In this painting, Ambassadress of Peace, Thanadelthur negotiates peace between Chipewyans and Cree, paving the way for HBC’s expansion
The marriage of company and clients soon became literal. Although the HBC began by discouraging intermarriage, it didn’t allow European women to live in its forts, either. Human nature being what it is, sexual liaisons were inevitable, but the company was at first surprised by Indigenous marriage offers made to seal alliances—though it soon welcomed them. Like all marriages always, Bown notes, those matches ran the gamut from “mutually loving to mutually exploitive.
Thanadelthur was a young Chipewyan woman from a people to the north of the Hudson Bay Cree. The latter called them “the Slaves” because access to European weapons had made the Cree dominant in their traditional enmity, and Chipewyan women were often captured by Cree raiders.