Jumbo (Russell Frederick) Fraser
Born in Fort Chipewyan December 19, 1937 To parents Roderick Richard and Mable Ellen (Louttit) Fraser Baptised in St. Paul's by Rev. G. A. Crawley January 23, 1938 Sponsored by godparents Eva Margaret Wylie and Peter Henry Fraser Died in Fort McMurray November 15, 2022 Buried in Fort Chipewyan November 21, 2022
R.I.P. old friend of many...
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| Jumbo at the celebration of his niece Teara Fraser opening her airline Iskwew Air at Vancouver Airport on International Women's Day, March 8, 2019. Iskwew, a Cree word for woman, more broadly means “the home fire that blazes in the hearts of the woman.” This term speaks directly to the traditional role and responsibility of Indigenous women to maintain strong social networks within the community to preserve common identity. The name celebrates the first Indigenous woman-owned airline, all women, and all those lifting women. It was chosen as an act of reclamation of womanhood, matriarchal leadership, and language. |
Jumbo made many contributions to The North blog. His great memory, love of his home town, and willingness to help gave me many leads in understanding Fort Chipewyan's history. In this post I will try to recollect some of the conversations we shared.
Jumbo was ten years older than me, so I didn't really have much to do with him when we lived in Chip. I went to the public school with his younger siblings - Hilda, Johnny and Edith come to mind, and of course I remember his mother Mabel who always led the congregation singing hymns. How much his family must miss him. And the town. And his wide circle of friends everywhere....
I was invited to Hilda's thirteenth birthday party, April 13, 1960. I must admit I was a bit in awe of Hilda. Although she was only a year older than me, I was still a kid while she was a developing young woman. She and Jumbo jived in the living room in the Fraser's big house - a wild and crazy performance that blew me away - that man could dance! Another time when I was visiting the Frasers Jumbo ate 22 pancakes, apparently a family record. That morning was the first and only time I tasted beaver tail. Once Jumbo's brother Johnny told me about the last caribou migration through the town, I think it was in 1951. Thirteen-year-old Jumbo ran out into the herd in the yard and brought one down with an ax! My long-lasting memory of Jumbo from my childhood was his enthusiastic friendship with our teacher Sarah. When writing the post about the Public School I phoned Jumbo to ask how to spell her last name, and he told me he is still in contact with her, and then phoned her to check my dates. Typical of him to keep his friends for life. I asked him if he could remember the hallowe'en when my father fired his shotgun to scare off the guys prowling around the teacherage trying to spook Sarah and Alice. He said he heard about that, but wasn't with that pack of boys as by then he already "had his foot in the door..."
I contacted Jumbo several times in the last year. He helped me with the location of Fort Wedderburn on Potato Island, the first public school building in old photographs, who built the Loutit, Fraser, Wylie and Flett houses, the history of Lily's on Wylie, the first Indian Affairs house, the public school moving to Edward Loutit's lot for the Junior Park Wardens, his father Roddy finding Edouard Trippe de Roche sitting on his skidoo in a skiff sunk in the Embarras delta mud, the fire that destroyed the Hamdon & Alley store, and the tragedy of the HBC store burning on New Years Eve, 1950. Jumbo's good friend Victor Mann, his brother Jim Mann and a Bay clerk perished in that fire - their residence was above the store. We had long delightful conversations both by phone and Facebook Messenger.
I asked Jumbo one time if he knew about N****r Island which I was surprised to see named on a map in Kevin Timoney's book on the Peace-Athabasca Delta. He recalled, in great detail, the US Army docking at the wharf with a barge of Black soldiers enclosed behind a fence. "They kind of scared me," he said, "I had never seen a Black man before." This would have been in the summer of 1942, when the US Army was moving troops to build airstrips to support the Canol project in Norman Wells, so Jumbo was five years old. The US Army built the radio buildings, towers and residences for the Royal Canadian Corp of Signals that summer. He said the white soldiers set up camp in town, but Black soldiers were placed in an island camp two miles down the Rivière des Roches. Every day a few soldiers would leave town on an amphibious "Duck", returning in the afternoon. He waited impatiently for their return as they would give him a tin of rations that opened with a key. He chuckled to remember how much he enjoyed that...
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| DUKW, also called the Duck, was a 2.5-ton six or eight wheel amphibious truck built by General Motors that was used in WWII by the U.S. Army and Marine Corp. |
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| This 1942 U.S. Army B ration was likely the treat that Jumbo would have waited for daily... |
Jumbo's family has a long connection with Fort Chipewyan, the fur trade and the HBCo. His great great grandfather Colin Fraser Sr. was hired as a piper by Sir George Simpson in Stromness, Scotland in 1827, competing with two others for the job. He brought with him a complete Highland costume and two bagpipes to serve as Simpson's personal piper, accompanying him on fort inspections throughout Rupert's Land. Colin became factor at Jasper's House in 1835 and raised a family with his Cree wife Nancy Beaudry. His son Colin Fraser Jr., Jumbo's great grandfather, moved to Fort Chipewyan with his wife Flora Rowland in 1887. He sold his property in what is now downtown Edmonton and used the proceeds to establish a very successful independent fur trade from his store near Little Island, west of the RC Mission. Their family of seven children married into Flett, Loutit, Wylie, McKay and other local families, making Jumbo proudly related to many of Fort Chipewyan's residents.
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| Colin and Flora Fraser with their three daughters Maria, Louise and Mary, two granddaughters and an unidentified woman in about 1910-1920. Note the style of his moccasins. |
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Colin Fraser's daughter Louise Wylie beside her house with one of her grandfather's bagpipes. Her son Horace donated these pipes to the Provincial Museum in Edmonton, where they were placed on display.
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Colin Fraser Sr's Highland costume and bagpipes made a huge impression on local people. The following is from
Through the Eyes of Others, an article on Colin Fraser in Nature Alberta, Winter 2014.
"One white man was dressed like a woman, in a skirt of funny colour. He had whiskers growing from his belt and fancy leggings. He carried a black swan which had many legs with ribbons tied to them. The swan’s body he put under his arm upside down, then he put its head in his mouth and bit it. At the same time he pinched its neck with his fingers and squeezed the body under his arm until it made a terrible noise."
Colin's elder brother John Fraser and his wife Sarah had substantial land in Edmonton on what is now Ada Boulevard. They built a cabin in 1871, and in 1908 added a large house known as the Fraser Mansion. The property was purchased by Concordia College in 1924 after John died. The buildings were being used as residences when I attended Concordia in 1963-65. The cabin, which may be the oldest surviving Edmonton structure, has since been moved to a rural property near Lindbrook.
Jumbo invited me to stay at his B&B
Lily's on Wylie which he operated in the house that once belonged to his cousin(?) Lily Wylie, but I postponed the visit for too long.....
Jumbo's funeral was on November 21, 2022 at St. Paul the Apostle Anglican Church in Fort Chipewyan. The service was recorded and posted on his Facebook page, Fred R Fraser. The excellent 18-minute eulogy by Pierre? Peter? ? starts at 38:30. Check it out and hear more about this amazing man's life.
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"The late Fred "Jumbo" Fraser of Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation looks out at the expanse of Lake Athabasca"
From "Lifeblood: Fort Chipewyan's relationship to water", Canadian Geographic, September 2023. |
