Jusqu¶à présent nous avons été comme des enfants abandonnés. . . [Oblate
visitors to diocese will now be able to come further north, to Good Hope, etc. ]

Par l¶exprès du printemps, arrivé ici le 18 Avril, j¶ai reçu une bonne nouvelle. Mgr. Faraud m¶annonçait
dans sa lettre qu¶il m¶envoyait le jeune Père Giroux et qu¶il m¶arriverait au milieu de l¶été. Deo
gratias.

L¶automne dernier les sauvages étaient partis pour le bois mal contents des nouveaux règlements de la
Compagnie, [et] n¶ont fait que de rares apparitions pendant l¶hiver. A Pâques seulement il en est
venu quelques uns. Sept familles Loucheuses sont venues grossir leur nombre. Ils ont mis dix jours
pour venir de leurs camp, et sont restées ici huit jours. La[le?} manque de vivre seule les a fat partir. þ




Quand ils sont prêts du prêtre et de la maison de Dieu, ils ne savent plus s¶en aller. Ils sont bien plus
 religieux que les Peaux de Lièvres et c¶est bien dommage qu¶il n¶y ait point de mission établie parmi
eux. Ce serait les sauvges ui donneraitent le plus de consolation à leur missionnaires. Mais ils sont
devenus en grande partie, faute de prêtres, la proie des protestants. Les ministres au nombre de 4 ont
quatre stations parmi eux. Nous n¶avons que les cinquante familles don¶t les terres longent la rivière
Mackenzie. Un grand nombre qui appartiennent au protestantisme, mais de nom seulement,
voudraient bien devenir catholiques, mais le prêtre est trop loin pour eux, et faute de mieux ils restent
ça que l¶on les a fait.

Depuis le commencement de mai [mission activity at Good Hope] . . .

Votre tout devoué fils et J. et M.I.

Seguin, J, O.M.I.

-..1-./0
, 

  


A sub-plot in this story concerned the Canadian nationality of the two priests who founded the Oblates¶
Fort McPherson mission in 1890. Nearly all Oblates in the Mackenzie Valley watershed were French,
and there was a perception on the part of some that such an origin was essential to carrying out the most
difficult tasks. Problems in France, however, made it hard to find recruits, so the elder Bishops of the
Northwest, Grandin and Faraud (both of French birth) sought candidates in the novitiates of Quebec and
located two candidates, Constant-Alarie Giroux and Camille Lefebvre.
Because the Mackenzie was so distant and because it included the Arctic Coast (it was said to extend all
the way to the Pole), being assigned to that region was one of the greatest honors that could be bestowed
on a newly ordained Oblate.
In 1887 Father Constant-Alarie Giroux was ordained in Archville, Quebec, and by the next summer had
joined Father Séguin at Good Hope.

Giroux

J¶ai été ordonné le 17 juillet 1887 dans le scholasticat [St. Joseph] d¶Archville par le vénérable Mgr.
Grandin.ii

Séguin
Par l¶exprès du printemps, arrivé ici le 18 Avril, j¶ai reçu une bonne nouvelle. Mgr. Faraud m¶annonçait
dans sa lettre qu¶il m¶envoyait le jeune Père Giroux et qu¶il m¶arriverait au milieu de l¶été. Deo
gratias.iii

Father Camille Lefebvre, ordained in Québec in 1889, asked Bishop Faraud to pray that he might all his
life be a saintly and zealous missionary.iv Heading west, he met Faraud in Julyv and was assigned to
convert the Mackenzie Inuit, while Father Giroux was assigned to the Gwich¶in.vi
By October Lefebvre reached Fort Norman,vii where he spent the winter studying the Hareskin Indian
language (not useful to his future work in the Mackenzie Delta). viii
Father Giroux thanked the bishop profusely for sending Lefebvre (they were from the same Quebec
town and had studied at the same collegiate)ix and submitted in deep obedience to orders to start
McPherson¶s ³double mission.´ The bishop, he responded in the groveling style then expected of
clerics, was capable of all, would do all that was necessary to make the mission succeed, and thereby
save many souls. God never let his children down, and would make the new venture come about. x
In April, when Lefebvre reached Good Hope, Giroux left from there for McPherson to cut logs for a
mission. xi Initially he was the guest of Joseph Hodgson, the HBC clerk, who had himself come north
decades earlier as a teacher in the Anglican missions--though he had left churchly employ, he had
remained an ordained deacon. Hodgson¶s wife, a Dene from further south on the Mackenzie, took tender
care of Lefebvre¶s feet, injured and frozen during the snowshoe journey to the post--a rapid one, as he
went north with the so-called ³express´ or ³packet´, the team of two native men and a sled who
delivered the winter mail from post to post, tramping north from Fort Simpson in the fastest time
possible..

)

&
#

 °
 
Lefebvre

In June Father (later Bishop) Grouard came north on the Mackenzie on a tour of inspection on the HBC
steamer, stopped at Good Hope, and continued on with Father Lefebvre to Fort McPherson, leaving him
there for the summer.xii Hodgson laconically noted in the post¶s daily journal that Lefebvre had come ³to
try to evangelize the Esquimaux. ´ That the priest had a chance to see them at all was due to a wind that
kept from leaving after the steamer had discharged its goods.xiii His contact with them, it seems, was
minimal, and other than a vague comment that there were signs he might succeed in future, Lefebvre left
ho record.
Lefebvre pleaded with Bishop Faraud to be allowed to stay the winter. By being on site he could more
quickly learn the Inuit¶s difficult language, and thereby do more for these ³poor abandoned´ souls. It
might take years of effort to make them grasp Christian truths. And given the work that also had to be
done among the Gwich¶in, there was work enough year-round for two priests.
Lefebvre failed to mention that Inuit would not be at the post for another ten months, and that instruction
in Inuktitut would come from a local translator, George Greenland, who worked for the HBC and the
Anglican mission, but who was willing to earn extra income behind his employers¶ back. Born among
the Inuit of the Eastern Delta (whom some whites referred to at the time as the Kukpugmiut) George had
been raised among whites at Fort McPherson, and had at an early age in xxxx gone south with Father
Emile Petitot to Fort Good Hope to help the priest compile an Inuit dictionary.
Language and George¶s help would turn out to be Lefebvre¶s Achilles heels. Although no one realized it
yet, Lefebvre had no aptitude for learning languages. And George¶s irascible ways turned people against
himself and those he represented.
Lefebvre¶s request to stay year-round at McPherson was not granted, as he was needed in winter at
Good Hope to assist the aging Father Séguin, and the vicariate lacked recruits to take up that duty. What
also concerned the bishop was the scarcity of food at McPherson. So on Sept. 1 the young priest headed
south. xivxv

-./-
)

&
#


m  °
 

When in mid-June the next year Lefebvre returned to McPherson, he was astounded by the work Father
Giroux had done. Logs for a building fifty by thirty feet had been cut and hauled from distant woods,
though early thaw had prevented bringing in the largest pieces.

