Forest Prairie Edge

by Merle Massie

  26 Lila Sully, interview with Merle Massie, September 2009.

  27 Interview, Edna Dobie with Merle Massie, November 2008. See also “Brook, Arthur John and Bertha,” by Edna Dobie, Cordwood and Courage, 126–7. Dobie has written a memoir of these events with her sister, which is unpublished.

  28 See Cordwood and Courage, “Blumer, Jack and Elsa,” 100; “Craig, Frederick and Esther,” 150.

  29 Mrs. A.W. Bailey, “The Year We Moved.”

  30 Wright, Saskatchewan, 226.

  31 “60 Families Move North From Farms. Stoughton District Land Abandoned as Feed Situation Becomes Serious.” Special Dispatch to the Regina Leader, 30 August 1934.

  32 SAB, MA.3.8, Local Improvement Districts Branch, Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Branch. Address given by G.J. Matte, Commissioner, Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Branch over Station CJRM on 31 January 1939.

  33 Mather, “Trek to Meadow Lake,” Macleans, 1 April 1932.

  34 J. David Wood’s book crosses too much territory and too much time. It does not concentrate on the Trek. In 2005, Peggy Durant self-published a children’s book, The Long Trek, based on stories told by Depression refugees who went north. Although entertaining, it is not available in bookstores for a broader audience.

  35 See Wright, Saskatchewan; Archer, Saskatchewan: A History; Waiser, Saskatchewan.

  36 Gray, Men Against the Desert, 189.

  37 Ibid., 190.

  38 For an accurate analysis of population trends in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression, see Waiser, Saskatchewan, 302.

  39 See McLeman et al., “GIS-based modeling of drought and historical population change on the Canadian Prairies.”

  40 See Anderson, “Population Trends,” Encyclopaedia of Saskatchewan, 705–8.

  41 SAB, MA.3.8, Local Improvement Districts Branch, Radio Address by Mr. Matte on the Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Branch, 31 January 1939.

  42 For a discussion of the social shame of relief, and its impact on the human psyche, see Waiser, Who Killed Jackie Bates?

  43 Many of these loans were eventually reduced or cancelled, which did much to improve farming conditions in the 1940s and 1950s across Saskatchewan. See Struthers, No Fault of Their Own. For an investigation of combined public and voluntary efforts, see Pitsula, “Mixed Social Economy of Unemployment Relief.” In this interpretation, welfare comes from four sources: the state, the voluntary sector, the family, and the market, which all played a role.

  44 Bowen, “Forward to a Farm,” 34.

  45 Ibid., 128.

  46 After ten years, 20 percent remained on the land. See Bowen, “Forward to a Farm,” 243–4. If two-thirds gained title to their homesteads but, after ten years, only 20 percent remained on their farms, over 40 percent of the land had been sold.

  47 Prince Albert Historical Society, Bill Smiley Archives, “Paddockwood: The Mixed Farming Paradise of Saskatchewan,” found in the Walter Whelan Scrapbook, oversize shelf. The pamphlet emphasized what dust-covered prairie citizens wanted most: trees for shelter and fuel, water, mixed farming, recreation, garden produce and a low cost of living.

  48 Some northern municipalities did express concern with northern migration. The community of Medstead, for example, raised the issue at various meetings of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, confronting the provincial government and asking for guarantees that northern migrants would be supported by the provincial government and their municipality of origin, should they need relief, and not their new host community. The Western Producer, 28 February 1935. Soon after Medstead raised these concerns, northern relief fell under the auspices of the Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Branch.

  49 “Down Memory Lane,” Paddockwood Pow-Wow, Diamond Jubilee Edition, 1965.

  50 “McGowan, Sargent Hugh and Muriel,” Cordwood and Courage, 355.

  51 Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 30.

  52 See Ulmer, “Report on Unemployment and Relief in Western Canada in 1932,” Chapter 3, “Whitton on Tour.”

  53 Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 36–40. See also Hope and Stutt, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in the Albertville-Garrick Area.” The second report added, “There are some of these factors which cannot be measured statistically, but which are very important, such as the personal ambition, energy, and initiative of the settler,” 27.

