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Lake Winnipeg Sturgeon As an Aboriginal Resource

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Lake Winnipeg Sturgeon As an Aboriginal Resource "Officers of the HBC, Missionaries and Other Intelligent Persons in the District of Keewatin": Lake Winnipeg Sturgeon as an Aboriginal Resource CHRISTOPHER HANNIBAL-PACI University of Manitoba The history of colonization for aboriginal resources will be discussed through a case study of Cree and Ojibwe inland lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) fisheries in the Lake Winnipeg basin, for the period 1872-98. To understand the place of sturgeon in Cree and Ojibwe communities around Lake Winnipeg, and the impacts of commercialization, an interdisciplinary approach is required — gaps in knowledge occur and are bridged by borrowing from specialized studies reflecting a variety of disciplinary perspectives.1 Archaeologists have found evidence of sturgeon use in North America dating back 6000 to 11,000 years ago (Mayer-Oakes 1967, O'Brien 1976). Limited excavations in Manitoba indicate that sturgeon has been an important subsistence resource for at least 4000 years (Arthurs 1982; Steinbrmg, personal communication, 1996). There are, however, problems with recovery, analysis and reporting of sturgeon remains for this area. Sturgeon remains do not last; the fish has a mostly cartilaginous skeleton which decomposes, leaving only trace remains such as scutes and spines. However, Frank Tough (personal communication, 1996) credits the lack of evidence to archaeologists' disinterest in fish remains. In Manitoba, faunal remains have been underrated in most archaeological excavations and therefore have provided relatively little insight into prehistoric fisheries (Hannibal-Paci 1997). This gap can be bridged using historical and ethnographic information to provide a fuller account. 1 Conversations with people at Sagkeeng, Cumberland House, and Cross Lake compelled me to search primary and secondary historic and scientific sources for data regarding aboriginal sturgeon use, otherwise aboriginal perceptions on the fishery are extrapolated from non-aboriginal writings. Kennedy (1993:2-4) cautions, "when seeking an accurate and reliable source of information on historical events and a balanced interpretation of them, how much reliance can we place on the words recorded by traders, missionaries and officials?" I suspect we can best balance historical and other assumptions using good scholarship. LAKE WINNIPEG STURGEON AS AN ABORIGINAL RESOURCE 129 Ethnographic information can be helpful in reconstructing the relative abundance or scarcity of a resource, its security and place in regional aboriginal economies. Norval Morrisseau (1965:34) recorded that sturgeon was viewed as a staple for the Ojibwe, noting, "at the lake called Mesinama sahagun, which is now under many feet of water due to the Hydro dam at Pine Portage, the Ojibway Indians used to go to feast on sturgeon... The old and the young prepared smoked sturgeon and put it away in birch back containers for the long winter months ahead." While the complex of sturgeon fisheries indicate that Ojibwe would feast on sturgeon and store a significant amount of smoked sturgeon for later use, changes in the use and value of land and resources resulted from contact. The earliest period of contact history could not predict the changes in the use and value of sturgeon. In the mid to late 1700s, Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) officers James Isham (1949) and Andrew Graham (1969) both recorded that the Cree produced a variety of pemmican made with sturgeon.2 Sturgeon was a popular traditional food, and like bison and other animals it was prepared in a variety of ways. According to Donald McKay Sr. (personal communi­ cation, 1995), sturgeon roe was cooked in bannock, and caviar, a delicacy, was made from the eggs. Sturgeon oil, high in vitamins, was rendered by boiling the flesh and skimming off the separated oil which was added to bannock and meats. Sturgeon was mostly consumed fresh (boiled, baked, made into a soup, etc.), and the fish could be tethered and kept alive until needed. The processes of sun-drying, smoking, or pounding into pemmican meant that sturgeon could be preserved and kept for some time. Isinglass, which made a strong glue and was used in fining beer and wine, was processed through drying and pounding the swim bladder. W. T. Urquhart (1873:193-5) found "a considerable quantity of oil is made in the country. It is not exported, but is used as a machine oil and found to answer the purpose remarkably well." Jack Steinbring (personal communication, 1995) also recorded the use of oil for lamps and for softening hides during tanning. The Ojibwe, in particular, used sturgeon oil in the production of sturgeon pemmican or added it to dried foods to make them more palatable. The oil 2 Graham noted that raheggan (recorded by Isham as ruhiggan) was mixed with animal fat or sturgeon oil and berries, such as saskatoons. 