Séguin at Good Hope

Le P. Lefebvre m¶a été d¶un grand secours pendant la mission, soit pour le chant soit pour enseigner les
prières aux petits et aux grands qu¶il réunissait chaque jour à midi. C¶est le 15 juin qu¶il est parti en
 squiff avec un jeune sauvage [Beziulle] pour se rendre à Peel¶s River ou l¶attendait avec impatience
le P. Giroux qui y était seul depuis le 1er Septembre dernier.xvi

Giroux at McPherson

June 20. Arrivée du P. Lefebvre à 2 h. a.m. avec Beziulle.xvii

Séguin at Good Hope

Le premier juillet je recevais de leurs nouvelles. Le P. Lefebvre avait fait un heureux voyage et était
arrivé là la sixième journée. Le P. Giroux était en bonne santé et avait fait de l¶ouvrage comme
quatre, ayant tous les bois rendus en place pour une maison de 50 pieds sur 30, sauf 21 morceaux des
plus gros que la fonte des neiges lui avait empêché de charroyer.xviii

Lefebvre began to take lessons from George, who assisted when the Inuit came to the post (Archdeacon
McDonald was absent). Despite their staying a fortnight, the priest accomplished little, as language was
still a barrier. But then a break occurred when an ailing man, Kapalayak, stayed behind when his people
went home. The father gave him the name Joseph and baptized him just before he died--which meant,
according to Catholic teaching, that he could receive God¶s grace and eventually go to heaven. The
priests expected to bury the man according to Roman rites, but then faced the first instance when George
had to cater to the Anglican side of his McPherson persona.
Though George had secretly given Lefebvre lessons in Inuktitut, he could not be seen to help the fathers
send Kapalayak to an after-world different from that of the Anglican church--retribution from
McDonald and Hodgson might have been nasty. McDonald was away at the time, so George arranged
for an Anglican catechist (a Gwich¶in) to lay Kapalayak to rest. The first week of August, after less than
two months on site, Lefebvre made his way to Good Hope. xix.

 !
 )&
&((*
&%
In June 1892 Lefebvre came to McPherson and started his year-round tenure, which he thought would
last a long time. From now on he planned to see the Kukpugmiut during their annual summer visit to the
post, and subsequently at their homes in the outer Delta, where they hunted belugas.

Codex

Arrivée définitive du P. Lefebvre.xx

 Codex (Nadeau), WV version

Father Lefebvre arrived, this time to live year-round with Father Giroux. Once again, he took language
lessons from George Greenland. Nadeau¶s words ³Chaque printemps, il attendra l¶arrivée des
baleinières esquimaudes remontant la Peel jusqu¶à MacPherson, chargées de fourrures, puis, la traite
finie, il descendra avec ses ouailles séjourner à l¶embouchure du Mackenzie, tâchant de pêcher les
âmes de ses pêcheurs de baleine.´ xxi

In July Bishop Clut visited the mission.

Séguin

[Le père Lefebvre] n¶aura pas beaucoup d¶Esquimaux à présenter pour la confirmation, car jusqu¶ici il
n¶a fait qu¶un baptême [Joseph Yapalayak] et son baptisé est mort quelque temps après. xxii

While headed north on the h
, Clut had as fellow passenger Isaac Stringer, a novice Anglican
missionary whose specific task was to counter Lefebvre¶s attempt to convert the Inuit.

Lefebvre

A Protestant minister arrived here recently on the [Hudson¶s Bay] Company steamer. He was barely off
the boat when he began to equip a canoe to go and spend the rest of the warm season with the
Eskimos, down by the sea. Like a good shepherd, I could not ignore the danger that was about to face
my sheep, which, alas, still roamed far away from their proper home [i.e. the Catholic Church]...

Monseigneur arrived at the very moment where most of them were about to take to their boats; there was
time to shake hands. Three families, including the chief mentioned above, had not yet broken camp.
As soon as the prelate arrived I told him of the minister¶s intent to go to the Arctic Ocean. ³That¶s
unfortunate,´ he answered, ³If he gets there by himself, your infidels might well give themselves to
him, and there¶ll be nothing left for you.´ ³There¶s a means of remedy, Monseigneur,´ I answered,
³There¶s a chief here [Toweachiuk, or Squint Eyes] who holds me in high regard. If I can have your
permission, I¶ll leave with him, live with him, and come back with the Eskimos who visit the fort in
the fall.´ ³Yes, yes,´ said Monseigneur, ³it must be done. It must be done.´ xxiii

On July 22 Lefebvre left for Kittigazuit with Chief Toweachiuk, whom he considered his protector.

Stringer diary
Huskies leaving. Toweachiuk up to mission. Priest left with him.xxiv

Codex

Le P. Lefebvre part avec Toredzek [i.e. Toweachiuk]. xxv

Lefebvre

I left McPherson; happy in the knowledge that I was ahead of the minister. Sitting in the @
 (a
whale-skin bark), I occupied the place of honor beside my adopted father. The dogs came behind, and
then the women. It¶s for a good reason they sit further back, for they have the heavy task of moving
the large paddles from morning to night. Still, they know how to fulfill that role without getting too
tired, for, most of the time, they let the paddles rest on the water. Besides, the Eskimo are rather
happy-go-lucky on their trips; as long as they have food on hand, they show little concern for the
future.

[At Kittigazuit, the ³Eskimo Village´ in the Delta¶s outer Eastern Channel] I profited from the general
levity by paying a brief visit to each house and made on this occasion a small distribution of gifts.
You should have seen the joy with which they received me, constantly repeating the word  R

( R
pronounced in the Eskimo way). All wanted to follow me from house to house, but the narrow
entrance passage prevented them.

Most of the men I had not seen ... now began to arrive [having ended the day¶s hunt]. They spent the
entire evening with us, drinking tea. They were as eager to get this as we are a good glass of wine.

I had spent eight days amongst my infidels when, as I walked on the beach reciting my breviary, I saw
the approach of a canoe with three men. I soon realized it was the minister accompanied by his two
acolytes, one of which was the well-known interpreter George.

On seeing them, my heart began to pound; but, putting all my faith in God, I continued to pray. A few
hours went by and the new arrival, accompanied by his interpreter, wanted to begin a visit to all the
camps. Poor Devil! His entry into the village was less than triumphal and he was almost chased out.

Up until now the Eskimos had seemed entirely aloof to my mission, and ittook this interference from
the minister to make people aware that I was no ordinary stranger. ³You are our honorable minister,´
they kept saying from that day on, ³the other one is nothing but a white trader, for he takes a wife like
the rest of us. We don¶t care for him.´ xxvi
 Stringer Diary

As we paddled up the inlet a young man came out in a kaiyak bringing an invitation from one of the
chiefs named Towaachiuk (or ³squint eye´) to go to his tent. The Roman Catholic priest was staying
there, so, as we had a tent with us, we paddled up past the village and pitched our tent about two
hundred yards away from the nearest camp.xxvii

Stringer letters

There is a Romanist priest here and he is doing what he can to work against me. He has been at Peel's
River for more than a year but never came down amongst the Huskies till I came.xxviii

The priest had been giving presents all around²mostly needles and sweeties²and I was continually
hearing of this and of how good he was to them. However, I stuck to my plan and gave away very
little except to some sick people and to the chiefs when leaving. Things were looking rather ³blue´
for me when I was there about a week. I went up one day with George to the chief¶s tent [i.e. that of
Takochikina, the junior chief]. He did not receive me very cordially. After a while he said he did not
see why I did not give them more presents. He thought there was no use in my staying any longer
and that I had better leave the village. George told me what he said.

Perhaps you know that I sometimes become rather determined and stubborn. Well, I did then. I knew a
great deal depended on that day and that visit to the chief. I just said to myself²I am here now, and
here I am going to stay till I have to go. I think I prayed pretty hard in silence also. I did not say
much²a few earnest words as to the object of my visit and the way they seemed to misunderstand
that object.

