Forest Prairie Edge

by Merle Massie

  William Charles of Montreal Lake refrained from making specific requests, pending further discussion with his band.100 The horse, wagon, and harness due to him as chief, as per the treaty stipulations, were accepted. Charles knew that a rude cart trail existed between the settlement at Prince Albert and the south end of Red Deer (Waskesiu) Lake, forming an overland link between Prince Albert and the northern territory. A wagon (which could be outfitted with sleighs) could be a useful vehicle. In April, government agents tried to ship seed potatoes to reach the bands in time for spring seeding but were not successful. Both bands also requested timber implements such as pit saws, logging chains, axes, and assorted tools.101 Given the forested boreal environment, the possibility of earning income from lumber, and the need to build permanent residences and a school on the reserve, these items were practical and necessary. Agents brought the first treaty payment in September, which included agricultural implements and supplies such as hay forks, grubbing hoes, and garden seeds.102

  In the negotiations surrounding the Treaty 6 external adhesion, agriculture, particularly adapting agricultural promises to the boreal landscape, became the focus. Clearly, boreal bands had already adapted extensive gardening, but animal husbandry and large-scale grain growing using the European cultural model were different matters that required more knowledge and training, and more consideration, before the bands were ready to commit to them. It was not a case of outright rejection as if agriculture were a foreign, unknown, imposed, colonial idea. The concept of “ecological imperialism” in the Canadian north, or cultural colonization through imposing a foreign and unknown way of life, an idea put forward by historians such as Liza Piper and John Sandlos, does not recognize the depth of connection between First Nations groups living in boreal edge environments and agriculture.103 The bands understood what would work, what perhaps could work, and what could not work in the boreal environment and within their cultural way of life.

  In many ways, what happened in the north Prince Albert region was an extension of the phenomenon of Indian agriculture along the parkland and forest edge, as traced by historical geographers D. Wayne Moodie and Barry Kaye. Small-scale cultivation of Indian corn, potatoes, and other root crops in microclimatic conditions and pockets of good land in what became Manitoba was common throughout the late 1700s and 1800s: “If not entirely based on Indian cultigens, it was conducted on Indian terms.”104 Boreal microclimate agriculture was significantly different from the disastrous reintroduction of plains First Nations agriculture, a topic well studied as an example of government colonialism, control, incompetence, indifference, and hostility.105 There are significant nuances to the term “agriculture” that need to be reconsidered: what a “farm” looks like, which kinds of activities happen there, and what “success” looks like should not be fixed concepts. There remains ample room to reconsider the complex character of Aboriginal agriculture, and the transition to industrial agriculture, from the perspective of the boreal edge, as a much-needed contrast to the plains story.

  Little Red River Reserve

  The most effective way to capitalize on the large-scale agricultural promise of the treaty would be to develop a reserve on land capable of supporting more extensive cultivation, in the fertile Saskatchewan River basin. For boreal bands already well adapted to seasonal use of the edge environment, substituting farming for bison hunting changed only one component of the mixed boreal lifestyle. The adhesion brought the Lac La Ronge and Montreal Lake bands into close contact with Prince Albert through subsequent treaty payments and proximity.106 In many ways, the adhesion carried on a traditional use of the north Prince Albert landscape as the southern edge of the boreal bands’ territory.

  After signing the Treaty 6 adhesion, the Lac La Ronge and Montreal Lake bands debated the location of their home reserves. After much discussion, the Montreal Lake band settled on a site at the southern end of Montreal Lake and proceeded to build a new settlement.107 The Lac La Ronge band, however, consisted of multiple-site family-occupied units and had no clear consensus on where to build a single community reserve. Even the surveyor, A.W. Ponton, could not see the benefit of creating a single community. The band, Ponton noted, wanted to set aside all of the holdings that they occupied along the lake “on which they have their houses and buildings” as well as their garden plots, on the scattered bits and pockets of usable soil. If the government tried to force them to live on just one reserve, “they [would] probably have a strong inclination to return to their [scattered] holdings where they have been accustomed.”108

  If the La Ronge band was undecided about which of its northern occupations it wanted surveyed as the main reserve “in common,” they did know one thing: “all agree that they would, looking to the future, like some of their land surveyed near the Saskatchewan.”109 Requesting legal rights not only to land at Lac La Ronge but also closer to the Saskatchewan River strongly reflected the traditional boreal band use of the ecological edge found near Prince Albert. Archdeacon Mackay, interpreter at the adhesion in 1889, was a steady force behind this request. Mackay spoke with the first chief, James Roberts, and argued, “someday, all this land will be taken, the fish and moose will disappear and you will be destitute. Farms will never disappear but will grow in value.”110 Mackay suggested that the band request some of their reserve land as agricultural land within the Saskatchewan River watershed, at the southern edge of their traditional territory. In addition to tending their traplines and home gardens, those who attended residential schools or Emmanuel College in Prince Albert (where Mackay worked for many years as a senior staff member, Cree catechist, translator, and teacher) worked on school farms and gardens. Residential schools used farms and gardens both to supply food and to give the students exposure to and experience in farm and garden practices. Historical opinion is divided on the role of garden and farm work in residential schools. Some researchers regard work on gardens and farms little different from child labour and slavery. An unexpected perspective comes from the oral histories of the Lac La Ronge Woods Cree, who declare that exposure to farming practices led to the call for and development of a farm reserve.111