  54 Regional, even microlocal, variations in northern settlement success and failure has skewed historical interpretation. The push to present a broad analysis of the Great Trek, combined with an over-reliance on provincial relief and resettlement information, has favoured stories of hardship and need over success. While some communities experienced tough conditions, others found long-term success. The north Prince Albert region experienced both, which makes it an ideal case study.

  55 Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 36–41.

  56 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 318. See Hope and Stutt, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in the Albertville-Garrick Area,” 26.

  57 Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 68.

  58 The post-1930 settlement records showed that many quarters in the north Paddockwood district were homesteaded several times, particularly throughout the 1920s to early 1930s. Each homesteader might clear a few acres, put up buildings, build a fence, or dig a well. If they subsequently abandoned the land, they would be paid for any improvements made by the next homesteader. Sometimes, the homesteader who finally succeeded in gaining patent was building not only on their own efforts, but on the efforts of those who preceded them on the land.

  59 McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement,” 44.

  60 Powell, “Northern Settlement,” 81.

  61 Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 7, 68.

  62 “Rambling Thoughts by a Prairie Immigrant,” Cordwood and Courage, 636–637. Many loans from the Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Branch went to purchase horses.

  63 SAB, R-183, I.290. Reports on individual townships in the north Prince Albert region, M.D. McCloskey.

  64 See “McGowan, Sargent Hugh and Muriel.”

  65 SAB, S43, 2004-220, S10184, Post-1930 Settlement Records. Jas. Barnett, Inspector Dominion Lands, 4 July 1931 regarding NW ¼ 26 54 25 W 2. Eventually this quarter was successfully homesteaded and patented, but the land was taken over by the provincial government to create a community pasture in the 1960s.

  66 The Austin family of Forest Gate is an example. See Cordwood and Courage, “Austin, Harold and Mary,” “Austin, Lester and Rita.” See also interviews, Merle Massie with Miriam (Austin) Swenson, November 2008 (MMPC); Merle Massie with Lester Austin, November 2008 (MMPC). Lester and Miriam, brother and sister, both noted in separate interviews that most of those who ended up at Hell’s Gate soon moved south, to rent or purchase farms on better soil.

  67 Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 28–9.

  68 SAB, S43, 2004-220. In addition to not enough people, two men from the original school board were in jail.

  69 Relief requirements were noticeable in the municipal files, the Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Branch files, LID #959 files at the RM of Paddockwood, and the notes of government inspectors and other branches in charge of relief efforts.

  70 Powell, “Northern Settlement”; McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement.”

  71 For stories of relief officers and their charges, see SAB, Municipal Affairs, Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Branch files.

  72 Regina Leader, 17 October 1931.

  73 Robert McLeman, “Climate-Related Human M
igration: Enhancing our Understanding Through Use of Analogues,” unpublished conference paper presented at Canadian Association of Geographers annual meeting, Prairie Summit 2010, Regina, 3 June 2010.

  74 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 353.

  75 Ibid., 354. The Hudson Bay region averaged just over five dollars per person per year; Bjorkdale and Carrot River less than two dollars per person per year. Stutt and Van Vliet noted that settlers in the northwestern districts of Saskatchewan received more aid; those in the northeastern areas, less. The average amount of aid per settler family totalled $630 dollars in the northwest, and only $235 in the northeast. These numbers were substantially higher than Fitzgerald’s calculations, but still far less than the majority of prairie farmers or urban residents who required relief for many years.

  76 Province of Saskatchewan, “A Submission By the Government of Saskatchewan to the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations” (Canada, 1937), 185–7.

  77 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 353.

  78 Britnell, Wheat Economy, 207. Fitzgerald noted that the provincial government made Crown land less easy to obtain, increasing the size of forest reserves and screening purchasers to be sure they had enough capital to develop the land quickly. See Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 321.

  79 Britnell, Wheat Economy, 208.

  80 SAB, R-261, File 26.5. Saskatchewan Department of Agriculture, Soldier Settlement branch. Soldier Settlement Board circular letter 24 June 1931.

