Figure 5.8: River Lot Survey (Twp 43, Range 1, W3), St. Laurent Settlement, Saskatchewan, c. 189045
45Township Plan, 1890. Township 43, Range 1, West of Third Meridian, Dominion Lands Survey Maps,
This settlement pattern was not unique to the Qu’Appelle Valley. Other Métis settlements of the period, such as St. Paul des Métis, Batoche, St. Laurent and Isbister’s Settlement in Prince Albert, employed these recognizable land tenure practices when reestablishing themselves away from Red River.46 When compared to the organized
survey of river lots in these communities, the plots of land along the Qu’Appelle Lakes and River were less structured (Figure 5.9). Father DeCorby of the St Florent Mission described Métis land holdings as almost haphazard. According to DeCorby, “each cut his piece after his own fashion. This one took a little point. That one a stream, where there was a little wood and good lands; another marked for himself a good length on the little piece of woods which covers the southern declivity of the Valley.”47 The way that Métis
in the Qu’Appelle Valley took up land was not indiscriminate, but followed social customs and recognizable land tenure practices.
46 For a detailed examination of Métis resettlement, See: Paget J. Code, “Les Autres Métis: The English Métis in the Prince Albert Settlement, 1862-1887” (Masters of Arts thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 2008).
47 Father DeCorby, Qu’Appelle Mission to David Laird, Minister of the Interior, 1 October 1874, Enclosing Indian Branch File No.4145 covering Rev. Pere DeCorby’s Explanation re: Manners in which Half-breeds have relocated, File HB 61, RG 15, D-II-3, Vol.171, Half-Breed Files, Dominion Lands Branch,
Figure 5.9: River Lots Qu’Appelle Valley (Twp 19, Range 12, W2), c. 188348
Cowie observed that farming along the Qu’Appelle Lakes was possible, and “[had] been tried with varying success; crops of wheat, barley, Indian corn, potatoes and common kitchen vegetables, in good seasons, turning out fair returns. Abundant water, pasture and hay and an open country make stock-raising profitable and easy.”49
According to Cowie, it was only the Métis’ enduring reliance on the hunt that impeded their success. Most families only practiced small-scale agriculture, continuing to
supplement their economy with the buffalo hunt and other subsistence practices but a few families moved away from the buffalo hunt and farmed on a larger scale. Visiting the region in August 1881 with Governor-General Lord Lorne, Reverend Doctor James MacGregor, and W.H. Williams, Special Correspondent for the Toronto Globe echoed the quality of land and potential for agriculture. MacGregor recounted a settlement of Métis farmers “cutting down splendid crops of wheat and barley” as well as Catholic Mission priests with well-tended gardens of “potatoes of marvelous size, water-melons,
48Township Plan, 1883. Township 19, Range 12 West of Second Meridian. Dominion Lands Survey
Maps, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan. 49 Cowie, Company of Adventurers, 483.
musk-melons, tomatoes, French beans, and cabbages.”50 Like MacGregor, Williams
recalled the capacity for agricultural achievement.
The bend of the river often takes in the entire width of the Valley, and some of the most beautiful claims I have yet seen are included in these broad, rounded points, where a neat little farm may be seen bounded by a single curve of the river in the exact shade of an ox bow. That these slopes are extremely fertile, the rich growth of wild pea vine, succulent grasses, and a profusion of all sorts of prairie flowers gives abundant evidence; but as one passes further up the Valley and comes upon the first squatter’s claim he becomes convinced beyond all doubt of the wondrous riches of the soil. Here, wheat, oats, barley, corn, potatoes and nearly all sorts of grain and root crops may be seen flourishing luxuriantly...51
In the Valley, Williams met Antoine Larocque, who he noted had “a remarkably pretty and promising claim.”52 A retired buffalo hunter and trader, Larocque and his wife
Rosalie Laplante settled in the Qu’Appelle Valley to a life of farming and trading by the early 1870s.53 Williams described Larocque as “a wealthy and most genial representative
of that extremely genial and hospitable class to be found pioneering everywhere in the North-West, the French half-breeds.”54 The party camped at Larocque’s for the night and
the following morning they feasted on “fresh vegetables in great variety, smoked and dried buffalo meat of the finest quality, and the richest and best of fresh milk, and in fact all the comforts and luxuries with which the settler’s table is like to be loaded.”55
Following breakfast, Williams toured Larocque’s claim, finding in the garden “all sorts of ordinary vegetables flourishing luxuriantly, and in a fairly advanced state for the time of year.” In Larocque’s wheat fields, he recalled finding,
as fine a sample of wheat as I ever saw at any of our Provincial Exhibitions. The whole crop was within a day or two of being fit for harvesting… In short, it was absolute perfection in quantity, size, weight, texture and colour. As Mr. LaRoch only commenced farming the year before last, he was not in a position to give me figures as to the yield per acre…I should judge that Mr. LaRoch’s wheat crop
50Helen Ruth Keay, Lord Lorne’s Expedition to the North-West, Reported by Rev. Dr. James MacGregor,
1881 (Regina: University of Regina Printing Services, 2004), 34.
