1: Fort Smith: NAC N79-004:0157 2: Fort Fitzgerald: NAC PA-101859

Gateway to the Arctic
For centuries, the Slave River system had been the travel route of choice for aboriginals venturing northward. Gathering the waters of the Peace and Athabasca rivers, emptying into Great Slave Lake and continuing to the Arctic Ocean by way of the great Mackenzie River, the Slave was a well-established transportation corridor.

Linking the bountiful hunting and fishing grounds of the Peace River Delta to the south and the Slave River Delta to the north, the river also served as a launching point for further migration to the far north.

When European fur traders began to scout the northern waterways for trade routes in the late 18th century, the Slave once again became the chosen path. The Hudson's Bay Company established a post at Fort Resolution, at the mouth of the Slave, in 1819. Further upstream, Fort Fitzgerald and Fort Smith became the commercial bookends of the famous Slave River Rapids, at either end of the long portage required for York boats and barges. Fort Smith, named after Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona, the man who drove the last spike into the Canadian Pacific railroad, became the present-day government and administrative centre of the river community.

François Beaulieu, Métis Legend of the Slave
Tribal chief, Arctic guide, interpreter, fur trader, salt trader, devout Roman Catholic, vicious enemy, multiple murderer, patriarch and centenarian — François Beaulieu lived a life of contrasts and extremes in the land of the Slave.

Son of a French father and an aboriginal mother of the Montagnais tribe, Beaulieu was born in 1771 at Salt River, on a tributary of the Slave. His contribution to the success of early European exploration has long been

underestimated by conventional historical accounts. In 1793, at the age of 22, he accompanied Alexander Mackenzie overland to the Pacific. As guide to John Franklin in 1825, he led Franklin's men, Dr. John Richardson and E.N. Kendall by boat from Great Bear Lake to Fort Franklin, the most successful boat journey made by naval personnel in the Canadian Arctic.

Terror and Trade: In his later years, Beaulieu, chief of the Yellowknife tribe, became a clever entrepreneur, trading in furs and salt in a cunning network of trappers and allies that mocked and outsmarted the fur trading establishment of the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies. He was eventually persuaded to join the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company, and took over the administration of their Salt River trading post.

Often ruthless and ferocious, Beaulieu was the bitter and brutal enemy of the Dogribs, Slaveys and Sekanis, and is said to have killed 12 people with his own hands. In the prime or his life, he had as many as 7 wives.

Photo: NAC G79-001:0151

Renunciation: Following Beaulieu's conversion to the Catholic faith at the age of 77, Beaulieu renounced all but one wife and became a devoted supporter of the church. He hunted until the age of 85, and lived to be just over 100, leaving a legacy of descendants that still reside in the Great Slave area. The Beaulieu River, draining into Great Slave Lake, bears his name.

The York Boat
Recreational kayakers navigating their sleek craft through the Slave River today can only shake their heads in wonder at the skill and determination of the 19th century York boat steersmen who rowed and poled their way along the river's length.

Designed by Hudson's Bay Company shipwrights late in the 1700's, York boats were flat-bottomed craft built to carry heavy payloads of valuable furs. Built with spruce planking, the boats were rowed by 8 men using long oars.

Photo: NAC Neg#B2880

The craft was directed by a steersman with a sweep, and a bowman using a pole to keep the sloping prow away form rocks and deadheads.

The York boats were more durable than birchbark canoes, and carried twice as much cargo. But they were too heavy for long portages, and when less labour-intensive steamboats were introduced to the river in the 1860's, the cumbersome York boats fell out of favour.