  81 SAB, R-5 F.H. Auld papers, Miscellaneous Correspondence no. 11, “The Problem of Saskatchewan,” paper presented by J.G. Taggart, Minister of Agriculture and E.E. Eisenhauer, Irrigation Specialist, at the General Professional Meeting of the Engineering Institute of Canada at Ottawa, Ontario, 15 February 1939.

  82 SAB, MA.3.8, Radio address, 31 January 1939.

  83 McDonald, “Soldier Settlement and Depression Settlement,” 5; Powell, “Northern Settlement,” 95.

  84 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 325.

  85 Except for the original sixteen-dollar down payment. See ibid., 326–8.

  86 Ibid., 328.

  87 Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 59.

  88 Most of the land ceded to the Land Utilization Board was, in fact, marginal prairie land. It was turned over to the PFRA and eventually converted to pasture. See SAB, “The Problem of Saskatchewan.”

  89 Powell, “Northern Settlement,” 96.

  90 A farmer required more cleared grey soil to make a viable farm than on black or transitional soil. Grey soil also needed adequate fertilization. Stutt and Van Vliet claimed, however, that government investment in land clearing would pay off, as farmers could easily carry the debt load caused by land clearing. Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement,” 68. Costs for land clearing had declined throughout the 1930s. As mechanization increased, cost per acre for clearing and breaking decreased from fifteen to ten dollars per acre of heavy bush. See Hope and Stutt, “Economic Study of Land Settlement,” 25. Increased mechanization and decreased costs helped post-Depression northern farmers clear acreage quickly, making northern farms viable.

  91 Stutt and Van Vliet calculated that of the northern families interviewed in 1941, an average of one-third had received re-establishment funds. On a microlocal level, these numbers broke down even further. In the brand new communities such as Goodsoil-Pierceland, 70 percent received re-establishment assistance. Settlers in older communities such as Carrot River or the soldier settlement community of Carragana required less, from 5 to 15 percent taking loans. See Stutt and Van Vliet, “Economic Study of Land Settlement in Representative Pioneer Areas,” 59–60. In the north Prince Albert region, re-establishment loans could be found primarily in the most northerly districts, around Emma and Christopher Lake, Beaton, Forest Gate and Moose Lake school districts. See SAB, Municipal Affairs fonds, MA 3.31, Northern Settlers Re-Establishment Board files. See also Gilbert and McLeman, “Household Access to Capital.”

  92 “Paddockwood: The Mixed Farming Paradise of Saskatchewan.”

  93 SAB, RC 236, File C67, box 12, Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life, Community Brief, Paddockwood.

  94 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 410.

  95 “McGowan, Sargent Hugh and Muriel.” Interestingly, their son Sargent Ernest became a prolific and highly successful hunter, fisherman, and trapper.

  96 Stutt, “Land Settlement,” 13.

  97 For an overview of the rise of commercial fishing on the northern lakes, see Seymour, “Geographical Study of the Commercial Fishing Industry in Northern Saskatchewan.” See also Piper, Industrial Transformation.

  98 See “Wiberg, Ernest and Jean,” in Cordwood and Courage, 508–9.

  99 Sigfusson, Sigfusson’s Roads, 49.

  100 See, for example, “Arne Jacobson and family,” Tweedsmuir, 85–90; the Merrell family, Cordwood and Courage, 369–70; Bryce Dunn’s memoirs, “Yesteryears Reflections”; “Daley, Fred and Thelma,” Cordwood and Courage, 167–8.

  101 Prince Albert Daily Herald, 7 August 1931; 14 August 1931.

  102 “Arne Jacobsen and family,” Tweedsmuir, 85–90.

  103 Rees, New and Naked Land, 95–6.

  104 Ibid., 96–9.

  105 Howard Andrews, who grew up north of Paddockwood, shot and skinned squirrels. See Fur, Fish, and Forest, “Andrews, Howard and Ileen,” 120. Dunn, “Yesteryears Reflections,” 24–8.

  106 See “Hayes, Paul and Dolly,” in Fish, Fur, and Forest, 180–2.

  107 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 436–7.

  108 Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management, Wildlife Technical Report Number 5, “A Century of Fur Harvesting in Saskatchewan,” 1995, 32.

