George Flett
Encyclopedia
George Flett was a Presbyterian missionary in what is now Manitoba
, Canada. Flett was of Orkney and Cree
descent. As a young man he farmed on the White Horse Plains, led a gold exploration party to Edmonton
and then became the first post master for the Hudson's Bay Company
at Fort Victoria, Alberta
. Flett was an interpreter to the first Presbyterian mission to the northwest between 1866 and 1867.
After serving as a delegate in the provisional government of Louis Riel
during the Red River Rebellion
, he became a missionary among the Ojibwa
of Okanese Reserve, serving from 1873 to 1895.
. He arrived in the northwest in 1796, aged twenty-one, under contract to work as a laborer and boatman at York Factory. In 1810 he became an assistant trader and later a clerk at Moose Lake, Manitoba
, on the Saskatchewan River
near Cumberland House
, retiring in 1822 to become a farmer. George Senior was described as "a faithful interested old Servant, deficient in Education but a good trader". George Flett's mother, Margaret Whitford, was the daughter of an Englishman James Peter Whitford, who came to the York Factory district in 1788, and an Indian woman, probably Cree. Margaret Whitford was said to be related to the Okanase chiefs.
, an immigrant from the highlands of Scotland who had been a chief trader for the Pacific Fur Company
and then for the North West Company
. Her mother was Sally Timentwa, daughter of an Okanase chief. In later years, Mary's familiarity with Indian languages and customs was to prove an advantage in their mission work. In 1861 their daughter Letitia married Alexander Murray
, who was to be elected to the Manitoba parliament in 1874 and to have a distinguished career in politics.
Flett farmed in the Winnipeg area for several years. He grew wheat and maize successfully, turnips and potatoes with more difficulty. In 1862 he was one of the leaders of a large party that explored for gold in the area around Edmonton, Alberta. In September 1862 Flett wrote from Edmonton that some young men were earning $4 to $5 per day with the rocker, and an old American miner expected to get $10 when he had a sluice built. In May 1863, Flett wrote that after overwintering the party had reached "Mud Fort" about 55 miles above Edmonton the previous month, and were finding gold in the river beds worth between 6s and 10s each day. Five hundred miners had crossed the mountains from the west and were said to have found gold in great quantities. There was a shortage of supplies however, and Flett was planning to plough for wheat. He saw a great future for agriculture in the rich soil of the region.
In 1864 Flett was given the job of opening a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in Fort Victoria
, in the Edmonton region. Flett and John Norris led the first brigade of Red River ox-carts from Winnipeg to Edmonton, taking three and a half months on the journey. As clerk in charge of the Victoria trading post, Flett had to arrange for construction of the buildings and open up trade with the local Indians. The Clerks Quarters survives, one of the first buildings west of Winnipeg to have glass windows. Flett soon succeeded in obtaining a supply of good-quality furs, which he and his assistants took by horse and dog train to Fort Edmonton. While at Victoria, Flett made friends with both Methodist and Roman Catholic missionaries, and helped them understand the customs and the language of the Cree. He left this post in the spring of 1866.
had stayed in Flett's house on the White Horse Plains while Flett was in Victoria.
In 1866, Nisbett was given permission to open a mission for the Cree in the north of the Saskatchewan River
valley.
He asked Flett to act as intepreter to the mission, and Flett accepted. The site chosen was about thirty miles downstream from Fort Carlton
. At first the local Cree were unwilling to grant permission for the mission, which they felt would attract European settlers and drive away the buffalo, but Flett managed to persuade them to accept the missionaries' right to settle there, pointing out that both he and his wife had native relatives.
The Fletts stayed at the Prince Albert mission for only a year. Flett disagreed with Nisbet's plan to found an agricultural settlement, feeling that an itinerant mission would be more useful. The Fletts returned to Red River during a time of political upheaval. He was appointed a delegate in the provisional government of Louis Riel
, and was involved in debates over the terms on which Red River should join Canada. He had become a respected man, trusted by Europeans, Indians and Métis
. At a convention of English and French Delegates in Council at Fort Garry
in 1870 Flett said: "For my part, I am a half-breed, but far be it for me to press any land claim I may have against the poor Indian of the country. We have taken the position, and ask the rights, of civilized men. As to the poor Indian, let him by all means have all he can get. He needs it, and if our assistance will aid him in getting it let us cheerfully give it".