I don¶t know how it came about, but I know that in a very short time the chief asked me to come into his
private room. He said he wanted to go to heaven and wished to know more about it. I had a very
satisfactory talk and from that time this chief was my friend.xxix

I put in the time as best I could. Walked around the village a good deal and got acquainted with the
children. I did not see much of the priest. I called on him once and had a friendly chat, but we were
not very friendly, I imagine. He tried in different ways to put the Huskies against me. Time will tell
how he succeeded. He gave many crosses away to the Huskies and I had the satisfaction of seeing
some of them thrown into the water. I am not a bigoted anti-Romanist but when I see a man doing
what he can to oppose me, I am human enough to find a little pleasure in anything that indicates the
 lessening of his influence, especially as it increases the chances of the pure Gospel being preached as
I believe it should be.xxx

Stringer diary

Aug. 7. One woman said that the priest told them they would go to heaven, but their children would
have to stay here. They wanted their children there too. Other women told me that the priest told
them not to go near me [and] that I did not want to see them because I pitched my tent up so far from
them. One woman had a cross tied around her neck. I told them the Gospel simply.xxxi

Stringer diary

Aug. 08. But why so discouraged? I think there is a combination of causes. I do not feel very well
myself. It is a dull day. The morning¶s work has not been all encouraging. The whole work is difficult
and needs much patience. It is discouraging to have that priest working dead against one. Not
knowing the language it is a little uninteresting. But I must take all these [problems] to a higher
being. I must not be thus cast down. There is a brighter day coming on.xxxii

Aug. 9. Taligoak asked why I did not give them tea or something. The priest gave each one two needles.
I was a miser. This put me out of sorts again. I wonder what will be the result of all this. Will my
refusing them what they ask do good or harm in the end? I wish I knew what to do. I shall go on in
my usual way . . . [I] Read @

@R
  @ . . . . Priest told the Huskies that
I was not a minister--only men who wore dress like he were ministers.

Aug. 10. Huskies began to complain that I did not give them anything. The priest gave them something.
If I would give them a little tea now and again they would like it better. George¶s cousin said they
were like a lot of children or dogs. They did not know anything about a God and all they thought of
was what they could get. They grabbed at everything like children. This seemed very true. xxxiii

August 13. Went with George up to see young chief [Takochikina]... Priest passed us.xxxiv

August 15. The priest just left for the Fort today, and I am not sorry that he has gone.xxxv

When Stringer turned homeward and stopped at Singigizyooak, he again met Father Lefebvre and his
protector, chief Toweachiuk. But several things turned in Stringer¶s favor²the Inuit were short of food,
and his men had shot some caribou on the way from Kittigazuit, so he had meat to share with them.
Then Toweachiuk left, so that the priest no longer had someone to care for his best interests. This was
followed by the arrival of Takochikina, the junior chief with whom Stringer had developed a good
relationship at Kittigazuit. By the time Stringer left, all present had expressed their loyalty to his faith.
As he left for the South and his boat drifted away from shore, Takochikina shouted he wanted the
minister for his religious guidance, not the priest who sat nearby (and who had still not found a way to
get home).

Stringer diary

Aug. 18. Reached Singigizyooak...Three camps there. Toweachiuk there. Priest also. We went ashore
and camped on way between camps. Put up tent and got things ready. Gave some meat away.

Aug. 19. Toweachiuk came over as also did other Huskies. A couple more arrived. Talking around fire.
Priest came over with accordion. Chatted for a while then went on. . . Over with Huskies. Had a
good talk with them about God and Jesus.

Aug. 20. Toweachiuk preparing to start. He came over to our tent first, and we had a chat with him. [He]
Started off. . . Priest went over to another tent. . . . Young chief [Takochikina] arrived with four
others. Came over to our camp after a while. Gave them a thigh of beef and some tea and they had a
feast. We had dinner in tent. Talked around fire. Spoke to Huskies. They all assured me they would
be Protestant. . . . Chief and others in talking. . . . Very encouraging for us in leaving.
The priest looked rather disconsolate sitting beside the chief as we left. The chief yelled to us that he
hoped I would come back soon. He wanted me for their minister, not this man (the priest). If we see
any Indians, tell them to come after this man, he said. And so we left Singigizyooak.xxxvi

Stringer letters

While at this place, a good many Huskies arrived and we were able to treat them to fresh meat and some
things I had in the cache. We spent a few pleasant days here and were much encouraged.xxxvii

Before we left, Takochikina arrived with a good many others and he urged me to go back in the winter
to stay with them. As we started off, the whole crowd was standing looking²priest and all. The
chief (Takochikina) seemed earnest in his good wishes. He urged me to come back soon. And when
we were out a piece he yelled, again telling me to be sure and come²that he wanted me for the
minister to this people²not this priest. Thus the tables were turned and the chief who a short time
before said he did not want me with them now urged me to come back soon. Truly our ways are not
God¶s ways. I have not seen any of them since, but I hope to soon again. xxxviii
The Kukpugmiut would not take Lefebvre south to McPherson, though at last he found one willing to do
so for payment. A few days later, however, the man refused to proceed. After a difficult overnight
march along shore, Lefebvre eventually found a Gwich¶in, who took him the rest of the way.

Lefebvre

Aug. 18. I got the idea of hiring a family (since the Eskimos would not undertake such a trip without
compensation) to take me home. A favorable reply soon arrived. [TheInuk delayed, insisting on
more money, and when at last he began the journey he made scant headway, in part because of a
headwind. After three days, he refused to go on, but did not return hat Lefebvre had paid. After
struggling through dense bushes along shore a day and night, Lefebvre met an Indian family who
brought him south. On Sept. 1, he reached McPherson.] xxxix

Lefebvre¶s mixed assessment

of his Kittigazuit trip, as given to his bishop.

Despite their oft-repeated declaration [that they will be loyal to me and not the minister], I am far from
believing myself absolute master of this terrain. I worry greatly that these poor unbelievers, tied as
they are to material values, might let themselves be swayed by the various temptations the Protestant
minister is likely to offer them the next time he visits them.

For, besides his one-thousand-louis salary, he also receives quite a large number of trunks [filled with
gifts for the Eskimo]²I myself saw them come off the boat. What have I to do battle against such
riches? Nothing, except for my faith in the goodness of divine grace. If God is for us, who can be
against us? xl


-./2/4'


Stringer was secretly engaged to Sadie Alexander, a lively young woman in Ontario, but saw no way to
leave the North to be married, as his absence would let the priest win Inuit souls. Ironically, what
worried him most were Lefebvre¶s strides in learning the Inuit language.

Stringer letters
A Roman Catholic priest has been here three years now and is working among the Eskimo. He has quite
a start of me in learning the language and I must do my best for the first few years in order to teach
those people what I believe is the truth. xli

If the priest of Romanism were not here I could go home anytime, but I feel sure that one short year's
absence would give him a greater foothold. And Sadie, much as I long for home, and much as I
would like to have you here my first duty is the work. I believe I have been truly called of God to
this place and with His blessing I mean to do the little I can do till he shows me I can leave.xlii

è
 +((
In early 1893 Stringer visited the whalers at Herschel Island and reached McPherson just before the Inuit
arrived for their annual visit. Cause for worry was the conduct of Lefebvre, who left for Kittigazuit
shortly after the minister got home. What reasoning could possibly lay behind it? The tactic made no
sense, since most Inuit were at McPherson²few remained behind at this time in the village in the outer
Delta.

Stringer letter

The day I came home [from Herschel Island] the Roman Catholic priest started for the village
[Kittigazuit] and is away yet. The most of the Eskimos came here and I don¶t see in what way he
would gain any advantage by going. Nearly every day I have had the Eskimo up to the church and
xliii
have taught them through the assistance of George Greenland.

I hope to be with him [i.e. Father Lefebvre] soon. He is bestirring himself since I came. He does not
appear to have made much impression yet, but he is working very slyly and must be watched or the
Eskimos may become Romanized and my work be in vain.xliv

When Stringer reached Kittigazuit it seemed the priest¶s going north early had badly hurt the Anglican
minister¶s chance of gaining Inuit souls.
Aug. 4. Went for walk up beach. Fine day. Mosquitoes bad. Met priest as I was returning. Had a little
chat with him and passed on. . . . According to first appearances the priest appears to have got a
foothold. He has been dealing out tea and sugar very freely, giving them feasts quite frequently, and
in that way getting them together. He has learned a good deal of the language. I must give him the
credit for all he has done. But I don't by any means despair. I can only do my duty. Truth will prevail
 sometime, and if this work is not for me I must be resigned to it. However, I think there is something
for me here yet to do.

