Drum Dancing at Igluqpait,1892

Words by Charles Arnold

ON JULY 14, 1892, THE HUDSON’S BAY Company’s ship Wrigley arrived at Fort McPherson, the northernmost stop on its annual voyage down the Mackenzie River to resupply the HBC’s trading posts and pick up furs. Waiting on shore were Inuvialuit who had travelled there from the coast and, as was their usual practice, they held a drum dance to celebrate the arrival of the ship. What made this celebration of particular interest was that two of the passengers on the Wrigley took pictures, providing us with the earliest known photographs of an Inuvialuit drum dance.

The Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort McPherson on the lower Peel River, near the head of the Mackenzie River Delta, in 1840. This had long been traditional Gwich’in territory, and for the first few years only Gwich’in traded there. By the late 1840s, however, Inuvialuit also began to visit the post. Impressed by the size of the buildings, they called Fort McPherson Igluqpait (‘big houses’).

The Inuvialuit who traded at Fort McPherson travelled there from their villages at the mouth of the Mackenzie River in large flotillas of qayaqs and umiaqs, covering a distance of more than 300 kilometres in about 10 days. They timed their journey to coincide with the expected arrival of the new supplies at the post, but in 1892, the Wrigley was late and many Inuvialuit had already left to prepare for the summer beluga whale hunt in the Mackenzie River estuary. Only about 30 men, women and children remained behind.

The three dancers, left to right, are Toweachiuk, Arnigasak and possibly Takochikina. Seen behind Arnigasak’s right hand is her husband, Kokhlik, with a drum. Arnigasak and another woman behind her left hand are wearing dresses made of calico. All others are wearing skin clothing (James McDougall/Hudson’s Bay Company Archives).

The two passengers on the Wrigley who memorialized the drum dance in photographs were James McDougall, an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company who was inspecting the company’s trading posts along the Mackenzie River, and Elizabeth Taylor, an American travel writer. Both carried Kodak film cameras that had become commercially available just four years before. These small, portable cameras were a welcome alternative to the larger, cumbersome and more expensive cameras that used glass plates, and made photography available to the general public. McDougall and Taylor were some of the first travellers to the North who used this new technology.

Five photographs of the 1892 drum dance at Fort McPherson are known to exist. Each shows dancers in the foreground and drummers and others, some who were probably singing, in the background. Neither McDougall nor Taylor provided names of the people in their photographs, but tentative identifications have been made of a few of the individuals from other sources. Spellings used here appear as they were written in early documents.

Three photographs taken by James McDougall, which are now in the collections of the Hudson’s Bay Archives at the Manitoba Museum, show the most details.

Arnigasak is now in the background, and another woman has joined dancers Takochikina, who is out in front, and Toweachiuk, seen behind his right hand (James McDougall/Hudson’s Bay Company Archives).

Two pictures of drum dancing that were taken by Elizabeth Taylor are in her personal album of photographs from her trip, which is now at the Minnesota Historical Society. They were taken from a different angle than McDougall’s photographs, but appear to show the same drum dance.

In addition to bringing back photographs, Elizabeth Taylor also purchased a number of items from some of the Inuvialuit, including a drum that may be one of those shown in these five photographs. The drum and other souvenirs of her visit to Fort McPherson are now in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, in New York.

The photographs taken by McDougall and Taylor are mute, but they evoke the power of an ancient drum dancing tradition that continues today. Although the actual songs may be unknown, those who are familiar with Inuvialuit drum dances can imagine the rhythmic beating of the drums and the motions of the dancers as they act out the words as they are sung.

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The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. William Vanest in accessing Elizabeth Taylor’s photographs and identifying of some of the individuals shown in the photographs featured here.