Hudson's Bay Company

Beaver pelt exports fell from 43,000 kilograms in 1683 to just 10,690 kilograms two years later.

There was also increased competition from English traders since the Hudson's Bay Company had been founded in 1670.

On top of this, the colony was at constant war with the First Nations over the fur trade.

It became known as the Beaver Wars, and this 80-year conflict began in 1628 and continued until 1701 when the Great Peace of Montreal was signed.

Democrat Stephanie Shaheen, if the name sounds familiar, it is, daughter of the retiring Senator Gene Shaheen, edged out Maura Sullivan for the first district nomination, and incumbent Maggie Goodlander won renomination in the second.

Then, in an odd Wednesday primary in Rhode Island, sitting Democratic Governor Dan McKee lost his primary to former CVS and Hudson's Bay executive Helena Fulks.

the first sitting governor anywhere in the country to lose renomination since Kansas' Jeff Collier in 2018, and the first Rhode Island governor to lose renomination since 1994.

The race turned heavily on the ongoing Washington Bridge closure and a finding that McKee had personally and directly intervened in a state contract.

CHAPTER VIII.

the brief summer of northern labrador had passed and the eskimos around the hudson's bay post at catatalloc were busy preparing for the approaching winter the season previous according to the accurate notes of the moravians kept for over a hundred years had been the worst on record and now again as the long cold icy grip of winter drew near the prospect of supplies was menacingly poor so the innuits that cheerful and resourceful little race of the north who wrest their living from so reluctant an environment were putting forth all their energies in a preparedness from whose example many a civilized community might well have profited their chief caoutchouc of upright character and the courage born of simplicity was a familiar figure at the hudson's bay post where my friend barlow was the factor for many years his acquaintance with the chieftain dated from an afternoon many years before when he had first seen him steering his large umievik or flat-bottomed boat up to the station while his four lusty wives cheerily worked at the sweeps with his eldest son an almost regal procession it was on that same evening that he had told the facteur after watching mrs barlow prepare the evening meal and an auld lua le cook she is much too good for you and the frankness of his speech far from seeming to disparage his host endeared the speaker all the more to that hospitable and discerning person kiatchaook possessed qualities which evoked the respect and admiration of all with whom he came in contact very noticeable among these was his affection for his family to this day on the coast there is a story told of him and his youngest wife he had been camping on their outside walrus hunting station and as was customary he was sometimes away two or three days at a time having to take refuge on one of the off-lying islands if bad weather or the fickleness of fortune involved longer distances to travel than he was able to accomplish in a short winter's day it was on his return from one of these temporary absences that he was greeted with the news that his youngest wife cajou was very ill one might have supposed that having so generous a compliment of that nature the news would not have afflicted him in the same degree as one less gifted but exactly the reverse proved to be the case caoutchouc was completely prostrated and when the girl died two days later having failed to make any rally in spite of all her husband's generous presents to angoulou he literally went out of his mind the eskimo custom still observed in the north is to lay out the dead in all their clothing but with no other covering on the rocky summit of some projecting headland the body thus placed on the surface of the rocks is walled in with tall flat stones standing on end long narrow slits being left between them so that the air and light may freely circulate and the spirit of the departed may come and go at will and keep watch on passing animals whose spirits must serve the person in the spirit land just as when embodied they paid tribute to the needs and prowess of the dead the top of the grave is also covered with large flat slabs and in a small separate cache of similar construction are stored all the personal belongings likely to be of use the spirits of these latter are set free either by having holes bored in them or some part of them broken or removed so that thus being rendered useless to the living they suffer what in the eskimo mind corresponds to the death of inanimate objects uc was so convinced of the reality of the spirit world and so heart-broken at his utter inability to bring back to life the one he had loved so well that now nothing would satisfy his mind but that in order to continue the communion which had been so sweet to him on earth he should be treated exactly as his lost wife and be immediately buried alongside her with some point of vantage At first his followers were inclined to treat his injunctions as mere vaporings, but they finally realized that the man was in deadly earnest, and were eventually compelled to comply with his wishes.