Aug. 5. Went to council house and lo, the priest was there. I went in and sat down and told him not to let
me interrupt him. We had a chat then about the country, the fort etc., and the Huskies. Most of the
Huskies left after a while and I did also. . . . [My helper] Kenneth returned. Priest had big talk with
him about religions etc.

Aug. 6. The priest is to start tomorrow for the fort. . . . Had chat with him and asked him to take letter to
archdeacon. Also asked him to help himself to moose meat [Stringer had killed a moose on route
north and left a cache]. Our intercourse so far has been friendly. . . . Heard tonight that priest is
getting a cripple to go with him to fort.

Aug. 7. Wrote letter to archdeacon in council house. Ate breakfast, intending to go over to priest with
letter immediately afterwards, but while we were eating we saw the priest's craft out on the way.xlv

Stringer letter

The first few days were very trying and I came to the conclusion that I could not stand this very long.
But times have changed and I am quite at home now. The Romanist priest was here some time
before I was and had gained some ground. I could not come any sooner as I had to stop till the
steamer arrived at the fort [so the bishop could consecrate me to the priesthood]1.

A few days after I came here the priest left for the fort and I have been here ever since. At first I had a
regular string of requests for tea, sugar, tobacco, matches, knives, and in fact I was asked for nearly
everything I possessed. I gave more away than I did last summer, but my supplies soon ran short and
since then I have had peace. I have been out of tea for some time, but one of the chiefs kindly lent
me a little. xlvi

Oblate Codex

1893, 08, 22. Retour avec P. Lefebvre arrivé du 16 avec Toshen.xlvii

While at Kittigazuit, Stringer learned of the priest¶s attempt to use extraction²the tactic taking of a
³heathen´ to a central mission site to learn the evangelizers¶ language and the Christian faith. Sent home

1
Stringer had been ordained a deacon in Toronto in 1892 before coming north. In 1893 Anglican Bishop William Reeve at Fort McPherson
ordained him to the priesthood.
afterwards, the convert then helps to bring his tribe into the church¶s fold. Lefebvre had tried to have a
crippled Inuk come south to Fort McPherson with him (possibly a male with severe rheumatoid
arthritis). But the arrangement fell apart, and the priest returned home alone.
Stringer, however, obtained Kalukotok, teenage adopted son Kokhlik, the Kukpugmiut¶s senior chief.
The boy stayed at McPherson from September through June, sharing Stringer¶s room in the
archdeacon¶s house. Stringer had up to then eaten with the archdeacon, but after Kalukoitok¶s arrival he
cooked his own meals.

Stringer letter

One of the things that encourages me the most is that I have a real live Husky boy living with me and
that his friends were willing that he should come with me. It seems hard for the Huskies to part with
a boy. I felt that it would be hard to get one. The priest tried to get different ones this last summer
and the summer before, but failed. I asked the chief Kokhlik (who adopted the boy) if he would let
him come with me . . . his wife . . told me with tears in her eyes that I might have the boy for this
winter. xlviii

-./4-./5

During the winter George Greenland gave Lefebvre further lessons in the Inuit tongue, and plotted ways
to make the Inuit stop seeing the Protestant minister. Stringer knew of the deception, and in the end both
Greenland and Lefebvre lost out.

Stringer letter

Feb. 2. I find George Greenland as unstable as ever. When I returned from Herschel Island in December
last, I found that he had been teaching the priest. He came to me with a long story about how the
priests had got him into debt and then would not take payment in any other way. There was a good
deal of truth in this but I imagine that gain or the desire of gain is at the bottom of it so far as
George¶s willingness is concerned. The priest said that when their bishop came down in the spring
he would give him presents. They also paid him at the rate of a skin for half an hour¶s teaching,
which is twice as much I was paying him. He has gone on giving me lessons at the old rate and
seems as well pleased as before. But I have learned to depend on him only whilehaving him in hand
with a rein on him, so to speak. However, I should not trouble you with these little things.xlix
When the Inuit came to McPherson, Lefebvre used a strategy of fear, warning them they would burn in
hell if they continued to see Stringer. Pressure, however, was a tactic that never worked in whites¶
dealing with the Kukpugmiut, a proud people, and that held especially for the chief, Kokhlik. Lefebvre
lost what gains he thought to make and was warned never again to visit the Inuit at their home in the
Eastern Delta.

Stringer diary

July 2. Met the chief [Kokhlik] ... He and some others came into the archdeacon¶s room and told us that
they had determined not to go to the Roman Catholic mission any more. It seems that today he
[Father Lefebvre] rang the bell for them and they did not turn up as expected. He told them yesterday
through George that those who wished to be saved were to come when he rang the bell. So today,
when some came in afterwards, he tore up a book of Husky words2, threw it into the fire and told
them if they were going to be Protestants they would be burned like that, but if they would turn [to
the Catholic faith] he would save them.

He was quite angry at the time, and frightened some of the Huskies, who came right over to tell us about
it. They said they were not going again to hear him. The archdeacon and I had a long talk with them.
They seem quite determined, and I hope and trust they will be steadfast. . . . Had chat with
archdeacon. The Hand of God seems to be in the whole matter, and I trust the Eskimo will soon
accept the Gospel in all its fullness. l

George Greenland lost influence on both the Anglican and Catholic Side,
as he had offended all parties, including the Inuit.

Stringer letter

This spring a number of Eskimos came here as usual. The archdeacon and I have been doing what we
can to teach them. George Greenland has not been as satisfactory as one would wish. A week ago
Sunday he got them to attend the priest¶s service. The priest told them when he would the bell the
next day, those who wished to be saved were to come. Well, next day when he rang the bell none
came and when a few stragglers happened in after a while he became angry, tore an Eskimo book in

2
Perhaps Lefebvre¶s throwing a dictionary of the Inuit language into the fire reflected his frustration at learning the language²his outburst
had to do with more than the Inuit¶s failure to obey his commands.
 pieces and threw it into the fire, saying that was the way the Eskimos would be burned if they went
on as they were going (meaning, I suppose, coming to our mission).

The Eskimos were frightened. But while this was going on the chief (Kokhlik) and several others came
over and told the archdeacon and me that they had decided not to be on the fence any more and
would have nothing more to do with the priests. Then the frightened Eskimos came in and described
the scene with the priest. Then George came in to me, saying he had bad news. Told of how the
Eskimos refused to go to the R.C. mission and now he had got a bad name because of it (I don¶t know
what he meant by a bad name) and he thought he should not interpret for anyone now.

After a few questions I saw that he was playing a part and trying to get me to coax him and of course
reward him. He had tried the same thing often before and I felt this was a good time to let him have
his own swing. So I simply said alright, he could please himself. Since that I have not asked him to
interpret and I believe he is working in an underhand way against me. He may be able to do some
harm but I hope not much. He has not much time, for the Eskimos soon will be off and I¶ll be with
them.li

In the 1893 summer HBC clerk Hodgson had been transferred south and replaced by John Firth, a
fervently anti-Catholic Scot

Stringer diary

July 17. Mr. Firth [said that]... the priest was [i.e. had been planning on] going down to the Huskies this
spring, but that [instead] he was going to Good Hope... He seems to have come to the conclusion that
it would be useless to visit the Eskimos. lii

Stringer letter

The priest is not keeping me company this summer. The Huskies did not encourage him to come down
and told him they did not want to have anything more to do with him. So he... went on a visit to
Good Hope instead. He boasted that he was going to make great efforts and would join the Huskies
to his faith this summer. But he found that things did not go as favorably as he had fondly anticipated
and I know you will be pleased to learn that his boasting was in vain. And it was not that I tried to
put the Huskies against him, for during my stay with them in the spring I said little or nothing about
him and nothing at all to depreciate him. But he has not given up yet I imagine, and next year I
expect to see him make another attempt. We can only pray that the truth may prevail.liii
Lefebvre came back from two Dene men from Good Hope, who would him cut building logs and planks
that winter. But it would be for expansion of the Oblates¶ Fort McPherson building, as Stringer thought.
The R.C. priest took the strong hint that was given him by the Huskies and did not attempt to visit the
village. He went to Good Hope instead and brought down two men to help saw boards for their
house here. liv

Codex
lv
July 19. Départ du P. Lefebvre pour Good Hope.

