Matooskie

Matooskie, also known as Anne "Nancy" McKenzie (24July 1851), was a First Nations woman of the Chipewyan nation in Canada. The daughter of Scottish-Canadian fur trader Roderick Mackenzie, Matooskie was abandoned by her father as a young girl, and was left in the care of North West Company trader John Stuart. She was later abandoned by her first husband, John George McTavish. Supported by the Hudson's Bay Company, Matooskie and her family moved to various Hudson's Bay outposts across Western Canada, before settling at Fort Vancouver in the Columbia District following the death of her second husband. In the later years before her death in 1851, she accompanied her daughter and son-in-law.

Early life Matooskie was born to Scottish-Canadian fur trader Roderick Mackenzie and an unknown First Peoples wife taken by Mackenzie during his service for the North West Company (NWC) in the Athabasca Country. Two other children resulted from this common-law marriage. Mackenzie left for Lower Canada in 1801 without Matooskie, placing her and her sister under the care of another NWC fur trader, John Stuart. Stuart and Matooskie eventually moved to the fur-trading district of New Caledonia in what would later become the colony of British Columbia.

First marriage In 1813, Matooskie married John George McTavish, a partner in the North West Company. After the merger of the North West Company with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, McTavish assumed the role of chief factor at York Factory.

Matooskie and McTavish had seven daughters together. However, on a visit to Edinburgh in 1830, McTavish abandoned his family to marry Catherine Aitken Turner. George Simpson, an administrator of the Hudson's Bay Company, helped Matooskie and her daughters find refuge at Fort Alexander trading post, under the care of Stuart and her uncle, Donald McKenzie. McKenzie denounced McTavish for his deception and called for significant compensation for Matooskie. It was settled that she was to be given a dowry of £200.

The abandonment of Matooskie by McTavish was widely condemned, even by those who did not agree with marriage . Rumours spread among the white settlers that McTavish was abusive and a drunkard. In 1838, Le Blanc was assigned to the Columbia District. While stationed there, Matooskie and her family embarked on a crossing of the Rocky Mountains accompanied by two Catholic clergymen: Modeste Demers, and François Norbert Blanchet. On 22 October, a major incident occurred when their boat encountered the dangerous (Death Rapids) on the Columbia River. Twelve out of the twenty-six passengers drowned, including Le Blanc and two of the couple's children. Of Matooskie's children, only Grace survived.

Following her second husband's death, Matooskie and her youngest daughter Grace were given shelter at the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver. Grace McKenzie married fur trader and steamship captain Charles Dodd in 1842. Matooskie lived with her daughter and son-in-law for the rest of her life, accompanying the Dodds in ferrying supplies to HBC posts across the Columbia District. Matooskie died on 24 July 1851 at Fort Victoria in the Vancouver Island Colony.

In June 2023, English professional dancer Kevin Clifton found out he was the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Matooskie on the British series Who Do You Think You Are?.