Matonabbee biography

MATONABBEE, leading Indian; b. c. 1737 of Chipewyan parents at Prince of Wales’s Fort (Churchill, Man.); d. after the destruction of the fort in August 1782.

Unlike most Chipewyans, who seldom visited Hudson’s Bay Company posts and then only for a few days, Matonabbee was familiar with Europeans and the fur trade from his youth; his mother, formerly the captive of a Cree band, had married one of Churchill’s hunters after company traders bought her freedom.

Matonabbee was still a young boy when his father died, and Richard Norton*, chief factor at Churchill, accepted responsibility for him. Some time after 1741 relatives of Matonabbee’s father took him away from the post because the new factor, James Isham*, showed little interest in the boy; but when Ferdinand Jacobs became factor in 1752 Matonabbee was again given special attention.

His time at Churchill provided him with an opportunity to learn the Cree language as well as some English, and the years among hi