Aug. 25. Retour du P. Lefebvre de Good Hope avec Yeta et Alex qui doivent scier cette hiver.lvi

m  °
 %-./5/6
,&

 '
 
7
'
#

Having abandoned missionizing the Inuit, the two Oblate priests focused on drawing the Anglican
members of the Gwich¶in tribe into the Catholic fold. That effort, too, came to nothing. By March,
Father Lefebvre was off to Arctic Red River with his native helpers to build a residence-cum-chapel at
that site. Since xxxx there had only been a rough structure that accommodated the fathers during
summer visits. In June, Father Giroux left McPherson as well. The mission structure started with such
difficulty by him five years earlier now stood empty.

Stringer Diary

Nov. 11. Sun. The Arch preached on the history of the Christian Church with special reference to
Romanism. Text 2 Thess.2: 13, 14.lvii The Priests have been telling the Indians that thousands of
Protestants have become Romanists and are trying to influence the Indians in that way. So the Arch
spoke pretty plainly and forcibly today for about an hour at both Indian and English services and I
think it will do much good. [At Indian prayers] Arch again preached on Romanism. Text 2 Pet. 2:
11.3 The Mackenzie River [Gwich¶in] chief, although an Romanist, stopped for prayers. We had a
chat with him afterwards.

3
(11) Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord. (12) But these, as
natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their
own corruption. (verses 10 and 14 refer to sins of the flesh). The rest of the chapter contains much invective against certain types of
sinners. (Verse 22): But it is happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that
was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
Nov. 14. Mr. Firth... told me of a conversation he had yesterday with Père Giroux on Romanism vs.
Protestantism and the talk amongst the Indians about what the priest had told them about 700,000
converts in the U.S.

Nov. 16. I read Î 
R  R  papers in search for Roman-Catholic vs. Protestant statistics re
perverts [i.e. converts from one denomination to the other]. Arch McDonald called and told me how
Mr. Firth had been to see the priest re his recent controversy.

Dec. 9 Sun. Much talk today and yesterday about Philemon and Stephen [both Gwich¶in] getting
married. It seems the R.C. Priest [Giroux] has been trying to get her married to his boy. She is
undecided apparently between the two religious persuasions. Stephen is willing to marry Phile but
wishes to see his mother first. Phile is willing to marry Stephen and she sent word to the Archdeacon
today asking him to get her away from here that she might get away from the priest's influence. I
wonder what the result will be.

Dec. 26. Spoke to some [Gwich¶in] Roman Catholics about religion. Several wanted tea for fur but I
refused. lviii

Codex

March, n.d. Le père Lefebvre va équarrir à la Rivière-Rouge le bois nécessaire pour y construire une
maison-chapelle, où nous transportons notre résidence de la rivière Peel. Car les enfants du
bourgeois Firth, commençant à taquiner les catholiques, leur crient, lorsqu¶ils les voient se diriger
vers la mission au son de la cloche: ³Sainte Marie, Sainte Marie,´ et nos sauvages étant obligés de se
retirer dans les maisons de tous ces protestants lorsqu¶ils viennent pour chaque fête, il devient évident
que leur foi se trouve en danger, vu que ces gens sont tout-puissants dans le pays.lix

Stringer diary

June 28. The Husky priest . . . started for Red River last night.


 ° "

!

7


-)

&


After losing the Inuit¶s goodwill, Father Lefebvre remained at McPherson¶s Catholic mission with his
colleague and senior priest Constant-Hillarie Giroux, whose role it was to cater to the Gwich¶in. For a
year the two of them tried for a face-saving victory by coaching Protestant Gwich¶in to join the Catholic
church. That, too, failed, and by 1895 they had left the building in Fort McPherson (started with great
difficulty by Father Giroux just four years earlier) and moved to a new mission structure a days¶ travel
south at the Arctic Red River. It was here, among the Catholic Gwich¶in, that they stayed.
Father Lefebvre made summer journeys through the Delta, but never on the eastern side, on the route
taken by the Inuit he had offended. Using the Central and Western Channels, he went to Herschel Island
to purchase goods from the whalers to supply the Catholic mission. During those journeys, he invariably
met Isaac Stringer, who visited the whalers each summer as well, and who from 1897 on ran their supply
base. It was he who handed out to the priests the goods they had ordered from the Pacific Whaling
Company in San Francisco..
It would have been easy for Isaac and his wife to treat make the visiting Oblates ( a priest and religious
brother traveled together) with condescension, but instead they showed respect and invited them into
their home. Such encounters were easier, one gets the sense, after Father Lefebvre, in early 1898, left the
Mackenzie District.
By then Lefebvre¶s bishop had realized that Lefebvre lacked talent as a missionary²likely for a number
of reasons, but mainly because he had difficulty learning languages other than his own. He was
transferred to Whitehorse, a new city in the Yukon, where whites poured in by the thousands to hunt
gold. But even there, he did not do well (most miners spoke English)and he was eventually transferred
to Edmonton, where he was supply agent for the Catholic Diocese of the Mackenzie.
Whites at ARR and McPherson ordered goods from San Francisco through the PSWC, which bought
them in the south and sent them north on one of their vessels. Using that route allowed the sale of goods
at Herschel Island at prices much cheaper than they could be had from the HBC, which shipped goods
from Britain via the Atlantic to Canada, cross-country to Edmonton, and then north to the Mackenzie by
cart and boat.
 )

&
#-./6-./8

 !
 
 

-./6

In the 1895 summer Lefebvre went for goods at the whaling company base at Herschel Island, where
Stringer was also present²he had conducted a mission to the whalers and the Nunatagmiut²Alaskan
Inuit who worked for the whalers, and was waiting to board the ù
, the whalers¶ annual supply ship
to make his way to San Francisco. From there he would go home to be married.

Codex

Aug. 19 Départ du P. Lefebvre avec Toshen pour Hershell [sic] Island.lx

Stringer diary at Herschel island.

Sept. 1. Capt. Coffin came ashore and with him was Père Lefebvre, with whom I had a chat. I introduced
him to Captains Murray and Porter and others . . . Père Lefebvre is to take meals with us in Capt.
Murray¶s house.

Sept. 4. The R.C. priest started out today [for the Mackenzie River] with the ù@ h
 @ with a
whale boat loaded. lxi

Codex

Sept. 16. Arrivée du P. Lefebvre à 3 h. p.m. lxii

-./8
In 1896 Lefebvre made the journey to Herschel Island with Brother Beaudet, newly assigned to the Red
River mission, and en route met Isaac Stringer and his wife Sadie, who were themselves headed for the
whalers.

Codex

Aug. 17. 3 ½ h. a.m. Le P. Lefebvre, le fr. Louis, Narcisse et Ezin partent pour Hershel¶s Island.lxiii

Sadie Alexander Stringer¶s diary

4
Whaling ships sometimes towed visiting missionaries¶whaleboats toward the mouth of the Mackenzie, letting them loose as close as
possible to the western channel while themselves remaining in deep water.
Aug. 22. [Shingle Point] Here we met the R. C. priest bound for Herschel Island... Big fire on. Slept in
tent as usual. lxiv

Aug. 23. Sun. [Shingle Point] Had service with the Huskies who live there as we sat around camp fire.
The priest called on us and seemed friendly.lxv

ARR Codex

1896, 09, 06. A midi, retour des voyageurs de Hershel¶s Isl.lxvi

-./1


 '
°

#! 

m  °
 
In early 1897 Stringer bought the priest¶s house at McP and tore it down. The structure that reflected
Oblate hopes for converting the Eskimos was now gone, and nothing remained of Lefebvre¶s
evangelization project.

