Charlotte Small

Imagine a young Metis girl with a wiry build. A girl who was shy but also active and alert. She had black eyes and dark hair and glowing, almost copper coloured skin. When she was just six years old, her father abandoned his “country wife” and his three small children in a small village in northern Saskatchewan. It was a common practice back in those days- white men would marry strong, independent women with skills to survive in a rugged land, and then leave them behind as they returned to Europe where they married women who were- in the eyes of some- more “refined”. After she was abandoned, the girl’s mother made ends meet as best she could as a trader and a translator in the fur trade.

The girl learned to read and write at a time when most women were illiterate. She was fluent in Cree, English and French as well as several other indigenous dialects. She could hunt and fish and build a shelter and manage a canoe. She was clever and resourceful with many skills that allowed her to travel not only throughout the wild northern lands, but also amongst the different peoples of Canada.

When the girl was a teenager, she met an older man and they were married-not in a church but in a traditional Cree ceremony in a small northern village. She and her husband traveled over land, through steep mountain passes and burning hot plains, her husband navigating by the stars. They traveled by horseback, fording raging rivers and trudging through deep snow. They traveled by canoe on rivers large and small, portaging as needs be. Her skill with the canoe led to her being called "Woman of the Paddle Song".  They lived in tents and hastily constructed forts. They hunted and fished and were often near starvation until she snared rabbits or caught fish. They were threatened by the Piegan. They traveled 42,000 kilometers in all - from Fort Vermilion to Kalispell- from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Lakes to the St Lawrence. Further than Lewis and Clark. Further than most Canadians.

She acted as liaison for her husband in his work. She was able to speak the languages of the indigenous people they met on their journeys. She was instrumental in establishing good relations between her husband and the people they met. She helped negotiate alliances and find hardy people to help them travel, explore and find enough to eat. Over the course of 12 years, she gave birth to five babies, often traveling with her tiny ones and her newborns. Once her children were nearly crushed by a horse who her husband shot immediately in a fit of rage. Another time her daughter got lost along a river and was found 6 hours later, huddling near a snowbank. Sometimes she and the little ones were left behind at a trading post for months on end.

Her husband called her his "lovely wife" and "the Blood of her people" but rarely mentioned her in his pages and pages of journals. He recognized that her skills gave him an advantage over other explorers and traders. There is no doubt their marriage was one of love and commitment.

When their travels were over, she and her husband settled in the east where they were married in a church ceremony. She never felt she belonged. The skills that kept her family alive were not recognized. Where once having your feet in both worlds was an asset, now being of mixed blood was a liability. Yet she persevered. Two of her children died and she was heartbroken. She had more children. Two more died. 13 children in all. Initially successful in their business enterprises, some bad decisions led to bankruptcy. Her husband’s years of work- the maps he created and the journal he wrote- went unrecognized and unattributed in their lifetime. She and her husband lost everything and had to live their last years in poverty in a room in their daughter’s house. At night the two of them would walk out into the night and look at the stars, perhaps remembering the life they left behind, perhaps hoping they could chart a different course.

Sculpture in Invermere BC. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncF6vTuJupc

Three months after her husband died, she also passed away. They were married for 58 years.

We know him as one of Canada's foremost adventurers and explorers. Would he have been able to accomplish all he had without her by his side? Without her unique knowledge and skills and her ability to live in both worlds?  Some say their marriage helped define our nation. 

We should know her name. 

Charlotte Small.

Woman of the Paddle Song.

Portrait of Charlotte Small. Artwork by Wandering Jayne Creatives.

https://www.westernhorsereview.com/blogs/small-matters/

Aretha van Herk, Travels with Charlotte, Canadian Geographic Journal