Talk:Norway House

What happened to the Norwegians?
I"d never heard of Norwegians in Canada this early on, and so wondered at the Norwegian settlements category....I see the article says they were probably ex-convicts and the place was built in 1917. The Norway House Cree Nation website says, however:
 * Norway House received its name when the Hudson´s Bay Company established a post near the outlet of Lake Winnipeg (1814) and recruited Norwegian labourers to build it. They name the new post after the Norwegian (Norway House) labourers in recognition of their exceptional building skills.

There were still close ties between Orkney and Norway at this time, so I gather someone in Orkney must have called on Norway looking for builders and maybe there was a deal for a certain group's release; would be interesting to find out that background. but what happened to them? Were they sent back to Norway or elsewhere, or did they settle in Manitoba? How many were there? Could it be that their shipbuilding skills/heritage influenced the development of the York boat? I"m also wondering if, due to the name "attracting" them, there were other Norwegian settlers later in the 19th Century, once full-scale Norwegian emigration to Canada began? I'm thinking Category:History of Norwegian Canadians might be a more suitable category than a "settlements" one, though there's at present no similar categories for other ethnicities...it's just unless they actually settled here, or this later became a Norwegian Canadian settlement colony, that category's not really appropriate; the conflict of dates is also an issue.....Skookum1 (talk) 14:49, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Norwegians in the Selkirk Settlement 1815-1870

 * Norwegians are mentioned by Emile Petitot as being at Methye Portage in 1862 so they must have been involved in the fur trade for some time. (see En route pour la mer Glaciale (Page 271)) -- Kayoty (talk) 18:26, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

(See also) The quotes are from: Norwegians in the Selkirk Settlement 1815-1870 By Paul Knaplund (Volume VI: Page 1)
 * Selkirk recruited 13 or 15 Norwegians (possibly prisoners of war) "to build winter roads from York Factory to the interior".
 * "The little band sailed from Yarmouth on June 10, 1814, on the Hudson's Bay Company's ship the "Prince of Wales." "."The ship, which carried a considerable number of settlers for the Red River, arrived at York Factory on September 3, 1814. When the passengers disembarked, some of the Norwegians were sent to Moose Factory at Moose River, James' Bay, while the rest accompanied Holte to the spot where the Jack River emptied into the northern end of Lake Winnipeg. Here they spent the winter clearing land and building a station that was later known as Norway House."
 * "Colin Robertson, a Scotsman in the service of Lord Selkirk, who in 1815 and succeeding years played an important role in affairs at the Red River, arrived at this place in the spring of 1815, and he noted in his journal July 21, 1815, that Holte and his Norwegians had cleared about one acre of land and had built two small huts at "the Winnipec Settlements."
 * "The first man killed at Seven Oaks was a Norwegian, "Lieutenant" Holte, who, as the leader of a small band of Norwegians, had arrived at York Factory in September, 1814." -- Kayoty (talk) 20:26, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Reindeer?
I was reading some historical documents about the Red River Settlement, and I came across a reference to Norway House in George Bryce's The Five Forts of Winnipeg (1885) that has me a bit stumped. In a section talking about the Highlanders leaving the Red River Settlement in 1815 during the Pemmican War, Bryce comments about Norway House:

"... to the north end of Lake Winnipeg to the Hudson's Bay Company fort of Jack River, since that time known as Norway House, from the circumstance, it is said, that a number of Norwegians were brought out to that point to endeavour to introduce the reindeer as a beast of transport in Rupert's Land."

- George Bryce

In The Collected Writings of Lord Selkirk 1810–1820, there is an offhand reference that states

"The contingent of Norwegians sent to accompany the shipment of reindeer (which Selkirk and the Company hoped to breed and use to pull sleighs in a winter transportation linkup between the colony and York Factory) would be sent to Playgreen Lake."

- J. M. Bumsted

Try as I might though, I can't find any other references to this. Has anyone else heard this story? Littlejohn657 (talk) 05:51, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Shared name
While it is clear that "Norway House" is the name of more than one entity, the way it's currently written makes it sound as if there are three completely separate locations quite distant from each other, and all of them - just by a crazy coincidence - happen to have exactly the same name. Please, someone who understands the situation, rewrite the sentence about the shared name so that it makes sense to a random person who has never heard of Manitoba. TooManyFingers (talk) 02:37, 31 July 2023 (UTC)