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The Bloody Falls massacre was an incident believed to have taken place during Hudson Bay Company employee
Samuel Hearne Samuel Hearne (February 1745 – November 1792) was an English explorer, fur-trader, author, and naturalist. He was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, actually Coronation Gulf, via the ...
's exploration of the
Coppermine River The Coppermine River is a river in the North Slave and Kitikmeot regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. It is long. It rises in Lac de Gras, a small lake near Great Slave Lake, and flows generally north to Coronation Gulf ...
for copper deposits near modern-day
Kugluktuk Kugluktuk (, ; Inuktitut syllabics: ; ), formerly known as Coppermine until 1 January 1996, is a hamlet located at the mouth of the Coppermine River in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada, on Coronation Gulf, southwest of Victoria Islan ...
,
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'', ...
, Canada on 17 July 1771. Hearne's original travelogue is now lost, and the narrative that became the famous story was published after Hearne's death with substantial editorializing. The narrative states that
Chipewyan The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene Indigenous Canadian people of the Athabaskan language family, whose ancestors are identified ...
and "Copper Indian"
Dene The Dene people () are an indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages. ''Dene'' is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term "Dene" has ...
men led by Hearne's guide and companion
Matonabbee Matonabbee (–1782) was a Chipewyan hunter and leader. He was also a trader and a Chipewyan representative at the Prince of Wales Fort. He travelled with Chief Akaitcho's older brother, Keskarrah. After his father died, Matonabbee spent some ...
attacked a group of
Copper Inuit Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Ter ...
camped by rapids approximately upstream from the mouth of the Coppermine River.


Prelude

Towards the end of May 1771, Samuel Hearne began to notice that the Chipewyan Indians accompanying him on his expedition had motives other than his planned survey of the Coppermine River. On the party's arrival at Peshew Lake, Matonabbee and a number of the men accompanying Hearne began to make arrangements for their wives and children to be left behind. When the party arrived at Clowey Lake, each of the Chipewyan men crafted shields from thin boards, wide and long. Hearne noted that his party was joined by a number of Indians who were solely interested in propagating a war against the Inuit. In the travel narrative describing his journey, he claimed that, as the group advanced north into Inuit territories, it became evident that his companions were gradually plotting an act of "savage", "shocking", and "brutish" violence. The Dene people of the area claim, however, that Hearne himself was not present at the event, while Hearne's contemporaries further questioned his claims. The oral history of the Inuit-Dene conflict also does not reflect the Bloody Falls story. Hearne began to remonstrate with his guides but failed in his attempt. He wrote of the events, "I endeavored as much as possible to persuade them from putting their inhuman design into execution; but so far were my intreaties from having the wished-for effect, that it was concluded that I was actuated by cowardice." On 1 June 1771, the few remaining women and children were left behind by the party, as well as the dogs and the heavy luggage, and a group of about 60 men advanced north towards the Coppermine River. On 2 July 1771, the party came across a group of Copper Indians, who learned the purpose of the exploration party's journey and supplied them with canoes and other necessities. However, 17 men abandoned the exploration party in the coming days, claiming that the difficulty of the trek outweighed the pleasure that was to be derived from killing the Inuit. The remaining members of the exploration party arrived at the Coppermine River on 14 July 1771. Three scouts were sent to locate any Inuit who might have been camping near the river, as Hearne commenced his survey. The scouts returned on 16 July 1771 and reported that five Inuit tents had been found on the west side of the river. This news brought the survey work to a complete halt, and the men began to prepare for war.


Massacre

Just after midnight on 17 July, the Dene set upon the
Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...
camp and killed approximately 20 men, women and children. Hearne was traumatized by the massacre, saying "I am confident that my features must have feelingly expressed how sincerely I was affected at the barbarous scene I then witnessed; even at this hour I cannot reflect on the transactions of that horrid day without shedding tears." He claims to have named the waterfall
Bloody Falls Bloody Falls (or Bloody Fall, or Kogluktok, meaning "it flows rapidly" or "spurts like a cut artery" in Inuktitut) is a waterfall on the Coppermine River, in the Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park of Nunavut, Canada. It was the site of the Blood ...
.


Legacy

The site of the massacre, which was the traditional home of the Kogluktogmiut, is now located in Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park near
Kugluktuk Kugluktuk (, ; Inuktitut syllabics: ; ), formerly known as Coppermine until 1 January 1996, is a hamlet located at the mouth of the Coppermine River in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada, on Coronation Gulf, southwest of Victoria Islan ...
,
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'', ...
. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1978, however its designation as a historical site was not due to it being the site of the purported massacre, rather due to it being a "traditional fishing site, also containing small caribou hunting stations, that record the presence of Pre-Dorset, Thule, First Nation and Inuit cultures over the past three millennia." The incident is referred to in the John Newlove poem ''Samuel Hearne in Wintertime''.


See also

* List of massacres in Canada


References


External links


Youth Links – The Story of Bloody Falls
Short article written by three Kugluktuk students.
Samuel Hearnes' Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean – Login RequiredThe Canadian Encyclopedia: Bloody Falls
{{Coord, 67, 44, 39, N, 115, 22, 00, W, type:river_region:CA-NU_scale:10000, display=title, name=Bloody Falls Massacre Conflicts in 1771 Massacres in 1771 Kitikmeot Region Inuit history First Nations history History of the Arctic Massacres by First Nations 1771 in North America 1771 murders in North America 18th century in Canada Indigenous conflicts in Canada 18th century in the Arctic 1771 in Canada Dene Copper Inuit