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THE haunting image of Tete Jaune, a blond Iroquois who roamed the Rocky Mountains in the early 1800s, has fired men's imagination for over a century. It inspired Howard O'Hagan to write the novel Tay John, a Canadian classic set in the 1880s. It gave rise to numerous theories to account for Tete Jaune's presence in the west, and equally numerous speculations about his identity. Yellowhead Mountain, Yellowhead Lake, Yellowhead Pass, and the village of Tete Jaune Cache, commemorate him. His profile guides travellers along Yellowhead Highway 16, which stretches from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Portage la Prairie, and BC's Highway 5 from Kamloops to Tete Jaune Cache. Yet little is known about him.
Howard O'Hagan's Tay John was conceived of an Irish evangelist and a Shuswap native woman. The historical Tete Jaune's lineage is less precise; even his name has caused much confusion. The muddle started in 1819 when Colin Robertson, a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) officer at St. Mary's on the Peace River, wrote that a group of Baymen embarking for New Caledonia was accompanied by "Pierre Hatsinaton, Guide." When the letter was copied in the fort's journal it read "with the Tete Jaune, Guide." However, account books of both the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company (NWC) refer to "Pierre Bostonais (dit Tete Jaune)."(f.1) Pierre may well have been christened Hatsinaton but called "Bostonais" to denote his origin or residence in the United States. This would lend credence to speculation that he was the Tete Jaune referred to in an 1804-1805 journal kept by a trader in present-day Minnesota:
Nov. 9, 1804: ...this afternoon the Tete Jaune and Son come from hunting Beaver, made an indifferent hunt. paid their debts. gave them 6 Gall Rum. they drank peacably and gave me no manner of trouble.
Jan. 27, 1805: ...this afternoon the Tete Jaune's Son expired after a long and painful Malady of upwards of three Months. his Death costs me a Keg of Rum to content his relatives. he was a most excellent Indian, desired his father to pay his Debt and to be attentive to the White people.(f.2)
Eight weeks later Tete Jaune again visited the post, repaired his canoe, and paddled out of fur trade records...