the residents of Wrigley are known: Abel, Drum Songs, xviii.
“We need the tonic of wildness”: Olson, Meaning of Wilderness, 16.
“phantom brigades”: Olson, Lonely Land, 11.
“an expedition means”: Ibid., 129.
“zest for living”: Ibid., 168.
“iron out the wrinkles”: Ibid., 20.
CHAPTER 19: THE DOGRIB
“We perceived several Smokes”: Unless otherwise noted, the narrative of Mackenzie’s trip in this chapter is primarily drawn from Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 182–87.
Their first mother took a husband: Petitot, Book of Dene, 18.
shift their skins back and forth: Helm, People of Denendeh, 290.
the pale strangers could be the nakan: Ibid., 279.
The Chipewyan brought the pox: Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, 132.
everyone knew this was the best revenge: Blondin, Yamoria, 130.
With the advantage of surprise: Ibid., 132.
put all of the Chipewyan minds into a beaver hide: Ibid., 97.
Yamoria and his brother, Yamoga: There are many spellings of the brothers’ names, and many variations of the story, so I have picked Blondin’s, from Yamoria, though Helm records Yamonzhah and Yampa Deja as other spellings. Helm, People of Denendeh, 285.
broth made from the brains of rabbits: Blondin, Yamoria, 78–79.
fixed all of the problems: Helm, People of Denendeh, 283.
Yamoga went west: Blondin, Yamoria, 81.
“Father comes”: Helm, People of Denendeh, 283.
In other words, they measured distance in time: Nute, Voyageur, 50.
gray rock walls that appeared scraped: The place is now called Carcajou Ridge.
wolverine could fold the earth in half: Blondin, Yamoria, 107.
CHAPTER 20: RAPIDS WITHOUT RAPIDS
Idle No More: Idle No More, accessed June 29, 2017, www.idlenomore.ca.
“a certain moral and physical decline”: Burg, “On Mackenzie’s Trail to the Polar Sea,” 136.
Canadian geologists struck oil in the 1930s: A good overview of the Canol project can be found in Smith, Mackenzie River, which was fairly prescient in 1977 about the future battles over oil pipelines.
CHAPTER 21: YOU CAN STARVE ON RABBITS
“pitifully worn out with old age”: Unless otherwise noted, the narrative of Mackenzie’s trip in this chapter is primarily drawn from Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 187–91.
the giant had to piss: Sahtu Heritage Places and Sites, Rakekée Gok’é Godi.
Mackenzie had a small kit of tinctures: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 233.
The Cree and their rifles: Yerbury, Subarctic Indians and the Fur Trade, 137.
many seasons ago they came: Blondin, Yamoria, 150.
But once a powerful medicine man: Ibid., 118.
“You can starve on rabbits”: Helm, People of Denendeh, 57.
CHAPTER 22: FORT GOOD HOPE TO TSIIGEHTCHIC
a lobstick to mark the spot in the traditional way: Conversation with Dr. Carolyn Podruchny.
CHAPTER 23: SATISFY THE CURIOSITY, THO’ NOT THE INTENT
Raven tricked people: Heine et al., Gwichya Gwich’in Googwandak, 3, 13.
they called themselves Gwichya: Ibid., 52.
the great Atachuukaii: Ibid., 18.
Man Without Fire: Man Without Fire (sometimes as Yamoria/Atachuukaii, sometimes not) is a figure in many Dene stories. See Helm, People of Denendeh, 57; Heine et al., Gwichya Gwich’in Googwandak, 22; Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, People of Lakes, 21; and Petitot, Book of Dene, 37–38.
Medicine started to fade: Blondin, Yamoria, 28.
“Thunder and Rain last Night”: Unless otherwise noted, the remainder of this chapter is primarily drawn from Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 192–97.
they looked at his empty palm confused: Heine et al., Gwichya Gwich’in Googwandak, 180.
hanged her new baby from a tree: Ibid., 353–55.
“in Imitation of the Esquimaux”: Note that Mackenzie uses the spelling “Eskmeaux,” but for ease of reading, I have standardized it throughout the text. Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 194.
Their rifles were their phallus: Helm, People of Denendeh, 277.
pass them off as some animal: Ibid., 291.
Eighteenth-century geographers held: Sides, In the Kingdom of Ice, 44.
CHAPTER 24: INTO THE EARTH SPONGE
the age of the old-timer Peter Pond: Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself; I did far more paddling than Mackenzie, after all. But I could never measure up to Pond. At thirty-eight, I paddled the Deh Cho, and he crossed the Methye and then went on to work another decade in the pays d’en haut. Chapin, Freshwater Passages, 163.
