Henry Kelsey

Henry Kelsey
Henry Kelsey sees the buffalo on the western plains illustrated by Charles William Jefferys (1869-1961)
Born	1667 East Greenwich
Died	1 November 1724 (aged 56–57) Greenwich, England
Resting place	St Alfege's Church, Greenwich
Occupation	explorer

Henry Kelsey (c. 1667 – 1 November 1724), aka the Boy Kelsey, was an English fur trader, explorer, and sailor who played an important role in establishing the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada. Kelsey was born in 1667 and married in East Greenwich, south-east of central London.^[1] He is the first recorded European to have visited the present-day provinces of Saskatchewan and, possibly, Alberta, as well as the first to have explored the Great Plains from the north. In his travels to the plains he encountered several Plains First Nations (Plains Indians), as well as vast herds of the American bison, their primary source of food.

Early career

Kelsey was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1684 and departed England for Canada on May 6, 1684. He was posted at a fort on Hudson's Bay near present day York Factory, Manitoba near the mouth of the Nelson River on Hudson Bay. Kelsey's explorations apparently began in the winter of 1688-1689 when he and an First Nations boy carried mail overland 200 miles from Fort York to Fort Severn, another HBC post. He was described as "a very active Lad delighting much in Indians company, being never better pleased than when he is traveling among them." In the summer of 1689, Kelsey and the same First Nations boy attempted to find and open trade with First Nations north of the Churchill River. Kelsey traveled inland for about 235 miles north of the Churchill, but returned without having any success.^[2]

Travel to the Great Plains

Henry Kelsey's possible route to the Great Plains is shown in purple on the map.

In 1690, HBC governor at York Factory, George Geyer, sent Kelsey on a journey up the Nelson River "to call, encourage, and invite the remoter Indians to a trade with us." Beaver pelts were the item most desired by the HBC. Kelsey left York Factory on June 12, 1690 with a group of Indians and proceeded by canoe up the Nelson River (southwest). He carried with him a sample of the trade goods available at the fort, including guns, blankets, kettles, hatchets, beads, and tobacco. Kelsey and the Indians reached a place he named Deering's Point, probably near present day The Pas, Manitoba, on July 10 after a journey of 600 miles passing through 5 lakes and undertaking 33 portages. Deering's Point was the place where Indians assembled for the journey down the Nelson River to trade at York Factory. Kelsey sent a letter, carried by Indians, back to York Factory with his observations about the journey and the Indians he had met. He stated that the various Indian nations were continually at war with each other which hindered prospects for trade. Kelsey spent the winter near Deerings Point.^[3]

In spring 1691, Kelsey received a supply of trade goods from York Factory and orders to obtain what beaver pelts he could and to return the following year with as many Indians as possible to introduce them to the trading post. On July 15, 1691, he set out from Deering Point "to discover and bring to commerce the "Naywatame poets," an Indian people of the Great Plains. At Deering point, Kelsey was still in the austere Taiga forest of northern Canada. His apparent goal was to reach the Indians of the richer lands of the aspen parkland and prairies to his south and west. Accompanied by Cree Indians, Kelsey ascended the Carrot River by canoe, crossed into present day Saskatchewan, then continued on foot to a point northwest of present day Yorktown, Saskatchewan entering the aspen parkland. Kelsey's route was probably via several well-traveled Indian foot trails.^[4] Entering the aspen parkland, possibly near the Touchwood Hills, he encountered the Assiniboine, a buffalo-hunting people of the Great Plains.^[2] The Assiniboine and other peoples of the region were still on foot at this time, the later horse culture of the Plains Indians not having reached Canada yet.

On August 20, Kelsey described a "great store of buffalo" and "silver-haired" bears, the first sightings by white men of buffalo and grizzly bears on the northern Great Plains. They had gone hungry during their ascent of the journey through the tiaga, but now Kelsey and his Indian companions feasted on buffalo. Kelsey also noted the abundance of beaver in the many ponds and lakes of the aspen parkland. Continuing his journey, possibly to a point south and west of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Kelsey attempted to make peace between the Assiniboine and their neighbors, the Naywatame poets. It is unclear who the Naywatame were, although Kelsey comments that "they knew not the use of canoes" which indicates that they were Plains Indians. Scholars have advanced several theories as to the identify of the Naywatame. On linguistic grounds, they are proposed to be Siouan, possibly Stoney or another people closely related to the Assiniboine. Identification of them as Hidatsa or Mandan is proposed, although those tribes were resident 300 miles further south along the Missouri River in North Dakota. Possibly they were either Gros Ventre or Blackfeet, Algonquin speakers who were discovered living in this region by later explorers in the 18th and 19th centuries.^[3]

Kelsey's peace initiatives failed and he was unable to open trade relations with the Naywatame because they were afraid to attempt a journey across their enemy's, the Assiniboine, territory to come to York Factory. Kelsey wintered with the Indians and returned to York Factory in the summer of 1692 accompanied by a large number of Assiniboine and Cree eager for trade with the HBC.^[2]

Later life

Kelsey returned to England in 1693, reenlisted in 1694 and returned to York Factory. In 1694 and again in 1697 York Factory was captured by the French and Kelsey returned again to England, on the second occasion as a prisoner of the French. In 1698, he went back to the New World, this time to Fort Albany on James Bay. In 1701 he became master of a trading frigate, the Knight, in Hudson Bay and traded with the Indians for beaver pelts. In 1703 he returned to England and in 1705 went back to Fort Albany as chief trader. In 1712, he returned again to England, and in 1714 he made his sixth journey across the Atlantic Ocean to become Deputy Governor of York Factory which had been recaptured from the French. In 1717 he became Governor of York Factory and in 1718 Governor of all the Hudson's Bay settlements. In 1719 and 1721 he undertook missions to the arctic where he met with Inuit people and searched for copper deposits.

In 1722, Kelsey was recalled to England where he died. He was buried on Nov 2, 1724. He seems to have been distinguished for his ability to establish good relations with Indians, which enabled him to be mostly successful as a trader.^[5]

Representation in popular culture

He is the 'Brave Kelso' that Stan Rogers refers to in his song "Northwest Passage".^[6]

Honours

• Henry Kelsey Senior Public School in Scarborough, now part of the City of Toronto.
• Kelsey Park in Saskatoon.
• Housing residence at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
• Canada Post issued a 6¢ postage stamp entitled "Henry Kelsey, first explorer of the Plains".
• The Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology or SIAST (abbv.) named its Saskatoon campus for Kelsey.
• The call letters for CBC radio in Saskatchewan are CBK; the K stands for Kelsey.
• The French-immersion Kelsey Elementary School (K–8) in Saskatoon.
• The Henry Kelsey rose, developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was named in his honour.
• Big Game Records, the Henry Kelsey Awards are the official Big Game records of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.^[7]
• A commemorative dollar coin of Canada, minted in 1990.

Literature

The Kelsey Papers by Arthur G. Doughty and Chester Martin. The Public Archives of Canada etc., Ottawa, 1929.

References

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online