IOS

Apr. 07. Mr. Whittaker started Enoch hauling priests' house.

Apr. 10. Mr. Young and I . . . helped Mr. Whittaker to finish pulling down the priests' house which we
bought from Mr. Firth. lxvii

River.

-./1
)

&



 


!


When Father Lefebvre and Brother Beaudet reached Herschel Island in 1897, Isaac and Sadie Stringer
had taken over the whalers¶ base and ran it as both a trading post and a mission.

ARR Codex

Aug. 09. Départ du P. Lefebvre, Fr. Louis [Beaudet], Ezin et Henri pour Herschel Is.

Aug. 30. Retour du P. Lefebvre; 5 jours de montée. lxviii

 -./.
)

&



 



In April 1898 Father Lefebvre crossed the Mackenzie Mountains to La Pierre¶s House, and from there
made his way to the Yukon and a new career among the burgeoning mining community at Whitehorse. þ


check

The Oblates had given up on their Inuit mission and on gaining Gwich¶in converts from the Anglican
Church.

ARR Codex

1898, 04, 11. Le frère va conduire le P. Lefebvre à la Pierre House. Que notre bonneMère le protège
toujours en récompense de son noble dévouement!lxix

-/0/-/-2


9

7
 
After Stringer became the Pacific Steam Whaling Company¶s commissary, the dynamics of his mission
changed greatly as he was lived with his wife Sadie in the company¶s main building. There the two of
them held services with Inuit and gave them classes in writing, English, and other subjects. At the same
time Isaac and Sadie¶s bachelor uncle Will Young, who functioned much like a religious brother in an
Oblate mission and did all the chores, ran the PSWC¶s fur trade post for natives.
Now when Inuit came to barter for goods they were put up at the mission and learned Christian truths
while their dogs rested and they themselves were fed. By that means, Stringer turned the whaler¶s entry
into the North, initially considered by him and other clerics be a source of evil, into a means (from the
Christian point of view) of doing good.
By living at Herschel Island four years, Stringer had frequent contact with Nunatagmiut, who were more
open to his teachings than the Kukpugmiut. It may be that their influence in the region increased after a
viral epidemic in 1902, when fewer of them died than among the Kukpugmiut (eighty of two hundred
among the latter). More of them moved into permanent camps in southern and central parts of the Delta,
and more lived among the Kukpugmiut in the Eastern Delta, with some intermarriage--as between
Jimmy Memoganna, a Kukpugmiuk, and Kappak, a Nunatagmiut, who were baptized during a 1905 visit
to Fort Yukon in Alaska and thus became the first Delta Inuit couple to formally join the Christian faith
(I have written up their story elsewhere). That event and the change in demographics may have swung
swung all Inuit toward adopting the Christian faith. That process began with the baptism of a few at
Kittigazuit and Herschel Island in 1909 during a visit by Stringer (by then bishop of the Yukon) and
within three years included nearly all.

)

&
&

° 
7

 



 
 



In 1901 Isaac Stringer moved for several years to Ontario. He then took up a post in the Yukon, where
by 1906 he became bishop. His life now was primarily among whites, and that was also true of
Lefebvre, who was there as well. Soon his bishop (newly appointed Gabriel Breynat) recognized the
priest¶s skills as an organizer, and realized he was more competent in an office than a mission. So he
was made  @R  for the Mackenzie Diocese, buying what goods it needed and shipping them north.

)
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+
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In 1922 Bishop Grouard blamed Lefebvre¶s failure on the whalers at Herschel Island. Seeing how badly
the whalers lived and thinking them Christian, the Inuit saw no point in joining their faith: ³Alas! They
brought their intoxicating drinks. Add to that the morals of the crew, who are in general not the flower
of society and lived nine months each year in utter boredom. The Eskimos, taught with such care by
Father Lefebvre, no longer wanted to become Christians, saying µWhy change our way of life to that of
whites? They are worse than us.¶´ lxx
In referring to the Holy Name of Mary mission and why it had been moved from Fort McPherson to
Arctic Red River, Father Duport said not a word about the failure of Father Lefebvre to convert the Inuit
or to both his and Father and Giroux¶s inability to bring Anglican Gwich¶in to their side. Instead, he
blamed the move on Protestant harassment, by which he meant the taunts of Archdeacon McDonald¶s
native wife and her children. The mission had been moved by the ³strong arms´ of the two fathers.lxxi

-/25

,&

 
 
 




Lefebvre was based in Edmonton, and from there he played a crucial rule in putting together what was
needed to launch the Oblates¶ second assault on the Delta in the 1920s. When the scows loaded with
supplies headed north in 1924, he was aboard. It was a triumphal occasion for the Catholic cause, as
there was material for an Oblate mission, and a combined Grey Nun hospital and residential school that
would also function as orphanage. One would have expected him to stay with the Oblate vessel all the
way to Aklavik, a new settlement well into the Delta on its Western Branch, where these structures
would soon be built.
Lefebvre, however, got off the barge at Arctic Red River. He felt ³at home´ at this mission and stayed
behind while the local priest (who had been alone there for a year) was given a break and went north
with the others. But one might be justified in wondering if Lefebvre did not want to enter the Delta and
see terrain in which he had failed to vanquish Isaac Stringer and the Anglican Church.
p@  @





@

R
 Missions OMI 59 (Sept. 1925): 33-
44. Letter of 10 Aug. 1924 to Dontenwill. I have a copy.

July 1, 1924. Arctic Red River. There is little time. We say mass in the presence of many people.Dear
Father Lefebvre finds himself at home here and feels so well he prefers to stay until the boat has
[gone north to Aklavik and] returned. Father Lécuyer who has spent a whole year here alone [goes
with us] and gets a break of several days.lxxii

p@  @





@

R
 Missions OMI 59 (Sept. 1925): 33-
44. Letter of 10 Aug. 1924 to Dontenwill. I have a copy.

July 1. Arctic Red River: detachée du Fort Macpherson ou les catholiques étaient en butte à des
tracasseries protestantes, transportée definitivement ici par les bras vigoreux des Pères Henri Giroux
et Camille Lefebvre en 1896 ...

p@  @
@ 

@ R@
@  Missions OMI 59

(1925): 44-54. The later portion was transcribed from the undated letter in the Duport
correspondence.

Aklavik, qui signifie "la Place de l'Ours Brun" est une petite localite fondée, il y a une douzaine
d'années, par les ministres protestants, afin de soustraire les Esquimaux a l'influence qu'exercaient sur
eux s g mgr breynat et ses missionnaires, dans l'entrevue qu'ils avaient eue avec ces derniers, a Arctic
Red River, ou ils se rendaient, chaque année, en été.

Ils sont très superstitieux et, par suite, fidèles aux quelques pratiques extérieures qu'on leur a enseignées.
Ils en savent très peu, presque rien sur DIEU et ses touchants mystères. La croix que je porte -- ils la
considèrent chaque fois que je passe, masi sans la comprendre. C'est avec une admiration, melée de
pitié, que je les vois -- au premier signe de la cloche, agité par le ministre -- sortir, a la hâte, de leurs
 tentes, ou de leurs bateaux, et se rendre, en courant, au temple pour chanter et apprendre a lire, sans
tenir compte des promeneurs étrangers qui les regardent passer. Je me dis, alors: "Que sera-ce donc,
quand ces âmes connaitront notre sainte Religion dans la vérité de ses dogmes!"