CHAPTER 25: THE HIGHEST PART OF THE ISLAND
“It is my Opinion”: Unless otherwise noted, the narrative of Mackenzie’s trip in this chapter is primarily drawn from Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 196–201.
Steinbruck could be petty: This is the theme of many of Steinbruck’s entries in Yellowknife Journal.
“Our pemmican has been mouldy”: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 205.
root of the licorice plant: Yerbury, Subarctic Indians and the Fur Trade, 145.
tripe de roche: Podruchny, Making of the Voyageur World, 119.
cut cannibals into small pieces: Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, 43; Chalmers, Land of Peter Pond, 36.
grind their bones to dust: Podruchny, “Werewolves and Windigos,” 690.
“They love to breathe a free air”: Visit to Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, in Dec. 2015.
The fur trade life produced: Podruchny, Making the Voyageur World, 186.
Kitigaaryuit: A survey of the archaeological excavations at this site can be found in McGhee, Beluga Hunters.
“The toil of our navigation”: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 59.
Awgeenah once told Mackenzie: Ibid., 149–50. Mackenzie relates this story in his general description of the Chipewyan, and I attribute it to Awgeenah, as his closest partner.
CHAPTER 26: A SEA OF ICE, FROZEN NO MORE
World War II–era aerial photography: Bredin, “ ‘Whale Island’ and the Mackenzie Delta.”
CHAPTER 27: MANY RETURNS
“Never was happier”: Unless otherwise noted, the narrative of Mackenzie’s return trip to Fort Chipewyan is primarily drawn from Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 202–33.
as was the tradition of his people: Helm, People of Denendeh, 176.
“My Expedition is hardly spoken of”: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 443.
“voyage down the River Disappointment”: Ibid., 444. Per Lamb, there are four versions of this letter, but only one calls it River Disappointment, the others calling it the Grand River. But the earliest transcript uses “River Disappointment,” and so it is the one used by Masson.
“unless there has been a nuclear war”: MacLennan, Rivers of Canada, 63–64.
all the complaints from locals: Full disclosure: Northern Transportation Company Limited refunded my shipping costs and was extremely gracious and helpful.
“Tho’ this Expedition”: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 457.
“make all the inquiry possible”: Ibid., 445.
“but little known during my residence”: Ibid., 20.
“I could perceive the termination”: Ibid., 372.
“I am full bent on going down”: Ibid., 453.
“darkened the human mind”: Ibid., 68.
Heart of the Devil: Petitot, Book of Dene, 61.
“will require more time”: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 454.
“It was in the Summer of 1789”: Ibid., 529.
“entirely from a fit of ill-humor”: Ibid., 30.
Mackenzie started his own fur company: Innis, Fur Trade in Canada, 238.
“apprehension of presenting myself”: Lamb, Journals an
d Letters of Mackenzie, 33.
the house of Samuel Johnson: Ibid., 34.
Napoleon considered the volume: Ibid., 35.
President Thomas Jefferson procured one: Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, 73.
In 1808, he wrote to the British: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 518.
“I am determined to make myself”: Ibid., 516.
“immense City”: Ibid., 502.
final letter to Roderic: Ibid., 522.
aged fifty-seven years: History doesn’t know what month of 1762 that Mackenzie was born, only that he was twelve years old in late 1774, when he boarded a ship for New York. So he was likely fifty-seven at the time of his death, though perhaps fifty-eight.
“I have now been forty-two years”: Nute, Voyageur, 207–8.
Alexander Mackenzie began a correspondence: Gough, First Across the Continent, 213–16.
“in justice to the memory”: Lamb, Journals and Letters of Mackenzie, 51.
EPILOGUE
“swelling and braggart”: Newman, Caesars of the Wilderness, 8.
“must remember the round of feasting”: Irving, Astoria, 7.
gloves and scarves and top hats: Podruchny, “Festivities, Fortitude, and Fraternalism,” 40.
the city’s stone battlements: Pointe-à-Callière Museum, Montreal.
“died poor”: Chapin, Freshwater Passages, 309.
was an honorary member: Sleeper-Smith, Rethinking the Fur Trade, 596.
“to recount the toils”: Podruchny, “Festivities, Fortitude, and Fraternalism,” 49.
Pierre Bonga: The legendary Bonga appears fleetingly in the histories. See Newman, Caesars of the Wilderness, 38; Nute, Voyageur, 38; the history of the fur trade digital archives at McGill University, accessed June 30, 2017, digital.library.mcgill.ca; and MacGregor, Canoe Country, 103, where Mackenzie makes his claim of seven pièces.
“Ah! taisez-vous, méchante femme”: Nute, Voyageur, 147.
Meriwether Lewis: Lewis committed suicide soon after, having never published his journals.
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