APPENDIX 1 – Alberta’s Francophones Introduction of the book Alberta’s Francophones Dr. Nathalie Kermoal The first Europeans to visit Western Canada were the French, who explored and settled throughout North America during the 17th century. According to historian Jacques Mathieu, the St. Lawrence was of course the pre-eminent thoroughfare of the nascent colony but the far reaches of the waterway also made it possible to penetrate into the heart of the continent. Fanning out from one watershed to the next, the French empire in North America came to cover – by 1760 – three quarters of the continent. In this continual spreading of French military and colonial presence, the fur trade played a key role, binding together a range of political, economic and diplomatic interests and considerations. Beginning in 1667, following pacification of Iroquois, the French decided to courir en derouine - in other words, travel directly to the fur-supplying Aboriginals rather than wait for these nations to carry furs to them. To support this approach, the French embarked upon an ambitious program of fort-building, which they also viewed as giving them an edge other their rivals and competitors to the north, the Hudson’s Bay Company. A trading expedition now no longer lasted a few days but indeed several weeks or even months. This strategy of occupying the territory would intensify throughout the 18th century, particularly under the Regency of Louis XV (1710-1728), when journeys deep into the North American interior were resumed with official blessing and backing. During this era, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Vérendrye rose to a position of prominence in the implementation of this policy. In 1727-28, while serving as the commandant of a trading post situated on the Nipigon River, La Vérendrye received accounts of a great river flowing to the West, thus refuelling speculation, widespread among contemporary French explorers, cartographers and colonial administrators, about a mythical Western Sea jutting in to the continent and affording a quick route to the Pacific Ocean. Since locating this interior waterway would obviously further the expansion of their hegemony in North America, the French decided to penetrate yet further into the continent. La Vérendrye and his sons thereupon established a chain of fur-trading posts extending from Lake Superior north and west into Manitoba. In his article “La Mer de l’Ouest: Outpost of Empire,” the historian William Eccles speculates that in 1751, Le Gardeur de Saint-Pierre (La Vérendrye’s successor) and his men has advanced westward as far as the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where they built a fort by the name of La Jonquière. That, at least, is what the Saint-Pierre noted in his journal, but according to some experts this was a pure fabrication, designed to impress the Governor General of the time. Yet logically, according to Eccles, the French would have taken the route north to the areas inhabited by their allies, the fur-trading Cree, rather than the route south into the areas inhabited by the Blackfoot, who had made it quite clear that the fur trade held no interest for them. Some believe that Fort La Jonquière was located near the future site of the trading post known as the Rocky Mountain House, while others hold that it was likely to have been sited outside of Calgary. Whatever the case may be, there is no doubting an early French presence in Alberta, and yet it is the voyage of Anthony Henday that has impressed itself on the collective memory of Albertans. In 1754, Henday travelled as far as the site of the future city of Edmonton to persuade the Aboriginal peoples to trade their furs with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Surely one of the reasons that Henday’s voyage has succeeded in capturing the attention of numerous historians is because there are few corroborating written records. This being said, neither La Vérendrye’s nor Henday’s journeys offer any further clues about the men and women who spoke French, or a mix of French and Cree, and who regularly visited the territory of today’s Alberta. The people were very often the offspring of French Canadian men and Aboriginal women. Whatever dreams the French had for North America were shattered with their defeat on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. And yet, over the succeeding eras, Francophones have continued to leave their stamp of Western Canada and on the history of APPENDIX 1 – Alberta’s Francophones Alberta in particular. The fur trade Traditional histography has often highlighted the feats of the renowned French Canadian coureurs des bois and voyageurs, all as part of evoking the romanticism of a bygone era. While undeniably it took good doses of daring, courage and strength to take part in the fur trade, it is important to recall that a considerable portion of the work was performed by the Aboriginal peoples and the Métis, men and women alike, and that the success of the colonial power’s ventures hinged on maintaining good relations with the native suppliers and middlemen. Without the knowledge and understanding that the Aboriginal peoples held of their land, the famous “discoveries” mentioned in the history books would have never materialized. And had it not been for their assistance or their encouragement of “country marriages” (an equivalent of common law marriage, with few restrictions on divorce but nevertheless with permanent obligations towards the wife and her family), the French would have found surviving in their new surroundings to be a very complicated matter indeed. Furthermore, it was largely from such “country marriages” that the Métis nation came into being. Benefiting from their access to network of Aboriginal alliances, the French Canadians and Métis involved in the fur trade were able to cover a vast territory. And, owing to their adaptability and knowledge of Indian languages, they were sought after by the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company to serve in the capacity of “wintering partners” - that is, as inland traders and shareholders who spent the winter engaging in the fur trade among the Aboriginal peoples. Not all these men were enlisted in the service of the NWC or the HBC. Some trappers considered themselves to be gens libres or hommes libres - freemen who carried on business with the trading company willing to pay the highest price for their furs. However they labelled themselves, these men nevertheless operated in a fierce competitive environment. The North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company oversaw the construction of numerous forts across the territory of the future province of Alberta, and these, with time, gave rise to settlements. And though they were engaged in the ruthless battle to the finish, they unhesitatingly built forts within a stone’s throw – or musket range of each other – the case, most notably, with Fort Edmonton, established in 1795 by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Fort Augustus, founded by the North West Company several months earlier. Following the merger of these fur trade titans in 1821, all activities were centralized at Fort Edmonton and the name of Fort Augustus disappeared from the map. Other the course of its history, Fort Edmonton was moved several different times to escape flooding. It was last sited on the current grounds of the Legislature Building and was demolished in 1915. Fort Edmonton possesses a very rich past, embracing a range of famous historical characters, including Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière and his wife, Marie-Anne Gaboury in 1807-08, as well as Father Albert Lacombe in 1852. According to Donald Smith in “A history of French-speaking Albertans”: “Prior to 1885, the majority of Edmontonians were of French origin, and until 1916, they remained the second largest linguistic group with a total population of 2 600 in a city of 53 850.” Thus, for nearly three centuries, the fur trade was a mainstay of Canada’s development – even as recently as the early 20th century. According to the historian Arthur Ray in his book entitled The Canadian Fur Trade in the Industrial Age, at the end APPENDIX 1 – Alberta’s Francophones of the World War I, Edmonton ranked second after Montreal as a fur centre, posting sales of $4 to 5 million dollars annually. The tactics – and successes – of the Hudson’s Bay Company would continue to serve as an example to other private concerns, the most famous being Revillon Frères, the Alberta branch of the Paris fur company. In 1899, Revillon Frères opened a fur warehouse in Edmonton. Initially established in Northern Canada, they entered the northern Alberta market in 1906, purchasing trading posts from local traders and eliminating middlemen. The role of the Clergy The perpetuation of the fur trade also had significant social and cultural ramifications for the areas of Alberta and Western Canada where such activities were pursued. According to E.J. Hart in his Ambition and Reality. The French community of Edmonton 1795-1935, “Once the French-speaking Catholic missionaries arrived on the scene, they visited all these posts and helped maintain a French and Catholic identity in the West.” There can be no doubting the decisive role played by the Catholic clergy in the development of Western Canada. Initially, the missionaries and prelates were animated by the desire to create a model of Christian faith and community à l’européenne in the portion of Canada. Later their hopes would centre on creating institutions serving not only to spread the Christian faith but also to establish French-speaking settlers on Western lands. Among all the missionary groups, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate have clearly left the most traces on the Alberta landscape, having worked unceasingly to establish missions and institutions.