I. 3. A Path from Here
4. Before Setting Out: Tools, Terms, and Starting Points
In this presentation data from every public record and every accessible private source that mentions Île-à-la-Crosse was compiled and analysed. As an effect of that analysis, some starting points have subsequently developed and should be mentioned before going further. First, regarding the matter of what type of history this presentation represents: I have made much mention of the affinities I find with microhistorical studies, but I
ultimately do not want to give this presentation any particular label.Due to the types of
103 Turkel, The Archive of Place, 186. For dismissive observations about Indigenous laws with, instead, an emphasis on regulatory schemes by Indigenous peoples demonstrating “custom,” see Frances Widdowson, “The Political Economy of ‘Aboriginal Customary Law,” paper presented at 2nd Biennial Conference of The Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture & The Humanities, Ottawa, Carlton University, 2007, Accessed July 12, 2015. http://blogs.mtroyal.ca/fwiddowson/files/2009 /10/The-political-economy-of-aboriginal-customary-law-widdowson.pdf. Compare her views to Patrick Macklem’s argument that topics previously considered “customs” are actually examples of international law. Patrick Macklem, Indigenous Difference and the Constitution of Canada
tools I use from many different historical subfields, and that I am often presenting the theme of historic non-dominance, it seems inappropriate to boldy state that what follows is part of one particular historical genre.104 Certainly, it would be possible to consider this
presentation an “empirical” study due to the number of documents I have evaluated and the time period those documents explain.105 Alternatively, the documents’ subjects share
much with information typically considered part of “economic” or “cultural” research.106
To make matters even more complicated for the issue of labeling, some sections have much in common with geographical presentations.107 If anything, because many tools
104 Clay Shirkey, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (New York: The Penguin Press, 2008), 122 and 192 is one of the most accessible descriptions of this point.
105 For a primer on various empirical techniques, see Carolyn J. Heinrich and Lawrence E. Lynn, Jr., “Means and Ends: A Comparative Study of Empirical Methods for Investigating Governance and Performance,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 11, no. 1 (Jan. 2001): 109-138. Some examples include Robert McGhee, Ancient Canada (Hull, PQ: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1984) and Ken Zeilig and Victoria Zeilig, Ste. Madeleine: Community Without a Town (Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications, 1987). A type of empirical study helps respond to potential criticisms about archival sources being “spotty.” Turkel, The Archive of Place, 225. 106 See Ann Harper-Fender, “Discouraging the Use of a Common Resource: The Crees of Saskatchewan,” Journal of Economic History 41, no. 1 (March 1981): 164. She refers to Richard Posner, “A Theory of Primitive Society, with Special Reference to Primitive Law,” Journal of Law and Economics 23, no. 1 (April 1980): 4, 53 for a more expansive description of Indigenous communities’ cost of information and how ‘primitive’ societies are better than European groups in realizing this cost more quickly and accurately. As a result, the physical location of an Indigenous society creates the ‘transaction costs,’ and therefore the law ultimately mirrors the geography. 107 Hilda Neatby’s Quebec, The Revolutionary Age, 1760-1791 is one of the first works to bluntly (and properly) link geography to social trends.Ronald F. Williamson, ed., Toronto: An Illustrated History of Its First 12, 000 Years,Furniss’ The Burden of History and William J. Turkel’s The Archive of Place all contain strong analyses about one particular community. For another supportive view on using law in a non-law presentation as a way to determine the strength of social imperatives, see Pauline Marie Roseneau, Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences: Insights, Inroads and Intrusions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 67. Bruce G. Miller, “Justice, Law and the Lens of Culture,” Wicazo Sa Review 18, no. 2 (2003): 138. Warnock, Saskatchewan, 197; MacMillan, Uses and Abuses, 57. Regularly cited as one of the strongest calls for activism among historians to notice how rules impact the environment is Lynn White Jr.’s “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” Science 155, no. 37 (Mar. 10, 1967): 1203-1207. The failure to explore a fundamental condition of interdependence is considered in David Clark, “Interdependent Urbanization in an Urban World: An Historical Overview,” The Geographical Journal 164, no. 1 (March 1998): 85-95. See also Rauna Kuokkanen’s concern that scholars do not study the social benefits of sharing enough in “Toward a New Relation of Hospitality in the Academy,” Special Issue: Native Experiences in the Ivory Tower, American Indian Quarterly 27, no. 1/2 (Winter-Spring 2003): 285. See J. R. Miller’s observations about how people claim they want historical efforts to influence current public policy, but then fail to use data about the past
employed here are not historical, and the story is constructed by keeping Île-à-la-Crosse as the focus rather than people or a theme per se, 108 my analysis is more an example of
what Peers calls historical “layering” of information rather than particular historical methodology.109 With an appreciation for what Kerry Abel has constructed in her works
such as Changing Places with their challenges to how we mention the land,110 I also
demand that the “layer” about physical features be even thicker so that comparisons to natural and human forms be less difficult to do. With my argument about such a part existing in this presentation, my affinity to microhistories seems the most strong due especially to its challenge to earlier methods.
