John Ball

[Mike Cleven]

George Lang wrote:
>
> Since the matter of John Ball has come up , I thought I'd append the
> following information from a recent hagiography of Ranald MacDonald, a son
> of Concomly (Lewis and Murakami, 1990)
>
> John Ball opened a school in 1832 at Fort Vancouver "for two dozen half-
> breed Indian children of the HBC employees.  These children ranged in age
> from six to sixteen years and "talked the Cree, Nez Percé, Chinook,
> Klickitat and other Indian languages."
>
> In this context one might read "Chinook" to mean Chinook proper, but the
> following passage from Ranald MacDonald suggests not:
>
> "I attended the school to learn my A.B.C. and English. The big boys had a
> medal put over their necks, if caught speaking French or Chinook, and when
> school was out had to remain and learn a task...."
>
> John Ball's job, as he conceived it, was to discourage Wawa. He "dunced"
> them.
>
> Interesting to note that Cree was at the head of this list of languages
> spoken, also that French was a no-no alongside Wawa.

As it remained long after in much of Kingchauch Illahee until recently;
it's interesting here that the anti-French bias which became prevalent
north of the border following incorporation and colonization was also
represented within HBC culture at Fort Vancouver; the story is a strong
reminder of the presence of French throughout the frontier West just as
much as it is a reminder of bias, however.  I continue to be intrigued
by the "canadien" element along the Lower Columbia as elsewhere in HBC
territories; and how this memory of the French role in colonizing the
West has more or less vanished, even from franco-canadien
consciousness.  Most of these guys weren't "canadien" proper, i.e. from
"le canada" itself; a generations-long migration had seen the birth of a
separate and unique francophone society north and west of the Great
Lakes, especially on the Prairies - where it was heavily repressed,
whether in reference to the suppression of the Riel Rebellion or the
infamy of the Manitoba Schools Act; but in the old days, it was the
French who served the Company more than any other single ethnicity than
even the Orcadians and Hawaiians, the next most notable; and it was the
French who also more readily mixed with the indigenous populations than
did their Scottish and British masters (with the notable exception of
the Irish in post-fur trade times).  It's true today that French has
Native associations across the Prairies and across northern Ontario; and
where French ancestry, if traced back to pioneer times and before, is
more likely to have Native inheritance.  The stigma against French in
Canada is very deep, still; franco-nationalists would jump on the item
you've posted as sure sign of the inability of les maudits anglos to do
anything decently, but the reality is that most of my friends' kids have
been through French immersion throughout elementary school and things
aren't what they were; I'm one of the few of my generation born here
(I'm 45) that I know of who speaks French fairly well, though I wouldn't
dare say I'm literate in it; I learned it from saguenards who moved here
to the skihills back in the '70s and still party in it....

MC