51 W.H. Williams, Manitoba and the North-West: Journal of a Trip from Toronto to the Rocky Mountains
Via Lake Superior, Thunder Bay, Rat Portage, Winnipeg, Qu’Appelle, Prince Albert, Battleford, Fort Calgary and Fort McLeod and Return Via Edmonton, Touchwood Hills, Etc. (Toronto: Hunter Rose and
Company, 1882), 65.
52 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 65.
53 Antoine Larocque, Application for Patent, 8 Aug 1883, File 290.5, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
54 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 67. 55 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 67.
(which, however, I think is exceptionally good, even for the North-West) would run as high as thirty-five to forty bushels to the acre, while his crop of oats and barley are proportionally good.56
On the party’s return journey through the North-West, Williams inquired about Larocque’s progress when he met Thomas Kavanaugh, who he described as a wealthy farmer from Qu’Appelle. Kavanaugh had forty acres broken, twenty of which were “barley, wheat, oats and roots,” and the only threshing machine in the region.57
According to Kavanaugh, Larocque had harvested 120 bushels of wheat for five acres sewn, or 24 bushels per acre. 58 His crops “were not in any way superior to the average to
be found in the Qu’Appelle Valley.”59 In fact, the average yield in the Qu’Appelle Valley
in 1881 according to Williams was thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre, thirty to forty bushels of barley per acre, sixty bushels of oats per acre and 250 bushels of potatoes per acre. 60 These high yields should not have been a surprise to Williams considering
Larocque and others farmed newly broken sod.
By 1883, Larocque had 20 acres under cultivation.61 He was not, however, the
only Métis to achieve some progress in farming. When Dominion Land Surveyor T. R. Hewson began survey in 1881, he found at least 19 individuals with claims on Township 21 in Ranges 13 and 14 West of the Second Meridian.62 Most had small claims from one
to eight acres and six individuals had more than 10 acres broken. The largest of these were Norbert Welsh; Larocque; St. Pierre Poitras; Joseph Poitras; George Fisher; and, Peter LaPierre.63 Outside the scope of Hewson’s survey, a handful of Métis also had large
operations of more than 10 acres. By the mid-1860s, Alexander Fisher was farming 25
56 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 68. 57 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 224-225. 58 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 225. 59 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 225. 60 Williams, Manitoba and the North-West, 225.
61 Antoine Larocque, Application for Patent, 8 Aug 1883, File 290.5, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
62 T.R. Hewson, Dominion Land Surveyor to the Minister of the Interior, Report on the Survey of Claims, May 1881, Survey Files. No. 226. Department of the Interior, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan. 63 The largest claims included: Norbert Welsh with 28.9 acres broken; Larocque with 26.99 acres broken; St. Pierre Poitras with 26.14 acres; Joseph Poitras with 26 acres; George Fisher with 15.7 acres; and, Peter LaPierre with 10.22 acres broken.
acres and, by 1877, Hilaire Boucher was farming 50 acres.64 Others included Cuthbert St.
Denis who farmed 17 acres, Thomas Desjarlais 15 acres and Xavier Perreault 12 acres (Figure 5.10).65 Individuals such as these farmed larger plots but many worked parcels of
less than ten acres with just enough land under cultivation for a vegetable garden and small hay and barley field. A significant number, like those identified by Hewson, were small farms under five acres.
