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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Spring 1983

Far Corner Of The Strange Empire Central On The Eve Of Homestead Settlement

William C. Wonders

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Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons

Wonders, William C., "Far Corner Of The Strange Empire On The Eve Of Homestead Settlement" (1983). Great Plains Quarterly. 1709. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1709

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE CENTRAL ALBERTA ON THE EVE OF HOMESTEAD SETTLEMENT

WILLIAM C. WONDERS

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, variously known as the metts, half-breeds, or what is now central Alberta was a region in country-born who played such an important transition. For centuries the area had been role in it. Though they were soon submerged inhabited by native Indian peoples, but with by the flood of incoming settlers, for a few the advance of homestead settlement, it became decades in the late nineteenth century the a marginal part of what J ost;ph Howard has metis made a distinctive but short-lived impact called the "strange empire," a portion of the on the northern Great Plains. The focus here is northern Great Plains that was marked by on this transitional period between unrest at the end of one era and the beginning and homestead settlement in central Alberta, of another.1 The changes that affected the Red an area that is also transitional in its geographic River Valley and later the Valley character. had significant local repercussions in this far corner of the "empire," the valley of the upper SURFACE FEATURES immediately south and east of . Central Alberta is part of the high, western The fur trade provided the initial and domi­ sector of the North American Great Plains (Fig. nant economic base for the European presence 1). In the west it grades almost imperceptibly in the Canadian Northwest. It also contributed into the foothills of the . to the appearance of the mixed-blood people Much of the area constitutes a level-to-undu­ lating surface at an elevation of about 2,500 feet, traversed from west to east by deeply William C. Wonders is University Professor of entrenched, major river valleys. Widely sepa­ Geography at the University of Alberta. A past president of the Canadian Association of Geog­ rated erosion remnants rise above the general raphers, he is especially interested in the his­ surface about 600 feet to form the Hand Hills, torical geography of western . His articles Wintering Hills, and Neutral Hills to the south­ have appeared in such journals as Annals of the east. In the west and southwest, resistant sand­ Association of American Geographers and stone bedrock results in a 200-foot scarp mark­ Scottish Geographical Magazine. ing the edge of rolling-to-hilly highlands.

92 FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE 93

Continental glaciation shaped the present nineteenth century. Most of the area falls surface features (Fig. 2), mantling the area within the North basin, with till. In places the ground moraine is almost draining northeastward to . featureleSl>, in others gently rumpled into slight irregularities. Hummocky moraine gives rise to CLIMATE AND VEGETATION a more hilly landscape (generally from 20 to 50 feet relief, though locally up to 150 feet), Central Alberta is transitional between the as in the western highland region and in the dry plains to the southeast and the humid -Beaverhills moraine, which lies in country to the west and north. Its continental a generally north-south axis southeast of Ed­ climate is marked by long, cold winters and monton. short, cool-to-warm summers. Precipitation Melting ice-sheet water left areas of lacus­ decreases eastward and southeastward, with trine sediments and also carved the great spill­ corresponding differences in the natural vege­ way valleys (locally one-half to one mile in tation. width and 150 to 200 feet deep) in a northwest­ Broadly speaking, there is a natural vegeta­ southeast direction across the area. The major tion sequence in Alberta from short grass in spillway valley southeast of Edmonton is occu­ the southeast, through prairie and parkland, pied by the Battle River, which joins the North to the continuous coniferous forests of the Saskatchewan River at . north and west. These constitute part of the Lakes are common. The largest and deepest broad areas of similar vegetation patterns that of these, in the western and northern sectors, occur across the southern parts of the modern­ supported important fish populations in the day Prairie Provinces .

• Lac L. Biche'

River

o 50 100 km I I I

After Metis Land Rights in Alberta

FIG. 1. The northern Great Plains in the late nineteenth century. 94 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

o

Wavy~ LateU

Forestburg.

~ Spillway valley Sand, dunes Outwash After Stalker, Bayrock and Hughes,et.a!.

FIG. 2. Central Alberta surficial materials.

The area lies mainly within the parkland of aboriginal tribes. Woodland culture peoples zone, with its characteristic original mixture of occupied the northern sectors; plains culture tall grass and interspersed groves of aspen peoples occupied the south. The generally poplar. In the western and northern sectors at westward and southward eddy of the Indian the time of our study, however, tree cover was tribes in the Canadian Great Plains has been continuous and included paper birch, white well established.2 The two dominant and rival spruce, jack pine, and lodgepole pine, as well as Indian groups, the Blackfoot and a part of the aspen, while in the southeast the short grass , had moved out onto the plains initially prevailed, with few if any trees. from woodland regions to the east and rapidly adapted to the new environment. THE NATIVE TRANSITION As recently as about 1730 the Piegan tribe of the Blackfoot Nation was located near the Central Alberta was a transitional area also Eagle Hills south of the junction of the Battle with regard to the major settlement patterns River with the North Saskatchewan, with the FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE 95

