In the midst of one of these groups was my old acquaintance and Indian belle, who will be remembered by the readers of Sir J. Franklin’s narrative under the name of Green Stockings. Though surrounded by a family, with one urchin in her cloak clinging to her back, and sundry other maternal accompaniments, I immediately recognised her, and called her by her name; at which she laughed, and said “she was an old woman now,” — begging, at the same time, that she might be relieved by the “medicine man, for she was very much out of health.” However, notwithstanding all this, she was still the beauty of her tribe; and, with that consciousness which belongs to all belles, savage or polite, seemed by no means displeased when I sketched her portrait.
George Back
Northeast of Lake Aylmer
July 3, 1834
Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Franklinʼs historic overland journey to the shores of the polar sea