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My search for William Mackenzie Peter
turned cold on my second trip to the Hudson’s Bay Company archives in
Winnipeg in February 2003. I had gone there to cross-reference daily
journal entries of the HBC out-post at Povungnetuk Bay with the journals
of other trading posts about Mr. Peter’s comings and goings. But Port
Harrison (Inukjuak) and Cape Smith (Qikiqtajuaq), the two neighboring
posts the journals had him traveling to, had no record of him arriving
or departing.
The last journal entry mentioning him by
name was Sunday, September 9th, 1928: “Mr. Peter and
myself along with some of the huskies left the post this a.m. going over
as far as Povungnetuk. We found that the recent sickness had visited the
husky camps over there, and that two Eskimos had died. One, an old man
of Revillon Frères, and the other, an old woman belonging to the
Company.”
I found this entry infuriating in its
casual, matter-of-fact brevity. Here was Mr. Peter, tagging along with
his competitor as far as Povungnetuk. The only small distraction, as the
trail ended in great spatial silence, was noting how Inuit were
described as “huskies”, and regarded as “belonging to” the two trading
companies. There was nothing funny about this, but I imagined my
grandfather burying the old man, while his rival buried the old woman,
each to their ‘property’.
The last thin thread of hope of following
my grandfather’s tracks was severed by an even shorter entry for
Tuesday, September 11th, 1928, stating, “Supply boats
leave for Port Harrison.” I wanted to take this up with whoever was
in charge of the Scottish Grandfathers’ Tracing Agency. “This man was
the father of my mother, and I can’t let him get lost like this! Surely
there must be an employment record, or forwarding address, where I can
find him!”
These futile pleadings of my mind had the
door slammed shut on them by the journal entry for Thursday, November 1,
1928: “Mr. Gravel of Revillon left the first with his servant this
a.m. going inland setting traps.” So, a Mr. Gravel replaces Mr.
Peter as out-post trader. This seemed to be the final termination of my
search for my Scottish Ataatatsiaq. When a search trail turns
this cold, there is no S.G.T.A. to appeal to, no Similar Circumstance
Support Group to lean on.
The only consolation at reaching this dead
end was the thought that, at least the man who had been my mother’s
father was not a figment of somebody’s imagination. William Mackenzie
Peter had actually existed, and that was good to know. Then, I got an
invitation from the British Museum to attend a film festival in London,
England in November 2004. This seemed totally unrelated to my search,
but was to heat it up in ways I had never imagined possible. |