Blood and Blackfoot tribes probably on their through the wooded if they wished north and east. During the remainder of the to avoid confrontation with their enemy. The eighteenth century the Blackfoot Indians, "Battle River" (derived from the Cree name) after acquiring firearms and horses, thrust was aptly named for this unstable, transitional southwest, pushing the Snake (Northern Sho­ zone between the two dominant aboriginal shoni), Flathead, and Kootenay tribes from peoples.6 the Canadian Great Plains, while the former The had provided Blackfoot territory in turn was taken over by the fur trade with its most important axis of the and their allies the westward penetration and the setting for many (Stoneys). Explorer David Thompson reported of its most important trading posts, with Fort that the Blackfoot Nation held the territory Edmonton (Edmonton House) paramount. from the Rocky Mountains three hundred Large quantities of the more valuable furs, miles eastward and from the Missouri to the timber for boat building, and , elk, and North Saskatchewan River: the Piegans in the whitefish from the northern and western for­ south, the Bloods along the , ested areas were all available locally. On the and the Blackfoot tribes from the North Sas­ south and east the enormous herds of plains katchewan to the upper Battle River. 3 buffalo provided the large quantities of meat The westward expansion of the Crees and and that were essential to those Stoneys up the North Saskatchewan drove a engaged in the trade. Edmonton became a wedge between the Beaver Indians to the north major supply point for pemmican. and another group, related to southern tribes, The buffalo normally sought shelter from who favored the Beaver Hills between the the winter storms of the open plains in the North Saskatchewan and the Battle Rivers. parkland and the woodland fringe around Ed­ This tribe, later known as the Sarcee, allied monton. The artist commented on itself with the Blackfoot. the "thousands" of buffalo that ranged close One segment of the dominantly woodland­ to the fort, noting that several were shot within culture Crees adapted so well to the life of the a few hundred yards of it, and in mid-December plains people that they became identified as he found a herd of perhaps ten thousand along Plains Cree. As they spent increasing periods the river only ten miles from Edmonton. The of time there, they tended to push the Black­ post itself consumed huge quantities of buffalo foot Indians farther south from the North meat. The naturalist Dr. reported Saskatchewan. Governor Sir George Simpson of that 526 pounds of fresh meat were consumed the Hudson's Bay Gompany, however, still by the 109 inhabitants on a daily basis in Feb­ considered the North Saskatchewan River at ruary 1858.7 Edmonton to mark the northern boundary of In 1847 Kane was impressed with the num­ the Blackfoot territory in 1841. 4 bers and variety of Indians trading at Edmon­ Twenty years later noted the ton: "Seven of the most important and war-like Plains Crees in possession of the Beaver Hills, tribes on the continent are in constant commu­ and the Neutral Hills as lying on the boundary nication with the fort, which is situated in the between Cree and Blackfoot territory. He still country of the Crees and the Assiniboines, and found the Battle River to be Blackfoot hunting is visited at least twice in the year by the ground, however, and "Flag-hanging" (Flagstaff) Blackfoot, Sar-cees, Gros-Vents, Pay-gans and Hill within the elbow of the Battle to be a Blood Indians, who come to sell the dried buf­ "rarely deserted" place of assembly of the falo meat and fat for making pemmican which Sarcees. 5 The southern tribes frequently used is prepared in large quantities for the supply the Blackfoot Trail leading north to the Hud­ of other posts.,,8 Though the Blackfoot Indians son's Bay Company's . The traded at Edmonton and Rocky Mountain Crees used the trail a few miles to the east House, they did so erratically and unreliably. 96 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

The company had abandoned earlier efforts to attractions of the Edmonton area for prospec­ penetrate Blackfoot territory and concentrated tive white settlers. The community developing on that of the more tractable Crees. Because there was neither directly connected with, of the availability of buffalo the Blackfoot nor much interested in, the fur trade. Farmers tribes were remarkably successful in preserving (initially former Company men), merchants, their fierce independence of the fur trade. miners, churchmen, and freighters saw the Fort Edmonton also served as a regional future in terms of linkages with the "outside transportation and supply center for the fur world" rather than in preserving the fur trade trade because of its geographic situation. From past. The establishment of a telegraph link it radiated links southwest to Rocky Mountain between Edmonton () and House, westward to the far in 1877 and of Edmonton's first newspaper, district via the Athabasca Pass, northwestward the Edmonton Bulletin, in 1880 were sym­ to the and New Caledonia areas, bolic of the new linkages and the developing and north ward to the Mackenzie River basin. new society. In 1878 an unofficial census of The fort kept large numbers of horses for over­ adult males, including Indians, gave the Edmon­ land pack trains departing from the North Sas­ ton Settlement proper a population of 148, katchewan River at this point. Boat builders at with an additional 455 in nearby tributary the fort used locally available spruce to con­ settlements; by 1881 the comparable figures struct York boats for the annual supply trip were 263 and 503.10 downriver. The company farm provided for As early as the middle of the nineteenth variety in diet. In 1872 George M. Grant noted century the great days of the fur trade and of that wheat had been raised at Edmonton for Indian nomadic life were on the wane; and thirty years, with a usual harvest of a thousand though the repercussions for native peoples bushels, and that five thousand kegs of pota­ were delayed in central Alberta compared with toes were dug.9 the , they were inevitable. Because the North Saskatchewan River pro­ The various factors involved in the transition vided the main east-west routeway across the from a nomadic to a settled economy have been Canadian Great Plains and Fort Edmonton was set out by many authors.ll By 1870 the the most important post on the river, most disastrous decline in the buffalo was under way. travelers visited the fort. Explorers, European Though Canadian authorities made some ges­ gentlemen travelers and hunters, and scientific tures toward conservation of the buffalo in investigators all passed this way. This diversity 1877, it was already too late. Ruthless commer­ reflected a growing awareness of and interest in cial exploitation and the American government's the West among persons outside the fur trade deliberate policy of extermination decided as they began to see the potential advantages matters. For the Blackfoot Indians the year of the area for individual and corporate benefit. 1879 was remembered as Itsistsitsis/awenimiopi Their increasing interest and presence acceler­ (when first/no more buffalo).12 The buffalo ated the decline of the fur trade era. As early era ended with the decade, although a few as 1862 two hundred Overlanders passed through straggler animals survived into the '80s.13 on their way to the Cariboo gold fields west Deprived of the very basis of their nomadic of the Rockies. Several of those subsequently life, decimated by disease, and dissipated by returned to work in the local river bars. Other American whisky traders from the south until miners from the Peace River and Omineca areas the latter were routed by the North-West were reported in Edmonton by Grant. Mounted Police (who arrived in 1874), the In seeking a North Saskatchewan route for Indians reluctantly agreed to treaties with the the proposed transcontinental railway, the newly constituted Dominion of Canada. With Sandford Fleming expedition, of which Grant varying degrees of hope they agreed to give up was a member, contributed significantly to the the old way of life and settle down on reserves :t?0ldL. WJ

9 *

_,I II,. Hand "II" Hills

Short rich

I I I I I I I I ." I to ". \\ ~ '"