Second, certain labels will appear that are not necessarily employed by historical/
geographical/ economic research. For example, I use “First Nation” as a way to introduce Indigenous peoples who are not Métis and were likely referred to as “Indians.” As well, based on my observation that “Dene” has now gained more familiarity as the Chipewyan word for “Chipewyan,” I use the term “Nihiyaw” to identify those previously labeled as “Cree.” 111 Regarding the concept “Métis,” I do not differentiate between English or French
because of an obsession with politics, law, or social strata. See J. R. Miller, Lethal Legacy, vi. He puts particular blame upon historians for this situation.
108 For some works presented by those part of other scholarly fields besides history, see
generally Parker and Frank Tough, “From the ‘Original Affluent Society’ to the ‘Unjust Society’: A Review Essay on Native Economy in Canada,” Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development 4, no. 2 (2005): 40. Some works include a very assertive argument that a community absolutely impacts macro relationships. See Sharon Doyle Driedger’s An Irish Heart: How a Small Immigrant Community Shaped Canada (Toronto: Harper Collins Canada, 2010).
109 Laura Peers, The Ojibwa of Western Canada: 1780-1870 (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1994), 210.
110Kerry Abel, Changing Places: History, Community, and Identity in Northeastern Ontario (Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006).
111Notably, David Thompson called the Cree of the village “Nihiaway” after he learned the Cree language. See David Thompson, David Thompson’s Narrative, 1784-1812, ed. Richard Glover
backgrounds within the Métis population unless community members did so. These decisions about labels for Indigenous peoples are done partly for consistency, but also to build upon discussions regarding Indigenous self-identification.112 Even if an outsider
wanted to use the term “country-born” (for British heritage) to label a local, the
community’s evolution suggests that doing so happened less as more time passed and, in fact, was counter to the emphasis placed upon community affinity, kinship and social- economic stability.113 Although they may not sit well with everyone, I hope that my
choices contribute to views about how all researchers should make an Indigenous
community’s form available in a way that shows that community’s understanding of itself as well as possible. Just as other marginalized groups have argued that a historic term has a derogatory connotation that cannot be completely separated from the term even if used to avoid committing presentism,114 I believe Indigenous peoples in Canada deserve the
same treatment.
(Toronto: Champlain Society, 1962), 79. So using the term can also be considered more
historically accurate according to non-Indigenous sources as well.
112 See for example, Adam Gaudry, “The Metis-ization of Canada: The Process of Claiming Louis Riel, Metissage, and the Metis People as Canada’s Mythical Origin,” Aboriginal Policy Studies, 2 (2): 64-87 and Chris Andersen, “Métis”: Race, Recogntions and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2015).
113For more information about the term “Country born” see Yvonne Vezina, “Métis Culture,” on the “Our Legacy” site organized by Saskatchewan Arvhives and the University of Saskatchewan Archives to host Indigenous contributions to the access of knowledge. http://scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy /exhibit_metisculture#_edn3.
114 For commentary regarding the negative prejudicial effect a historic term can have upon a group’s modern places, see generally Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, “The Inventions of African Identities and Languages: The Discursive and Developmental Implications,” in Selected Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics: Shifting the Center of Africanism in Language Politics and Economics Globalization, ed. Olaoba F. Arasanyin and Michael A. Pemberton, 14-26 (Sommerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 2006).
