James Sinclair (fur trader)

James Sinclair (1811 – March 26, 1856) was a trader and

explorer with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). He twice led James Sinclair
large parties of settlers from the Red River Colony to the Born 1811

Columbia River valley. These were both authorized by the HBC Rupert's Land
as a part of grandiose plans to strengthen British claims in the Died March 26, 1856

Oregon boundary dispute. along the Columbia

River
Monuments Sinclair Pass
Contents Occupation trader and explorer
Early life Employer Hudson's Bay
Red River colonists Company
Later life Relatives William Sinclair
Legacy (brother)

External links
References
Bibliography

Early life
James Sinclair was born in 1811 in Rupert's Land.
His mother was a Cree woman named Nahovway,
his father was William Sinclair, a HBC factor from
Eastaquoy in Harray, and his brother was William
Sinclair, Jr. He was educated in Scotland at the
University of Edinburgh.

Red River colonists Rupert's Land, before Treaty of 1818, showing

location of HBC headquarters York Factory
James Sinclair was appointed by Duncan Finlayson
to guide the settler families to Fort Vancouver on
the Columbia River.[1] Most of the families were Métis, headed by men who were capable hunters
and well-suited to living off the land. They were hired by the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company
(PSAC) to settle at company stations in modern Washington state as agriculturalists or pastoralists.
In June 1841, the party left Fort Garry with 23 families consisting of 121 people.[2] They followed
the Red River north, crossing Lake Winnipeg and traveled in the Saskatchewan River system to
Fort Edmonton.

From there they were guided by Maskepetoon, a chief of the Wetaskiwin Cree. Maskepetoon would
stay with the party until they reached Fort Vancouver, where he sailed home on board the Beaver.
Going through Lake Minnewanka, they eventually reached where the Spray and Bow rivers meet.
Following the course of the Spray River valley, the intrepid British colonists then trekked along a
tributary, Whiteman's Creek. From here they crossed the Great Divide of the Rocky Mountains, by
a new route which became known as Whiteman's Pass.
From the summit, they traveled southwest down the
Cross River to its junction with the Kootenay River.
They entered the upper Columbia River basin via
Sinclair Pass, near present-day Radium Hot
Springs. From there they journeyed south-west
down to Lake Pend'Oreille, then on to an old fort
known as Spokane House, then to Fort Colvile and
finally to Fort Vancouver.

When they arrived at Fort Vancouver, they

numbered 21 families of 116 people.[1] Fourteen of
them were relocated to Fort Nisqually, while the
remaining seven families were sent to Fort
Cowlitz.[3] Despite such efforts, Britain eventually
ceded all claims to land south of the 49th parallel
(except the southern tip of Vancouver Island and
surrounding Gulf Islands) to the United States by
Map of the Oregon Country "jointly occupied" by
the Oregon Treaty in 1846, as resolution to the
the US and Britain, showing final portions of York
Oregon boundary dispute.
Factory Express and Oregon Trail routes.

Later life
Sinclair returned to the Red River Colony. He then traveled to St. Louis, then California and finally
back to Oregon Territory. He also traveled to London where he petitioned Parliament on the rights
of Métis for a free fur trade, which angered Governor Simpson. He and Governor Simpson
eventually overcame their animosity, and Sinclair rejoined the Hudson's Bay Company.

In 1854, Sinclair led a second large group of Red River settlers on a secret journey to Fort Nez
Percés. He had been promised 200 head of cattle by the HBC for doing so. Upon reaching the
Rockies he followed the Kananaskis River south and made a difficult crossing following the Elk
River into the Columbia-Kootenay. He died in an Indian attack at the Cascades settlement on the
Columbia, March 26, 1856.

Legacy
Mount Sinclair, Sinclair Pass, and Sinclair Canyon in the Canadian Rockies are named for him.

External links
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (http://www.biographi.ca/009004-11
9.01-e.php?&id_nbr=4189)
"Sinclair Expedition 1841" (http://sinclairexpedition.blogspot.com/)

References
1. Galbraith 1954, p. 254.
2. Simpson 1847, p. 62.
3. Galbraith 1954, pp. 254–255.

Bibliography
 Galbraith, John S. (1954), "The Early History of the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company,
1838-43", Oregon Historical Quarterly, Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 55 (3): 234–
259
Simpson, George (1847), An Overland Journey Round the World, during the Years 1841 and
1842., Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard

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