Colonial Despatches

Sudaał (pronounced: shou-dal) Ligeex was born around 1818, to a prominent Tsimshian family.1 Sudaał's father was a Tsimshian Chief named Ligeex—the name, Ligeex (historically: Legaic), was a chiefly title of the Gispaxlo'ots Tsimshian and of the Eagle Clan.2

In 1832, Sudaał married a Métis trader and surgeon, John Frederick Kennedy, helping Ligeex form a powerful alliance with the HBC at Fort Simpson.3 Throughout their marriage, Sudaał maintained a certain level of ‘traditional' power and authority…within the Tsimshian society and simultaneously wielded new sources of power and influence through her marriage to a [trader].4

Sudaał gave birth to several children at Fort Simpson, before moving to various locations, such as Fort Durham, Nanaimo, and finally, Victoria.5 In this despatch, Sudaał is referred to as the mother of Mr Kennedy's children. Sudaał and John Frederick Kennedy both died in 1858 in Victoria.6

• 1. John Frederick Kennedy, Red River Ancestry, 2012.
• 2. Susan Neylan, The Native Christian and Catechist, in The Heavens are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003), 88.
• 3. Susan Neylan, The Native Christian and Catechist & "'Until the Gospel Came and Lifted Her'", in The Heavens are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003), 88 & 124.
• 4. Susan Neylan, "'Until the Gospel Came and Lifted Her"', in The Heavens are Changing: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian Christianity (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003), 124-125.
• 5. Marki Sellers, "Wearing the Mantle on Both Shoulders”": An Examination of the Development of Cultural Change, Mutual Accommodation, and Hybrid Forms at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu‟alaams, 1834-1862, (Simon Fraser University, 2005), 10.
• 6. John Frederick Kennedy, Red River Ancestry, 2012.