In June of 1874 Flett was appointed a Presbyterian missionary for a large territory from Fort Pelly
to south of Riding Mountain
, 150 miles (241.4 km) away. He set up his headquarters on the Little Saskatchewan River
. The mission, which he called "Okanese" (meaning "Little Bone" in the Ojibwa language), was at the Riding Mountain House
Hudson's Bay Company post, near the present town of Elphinstone
. At the age of fifty-seven, Flett was ordained on 18 August 1875. The native leader Keeseekoowenin
, Flett's cousin, had signed a treaty with the government in 1871, and moved with his family and band to a reserve beside Flett's mssion in 1875, where he was baptised as Moses Burns. Keeseekoowenin did not entirely abandon his traditional beliefs, but blended them with Christianity.
In November 1878 Flett wrote the first of a series of letters to the Canadian Woman's Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) in Toronto, drawing their attention to the work being done in native Indian missions. In later letters he listed educational needs, and by 1884 the society was providing financial and material aid to schools and people in the northwest. By 1890 the Riding Mountain band had 137 people. Some were farmers but most lived by hunting. The school had 21 children. George Flett held services every Sunday on the reserve. Flett worked at the mission for over twenty years. Towards the end of his career he became involved in various squabbles with other church members, finally resigning in 1895. Flett died on 28 October 1897 at the age of 80.
|title=Annual report of the Department of Indian Affairs
|author=Canada. Dept. of Indian Affairs
|publisher=Dept. of Indian Affairs |year=1890}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=zUsmAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA692
|title=Gold in the Hudson's Bay Territories
|journal=Journal of the Society of Arts |volume=11
|publisher=The Society |year=1863}}
|url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/murray_a.shtml
|title=Memorable Manitobans: Alexander "Sandy" Murray (1839-1913)
|publisher=Manitoba Historical Society
|accessdate=2011-10-22}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=0R0bAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA101
|title=The Home and foreign record of the Canada Presbyterian Church, Volumes 1-2
|publisher=Printed for the Committee by W.C. Chewett |year=1862}}
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada. Flett was of Orkney and Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
descent. As a young man he farmed on the White Horse Plains, led a gold exploration party to Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
and then became the first post master for the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
at Fort Victoria, Alberta
Fort Victoria (Alberta)
Fort Victoria, near present-day Smoky Lake, Alberta, was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1864 on the North Saskatchewan River as a trading post with the local Cree First Nations...
. Flett was an interpreter to the first Presbyterian mission to the northwest between 1866 and 1867.
After serving as a delegate in the provisional government of Louis Riel
Louis Riel
Louis David Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political and spiritual leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and its first post-Confederation Prime Minister, Sir John A....
during the Red River Rebellion
Red River Rebellion
The Red River Rebellion or Red River Resistance was the sequence of events related to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by the Métis leader Louis Riel and his followers at the Red River Settlement, in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba.The Rebellion was the first crisis...
, he became a missionary among the Ojibwa
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...
of Okanese Reserve, serving from 1873 to 1895.
Origins
George Flett's father, George Flett Senior, came from the Orkney IslandsOrkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
. He arrived in the northwest in 1796, aged twenty-one, under contract to work as a laborer and boatman at York Factory. In 1810 he became an assistant trader and later a clerk at Moose Lake, Manitoba
Moose Lake, Manitoba
Moose Lake is a small native community located on the northern limits of the Saskatchewan River Delta on the western shore of South Moose Lake about 74 km Southeast of The Pas in Manitoba, Canada...
, on the Saskatchewan River
Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada, approximately long, flowing roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg...
near Cumberland House
Cumberland House, Saskatchewan
Cumberland House is a village in Census Division No. 18 in north-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada on the Saskatchewan River. It is the oldest community in Saskatchewan and has a population of about 2000 people...
, retiring in 1822 to become a farmer. George Senior was described as "a faithful interested old Servant, deficient in Education but a good trader". George Flett's mother, Margaret Whitford, was the daughter of an Englishman James Peter Whitford, who came to the York Factory district in 1788, and an Indian woman, probably Cree. Margaret Whitford was said to be related to the Okanase chiefs.