Q] Region generally wooded

E3 Partly wooded ------Trails o 50 Miles I C=:J "Prairie" o 50 Kilometres "Vegetation after Tyrrell"

FIG. 3. Central Alberta in the late nineteenth century. J,I &/ ~,~... ~ettlement ii" 80ss \ // Hill \ l Pilot «;1 Bluff , . '{f c>. \ 0:: I \ - I , (J, \ o 10 Miles ~: \ " I \ 10 Kilometres isl " \ o .?!,' \ \ Trails after Surveyors' Notebooks I \ I \ and 3-Mile Sectional Maps I \ I \

THE BATTLE RIVER SETTLEMENT, ALBERTA (TP 46-R 21-W 4)

J BLANC First settlers identified by name and date of filing, according to homestead records T PARE* Identified at time of original survey (883) North West Half.breed scrip lot River crossing 1 Mile Store/trading post -----,

13

FIG. 4. Late nineteenth century Indian and metis settlements, central Alberta. FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE 99 of their selection in exchange for modest m the valley of the North Saskatchewan south annual payments and the opportunity to ac­ of St. Paul. In the fall they traded at Fort quire farming skills from government-paid Edmonton before moving southwest toward instructors. 14 the foothills. During the smallpox epidemic in the summer of 1870 they took refuge in the Bear Hills, where they found the elk and deer TREATY INDIANS numerous. They also were only a day's journey Under Treaty Number Six in 1876, the Crees from the buffalo plains to the east, yet were and Assiniboines (Stoneys) ceded to the Crown well west of the main Blackfoot trail to Fort all central Alberta as far south as the Red Deer Edmonton. Chief Bobtail and his band had not River. The lands to the south were ceded in been present at the signing of Treaty Number 1877 under Treaty Number Seven with the Six. In mid-September 1877 they came in from three tribes of the Blackfoot Nation and with the upper country, somewhat ap­ the Sarcee and Stoney tribes. prehensively in the midst of the Blackfoot Three clusters of Indian reserves were Treaty assembly. The chief signed adhesion but established in Central Alberta (Fig. 3). In the requested a reserve near within the vicinity of the North Saskatchewan one group limits of Treaty Number Six.16 extended northeast from Victoria to , while north and west of Edmonton was THE BEAR HILLS RESERVES another group. In both cases missions and fish­ ing lakes were important locational factors. The Bear Hills Indians experienced the same The reserves involved Crees primarily (both difficult times as others during the early "star­ Plains and Woodland), but Stoneys were in­ vation years" of the 1880s in attempting to cluded in the Alexis Reserve on Lake Wabamun come to terms with a new world without buf­ west of Edmonton, and Iroquois (mixed-blood falo. Some still hunted other game on Crown descendants of Caughnawagha Indian trappers land (see Table 1), unable to accept the boring brought out fifty years earlier by the Hudson's responsibilities of farming, even though the first Bay Company) in the Michel Calahoo Reserve settlers were already beginning to appear in west of St. Albert. former hunting areas.17 The Crees were vaguely Finally in uncontested possession of the uneasy also about the government's apparent upper Battle River valley, four bands of Plains slowness in surveying their reserves, particu­ Crees selected the vicinity of the Bear Hills for larly when they learned that the reserves of their reserves (Fig. 4). These bands were led by some of their old enemy the Blackfoot had two brothers, Bobtail and Ermineskin, by been surveyed as early as 1879. The local re­ Muddy Bull (a close relative), and by a fourth serves were not surveyed until 1885. chief, Samson. It is reported that these people Other problems beset the local Indians. had previously wandered widely over Alberta Stoney Indians of the district usually camped and even beyond, generally wintering in the near Pigeon Lake or on Wolf Creek near its Kootenay Plains in the Rocky Mountain foot­ junction with the Battle River, south of Bear hills but sometimes down to the Bow River, to Hills. While allied with the Crees, they were Pincher Creek, or even into present-day Flat­ never close friends, and the Stoneys were in­ head County in Montana.15 In spring they creasingly crowded from the Pigeon Lake hunt­ moved out to the edge of the plains (and ing grounds by them. Muddy Bull's band of Blackfoot country), where they hunted buffalo Crees and some metis families also lived on the from the upper Bow River eastward to the shores of the lake, hunting and fishing. With Hand Hills, thence northward to Buffalo Lake, the failure of the fisheries in 1883 and with and sometimes as far eastward as modern starvation threatening, the two bands were Battleford. By summer they usually ended up induced to relocate to reserves at Bear Hills. 100 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

TABLE 1

Indian Reserves between Edmonton and the Red Deer Crossing, 31 December 1882

Location of Number on Number Being Total Number Whereabouts Name of Band Reserve Tribe Reserve Absent of Indians of Absentees

Pas-pas-chase Edmonton Cree 100 88 188 Working for settlers Sampson Bear's Hill Cree 50 113 163 Hunting deer Ermineskin Bear's Hill Cree 100 32 132 Hunting deer Bobtail Bear's Hill Cree 40 45 85 Hunting deer Chee-poos-ta-quan Pigeon Lake Stoney 100 17 117 Hunting in mountains Muddy Bull Pigeon Lake Cree 80 80

Source: Annual Report 1882, Department of Indian Affairs.