  After Archdeacon Mackay spoke with Chief James Roberts, “the Chief thought about this for a long time. One day he told his wife to make three pairs of moccasins for his long journey. His wife got the help of some other ladies and next morning she gave him his moccasins.” Roberts began the long journey south by dog sled. Along the way, he spoke with Chief William Charles at Montreal Lake. The two of them went to Prince Albert, where “Archdeacon Mackay interpreted and the two chiefs gave their case to the government officials.”112

  The Indian Department, upon receiving the request, acted surprisingly quickly. Hayter Reed, Indian commissioner of the North-West Territories, wrote to the superintendent general at Ottawa: “The Indians of the Lac La Ronge Band desire to have the portion of their Reserve, asked for on the Saskatchewan, near the Sturgeon Lake Reserve, and subject to the Department’s approval, I propose to select and define some land on the South side of some good lake, in that locality, which will act as a barrier against frost, and to afford protection to crops.”113 Reed asked surveyor Ponton to investigate if there was a large enough tract of suitable land available.

  Ponton recommended a tract of land just north of the William Twatt (Sturgeon Lake) Reserve:

  The country is undulating and generally covered with a scattered growth of small poplar. Fire has passed over the country in the past, and left large quantities of dry wood, and open areas ready for the plough. A creek or small river flowing South would cross the Eastern portion, and it is said to be well stocked with jackfish and suckers. Small game such as rabbits, ducks, and prairie chicken are still numerous, and the Band would be located on the direct roads to such fishing lakes as Red Deer Lake, Bittern Lake and others, which they could easily visit at the proper seasons to lay in a supply of fish.114

  Ponton’s recommendation illuminated several impor
tant points. Although the agricultural capability of the land was paramount, other aspects of its landscape and location were significant. It was near the Sturgeon Lake band, for the boreal bands wanted to be near other Woods Cree, with whom they could “meet … and make friends.”115 The location was also convenient for the Indian Department, which assumed that “proximity to the Sturgeon Lake reserve would enable instruction and oversight to be given comparatively easily.”116 Firewood supply, fish, and small game were important. Road access connected the boreal bands with their other seasonal hunting and fishing lands.117 The location seemed ideally suited to all purposes.

  Problems arose immediately. The Department of the Interior rejected the reserve selection since “the whole of these lands … are timber berths, and are under license to Messrs. Moore and MacDowall, of Prince Albert, consequently they are not available.”118 Both the Department of the Interior and the Indian Department agreed and anticipated that the desired reserve would, or could, be good farming land. Its primary role, in the meantime, was to service the burgeoning lumber industry at Prince Albert. The Department of Indian Affairs was unable to overrule the Department of the Interior, and there the matter rested.

  According to oral tradition, the chiefs of both Montreal Lake and La Ronge continued to press their case for a farming reserve during annual treaty annuity payments. They also made trips to Prince Albert to remind the Indian Department of the bands’ continued interest in the lands in question. At no point did the bands try to acquire any other suitable lands.119 In 1894, Indian Agent W. Sibbald reported that “the older men say that this farming land is for the rising generation to fall back upon when the hunt will no longer provide a living for them, which is a state they all believe is fast approaching.”120 The bands were essentially using the arguments of Archdeacon Mackay and cleverly playing into the ideals of the Indian Department, for which agriculture represented a clear road to civilization and settlement. The agricultural argument gave the bands leverage in their fight to own a southern reserve in addition to their northern territories. If the Indian Department wanted the boreal bands to embrace farming on a scale larger than the microclimate of soil pockets and root vegetable gardens, then it had to provide land with better soil and growing capability.

  The continued and determined lobbying pushed the Indian Department to renew its efforts. Reed reviewed the whole situation in 1895. The Montreal Lake band, in particular, was suffering from reduced fishing and hunting resources, and some were inclined to move south. The farming instructor at Sturgeon Lake would be nearby to give advice, which the boreal bands specifically and repeatedly requested.121 Reed once again asked the Department of the Interior if the timber berths on these lands had been renewed or if the lands were available. He even hoped that it might be “possible in the meantime to allow the Indians to occupy the lands in whole or in part, conditionally upon their respecting the right of Messrs. Moore and Macdowall to the timber covered in their license.”122 Confusion followed the request. At first it seemed that the land title was clear; then railway and timber interests interfered. Distance (and conflicting records) between Ottawa and the land office at Prince Albert held up the process.123

