Closing the Research Circle with Sylvia van Kirk

TO: Sylvia van Kirk
Dear Professor van Kirk:


I owe you a lot, and I'd like to pay up in like coin. We've spoken once on the phone via Jennifer Brown, but here's a reminder and update.


In 1988, I picked a character name out of "Many Tender Ties" to use for a canoe landing at the Mattawa River's designation as a Canadian Heritage River. Ten years later, Lisette Duval has been recognized with a national award as the "voyageur officielle" of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System and is listed in theiir forthcoming fact sheet, as well as in my book VOYAGES: Canada's Heitage Rivers. Moreover, as a result of a keynote speech on "Gender and Living History in the Fur Trade" for this year's North American Voyageur Council, there is a publisher and media interest for a full biography of Lisette, as the link to "Vermont's Lost Fur Trade Heritage," with a possible TV tie-in via Old Fort William and Duluth public TV.


Best of all, I found yesterday that the Bennington (VT) Museum collections include a quillwork shot bag made by Lisette for Daniel in 1810, in near-perfect condition. We've located the site of their homestead in Coventry, Vermont (90 minutes straight north from my house, near the Quebec border), and are planning a trip to Montreal to find her grave in Mount Royal Cemetery, Lot G.11 and hopefully their place of death in Sault aux Recollets (North Montreal).


There's a lot more, which I'd be delighted to share at your invitation. Meanwhile, I've become more focused on Lisette's origins as a "Snare (Snake?) Indian from the western Kootenays," and felt it important to consult the expert!


Has any of your research in "gender and race issues in the early settlement frontiers of Western Canada" involved or uncovered the Harmons? Specifically, can you suggest where we might look to find the location of Lisette's tribe, which does not seem to show up in Harmon's journal? I have been working from the later translations which do not include his appendix on the Indians, but have just gained access to an 1820 edition which may yield more data. We would be very curious to trace Lisette's ancestry through her native side.


I know you must be very busy with your own work. Still, we would welcome your interest and advice on this project, which is in its formative stages, and hope it might complement your research. There is a rich and untapped lode of archival materials dealing with the Harmons' Vermont years, and we look forward to shedding new light on the experiences of a femme du pays thrust into New England society, whose seventy years spanned a continent and the final days of the fur trade. Thank you for your attention.


Santé,
Lynn Noel
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Lynn E. Noel
Research Fellow, Institute of Arctic Studies
6214 Steele Hall, Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755-3577 USA