Muddy Bull took up a reserve adjacent to central Alberta. Their bewilderment and Ermineskin on the northwest. The Stoneys, disillusionment in this depressing era of transi­ under peaceful Chee-poos-ta-quan (Sharphead), tion might have spread the conflict, had it not found they could not get along with the Crees been held in check by trusted local leaders, as close neighbors and chose a new site to the both native and white. Bobtail alone among the southwest at the junction of Wolf Creek and Bear Hill chiefs wavered in loyalty, although Battle River, two miles west of modern Ponoka. several members of other bands were sympa­ The government training farm had been thetic to the rebels. The only active local established in 1879 on Bigstone Creek at the participation in the rebellion consisted of inci­ Peace Hills, several miles north of the Bear dents in which rebel sympathizers looted the Hills reserves. This location was central for all Hudson's Bay Company store at Battle River the reserves south of Edmonton, but it was and broke into the teacher's residence and found to be too distant for maximum effec­ government stores. Although the trouble tiveness. Treaty payments had been made quickly passed, the problems for the Indians there, but on 's instructions this func­ remained-finding a place in the new settled tion was relocated to the' reserves proper, landscape of the homesteaders. despite the Indians' attachment to those hills and fears that their limited crops on the re­ METIS SETTLEMENT serves would be destroyed by the animals of the assembled bands. Finally, interdenomina­ The metis, or mixed-blood people, were at tional rivalry among missionaries for Indian once a product of the fur trade, an essential souls on the reserves resulted in bitterness and element in it, and a factor contributing to its jealousy among the few Europeans, divided demise.18 They had been present in central band members, and undoubtedly aggravated a Alberta since at least the early nineteenth sensitive situation. century. Both as engages and as freemen they Though the major centers of hostilities in made up the largest group among the non­ the 1885 Riel Rebellion lay in the Cree and aboriginal population of the area. The Hudson's metis districts farther east, an undercurrent of Bay Company relied on them as boatmen, excitement ran through those populations in freighters, trappers, and fishermen. Once their FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE 101 contracts were up they followed their own to join the existing mixed-blood settlements whims and did not hesitate to go into trading and to establish others (Fig. 1). One of these on their own. Their Indian blood came par­ was the Battle River Settlement southeast of ticularly from the Crees. They traded readily Edmonton (Fig. 4). Some even crossed the with all Indian tribes, but there always was international boundary and went to the United considerable distrust, mixed with respect, States as political exiles. between the metis and the Blackfoot Indians. Metis buffalo-hunting parties from the Al­ Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries berta settlements were regularly found in this arrived in present-day Alberta in the 1840s. area. Hector had visited a Lac Ste. Anne group Utilizing the trading posts of central Alberta camped at Hay Lake in March 1858 to recruit as bases, they focused their attention on both men for the Palliser expedition. While success­ Indians and mixed-bloods. Under their auspices, ful in this objective, he found tile "motley crew metis missions were established by the Catho­ with loaded horses and dog's ... travelling in a lics at Lac Ste. Anne (1943), Lac La Biche style hardly different from Indians. ,,22 The (1853), and St. Albert (1861), and by the south end of also was a favored Methodists at Victoria (1863). Some metis base for metis hunters and trappers. In the final families had been living permanently at Lac Ste. phases of the buffalo era the animals were not Anne at least as early as 1830, having lost their as readily available along the Saskatchewan. usefulness to the fur trade after the 1821 amal­ Seasonal settlements of metis came to be es­ gamation of the Hudson's Bay Company and tablished to the southeast in the immediate the .19 Invariably the vicinity of Buffalo Lake at Boss Hill, on the land in these settlements was taken up in the northeast shore of the lake, and on either side narrow river lot pattern characteristic of the of Tail Creek, which drained the lake, imme­ Red River valley, which originated in the diately above its junction with the Red Deer rang pattern of the St. Lawrence valley. 20 River, where a crossing existed. Here, amid the hills at the edge of the open plains, metis from METIS IN CENTRAL ALBERTA the Ste. Anne and St. Albert settlements and Fort Edmonton congregated in crude log cabins The of 1869-70 re­ for the fall hunt in the early 1870s. They were flected the tensions involved in changing joined by other metis from farther east and by economies and societies of the Canadian Great Indian hunters as well. Plains. In its outcome, as William L. Morton In addition to the hunters and their families states, "The metis ... had won a victory for the settlements included private traders, an out­ their la.nd rights, language, and faith .... They post of the Hudson's Bay Company operated had not, however, won a victory for their mode by one of the Scots-Cree Whitfords, and priests of life. The old order by which they had lived from St. Albert during the winter months of was disintegrating before the inflow of 1874-75 and 1875-76. In October 1875, settlers and the rise of a new society founded when the McDougalls, father and son Method­ on agriculture, the railway, and the complex ist missionaries, met here, they found in the commerce of the nineteenth century.,,21 Many "many camps gathered at this time people from metis left their homes on the White Horse Plain all over the central portion of the Saskatchewan twenty miles up the River from its country." These included nomads from as far junction with the Red, in the hope that they as the Red River, to the south branch of the could preserve old ways farther west, a hope Saskatchewan, to the .23 Peak that was to be proved futile in less than two population has been placed as high as two decades. While most reestablished themselves thousand at times, and the potential market along the rivers in what was to become central was sufficient to attract American whisky Saskatchewan, some continued on farther west traders from the south. To forestall them the 102 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

