I don’t know the real title. I suspect the character names, except possibly the central female character, are French. I probably read it between 1968-1972. An orphaned girl lives with a family of French-Canadian fur trappers, possibly on the St. Lawrence River. The girl is a young adolescent at the time of the story. She was seriously ill with a fever as a child and they cut her long dark hair to her shoulders. She keeps it that way, because it suits her, and wears a blue ribbon in it. There at least two sons in the family. One of the sons, an artist, is attacked by a bear. His hand is mauled and the father amputates it with a fire place poker. He survives but is depressed and the girl spends a lot of time trying to cheer him up. The eldest son is secretly jealous. He and the father leave to hunt and return with bundles of animal pelts. The father reveals that the older son is in love with her and carried her ribbon with him.