Ils semblent, en effet, etre murs pour leur conversion. Evangélisés, en 1870, par nos premiers Pères,
mais sans succès, repris en dernier lieu par les ministres anglicans, il y a, semble-t-il, certitude de les
conduire dans le droit chemin. Cette certitude est basee sur leur intelligence et l'ardeur qu'ils
manifestent a connaitre le bien. Elle repose sur l'attraction qu'exerce sur eux notre sainte Religion,
nos personnes et nos oeuvres. Enfin et pardessus tout, elle est fondee sur la grace de Dieu -- qui ne
permettra pas que des ames, si avides de le connnaitre et de l'aimer, vivent dans l'erreur our ne
puissent le connaitre qu'imparfaitement.

Lors de la premiere messe, sous la tente, a Aklavik, le 2 juillet, fete de la Visitation, le Frère
Beckshoeffer avait mis, au-dessus de l'autel, entre autres ornements, l'image de la petite Soeur
Therese de l'Enfant Jesus. Et nous l'avons priée d'obtenir à ces pauvres Esquimaux la grace de
connaitre DIEU et de l'aimer, comme elle l'avait aimé elle-même, avec confiance et abandon. Il me
semblait qu'elle ne pouvait pas ne pas nous exaucer. Et je crois que ces âmes, avec le temps, seront
entièrement à DIEU; mais il ne faut pas les laisser plus longtemps sous le pinceau de Satan, qui ne
manquera pas de noircir son tableau, s'il a, pour l'aider, des ministres sans conscience et fanatiques.

Le moment d'agir est arrivé. La visite du Pere Fallaize, l'heroique Missionnaire des Esquimaux du
Barren Land, durant l'ete dernier (1923) a mis la puce a l'oreille des ministres anglicans.
11
p@  @
 




@

R
 !

@
 59 (Sept. 1925): 33-44. Letter of 10 Aug. 1924 to
Dontenwill. }July 1. Arctic Red River. Le temps est court. Nous disons nos Messes devant une assistance nombreuses... Le cher P.
Lefebvre se sentant chez lui, s'y trouve si bien qu'il préfère attendre ici le retour du bateau. Le P. Lécuyer, qui est resté tout seul une
année entière, pourra se dédommager pendant quelques jours.´Bishop Stringer, who had kept a close interest in Inuit missions, was
present at Aklavik when the Oblates arrived, and greatly concerned about their initiative. More than Lefebvre could ever have hoped, the
Oblates were revenging their earlier humiliation. But how disappointed he would have been to know that over the years the new project,
though praised by whites of all faiths, brought very converts.

i
For references to these dynamics see Walter Vanast, ³Perfect Kneeling: The Mackenzie Inuit¶s first constact with Christian clerics, 1859´
ii
1896, 02, 02. Giroux to Father Sardon (procureur général, Rome), OAR.
iii
1888, 06, 06, Seguin to Fabre, OAR.
iv
Lefebvre to Faraud, 1889, 03, 29, OAR. ³Le 10 de ce mois, de la main de Sa Grandeur Monseigneur Clut je recevais l¶order du diaconat,
ce sera aussi ce cher évèque qui m¶ordonnera prêtre le jour de la Pentecote ou le plus tard la veille de la Très Sainte Trinité.
Monseigneur, je me recommende donc de nouveau à vos bonnes prières ainsi qu¶à celles de votre petite communauté afin que le bon
Dieu m¶accorde avec la grâce du Sacerdoce, celle d¶être toute ma vie un saint prêtre et un zélé missionnaire.´ .
v
1889, 03, 29, Lefebvre to Faraud, OAR
vi
Nadeau, "#

.
vii
Lefebvre¶s journey north summarized by WV. Lefebvre to Faraud, 1890, 01, 27, OAR. 13-15 July, St. Albert (north of Edmonton);18,
Athabasca Landing; 25, Grand Rapids; Aug. 4, Fort Chipewyan; 25-day wait for the 4  ; 29, left for the Smith Portage; 30, on the
portage to Fort Smith; waited 20 days for the h
; Sept. 20, left on the h
, packed with 40 passengers (HBC officer Charles
Gaudet with all his men was coming back from Grand Rapids); Sept. 27, Fort Providence (expected to meet Father Grouard, but he was
away at Liard); Sept. 29, Fort Simpson; Oct. 4, leave Simpson with Gaudet; Oct. 7, arrive at Fort Norman.
viii
Lefebvre to Faraud, 1890, 01, 27, OAR. Je descendais ici pour y passer la plus grande partie de l¶hiver c.a.d. jusqu¶au Avril au retour de
l¶exprès, c¶est alors que je me rendrai à Good Hope. C¶est le R. P. Grouard qui avait bien voulu me prier de m¶arrêter ici sicela ne
contrariait pas trop les ordres que j¶avais reçu de vous, Monseigneur. J¶ai cru pouvoir accéder à sa prière, car sans moi le RP Duçot
aurait été réduit à une longue solitude. Je passe mon temps à l¶étude des langues, comme le Père ne sait que le Peaux de Lièvres, je
m¶applique surtout à cette langue afin d¶avoir bon concours, j¶ose espérer que ce ne sera pas du temps perdu.
ix
1890, 02, 10, Giroux to Mgr. Faraud, OAR. Monseigneur, permettez-moi de vous remercier beaucoup par rapport à l¶Obédience du P.
Lefebvre. Sans doute le R. P. Falher [who was almost sent instead] aurait été un bon saint compagnon et frère, mais ne le connaissant pas
et connaissant le P. Lefebvre dans la joie de mon coeur je vous dis mille mercis. . .
x
1890, 02, 10, Giroux to Mgr. Faraud, OAR. Encore une fois, Monseigneur et bien-aimé Père, vous pourrez tout et je sais que votre bon
coeur, le désir que vous avez d¶assurer le succès de cette double mission et ainsi le salut d¶un grand nombre d¶âmes vous portera à faire
tout ce qui sera en notre pouvoir de faire; à nous diriger en tout par vos sages conseils et alors je suis content tout réussira avec le secours
de Dieu qui ne fait jamais défaut de ses enfants. . .
xi
Le R. P. Lefebvre... doit descendre ici avec l¶exprès d¶avril... Quelques jours après son arrivée le R. P. Giroux chaussera ses raquettes
pour suivre l¶exprès de Peel¶s River. Il part dans l¶intention de ramasser assez de bois pour la construction d¶une maison à ce poste.1890,
02, 01, Seguin to Fabvre, OAR
xii
1890, 07, 13, Lefebvre to Faraud, OAR. Nous sommes arrivés ici, le R. P. Grouard et moi, le 21 juin après avoir laissé le R. P. Séguin à
sa mission à la Rivière où il est venu pour la dernière fois il faut l¶espérer. Nous avons trouvé ici le Père Giroux plein desanté et nous
avons été surpris de l¶ouvrage quil avait fait dans la court espace de temps qui s¶est écoulé depuis son arrivée. Déjà tout le bois pour
notre petite maison est sur place; il ne nous reste plus qu¶a unir les pièces et mater notre petit chateau. Depuis notre arrivée rien ne s¶est
fait. Le Père Giroux nous quitta le lendemain de notre arrivée pour aller rejoindre le R. P. Séguin, puis pour remonter avec lui à Good
Hope d¶où il redescendra avec tout le linge, provisions etc. nécessaires pour passer l¶hiver ici² il ne veut plus quitter ses chers
Loucheux.
xiii
June 23, 1890. Last week Pères Grouard and Lefebvre arrived here... Père Giroux left his evening for Good Hope. June 26. Most of the
Esquimaux left and the greater part of the Indians HBC, Peel River journal, HBCA Reel IM 1018, B. 157/a/6. June 23.
xiv

