Einar Odd Mortensen Sr. - The Fur Trader: From Oslo to Oxford House

Published by

University of Alberta Press

116 Rutherford Library South

11204 89 Avenue NW

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2J4

amiskwaciwskahikan | Treaty 6 | Mtis Territory

uap.ualberta.ca |

Copyright 2022 University of Alberta Press

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Title: The fur trader : from Oslo to Oxford House / Einar Odd Mortensen Sr. with Gerd Kjustad Mortensen ; edited and with an introduction by Ingrid Urberg and Daniel Sims.

Other titles: Pelshandleren. English

Names: Mortensen, Einar Odd, 19021968, author. | Mortensen, Gerd Kjustad, author. | Urberg, Ingrid, editor, writer of introduction. | Sims, Daniel, editor, writer of introduction.

Description: Translation of: Pelshandleren : mitt liv blant indianere i Nord-Canada 192528. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220219524 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220219664 | ISBN 9781772125986 (softcover) | ISBN 9781772126143 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781772126150 (PDF)

Subjects: LCSH: Mortensen, Einar Odd, 1902-1968. | LCSH: Fur tradeManitobaHistory20th century. | LCSH: Fur tradersManitobaHistory20th century. | LCSH: Fur tradersNorwayHistory20th century. | LCSH: Indigenous peoplesManitobaHistory20th century. | CSH: ManitobaHistory19181945.

Classification: LCC FC 3375.9.F8 M6713 2022 | DDC 381/.4397097127dc23

First edition, first printing, 2022.

First electronic edition, 2022.

Digital conversion by Transforma Pvt. Ltd.

Copyediting by Kirsten Craven.

Proofreading by Kay Rollans.

Map by Eric Leinberger.

Front cover photo : Taken on Roenase Creek by Einar Odd Mortensen, Sr. The photo shows one of two Indigenous men who accompanied him on a trip.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written consent. Contact University of Alberta Press for further details.

University of Alberta Press supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with the copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing University of Alberta Press to continue to publish books for every reader.

University of Alberta Press is committed to protecting our natural environment. As part of our efforts, this book is printed on Enviro Paper: it contains 100% post-consumer recycled bres and is acid- and chlorine-free.

This work is published with the assistance of the Western Canadiana Publications Endowment.

This translation has been published with the financial support of NORLA.

University of Alberta Press gratefully acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Media Fund.

In memory of

Einar Odd Mortensen Sr.

Einar Odd Mortensen Jr.

To

Karoline and Andrea

Ellie, Magnus, and Hedda

Contents

Illustration by Birger Cranner. Used with permission from Birger Cranners estate.

| Acknowledgements

THIS WORK IS A COLLABORATIVE VENTURE, and the editors and co-author would like to thank all of the individuals and groups of people, named and unnamed, who have made this publication possible.

We would like to extend a special thanks to the late Dr. Rosalyn Ing, an Elder of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, who provided valuable advice in the early stages of the project. We would also like to express our gratitude to the peer reviewers who provided us with constructive insights and suggestions during the revision process.

Einar Odd Mortensen Sr.s account was originally written and published in Norwegian, and the version of the text found here is the result of numerous phases of translation and editing. Amesto Translations, Ahti Tolvanen, Marja-Liisa Tolvanen, and Gerd Kjustad Mortensen all contributed to the translation of the text that was eventually refined and edited by Ingrid Urberg.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Arok Wolvengrey, Elder Ken Paupanekis, First Nations University of Canada, Dennis McLeod, and wintranslation for the help they provided us with the Swampy Cree sections in this book.

In addition, we are grateful for the financial support we have received for this project from the Augustana Faculty Deans Initiatives Fund.

Finally, we would like to thank the estate of Birger Cranner (19021945) for kindly granting us permission to use two of his illustrations in this English edition of The Fur Trader . Birger Cranner originally gifted these illustrations to Einar Odd Mortensen Sr., and this is the first time they have been published.

Einar Odd Mortensen in northern Manitoba.

| Introduction

INGRID URBERG & DANIEL SIMS

IN 1925 , twenty-three-year-old Norwegian Einar Odd Mortensen left his job as a farmhand near Oslo to pursue work and seek adventure in the fur trading business in Manitoba. Though we do not know how long he intended to stay, or whether he was considering making this move a permanent one, we do know that he moved back home in 1928. A few years later, he married the girlfriend he had left behind and spent the rest of his life working in the familys furniture store in Osloan urban existence far removed from his three-year stint in what he called the Canadian wilderness at trading posts in Pine Bluf f nearly forty years after Mortensens death in 1969. With this English translation, Mortensens story is now available to a much broader audience.

Mortensens manuscript received a fair bit of attention when it was published by Norways largest publishing house, Gyldendal, due both to the way in which the authors family had compiled it from notes discovered after his death, and to the books setting and northern Canadian content. This geographical region has long fascinated many Norwegians, particularly since the publication in 1931 of the account of another Norwegian temporary migrant, Helge Ingstad, who spent four years between 1926 and 1930 hunting and trapping in the Great Slave Lake region of the Northwest Territories. This book, Pelsjegerliv blandt Nord-Kanadas indianere (Life as a trapper among the Indians of northern Canada), also published by Gyldendal in 1931, was one of the bestselling Norwegian books of the twentieth century, and its English translation, The Land of Feast and Famine , first appeared in 1933. Gerd Kjustad Mortensen believes her father-in-law may have abandoned his literary project due to the success of Ingstads publication, but personal or professional obligations may also have prevented him from finding time to complete the manuscript. It is even possible that Mortensen was inspired to write down his account after reading Pelsjegerliv . Finally, Mortensen may never have intended to publish a manuscript, and may have written down his experiences for only himself and/or his family.