Kenneth Nathaniel L. McDonald (1851 – 1905)
Kenneth McDonald was born in the Red River settlement to Neil McDonald and Ann Logan. His brother Robert became a noted northern missionary. Kenneth was one of the first students taught by Archbishop Robert Machray.1)
McDonald arrived at old Rampart House, Alaska in 1871 where he learned to speak Tukudh.2) Before the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) moved from Fort Yukon around 1870, they convinced the area Gwich’in to keep their alliance and trade into the future so Red Leggings and his Black River people traded at LaPierre House, and then followed the HBC when they moved to the Upper Ramparts [old Rampart House] on the Porcupine River. By the late 1870s, the American Commercial Fur Company had an agreement with Sahneuti, a famous trade chief of the Kutcha-Kutchin, and for two years Sahneuti was in charge of the company business at Fort Yukon. The HBC saw their trade drop at Rampart House for a time as the Yukon Flats people traded at Fort Yukon.3)
Kenneth McDonald worked as a lay minister at old Rampart House, preaching and teaching at First Nation camps and travelling on the Bell-Porcupine route with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) employees. In 1876, he started working for the HBC and was posted to Rampart House for another five years.4)
Many of the Gwich’in returned to the HBC partially because the American had no ties to the community, while HBC trader John Firth was married to a Gwich’in woman, and Kenneth McDonald had Gwich’in relatives through the marriage of his missionary brother Robert McDonald. Kenneth thought that people were influenced by their religion and their missionary. The American traders were affiliated with the Roman Catholics.5) McDonald complained about competition from American traders and asked Hardistry to increase the tariff. Mr. Hodson, McDonald’s replacement as post manager, arrived at the post with Bishop Bompas in June 1881.6) During his time at old Rampart House, McDonald continued to hold church services.7) He built all of the old Rampart church except the roof in 1880.8)
McDonald became the clerk in charge of Peel’s Post [Fort McPherson] in 1881 and moved on to the English River District in 1882.9) He was a member of the Winnipeg City Council in 1884. He retired from the HBC in 1903. He was an active member of the Manitoba Historical Society and was a member of the Archaeological Committee for some years. He was living in Winnipeg when he died.10)