Fw: #Idle no more

This is an excellent message well worth reading. I hope the fine, attached photos make it through. (If by some chance they do not, simply continue scrolling through the "photo spaces." We are much indebted to D.D. for this.  In Solidarity, Hunter 


Hello
I read your stories at [Marxism mail].

Today, I had the honor to watch the Coast Salish people sing and drum and dance. My great grandparents came to Canada as settlers to farm the Alberta prairie. My father's family farmed near Edmonton, my mother's   near Medicine Hat. During WW2, my mother and the other farmer's daughters in the area made plates and cups for the army. When the war ended, Mine Mill  organized her workplace, but that's another story.


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While googling 'idle no more', I found a newspaper article about an INM protest close to my grandparent's old homestead. I wondered why, and with a little more googling, I learned their farm had once been part of Indian Reserve 136 - until the CPR Railway and land speculators forced Chief Papaschase and his  band from their land. My grandparents farm was expropriated and paved over in the 1960s to build an airport.


Below is the story ofChief Papaschase, and below that,  a timeline of the events. I hope you have time to read it. It's a sad story but an inspiring  one.

in solidarity
d.

Papaschase 
the caption reads "this man led the charge in the tribal wars"
" 


Jim Brady, "The Wisdom of Papaschase, a Cree Medicine Man." Glenbow Institute


The Garneau District of Edmonton is named after my great grandfather Lawrence Garneau. His farm was located at the south end of the High Level Bridge on 9th street near the University of Edmonton. He homesteaded this location in 1874, and possibly earlier. His land adjoined the Indian Reserve of the Papaschase band. Lawrence and Eleanor Garneau were both good friends of Chief Papaschase.
  
During the 1885 rebellion, Canadian government
troops arrived at Fort Edmonton and declared martial law. All local residents were ordered to retire within the fort. But my grandfather and another French Métis, Benjamin Vandal, ignored the order to abandon their farms, as they felt that they were in no danger from the Indians. Vandal, who lived on the White Mud Creek about eight miles above Edmonton, had also (like Garneau) been a soldier in the Manitoba Métis army of 1870. They were arrested and taken before a military court, given a 
summary trial, and sentenced to death for disobeying a military order under conditions of martial law.

Riel and his council had sent letters to my grandfather and Vandal inquiring as to the local situation and the degree of support that could be expected from the local Métis. My grandfather kept this letter to read to some of the Métis sympathizers who were illiterate. My grandmother was in the kitchen when a sergeant and four constables of the North West Mounted Police galloped into the yard (They had a warrant for Garneau's arrest and a search warrant for the premises). The sergeant bounded up the stairs to place my grandfather under arrest. The other police immediately ransacked the house. One policeman went to the actual spot where the letter had been hidden. 

It was evident they were acting on information from an informer. But they found nothing. My grandmother had acted with great presence of mind. She had been laundering when they came into the yard, and she reached up, placed the letter and other incriminating material in the wash tub, and calmly destroyed them by rubbing them on the washboard until they were completely disintegrated.

The death sentences handed out to these resistance participants created a great backlash in Edmonton from the Catholic clergy, Hudson's Bay Company people, free traders, early White settlers and even the Protestant clergy. Bishop Grandin appealed to the Minister of the Militia, Sir Adolphe Caron, urging a stay of execution. The Minister, a friend of Bishop Grandin, reversed the verdict of the court martial. However, the prisoners were held in custody until after the rebellion, then tried in civil court and sentenced to six months imprisonment.

After the rebellion, considerable animosity and attitudes of revenge appeared among the Anglo-Saxons against the defeated Métis. In those days social aid and other amenities of the welfare state were unknown. My grandmother and eleven children were left destitute to shift for themselves. The Whites, it seemed, without thinking about it, punished them for my grandfather's rebellious spirit. They would have starved but for the enduring friendship, compassion and generosity of Papaschase. For during their period of imprisonment, he fed both the Garneau and Vandal families. My grandfather never forgot this .

Later, pressure from the railway and land speculators forced Papaschase and 
his band off their land. They dispersed and wandered the valleys of the foothills of the Rockies.In 1901 
Garneau moved to the St. Paul des Métis colony 150 miles northeast of Edmonton. Three years 
later, and nearly twenty years after the rebellion, my grandfather heard that Papaschase was old and in 
straightened circumstances. So he journeyed to the foothills and brought the Chief back to St. Paul 
des Metis. The Cree band of earlier days had broken up; it now existed only in the memories 
of old timers. A comfortable cabin was built for Papaschase beside a small lake near 
Garneau's trading post, and here Papaschase lived with his two wives. The summer seasons were spent 
in the old style prairie teepees. 

By 1905 Garneau was well established in political and business circles in the Edmonton area, operating a 
ranch with 400 cattle and 300 horses, a chain of trading posts as well as a timber berth 
and sawmill. In 1909, the St. Paul des Métis Colony was officially disbanded as a result of the 
Catholic Church's claim that the Métis had failed to adapt to agricultural life. 
A  secret syndicate comprised of a Dominion Land Agent, a former agent of the 
Church, and a local trader was formed to purchase Métis lands, to be sold for a profit to 
incoming French-Canadian settlers. The Métis continued to resist, however, and, led by the more 
prosperous, educated Métis settlers, among them Lawrence Garneau, the illegal syndicate was 
exposed, and its members fled the area.  A Royal Commission was established to investigate
 the whole issue and the lands were restored to the Métis by Order in Council during the 
dying days of the Laurier administration.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
            Timeline


          As long as the sun shines, grass grows and the rivers flow...
      

