Seeds from the Steppe: Mennonites, Horticulture, and the Construction of Landscapes on Manitoba's West Reserve, 1870-1950
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Seeds from the Steppe: Mennonites, Horticulture, and the Construction of Landscapes on Manitoba's West Reserve, 1870–1950 by Susan Jane Fisher A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2017 by Susan Jane Fisher Abstract In this study, I offer a new research direction on the history of the Canadian prairie West with a joint focus on emotional history, life stories, and horticulture among the Mennonite immigrants from imperial Russia, who first assembled villages on Manitoba’s West Reserve in the 1870s. In this study, I trace oral culture, expressions of emotion, and the inter-generational transfer and preservation of botanical materials and traditions, in order to help us understand how individuals within a distinct ethno-religious group and in a colonial setting, experienced immigration and resettlement, and constructed landscapes accordingly. In the processes of their encounter, construction, and remembering, landscapes in history entail intricate myths and emotional attachments, whether they are explicitly known or implicitly understood. I argue that traditions of horticulture and homemaking, and the myths and memories surrounding prairie settlement, are creative acts through which West Reserve Mennonites at once reinforce settler-colonial agendas of success in the Canadian prairie West, and tie themselves emotionally to both a real and imagined history as a quiet, self-sufficient, agrarian people. Memoirs, diaries, newspapers, material artefacts, and oral histories connected to people on the West Reserve demonstrate that late nineteenth century Mennonite immigrants placed significant emotional value on the plant materials they carried with them in the hopes of reestablishing their sectarian, agrarian communities on the Canadian prairie. Emotional ties to the seeds, trees, flowers, and landscapes associated with this migratory moment, despite their roots in imperial Russia, have a lasting impact on the way the prairie is imagined as an ethnic and religious home among Mennonites living on the West Reserve. i ! ! ! Acknowledgements I have been fortunate to have Royden Loewen and Adele Perry as co-supervisors. They have been patient and positive advocates; they have offered distinct perspectives and invaluable advice, and their guidance and friendship has helped shape me as a scholar and a person. Tina Chen, Ryan Eyford, Lynne Marks, and Lori Wilkinson were exemplary committee members; they each provided instrumental feedback, which helped me to further hone this dissertation into a work of scholarship. David Churchill and Barry Ferguson at the University of Manitoba, and Hans Werner at the University of Winnipeg, have also thoughtfully engaged me in conversations over the past several years that have molded and challenged my thinking on a number of matters; they have influenced my work in their own ways. Candice Letkeman has edited numerous drafts of this dissertation, and it has benefitted greatly from her shrewd attention. Administrative support from Sandra Ferguson and Sylvie Winslow at the University of Manitoba allowed me to traverse the ins and outs of the graduate program with confidence. The staff and fellows at St. John’s College in Winnipeg, and at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (CSRS) at the University of Victoria, provided delightful work environments. I am especially thankful for continued support from Paul Bramadat at the CSRS, who long ago introduced me to the richness of scholarship that engages people and their stories. Conrad Stoesz at the Mennonite Heritage Centre archives (MHC) in Winnipeg, and Andrea Dyck at the Mennonite Heritage Village Archives in Steinbach, as well as the volunteers at Altona and District Heritage Research Inc., including Jack Klassen, Marlene Plett, and Al Schmidt skillfully facilitated the research for this project. James Urry at the Victoria University of Wellington and Conrad Stoesz at the MHC willingly shared their own research materials. Joe and Lois Braun, Elizabeth Falk, Shaun Friesen, and Mary Loewen in the Altona area were my go-to community ii ! ! ! historians; all provided continuous direction and important insights. Many other Altona area residents contributed to my research, and I am heartened by their commitment to local history. Family and friends have supported me in completing this project in countless ways. In particular, my mother, stepfather, and sister—Gail Johnstone, John Perry, and Caroline Fisher— as well as the Bergman clan—Ken, Ruth, Donovan, Amy, Mark, and Andrea—have been steadfast in their encouragement. My father Robert Fisher willingly read and commented on earlier drafts of chapters. Ryan Stoesz selflessly shepherded me through of the initial stages of my degree. Julia Thiessen and Anna Wiebe lent nonstop cheer and reinforcement. Erin Millions, Dan Opperwall, Jeremy Penner, and Joe Wiebe have been collegial