Matonabbee: The Bloody Falls Massacre

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Matonabbee was born in 1737 at Fort Prince of Wales with his parents. After his father died, Richard Norton, the chief factor, decided to take care of him. However, after a while, a new factor was appointed and he did not take any care of Matonabbee so his family took him away and he spent 11 years at a Chipewyan village. There he learned the rituals and techniques of the Chipewyan tribe. After the 11 years, he went back to the Prince of Wales’s fort and because of the time he spent with his people, it provided him with an opportunity to learn the Cree language, and the years among his own people gave him a knowledge of the land and how to live on it. These skills, combined with his knowledge of the fur trade and his ability to understand …show more content…

Matonabbee blamed Hearne’s last two failures on the absence of women. On the third expedition, Matonabbee insisted on bringing women; as a result, this expedition was a success because of Matonabbee’s knowledge of the land and his survival instincts and because of the women. During this trip, the party massacred a group of over 20 unsuspecting Inuit, this will be later known as the Bloody Falls Massacre. Throughout, this expedition Hearne developed high esteem and respect for …show more content…

The Chipewyan population suffered an almost ninety-percent population drop during these years. The epidemic had passed to the Chipewyan through their trade contacts with the Athapapuskow. This crisis saddened Matonabbee but he did not take any action. However, in 1782, the French destroyed the Fort Prince of Wales with 3 warships. Matonabbee became depressed because of the destruction of his childhood home and later committed suicide by hanging himself. Matonabbee is remembered as a valuable asset to the expansion of the fur trade in the 19th century. Matonabee has a school named after him in Pine Point, NTW, but the town was abandoned in 1996 after it’s large source of income, a mine, was shut