xv
1890, 07, 13, Lefebvre to Faraud, OAR. Le R. P. Séguin . . . ne veut plus quitter ses chers Loucheux. Je voudrais pouvoir en faire autant,
Monseigneur, pour mes pauvres Esquimaux, car en restant ici je pourrais travailler plus avantageusement au salut de ces pauvres
abandonnés. Il a semblé au R. P Grouard et à moi aussi que notre travail ne serait pas infructueux. Il faudra prendre patience sans doute,
car quelques années pourraient s¶écouler avant d¶avoir pu réussir à leur faire comprendre et mettre en pratique les principales vérités de
notre Sainte religion, mais ils nous ont déjà donné espoir à quelques succès. Si je demande à demeurer ici à poste fixe, c¶est afin de
pouvoir étudier plus facilement leur langue, care elle me semble pas du tout facile, puis je crois qu¶il y aura ici de l¶ouvra ge pour
occuper deux pères constamment. Le champ est très vaste et indéfriché [uncleared] pour la plus grande partie. Monseigneur, c¶est pour le
coup que vous allez vous récrier, car nous avons déjà beaucoup dépassé vos ordres. Soyez persuadé, cependant, quenous marchons
toujours en fils soumis, nous voulons faire pour le mieux. Je sais d¶ailleurs que ce serait aussi de votre désir que nous fussions deux ici,
mais deux grands obstacles viennent s¶opposer à la realisation: le manque de sujets [i.e. Oblate staff] et les moyens [money]. Quant au
premier, je crois que la divine Providence s¶en est chargée en vous envoyant deux jeunes Pères cette année. Quant à l¶autre,
Monseigneur, nous nous chargeons de l¶enlever en entreprenant de faire nous-même le transport de nos pièces entre Good Hope et Peel¶s
River, comme le Père Giroux le fait cette année. Quant à la question de vivres, le R. P. Grouard aura l¶occasion de vous en parler: cette
mission offre plus d¶avantages qu¶aucun autre. . .Sept. 1. Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1. Le Père
Lefebvre retourne à Good Hope avec Edjitso et [?] Sym . June 1, 1891. Lefebvre to Fabre, OAR. [We were making great progress with
the mission, but] ce fut précisément à cette époque qu¶il fallut songer à nous séparer pour un intervalle de 10 mois au moins. Je dus
remonter à Good Hope pour tenir compagnie au R. P. Séguin don¶t l¶âge, les infirmités et les occupations ne permettaient pas de la
laisser seul. C¶est d¶ici que je devrai partir chaque printemps pour aller rejoindre le chère Père Giroux à Peel¶s River et y évangéliser,
autant que la connaissance de la langue me le permette, les Esquimaux qui se rendent à ce poste pour la traite de la pelleterie. Oh! que je
voudrais aussi être à poste fixe à cette mission naissante et où il y a tant à faire, pour cela il me faut absolument un remplacement à Good
Hope. J¶ose espérer que je verrai bientôt mon désir se réaliser.
xvi
1891, 07, 07, Seguin to Fabre, OAR.
xvii
Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1. I¶ve combined the information from the original codex and the one
reconstituted one in Nadeau, which mentions the native helper and gives his name.
xviii
1891, 07, 07, Seguin to Fabre, OAR.
xix
1891, 07, 07. Seguin to Fabre, OAR.Les paroissiens du P. Lefebvre, les Esquimaux, ne sont arrivés qu¶après lui. Mais à ce moment, il
m¶écrivait, ils étaient au complet et ne regrettait qu¶une chose, celle de ne pas pouvoir leur parler et de les comprendre.Codex Hist.
McP, reconstituted from Nadeau, "#

 June ±July [The codex wording suggests Father Lefevre is taking language lessons
from George Greenland.] Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 11891, 08, 07. Départ du Père Lefebvre avec
André et Ezin.
xx
Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
xxi
Codex Hist. McP, reconstituted from Nadeau, "#

$%
xxii
1892, 07, 15, Seguin to Fabre, OAR
xxiii
Lefebvre, report of 1892 Kit. Visit (transl. by WV) . Origin?. Giroux took Clut south to Good Hope, leaving on Aug. 1 and returning
on Aug. 27.
xxiv
IOS diary.
xxv
Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
xxvi
Lefebvre, report of 1892 Kit. Visit (transl. by WV) (origin?)
xxvii
IOS to Dear Friends at Home, from McP., 1893, 01, 10, p. 36.
xxviii
IOS to Sadie Alexander, from Kit., 1892, 08, 15.
xxix
IOS to Dear Friends at Home, from McP., 1893, 01, 11, p. 50-51.
xxx
IOS to Sadie, 1893, 01, 20, part d,. p. 41-56. [p. 42]
xxxi
IOS diary
xxxii
IOS diary.
xxxiii
IOS diary.
xxxiv
IOS diary.
xxxv
IOS to Sadie, from Kit., 1892, 08, 15.
xxxvi
IOS diary.
xxxvii
IOS to to Bishop Reeve from McP, 1893, 01, n.d.
xxxviii
IOS to Sadie, 1893, 01, 20, part d, p. 41-56.
xxxix
Lefebvre, report of 1892 Kit. Visit (transl. by WV). Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), Sept. 1, PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
xl
Lefebvre, report of 1892 Kit. Visit (transl. by WV)
xli
To Sadie, from McP, 1893, 01, 18.
xlii
IOS to Sadie, July 8, 1893.
xliii
1893, 07, 04. IOS to ³Dear Friends at Home,´ from McPh, p. 49-50.
xliv
1893, 07, 07. [McP] IOS to Sadie.
xlv
IOS diary.
xlvi
IOS to ³Dear Home Friends,´ from Kit., Aug. 23, 1893, part II, p. 9..
xlvii
Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1
xlviii
1893, 10, 17. To ³My Dear Friends,´ from McPherson, p. 27.
xlix
1894, 02, 02. To Bishop Reeve, from McPherson, p. 41-76. P.41-44: p. 72.
l
IOS diary.
li
To Bishop Reeve, from McP, 1894, 07, 11, p. 8-9.
lii
IOS diary.
liii
1894, 08, 16. To ³Dear Home Friends,´ Part I, from Kitigazuit, p 1-7.
liv
1895, 01, nd. [probably written in January] To Bishop Reeve, p. 13.
lv
Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
lvi
Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1
lvii
Ibid.
lviii
IOS diary.
lix
Codex Hist. McP, reconstituted from Nadeau, "#

 91
lx
Codex Hist. ARR (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
lxi
IOS diary.
lxii
Codex Hist. McP (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1
lxiii
Codex Hist. ARR (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1
lxiv
SAS diary.
lxv
SAS diary.
lxvi
Codex Hist. ARR (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
lxvii
IOS diary.
lxviii
Codex Hist. ARR (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
lxix
Codex Hist. ARR (Nom Ste. Marie), PAA, 97.109, box 1, item 1.
lxx
Grouard, E., 1922.@ 


@
 
&@
@ 
& '
R(R )
. Oeuvre Apostolique de Marie Immaculée,
Lyon, 352-3. Quoted in Gualtieri, A.R. 




* 

@
. Notre Dame, Indiana: Cross Cultural Publications, 1984,
173, note.2. Tr. by WV. ³Hélas! ils apportaient aussi des liqueurs ennivrantes. Ajoutez à ceci les moeurs des engagés de ces navires, qui
ne sont pas en général la fleur de la société et qui pendant neuf mois demeuraient dand une oisiveté complète. Scandalisés, el s
Esquimaux, instruits avec tant de soin par Père Lefebvre, ne voulaient plus devenir chrétiens²à quoi bien changer notre manière de
vivre pour prendre celle des Blancs? disaient-ils. Les Blancs sont pire que nous!´
lxxi
Duport, Alphonse, ³Une Visite aux Missions du Vicariat,"

@
 59 (Sept. 1925): 33-44. Letter of 10 Aug. 1924 to Oblate
Superior General Dontenwill, providing a diary of Duport¶s movement north on his way to take supplies to Aklavik. ³July 1. Arctic Red
River: detachée du Fort Macpherson ou les catholiques étaient en butte à des tracasseries protestantes,transportée definitivement ici par
les bras vigoreux des Pères Henri Giroux et Camille Lefebvre en 1896 [WV: the move occurred in 1825.]´