Early years
George Flett was born on 10 February 1817 at Moose Lake, the third of five sons. Flett's parents had originally been married "according to the custom of the country". They formalized the union in December 1823, when they were married by a Church of England minister and their sons were baptized. George Flett was educated at the parish school. He married Mary Ross on 26 November 1840. Mary was daughter of Alexander RossAlexander Ross (fur trader)
-Fur trader and explorer:Ross emigrated to Upper Canada, present day , from Scotland about 1805.In 1811, while working for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, Ross took part in the founding of Fort Astoria, a fur-trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River...
, an immigrant from the highlands of Scotland who had been a chief trader for the Pacific Fur Company
Pacific Fur Company
The Pacific Fur Company was founded June 23, 1810, in New York City. Half of the stock of the company was held by the American Fur Company, owned exclusively by John Jacob Astor, and Astor provided all of the capital for the enterprise. The other half of the stock was ascribed to working partners...
and then for the North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...
. Her mother was Sally Timentwa, daughter of an Okanase chief. In later years, Mary's familiarity with Indian languages and customs was to prove an advantage in their mission work. In 1861 their daughter Letitia married Alexander Murray
Alexander Murray (Manitoba politician)
Alexander Murray was a Canadian politician in the province of Manitoba.Born in Kildonan, Manitoba, the son of James and Elizabeth Murray, Murray was educated at St. John's College, University of Manitoba. His father in law was the Orkney/Cree missionary George Flett...
, who was to be elected to the Manitoba parliament in 1874 and to have a distinguished career in politics.
Flett farmed in the Winnipeg area for several years. He grew wheat and maize successfully, turnips and potatoes with more difficulty. In 1862 he was one of the leaders of a large party that explored for gold in the area around Edmonton, Alberta. In September 1862 Flett wrote from Edmonton that some young men were earning $4 to $5 per day with the rocker, and an old American miner expected to get $10 when he had a sluice built. In May 1863, Flett wrote that after overwintering the party had reached "Mud Fort" about 55 miles above Edmonton the previous month, and were finding gold in the river beds worth between 6s and 10s each day. Five hundred miners had crossed the mountains from the west and were said to have found gold in great quantities. There was a shortage of supplies however, and Flett was planning to plough for wheat. He saw a great future for agriculture in the rich soil of the region.
In 1864 Flett was given the job of opening a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in Fort Victoria
Fort Victoria (Alberta)
Fort Victoria, near present-day Smoky Lake, Alberta, was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1864 on the North Saskatchewan River as a trading post with the local Cree First Nations...
, in the Edmonton region. Flett and John Norris led the first brigade of Red River ox-carts from Winnipeg to Edmonton, taking three and a half months on the journey. As clerk in charge of the Victoria trading post, Flett had to arrange for construction of the buildings and open up trade with the local Indians. The Clerks Quarters survives, one of the first buildings west of Winnipeg to have glass windows. Flett soon succeeded in obtaining a supply of good-quality furs, which he and his assistants took by horse and dog train to Fort Edmonton. While at Victoria, Flett made friends with both Methodist and Roman Catholic missionaries, and helped them understand the customs and the language of the Cree. He left this post in the spring of 1866.
Presbyterian missionary
The Presbyterian minister James NisbetJames Nisbet
James Nisbet was a Scottish born missionary to Canada.-Early life:He was born near Glasgow in Scotland, the youngest of 10 children. In 1840, he had travelled with his older brother, Henry, to London both seeking to serve as missionaries with the London Mission Society. Henry was accepted, and...
had stayed in Flett's house on the White Horse Plains while Flett was in Victoria.
In 1866, Nisbett was given permission to open a mission for the Cree in the north of the Saskatchewan River
Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada, approximately long, flowing roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg...
valley.
He asked Flett to act as intepreter to the mission, and Flett accepted. The site chosen was about thirty miles downstream from Fort Carlton
Fort Carlton
Fort Carlton was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trade post from 1810 until 1885. It was rebuilt by the Saskatchewan government as a provincial historic park and can be visited today...
. At first the local Cree were unwilling to grant permission for the mission, which they felt would attract European settlers and drive away the buffalo, but Flett managed to persuade them to accept the missionaries' right to settle there, pointing out that both he and his wife had native relatives.
