"Lake of the Great Spirit": the French Pilgrimage and Indigenous Journey to Lac Ste
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2012-08-31 "Rendezvous" for renewal at "Lake of the Great Spirit": the french pilgrimage and indigenous journey to Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, 1870-1896 Buresi, Jessica Anne Buresi, J. A. (2012). "Rendezvous" for renewal at "Lake of the Great Spirit": the french pilgrimage and indigenous journey to Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, 1870-1896 (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27628 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/173 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY “Rendezvous” for Renewal at “Lake of the Great Spirit”: The French Pilgrimage and Indigenous Journey to Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, 1870-1896 by Jessica Anne Buresi A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2012 ©Jessica Anne Buresi 2012 ii Abstract The Lac Ste-Anne Pilgrimage is an Indigenous-Catholic gathering that takes place along the lake at Lac Ste-Anne, Alberta, seventy-five kilometres west of Edmonton, and continues to attract approximately 50, 000 pilgrims yearly, most of them of First Nations or Métis heritage. It was initiated on June 6, 1889, by Jean-Marie Lestanc, a Catholic father with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a congregation which originated in Marseilles, France. This thesis discusses the long history of both Catholic pilgrimage and aboriginal rendezvous traditions in France and Canada respectively, and addresses the complexity of conversion among North-Western Canadian indigenous peoples in the nineteenth century. It suggests that the event was borne of an implicit negotiation and compromise between the largely francophone Oblate fathers and the local First Nations and Métis peoples over the significance of Lac Ste-Anne, and the “nomadic” ritual journey needed to arrive there. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. George Colpitts for leading me to a good topic, for his guidance, his kind words, and his prompt feedback. I would also like to thank Dr. Heather Devine, Dr. Francine Michaud and Dr. Anne Moore for taking the time to attend my defence. Dr. Michaud deserves special thanks for her encouragement and support throughout my research. Furthermore, Dr. Devine, Dr. Warren Elofson, Dr. Elizabeth Jameson, Dr. Nancy Janovicek, Dr. Gerald Oetelaar from the Department of Archaeology, and Dr. Don Smith all offered good suggestions and/or conversations. Diane Lamoureux at the Provincial Archives of Alberta in Edmonton offered invaluable assistance during my research trips, and loaned me a significant amount of material from the Oblate archives. Amy McKinney generously lent me her digital tape recorder for my oral interviews. I am very grateful for the award I received from the Eleonor Luxton Foundation, and I was also fortunate enough to receive a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council award, as well as a Province of Alberta graduate scholarship, all of which helped me to concentrate on my research and writing. However my biggest thanks go to the individual First Nations and Métis people, as well as the Oblate fathers, listed on the following page, who graciously accepted to spend part of a morning or afternoon with me, and granted me an interview. My deepest thanks go to Arthur Rain from the Paul Nakoda Band, and his wife Selena, who welcomed me at their family campfire one night at the pilgrimage in 2010, a few months after I’d done my interviews. Louie Auger of the Ermineskin Band, showed me around Hobbema, paid to refill my car up with gas, introduced me to his family, and prompted me to come to the Paul Band Pow Wow. I would also like to thank Chief Daniel Paul of the Paul Band, and Chief Leroy Good Eagle from Siksika Nation for granting me the official permission needed to interview people on their reserves. My parents Jacques and Gerry, my sisters, Michelle and Nicole, my own “grandmother Ann” Baba Kotyshyn, her brother John Repchuk, my uncle and aunt Rob and Karen Kotyshyn, all gave me their love and support. Finally, I am most grateful to Olivier Gautreau, whose encouragement, patience, and kindness sustained me throughout the whole completion of this project. iv Dedication This work is dedicated to the First Nations and Métis individuals, as well as the Oblate fathers I interviewed, who have all “kept me honest,” and who have taken my journey with this project beyond the boundaries of traditional academic research. They are: Louie Auger (Ermineskin Band, Hobbema and head of security