North-West Mounted Police paid a visit in The benefits of the area that were associated January 1875 from Fort Edmonton; they with buffalo hunting disappeared with the noted four hundred cabins in the settlement. buffalo. Fortunately other situation advantages A four-man police subpost was established at came into play to support the settlement. Tail Creek the same year, but a manpower Overland trails on the Canadian Great Plains shortage forced its closure in 1878.24 By that displaced the old river routes for transporta­ time these settlements probably were being tion. These were utilized for approximately deserted already as the dwindling numbers of two decades until they in turn were reduced buffalo 'Mthdrew to the south. As early as 1875 to a secondary and ultimately minor role by the severe reduction in the supply of buffalo the railways. During that transitional period the farther east had prompted 260 families, includ­ Red River carts dominated the freighting ing one-tenth of the traders from St. Laurent, business.28 First described by Alexander Henry south of Prince Albert, to take up winter quar­ the Younger at Pembina in 1801, their useful ters at Buffalo Lake. The decline even there was qualities were quickly recognized by the metis so obvious that the local metis of St. Albert for buffalo hunting and subsequently for gen­ and of Ste. Anne demanded the banning of the eral freighting. These cheap, sturdy, noisy two­ nomadic metis in order to provide wheeled carts soon came to be commonly some safeguard for their own hunts.25 Prairie associated with the metis people of the plains. fires largely obliterated the Tail Creek settle­ Their furrowed tracks between the major trad­ ment remains soon afterward. ing centers and settlements can still be found in isolated places. Though the initial location of the centers reflected the earlier importance of THE BATTLE RIVER SETTLEMENT the water routes, the carts made it possible to Thirty miles north of Buffalo Lake a longer­ take overland shortcuts between them. lived metis settlement became established along Missions and the Hudson's Bay Company the mile-wide valley of the Battle River. The began to make extensive use of Red River carts first families to locate here were those of along the Saskatchewan in the early 1860s. Francois Dumont, his brother-in-law, the famed This development was linked to the increasing buffalo hunter Abraham Salois (Selway or reliance on the Minnesota cart route in prefer­ Selvais) and those of the latter's two grown ence to the York Factory boat route (the latter sons. All these relocated from Lac Ste. Anne in being totally displaced in 1875). Despite the 1875, probably in ord«r to be closer to the shift in outside supply routes, Winnipeg on the contracting buffalo herds. 26 During the winter Red River still remained the dominant base of 1874-75, Abraham Salois, described as "the point for the Canadian plains. The initial cart most successful of the half-breed hunters" at track kept to the north bank of the Saskatche­ Buffalo Lake, made a kill of six hundred.27 wan to minimize contact with the Blackfoot Instead of trading the products of the hunt at Indians. As these risks declined, other more Fort Edmonton, a few metis transported them southerly tracks were opened up. Several of east to the Red River. There they passed along these tracks passed directly through or close information on the attractions of the Battle to the Battle River Settlement on their way to River area to relatives and friends. Thus in 1878 and from Fort Edmonton. the six Laboucane brothers and their families, The early Blackfoot Trail providing access with their mother and two sisters, set out in to the southern plains swung southeast from Red River carts from the White Horse Plain Edmonton, skirting the more heavily wooded west of Winnipeg and settled in the new com­ Beaver Hills by way of the Hay Lakes and munity. The earlier name, Selvais Crossing, ; crossed the Battle River in the soon was replaced by the Laboucane Settle­ vicinity of the Laboucane Settlement; and con­ ment, or the Battle River Settlement. tinued south to the Red Deer crossing at Tail FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE 103

Creek. (From the Battle River crossing a trail and immediately above the led northeast by Beaverhill Lake to Victoria junction of Camrose Creek. These determined Mission.) For a time after the arrival of the the site for the metis settlement that devel­ NWMP this trail was the patrol route southward oped and provided a focus for the cart trails. to the Blackfoot Crossing of the Bow River and From the earliest years many of the residents on to Fort Macleod. Metis traders and freight­ were as interested in freighting and trading as ers used it in traveling as far south as Montana in hunting buffalo. The Laboucanes, for exam­ supply points on the Missouri River. The Hud­ ple, bought furs and pemmican over a wide area son's Bay Company sent an experimental cart during the winters. Three of the brothers had train of furs from Edmonton south to Fort their own stores at the settlement (on River Benton, Montana, in 1870 but did not continue Lots 16, 37, and 40), where the loads were the practice. In 1873 John McDougall estab­ made up for spring departure of the carts. The lished a trail just east of the Bear Hills, south long return trip to the Red River, where the along the eastern edge of the wooded country loads were sold, commonly took up six months. to the vicinity of present-day Olds, and then After leaving the Hudson's Bay Company em­ southwest to his new Stoney Indian mission ployment at Fort Qu'Appelle, where he heard station at Morley on the Bow River. After the of the new community, French-Canadian Leon establishment of Fort in 1875 by the Pare came to Battle River Settlement in 1878 NWMP a trail was made north to join the earlier and opened a store on River Lot 29. Other one. This more direct link between Edmonton families moved in from Tail Creek and from and Calgary soon displaced the earlier Olds­ Red Deer Forks. Still others passed through the Morley sector of the north-south trail. It re­ community while freighting for the company mains the primary highway artery of the Pro­ between Red River and Edmonton, were at­ vince of Alberta to the present day. tracted by it, and decided to make their homes Three major trails to and from the east came there. Some of the local freighters had as many through or very close to the Battle River Settle­ as 150 Red River carts and only the poorest ment. The Battleford Trail from Edmonton had fewer than 25. swung southeastward, passing north of Flagstaff In this fashion metis families located along Hill within the Elbow of the Battle River and on the Battle River for about nine miles west of north of the Neutral Hills. When the Dominion the head of Driedmeat Lake. Land was occu­ Telegraph Line came through Battleford; it fol­ pied in the traditional river lot pattern, although lowed a more direct route westward, north of there were many gaps in the holdings, especial­ the Battle River, to end at Hay Lakes in 1877, ly in the more easterly part. Houses and out­ before finally being extended to Edmonton two buildings were built of logs. It is noteworthy years later. A cart trail followed the line. Final­ that the few surviving relics show no evidence ly there was the important Red Deer Forks or of the "Red River frame" technique of build­ South Saskatchewan Trail leading southeastward ing, despite the origins of the builders. Instead, from the Battle River Settlement. Passing north dovetail cornering was used for the squared log of Sullivan Lake, it led to the junction of the Red houses.29 Homes were built on both sides of Deer River with the the valley but were more numerous on the south at Red Deer Forks. There the Bull's Forehead side. This probably reflected the availability of ford provided a safe crossing from which several spruce for construction on the forested north­ trails radiated out across the plains. facing valley slopes compared with the brush cover on the south-facing slopes. The Battle River itself, here only about fifty THE LOCAL COMMUNITY feet wide, meandered in a tortuous course Three shallow river crossings existed within across the floor of the mile-wide spillway val­ three or four miles on the Battle River west of ley. Little if any direct use seems to have been 104 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983 made of it. It could be troublesome to cross, displaced the North Saskatchewan as the major cspecially at times of high water. The flat valley route of outside contact. Calgary, which had a floor in somc years was transformed into a lake, population of four hundred at the beginning of and was covered with grass and "high willow, 1884, passed the one thousand mark by the end popular bluffs, with patches of scrub.,,30 At of that year.31 best it might have provided some grazing land Joseph Burr Tyrell described the Battle for domestic animals and natural hay crops. River Settlement in 1885: Avoidance of flood risk probably was the At Salvais' Crossing, four miles above [Dried­ reason for the positioning of buildings on the meat 1 lake, there is a flourishing settlement upland, usually about one hundred feet from of French half-breeds, consisting of about the lip of the river valley. The local claim that forty families. They are living in substantial such sites have a warmer microclimate has no log houses, and there is sufficient land under proven scientific justification. cultivation to raise all the field produce that The upland consisted of "rolling prairie with can be used in the settlement. In July, 1885, thick scrub and scattered poplar bluffs." A few wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, turnips and acres were cultivated casually by the metis Indian corn were well advanced, and I was near their homes to provide winter oat feed for informed that for the last seven years there the horses, and there were some vegetable had been no failure of crops .... A consider­ gardens, though these often received little or able number of horses, cattle and sheep were also seen around the houses, and all were in no attention once they were planted in spring. excellent condition.32 The focal point of the community was the , Notre Dame des Sept Doleurs, erected in 1883 on the south side of the valley THE FINAL YEARS on River Lot 43, above the river crossings. An early photograph of the log structure before it By the 1880s, shadows were being cast on was covered with siding reveals the "Red River the future of the metis community, and much frame" type of construction, with squared hori­ of the earlier Red River experience was rc­ zontal logs fitted into slotted vertical posts. peated. The Indians now were confined to the Father Hippolyte Beillevaire, born in France, reserves. Surveyors were sent out to document was successfully deflected from his first mission the extent of the metis settlement already post, which had begun in 1881 at the Bear existing before the arrival of the railways and Hills Indian reserve, to shepherd the young the homesteaders. In 1883 David Beatty sur­ metis community. He remai~ed with it through­ veyed the extent of the Battle River Settlement out its brief life. for the Dominion Lands Survey, designating the The last, limited buffalo hunt involving local river lots in the midst of the surrounding men was in 1883, when five animals were shot township and range system. In Township 46, at the north end of Sullivan Lake. Although the Range 21, West of the 4th Initial Meridian, hunting era was over, freighting continued. The forty-eight river lots were surveyed astride the need for the former long-distance cart haulage Battle River valley. Only thirteen persons were was progressively reduced, however, by the identified as being in possession of these lots steady westward construction of the Canadian at the time of the survey. Although several Pacific Railway. Shorter hauls still were avail­ other lots were known to be occupied at that able northward from the railway. Even after time, the residents probably were away freight­ the railway's arrival at Calgary in 1883, local ing, hunting, or trading. In Township 46, Range freighters continued to haul north to Edmon­ 20, immediately to the east, another twenty­ ton. External pressures on the metis commu­ one river lots were surveyed, but no names were nity now increased from the south rather than identified, and these lots were soon converted the north, as the railway and its new settlements to the sectional norm.33 FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE 105

