Page 65 - Fortier Family History

Photo Background And now some background about this amazing historic photo. So, most of you know that this is the photo from page 14 (paperback version) of the book Pic Pulp & People: History of Marathon District, first published in 1967, largely written by Jean Boultbee. This photo is from the revised edition from 1981. The book is OOP, but my late great uncle Robert Michano Jr, “uncle Bob,” gave me a copy when I met him for the 2nd time in 1996 in Thunder Bay. I have been searching for an “original” version ever since then. Uncle Bob told me he had a distant relative who said she had this photo, yet it never surfaced until just a few weeks ago (August 2019). In the back of the book, the photo is credited to Louise Gagnon. She of course was Agnes Finlayson Michano’s sister, Louise, first married to Eli Onabigon and then later to Pete Gagnon. Uncle Bob said that it was a descendant (cousin of his) of one of Louise’s children, Ina Onabigon (married to Andrew Desmoulins). At the bottom of page 12 and then continuing on page 15, Louise and Agnes are both cited telling the following story. I’ve added some info in parenthesis for clarity. “Two sisters, Mrs. Agnes Michano and Mrs. Louise Gagnon of Heron Bay, describe vividly the trips they made with a flotilla of canoes under their father’s (L.V. Nick Finlayson) charge from the post (HBC) at Long Lac to Heron Bay each summer, as late as 1895. They would camp “near the railroad bridge” (at Heron Bay?) until the last boat of the season had sailed away, when they started back up river. Coming down stream (from Long Lac) the trip took only two weeks, but the return journey, nearly a month. Though the canoes were large, the trip held many hazards.” “Mrs. Michano (Agnes) tells of how, one fall, the lead canoe, carrying her parents (Nick and Jane) three sisters (likely the 3 next oldest, Catherine, Flora and Louise (leaving out the oldest sisters Eliza and Sarah?) two men and herself, struck the rocks at the first rapids in the river and broke in half. The baby was in a cradleboard (likely little brother Johnny, born in Feb 1895, the next sibling after Agnes) with a hoop and her mother (Jane) hooked her arm through the hoop while making her way to shore. One of the men fished out of the water what he thought was a pack (of furs). The “pack” turned out to be the next youngest child (one of Agnes’ sisters?). All got safely to land and a fire soon warmed and dried them. Men from the following canoes helped repair the broken craft and all proceeded on their way (to Longlac). “ When I was completing the documentary Gifts From the Elders at Pic, Heron Bay and Marathon I filmed an interview with my great aunt Mary Michano Lees so she could retell this story that her mother told her, and include it in the film. Uncle Bob did tell me that his cousin, whom he thought might have this photo, believed that the man sitting was the Scottish HBC man Nicol Finlayson and that the man standing in the back was his son John Finlayson. THAT IS INCORRECT. I have researched this using genealogy records, census records, treaty playlist records from INAC, HBC records, information from cemetery headstones, and family oral history for the past 23 years, ever since I first got a copy of the book from Uncle Bob. I can say with 100% certainty that the elder man seated is John Finlayson (1823-1898), “half-breed” (historical term no longer considered appropriate) son of HBC man from Scotland, Nicol Finlayson. It took me a long time but I eventually found the name of Nicol’s Cree or Oji-Cree “country wife” (not a legal or church sanctioned marriage). I found it on the Métis Scrip application of John’s full brother Hector Finlayson (1820-1901) who also worked for the HBC at Rainy River, Fort Frances, Red River Settlement and later Rat Portage now Kenora. Hector and John had the same mother and Hector named her on his Scrip Application. It was Nancy Ka-Na-Ka-Shi-Waite, and that’s exactly how he wrote it down. I am assuming she was Cree or Oji-Cree because at the time Nicol was in a “country marriage” with her he was stationed further north in Cree territory, but close enough to where there was some mixing of Cree and Ojibway people. Also, in his HBC bio, in correspondences written by other HBC men including Sir George Simpson, and in letters Nicol wrote to John after Nicol retired in Nairn, Scotland, we learn that Nicol