The Fletts stayed at the Prince Albert mission for only a year. Flett disagreed with Nisbet's plan to found an agricultural settlement, feeling that an itinerant mission would be more useful. The Fletts returned to Red River during a time of political upheaval. He was appointed a delegate in the provisional government of Louis Riel
Louis Riel
Louis David Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political and spiritual leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and its first post-Confederation Prime Minister, Sir John A....
, and was involved in debates over the terms on which Red River should join Canada. He had become a respected man, trusted by Europeans, Indians and Métis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
. At a convention of English and French Delegates in Council at Fort Garry
Fort Garry
Fort Garry, also known as Upper Fort Garry, was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in what is now downtown Winnipeg. It was established in 1822 on or near the site of the North West Company's Fort Gibraltar. Fort Garry was named after Nicholas...
in 1870 Flett said: "For my part, I am a half-breed, but far be it for me to press any land claim I may have against the poor Indian of the country. We have taken the position, and ask the rights, of civilized men. As to the poor Indian, let him by all means have all he can get. He needs it, and if our assistance will aid him in getting it let us cheerfully give it".
In June of 1874 Flett was appointed a Presbyterian missionary for a large territory from Fort Pelly
Fort Pelly
Fort Pelly was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post located in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The fort was probably named after Sir John Pelly, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company...
to south of Riding Mountain
Riding Mountain National Park
Riding Mountain National Park is a national park in Manitoba, Canada. The park sits atop the Manitoba Escarpment. Consisting of a protected area , the forested parkland stands in sharp contrast to the surrounding prairie farmland. The park is home to wolves, moose, elk, black bears, hundreds of...
, 150 miles (241.4 km) away. He set up his headquarters on the Little Saskatchewan River
Little Saskatchewan River
The Little Saskatchewan River is a river in western Manitoba. It originates in Riding Mountain National Park at Lake Audy and flows about south through the communities of Minnedosa and Rapid City. Its approximate length is 185 km. It joins the Assiniboine River about west of Brandon. The...
. The mission, which he called "Okanese" (meaning "Little Bone" in the Ojibwa language), was at the Riding Mountain House
Riding Mountain House
Riding Mountain House was a Hudson Bay Company trading post set up to the south of what is now the Riding Mountain National Park, on the Little Saskatchewan River....
Hudson's Bay Company post, near the present town of Elphinstone
Elphinstone, Manitoba
Elphinstone is a community in the rural municipality of Strathclair in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located northwest of Brandon, Manitoba and is on Highway 45.It is on the west bank of the Little Saskatchewan River....
. At the age of fifty-seven, Flett was ordained on 18 August 1875. The native leader Keeseekoowenin
Keeseekoowenin
Keeseekoowenin was a First Nations leader during the period when Canada was expanding into the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.-Origins:...
, Flett's cousin, had signed a treaty with the government in 1871, and moved with his family and band to a reserve beside Flett's mssion in 1875, where he was baptised as Moses Burns. Keeseekoowenin did not entirely abandon his traditional beliefs, but blended them with Christianity.
In November 1878 Flett wrote the first of a series of letters to the Canadian Woman's Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) in Toronto, drawing their attention to the work being done in native Indian missions. In later letters he listed educational needs, and by 1884 the society was providing financial and material aid to schools and people in the northwest. By 1890 the Riding Mountain band had 137 people. Some were farmers but most lived by hunting. The school had 21 children. George Flett held services every Sunday on the reserve. Flett worked at the mission for over twenty years. Towards the end of his career he became involved in various squabbles with other church members, finally resigning in 1895. Flett died on 28 October 1897 at the age of 80.
Sources
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=L9sRAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA161|title=Annual report of the Department of Indian Affairs
|author=Canada. Dept. of Indian Affairs
|publisher=Dept. of Indian Affairs |year=1890}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=zUsmAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA692
|title=Gold in the Hudson's Bay Territories
|journal=Journal of the Society of Arts |volume=11
|publisher=The Society |year=1863}}
|url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/murray_a.shtml
|title=Memorable Manitobans: Alexander "Sandy" Murray (1839-1913)
|publisher=Manitoba Historical Society
|accessdate=2011-10-22}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=0R0bAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA101
|title=The Home and foreign record of the Canada Presbyterian Church, Volumes 1-2
|publisher=Printed for the Committee by W.C. Chewett |year=1862}}