The local metis became increasingly dis­ He found that twelve of the forty-eight lots turbed by the obvious signs of change-the were still vacant at that time. With the disap­ disappearance of buffalo, the coming of the pearance of their old economic base, hard times railway, the surveying of land for homestead­ were upon the residents and many had diffi­ ers- as 1885 approached. The more numerous culty in providing the ten-dollar entry fee.37 and politically active Saskatchewan metis A minority of the metis retained their sought support from their friends and relatives property and intermarried with the incoming in the Battle River Settlement. Catholic church homesteaders. Others prolonged their former authorities and their beloved parish priest role as freighters for a few years, hauling north managed to counter much of the revolutionary from Edmonton to Athabasca Landing. The propaganda, but the rebels commanded con­ majority, confused by the strange new world siderable local sympathy, and the community and unable to adapt, repeated their former remained very much an uncertain factor until course of action. As Pearce had anticipated, the rising was quelled. these sold out their improvements even before In 1888 it was reported that "the population making entry and scattered northward into of the settlement is made up almost entirely other metis communities or sought escape to of Half-Breeds, who make a living by freighting, the Peace River area. Before the turn of the hunting, and farming. A few years since many century the transition had ended and the home­ of the families now here were residents in and stead era had begun for central Alberta. around Calgary and other southern places of settlement, but the incoming settlers bought CONCLUSION the improvements and land claims of the Half­ Breeds and they moved north to the still distant By the middle of the nineteenth century but verdant valley of Battle River, to join their major forces operated to persuade the Hudson's own people.,,34 By 1891 the railway was con­ Bay Company of the inevitability of change structed north from Calgary to Edmonton and and withdrawa1.38 On the Pacific Coast it with­ the same process was to be repeated in the local drew from the to Vancouver influx of homesteaders. 35 Island, only to have its grant of the island sub­ Some indication of the extent of population sequently revoked, and mainland British Col­ growth, reflecting the influence of the railway umbia removed from its jurisdiction, thanks to and incoming settlers, has been demonstrated the great influx of gold miners. On the plains, by Lewis H. Thomas from census data. In 1881 at a time when most of the agricultural land the total non-Indian population numbered of central Canada had already been settled, 5,400 in the Northwest Territories districts of there was abundant evidence that vast areas of , Saskatchewan, and Alberta-the the company's lands could be used for farming. area east of the Rockies, west of , and At the political level there were fears that the south of 55°N. By 1885 the population had in­ Canadian plains would come under the control creased to 28,192, and by 1891 it was 51,799.36 of the unless something was Many of the local metis had neglected to done. In response to the recommendation of a register to gain title to their properties, as pro­ select committee of the House of Commons, vided for by the 1885 Half-Breed Commission. the company declared its willingness to cede The CPR threatened to take the lots within the land to Canada wherever required for settle­ settlement for which entry still had not been ment. Although negotiations did not result in made as late as 1893. William Pearce, the the actual transfer of title of the Hudson's superintendent of mines at Calgary, was in­ Bay lands to Canada until 1870, the results structed by the secretary of the Department of were inevitable. As Edwin Rich observes, "the the Interior in Ottawa to proceed to the Battle fur trader as such became relatively unimpor­ River Settlement and to attend to the matter. tant .... In 1857 the Company had yielded its 106 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983 case; in 1859 it had forfeited its License for increasingly took up lands around them in the Exclusive Trade. ,,39 1890s, most of the metis chose to sell out In central Alberta the full impact of the rather than settle down as farmers, and once changes was delayed almost a quarter century more they sought to escape into the unsettled because of its remoteness from the Red River north. Their traditional skills were no longer in valley, where the process had already taken demand in the new era. They could not or place. Even so, the changes proved inevitable, would not develop new ones so long as a non­ and followed the same sequence that had oc­ settled frontier offered the illusion of refuge. curred farther east. For Indian and metis alike, the late nineteenth century was but a brief NOTES transition between the old fur trade era and the new homestead era. Arthur J. Ray has pointed 1. Joseph Kinsey Howard, Strange Empire out that the diminishing buffalo range forced (New York: William Morrow, 1952). the parkland Indians to travel ever greater dis­ 2. This movement and the major character­ tances during the latter half of the nineteenth istics of the local Indian tribes can be found in century. It became impractical for such Indians Arthur S. Morton, A History of the Canadian to trap furs in late autumn and early winter and West to 1870-71, 2d ed., ed. by Lewis G. hunt bison in the middle of winter. 40 The an­ Thomas (: University of Toronto Press, nual winter congregations of woodland and 1973); Diamond Jenness, Indians of Canada, plains Indians ceased in the Saskatchewan 3d ed., National Museum of Canada Bulletin no. 65 (Ottawa, 1955); Hugh A. Dempsey, parklands as they had earlier farther east, and Indian Tribes of Alberta (Calgary: Glenbow­ as they did later in Alberta. Indeed, central Alberta Institute, 1978); Oscar Lewis, The Ef­ Alberta saw the last survivals of such hunts. The fects of White Contact upon Blackfoot Culture, ultimate disappearance of the buffalo was American Ethnological Society Monograph 6 serious for the woodland Indians with their (1942; reprint, Seattle: University of Washing­ "rather generalized economies," but it was ton Press, 1973); David G. Mandelbaum, The disastrous for the highly specialized plains In­ Plains Cree, Canadian Plains Studies, no. 9 dians (Blackfoot and Plains Cree), whose way (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, of life was centered on the animal. For them, 1979). there were few alternatives but to enter into 3. Richard Glover, ed., David Thompson's treaty with the government and hope for sur­ Narrative, 1784-1812, new ed. