Constance Cox (interpreter) facts for kids

Constance Cox (born around 1881, died 1960) was a Canadian schoolteacher. She was part Tlingit First Nation. She lived and taught with the Gitxsan First Nation in northwestern British Columbia. Constance also worked as an interpreter for scientists who studied cultures.

Biography of Constance Cox

Constance was born to Thomas and Margaret Hankin in Hazelton, B.C.. Even though she had mixed heritage, she was seen as the first white child born in that community. A bishop from the Church of England named William Ridley baptized her.

Her father, Thomas Hankin, held a big traditional feast called a potlatch. This feast cost $3,000 (Canadian dollars). It was to introduce baby Constance to the many Gitxsan people living in Hazelton. Thomas Hankin used to work for the Hudson's Bay Company. He founded Hazelton using money from his English godmother. He built a store there and also invested in fish canneries in Inverness and Port Essington, B.C.

Constance's mother, Margaret Hankin, was Tlingit on her mother's side. Her father also worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. Margaret could speak seven different First Nations languages. She taught many of these languages to Constance. Margaret later married Captain R. E. Loring, who was an Indian Agent in Hazelton.

Constance met a telegraph operator named Eddie R. Cox. This happened when she was working as a police interpreter in Hazelton. She was helping during a trial for three Gitxsan people. They had been arrested after a conflict between settler miners and Gitxsan people. Constance and Eddie later got married.

Working with Anthropologists

Starting in the 1920s, Constance worked with a scientist named Marius Barbeau. He studied different cultures, and she helped him understand the Gitxsan people. She was his interpreter and sometimes shared information about their history and traditions. Sometimes, Constance disagreed with how Barbeau used her information in his books. Later, Barbeau started to use a Tsimshian chief named William Beynon more often as his interpreter for his Gitxsan studies.

In 1958, Mrs. Cox helped two other scientists, Wilson Duff and Michael Kew. They worked with the Gitxsan community of Kitwancoo (also known as Gitanyow). Constance helped them make an agreement to move some of the village's totem poles. These poles were moved to the Royal British Columbia Museum to keep them safe. She also helped interpret for a book that Duff wrote about this project.

Eventually, Constance and her husband moved to North Vancouver, B.C. This happened when her husband's job transferred him there.