Thanadelthur

Chipewyan translator and guide

• Born: c. 1697
• Birthplace: Canada
• Died: February 5, 1717
• Place of death: York Factory (now in Manitoba), Canada

Thanadelthur shared her knowledge of natural resources, her awareness of indigenous cultures, and her foreign language abilities to assist English fur traders. She convinced members of her tribe and its rivals to coexist peacefully so that both groups could benefit from transactions and trade with outsiders.

Early Life

Thanadelthur (THAN-ah-DEHL-thur) represents an enduring heroine who personifies strength and courage in indigenous cultures. Because records documenting Thanadelthur’s life before captivity are nonexistent, historians estimate she was born around 1697. A Chipewyan, a people also referred to as the Dene (the people), Thanadelthur probably lived with her family and its First Nations band as they moved between hunting grounds in northern Canada, located in what is now Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories. Tribal accounts state that her name was derived from the indigenous term for “martens,” a type of weasel. Sources do not cite her parents’ and siblings’ names, although a brother accompanied Thanadelthur on her peace negotiations and she referred to him in conversations with traders.

Thanadelthur likely would have fulfilled the domestic roles the tribe expected of girls and women. Tasks included cooking, preparing skins and transforming them into clothes and shoes, sewing, and gathering firewood, berries, and nuts. The Chipewyan relied on their resourceful and resilient women, who would transport supplies between camps. Men valued women’s opinions concerning community activities and interactions with outsiders, often accepting and incorporating those ideas in policies. Primarily nomadic hunters, the Chipewyan followed caribou herds migrating between breeding grounds. Families established groups of kin to hunt game, including beaver, foxes, and ermine. As a child, Thanadelthur would have acquired useful survival and communication skills.

Life’s Work

Thanadelthur’s known biography covers just a few years. In the spring of 1713, her life abruptly changed when rival Cree warriors from the south seized and enslaved her with women from her tribe. She endured captivity in a Cree village north of the Nelson River for approximately eighteen months.

While enslaved, she witnessed European traders exchange supplies for Cree furs. Allying with a fellow Chipewyan hostage, Thanadelthur fled and headed toward the Chipewyan territory but was hindered by hunger, extreme weather, fatigue, and the death of her friend. She sought help from traders and turned southeast through dangerous Cree lands. Seeing footprints, Thanadelthur caught up with a party of English traders, affiliated with the Hudson’s Bay Company, hunting geese at Ten Shilling Creek. The party admired Thanadelthur’s survival skills and delivered her to the company’s Hayes River trading post, known as York Fort, on November 24, 1714, for medical attention and sanctuary. Two days before Thanadelthur reached York, another indigenous woman, who had been captured in the same raid as Thanadelthur and then enslaved, died at the fort. She had provided company officials some information about her tribe and the lands where they lived.

Company governor James Knight aspired to initiate trading partnerships in which his representatives received furs from local peoples who were paid with items such as muskets and gunpowder. Prior to approaching Chipweyan hunters, the English traders established fur trade agreements with Cree that resulted in wealth for the company in Europe, where buyers demanded Canadian furs. Wary of foreigners who had befriended their rivals, the Chipweyan resisted company offers. Knight recognized Thanadelthur’s potential usefulness to secure business relationships with the indigenous peoples, particularly the Chipweyan in their northern lands. Wanting to trade with both Cree and Chipweyan, Knight hoped Thanadelthur, conversant in English and in some Cree because of her captivity—and familiar with all three cultures—could communicate his intentions to each tribe by translating his statements; she could, in turn, communicate their responses.

Knight especially sought to achieve resolution of rival tribes’ claims to the same territory in order to secure consistent trade in that region with both tribes. Based on her experiences as a Cree slave, Thanadelthur realized interaction with English traders would benefit her tribe. Knight wanted the Chipewyan to trade at York, but the Chipewyan avoided Cree lands, especially those inhabited by the hostile Upland Cree, between their territory and the trading post where many Cree lived. The Chipewyan lacked guns to defend themselves against armed enemies. Thanadelthur told Knight that the Chipewyan would fear traveling to York without effective weapons to battle the warring Cree. She intrigued Knight with her description of abundant wildlife and possible copper and gold deposits near her band’s territory on the Churchill River.

By late June, 1715, Thanadelthur traveled northwest toward the Great Slave Lake and the region where her people hunted. She transported English gifts to entice her community to accept the company’s invitation. Approximately 150 traders headed by William Stuart, assigned as her protector, and Cree accompanied her. Most would abandon the trail as illness spread, supplies dwindled, and frigid climatic conditions on the tundra became unbearable. After all the English traders quit, Thanadelthur, Stuart, and several Cree advanced until they discovered nine Chipweyan bodies.

