Voices from Hudson Bay (Second Edition)

Cree Stories from York Factory

By: Flora Beardy - editor, Robert Coutts - editor

Narrated by: Michaela Washburn

In Voices from Hudson Bay Cree elders recall the daily lives and experiences of the men and women who lived and worked at the Hudson’s Bay Company post at York Factory in Manitoba. Their stories, their memories of family, community, and daily life, define their past and provide insights into a way of life that has largely disappeared in northern Canada. The era the elders describe, from the end of World War I to the closing of York Factory in 1957, saw dramatic changes—both positive and negative—to Indigenous life in the North. The extension of Treaty 5 in 1910 to include members of the York Factory band, the arrival of police and government agents, and the shifting economy of the fur trade are all discussed. Despite these upheavals, the elders’ accounts demonstrate the continuity of northern life in the twentieth century, from the persistence of traditional ways to the ongoing role of community and kinship ties. Perceptions of Cree life have been shaped largely by non-Native accounts that offered limited views of Indigenous history and recorded little beyond the social and economic interaction that was part of life in the fur trade. The stories in this collection provide Cree perspectives on northern life and history, and represent a legacy bequeathed to a younger generation of Indigenous people. This second edition includes updates to the original text and a new preface.

©2017 Flora Beardy and Robert Coutts (P)2023 McGill-Queen’s University Press

Critic reviews

“With issues of voice and authority now central to scholarly writing about First Nations peoples, some of the most admired models for scholarly work are those that involve partnerships between university scholars and elders—works that present and interpret the words of First Nations people. Voices from Hudson Bay is both an important contribution to this genre of collaborative works and a documentary record of Cree life around a Hudson's Bay Company post.” — The Canadian Historical Review