130 CHRISTOPHER HANNIBAL-PACI was readily stored in birchbark containers or "jars" made of sturgeon skin3. Cree and Ojibwe views of the Lake Winnipeg sturgeon fishery are scarce. Mostly we have accounts from "Officers of the HBC, Missionaries and other intelligent persons in the District of Keewatin".4 As chair of the Senate select committee investigating natural food products — or country food as it was referred to in the fur trade — Lieutenant Governor Schultz was a magnet for "information regarding the existing natural food products of the Northwest Territories, and the best means of conserving and increasing them."5 Limited as they are, these records reveal two things: the fish held an important place within seasonal harvesting activities (supporting the archaeological evidence that sturgeon played an integral role in aboriginal subsistence rounds), and the fish was traded commer­ cially well over a hundred years before commercial industrial fisheries were established on the lake. These two points afford insights into present- day resource conflicts. In the Lake Winnipeg region, many Cree and Ojibwe scheduled seasonal rounds, in part, to take advantage of sturgeon spawning, and they traded sturgeon products without causing a failure of the fishery. The significance of land tenure and resource use has not been adequately discussed in previous historical discussions of the fisheries. In 1888, Indian Commissioner James Stewart reported that there were three major fish companies based in Selkirk, Manitoba. The C. W. Gauthier Company had been in operation "for some years, and appears to be the most extensive", operating fishing stations at Swampy Island, Little Saskatchewan and Black Bear Island. The company operated two steamboats and 12 fishing boats, employing about 200 men, "half Ontario and half half-breeds and Indians" who were paid $25-80 a month. Stewart 3 Sturgeon skin is leathery and has five rows of scutes instead of being entirely covered over with scales. The fish grows large and jars made from it could hold a lot and readily withstand the wear and tear of travel. Although the use of sturgeon jars may have been localized, Cree residents of Cross Lake, Manitoba, have also described the use of the skin for containers and to make drum skins. 4 This phrase comes from a questionnaire circulated in 1888 by John Christian Schultz, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba and Keewatin, chair of the Canaadian Senate's select committee investigating the state of natural food products in the Northwest. Unless otherwise noted, archival material comes from the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Historic Archives (PAM, HA), MG 12 El, Lt. Gov. J. C. Schultz papers. (1887:7820). Schultz found "over one half of the food of the Indians of that district consist offish." LAKE WINNIPEG STURGEON AS AN ABORIGINAL RESOURCE 131 reported that the summer catch of 2000 tons was sent to Windsor, Ontario (PAM, MG 12 El, 3838). The other two large fish companies were the W. Robinson Company and Roberts, Fisher and Wright. The W. Robinson Company, formerly Clark, Reid and Company, operated fishing stations off Swampy Island, at the Little Saskatchewan, and at Grand Rapids, with three steam vessels and ten fishing boats which required the labour of 150 "Canadians from Ontario with the exception of about ten Icelanders". These men were paid between $35^10 a month, and the "fish caught by this firm all exported to the U.S., viz. to Minneapolis, Detroit and Buffalo" (PAM, MG 12 El, 3839). The Roberts, Fisher and Wright Company operations were centred on Reindeer Island and the Little Saskatchewan, with two fishing boats employing five men who were paid $35 a month. The 6000 pounds of fish caught by this company in 1888 were sent to Detroit and Buffalo. Stewart noted that "HBC, the Mission stations, and different parties of half breeds and Indians fish at general points but this is for local wants". The half breeds Stewart referred to were descendants of Cree and Ojibwe women and North West or HBC men. The Indians, Ojibwe and Cree, were from Fairford, Lake St. Martin, Jackhead, Fisher River, Hollow Water, Bloodvein, Berens River, Poplar River, Warren's Landing, Norway House, and Grand Rapids. A similar report was made by G. D. McVicor. Apparently referring to communities along the west shore of Lake Winnipeg, the Cree at Grand Rapids and the Ojibwe around Lake St. Martin, McVicor reported two extensive fishing operations and one smaller one. These companies used "50 miles of gill nets. They employ about two hundred and fifty white men to manage their steam boats and fishery boats and also about three hundred Indians with scoop nets" (PAM, MG 12 El, 3848). In contrast to earlier estimates, McVicor listed quite a few more people employed in the fishery and interestingly noted that Indians were using labour-intensive and less technically advanced scoop nets. These early reports warned that "the Indians seem very much alarmed at the prospects of the fish being all taken out of the lake" (PAM, MG 12 El, 3486). J. V. Begin, commanding officer of the Grand Rapids detachment of the North-West Mounted Police, wrote to Schultz, "Indians are getting alarmed..
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