Flett

George Flett Senior, came from the Orkney Islands. He arrived in the northwest in 1796, aged twenty-one, under contract to work as a laborer and boatman at York Factory. In 1810 he became an assistant trader and later a clerk at Moose Lake, Manitoba, on the Saskatchewan River near Cumberland House, retiring in 1822 to become a farmer. George Senior was described as "a faithful interested old Servant, deficient in Education but a good trader".

Flett's mother, Margaret Whitford, was the daughter of an Englishman James Peter Whitford, who came to the York Factory district in 1788, and an Indian woman, probably Cree. Margaret Whitford was said to be related to the Okanase chiefs.

Margaret (Peggy) Whitford was, in his own words, “an English Half-breed.” Her father, James Peter Whitford, came from the parish of St. Paul’s, London and entered the HBC service in 1788, working in the York Factory district. Whitford married Sarah, an Indian woman, doubtless Cree, sometime before 1795, probably at Severn. From 1813 until he retired, he worked at Carlton House on the Saskatchewan.

According to oral tradition passed on by J. A. Donaghy, a missionary at Okanase from 1909-1917, Peggy Whitford was a sister to Michael Cardinal (Mekis), a “strong warrior, hunter or chief.” Mekis had three wives—of Dakota, Orkney and French origins. With these women, Mekis had such notable children as Keeseekoowenin and George Bone who later became chiefs at Okanase Reserve, and who played a major role in securing treaty protection for their people from the Canadian government. Mekis signed Treaty Number Two in 1871, and Keeseekoowenin and Baptiste signed the revisions to treaties one and two in 1875. If oral tradition is correct, these Okanase chiefs were George Flett’s first cousins.

Other sources corroborate the oral tradition passed on by Donaghy. Osborne Lauder, a descendant of Annie and Lauder (Flett’s adopted daughter), remembers that Flett was related to the Okanase chiefs although he is not sure how. Walter Scott known as Old Baldy, Keeseekoowenin’s ninety-year old grandson, agrees. After Flett’s death, George Bryce wrote a tribute in which he said that Flett was related to the people at Okanase. There is evidence that the Okanase Ojibwa had some French or English background. Isaac Cowie, an HBC apprentice at Fort Pelley in 1869, later observed that the Indians there, “like the Okanase band about Riding Mountain, were remotely descended from Europeans, but born and brought up with the Indians.” Clearly there was a relationship of some kind between Flett’s mother and Michael Cardinal.

When George Flett Sr. and his wife Peggy retired at Red River in late 1823, they already had five sons. They had been married according to the custom of the country, but in December 1823 the Church of England minister, David Jones, legalized their marriage. On the same day he baptized their five sons, George being the third oldest. The Flett family acquired thirty-four acres of land in the Point Douglas area. George Flett Sr. received thirty pounds annually from the HBC.

They had several children including George Flett Jr, James Flett who married Chloe Bird

Emigrants To Oregon In 1841

http://www.oregonpioneers.com/1841.

Another group with settlement goals in mind is found in the Red River Settlement in Canada. Due to unrest in the area a group was being formed to travel to the Hudson's Bay Company settlement at Puget Sound with the intent of farming and furthering their interests in the area.

Selkirk Expedition led by James Sinclair consisted of 25 families from the Selkirk Settlement in the Red River district of Canada. The exact number of individuals attributed to this group in the various reports range dramatically from 80-200. John Flett, who was a member of the expedition states in his reminiscences of the Selkirk Settlement to Puget Sound in 1841 that there were 80 persons in the group. Many of the families were Metis. They were bound for the HBC colony at Puget Sound in an effort to help colonize the Pacific Northwest. After their arrival they found that many of the promises that had been made to them were broken. Within a few years many of these families had moved into the Willamette Valley of what is now Oregon.

BIRD, Chloe ( -1842): m'd 25 Apr 1833 FLETT, James; d/o James Curtis and (Elizabeth) Bird; died in 22 Jan 1842 during childbirth at Tualatin Plains, Washington Co, OR; her husband died the next year.

FLETT, Jemima (c1840- ): d/o James and Chloe (Bird) Flett; taken in by Mckay and John Flett families after parents died