  In March 1897, Reverend T. Clarke, minister serving at Montreal Lake, sent an alarming communication to Hayter Reed. He suggested that it was well known that the department was trying to secure a reserve around Little Red River. Some Métis were planning to move onto the land and demand squatter’s rights, Clarke contended. He warned that no hay permits should be issued for the area for fear of leaving nothing for the incoming bands. He also recommended that a crop of potatoes and other vegetables be sown to be ready for band members planning to move.124 The threat of squatters, real or imagined, seemed to galvanize the Indian Department to again ask the Department of the Interior to reserve these lands.125 This time all outside interests were swept aside. A.W. Ponton completed the survey of Little Red River Indian Reserve No. 106A in the spring of 1897, and by 1900 an order-in-council officially created the reserve held in common for the bands at Montreal Lake and Lac La Ronge.126

  Although the boreal bands requested this southern reserve, and the Indian Department approved and supported it, it was not universally lauded. J. Lestock Reid, a surveyor for the Indian Department, and Prince Albert’s member of the legislative assembly of the North-West Territories, objected to the new reserve.127 He sent a strongly worded letter to T.O. Davis, member of Parliament for Prince Albert, in 1897. After sheepishly admitting that the land in question was where he pastured his herd of cattle, Reid went on: “In the name of all that is holy why bring the Wood Indians from their hunting grounds where they are making a living to try and make farmers of them and starvation.” Reid claimed it was better to give them reserve land “where they have been accustomed to live and have lived for generations. I know, no one better, that these Wood Indians will never make a living not even an attempt at farming. If they are brought down it becomes permanent starvation and perhaps worse and help to swell the catalogue of Almighty Voices.”

  The reference to Almighty Voice is significant. Almighty Voice shot a cow—considered to be government property—on his Cree home reserve of One Arrow, south of Prince Albert, in 1895. Public records and oral history diverge at this point: was it to feed a hungry family, or to celebrate a wedding, or just for spite? While Almighty Voice was in captivity, the guards told him that he would be hanged. He escaped but was tracked down. He killed the officer and escaped, which set off a massive manhunt. For nearly two years, Almighty Voice roved at will across the ecotone, heading north into the bush and south to his home and neighbouring reserves, eluding police. In the spring of 1897, the police, with heavy weaponry, cornered Almighty Voice and two companions in a bluff south of Prince Albert. They were shot to death.128

  By invoking Almighty Voice, Reid raised specific concerns about starvation policies, the “fitness” of First Nations for agriculture, the problematic history of government intervention in Aboriginal agriculture, and the possibility of widespread resistance, following Almighty Voice’s lead. Reid was a treaty commissioner in 1876, sent to the Berens River and Norway House area of Manitoba to accept adhesions to Treaty 5, so he had some experience of boreal lifeways. It is unlikely, however, that he had visited any traplines or homes to witness the kind of small-scale boreal agriculture common in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Moreover, Almighty Voice, in many ways, was a victim of prairie Aboriginal agricultural policies, which were underfunded, wrongheaded, and by the late 1890s being abandoned by many prairie First Nations.129 Killing a “government” cow is one interpretation; the band, it could also be said, owned the cow as part of Treaty 6. What Reid did not fully appreciate was that Aboriginal boreal agriculture, always seasonal and designed to fit with other aspects of boreal life, had a different purpose. The boreal bands would continue to have their northern reserves. They were asking, in essence, for a legally recognized base of land in both boreal and forest edge environments. Ensuring access to a larger-scale land base for agriculture, the bands were essentially broadening their subsistence base and spreading their efforts to ensure a greater measure of resilience.

  Conclusion

  The ecotone found in the north Prince Albert region marked both a typical example of an ecological and cultural edge between prairie and boreal environments and a special place. From a larger perspective, First Nations’ use of the western interior was not confined to only one or the other environment. Both plains- and forest-adapted bands used the forest edge as a place of refuge, diversification and resilience, and cultural adaptation and exchange. Resource exploitation and interaction involved all seasons of the year to access fish, waterfowl, large and small game, plants, medicine, and fuel. Before treaty and segregation on reserves, plains bands could access the forest as a temporary refuge from harsh winter conditions or spring and summer domestic exploitation. At the height of the pemmican empire, plains bands used the ecological differences between the b
oreal North and the prairie South to their advantage: they manufactured pemmican as a trade item to fuel the fur trade, and acted as seasonal employees of the fur trade paddling and portaging through the northern waterways. As the bison disappeared, the opportunities and lifestyles of boreal and plains bands moved in opposite directions. Confined to reserve lands on the open plains, and subjected to problematic and inappropriate government intervention that stymied, rather than helped, their transition to agriculture, plains bands often became dependent on assistance. They could no longer migrate to the boreal region to exploit its resources. It should be noted, though, that many plains bands sought a measure of ecological resilience through their choice of reserve land in forested or scrub environments where game, timber, and other forest resources could be found, even though such land was often less fit for agriculture. Boreal bands had a long history of using forest edge resources in a cycle that moved from deep within the forest to the forest edge and beyond. Although they also took up reserves, boreal bands experienced somewhat less disturbance, at least in the early years after treaty.

  The Treaty 6 external adhesion offers a place-based perspective to reconsider key points in the western Canadian story. The significant differences between boreal microclimate agriculture and the types of farming adapted across the south show a potential new direction to rethink and re-evaluate Aboriginal agriculture in the post-treaty transition era. What did “farming” look like? Variations and complexity must be acknowledged.