  109 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 439, 439a.

  110 Karras, North to Cree Lake and Face the North Wind.

  111 Grey Owl, Men of the Last Frontier, 26.

  112 Quiring, Battling Parish Priests, Bootleggers and Fur Sharks, 101. White trappers’ disregard for northern resources was reiterated and strengthened by Tough, As Their Natural Resources Fail. Both concede that northern trapping became popular following World War I, and increased throughout the 1920s. It was not a specifically Depression phenomenon, but part of a general push north.

  113 A fascinating series of articles by H. Clifford Dunfield in the Western Producer throughout the spring, summer, and fall of 1971 is a spectacular, if underutilized, source for First Nations history along the forest fringe and north to the Churchill River Basin. Titled “The Fur Forest of Saskatchewan,” Dunfield provided a window into fur conservation and ecology, First Nations views and economics, as well as stories, anecdotes, characters, and incidents from the western Churchill basin.

  114 For an important examination of human-set forest fires by prospectors in northern Saskatchewan throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and their impact on First Nations, see Gulig, “‘Determined to Burn off the Entire Country.’”

  115 See “A Century of Fur Harvesting in Saskatchewan,” 25.

  116 SAB, MA 3.7, Northern Settlers Re-Establishment fonds.

  117 Trapping licences were introduced in Saskatchewan in 1920. By 1922, over 8000 licences were issued; in 1928, over 12,000. These numbers moderated in the 1930s, from a low of 2600 in 1932 to a high of 10,400 licences in 1936. Indeed, overall there were fewer licences purchased in the 1930s (71,965 between 1920 and 1929 and 66,839 between 1930 and 1939). In some cases, people trapped without licences, if they could not afford to purchase one. Many traders would take furs without asking to see a licence. However, the overall drop in licences could suggest that pressure from white trappers was perhaps less than previously charged. If so, the role of environmental stress on fur stocks should be re-examined. See “A Century of Fur Harvesting in Saskatchewan,” trapper licence sales 1920–1940, 17
, 26. See also Fur, Fish, and Forest and “Yesteryears Reflections.” It should be noted that trapping generally increased in popularity throughout the twentieth century. During the 1970s, 124,000 trapping licences were issued; in the 1980s, over 155,000—but the overall population of Saskatchewan was about the same as it was in the 1930s.

  118 The lake, originally called Pelican Lake for its tremendous pelican population, was not part of the park’s original boundaries. When the boundaries were extended north in 1929, most of Lavallée Lake fell within the expanded park. See Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, 104. Because the lake was so remote, and only occasional canoeists found their way to the lake, Lavallée was not, at first, pressured to move.

  119 Fitzgerald, “Pioneer Settlement,” 338.

  120 For an overview of the settlement at Fish Lake and its people, see Tweedsmuir, 93–100.

  121 For an overview of Métis history in Saskatchewan, see Préfontaine, “Métis Communities,” Encyclopaedia of Saskatchewan; Campbell, Stories of the Road Allowance People. Two excellent documentaries include “Jim Settee: The Way Home” and “The Story of the Crescent Lake Metis.”

  122 First Nations historian John Tobias declared that drought trekkers went north to “live like the Métis.” Private communication, June 2008.

  123 Interestingly, one writer for the Tweedsmuir local history book thought that Billy Bear “must have been a white man” because he owned a farm. See “James Brown and Family,” Tweedsmuir, 41. For other aspects of Billy Bear’s life, see the files of Indian Affairs, particularly LAC, RG 10, Vol. 7766.

  124 “History of Little Red River Reserve,” as told by Angus Merasty, Saskatchewan Indian 3, 6 (June 1972): 10. By the 1970s, Merasty claimed, leased agricultural land brought $75,000 annually to Lac La Ronge, and likely a proportionate amount to the Montreal Lake band. By 2008, the land leases represented a significant portion of band income. Palmer Hanson rented and broke Little Red River reserve land, as did many of his neighbours in the Spruce Home and Northside districts. Interview, Palmer and Frances Hanson with Merle Massie, summer 2007.