1869: The last great smallpox epidemic sweeps the prairies.

1870: The Red River resistance, led by Métis Louis Riel and  Gabriel Dumont. 
         
1870: The last battle between the Cree Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy. 

1873:  Poundmaker, a Cree, is adopted by Blackfoot chief, Crowfoot. This move successfully stops the 
          struggle over the now very scarce buffalo.

1874: Lawrence Garneau, begins farming along the North Saskatchewan River across from Fort Edmonton.

1876: Fearing starvation and having no method by which to sustain themselves, the First Nations of 
         what will become Alberta and Saskatchewan sign Treaty 6. 
        
1877: Chief Papaschase signs Treaty 6 and is given Indian Reserve 136,  on 50 square miles of land 
         south of Fort Edmonton.  Each family is to be given agricultural tools and seed, a promise that is
         never kept.               
                   
1879: The buffalo have become virtually extinct and the Indians in the Edmonton area are suffering 
         from severe  starvation. Although a general famine has descended upon the Indians of the North West
         Territories, the Federal Government does not provide relief  as promised under the terms of Treaty 6.   

1880: With the Indians now out of the way, settlers begin to arrive.

1881: A group of Edmonton citizens petitions Prime Minister Macdonald to move the Papaschase Band and
         obtain a surrender of  IR 136 for sale to non-Indians.  "Now is the time for the Government to declare
         the  reserve open and show whether this country is to be run in the interests of the settlers or the 
         Indians." - Frank Oliver, Edmonton Bulletin. The CPR also wants the Papaschase land for a rail line  
         between Calgary and Edmonton.

1883: Cree chiefs from the Edmonton area send a letter to Prime Minister Macdonald accusing the government
          of breaching its treaty obligations, detailing widespread poverty among the Cree people, "We are 
          reduced to the lowest stage of poverty. We were once a proud and independent people . Our young
          women are forced by starvation to become prostitutes to the white man, a thing unheard of before 
          amongst ourselves."

1885: The second Riel Rebellion led by Dumont, Riel and Poundmaker is defeated after they run out of 
          ammunition. Riel is captured and hanged. Dumont makes his way to Montana and joins Buffalo Bill's 
          Wild West Show.  Poundmaker gives himself up and is sentenced to prison. At his trial Poundmaker 
          says, "Had I wanted war, I would not be here now. I should be on the prairie. You did not catch me.
          I gave myself up. You have got me because I wanted justice." 
         The same year, my grandfather is born in Volhynia, Russia.

1886: The Papaschase band harvest their crops.

1887:  Commissioner Reed is directed by Indian Affairs to evict  the Papaschase Band. The people are 
          dispersed. They deny relinquishing their rights to live on the land and, with Garneau translating, inform
          Commissioner Reed they did not understand the meaning of the language contained in  the
          declarations  they purportedly signed.

1890: The rail line between Calgary and Red Deer is completed. 
          The same year, my grandmother is born in Volhynia.

1891:  Fifty-three German speaking families from Volhynia arrive by wagon train in Edmonton from Red Deer. 
           Later that year, the rail line between Red Deer and Edmonton is completed.

1892: More ancestors from Volhynia arrive in Edmonton.

1893: IR 136 land is sold and the Volhynians buy most of it. The Papaschase people never receive any 
         of the money from the sale of their reserve.

1898: The Volhynians build their church and cemetery in the middle of what had been Papaschase IR 136.

1939: "We understand there are at least one hundred and fifty Breeds living in old box cars
          and tents around the old C.P R.. right-of-way on 105th avenue. These Indians are non-treaty Indians 
          and do not belong to any reservation. We wish to protest against these half breeds being allowed to 
          ride the bus carrying bags of garbage picked up on the city lanes. The odor from these half breeds
          and garbage is far from pleasant on this overcrowded bus." Jasper Place Community League letter to
          the Edmonton City Health Board.

1947: Oil is discovered on IR 136.

2001: The descendents of Chief Papaschase file court documents outlining their case against the 
         Canadian government, seeking compensation for the wrongful removal of Treaty and land rights.
         The land is now estimated to be worth $2.5 billion.

2008: The Supreme Court of Canada  rules against  the Papaschase people. Too much time has passed and the 
          descendants of the Papaschase First Nation  did not clearly justify their legal standing to make such
          claims.

2013: The Papaschase First Nation block the highway south of Edmonton. Alberta's Justice minister is
          "really pissed off."

  
In the background is drilling rig  'Leduc #1'. Now a tourist attraction, in 1947 it hit oil 
big time. The highway north of Edmonton takes you to the infamous tar sands, but first
you must pass through a dozen reserves.   People have the power.




My father's headstone is on the right hand side of the picture, behind my aunty Elsie


The land sale map of  the Papaschase reserve (1893)
                                    
                                          The Garneau homestead, which adjoined IR 136, was on the south side 
                                  of the river below the arrow.   
                                   
                                   l      The Vandal homestead was at the mouth of White Mud Creek 
                            l       (top square on the left).
                                  V       





      Battle of the Belly River 
            Date October 25, 1870 
            Location in what is now Lethbridge, Canada 
            Result decisive Blackfoot victory 
     
      Belligerents 
      Blackfoot Confederacy Cree First Nation 
      Strength 
      500-800 warriors 500-800 warriors 
      Casualties and losses 
      40 killed
      50 wounded 200-300 killed 


 
        

       Dumont



                                                                                                                    ^
                                                                                                             Poundmaker


The Garneau homestead