The
Massacre at Bloody Falls was an incident that took place during
Samuel Hearne's exploration of the
Coppermine River on the 17 July 1771.
Chipewyan and
"Copper Indian"[1] Dene men led by Hearne's guide and companion
Matonabbee attacked a group of
Copper Inuit[2] camped by rapids approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) upstream from the mouth of the Coppermine River. Just after midnight on 17 July, the Dene set upon the
Inuit camp and killed approximately 20 men, women, and children. Hearne was traumatized by the massacre, saying "...and I am confident that my features must have feelingly expressed how sincerely I was affected at the barbarous scene I then witnessed; even at this hour I cannot reflect on the transactions of that horrid day without shedding tears."
[3] He named the waterfall
Bloody Falls.
[4] Wikipedia
(Sorry, in my post above I identified the Indians as Cree - they were Chipewyan.)
I had a friend from Bhutan who was quite hostile about 'The English' and sure that native people in his home country and in Canada must have been peaceful before the British arrived. I told him that I didn't know about his country but I thought that maybe racism was a widespread trait, and I told him about this incident. Although he had never heard about it before and hadn't read any of the journals he was certain that this unprovoked attach on a sleeping village must have been instigated by Samuel Hearne. Actually Samuel Hearne had very little influence upon the Chipewyan that agreed to guide him through the territory - rather than take him directly to his destination they zigzagged about, once they delayed in providing him with winter clothing, sometimes he feared that they might abandon him. He was at their mercy - and after the incident at Bloody Falls he must have questioned that 'mercy'.
White Europeans have not always been the oppressors, nor did we invent racism.