The day being set, he was accordingly dressed in his finest garments, and, his dead wife being duly caparisoned and walled in in the customary manner, Kayochuk, laid out on the rock beside her, was treated in exactly similar fashion.

there was no apparent alteration of the chief's attitude of mind as they proceeded with the walling up and the heavy slabs were already being laid over him when two of the largest happened to become lodged on his chest for a short time he made no sign and offered no kind of resistance but it was gradually forced upon him that this method of translation into other worlds was far from being as easy as he had been inclined to suppose consequently before the cortege had broken up and his last friends departed he was loudly appealing to them to return and release him he was never known afterwards to refer to the incident but on the whole it had been an excellent effect on the innuits and they realized so far as their unimpressionable natures are capable of doing the strong domestic affection for his wife which was one of their chief's pre-eminent sources of greatness on this particular fall when the last drama in caoutchouc's life was played when the northern lights sent their many-coloured banners floating over the heavens and the stars looked so large and shining that it seemed one must surely touch them from the top of the high hills he was camping with his family and two or three others on a small ledge at the foot of the mighty quiglepiet shining top mountains hunting walrus this year the hunt was doubly important to them and they had delayed longer than was their wont here the great cape with which the spur ends marks the division of the whole trend of the land north from that which runs more directly south toward there the whole force of the south-going polar streams focused on the ice keeps open water long after all the rest of the coast is locked up in the grim grip of winter the walrus herd seems in the evolution of ages to have got an appreciation of this fact through their adamantine skulls therefore from time immemorial it has been chosen as a rendezvous of the inuits in spring and fall the chaos of ancient walrus bones which strews the stony beach reminds one of nothing so forcibly as the stacks of bleaching buffalo bones which disgraced the prairies on several occasions during the year previous kalalagak the capelin had been guilty of the worst crime in the eskimo calendar

Kalalagak, obsessed by his jealousy and chagrin, was able from his camp to watch every movement of the chiefs.

He positively brooded so much over the incident that he came to believe that his life was in danger at Kayuchuk's hands.

the next steps were easy for he was favoured both by the innocence of his superior and the weather days are short in the late fall in the north and darkness falls before work is finished in the late afternoon two days after bakchewak and komak's departure while kiatchewook was still out of his igloo and the darkness was rapidly coming on kalalegak stole inside and took the chief's gun this he unloaded and then reloaded with two balls early next morning before the dawn he crept out carrying his own and the stolen weapon to watch his chance caoutchouc emerging soon after from his snow-house turned his back on kallilagak's igloo while he stooped to make a trifling repair on his own without a second's hesitation kalilagak seized kiukchauk's own gun and crawling and crouching up behind the five-foot snow ramparts which the eskimos invariably build around their winter houses he fired two bullets through the unsuspecting man's back and body the chief fell head foremost having received two fatal wounds but kalalalagak threw down one gun and had instantly grabbed the other in order if necessary to finish the deed before the mortally wounded man could tell who was responsible but caoutchouc never moved and his enemy slunk inside believing that he had never been observed as fate would have it anatolik another of the hunters appeared at the entrance of his igloo just in time to see the smoking gun barrel over the edge of the snow wall running to his fallen chief he begged him to tell what had occurred the dying man had only strength left to whisper kiapavunga who has killed me and anatolik could barely discern from his eye that he understood the answer kaliligamut it was kaliligac who did it it was probably this to us unimportant item which caused a confession ever so to be made kaliligac now convinced that the spirit of his dead chief knew he was the murderer believed it would haunt him without mercy and that his own life might be immediately forfeit unless he could appease it he therefore at once set about preparations for a funeral befitting the dignity of the deceased which in the absence of caoutchouc's eldest son he himself personally supervised when all was over he went to the igloo carrying gifts and offered to support the entire family till the sons should be of an age to assume it his overtures were as unwelcome as they were importunate but the poor women were forced to listen in silence helpless as they were with their young men away they dared not anger the man whose character was only too well known in order further to allay the anger of the spirit with all speed set out on the trail to meet the dead man's returning sons and apprise them personally of his version of the story bakshuak the eldest listened in silence while kalalagak first recounted the long list of imaginary wrongs which he had suffered at the hands of his father then made his plea of self-defence and lastly recited the hateful overtures which he had made to the helpless family who were now in spite of themselves under very definite obligations to the murderer angrily the lad repudiated any parleying the family would rather starve than be beholden to such infamy as was suggested he was only a boy now he declared but he said fearlessly that if no one else killed him he would do the deed himself as soon as he was big enough and he raced on with his dogs to reach home and comfort his poor mother had he but known it he was really indebted for his life to the supposed wrath of his father's spirit and the restraining effect which it had on escalagac eskimos never refer to painful events if they can help it they go even farther than certain modern scientists for if a person who dies happens to have the same name as one still living in the vicinity the latter incontinently changes his as a result confusion not infrequently arises for a man whom you have known all his life as john is william the next time you meet him thus they avoid the mention of the word the memory of which might bring pain to the relatives much less would they bring bad news to a white man they took good care however that the local inuits should know that kiatchaouk was dead hoping that they might give the great white man at the post the sad news of the loss of his friend barlow as soon as he was certain of the main facts at once despatched messengers to summon to him kalalagak and anatolik who had seen the deed the murderer had already expressed his willingness to surrender to the white man and he at once packed up and accompanied the couriers back to meanwhile the news had also reached eculac the sister of caoutchouc and her husband semejac immediately summoned his council to discuss matters all were agreed that the tribal custom must be observed a life for a life was the only law they recognized and the two elder sons of semejac were selected to carry the sentence into effect well armed and equipped they started the very next morning for the north the following day they walked into the hudson's bay post to apprise the white men of their errand so that there might be no suspicion of their blood guiltiness not knowing that by a strange whim of fortune kalalaguk and anatolik were already there and were seated in one room while they were being received in another in the room with kalalaguk and anatolik was mr barlow's daughter a little child of six who was amusing herself with a picture-book of the life of christ the little girl began to show the pictures to the two men telling them the story in their own tongue as she went along she at last came to the picture of christ upon the cross between the two thieves mr barlow in the adjoining room heard kalalaguk ask a child if she thought jesus would forgive any one who had killed another man to which the little one replied why yes if you were really sorry and tried to be better the house of friends is neutral ground and to start a quarrel in the great white man's house would be about as likely as that we should begin one on the steps of the altar thus when kalalagak and anatolik were summoned to dinner both parties proceeded as if nothing unusual were in the air and all refreshed themselves at the same board bidding them to keep the peace mr barlow made an effort to get to the bottom of the affair but he found it very hard to know what to advise the sister of caoutchouc had begged and prayed her sons now chosen as the avengers to have nothing to do with the slaying saying it will only make more trouble it will be kalalagak's family who will suffer they will surely starve to death she had even sent a special messenger to the agent with an earnest plea that he would use all his influence to save her lads from the shedding of blood having decided that the matter should be settled in open court and to abide by the decision of the great white man all concerned now adjourned to the kitchen and not for the first time that humble room was transformed into a court of justice first gave his version of the story without the slightest attempt to conceal anything he said that he lived in constant terror of what caoutchouc might inflict upon him and then turning to the two men who were fully armed with loaded guns he said i know you have come to kill me i shall never know good fortune again anyhow i have many skins and goods with those i will pay for caoutchouc i can say no more as he ceased speaking semajak's eldest son burst out angrily yes we have come to kill you our law is a life for a life we will not take any bribe but ogak the second adventurer thought differently We will hurt those who are not guilty.

