by Nikki Rajala | Jan 12, 2021 | Featured
What’s better on a cold night than to get cozy and hear an old story?. Here is a popular French-Canadian story — the tale of the Flying Canoe. (also known as La Chasse Galerie, The Bewitched Canoe and The Wild Hunt.) It’s New Year’s Eve at a far-flung...
by Nikki Rajala | Dec 12, 2020 | Voyageur
“What did voyageurs do for holidays like Christmas ?” was a question sometimes asked at my presentations. My short answer was “Not so much.” Our favorite holiday traditions hadn’t been invented yet, so none of the Ho-Ho-Ho Santa stuff, no tree or decorations, no...
by Nikki Rajala | Nov 18, 2020 | Featured
At school programs, girls usually ask, “What about girls in the fur trade—were they ever ‘voyageurs’?” Oui, mademoiselle — but not as paddlers. Nearly all women in the fur trade were Aboriginal, invaluable allies who scraped beaver pelts, dried fish and...
by Nikki Rajala | Oct 21, 2020 | Voyageur
As it’s coming on wintry weather, did you ever wonder — What were the voyageurs doing 200 years ago in this season? But of course you did. By October they’d returned to their posts with loads of new goods from the rendezvous, ready to start trading. What...
by Nikki Rajala | Sep 26, 2020 | Voyageur
Are you dying to know what the Ottawa River looked like 200+ years ago? I am. So this 1831 map from Montreal showing the route French-Canadian voyageurs followed on their way to the rendezvous is a real godsend. WOW! It helps me clarify what Andre needs to do at each...