On the point of what to do when considering non-Indigenous peoples, I regularly use the term “outsider” instead of “explorer” or “newcomer” for those who visit Île-à-la-Crosse. As I argue later on in greater detail, the community’s history of ‘contact’ is one of the most fluid examples in Canada, and as the years reveal, the ability of visitors to transform into what locals consider ‘residents’ happens repeatedly. Indeed, the years show how a non- Indigenous person had the ability to become a ‘local’ as much as a member of a First Nations family. Certain newcomers become not so new over time, and they arguably could be as much a part of Île-à-la-Crosse as someone without European heritage. In how I have understood events, the outsiders stay outsiders because they do not abandon the norms they brought with them. When helpful, any insiders who are non-Indigenous will be identified as such to give more accurate context for the scene in question. When
necessary, cultural labels are used for the outsiders, but I suspect the idea that they are not Indigenous will be easily understood.
Third, when making reference to physical geography, I almost always refer to the main waterway for the village as the Churchill River instead of Lac Île-à-la-Crosse. As Part II describes, the area that outsiders regularly called a “lake” was actually the widest part of the river. As well, for consistency I refer to the body of as the “Churchill River” instead of the “English River.” Definitely, the latter name appears in older records. Still, that term is not a local label either in the same way as “Indian”, “Cree” or “Chipewyan” are outsider terms. When I was trying to choose how to label one of the most influential factors about the community’s life, an Île-à-la-Crosse villager told me “neither one of those terms (“Churchill” or “English”) is our name, so why do I care what you call it? I know what it is
already!”115 Most often, I simply call the water body “the river” and hope that such a
description allows understanding for its impact upon local and more distant conditions.
On the pages that follow, we will venture to where the Churchill River is its widest, picks up speed, and has provided shelter for many men and women who met there, visited for a time, and sometimes even decided to stay. We will learn about what J. F. C. Wright called “one of the best known and best-ordered of the northern settlements” that demonstrated great “self-adaptation”116 and “progressive partnerships.” 117 When visiting this place and
looking to the trees, water, and animal (including human) life, we will appreciate how Île- à-la-Crosse’s “anonymous masons” “self-assembled” to find ways in order for survival and even substantial profit to happen.118 Edward McCourt told his readers that peoples found
it “a hasty retreat,” an excellent “taking off point,”119 Ray observed that it was a place
where no one seemed particularly concerned with creating dominance,120 and Philip
Spaulding considered it a location to fend off “strong contradictory pressures from the outside.”121 Whether it happened for explorer Alexander Henry, literary writer McCourt,
115 Source to author, speaker asked to remain anonymous, 16 June 2012.
116 J. F. C. Wright, Saskatchewan, The History of a Province (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1955), x.
117 Carter, Botany Bay, 13.
118 Noticing the historical absence of a group and then attempting to reveal this group’s conditions which continued despite being forgotten is called “mentalité history” by Robert
Darnton. He defines this self-created subfield as “the intellectual history of non-intellectuals as an attempt to reconstruct the cosmology of the common man or, more modestly, to understand the attitudes, assumptions, and implicit ideologies of specific social groups.” See Darnton’s “The History of Mentalités: Recent Writings on Revolution, Criminality and Death in France,” in Structure, Consciousness and History, eds. Richard Harvey Brown and Stanford M. Lyman, 106- 137 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978). Ginzburg also agrees when he observes scholars need to know about the “anonymous masons.” Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), 1. For the “self-assemble” term see Shirkey, Here Comes Everybody, 21. 119 Edward McCourt, Saskatchewan (Toronto: MacMillan, 1968), 196.
120 Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, xi.
politician Stéphane Dion, or a graduate student like me from Western University, something strong yet unconfirmed intrigued many different people over many years. Now, it is my hope that what is here can help illuminate what makes it so intriguing.122
This microhisotyr, based on empirical data and interacting with information coming from history, geography, Indigenous studies and economic analysis, is my contribution to learning about this space’s fascinating life.
Ekwa maka!123
122 See generally James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010) as an example of a group forgotten by scholars and global society. On a personal note, I found a handwritten note by A. S. Morton to someone called “RLG” on 24 December 1935. I found it in a file folder with loose documents called “Archives Folder ‒ Ile-a-la-Crosse,” in the Manitoba Archives. It reads: “I have received valuable communication… which goes far to unravel the tangle about the sites of the various Posts there.” After researching dates a bit, I learned just before writing this note Morton had retired from his work as a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan. I have yet to find any other writer who makes reference to this small faded piece of paper. Morton did not publish any writings about the village after this note was written, and he died a decade later. 123 Michif for “let’s go” in Vince Ahenakew, Nehiyawewin Mitataht: Michif ahci Cree (Saskatoon: The Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research, 2009),29.
PART II The Site