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1962), p. 252. vival. 4. Glyndwyr Williams, ed., Corres­ The metis traditionally played an especially pondence Inward from Sir George Simpson important role in the fur trade. They excelled 1841-42, Publications of the Hudson's Bay as trappers, buffalo hunters, boatmen, and Company Record Society, no. 29 (London, guides. The western metis of central Alberta, 1973),p.45. however, experienced the same sequence of 5. Irene M. Spry, ed., The Papers of The events that had occurred earlier in the Red Palliser Expedition, 1857-1860, Publications of River: a declining fur trade, the disappearance the Champlain Society, no. 54 (Toronto, of the buffalo, and an influx of agricultural 1968). settlers. For a time freighting provided them 6. As late as 1866 Father Lacombe found with a livelihood, even as the railway extended himself in the midst of a night attack of Crees upon a Blackfoot hunting camp near the westward across the southern Canadian plains. Battle River southeast of present-day Wetaski­ Some of the western Canadian metis "pioneered win when he was visiting the latter tribe. In new enterprises and new economic activities, 1870 a Cree ambush of a small Blackfoot party while many more collaborated" with the new­ on the trail just south of Edmonton resulted in comers, but the Battle River people remained the descent of a large retaliatory Blackfoot war "irreconcilable nomads.,,41 As homesteaders party to the south bank of the river with shots FAR CORNER OF THE STRANGE EMPIRE 107 fIred at the fort opposite, but Father Lacombe 16. David Laird, "Special Appendix C," An­ was able to influence them to withdraw. nual Report, 1877 (Ottawa: Department of the 7. Spry, ed., Palliser Expedition, p. 219. Interior, 1878), p. xxxviii. 8. Paul Kane, Wanderings of An Artist 17. On assuming responsibility for the former among the Indians of . . . , Hudson's Bay Company territory, the dominion new ed. (Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig, 1968), government established a Department of the p. 256. For a general overview of Fort Edmon­ Interior in 1873, to facilitate the orderly dis­ ton at this time, see Morton's History of the posal of dominion lands in the west. Within the Canadian West, pp. 699-703. year a land offIce was established in Winnipeg, 9. George M. Grant, Ocean to Ocean: Sand­ with two branch offIces in southern Manitoba. ford Fleming's Expedition through Canada in Homesteaders began to flock in, fIrst to the 1872, new ed. (Toronto: Radisson Society of Red River valley, and progressively westward in Canada, 1925), p. 197. the following decade as railways shifted the 10. James G. MacGregor, Edmonton: A His­ transportation focus from the Saskatchewan tory (Edmonton: MG. Hurtig, 1967), pp. River to the southern plains. No longer were 90-93. the small NWMP posts such as Forts Walsh, 11. In addition to Morton, these include Macleod, and Calgary to provide the only sig­ Edwin Ernest Rich, Hudson's Bay Company, niHcant white presence in former Blackfoot 1670-1870, vol. 2, Publications of the Hud­ territory. In 1875 there were 1,021 entries son's Bay Company Record Society, no. 22 made on dominion lands, involving 163,277 (London, 1959); George F. G. Stanley, The acres. By 1882 the comparable fIgures were Birth 6f (Toronto: University 16,740 and 2,699,145 (Annual Reports, 1875 of Toronto Press, 1960); Irene M. Spry, "The and 1882, of the Canada Department of the Transition from a Nomadic to a Settled Econ­ Interior). For a summary of conditions on the omy in Western Canada, 1856-96," Transac­ Canadian plains shortly afterward, see John H. tions of the Royal Society of Canada 6, series Warkentin, "Western Canada in 1886," Papers 4, section 2 (June 1968): 187-201. Local his­ of the Historical andScientific Society of Mani­ torian James G. MacGregor has included many toba, series 3, vol. 20 (1965), pp. 85-116. In aspects of the transitional era in central Alberta 1883 the reached in his numerous books, among which may be Calgary and ranchers and homesteaders took up noted The Battle River Valley, , more and more Alberta land. Czar of the Prairies, and Senator 's 18. For the background of these people, see Prairies, 1840-1889, all published in John E. Foster, "The Origins of the Mixed by Western Producer Prairie Books in 1976, Bloods in the Canadian West," in Essays on 1978, and 1979, respectively; Edmonton Western History, ed. by Lewis H. Thomas Trader (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1976), 1963), and Edmonton: A History. pp. 71-80; Marcel Giraud, Le Metis Canadien 12. Hugh A. Dempsey, A Blackfoot Winter (Paris: Institut d 'Ethnologie, Universite de Count, Glenbow Foundation Occasional Paper Paris, 1945); and Joe Sawchuk et al., Metis no. 1 (Calgary, 1965), p. 17. Land Rights in Alberta: A Political History 13. Frank G. Roe, The North American (Edmonton: Metis Association of Alberta, Buffalo (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, i981). First-hand accounts of their activities 1951), pp. 467-88. in the Northwest include M. Weekes, The Last 14. D. Aidan McQuillan, "Creation of Indian Buffalo Hunter (Toronto: Macmillan Co. of Reserves on the Canadian Prairies, 1870- Canada, 1945); Peter Erasmus, Buffalo Days 1885," Geographical Review 70, no. 4 (October and Nights (Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Insti­ 1980): 379-96. tute, 1976); Jock Carpenter, Fifty Dollar Bride 15. "Mask-wa-ki-Sik, Correspondence des (Sidney, B.C.: Gray's Publishing, 1977). Principaux de Ermineskin's Indian Residential 19. Archives Committee, Lac Ste. Anne His­ School, 1896-1944," Oblates Archives, B-V III , torical Society, West of the Fifth (Edmonton: 320, p. 6, Provincial Archives of Alberta, Institute of Applied Art, 1959), p. 12. Edmonton. 20. D. Wayne Moodie, "Alberta Settlement 108 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

