One of the few biographies of an Inuk man from the 19th Centuryseparated from his family, community, and languagefinding his place in history. Augustine Tataneuck was an Inuk man born near the beginning of the 19th century on the northwestern coast of Hudson Bay. Between 1812 and 1834, his family sent him to Churchill, Manitoba, to live and work among strangers, where he could escape the harsh Arctic climate and earn a living in the burgeoning fur trade. He was perhaps the first Inuk man employed by the Hudson's Bay Company as a labourer, and he also worked as an interpreter on John Franklin's two overland expeditions in search of the northwest passage. Tataneuck's life was shaped by the inescapable, harsh environments he lived within, and he was an important, but not widely recognized, player in the struggle for the possession of northwest North America waged by Britain, Russia, and the United States. He left no diaries or letters. Using the Hudson's Bay Company's journals and historical archives, historian Renee Fossett has pieced together a compelling biography of Augustine and the historical times he lived through: climate disasters, lethal disease episodes, and political upheavals on an international scale. While The Life and Times of Augustine Tataneuck is a captivating portrait of an Inuk man who lived an extraordinary life, it also is an arresting, unique glimpse into the North as it was in the 19th century and into the lives of trappers, translators, and labourers who are seldom written about and often absent in the historical record.
Nicky Siever is a budding writer/illustrator of books for children. This is her first book.
List of Maps Preface Introduction to Augustine's World Chapter 1. The Inuit, the Company, and Churchill Post, 1812 Chapter 2. The Apprentice, 1813-1820 Interlude 1. The First Arctic Overland Expedition, 1819-1822 Chapter 3. First Journey to the Western Arctic, 1820-1821 Chapter 4. Death and Survival, 1821-1822 Interlude 2. Reorganizing and Retrenching the Company, 1822-1824 Chapter 5. The "Engaged Servant," 1822-1824 Interlude 3. The Second Arctic Overland Expedition, 1824-1825 Chapter 6. Second Journey to the Western Arctic, 1824-1826 Chapter 7. Journey to the Polar Sea, 1826-1827 Chapter 8. Augustine, Ullebuk, and Moses, 1827-1830 Interlude 4. The Northeast Expedition, 1830 Chapter 9. The Ungava Adventure, 1830-1833 Chapter 10. "Faithful, Disinterested, Kind-Hearted Creature," 1833-1834 Chapter 11. The Families, 1834-1863 Epilogue Memorials Acknowledgements Glossary Notes Index
"'Augustine Tataneuck never became a house- hold name, in Canada or anywhere else,' Fossett writes in her crisp, accessible prose. But his was a remarkable life, at a remarkable moment in history. Fossett has captured all of that and more in an impressively researched, thoughtfully organized, and essential work: a triumph of biography." -Literary Review of Canada "Fans of Arctic history will find this book a highly engaging read." -Canada's History Magazine "Renee Fossett's careful research ensures that the life of Augustine Tataneuck, Inuk interpreter and guide, will be remembered, with respect." -Julie Rak, co-editor of Life Among the Qallunaat "Fossett has done a formidable job." -Winnipeg Free Press
