Folio News Story
June 18, 1999

Canadian history in Scotland

Native Studies prof finds the connection

by Phoebe Dey
Orcadian-descent women of Fort Chipewyan
Orcadian-descent women

The Hudson's Bay Company is widely known for its fur trading history as well as its department store. But it should also be credited as a keeper of Canadian history.

Dr. Patricia McCormack, an associate professor in the School of Native Studies, is researching the connection between Scotland and Canada during the fur trading years. And with its often meticulously recorded journals, the Hudson's Bay Company has provided the link between the present and the past.

McCormack first became interested in the subject when she worked at the Provincial Museum of Alberta in the mid-1980s and did an exhibition of Fort Chipewyan, the oldest permanently established settlement in Alberta. While looking for artifacts in Scotland, she stopped in the Orkney Islands thinking it would be as good a place as any to continue her quest.

"It was serendipitous," said McCormack. "There were things that were useful for Fort Chipewyan but what I found in Orkney was so valuable."

McCormack extended her search to the Island of Lewis and found hundreds of Orcadians and inhabitants from Lewis emigrated to Canada to work in the fur trade, specifically with the Hudson's Bay Company. In the late 18th century, Orcadians comprised an estimated 75 per cent of the company's work force. Places steeped in Canadian history, such as Lower Fort Garry in Winnipeg, were built by Orcadian masons. York boats, used to distribute goods for traders, were built on the design of the traditional Orkney yole, and crewed by Orcadian sailors.

Many of those men married Cree women. Some returned with their new husbands to Scotland, while others remained in Canada. McCormack tried to discover what it was like for those women during the 18th and 19th centuries.

She remembers one story about a Scottish man who came to Canada and married a native woman. He took his sons back to Scotland to go to school but while he was returning to Canada, he died of typhus in London. Through records from the Hudson's Bay Company, McCormack located the address where he died, went to London and found his burial site. She learned other important pieces of data, such as the financial claims from the doctor who treated him, and the school in Scotland where the boys attended.

"Other than a human tragedy, it contained other bits of information that were able to provide insight to other things you wouldn't expect the Hudson's Bay Company to offer. It was a minor story in some ways, but very emotional."

Other Canadians have stumbled across similar tales and are hoping to hear more during a "homecoming" celebration in Orkney this month. For four years, organizers have been developing a project designed to provide those Canadians of Orcadian ancestry an opportunity to go home. The event will include tours and excursions of Orkney, genealogy investigations and a grand gala evening at which Orcadians and Canadians can celebrate their shared heritage. About 300 Canadians are expected to arrive on the islands about 30 km north of the Scottish mainland.

Although much of Scottish history is appealing to McCormack, she has focused her research on the role of the native wife as well as looking at the differences between Orcadians and people from Lewis.

"In Canada we tend to think of all Scots as the same and lump them in the same category," said McCormack, who is not involved in the homecoming. "People from Lewis and Orkney are certainly not of the same culture and I'm quite sure that at the time they couldn't even speak the same language. In Canada the Scottish presence is so strong and it's important to understand how that presence was constructed. In terms of ethnic contributions, this is one we've often taken for granted a lot."


Folio
Folio front page
Office of Public Affairs
Office of Public Affairs
University of Alberta
University of Alberta