It would be different if he had no family.

Hugh Munro Jr. was born in Montreal in 1798.

In 1814, he received permission to enter the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, and one year later, in the summer of 1815, he arrived at its new post, Mountain Fort, on the North Fork of the Saskatchewan and close to the foothills of the Rockies.

At that time, the company had but recently entered Blackfeet territory, and none of its engagés understood their language.

An interpreter was needed, and the factor appointed Munro to fit himself for the position.

Quebec has their interests, Ontario, Manitoba, and even Alberta, and how to get goods to market and where those markets are.

We talked about this previously, this idea of the Northwest Company versus the Hudson's Bay.

The Hudson's Bay was coming through the Arctic into Churchill, where they were the Fort Prince of Wales, Uh, but they were developing or bringing down through York factory and other places in the Hudson's Bay, uh, lots of goods too, because it was a shorter route, uh, and it didn't take as much effort.

Canada, can we do it? And that's the big question.

Do we have not only infrastructure, but are we willing to invest in some of the material, the, you know, as the assets or the boats, the ships that are actually can operate in the ice and maybe not year round.

At the conference, you'll see a number of senior leaders appear, one of which is an expert on this very topic around ice and also the engineering regarding icebreakers.

And their thesis is really simple.

They are prepared to make all year-round shipping possible through Hudson's Bay.

in the future here but this race should have been a lot this should have been different how i've been i've been complaining it's going to be opioids versus the bridge for years and it was that and the reality is it is an affordability crisis of epic proportions and we didn't dig into that in a way that i think would have really really answered basic questions on differentiation and strategy on housing on economic development whatever People are tired of a notion of being out of touch.

And the idea that Governor McKee became the candidate that was out of touch, running against a person who made $80,000 at Hudson's Bay, a person who was a chair, a major executive at CVS, a person who was connected more to the Dunes Club than anything else, that kind of stuff.

The idea that that person became the resonant voice of the people in this race, it shows you just how toxic the messaging became around the governor.

impossible to overcome.

She was CVS Pharmacy before, because they used to be kind of separate or whatever, and then the company kind of folded some stuff in, and she was like, I don't like the way you're doing business, and I'm out.

She also used to be with a company called Hudson Bay Company before they got...

That's a whole other story, but...

The long and short is that the Democrats who were there, they promised that they would get this bridge done.