Convincing the Cree, who were fearful of vengeful warriors, not to flee and to stay at a safe site, Thanadelthur completed the last section of the 900-mile (1,500-kilometer) trip alone. She discussed her mission with Chipweyan leaders and guided a large group of approximately 160 men to the Cree site to discuss possible peace measures between the two tribes. Agitated and apprehensive, the two tribes reluctantly voiced demands when Thanadelthur pressured them to participate. Although she could barely speak after talking so much to convince the suspicious Chipewyan to meet Cree, Thanadelthur chided participants and urged them to compromise. She boldly denounced the Cree as cowards for murdering Chipewyan and cowed the large group to cease hostilities. Her words powerfully controlled the rivals. After achieving a peaceful resolution, Thanadelthur, Stuart, and several tribesmen headed back to company headquarters at York by May 7, 1716.

Thanadelthur’s determination, astute awareness of human nature, and powers of persuasion were greatly admired, and so she was asked to remain at York. Thanadelthur married a tribe member who had returned with her to York. She intended to pursue additional trips and negotiations with her tribe the next year but became sick, possibly because she lacked immunities to European diseases. In his journal, Knight commented on her illness. She taught an Englishman, Richard Norton, essential words in her language, described cultural expectations, and prepared him for trading trips with her tribe and brother. The feverish Thanadelthur died on February 5, 1717. Before her death, she asked Knight to send her belongings to her mother, brother, and friends. Knight recorded her passing in his journal, expressing his grief at losing a confidante and capable negotiator. He purchased another slave woman to replace Thanadelthur as a translator for trading expeditions.

Thanadelthur’s comments regarding a body of water that never froze inspired Knight to initiate an expedition to determine if that body of water might be the Northwest Passage to Asia that explorers had been seeking for hundreds of years. He vanished during that pursuit.

Significance

Thanadelthur’s peacemaking role has persisted in both the oral legends of the indigenous peoples and printed mainstream legends and historical accounts, and the accounts have varied. She usually is described as a former slave who fled captivity to bring peace and prosperity to her people and friends. Thanadelthur inspired derivative heroine captivity tales in other cultures. Her name and location may differ in those versions, but the story basically remains true to the oral and historical records of her travails and triumphs.

Although Thanadelthur’s voice was not preserved in autobiographical accounts, her dramatic actions spoke loudly and provided a framework for the incorporation of her story into popular culture. Artists such as Franklin Arbuckle in the early 1950’s painted their visions of Thanadelthur. Novels, including James Houston’s Running West (1989) and Rick Book’s Blackships and Thanadelthur(2001), and a comic book called Tales from the Bay (1995) have fictionalized Thanadelthur’s life.

Nonindigenous Canadians tend to compare Thanadelthur with Sacagawea and interpret Thanadelthur’s actions as a catalyst for eighteenth century European economic achievements in Canada. They have appropriated Thanadelthur as a symbol representing the advancement of Canada’s frontier expansion and national development. Her activities helped the fur trade to spread farther west in Canada during the nineteenth century, and the Chipewyan hunted over larger regions. Ironically, Thanadelthur’s peace efforts, which boosted the fur trade, ultimately resulted in animosity between Chipewyan and Cree that intensified into hostilities when territories overlapped and the historic enemies competed for furs and profits.

Bibliography

Abel, Kerry M. Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993. Discusses Thanadelthur’s role in educating Knight and Hudson’s Bay Company traders about indigenous peoples, including Cree and Chipewyan (or Dene), with whom they wanted to establish trade agreements.

Lytwyn, Victor P. Muskekowuck Athinuwick: Original People of the Great Swampy Land. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2002. A useful study of Cree and nearby tribes, enemies such as the Chipewyan, and fur trading with Europeans, focusing on Thandelthur’s interactions with the Cree. Includes maps.

McCormack, Patricia A. “The Many Faces of Thanadelthur: Documents, Stories, and Images.” In Reading Beyond Words: Contexts for Native History, edited by Jennifer S. H. Brown and Elizabeth Vibert. 2d ed. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2003. An indigenous studies expert explores how Thanadelthur is portrayed in popular culture and historical texts.

Merritt, Susan. Her Story: Women from Canada’s Past. St. Catharines, Ont.: Vanwell, 1993. Includes a chapter featuring Thanadelthur that sentimentally discusses her peace efforts and suggests how she lived before her capture. Includes photographs of modern First Nations women.

Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur Trade Society in Western Canada, 1670-1870. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. This study, based on Hudson’s Bay Company archival records and primary accounts, analyzes Thanadelthur’s and other indigenous women’s roles and interactions with Europeans. Maps, bibliography, index.