History

Sila was born to an Inuit fur trader and the French-Indian daughter of a fur trader. According to Jus sanguinis, the ‘right of blood,’ he would be considered French because of his mother’s claimed nationality and Canadian because of his father's. His Inuit relatives (of the Labrador’s Inuit-Métis variety) have believed him Inuit by the principle of jus soli, which means the ‘right of soil,’ since he was born in Newfoundland.

Sila’s mother, Noel, did not look mixed; she appeared a delicate French rose. His father was tall and considered imposing by the Canadians of Newfoundland, whereas other Inuit saw him as a protector. By the time he was five, the Canadians had taken Sila and other children from their parents. They shipped them to a Catholic Indian Residential Boarding School, †Saint Anthony’s (Windsor) Residential School. This is where Sila believes his life to have begun. His earliest memories were full of service, discipline, and religion. Sila was an exemplary student. He could cite anything from the bible, chapter, and verse, to the point he would correct his instructors if they misquoted or invented scripture. It did not make him many fans when he did this. The reprimands were harsh, traumatic, and even deadly. He never died, but there were a couple of times he came close for speaking out of turn. This is where he learned to think before he spoke.

When his schooling was complete, Sila had trouble adjusting to life as a servant. He left his employer's home without notice the first chance he got, went north, and lived with his family for a few years. After his time in the Residential School, Sila felt he did not belong among the Inuit any more than he did among Canadians. Eventually, he found work with the army. Did he want to work with the army? No, but they drug him along to help track, though he primarily acted as a war artist, documenting their exploits. During this time, the commanding officer took a shine on Sila and paid out of pocket for his services. Living among the Canadians made him tense with just cause, but being among the Inuit made him irrationally uncomfortable.

While working with the army company on various occasions, he abandoned his role as an artist and took up arms or rushed in to defend a soldier in need. Some appreciated it; others openly resented that the artist had to save them in a pinch. Be it out of appreciation or a bit of cheek; the men started calling Sila “Sergeant” or “Sarge.” It was often used in the same respect as one might call a bald man “curly.” Eventually, Sila fell out of love with the work. The commanding officer had changed, and the new man in charge was unwilling to pay the same wage. Granted, his previous employer had been paying for far more than art, not that Sila saw it that way. The other officer had no interest in bedding the artist.

The opportunity came to travel with his uncle, Gaston, Noel’s youngest sibling, to France, so he took that offer and spent April of 1885 getting to know that side of his mother’s heritage. The French were surprisingly inviting to him, and even more when he spoke their language, if only as well as his mother. While in France, he met a visiting artist, Felicité Findlay, who was only there temporarily. Sila took a shine to her and followed her to London. There, he eventually expressed his interest in Felicité and her art community. By the Summer of 1888, they were engaged.


†Saint Anthony’s (Windsor) Residential School: A fictional Residential School near Windsor Lake in St. John, Newfoundland. The fictional school was a Roman Catholic institution where native children were broken of ties to their “questionable” heritage or just broken.