liberated Clarke. Arrested by the persistent Samuel Black in October on charges of attempted murder and imprisoned in Fort Chipewyan (Alta), Robertson contrived to smuggle out messages to his men which

district, the NWC was far more strongly established than the HBC. The explorers therefore stayed at the NWC’s Fort Chipewyan (Alta) rather than at the HBC post. Through correspondence with Willard Ferdinand

colony and the United States. An Athapaskan tribe, the Chipewyans, occupied the basins of the Churchill, Athabasca, and Mackenzie rivers. Red River

young Chipewyan guides and reached the east end of Lake Athabasca. The six-week return trip was accomplished under difficult and sometimes hazardous conditions. The route surveyed, however, proved to be a

, devoutly religious, and affectionate family. Both his parents were westerners, and he is said to have had one-eighth Indian blood, his paternal grandmother being a Franco-Chipewyan Métisse. Louis