64 Simon Blondeau, Application for Patent, 24 March 1884, File. 290.22, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.; Alexander Fisher, Application for Patent, 4 October 1883, File 290.8, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
65 Antoine Hamelin, Application for Patent, 4 June 1884, File 290.31, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.; Xavier Perreault, Application for Patent, 27 August 1883, No. 290.13, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.; Thomas Beaulieau, Application for Patent, 31 August 1883, No. 290.12, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
Figure 5.10: Cuthbert St. Denis, c. 193466
Despite the small size of many of these farms, when examined within the context of the extended family spatial organization, some families had sizable farming
operations. In this context, the extended Klyne family farmed a considerable amount of land (Figure 5.11). For instance, by 1883 Madeleine Klyne had eight acres under
cultivation and had been farming the land for at least a decade.67 Her sons-in-law Thomas
Kavanaugh and Thomas Desjarlais had 10 and 15 acres respectively.68 Klyne’s son,
66 Cuthbert St. Denis, R-B2299, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
67 Madeleine Klyne, Application for Patent, 20 July 1885, File 290.68, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
68 Thomas Kavanaugh, Application for Patent, 10 July 1883, File 290.19, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
Andre, who began farming in 1878, farmed 10 acres.69 By 1884, her son, Michel was
farming 24 acres on two parcels of land. The first was patented in his name, while the second was patented in the name of his wife, Marie. This was land that her deceased husband, Joseph Gosselin, had patented.70 In addition, Michel’s son, John, farmed 5
acres. In total, Madeleine Klyne’s extended family farmed over 70 acres of land. Although they did not farm collectively, kinship obligations and responsibilities would have ensured they help one another out when required.
Figure 5.11: Klyne farmland
Regardless of the size of their farms, the Métis overwhelmingly remained intent on maintaining a mixed subsistence, relying on hunting, fishing and gathering wild foods,
69 Marie Klyne, Declaration, 24 October 1884, File 75387, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.; Andre Klyne, Application for Patent, 31 August 1883, File 290.18, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
70 Marie Klyne, Declaration, 24 October 1884, File 75387, Saskatchewan Homestead Files, Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.
supplemented with small-scale agricultural production. This mixed subsistence economy allowed families to continue the complementary roles filled by men and women as practiced during the buffalo hunt, where all members of the family contributed necessary labour. Families and communities spatially organized themselves as they had when hunting buffalo, in large extended families and along hunt kinship lines, taking up residence next to, or in proximity to one another. When taking up plots of land, these families recognized themselves as having shared rights, responsibilities and territory, and a sense of unity. This was demonstrated in the petitions they forwarded to government seeking recognition of their occupancy.
Conflicting Land Tenure - Protecting a Métis Worldview
As families settled into living year-round in the Valley, they recognized the necessity of protecting their land and way of life from incoming settlement and
encroachment. Beginning in the early 1870s out of concern about the future of the buffalo hunt but also with changes in their political and social environment, heads of Métis families began petitioning the Dominion Government for protection of their rights to hunt and fish in the region, of their river lot land holding practices and for clarification of the Government’s intention regarding lands in the Qu’Appelle Valley. Concern for their rights intensified amidst growing tensions in the Red River region in the late 1860s, following the transfer of Rupert’s Land and the entrance of Manitoba into Confederation.
The Transfer of Rupert’s Land, the Red River Resistance 1869-70 and Scrip
With Canadian Confederation in 1867, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and the new Dominion Government quickly began looking west, eager to annex Rupert’s Land to expand and build the new nation. Historian Doug Owram argues that the
acquisition and transfer of Rupert’s Land was vital to the future prosperity of Canada and the British Empire.71 Signs of growing social and political unrest among the Métis at Red
River accelerated the desire for expansion. Canadian expansionists’ ideas of the North- West as no longer an inhospitable wilderness but a rich agricultural garden and place of
71 Doug Owram, Promise of Eden: The Canadian Expansionist Movement and the Idea of the West, 1856-
settlement was central to meeting their goals of rapid western expansion and
development.72 With the transfer, control over the territory shifted from the HBC to the
British Crown, who then ceded the land to the Dominion of Canada. As part of the deal, the HBC received £300,000 and 20 percent of the territory’s arable land. Conducted as a real estate transaction, the transfer was much more complex than parties anticipated. Most importantly, it failed to consider existing First Nations and Métis residents of
Rupert’s Land. Although the new Government did agree to treaties with First Nations that would extinguish land title, they gave almost no consideration to Métis title. The
Government did not consult the Métis, nor did they inform them of the date or conditions of the transfer.