at the pilgrimage) Yvonne Blackhorse (Siksika Nation) Murleen Crossen née Letendre (Lac Ste-Anne Pilgrimage Board and descended from the first Métis settlers at Lac Ste. Anne) Father Joseph Goutier, O.M.I. (Foyer Lacombe, St. Albert) Father Jim Holland, O.M.I. (Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, Edmonton) Doris Lirondelle (descended from the original Iroquois Métis voyageurs to Lac Ste. Anne) Marlene Morin (Executive Director of the Lac Ste-Anne Pilgrimage Board) Father Maurice McMahon, O.M.I. (Foyer Lacombe) Arthur Rain and his sister Mary Rain, (Paul Nakoda First Nation, Duffield, and descended from the Sharphead and Ironhead Nakoda Stoney families) Father Jean-Paul Vantroys, O.M.I. (Foyer Lacombe) Another Oblate father from the Foyer Lacombe and a third elder from Paul Band both gave me long interviews, but wished to remain anonymous. v Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...iii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………..iv Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………...v Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTERS I Lac Ste-Anne from France to Canada…………………………………………....26 II Zealots and Pragmatists: The Oblates at Lac Ste-Anne………………………….58 III A “Rendezvous,” a “Midewiwin,” or a “Sun Dance”……………………………93 IV Miracles, Lizée’s Lists, and the Local Peoples…………………………………146 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………........197 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………........205 APPENDIX A................................................................................................................220 APPENDIX B…………………………………………………………………………..221 APPENDIX C…………………………………………………………………………..225 APPENDIX D…………………………………………………………………………..233 1 INTRODUCTION During the mid to late eighteenth century, before the arrival of Euro-Canadian newcomers to what would become the Canadian north west plains and woodlands, Lac Ste- Anne, a lake that lies approximately seventy-five kilometres northwest of Edmonton, Alberta, was known to the Cree people of the region as Manitow Sâkahikan, and to the neighbouring Nakoda Stoney people as Wakamne which respectively mean “Lake of the Great Spirit” and “God’s Lake” or “Holy Lake.”1 Allegedly, the lake was a place where various bands belonging to the Woodland and Plains Cree peoples, the Nakoda, as well as the Blackfoot Confederacy, had been gathering to hunt, fish, and trade for centuries, and in a spirit of peace, even though the Blackfoot and Cree were traditional enemies.2 Early Euro-Canadian fur-traders apparently renamed the lake “Devil’s Lake,” either because they 1 At least three other lakes in Canada, two in Saskatchewan (Manitou Lake west of North Battleford, and Good Spirit Lake north of Yorkton) and one in Manitoba (God’s Lake, east of Oxford House) have similar names. Oblate archivist Émeric Drouin spells it Manito Sakahigan, which seems to be a Gallicized version of what according to Cynthia Chambers is manitow sâkahikan, manitow sákahikanihk, and manitow sákahigan. Émeric Drouin, Lac Ste-Anne Sakahigan (Edmonton: Éditions de l'Ermitage, 1973), 15. Cynthia Chambers, "Things I Carried with Me..." in Educational Insights, Vol. 8 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2003), http://www.ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/insights/v08n02/contextualexplorations/curriculum/chambers.html (accessed March 22, 2010). The meaning for “Wakamne” was given to me by Mr. Arthur Rain, in an Interview at Paul First Nation Band Administration Office, March 11th, 2010. See also Peter Maser, "Mission du Lac-Sainte Anne: The Annual Pilgrimage that Began this Weekend Draws the Faithful in Great Numbers," The Edmonton Journal, Sunday July 18, 2010. Steve Simon, Healing Waters: The Pilgrimage to Lac Ste. Anne (Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press, 1995), 2. “Wakamne” also appears on the Lac Ste-Anne Pilgrimage website and the Alexis First Nation website: "Lac St. Anne Pilgrimage: Gathered in Unity," http://www.lsap.ca (accessed March 18, 11). "Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation: One Nation One Tribe One Fire," Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, http://www.alexisnakotasioux.com/default.aspx?ID=9-0, (accessed March 18th, 2011). 2 Local history, newspapers, and a CBC “Ideas” radio show about the pilgrimage entitled “Troubled Waters” have maintained the belief that the lake was an ancient sacred gathering place. See Lac Ste. Anne Historical Society Archives Committee, West of the Fifth: A History of Lac Ste. Anne Municipality (Edmonton: The Institute of Applied Art Ltd. Educational Publishers,