Surveys," Alberta Historical Review 12 (Au­ 31. J. P. Dickin McGinnis, "Building in Cal­ tumn 1964): 1-7; R. Geoffrey Ironside and E. gary, 1875-1914," in Frontier Calgary, ed. by Tomasky, "Agriculture and River Lot Settle­ Anthony W. Rasporich and Henry C. Klassen ment in Western Canada: The Case of Pakan (Calgary: University of Calgary and McClelland (Victoria), Alberta," Prairie Forum 1 (April and Stewart West, 1975), p. 10. 1976): pp. 3-18. 32. Joseph Burr Tyrell, Report on a Part of 21. William L. Morton, Manitoba: A History, and Portions of Adjacent Dis­ 2d ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, tricts of Assiniboia and Saskatchewan, Geology 1967), p. 150. and Natural History Survey of Canada, Annual 22. Spry, ed., Palliser Expedition, p. 221. Report, 1886, new series, vol. 2, report E 23. John McDougall, Opening The Great West (: Dawson Brothers, 1887), p. 38. (Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1970), 33. Homestead Records (#70-313), Provincial p.22. Archives of Alberta, Edmonton. 24. John Peter Turner, The North-West 34. G. Fitzgerald, Alberta, Canada (Ottawa: Mounted Police (Ottawa: King's Printer, 1950), Canada Department of Agriculture, 1888), 1: 427. p.5. 25. Jules Le Chevalier O.M.I., Annexe II 6, 35. For an account of the rapid homestead Oblates Archives, Provincial Archives of Alber­ settlement of this part of central Alberta, see ta, Edmonton. William C. Wonders, "Scandinavian Homestead­ 26. J. R. Stanley Hambly, ed., The Battle ers in Central Alberta," in The New Prov­ River Country (, Alberta: Du­ inces: Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1905-1980, hamel Historical Society, 1974), pp.11-12. ed. by Howard B. Palmer and Donald B. Smith 27. Samuel B. Steele, Forty Years in Canada (Vancouver: Tantalus Research, 1980), pp. (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1972), p. 87. 131-71. 28. For information on the Red River carts 36. Lewis H. Thomas, The Struggle for Re­ and trails, see Olive Knox, "," sponsible Government in the North-West Beaver 272 (March 1942): 39--43; Harry B. Territories, 1870-97, 2d ed. (Toronto: Univer­ Brehaut, "The Red River Cart and Trails," sity of Toronto Press, 1978), p. 104. Transactions of the Historical and Scientific 37. Battle River - Settlement, October 28, Society of Manitoba 3, no. 28 (1971-72): 1893, William Pearce Papers, Box 45, File 5-35; R. C. Russell, The (Saska­ 14-D-1, University of Alberta Archives. toon: Modern Press, 1955); J. F. Klaus, "Early 38. Edwin Ernest Rich, The Fur Trade and Trails to Carlton House," Beaver 297 (Autumn the Northwest to 1857 (Toronto: McClelland 1966): 32-39. and Stewart, 1967). 29. William C. Wonders, "Log Dwellings in 39. Ibid., p. 296. Canadian Folk Architecture,". Annals of the 40. Arthur J. Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade Association of American Geographers 69 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), (June 1979): 187-207. pp.223-24. 30. Surveyors' Field Notes, Surveys and Map­ 41. Spry, "Transition from Nomadic to Settled ping Branch, Alberta Transportation, Edmonton. Economy," p. 190.