Pioneering Women of BC and Yukon.

 In this blog post I will give a short summary of the women chosen by our members for their challenge this year.  As the year progresses I will add to it as they are presented.  If you have missed a meeting and would like to see who has chosen whom you can check back here.

Pioneering Women of BC and Yukon.

Judith

Sophie Morigeau  1836-1916

A remarkable and unusual woman, she lived life on her own terms.  Born of a Metis mother and fur trader father she married at 16 but walked away from her husband and ran a pack train business in BC, Montana and Washington.  She was apparently run out of Golden for bootlegging.  Later in life, having been robbed by her current partners, Sophie quit the pack train and bought a ranch in south east BC, becoming one of the few women landowners of her time.  

After an accident where she lost and eye she took to wearing a patch and later on bright green glasses.  When she broke a rib which protruded out of her body, legend is that she amputated it herself and hung it in her cabin with a pink bow.  It is also said that some of Sophie's men friends disappeared under strange circumstances when they didn't leave as requested.

In general, Sophie is described as friendly, assertive capable and independent.  A feminist way ahead of her time.

Jeanette

Daphne Odjig  1919-2016

Daphne was born on the Wiikwemikong Reserve on Manitoulin Island in Ontario to a decendent of a Potawatomi chief and an English mother.    She contracted rheumatic fever at 13 and had to leave school.  Her paternal grandfather, a stone carver, sketcher and painter, gave her artistic instruction while she was at home.  She moved to Toronto following the death's of her mother and grandfather and worked in factories and in her spare time explored art galleries. She taught herself to paint by ovserving and copying works of the masters.

In 1964 she attended the annual Wiikwemikong Pow Wow and was deeply inspried by the proud cultural display.  At this time she chose to redirect her artistic work from a traditional realistic style to a style  that celebrated the traditions of her people.   Her break through into the art world happened when she recieved critical acclain for pen and in drawings about the Chemawawin Cree being displaced from their land to make way for a dam.

In 1971 she helped establish the first Indigenous owned and run art gallery called the New Warehouse Gallery, the first Candadian gallery exclusively representing First Nations art.  Her 8x27 foot canvas, The Indian in Transition, is considerded by many to be her masterwork.

Sandie

Isabella Mainville Ross  1808-1885

Isabella, a Metis woman, was the first female registered landowner in BC.  In 1822 she married  Charles Ross, a boatman for the Hudson's Bay Company.  They moved around BC to a variety of trading forts for the company. In 1843 they moved to Fort Victoria as Charles was promoted to Chief Trader for the HBC.  He died suddenly leaving Isabella with nine children.  

With money left to her in Charles will Isabella purched 99 acres of land in Victoria.  This made her the first female landowner and likely the first Indigenous person to own land in BC.  Isabella named her property Fowl Bay Farm after the area's waterfowl.  Her children attended school while she worked the land and sold livestock and farm produce.  Though she couldn't read or write she spoke French, Ojibway and English.  

A tall handsome stone at Ross Bay Cemetery bears Isabella's name on the very land where she raised her family and ran her farm.