Historian William L. Morton argues that the Métis did not oppose the transfer of Rupert’s Land, but were concerned about what a new order of government would mean for their way of life.73 The predominately Roman Catholic Métis in the Red River region
feared for the preservation of their religion, land rights and culture under Canadian control. According to Morton, it was not that the Métis could not adapt, but that
Government had not consulted the Métis about the transfer. Exclusion from the process created tension, anger and anxiety amongst the Métis at a time when they already faced increasing pressure from Protestant settlers from Eastern Canada moving into the Red River region. The Métis acted to ensure safeguards were in place to protect their interests.
In the summer of 1869, Government intention to survey the region before the actual transfer of authority alarmed the Métis. The Métis feared the loss of their river-lot farms because most did not have clear title to the land they occupied and Government had given them no assurances that they intended to respect Métis occupancy rights. The appointment of William McDougall, a well-known Canadian expansionist unsympathetic to the Métis, as the territory’s first lieutenant-governor only fueled tensions and Métis fears. In early October, a party of Métis blocked the survey, barricading the road from Red River to Pembina, preventing McDougall from entering the colony. As the survey party withdrew, the Métis began to organize. A month later, Louis Riel, an educated
72 Owram, Promise of Eden.; George Colpitts, Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in
Western Canada to 1940 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002).
73 W.L. Morton, “Introduction,” in Alexander Begg’s Red River Journal and Other Papers Relative to the
Métis from a prominent family emerged as leader and Métis spokesman. The Métis seized Upper Fort Garry, the main HBC trading post at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, and declared themselves a provisional government.74 These events
were political acts symbolic of Métis determination to stand up for their rights. They were also largely peaceful acts, until the execution of Thomas Scott, one of a group of English-speaking Ontario settlers opposed to Métis action. Scott’s execution inflamed many Protestants in Ontario and hatred toward the Métis. Although the Dominion Government remained willing to negotiate with Riel, they refused to grant him an unconditional amnesty.
Morton argues that in events before Scott’s execution, the Métis believed themselves politically justified and not disloyal to the new Government. They were merely defending rights that the existing government was ineffective in meeting.75 Due to
Métis opposition and unrest at Red River, the Canadian Government refused to assume control over the territory on the agreed upon date of 1 December 1869. This encouraged the Métis who planned to hold the Fort until Government agreed to negotiate the terms by which Red River and Manitoba would enter Confederation. For the Métis, foremost in their minds as a condition for entry was the protection of their land rights.
Manitoba became a province with the passing of the Manitoba Act on 15 July 1870. Section 31 of the Act set aside 1.4 million acres of public lands to Métis heads of families and children of half-breed heads of families for “the extinguishment of Indian Title to the lands in the Province.”76 Although the Act did not specify the land
distribution process, it did identify who was eligible to participate and served as the framework to extinguish Indian title held by Métis in Manitoba. This title was based on their occupancy of the region prior to the imposition of Canadian authority over the territory. Under the Act, Half-breed heads of families were to receive 160 acres whereas children of Half-breed heads of families were to receive 240 acres. The scrip process, spelled out through Order-in-Councils, was an administrative and bureaucratic way to
74 Members of the Provisional Government in 1869 included: Charles Larocque, Pierre Delorme, Thomas Bunn, François Xavier Pagée, Ambroise Lépine, Jean Baptiste Tourond, Thomas Spence, Pierre Poitras, John Bruce, Louis Riel, William Bernard O’Donoghue, François Dauphinais, Hugh F. O. O’Lome and Paul Proulx.
75 Morton, “Introduction,”.
extinguish Métis title to land. Individual claimants appeared before a Scrip
Commissioner, completed an application and swore an affidavit. If approved, they received a paper certificate for land or money scrip that when presented at a Dominion Lands Office applied to surveyed land. A land scrip certificate (as opposed to tangible land) represented an entitlement to either 160 or 240 acres, while a money scrip certificate entitled the bearer to $160 or $240 worth of land which the Government valued at $1.00 per acre. Considered real property, land scrip had certain limitations on its sale, whereas money scrip, considered personal property, was much easier to dispose of. Scrip coupons did not include an individual’s name, making them easily exchangeable by the bearer. The ease of exchange of scrip resulted in its bulk ending up in the hands of speculators. Indeed, Anthropologist Joe Sawchuk maintains that
scrip quickly became a tool of land speculators, who used it to gain title to large