comrades. Marianne Unger, Olive Unger, and Lisa Helps fostered space for friendship and rejuvenation after long writing days at their home in Victoria. Paul Bergman provided many important introductions to Altona area community members, and to the landscape itself. I am grateful for his keen sense of people and place, and honoured by his willingness to share it with me. But most importantly, Paul offered everyday companionship and counsel, which in turn helped me to cultivate the confidence, creativity, and discipline needed to bring this project to completion. The research and writing of this dissertation were made possible by the generous financial assistance that I received from many sources, including doctoral scholarships from the University of Manitoba, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the D. F. Plett Historical Research Foundation, and the Canada Research Chair in Western Canadian Studies, as well as a C. P. Loewen Graduate Fellowship, a C. D. Howe Foundation Fellowship in Creative Writing and Oral Culture, and a Canadian Studies award. I am grateful for these funding bodies and their continued support of research and writing in the arts and humanities in Canada. iii ! ! ! Table of Contents List of Figures v Glossary of Low German Terms vi Introduction 1 Chapter One – Sot onn Seie (Seed and To Sow) 51 Chapter Two – Boom onn Wartle (Tree and To Root) 102 Chapter Three – Stockroose onn Zinse (Hollyhocks and Zinnias) 158 Chapter Four – Onnkrüt onn Krüt (Weeds and Herbs): 205 Part I: Weeds 208 Part II: Herbs 232 Conclusion 252 Bibliography 262 Appendix I – Sample Participant Consent Form 284 iv ! ! ! List of Figures 0.1 – Map of the Mennonite land reserves in southern Manitoba 7 1.1 – Plaque commemorating the Chortitza oak tree in Winkler, Manitoba 72 2.1 – List of tree orders and funds owing for West Reserve residents, 187[?] 139 2.2 – Katharina Bergen Penner with fruit trees in pails, circa 1926 147 2.3 – Four cottonwood trees mark the graves of Mennonite immigrants 153 3.1 – Pressed flowers collected by Jacob Heinrich Reimer, 1920–1923 168 3.2 – Photograph by P. G. Hamm of women with flowers in Neubergthal, 19[??] 172 4.1 – Sweeping Russian thistle at the Morden Experimental Farm, 1929 217 v ! ! ! Glossary of Low German Terms Boom tree Cershownki muskmelon, Crenshaw melon Heimat homestead, village (signifying a place to which one feels emotionally connected) Keifkje pre-chewed food Kjoasch Ssiaropp chokecherry syrup Knacksot sunflower seeds Krüse Marie curly Mary, or tandy Krüt herbs Kurrei Russian thistle Fattahan portulaca Fausting feasting Gebeitsamt village council Loddejk sour dock Marienblatt pennyroyal Meddelienje dirt road, or middle line Mumtjes married women Oberschultz colony mayor Oma grandmother onn and Onnkrüt weeds Plautdietsch Low German vi ! ! ! Prips warm drink made of roasted barley Privilegium official document outlining rights given to Mennonites in Russia and in Canada based on their religious beliefs Säajel’grauss foxtail barley Schlee’e prickly shrub that produces small, red, stony fruit Schwaun’sobel wild millet seie to sow (seeds) Semlinen sod houses Somma Borscht summer soup Sot seed Stockroose hollyhocks Teid’ja Gerkje early cucumbers Tjitj-derch-den-Tün look through the fence Tjwitsche high-bush cranberries wartle to root willa Howa wild oats Zinse zinnias vii ! ! ! Introduction We are all marked by the first world that meets our eyes, and we carry that imprint as a permanent image of the way the world should be. Memories of the homeland, or idealized versions of them, became templates for the future.1 We take home and language for granted; they become nature and their underlying assumptions recede into dogma and orthodoxy.2 In the spring of 2014, at the brink of beginning my dissertation research, I purchased a 120-year-old house on an unkempt double lot in Gretna, Manitoba. Once a bustling town, Gretna is now a quiet village in the south-central part of the province within the former Mennonite block settlement—known as the West Reserve—in the middle of the Red River Valley. Gretna and its surrounding area are within the boundaries of Treaty 1 territory—the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.3 Today, the village is located one mile from the Canada-US border, and a ninety-minute drive from the city of Winnipeg. My first year living in Gretna opened my eyes both to the stark beauty and the challenging realities of life on the West Reserve, as well as the ways myth and memory commingle in stories about land and place in what is a predominantly Mennonite community. I was given the gift of a cottonwood sapling to plant on my new yard. The sapling, according to one local gardener, is a descendant of the trees that border the street in a Mennonite village not far from my house, which were planted by Mennonite settlers in 1876. He explained !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Ronald Rees, New and Naked Land: Making the Prairies Home (Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1988), 46.