The Autobiography of a Frontier Woman

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Historical Profile:

The Autobiography of a Frontier Woman

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Stephen Blanchette

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HIS 331 Women in nineteenth and twentieth century Canada

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Faculty of Social Sciences

Department of History

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Winter Semester 2016

        As early as the 1600’s European fisherman had been taking aboriginal wives to help them survive in the harsh environment presented by the frontier climate as well as to make alliances between fur traders and native tribes who knew the land. This led to the birth of many Metis children who would soon come to replace aboriginal bride’s altogether as aids and companions to white traders and frontiersmen. Although the metis had existed in North America for quite some time they never truly established themselves before the fur trade moved west into Manitoba and the Red River region. When the fur traders began to move beyond upper Canada during the seventeen and eighteen hundreds many found themselves making deals with aboriginal tribes to marry young native women in return for supplies and trade agreements. These marriage agreements were by no means done in the traditional Catholic or European fashion and would therefore run into problems of validity and legality in the nineteenth century but for the time being they were beneficial for both parties. By the beginning of the nineteenth century it was considered commonplace for trappers, fur traders and other European men who came to Canada to either take Metis wives or to have a bride in Europe one would bring with them or travel back to after their time in the wilderness. It is at this point during the early 19th century that aboriginal women began to be disvalued as partners for white suitors as Metis women, Metis meaning “mixed” in French, already had a combined understanding of European and aboriginal traditions, values and languages. This frontier setting in the Red River region of Manitoba is the backdrop for my historical profile. The character I have chosen is that of a Metis women who lived in this region during the latter years of the nineteenth century, and as a result she had to deal with many different societal hurdles and problems due to her culture and gender.

        Her name is Rosa McTavish and she was born into the family of a HBC fur trader, Russel McTavish, and his Metis wife, Elizabeth, in the year 1857. When she was born her family lived in the Red River settlement as part of the newly established Scottish settlement in the region and although her family contained both Metis and Scottish blood they were discriminated against by many other white settlers. This was due to the large amount of tension that existed between the Metis peoples who had already settled the land and the newly arrived Scots who were given permission to settle in the already established region. It is within this climate of conflict that Rosa was born and as a result she is placed at the very bottom of the social hierarchy as a Metis woman. The only benefit is that her father has European roots but these roots are invisible to the naked eye as she predominantly bares the characteristics of an aboriginal woman. To make matters worse, at the age of eight her father, Russel, left his Metis or “mixed blood” wife and daughter to return to Scotland. He would eventually re-marry and work for his father-in-law’s trading company, never returning to the Red River settlement and his frontier family. This was only possible because the marriage Rosa’s parents had was not ordained by the Protestant church nor did it follow any of the traditions of a proper Christian betrothal and therefore it could be easily nullified. It was at this young age that Rosa realized how underprivileged she and her mother really were. It was this racial and gender discrimination by white settlers that when compounded with the harsh realities of life on the frontier made day to day existence for any Metis or aboriginal woman a struggle. After her father left in 1865 she continued to live with her mother in the Red River region, however due to the loss of wages her husband provided drastic measures were required to not go hungry. Rosa with the rest of her mother’s extended mixed blood (Metis) family had to come to terms with their fate under the current class and societal structure as well as the slow disappearance of their traditional way of life. One factor impacting this was the declining numbers of Buffalo in the Red River region as the Metis had to continually move further west to find new herds. This is what Rosa and her family did to survive. Without her father’s HBC wage living as part of the settlement was no longer possible.